Celestial Spring, the phases of the sun and moon, II

This is the latest in the series, a big mixed media mess, but OH DID I HAVE FUN MAKING IT! I've been fiddling around with it for months, it's on a full size sheet of Arches watercolor paper, so it's not my normal size, the big ones always take longer to make. I don't know if the picture here will properly document the layers involved, but what I've done is start off with a flood of yellow watercolor, then I let it puddle and dry, throwing salt on it, tipping it so the wet can run and drip, I splattered white acrylic paint all over, then let it dry. After it dried I began to draw on it in pencil and colored pencil, spattering water all over it, shaving pastel dust and water soluble pigments (graphite and colored pencil) , and then weeks on and off of adding more drawing and shavings, water, splashes and scratches, until yesterday when I said "All done!" There are plans for another, a but a winter theme, something deep ultramarine blue...very dramatic...fun stuff like that! I'm adding two details, I hope they will help give you an idea what's going on in there...

Have a happy new year!!!!!

More from the "Celestial Spring Series"

Is it any indication that I'm already tired of this winter when I'm thinking about spring???

Hmmmmm...maybeeeeeeeee...





These two came from the same mixed media pallet, usually when I find a combination that I'm enjoying, I make the most of it and get busy making more the first one is an Untitled, it's part of the Celetial Spring Series, made on a scrap piece of mat board that came from a cut window, and the second one is also from the Celestial Spring Series, but it has a name: April Hath Come On... it was exhibited last Summer/Fall at the Syracuse Technology Garden. They're watercolor and graphite, splattered, shaved, brushed, drawn, scratched, and sprinkled...lots going on throughout the surface...

























Sometimes I just have too much fun!

The Ocean

I love the ocean, the few times that I've seen it, waded into it, and the one time I went on a whale watch (Gloucester), one of my favorite books is Moby Dick, and I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau...the ocean is such a fascinating place, a force...lovely.

This drawing is a mixed media, watercolor, color pencil, and pencil on Arches paper...it's a busy surface, and the lines trail along, swirl and curl, some of the holes have fine details that the watercolor made which I didn't have the heart to manipulate...there's an Art Nouveau essence about it...it flows and grows...

On spirituality and free will...

Making art for me is spiritual...some would say my talent is a gift from God...I do know that my art comes from me. These drawings are what I do, they give me great joy, and I have never been happier with my art as I have been these last few years of making art. Yes, at times it mystifies me when I finish a drawing or reading a passage in my books and declare my amazement that it actually came from me. I very often surprise myself while I follow my bliss...it's part of the fun...

Maybe I'm too secular in my thoughts for the comfort of others...somehow being enlightened by knowledge and questioning the "higher authority" makes me immoral or somehow "lost" in the eyes of others. I am part of this world, and I believe in something other than what is preached from a pulpit, and I do not take what is written in the Bible literally...I learned at an early age that if I did, I would be a repressed, unhappy soul, too afraid of going to Hell for the crime of having independent thoughts...therefore, I have gone through life with my free will firmly intact. I have no problem with the beliefs of others, "to each his own" rolls off my tongue quite readily, I have no quarrel with such things...this is a free country, God does not offend me, the traditions of Christmas warm my heart, I only dislike the in-your-face marketing that starts just before Halloween. I take exception to being called "faithless" because I don't participate in the public professing of faith within the confines of organized religion. What I have is special, it is "wonder", I can look around and experience awe as I look upon the landscape covered in snow, the sunshine shimmering through ice, marveling over the blue in the jay's feathers, and his clarion voice. I have the sincerest belief in the sanctity of life, of all life. I believe in the human spirit, the light within us that burns bright, and that I will go on long after my body has become tired and has perished. And I believe in freedom. I don't suffer fools gladly, and I don't take kindly to politicians who alienate half the population of our country because they believe they are "just" in their crusade against those intolerable secularists who believe in the separation of church and state to ensure that all men are equal. It is sad to see my country so divided, I am sad to see our world at war over doctrine, and whose god or prophet is better. Who has the bigger bomb? Or the most bombs?

The Golden Compass is just a story created from someones imagination, it isn't something to fear because it expresses an idea that conflicts with someones faith. Your faith cannot be very strong if you feel threatened by fiction. It frightens me when creativity is shunned, threatened, put on trial, forbidden, blacklisted, banned, or worse, if ever, shut down. That is unacceptable to me. People who berate an artist for their creative motivations do not believe in freedom. It's ironic that it is a story about free will...my goodness that's such a scourge of humanity! If you have free will you might question everything told to you, and become a non-believer. And it's written by an atheist, the poor devil...

Oy vey, I not only make incomprehensible pictures, I also play with words!

I look to this recent drawing, and love it for its freedom, the dabbling and curiosity that lead me to making it, and how I wallowed in creating it from my heart, my mind, my soul...I post it here today with my thoughts on spirituality and my wayward politics that might piss-off the "right people"...

I drink a toast to free will.

Luna

How about some color...yes, I do like color and play with it on occasion, Luna is a simple little piece of watercolor splashes, color pencil and pencil drawing layered on top, the texture of the Arches watercolor paper also has a hand in the resulting feel of the piece, I like digging into the heavier paper with a hard pencil lead, or brushing the surface with the side of a sharpened point...

It's very peaceful, soft splashes of pre-dawn twilight and celestial spheres...