March roaring in...

Detail, Spring Equinox, 2/26/2012

 My latest painting, a work in progress, I can't really declare it done, but it's very close, I'm loving the colors and textures that are going on in there...

Spring Equinox, 2/26/2012, acrylic wash monotype, rice paper on canvas, 40 x 16 inches

detail of Spring Equinox

It glows...I was unhappy with it for a bit of time, then on Sunday night just before bed, I went at it one more time, obliterating parts that I had liked previously, but was no longer so enamored with...

I'm probably celebrating spring too soon as it is just the beginning of March, and it is a lovely sunny day, but that WIND has been howling, like it does in March, purging winter away...it's enough to make you feel a little punch drunk after spending a little too long outside...it's been a mild winter, probably the mildest in my memory...but I dare not speak so soon, it is March after all, and it's a long month...and there are still possible snow storms...some of our worst happen in March.

Master Class at The Altered Page

 

http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/2012/02/master-class-13-final-fifteen.html

If I had a chance to study with Karl Schrag it would have been an honor...his paintings and prints are so stunning with vibrant colors and bold mark making...his translation of the night landscape turned pastoral scenes into a fantastic day where anything can happen...

Some of his influence has entered into my work...most of which are nocturnes...

Nocturne Forest, 2009

Walking In the Rain, 2008

Evening, Blue and Gold, 2010

Nocturne, Ice, 2009

River of Fallen Stars, 2008

Winter Solstice, 2011

A Mid-Summer Night, 2010

My latest work...

The Longest Night, from the Winter Solstice Series, 1/25/2012, acrylic wash monotype and rice paper on canvas, 9 x 9 inches

It truly felt good making these little paintings...I've created them special for the CNY Art Showcase which is a fund raising art auction sponsored by the Everson Museum of Art and the Eastwood Rotary Club.

The Longest Day, from the Summer Solstice Series, 1/22/2012, acrylic wash monotype and rice paper on canvas, 9 x 9 inches

 It's nice to paint something sunny and warm in the middle of winter!

A Frosty Night, from the Blue Square Window, 1/21/2012, acrylic wash monotype and rice paper on canvas, 14 x 11 inches

This is another addition to the Blue Square Window idea that I've been playing with, I'm loving the nocturne cool blues. I feel I'm gaining some creative momentum...but I'm not going to put pressure on myself to perform. I have several canvases in the wings, including a largish one that I haven't splashed any color on just yet and look forward to.

My little sketchbook was rec'd at the Brooklyn Art Library today, and I'm looking forward to the tour to begin, not that I'm going to be able to travel to any locations, just the idea that it's going to travel and be available to visitors to browse through...I loved watching my friends  page through it before I let it go...and I will miss the little fellow, I had so much fun making it, I'll have to make more!

The Sketchbook Project

Front cover

I finally finished it! After several weeks of diligent work, drawing, painting, fussing, planning, spraying (there might've been some praying from time to time), I painted the cover yesterday, scanned it all, and rebound the pages this afternoon...(I keep looking at it!) It's a sweet little sketchbook and lots of lucky people will get to look at it on the 2012 tour.
 

It's just a bitty thing, but it's chock full of good stuff!

side view of pages...will it ever lay flat? I'll need to put some weight on it before it goes...

Here...let's look inside...

I made extra sheets of tinted rice paper to slip in here and there, I painted both sides and then would later saturate one side with another color to let it bleed through to the other side...

This is one part of the sheet inside the book.

First drawing on first page

 I was intimidated at first, but once I got going, I didn't stop...so this is why I've been so quiet for so long...well, some part of it...it's been a long preoccupation that I've been grateful for and needed!

This is one of the text pages, I mounted rice paper to the verso of the drawings using archival ATG tape and then printing the text on semi-transparent vellum and tipping in with photo corners.

Another page of tinted rice paper, I slipped it in so front and back, right and left will be seen in different parts of the book

Another drawing...this one is so dang pretty! I love making these little pieces.

This is it inside the book with glassine covering it.

One of my worries was the verso sides of the pages with drawings and paintings on them and how to deal with them. This is a verso page which had a painting on the recto, so it was a lumpy, I colored the whole page with a 9B pencil, sprayed it with a coat of Crystal Clear spray to hold it, and then tipped in a text...

The blue square window theme is ongoing...

This was the last drawing I made, finished it on New Year's Eve morning. (I really love this one!)

On the left edge, there is a piece of glassine that I have hinged with archival ATG tape to protect the drawing surface, it was tedious work putting that stuff on each drawing, but it's worth it to preserve the drawing. I'll probably spray everything one more time before it leaves just because...

Another text page

This is the "Center Fold" painting...

 My painting pages were done with acrylic washes and applied rice paper (using matte medium) so the pages are pretty thick and not so bendy...they should stand up to handling all right.

Another sheet of tinted rice paper...a piece of summer sky...

This little painting has multiple layers of colors, I was starting to get frustrated with its monochromatic-ness, then suddenly it just happened, like paintings tend to do...(there are lots of colors in there...really, lots of them.)

This is another one of my favorite drawings...I really put some of my best into this little sketchbook!

The back cover...I love that blue.

 It was a nice way to end the year and to start the new one...I had a good time making the little book and will probably make others on my own and I will participate in the Sketchbook Project again next year!

Happy New Year!

