The Sketchbook Project 2012

FYI, my sketchbook is now on-line for browsing at the Brooklyn Art Library/ Art Co-op website...the tour starts April 14th at the Brooklyn Art Library, 103A N. 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY 11249so if you're in the area, check it out!

Press for the upcoming show at Szozda Gallery...

Thursday, July 14, 2011, "Neighbors", the Post Standard (Syracuse, NY) we got a full page spread featuring three of my paintings, but not all of it fit on my scanner...

...so here's the rest of the piece from Thursday's "Neighbors"

My Fred's painting made it into the "Stars" section of the local Sunday paper

We dropped off our paintings on Sunday and tomorrow the soft opening happens, and then we'll be attending the Third Thursday event at Szozda Gallery, and then the opening reception on Friday night (whew!) It's also going to be in the low to high 90's for the next few days too...oy, I fear that people will wilt and not show up...but it is an air-conditioned gallery, so maybe they'll come for the A/C and snacks! We're very excited...it's going to be a very nice show...

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...

*Repost* Sometimes I have to say Wow!

I finished this one this week. Ain't she a beauty? I'm so in love with this one right now, I stop to look at it every now and then and love it some more...mixed media, watercolor, water soluble graphitint, and acrylic washes with graphite and various colored pencil treatments...I haven't settled on a name just yet...I keep waffling between Beethoven's Fifth and the Fifth Dimension's Age of Aquarius...a weird combination...maybe I'll just call it The Fifth...

As of today...I still love this little drawing, and it is The Fifth...currently, it's part of a traveling exhibition "Price Check"...I think I would be heart broken if it sold, but it would make me feel good that someone loved it so much they bought it...

Getting Ready for an Exhibition

My Fred and I are going to be part of a traveling exhibition curated by Courtney Rile and Roslyn Esperon (for details see the link to Price Check).

These are four of the drawings out of six that will be traveling from Syracuse, NY to Beacon, MA to New York, NY:
Things I have no words for..., December 14, 2008, mixed media drawing (watercolor, acrylic, and graphite pencil) on 8 x 8 Stonehenge paper, framed size 12 x 12 inches

River of Fallen Stars, October 4, 2008, mixed media (watercolor, colored pencils, acrylic and graphite pencil) on 8 x 8 Stonehenge paper, frame size 12 x 12 inches.

November Twilight, November 29, 2008, mixed media drawing (watercolor, acrylic, and colored pencil) on 8 x 8 Stonehenge paper, framed size 12 x 12 inches


Luna, February 7, 2009, mixed media drawing (watercolor, acrylic, graphitint pencil, and graphite pencil) on 8 x 8 Stonehenge paper, framed size 12 x 12 inches

This is very exciting, and we're thrilled to be part of the event!

My roll of BFK Rives arrived yesterday! Yay!! (I was on vacation from work yesterday so it was an extra special day!) I cut off two long slices from it and then cut them down to a pleasant variety of small sizes that I enjoy working in...Oh happy day, I'm going to play!!!!

And I see that I've just been given the One Lovely Blog Award by Annie at Ink Haven...Thanks Annie!!!
I'm working on my list of 15 blogs to pass it on to...I'll post them later once I've finished my picks...(it's so hard to choose!)

Saying goodbye...

I always have a hard time saying goodbye, and I had to say goodbye to my graduate assistant, Kat, who has spent the academic year as my "right hand" at my day job (I train them to become good collection managers/registrars for art museums, send them out into the world to find jobs and to live happily ever after)...knowing this end was coming, I spent the month of April making art...lots of art, varieties of mediums, different colors, textures, fooling around with this and that, and just when I was beginning to fret, I stopped and I let the dust settle, finally, I picked this one to give her as a parting gift...she's called, New Moon, it measures about 4 x 4 1/2 and I think I finished the last splatter on April 9th...funny...I wanted to go measure it just now to check the accuracy, and then DOH! Remembered she's gone! Anyway she's a little mixed media piece of pleasure, watercolor, colored pencil (water soluble Creatacolor pencils) acrylic, pencil, and...the kitchen sink (kidding!)...she did get quite wet in the process and the paper is puckered in the right way...

Spring ponderings on paper...

I'm echoing ponderings from one blog to the other...I've been a busy girl creatively, playing around with colors and experimenting with monotypes in my sketchbook...

Abstraction study, March 21, 2009, acrylic monotype on paper, 12 x 9 inches

A detail...this little piece happened because I had leftover paint to use up, so I just started in using it up...and it went on from there...



Color study, 4/3/09, Cretacolor pencils (with water), 10 1/2 x 4 inches

A detail of texture...these pencils become very painterly when wet! I got bold with some orange and then toned it down with white and blue...

Spring Dawn, April 5, 2009, acrylic monotype on paper, 6 x 6 inches (very delicate colors)


And finally, a work in progress...still a little bit left to do with it to make it right...

Tinted graphite, acrylic, and watercolor, 8 x 8 inches...

Maybe I'll finish it today...

Some more "Bones of the Earth"

Bones of the Earth, a Suite of Granite, February 21, 2009; acrylic, watercolor, Cretacolor pencil and graphite pencil (a 9B I believe.) 4 x 4 inches.

A little bit of inspiration from some granite on the garden wall...

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!

From my sketchbook

My love for the color blue...again...Winter's Night, March 2, 2009 (not too many of them left this season!) Mixed media, an acrylic undercoat with lots of heavy brush strokes, Cretacolor color pencil, watercolor, and pencil...a splash here, a splash there...a bit of fooling about making textures...it's just a little bit of a thing, about 7 x 3 or so...I like the long narrow shapes...

