This blog is my portfolio of artwork, a journal about my process of making art...and the things that I have no words for...

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.



Saturday, July 17, 2010

Digging back into the past to unbury treasure...

Here's an oldie, but a goodie...River of Fallen Stars. I'm always partial to posts that illustrate the process, I don't always stop long enough (or soon enough) while making a work of art to photograph the beginning to the end...

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Progress of a River of Fallen Stars

I started this one back, back, back...ummmmmm...January, after the New Year, immediately following the second large Celestial Spring painting, soooo that was back on New Year's Eve...

1
Well, it all started with a wash of blue, and sprinkles of salt, I let it run and drip, then dry...




















2

I kept it taped to a board during all this time, so forgive the rough edges, it is a mess...but the next few steps were like this, I would work into it, drawing, splashing paint, shaving pastel and water-soluble graphite into damp soggy places, and more splashing, and occasionally loading up a brush with white acrylic paint and splooking it on there...fun, right?















3

Well, then I made more of a mess with it, and tried to make some defined linear stuff to lead the eye around...it didn't go where I initially planned for it to go, more white than I wanted it to be...I really wanted more blue...but sometimes you go with what you got and make it work...

but I really didn't like it that much at this point, there were parts to it that I enjoyed, and parts that I just didn't know what to do about...











4

Today I finished her off...finally...I'm mostly happy with it now, I had to fall in love with it all over again today...which wasn't easy, I was really having doubts about it, but I like it now...



















Detail of bottom








I really like the way I dropped it into the margin to make up for the blop that oozed under the tape...

The title is from a song by The Kennedy's a little folk duo, Pete and Maura Kennedy, River of Fallen Stars is one of my favorite albums...I believe it's out of print, but there are used ones out there to buy...


Detail of top...



It just makes me think of a meteor shower when I look at it...kinda sparkles...


Well, that's that...it seemed to turn out all right after all..









Later, in the summer of 2008, River of Fallen Stars sold at the Contemporary Gallery during the Whimsy exhibition, co-curated by Courtney Rile and Roslyn Esperon.

My faithful laptop has suffered with the "Blue Screen of Death" condition this week, so I've been a bit out of commission, tho' I am back at half the size with a new Dell Mini...it is mighty itty-bitty, but I'm loving it...as for the old laptop, I'm hoping to get it repaired and up and running again soon, and I'm hoping to retrieve as much information from the hard drive as possible because there are a few photo gems that I haven't backed up in recent weeks...so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't a lost cause...

8 comments:

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

I enjoyed seeing your process and the finished piece. I especially like circles!

jbkrost said...

Very nice....
I liked following your process...
it give alot of insight to the finished product

Janet McKetchnie said...

I love it - and also the song you named it after. A perfect fit.

ArtPropelled said...

Great to go through each step of the process. A beautiful painting with such a good name.

MrCachet said...

I can see why it sold - on top of that, I like working with blue...

deb said...

the blue is astonishing, and right now I am surfing on my son's 52" HDTV so the pictures are awesome. Lucky me! Thanks for sharing your process, I love to see other artist at work

Svetlana said...

The painting is great and the explanation of the thought process gives insight what most of us are going through while creating.

Lise said...

Thx for sharing your creative process as well! This is very inspiring! :-)