Another Blue Square Window

Blue Square Window, 12/27/2011 acrylic wash monotype, rice paper on canvas, 12 x 12 inches

I did this little painting on a whim yesterday...ooooooo, pretty...it felt good to spread out a bit, I've been so focused on The Sketchbook Project these days, everything is at a small scale for that so 12 x 12 inches seem HUGE. I'll post scans once they're finished, I have one more blank page to do some drawing on and some touch ups to do for at least one small painting, then I have my narrative to print (on opaque vellum) and will tip in the sheets onto the pages that I've left blank on the back sides of drawings...tho' I'd like to do some sort of background stuff for the blank page...a gray tone lightly smudged, I have two pages that are completely covered in the blackest graphite (9B)...I'm just trying not to impact the drawings on the other side (always difficult to draw on both sides!) And of course, the cover will be fun to do! I'm looking forward to doing that!

I'm doing okay overall, FMS flare-ups have settled down, but I've exchanged that for sciatic nerve pain (if it isn't one thing its another, right?) It was our first Christmas with the new family configuration...it was not without a few meltdowns during key moments, but it was do-able...my siblings and cousins came for dinner at my house, and it seemed she was with us in spirit, herding us through the process like she would with key phrases like "Dinner is ready, I'm not sending out engraved invitations." And: "Let's do presents now, then we'll have pie." Then the inevitable: "It's getting dark, you kids should go home." We all miss Mom very much, and my poor father in the nursing home adds another unexpected dimension to everything. Our visits never seem frequent enough or long enough, and although he seems to have adjusted to being there, (he's hard to find, he's always rolling around in his wheelchair visiting), it's just sad to leave him there. So much has changed...the adjustment to the new "normal" is an ongoing process. It's been a process in which I've done more thinking than doing anything...reading lots of books has been a quiet immersion that has been most enjoyable. I'm filling my Tumblr site with lots of photographs, yet lots of them haven't been processed either. I'm in a strange place, in between here and there, "what was" and "how it is"...and I know it's not over yet. I'm hanging in there while I muddle through this stage of life. I'm very grateful that I have my creative outlets to go to...even tho' I've "run out of steam", I'm still doing things and exploring. I think it's been a good thing to slow down, this past year it's been too much "go-go-go-go".

There goes the snowplow...it's snowing and blowing out there today, a lake effect result of the rainy front that blew through yesterday... the wee birds are frantic at the feeder, I'll go out in a bit to replenish the seed...I think I have a seed bell to add to the feeder, but I must come up with a way that it will not be carried off by the squirrels!

Happy New Year, and thanks for stopping by!

Winter Solstice paintings

Winter Solstice No. 1, 12/11/2011

 Busy painting today...5 new paintings, all acrylic on Stonehenge paper with rice paper (8 x 8
 inches).

Winter Solstice No. 2, 12/11/2011

Winter Solstice No. 3, 12/11/2011

Winter Solstice No. 4, 12/11/2011

Winter Solstice No. 5, 12/11/2011

It's been awhile since I had a marathon painting day...I usually do a Winter Solstice series around now and give a few of the results for presents, the full moon that was out the last few nights inspired them...I'm pretty pleased with the results...a blustery little collection. I'm such a sucker for blue.

Doodling around...

A found painting at the bottom of an iron kettle...

   This was so darn pretty...on Thanksgiving day I had water with a cinnamon stick simmering in it on the stove...this old kettle has been a dear old friend for years...we've cooked many a chili in it over camp fires and wood stove fires...so seeing this amazing pattern this morning, I had to photograph it before I cleaned it up...

I've been a little busy...creatively coming along, doodling and looking, making plans for the future, but for now, laying low...I have hung up most of everything that came back from the gallery, or tucked them away if they're of the right size to tuck away...

Wall of a few paintings

 

I treated myself to an early Christmas present...

The price was right, so I got the big starter kit with all the goodies to do encaustics...I haven't done this since college...or the immediate weeks following graduation when I was melting wax in an electric frying pan I bought at a garage sale...so it's been awhile. Not sure when I'll start playing with this...it will need a designated work space where kitties can't get into it...as kitties are likely to do...

A work in progress...

 I've been working steadily along with The Sketchbook Project project...thought I'd share a couple of shots...

The back cover...oops, some stray blue paint...I'm working out how I'm going to decorate the outside...

Yellow in the middle...

A drawing in progress

I've been doing a lot of looking...my camera is building up an archive of images...I can barely keep up with the digital sketchbook...thought I'd share a few things I've seen lately...

A found painting in a grape leaf

I'm coming out of a period of very bad FMS flare ups, I've had a devil of a time with pain management, but it seems the worst part has passed on, and now I'm at a more tolerable level, the usual day-to-day aches and such...the muscle spasms were so bad I felt like I had run a marathon...
it's over with, that's all that matters now... 

Just looking through the lens of the camera, I find the things I like...

The next group of photos is a story about a kitty...

"Popeye" arrived on 10/28/2011

This little kitty has quite the tale to tell...most of it we will never know...we suspect he had an altercation with a car a few weeks ago, we found him hiding underneath our porch on October 28th, half-starved and with an eye injury that was quite gruesome (poor little guy did not need a mask for Halloween, he was quite the scary sight to see!) There was no way to save the eye, but the kitty could be saved...I'll admit, I cringed a bit having to take in one more stray cat, but I couldn't turn my back on him.

One Eyed Popeye, pre-op

 "Popeye" is doing well, recovering from surgery to remove his damaged eye quite nicely...he gets the stitches out on Monday...

Post-Op Popeye...24 hours after surgery

After several days on antibiotics to fight a bad blood infection, he had surgery to remove what was left of the eye on November 15th, and has been recovering nicely ever since...the sweet wee boy has made himself at home...

Popeye can't wait to get out of his fancy collar!

Such a sweet little fellow, we're happy to have him in our family!