Back to making more...

Evening Light, 3/28/2011, acrylic wash, monotype, rice paper on canvas, 18 x 6 inches

detail of middle/bottom

Detail of top

Evening Light started off as a blue painting and turned into gold instead...I'm so in love with this little painting! She really sparkles, I don't think the photos really do her justice at all (in most of the pics I took she looks too green, so I had to fiddle a bit to get it right.) I love her simplicity, when I placed the blue horizon bands I knew that was all she needed...I didn't want to do another thing to that surface. I took her to Moonlighting and hung her up to replace one of the paintings that I packed up for Szozoda Gallery, to swap out paintings that have been there since fall. (My Fred and I will be showing there mid-July, the dates yet to be announced.)

The writing and production of our little art book Elemental took up so much of my time that I hardly painted a thing for nearly a month! I'm so glad the book is done, it's published, and out there to be browsed through... it's a real beauty (please click the BookBuzzr widget and enjoy!) It's a fabulous collection of artwork, it barely scratches the surface of what we've accomplished (that's the crazy part of it!) We're in the planning stages for a book of our drawings...so stayed tuned. I've gathered up a bunch of scans and have started the selection process...so much to choose from!

Tomorrow my Fred and I will be on television promoting the CNY Art Showcase, (WSYR Ch. 9, "Bridge Street, 10-11 AM) We're bringing our paints and canvases to work on something new, we'll see what happens with that...I'm trying not to dwell on it too much (if you know what I mean, too much of the 'unknown' and 'what if' imagined disasters sort of stuff that can drive a person to distraction.) I just need to pack up my stuff, pick something comfortable to wear, pack my little apron, and go with the flow...what will be, will be. The auction will be on Friday, we'll go and enjoy the show.

Now it's done... I signed it this time.

 Gotta love it...I said it was done, but then one more thing begged for my attention, and I pondered it for another week and then two...and this weekend I started to play with it...it was that bottom part, it just looked not quite right...so I went at it with more blue...then amber...then turquoise...a circle and then another...and then a delicate touch of white...

I'm pretty happy with it now...but who knows, tomorrow I might look at it again and decide NOPE...well, you know, that's just part of the fun!

It's such a strong blue, it's hard to photograph and have it look true (true blue) but these are pretty close, I had to take the photos outside on the porch to have them look right...the indoor shots were too yellow/green.

Lots of lady bugs out there today, it's warm out, a little rainy and gray...but I don't mind, any warm days are welcome at this point...and of course, lady bugs...this little one stood still long enough for a portrait...the others were busy, trundling along on their little buggy missions...

We're holding another reception at Moonlighting this week, Friday, October 29th, starting around 6PM to whenever, lovely art, good company, fun will be had by all...Halloween costumes are welcome, but not required!

Summer time...

August Night, is a bitty, 9 x9 inch painting...a work in progress nearly finished... still 'living' with it... there might be some things added, but I'm not expecting to add anything too big... I can hear the crickets singing...


Midnight Blue, 8/1/2010, acrylic wash, monotype, sumi-paper on canvas 20 x 20 inches

I finally finished this one to my satisfaction... I was afraid that I had worked it to death, but when I went at it with the slightly off center dark stripe about two weeks ago I knew I was near to the end of the ordeal...
Mid-Summer Night (Green), August 1, 2010, acrylic wash, monotype, sumi-paper on canvas, 30 x 12 inches

I fiddled with this a little more, the lower right corner was bugging me, and now I like this better...

I just had a new exhibition of photos, drawings and paintings installed by Suzanne Master's at Gentile's Restaurant in downtown Syracuse, and we're gearing up for our second opening at The Gallery at Healing Art Passages on August 27th... these three little paintings will most definitely be there...

I did a book signing yesterday at The Gallery, it was well attended, and I did do a reading from Chapter 1, it was a good deal...my Fred video taped it, we'll see if it's good enough for a Youtube post...it felt good to be there and talk to people about what I do...

I think it's been a good thing, combining our efforts to have our little gallery space, it feels right... and we're already talking about what we're going to do during the holidays... that will be a special time for the four of us.

A new painting...

Full Moon, June 5, 2010, acrylic, wash, monotype, sumi-paper on canvas, 30 x 12 inches

Oh, my, I had fun making this one...I dug into the blues to make it happen...the first layer is Payne's Gray with a burnt umber wash, then the white moon at the top...and I fiddled a bit and came to a standstill for over a week... well, that was while I was in the final stages of publishing my novel, so that took me off into another world for a bit of time before I could come back to painting mode last weekend and made layers on top of layers, shapes and marks, transparent layers on top of opaque...so this weekend I'm adding the finishing touches... I'm very pleased with how it turned out, she sparkles. I'm always experimenting, always looking for new directions...I have a few pieces left to finish, and some I want to "do over" because they're blah...so I have lots and lots to work on in the next few weeks...

My Fred and I have hooked up with fellow artists Ken Nichols and Suzanne Masters for an art exhibition this summer at Suzanne's shop! We spent Thursday night at the gallery drawing and painting, welcoming visitors. We're going to have an official opening reception on June 25th, 6-9 PM, The Gallery at Healing Arts Passages, 137 First Street, Liverpool New York.

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!

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...

Yet another work in progress...

A Blue Moon Nocturne...? No name yet for sure...I'm still fooling around with it, so it's not done. I tried to take a picture tonight, but the lighting was so bad once the sun went down, it just wasn't working out...so here is Saturday afternoon's photo...the "moon" at the top is paler now...not much else too different, a few splashes here and there...I think you get the idea... I loved dabbling with the lower half, that turquoise corrosion color is juicy stuff...a very thin wash that I rolled on with a small brush... the back ground is a layer of payne's gray with a layer of my 'moss' brown (which is a mix of burnt umber, raw umber, and a greenish-blue color in a mangled tube that I've been squeezing the last of the last out of for weeks that might be called viridian, I forget.) Lots of subtle goodies going on in there...

Sometimes the monotype plates are just as pretty...

My Fred told me that I should frame some of them...but I had already reused them for other things by then...or had managed to get something on them...

It seemed I did a lot this weekend, but feel like I did nothing of consequence...new canvases arrived in boxes, and I started the foundations for future things...fiddled with some works on paper, but nothing to tell about yet...two of them had some of their layers scrubbed off...hmmmmmmm...we'll see what happens another day...

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!)

Work in Progress from the Porch

A detail from an acrylic monotype in my sketchbook...from the Spring Series. I've fallen in love with the colors Naples Yellow and Powder Blue...they seem to go right together...

It's odd how April has suddenly turned into July...the summer-like weather has allowed me to spend time on my porch making art, although I usually end up cursing the breeze for causing my paper to flutter about, I love working in the fresh air and soaking up the sunshine! Tho' I might've gotten too much sunshine today, I'm feeling a bit out of sorts and have propped myself in bed in front of a breezy window, billowing curtains...tabbies are napping with me...robins calling out, a woodpecker making a racket...I did hear someone fire up a lawn mower earlier...too early for such things...

More experimental splashing about with water and graphitint pencils on a textured surface,



...and making acrylic monotypes...


...a detail of the "horizon line" this is the part that I am most happy with...