Thursday, September 30, 2010

Plan or Flow...???

Sometimes you go with the flow and not the plan or intent. I guess you might say I do this most of the time. It is my process.

Today, I decided to do a little work to get started in my 'pretence' to be at Colony. I'm sorry not to be there this fall.......I always get so much out of it.

I had started making collage papers with encaustic on the Hot Box. I continued until I figured I should just get to painting.




I had one 20 x 20 x 2" cradled board out already but decided to work on two at the same time. I applied the last of one jar of  Evans Holy Grail and took a nap while it dried. Well...yeah, it only takes 30 minutes to dry but I only took a 30 minute nap. it's good to have a sofa in the studio.

SO, I started making marks with Conte crayon figuring maybe something would happen to spark something. Before I knew it I was applying encaustic paint and lots more medium, scraping with that nifty scraper I bought from Miles Conrad ( I LOVE that scraper)....and applying more medium.

I took a couple of pictures of the progress and went down to prepare dinner. When I came over to the computer I suddenly realized my inspiration was my screen-saver photo from Italy made in 2008. It was a stormy day overlooking Todi, Italy according to the title of the photo. IF the paintings finish up still looking like the inspiration, I'll let you know. The photo does not do justice to the sky that day though.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A book to enjoy!

I'm really enjoying a new book or two lately. Right now......I can read chapters at a time or just one of , Inside the Painter's Studio, by Joe Fig. I had put this book in my Amazon wish list some time back and just now got around to ordering it.

Fabulous........love reading about the artists, their day in the studio and what inspires and influences their work. I'm on the chapter right now about Mary Heilmann. SO funny...she has fields outside her studio window in Long Island..........says she is painting a lot of green (like me) due to that influence.

Now time for me to get to the grocery store and back to the studio this afternoon.

Have a wonderful autumn day wherever you are.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Green Day, Johnson Creek

It's finished... hauled it out on the studio porch to take a picture. Yes, no, yes,no...do other people find fault with "is it finished?"... when they take them out to take a photo.

After getting out into the bright light I begin to see places that might need a little finessing...but without ruining the freshness and the look that it just flowed with no going back.

I declare this one finished.... 60 x 48" acrylic on canvas, Green Day, Johnson Creek.

ps...if I do anything else I will not tell.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Green, Green, Green,

SO.... green, green, green. Everywhere is green out on a farm or ranch...at least around here in north east TX if we aren't in a drought. SO, I painted the tone...chromium oxide green, touch of white and a lot of acrylic medium thrown in. Then I got out some black. I rarely use black paint so, why not? Any way I made all kinds of marks and shapes and laid on a few rolls of white, too, for good measure and called it a day.

Well.....as usual, I tossed and turned all night thinking what in the heck am I going to do with that canvas?? What is the next step? Maybe go buy some more rollers and add other colors. I did this...bought some more rollers. However, that will have to wait for another painting as I ended up coming back yesterday and just started in with a brush. I figured the best way to go (to start with) with this experiment was to use some analogous paint mixtures...so blue and other greens and purple violet came out. ( I don't know what happened to my picture of the under-painting.).

Yesterday I left with that whole painting just about complete. I took a picture as that is a great way for me to distance myself from the work and look to see how it's working....especially for large paintings. I decided upon looking at this picture that it needed some more darks in the right side, a little more of the purple and green.......very little. I signed it today but I didn't get a picture.I'll get on up over the next few days when the light is better.

When I came down from the studio. Curry offered to take me for a ride around the place as he wanted to look at some things. I took a few pictures with the I-phone camera. You can see why I paint green so much from looking at these. I can see parts of this from the south facing door of my studio.

The painting will be titled, Green Day, Johnson Creek.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A Walk Into Abstracts

I received my DVD, A Walk Into Abstracts,  from Sue St. John recently. I was so flattered to be asked to be a part of her compilation. So I sent her work images and information about my process when she asked.

I believe there are about 58 artists who work abstractly featured in the DVD.......... It takes a long time to go through really looking at the work and the artist's processes. I haven't finished yet myself.

If you want to see a lot of abstract art and learn more about what is behind the process, check out this video at A Walk Into Abstracts. to learn more about 'how did they do that?'

Thanks, Sue, for including me in this great DVD of abstract art.