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...

I love black and white

I love making pencil drawings...here's three little'uns and two bigger'uns...


Stained Glass, 2005, Ebony pencil, approx. 3 x 2


Early Spring Moonlight, 2008, 9 B woodless pencil with white colored pencil, approx. 3 x 3


Nocturnal, July, 2008, 9B woodless pencil, 2H pencil, 4 x 4



Serpentine, 2008, graphite dust, 9B woodless pencil, with 4H pencil, 14 x 11




Smoke, February, 2009, graphite dust, 9B woodless pencil, with HB, 2H and 4H pencil, 14 x 11


I very often return to black and white pencil drawings to work out my vision...keeping it simple without the complication of color, working on marks, shapes, textures...

They're as simple as far as just using pencil, but they're mighty complex...some a little busier than others...

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)

What's for sale...

My Fred and I delivered artwork at the Delavan Art Gallery this week...thought I'd post a few pictures of the "friends" that I have parted with...organized by smallest to largest...

Twilight, Black and Gold, 4/21/2007, pencil and colored pencil, framed 9 x 9

The Eighth, 2008, watercolor, colored pencil, pencil on Stonehenge paper, framed 12 x 12

Celestial Sliver of Time I, May 31, 2008, mixed media (watercolor, pastel, gouache, acrylic, and pencil) on Strathmore watercolor paper, framed 22 x 12



Natural Chaos and Order, Composition in Gray and Black, 2008 pencil on gray charcoal paper, framed 20 x 16



A Violin Opus, Allegro - Fuga, 2008, pencil on Bristol paper, framed 20 x 16 (I always think of these more "busy" drawings to be like listening to something by Beethoven...usually I am listening to Beethoven in some form.)

Each one seems to have it's own personality...yet they're all related...I look at each one and remember what was going on at the time, what I was thinking about, and I always marvel over the act of making art...they're personal, and I cannot expect anyone to completely understand them or how I come up with them, they just happen (there I go again, following my own random beat of the drum)...but it is always my hope that the person who is drawn to them will find something meaningful in the marks that I make...

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...

Work in progress

I started with the yellow...


Now it's in that in between stage, it always gets messy before it's finished...more layers being thought about...

Up close...