N is for Nature (abstractly)

Trees, and lots and lots have color have featured in my classes this month.

I have another tree related workshop on Saturday - painting with an unknown group - in acrylics.

I have an hour and a half to help participants create a finished piece. This is the piece I prepared as a sample (I have a simplified version as well). The trees are simple to draw and the overlapping shapes are fun to color. A good combination of realistic and abstraction.

I really like the way this turned out - and I look forward to seeing how my students will interpre
t this.

H is for Half and Half

Half drawing half digital that is.

I have spent the better part of this afternoon using color pencil to design these flowers - and there are still plenty more of them on the full drawing to go. Color pencil is slow ....too slow for me I think - but they are fun in their own way, and I am discovering interesting things as I build the colors and add in lines. I am especially interested in the transparency that allows one layer to show through another.

The other half of this project is digital - trying out different filters on my IPhone is my reward for patiently futzing around with these flowers when markers or Caran D'ache or anything would be faster. Still I persist.

I cropped these flowers from the bouquet and filtered around til I came to this.  I love the way the colors are working.

Z is for Zoom

It is the day before Thanksgiving and their is lots to do.

I have little time, but I am determined to be creative every day (for this challenge, cooking and decorating the table does not count.) So, last night I grabbed what was handy on my work table - pink construction paper (rough stuff) and my Caran D'ache.

 Since this is Z day, I was running Z ideas through my mind. I remembered learning to write a cursive z in 4th grade. I thought then, and still, that it was the most beautiful letter. So, I used Shaprie to write big swirling beautiful flowy Z's large and small in every direction. To add contrast, I threw in a few zig zag non cursive Z's as well. And a few more nice lines to break up the space.

I find that my favorite crayons are quite wonderful on the rough surface of this cheap paper - so I colored each shape to see what would appear. The texture really added to the effect.

This image came together so quickly that I had time to pop it into Photoshop to play. I think the abstract and vibrant results are a great way to close out the alphabet. Tomorrow, we begin again.

Y is for Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang. Y is that?

Using the alphabet as my structure for this Art Everyday for a Month Challenge blog has proven to be a good way for me to stimulate my creativity.

Within the alphabet limitations I not only need to create art, but each piece needs to fit into my self-imposed structure. Everyday I need to brainstorm possibilities for the letter of the day - and each day something comes to mind. Now, after three years of doing this, the end of the alphabet has not gotten any easier (still no clue what Z will be about tomorrow). So, I am sure you are wondering Y this is about yin and yang.

The image on the page is actually a drawing of a group of tropical flowers - first drawn right side up, then flipped and drawn again so that the images not only cross, but fit together symmetrically to create a new abstract pattern - yin and yang. Once the pattern was in place, I decided to ignore the floral roots and just play with the shapes to see what appears. This was another chance to experiment with Inktense pencils, and add a few lines and details in markers. I like it. do You?

This is 9x12 on watercolor paper.

Finding my Voice

Pastel on Black

Acrylics, pastel, markers, pens, color blocks, simple lines, abstract, art deco, painterly, graphical. Which way do I work? What do I want to do? Do I want to paint or draw, free form or delineated shapes? Lines or blobs, loose or structured?

The walls of my studio are crowded with the many and varied images I have created since I started to paint in acrylics this fall. There are  abstract faces, flows and stripes of vivid color, wild bright flowers,  mysterious forests, lovely girls in pretty dresses, symmetrical patterns and subtle geometrics. I also see drawings, pastels, line images and complicated symmetrical patterns.

What I can not yet see is a theme ... what DO I paint? What is my style? What do I want to say? Will I learn to say it? Will others want to see it? Will I feel good enough about my work to show it?

Classes help - every week another artist to study and think about, another technique or concept to consider and incorporate. Every class brings another artist to fall in love with, a new idea to marvel at or a color that compels me. Every class makes me  think, THIS is the way I want to work, and every week I realize how much I do not know, how much I can not do, and how much I want to learn.
Lately though, I am beginning to see some growth - an idea from one painting, a color combination, a technique I have learned, a style I particularly enjoy carrying over into my new work and shaping my choices. Last night I dreamed of bold sweeping lines, inspired by work I see in my classes, yet when I set out to work today, the image that I suddenly decided to draw was not lines at all, but loose, bright colored shapes - lights and darks, and not a painting, but a pastel. So, here it is, pastel on black paper, small and  square.

I am happy for today - the results are vibrant, the process was fun - and these are definitely MY colors, and those lines that have been so compelling to me lately? They are here too.  Is this a step to finding my own voice?

Playing Games

I am still fascinated by drawing lines to create shapes. I love the way I can build layer upon layer of color while defining some shapes and creating new ones at the same time. I never know what to expect ... but each drawing in this series has felt like a meditation - just doing it and waiting for the final work to reveal itself.

This one is based on a tic tac toe board (really) - and was actually drawn in blues and greens, marker pens and inktense pencil on watercolor paper.

However, the photo image that allows me to bring it into my computer and this blog simply fails to capture the delicate lines and colors. So, I started to play with it to see it I could make it work. Who knew that a reverse tweak in Photoshop could result in such vibrant colors, making this a really a mixed media work.

A Break from the Ordinary

Goldfish

Lately I have been struggling with paint and canvas. Nothing I have tried is working to my satisfaction. My growing need for detail and depth is limited by my ability to make it appear on the canvas. Its a good thing I have lots more painting classes in my near future.

Today, as I was searching for a photo in my VAST collection, I came across a favorite, a mass of goldfish in a pond, from a trip to Hawaii. This was a perfect starting point for a digital painting. I wanted to abstract the intense details of fish eyes, mouths and frenzy, and add the cool blue watery beauty that thoughts of Hawaii bring to mind.

Once again, gotta love what I can do with Photoshop. Creating this digital painting was a mini-vacation from the work of painting on canvas. I feel refreshed now, creative and ready to keep learning.

Building to a Conclusion

I have worked on this same canvas four times - building layers of paint and color without arriving at a satisfactory result, until today when inspiration struck (in the bathtub).

I am currently intrigued with understanding how to develop texture and interest under the layer of paint that shows. As I study the abstract images I find most successful, I am becoming more aware of all that appears to be going on under the surface. So, I thought I would use this much painted canvas to create a color field painting. I applied a surface pattern with tape, and just for the heck of it, added a thin layer of gold paint to the existing (now under) painting. There was already lots of texture in the paint, and I thought it would work through. I chose a limited palette of blue, turquoise, yellow ocher and white.

I used my new fat brush to lay thick paint in the taped areas, mixing on the surface of the canvas, dried with a hair dryer, untaped, retaped the areas that I wanted to work on next, and repeated the process. I added a touch more gold, and thickened some texture. If you look closely, you can see lines and swirls, darks and light subtlely through the stripes. Finally, I think this canvas is done ... at least until the next inspiration strikes.