Bones of the Earth

Bones of the Earth, February 28, 2009, mixed media on paper, (acrylic, Cretacolor aquamonolith colored pencils, watercolor, and graphite pencil), 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches

Inspired by the field stones that I've found and photographed, like this one...


or this one...

Finally finished projects and another new piece

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...these three mixed media drawings are all works on paper, a heavily brushed white acrylic foundation, with a mix of Derwent Graphitint pencils and watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, and extra splashes of acrylic as needed...

Luna, 2/7/2009, mixed media, 6 1/2" x 6 1/2"...I had to follow through on a bit of the color that went sneaking under the tape into the margin...there's a part of me still slightly dissatisfied with it...I won't be surprised if I go back to it to "make it right"...which is very likely...I'll keep you posted...


The Bones of the Earth, A Suite of Field Stone Impressions 2/21/09, mixed media, 8 x 5, ...the foundation for this one was originally posted on 2/8/09 (inspired by last weeks post from my other Blog Upstate Girl, Studying Stones.)

Elemental Suite, from the Shining Sea, 2/20/09, mixed media, 14 x 11 (originally posted on 1/4/09). I didn't do a whole lot more to it, I just needed to leave it alone for awhile...it's not my favorite piece overall, there's elements in it that I really love when I take them separately...

I didn't forget to have fun.

Celestial Spring, Phases of the Sun and Moon

Well, after a flurry of splatters and scratches yesterday afternoon, I signed my name in the lower left corner...I think it's done...I might tip-toe through it with a touch or two here and there, but I do declare it's done...

(Deep Satisfied Sigh)

Progress!

My work in progress is progressing, I'm trying to leave as much of the lovely yellow wash at the top alone...if you haven't noticed, I have a thing for yellow...I spent some of yesterday working on it, sprinkling, splashing, rooting around with a pencil, dipping charcoal in water, getting my fingers very dirty...it felt good to be busy and productive, my stupid cold is finally clearing away, so I feel more like doing things...

I also cleared off a small drafting table in the studio to make room for the production of small things on little bits of scraps...I have several little spaces throughout the house where I do my creative work, and one more little place...or "play station"...won't hurt the creative process....the lamp is temporary until I buy a replacement, the darn thing is wobbly because of poor design so I piled some stones around it to keep it from tumbling off...and of course the lamp shade doesn't fit those newfangled light bulbs...it casts a creepy shadow...(oh yeah, those are my little framed drawings from previous exhibitions hanging around...)
One little scrap of paper was pretty sorry looking, so I crumpled it up once, opened it, crumpled it up twice, flattened it out and set it on the drawing board for a bit, scribbled over it with a 9B woodless pencil and then left it...and then laid down the beach stones around it..

Then just before going to bed I went to the living room to turn back the heat, wound up sitting down and added some tinted graphite wash to a white acrylic background that I made in my sketchbook earlier in the evening...who knows where it's going to go...I love the blue...

On a Winter's Night...

On a Winter's Night...January 10, 2009

Mixed media, acrylic, tinted graphite pencils, watercolor, gouache, pencil, colored pencil on Stonehenge paper, approx. 8 x 8"

Detail of texture...the paper has an acrylic/gel medium base with a variety of brushstrokes, splatters, and ridges applied, then I draw and paint on top after it's dried, the colored pencils and tinted graphite are all water-soluble so I scribble the colors over the rough surface and then scumble with a wet brush to create the wash, then more dry media (pencil, colored pencil, tinted graphite), more water as needed, then a splash here, a splash there, pencil lines scratched in...I beat up the surface sometimes...

The stars were out on Friday night just before this latest storm hit us...they were so bright and gorgeous, although it was very cold, I looked at them for as long as I could stand it...Orion was standing over our pine trees...it was all very quiet and beautiful...the Great Horned Owl was hooting across the road...one day I will treat you with a post all about my favorite night paintings by my favorite artists...I've been working on some essay sort of stuff...so, hang in there...

A work in progress...

I have lots of works in progress over the holiday vacation, but this one has carried on since early December before I had my surgery...and while I worked it, I've been dying to post the pictures, but...haven't because...

I'm still "working on it"...but have tucked it away to think about it...I love it. Really I do, it's doing what I wanted, it's just not done yet. Well, since I write a lot about process, why not show the work in progress...

The heavily textured surface consists of white acrylic paint with an impasto that is splattered, dribbled, and scumbled, then I scribbled graphitint pencils over it, made them soggy, brushed and washed, dabbled and splattered, then when it dried, I started drawing with graphite...I'm loving the surface, and all, but...ummm...I don't know, it's just not finished yet...and that dark fossil-like shell bugs me, even tho' I like it...it's too dark (darn it.) This will be a multiple layer piece before it's done...I have some detail shots too...

It's been a lot of fun making this one...and I'm enjoying the frustration of the struggle with resolving it too...if anything, I've always been patient and have been willing to work out the bugs that are bugging me...

A few drawings made quick

Not everything has to be a "project" that takes days n' days or weeks 'n months...I love doing drawings that happen in one sitting, these are quick studies that happened in a sitting...a splash here, a dash there...done...sometimes it's just a color that sets me going, sometimes it's the paper, the texture, the shape, or something about that pencil...whatever hits me at the time, I go with it...