Paint and fuzzy visitors

Outside the studio door I usually place an easel with a painting to display. Today I had one of my Golden Hour pieces on the easel. I stood at the door for a moment and then noticed that two catepillars were crawling around on the trees in my painting.

Here is one of the fuzzy little guys after he made it up to the top of the easel.

This is the painting that's sitting outside. The trees aren't THAT realistic. Maybe the texture I used made them think it was real bark :)

Loving texture

Serenity

36x36

acrylic on canvas

close up

New series, new page

Hidden in shame lies are told
about us, by us.
Gratitude for sacrifice slams the door.
Our motherhoods removed
they think, they wish.
Behind the door our hearts beat, our arms empty, we wait.
Our children grow, we search and find.
Sometimes good, sometimes sad
but still we sit.....

Huddled together, a group outside.
The mainstream flows, comforted in their easy belief.
We push against the current hoping to get through.
Again the door slams shut.
Again we lean a little harder.
A small wave of light escapes from beneath.
Our stories are read.
Replies come fast and furious to put us in our place.
"just because you had a bad experience" they said.

Behind the door the words get larger.
Through mothers in exile silent voices heard.

I started a new page on the blog. If you want to see more please click on the link above called Silent Voices. I usually post these pieces on my adoption blog because they are about my experience as a mother of adoption loss but I decided to share them here also because they are after all - paintings. I've included the writing that I do to give a sense of the feeling behind the artwork.

The piece above is called Mothers in Exile (I'm sure you guessed that) and it was done on 300lb watercolor paper. I mainly used acrylic but also added a colored pencil piece that I had started years ago but never finished - that's the door part of the painting.  I cut letters out of a magazine and for a textured design element I added tissue paper that I then used white acrylic to dry brush and accent the texture.

So there it is, another series that's ongoing.

The new portrait page

Just wanted to let you know that I added a new page to the blog - Portraits. There are only a few posted right now, I need to take pictures of a couple more that I did. I had pictures. Do I know where they are at the moment? No. It's been a few years since doing the pieces and at the time I only had my 35mm SLR so somewhere there are actually prints. Oh, how I love digital. Anyway, most of these portraits are done with colored pencil.

Kayla with Bubbles

colored pencil

This painting of Kayla was done on Canson pastel paper. The paper is a beautiful magenta color (I wish this pic was better. I had to take a new one from an old print so the photo isn't the best). Trying to work out the skin tones on that color of paper was a real pain in the rear!

Journey, Portrait of Kristen

mixed media

Now this one, it almost ended up in the trash. This piece is watercolor, gold leaf and colored pencil on Stonehenge printmaking paper. When I started with the watercolor washes I goofed and ended up with a splotch on the face where I didn't want it. I really wanted to keep the face pure and clean. When I tried to lift the color it wouldn't work. I was so aggravated I threw the thing down and walked away. Later I took it outside on the picnic table and just started throwing paint at it - literally. I added the gold and then just started scrubbing with the colored pencils. Sometimes it works out for the best when you attack something with a "nothing to lose" attitude.

Portrait of Sarah

colored pencil

This portrait of my daughter was done on a cream colored Stonehenge. I did this one slowly, building up the color layer by layer for a smooth, soft look.

When I can get to where the other 2 portraits are I'll take some photos of those and post them. I added the portrait page because now that I have the studio I have more time to take on commission work again. I'd especially like to play some more with the mixed media portraits. I also have some more landscapes I want to do and there's another series I'm deeply entrenched in, that I want to share soon. So many projects........... did I just say I have more time?

New painting and new show

Golden Hour

12x12

195.00

Hi artsy people. It's been a while since I've been here. It was the usual crazy busy holiday time so this month I'm getting back to the easel and a regular working routine again. I'm continuing on with the landscape series. The one above - Golden Hour is the first one in the group that I'm doing with branches and sky. I did this one from a photo I took in my yard. The sun had just hit that place in the sky where it turns everything it touches to gold, even the soft grey Spanish moss.

And, the paintings you see below you've seen before but I'm posting them again because they were just accepted in the upcoming Women Painters of the Southeast juried exhibition. What a nice way to start the new year!

Florida Prairie

14x18

Late Afternoon Prairie

16x16

Transformation of the landscape

 Joshua Tree

graphite and colored pencil

Tree Line

colored pencil

Golden Leaves

acrylic

Oh, the many ways to paint a landscape. As you know I've recently gotten back to painting landscapes again. I love them, always have. In the early years of painting most of my work looks similar in technique to the way the Joshua Tree piece is done - very controlled, precise, smooth tones, careful pencil strokes. After many years of working in colored pencil and graphite I got to a point where I felt the need to loosen up a bit, and speed it up too. I just don't have the patience I did back then. I started working with colored pencil and mineral spirits, using the spirits with a brush to transform the pencil strokes into paint strokes. Then I discovered heat as a tool for making the colored pencil soft and creamy. That's what I did for the Tree Line painting in the middle. It's a fun way to work the pencils but working with a heat gun or griddle can get uncomfortable, and warm.... I live in Florida so for most of the year, adding more heat to my studio is not a good thing.

So now, as you've seen in the previous posts, I'm using acrylic - I love it. I love the juiciness, the layering, the texture, the ability to change things on a whim. I love using a contrasting color for an underpainting. I love being able to adjust and change what I'm doing. I love getting bolder with color. I just plain love the look and feel of working this way. 

Sometimes I get comments from people about my older work and how much they love it compared to the newer work. My older work was more realistic and photographic looking. That may appeal to a lot of people but for me I prefer seeing the loose brushwork, the uneven edges, the soft edges, the impressionistic feel. To me the newer work is more "me". That's the transformation. In the beginning there was learning and  precise copying of images. In the middle there was the confidence building and exploration of techniques. Now, in this phase (no, it's not the end. It won't be the end until I die - maybe it's just another part of the middle.) it's all about the vision and part of the vision is expressing my feeling about the landscape. Aren't we supposed to get more comfortable in our own skins as we get older? I think we get more comfortable on the canvas too. There's still so much to learn about painting but I think getting more comfortable makes it easier to express not only what I've learned but allows me to put more of "me" in the painting.

What time is it?

 Into the Forest

20x20

Acrylic on canvas

Light Through the Leaves

12x16

Acrylic on canvas

"Totally agree. Painting is a cumulative learning and doing experience. I've been asked the question about how long it took me to paint something and I usually reply with my age. The latest painting took me 52 years. In real time it may have taken me just a day or two but it took the years of experience in painting to be able to accomplish that in just a day or two."   

The above paragraph was my response to this blog post that I saw on Google+. How long did it take you to paint that? I've been asked that question many times. For a long time I didn't know what to say. I don't usually keep track of the time I spend at the easel on individual pieces. It's a little different than punching a time clock when you work a "regular" job. For me, painting is a calling. You might even consider it a religious experience if you're so inclined. It's kind of hard to put minutes and hours on that experience. Painting as a career is a mix of hard work, long hours, wearing many different hats, and spiritual experience. Giving such a reply as my age may seem to be rude to some people, but it's the most honest answer I can give. Creating art takes many past experiences building upon new experiences. Every painting we paint teaches us something new. If we challenge ourselves as we should then we continuously learn from what we create. These experiences then continue to inform our new creations. What appears to be a simple landscape didn't just happen with taking one or two art classes. A lot of life experience went into that canvas. A successful painting that looks simple may actually be incredibly complex and time intensive in it's building.

Hopefully, what I'm doing now will lead to better work down the road - work that takes 53, 54..... 60 or more years to paint.