Circles and Dots and Dots and Circles

One afternoon several months ago I took my daily stroll out to my mailbox to check the mail. Among the usual junk and other assorted stuff I was kind of surprised to find a catalog called Touch Of Class. I have absolutely no idea how it wound up in my mail that day. I don't recall ordering it. Not my usual preference in decorating style. But I figured, what the heck!, and flipped through it as I walked back to the house.

Well, H.E.L.L.O.!

Nope, not my taste in decor, but certainly my taste in some of the artwork! I just loved some of the contemporary canvases. What really caught my eye were a few of the metal wall sculptures. I took a pair of scissors to that catalog as soon as I walked back in the house. Ideas! Ideas! Ideas! I clipped and clipped and stuck all of those little nuggets of inspiration into my art files. I keep a filing cabinet in my studio with images of other art, greeting cards, magazine clippings, etc. as inspiration and future reference materials.

One of the things I particularly liked was this ...

It's called Particles by J. Warren. This mysterious person, J. Warren, is rather elusive. I've looked online for a website but can't find any other reference than the metal work in Touch Of Class and a couple of other places. Disappointing. Would like to see more work.

Anyway, it's been in my folder for some time now, waiting on me. Today is the day! Since I'm currently only creating art for my house I don't feel bad about snitching the idea for a new piece of work. My idea is the basic circles and dots, with a twist. Of course, I'm not a metal worker, I'm a painter, so that's the first deviation. Instead of landscape, I'm going vertical. Canvas is 36" x 48". Not sure what's with all this big sized stuff lately, but I'm not going to fight it.

More 'twisting' is I've washed canvas with fat brushstrokes, blending shades of aqua with white, to create my background. What the game plan is - create the circles and dots in varying shades of purple, sienna and copper, with some small touches of moss green and maybe a bit of buttery yellow.

I also want 'sparkle', like lead crystal when it catches the light. Somewhere in all my craft and art supplies I have a package of glue-on crystals ... remember the craze of painted sweatshirts and Keds tennis shoes? I think I will use the crystals for a few of the smallest dots. Not too many or it'll get tacky and over done with bling instead of the scattered twinkle of light I'm looking for. And just for giggles, I Goggled those sweatshirts for a scary fun flashback ...

I'm still trying to figure out the best solution to making the large circles. Although a liner brush and liquidy paint gives a nice thin line I'm not so sure about making the lines completely uniform all the way around. My hand isn't that steady! I'm considering painting the edge of a large bowl, then pressing the bowl to the canvas. Vaguely like rubber stamping, I suppose. I can use varying sizes of bowls for the different sized circles. I'm going to try a test one on another canvas first. I'm pretty pleased with the background I painted a little while ago (waiting for it to dry now) and don't want to muck it up!

So, I'm off to the studio to play with more purple paint!!!

Namaste, y'all ...

Playing with purple paint.

In Wednesday's post I talked about the evil abstract triptych and my desire to start over. I also had a fixation with purple and felt compelled to do something with it on the painting. Well, that's exactly what I did ...


Took the abstract down from the wall and gave it a nice coat of white paint ...

Let that dry and sort of sketched out an idea with a field of lavender flowers because I was thinking about them, too ...

Somehow it felt as if it was going to end up too literal if I kept up with that particular idea, which is not what I wanted. I wanted abstract, an "idea" of a field of lavender flowers, and I wanted texture - so I added Golden's Molding Medium with a large spatula, then mushed it around with my fingers to give it some movement, reminiscent of the way lavender flowers grown in rounded clumps and rows ...

Went into the studio after I got home from doing the grocery shopping on Thursday and discovered two cat paw prints in the texture medium. Crazy ass cats. Must have sneaked in there and danced around on the table when the medium was still wet. I got the texture medium back out and smooshed it on the canvas to cover the paw prints. Now, I'm not sure exactly what came over me, but I couldn't stand to wait for that to dry before I got busy with the paint. I didn't argue with myself. I grabbed my spray bottle, misted the canvases, squirted on some paints and went somewhere off into abstract land. In a matter of a couple of hours I had this ...

Dancing In Lavender, acrylic on canvas - 10" x 30" triptych.

I do believe I shall leave this one alone.

Namaste, y'all ...

It's almost here!!!

On my way into town today I saw a wonderful thing ... forsythias starting to bloom! So close to Spring you can almost taste it. To celebrate, let's look at a happy forsythia bush ...

Namaste, y'all ...

Obviously, I'm not one to leave well enough alone.

The abstract triptych I was working on has been bothering me. I hung it on the wall and studied it for several days. It felt unfinished. Then again, I'm also not so crazy about the way it looks against the khaki color of the walls. Problem. I like, but don't like, the painting. It feels muddy and heavy. The copper doesn't shine the way it should because it's hanging on a somewhat shadowed wall.

