Progress...

New Moon, 1/24/2010, acrylic, monotype, Hosho paper on canvas, 24 x 8 inches...a pretty little thing...it took some doing.

Bones of the Earth, Ancient Bronze, 1/24/2010, acrylic, monotype, Hosho paper on canvas, 24 x 8 inches. This was originally pink...imagine that? The pink disappeared on it's own, it just didn't seem to want to be on the canvas or the paper...too thinned down I guess...anyway...the corrosion of bronze is a theme I adore...I might go back into it later...

Finding Gold, 1/24/2010, acrylic, monotype, Hosho paper on canvas, 24 x 8 inches...once again I tried to do a yellow painting and found gold instead...


Bones of the Earth, Stone Monolith, 1/24/2010, acrylic, monotype, Hosho paper on canvas, 36 x 12 inches...I think this one is my favorite...I built up the textures using some of my scrap paper that I tore off to make my rough edges...slathered on naples yellow hue for the undercoat and went from there...the blue/green band near the bottom was the last bit I added to it today to finish it off, it pleases me so much I can just about scream!

Yes, I've been a busy girl... well, I started most of these back in December, and today everything came together, finishing touches and whatnot...so, I wasn't like a crazy woman painting until my eyes were bleeding and my hands falling off...or my head popping off my body...no...not quite...tho' I'm going through a bit of pondering about things creative and feeling odd about what I do, feeling overwhelmed at the same time that I feel good...feeling exhausted, yet content...

Sometimes I just don't know the 'why' of it, I just do what I do because I need to do it, I'd be so unhappy if I didn't spend my days working out these images and these thoughts... it just comes, I have to do something with it...I'd be a sorry thing if I didn't.

I just go with it...

What have I been doing...

This is a little monotype from my sketchbook...I have a roll of BFK Rives on order so I'll have a supply of the good stuff soon (maybe by next weekend!)

I've been doing lots of things, and this and that, gardening, writing, making art...I've been off from work since Thursday, so I've gotten to the point where I don't know what day it is...but I guess it's Monday, and it feels like Sunday...so I'm late posting...but I've been busy making lots of art...so I thought I'd poke out a few...some of the pictures didn't turn out so well, so...another time...

This tall skinny piece has evolved over an extended period of time...I bought the canvas last summer, and had all kinds of ideas for it, but none of them "worked out"...so I painted over it all and started over...this is what I have so far...
I've been wanting to work on a "White Series", well, this looks mighty blue/green, but that's just part of the illusion that I'm working on...I want the color to show through below the white wash...I sat on the porch yesterday working it out...I'm more satisfied with this than I have been with the others...it's acrylic with some pencil...some monotype and stencil...I'm just having some fun...

The latest...

I'm mostly fooling around with acrylic monotype, the little one on canvas (Wishes from the Lake, May 10, 2009, 6 x 6), and a few on paper in my sketchbooks have been fun and very satisfying. I really love that green that I made...it just reminds me so much of Lake Ontario...

I really need to invest in some good Fabriano or Rives to really make something nice, for now, I'm splashing and working out what I want to do...
I'm really loving this baby blue with naples yellow combination...


And this is Lavender Wishes...

My nifty birthday easel...(yes, I've gotten it "dirty" since the photo was taken!)

Creatively Busy!

A detail of the mixed media study...it's luscious up close!

From the Sketchbook, Bones of the Earth, a study, 3/20/2009 (the white circle was added yesterday on the 21st). Acrylic on sketchbook paper with Cretacolor pencils.

Yesterday was a very productive day of creativity! Several works in progress were finished, new work started and some of them were seen through to the end, a few new things are still in progress...it was a good "play day"...my hands...it was a day to take a break from writing, since the last three weekends I have been immersed in my novel, Dusty Waters, and getting her ready for publishing (a new proof is being ordered, the book should be on sale by the end of March!)

Enough about the book...that's Upstate Girl's business...this is Follow Your Bliss...

It's been a long time since I worked on a canvas with any satisfaction, I've been content with paper, and not having to fight with the process of stretching my own, or the expense of buying pre-made canvases in the standard rectangle sizes...well...it's nice to see the art store carrying a variety of shapes, sizes, and clean edges. I pulled out these little canvases that I had stretched ages ago...I dabbled on one about a month ago, hated it and left it sitting looking unfinished and forlorn...then I painted over it, and messed about a bit, set it aside...still uncertain, so I pulled out another and started slopping paint around, didn't like that either...the colors were nice...I mushed them together, then took a piece of mat board and pressed it on the surface, pulled it off...oh, that I liked, so I did it again, different spot...

Go!, March 21, 2009, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 9 x 9

Then I did it with another scrap to the other canvas...hey, now...the colors were doing that nifty thing that I like about monotypes...and the ghost pattern of the rectangle and squares gave me my windows...and then I dug out my cardboard rings leftover from packing tape (normal people throw this part out once the tape is gone, not me, I save the damn things just for this sort of thing!) I squished the circle into the wet paint and made the celestial bodies that repeat themselves in my work...painted the edge of one and stamped it...

Celestial Spring, the Phases of the Sun and Moon, March 21, 2009, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 9 x 8

I had a lot of fun...leftover paint on the mat board was pressed on paper in my sketchbook, overlapping textures and shapes...varying impasto with watered down color...once things started to dry, I began to draw on them...

Go! 3/21/09, 12 x 8 acrylic paint monotype in sketchbook with graphitint pencil

Then I retrieved that little crumpled paper that I've been fussing over on the drawing board upstairs for several weeks...I scumbled black acrylic paint on another canvas, and then slathered paint on the back of the paper and stuck it on the canvas...acrylic paint makes good glue in a pinch...and then I waited for it to dry on there...well, this morning I've been splashing and touching up...so what started like this...



is now this...


I might do more to it...or not...it's an experiment in fun...

Oh, happy day!