Night Hush, 6/24/2009, acrylic monotype on paper, 10 1/2" h x 6" w
Last night's opening at the Delavan was very nice and well attended, there seemed to be a great deal of interest in the concept of the
Price Check exhibition and participating in filling out the cards with their thoughts about the value of artwork...my Fred and I wandered about, chatting, and having a lovely time...it's always a treat to meet people who have purchased my things and have them tell me how they are still enjoying my work. There's a grumble storm out there this morning, so I'm indoors today...I can catch up on what I've been doing...I've made lots of stuff on the porch studio, some good, some not so good...ya can't hit a home run all the time...
I was telling Roslyn last night about one piece in particular...pictured above...I love this little guy, there's something nocturnal about it, like an owl...anyway, I was just saying to her that I bought a roll of BFK Rives paper, nice expensive paper, perfect for doing what I'm doing with monotypes...and so far...the best thing I made the other day was on the cheapest paper I own...and it was a struggle making it...
This is the first layer (above)...it's a mixture of raw umber (dark brown) and terre verte (green) showed promise, but the next two layers with a pale green and white were disappointing (I guess I didn't photograph those)...I set it aside, worked on something else...I just rotate through, making layers of color and marks, fooling around with this and that...different shapes of paper, squares and long skinny rectangles (I don't know why, but standard size rectangles bore me, I'm fine with squares (6 x 6, 12 x 12), but 16 x 20 just doesn't do it for me...there's always that corner or the extra inches around the edges that become a dead zone, I don't know why, it's just me...I want my own parameters, edges, borders.) So back to the making of
Night Hush...the last layer...my new favorite color, payne's gray...slathered on a small square of mat board, plunk, plunk, plunk...OMG...it's all in the process...the work in progress...
Details...I always love the details...
Grumble storm...
My dog is hiding under my writing table...he doesn't like thunder...poor baby...
I've noticed that I've switched to this gloomy pallet, the earthy,
Bones of the Earth series...I've gone from the rich blues of
River of Fallen Stars series and the brilliant yellows of the
Celestial Spring series...then there's that pretty crimson/port color from the
Symphony series, like
The Eighth (currently on view at the Delavan Art Gallery) and
The Fifth, which is traveling with the
Price Check exhibition...I guess this is my latest phase...tho' I did make a yellow one yesterday (I promised myself that I would), but it's not done yet...I just gotta play around and see what happens...I made a new green to go with it, so we'll see...or maybe the new green will become it's own thing...I don't know...I made a turquoise color too (and while at the gallery last night, I noticed that I was still "wearing it" on my hand in spite of my scrubbing.) I gotta play some more...
Rain, rain go away, come again some other day (like after my vacation ends and I go back to the real world!)
This is a detail of the ever changing tall skinny vertically oriented rectangle canvas...it's been kicking around since last summer when I painted it yellow...then blue...then it sat in this blue and yellow phase...with some kind of black glaze on it...and then I painted it white...then gray...splattered some yellow on it, and drew on it, and put a white rectangle imprint on it mid-way down or mid-way up...I couldn't decide which way I liked it and tried to think of it as a "white painting", but no matter how hard I tried to like it, I didn't, it just was a tall skinny vertically oriented rectangle blah...now...it's joined the Bones of the Earth series...and this is it...the tall skinny rectangle...with lots of busy shit happening...
I usually have at least three or five things going at the same time...
This square (12 x 12) on tempered hardboard is another treat...I've been playing with a modeling paste foundation, and have loved the nifty textures I can get with it...and dimension...this is my Rust series (sort of an extension of Bones of the Earth)...corrosion, bronze, copper...or something metal series...it has a nice feeling to it...it's not quite done yet...maybe tomorrow...
Night Tide, Rain, June 28, 2009, acrylic monotype, 10 1/2 x 6 inches
