Frost on the window

It's been bitter cold out there...and I've been playing with my camera again...this time, turning window frost into something other than what it is...thought I'd post the progression...initially I was trying to line up the tree branches with the frost, but they weren't cooperating with me and it was getting on toward twilight, so I was starting to lose the light...not all pictures are from the same patch of frost, but all the same window...and I tinkered A LOT with the color saturation and contrast...all for fun...








I especially enjoyed making these last ones...

I'm working on a new large mixed media drawing in the Celestial series, on such a cold weekend, I wanted something bright to warm me up...it's in that early stage, I'm documenting the mess...it's going to be fun...

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...

Another in the "River of Fallen Stars" series

This one turned out a little more blue...it was months in the making, although I "finished" it (signed and dated) on November 30th, I was living with it before I posted (just in case I needed to make adjustments...but no...it seems fine, I had feared that I worked it to death...plus the photo I took of it after I finished it was too dark and awful...and then too much happening between my surgery and the holidays to fool around with another photo...even this one isn't so hot, but the colors are better...

Lots of splatter over the initial blue wash that I made way back in June or July when I started it, there's layers and layers of paint and pastel...very crusty!

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...

Inspiration and the things that I have no words for

I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me -- shapes and ideas so near to me -- so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down. I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught...I found I could say things with colors that I couldn't say in any other way -- things that I had no words for.

Georgia O'Keeffe

I have to attribute what I've done these past few years to these words of Georgia O'Keeffe...some time ago...oh, I think around 1990, I went back to making art after not making art for a bit of time...I never really stopped, but I wasn't getting anywhere seriously with it. I wasn't really looking and seeing anything that I wanted to see...I spent a lot of time copying pictures from photos that I took or copying something someone else wanted me to do (I did several portraits of pets, mostly cats). I bought the book Georgia O'Keeffe: Art and Letters at a bookshop during a Sunday afternoon prowl with my Fred and proceeded to read it cover to cover and felt that special "tug" toward inspiration...well, that was around 1992 or so...it has been a lot of years of sloping various paint forms, making piles of pastel dust, and several volumes of sketchbooks full of inspiration before I came to these two little drawings using colors and textures, shapes and lines that I never knew how to translate from my mind to paper...until now. (I also took a couple of years off from making pictures to write my first three novels.) These things take time and patience...I've studied both...and I'm still learning what to do with what I have...

Georgia O'Keeffe: Art and Letters by Georgia O'Keeffe

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I found this book during a Sunday afternoon bookstore prowl in the early 1990's, probably around 1992 or so...I read it cover to cover and found my way back to making art the way I wanted to make art, but I had to go through a lot of paper and canvas, paint and pencils before I really got to the core of what I wanted to make...it's a fascinating read and powerful, especially for the artist...


View all my reviews.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Small drawings

This little winter watercolor that I made in 1999 fits well with the type of day we're having...it's a pretty one...winter...as much as I complain about the being cold and gray part, there's a special quality that I would miss if I didn't have it in my life...



Winter mornings especially...






and nights...









watercolors done on scraps...
I love making small drawings and paintings, I keep a small sketchbook with me all the time, it's no bigger than 4 x 4 and its been filled with small pictures that I diddle about with while waiting for a ride or waiting in a doctor's office waiting room...it's the waiting book...I've had a few such books over the years...I have an archival Solander box full of sketchbooks that I've carried since the early 90's when I finally got back into drawing religiously...especially after 1995 when I moved out to the country and could see the sky again...



This little drawing Something I Saw is about 2 x 2 in size, just a wee bit of a thing...I love it.















And this little drawing Season's Change is about the transition month of November...it's a bit of a beast...I tend to have dragons in my drawings...and the last storm that blew through certainly had the look of a dragon...

Although the large drawings give me room to sprawl and make a mess...but it's these little ones that make me happiest...they're more concise...yes, I like the character of the little ones...they seem more special, more immediate...

Can you imagine an entire exhibition of tiny drawings and paintings?

November Twilight

November Twilight is a mixed media mess...but I love it better now than I did the day before I finished it...it was one of those drawings that wasn't working, until I got to the "oh fuck it" point and threw everything and the kitchen sink at it...

It started with a black acrylic background with heavily textured brushstrokes, then I began scribbling and scrubbing the surface with Derwent Soft Drawing Pencils, their muted earthy tones were the perfect colors that I wanted, after awhile I got into trouble as the color wasn't laying down so well...then after a week of glaring at it for being so disappointing, I got out the big guns, the mop brush, and watercolors, then I opened my jars of acrylic washes and splashed...for most of the creation of the piece, the two circles had been at the top, when I flipped it "upside-down" I liked it better...although it wasn't what I was going for to begin with...it turned into something I wasn't expecting...sometimes, part of the struggle is the fun part...

Just a scrap of paper turned into something more...

I'm a paper freak...I love touching paper and from my fingertips I can imagine what I can make with it, what kind of marks I'll make, what kind of medium will flow best on it...I will go through the art store and fondle the paper surfaces...not only am I a visual artist, I'm tactile, and I love making textures...this blue bit is on a ragged piece of printmaking paper that a fellow artist gave to me, and I loved the shape of it as is, and without hesitation I turned it blue and then as I watched the watercolor puddle and flow, I saw the shapes that I wanted to bring out, and saw the parts to leave alone...

Fun stuff...

Then there are the small pieces within the larger work that I find so pretty because of the beautiful mess I've made...


Another piece...an old favorite...

And this one, I used the junkiest paper, painted a white acrylic surface with lots of rough brush strokes, and then scribbled water soluble graphitint on it, and then made it wet and splashed, squished, made bubbles, and splashed some more...playing with texture...