Making stuff up as I go along...

Ancient Mechanism, May 30, 2010, acrylic, wash, monotype, sumi paper on Stonehenge paper, 8 x 8 inches.

I've been having a lovely time painting outside on my porch, using my portable studio table, the weather has been perfect all weekend, and another perfect day is ahead for tomorrow. This little painting started off as something I grabbed off the reject pile today...the original idea was red like my molten ore paintings... but it turned into mud and looked like crap, so I covered it up with Payne's gray (one of my favorite colors) and that looked crappy too, so I forgot about it for several weeks, then today, while I was waiting for other works in progress to dry, I decided to mess around with this...at this point, I figured, I already fucked it up, why not get experimental and see how much worse I could make it look...so I took a square piece of 2 ply mat board and slathered one side with a mix of Payne's gray and burnt umber (makes a nifty earthy blue/brown) and then I went crazy and squeezed a blob of vermillion on the other half, slathered that around and then flipped it onto the victim and "splat", on it went, and I burnished the crap out of it with the nearest jar (since I don't have a press to run it through, I have to print my monotypes with whatever I have handy!) Well...if only I photographed the hideous mess I made...oy, it was yuck-foo...so I turned the mat board a half turn and pressed the colors opposite...that made a bigger mess...then I dabbed my brush into burnt umber and dabbed that around...well, it toned down the vermillion...I was still not happy with it. I let it set for a bit, strolled around the yard, checked my email and browsed on line for a bit, ordered a new book, and then eventually made my way back to it...well, it still looked bad. I poked around a bit, I had just mixed a new batch of my special pale green that I love (that lovely lichen color) and I noticed the skin of the dried paint had released inside the jar, and I just had to start poking at it...yup that was a mess, so I took the piece of dried acrylic skin that was dripping with color and...you got it...I "brushed" it on the mess I was making...hey now...that...wait...I dabbed, dabbled, pressed, and poked...it got better... and thennnnn, I did a little bit of this, a little bit of that...oh, how about this...and flick this on it...well, will you look at that...I like it!

And so, that's how this little guy came into being...I love when that happens!

From my sketchbook...

This is a work in progress in my sketchbook...I'm really loving the textures that I made in the beginning just rolling the side of the pencil around (it's a woodless pencil, I love those!)

This one I signed and have since changed my mind which way is up... I like this way better...so my signature is upside-down at the top...oops. (It's not the first time.)

Usually, I tape all four edges, but the top edge got away (DOH!) Well, I thought I had taped all four edges, come to find out, I didn't...I had two pieces of tape on the bottom! Note to self...ALWAYS put on your glasses when taping the edges of the paper!

For heavens sake...I've just been in such a tizzy these last few weeks, the drawings have been a soothing activity while I've been going through the process of publishing my second novel...which, just in case you haven't visited my other blog "Upstate Girl", it is officially published as of May 21st! What a relief...yet, I have noticed that I've dropped into a bit of a funk since I 'finished' the editing/proofreading phase of the thing...and once I held it in my hands for the first time, I turned all bittersweet (not quite weepy, just hmmm...a little sad). Well, I got to work in the garden these last few days, and while I turned up the soil and planted seeds, I re-set my brain, today was a better day and I am getting back into the groove of "doing". Maybe I won't forget to wear my glasses when taping paper edges or signing my pictures at the top when I thought it was the bottom...


Here are the two peas from a pod...but as different as night n' day... I love them both!

Heffalumps and Woozels...and a little painting...

Remember when you were little and lying on your back, looking up at the clouds and finding faces and critters in the sky? For some reason, I wasn't that good at it (you'd think I would be, right? No, I really sucked at it.) The problem is (it's not really a problem) I was looking at other things in the sky, not trying to identify with something familiar... I was finding the things that I had no words for. If I saw the pirate or the bunny up there, that'd be all right, but more often than not, I'd say, "Oh, yeah, I see it too..." just because I wanted to fit in with the kids who were with me at the time. I'd point out the things that I saw "Do you see how that cloud has that bright curly wisp and the deep shadow?" The others would say, " Yeah, that's cool, but look over there, I see an old man..." It was frustrating to me when I didn't see what they saw, and they didn't see what I saw... it was just the way things were...

I never intend to "find the faces" in things... draw them or photograph them... but these three photos were 'looking at me' in that special way while I looked through the batch that I took last weekend, and I set them aside calling them the Heffalumps and Woozels...

Pooh and Piglet would certainly run screaming out of the Hundred Acre Wood if they ran up against these guys... (poor Pooh and Piglet!)

They're mostly harmless... just unnerving because of their steady stare...

May Twilight, 5/9/2010
acrylic wash, monotype on BFK Rives
6 x 4 inches

I started and finished this little guy last weekend on my birthday...I started a bunch of things that day...problem with doing so much all at once like that, I felt like I accomplished nothing! But I really did...

The old honey suckle bush...

I spent a couple of days this past weekend visiting with this old gnarly grand-daddy of a honey suckle bush on my acre (it must be as old as our house), I've loved it for quite some time, and sat down with my camera to study its weathered old skin to fill my digital sketchbook with new visions...




There are more, but I'll save them for another post another day...aren't they gorgeous?

Tonight, I'm in the midst of an author chat at Library Thing, promoting my little ghost story, Dusty Waters, and my Fred and I are doing the final bit of work on the book cover for my new novel The Fractured Hues of White Light, the acrylic wash painting Walking on the Sun which was one of the many yellow paintings that I made specific for the book cover is now immortalized as the 'face' of my book! Here's a sneak peek of the painting...as soon as the cover is finalized, that will be posted too!

Walking on the Sun, 2010
acrylic wash on BFK RIVES wove paper
12 x 12 inches (this scan does not reflect the overall dimensions)

I wanted a yellow book, I got one!

Working on things...

Is it done? Maybe, maybe not... I still see things I could do to it... but here it is the latest from my table... I worked outside on the portable studio table, it feels like summer on the second day of May... such an odd weekend with this early heat, but a lovely day all the same...

I don't know if you remember this... I posted the start of this drawing ages ago, and just finished it a few days ago, I love making these little guys, my pencil wanders and I go with it... I love the crisp lines I can get and the delicate grays, the velvety blacks... they're little giants... big things on small pages. I love getting lost in them while making them... when they're done, I just know it.


(We got our picture in yesterdays Post Standard, that's me with the straw hat on the far right, with my Fred standing by me, we're talking with a friend of ours.) Friday night we attended the closing of the Delavan Art Gallery, it was a bittersweet event, one that was sad to see the end of a good thing, but there is hope for the future as the space undergoes a transformation and a new space will emerge... a transition... we mustn't lose heart... change is good. We'll see what happens... my Fred and I have some ideas of our own, connections that we've made over the years... we'll see what happens. It's all an investment. I'll keep making art... keep going forward.