I even tried adding some "brightness" to it by coating string in paint and laying it across the canvas to make lines. Also some flicking and spotting of the same paint in a bit of a burst pattern. Let that dry. Hung it back on the wall. Still, not quite there.

I thought it possibly needed a touch of a mossy green on the bottom half. I thought about that all day and well into the evening. I decided to just go to bed and sleep on it. As I was lying there in the dark, snuggled up with my cats, I started thinking about the color purple. Not just any purple. Pale, icy lavender. I think I even dreamed about it.

When I woke up this morning I went through my usual routine. Shower, get dressed, start a pot of coffee (green tea today), clean litter boxes, go for my walk. All the while thinking about the abstract. Why did it not feel right? What could I do to fix it? I stood in the living room and stared at it for a long while. The purple kept creepy into my head.

Then I had one of those "ah ha!" moments. It wasn't exactly a good moment, I must admit. What I realized is I created the triptych while I was angry and frustrated. It was an expression of resentment, bucking opinions, pushing against caving to another persons ideas ... all the things I'm struggling against in my work. Plain and simple, I was mad and that's what I saw every time I looked at the painting. It was evoking negative feelings when what I want to create is calm.

Well. Damn.

I've talked about how, in the work I'm doing for the house, I want to create a relaxed, watery, peaceful, zen-like space with the art and overall decor of my home. It was the motivation behind the White Lotus painting. This triptych is the antithesis of my desire. This morning I put a nice fresh coat of white paint over the entire thing. Magic swipe of my brush and it's history. I always get a rush when I do that.

I believe that's why the purple is dancing around in my head. I need calm. I need soft and light and peaceful. I need lavender flowers, fields of lavender flowers. Hmmmm. With that thought, I'm off to the studio.

Namaste, y'all ...

Sometimes it's time for a makeover!

Some people go to a salon to get their new groove on.

I am not one of those people.

I, on the other hand, get a big ol' bunch of feelin' fine when I paint over something I've done and am feelin' no love for. Oh yeah, a few swipes of a brush and I get goose-bumps galore! Like the shoe-crack high we women get when we find a great pair of shoes, in our size, on sale. Yeah, I'm not much on lounging around a beauty salon getting my nails done but I'm girly enough to admit to my love of shoes.

A few days ago I posted about the triptych I'm working on. I was loving the background. The cherry blossom branch was 'okay'. Somewhere between branch and adding blossoms I realized I didn't want to paint it anymore. It had become one of those paintings which looked great in my head ... on canvas, not so much. I tinkered with it, mooshed paint around, a bit of detail here and there, more twigs on the branch, a whole day of putzing around and getting more irritated by the minute.

Painting isn't supposed to be irritating.

Fortunately, there is that marvelous cure ... the makeover!

Allow me to demonstrate a painting makeover ...
 
Last place I was when I posted ... tree branch okay but still needed detailing ...

Little blobs of color for blossom placement ... this is when I started getting that seriously irritated thing going on but I was willing to keep working ...

Started detailing the blossoms ...

More detail on the blossoms and branch developed ...

The next day it became this ...

Now it's a nice abstract that I really, really like ...

"Putting My Stamp On It", acrylic on 10" x 30" canvases

Stamp detail ... that is my thumbprint in the box...

I think part of the problem began when I didn't go with my first instinct and do an abstract to start with. I want to but wasn't sure of what to do with one. I couldn't get a solid "idea" formed so I caved to indecision and went with the cherry blossom thing instead.

Some folks might think that abstracts are just a matter of slinging paint at the canvas and voila', it's an abstract painting! There are probably a lot of artists out there who do exactly that. Kudos to them. Not my style. I like to have a basic idea, theme, feeling, or purpose when I do my abstracts. There needs to be a reason behind the work, even if it isn't obvious to the viewers who look at it. I prefer to let them (you) find their own interpretation to a piece of art because that, for me, is how art should be. I may have my own story to tell through the paint, but someone else may see something I never even thought of ... and I like that.

With this abstract my personal story, as is with all my abstract paintings, is explained in the title. For many years my paintings were greatly influenced by others' suggestions, thoughts or opinions. Over time I felt I was losing touch with who I was as an artist and a person. I didn't paint what was in my heart to paint. It got so bad I actually stopped painting. I had lost my enjoyment and satisfaction, lost my love of doing the one thing that means most to me in this world.

Between the painting the branch and painting the blossoms, it hit me I wasn't painting something because I truly wanted to ... I was painting it to hang in a particular place in the house, with a consideration for what the husband might like to have hanging there, too. The longer I worked on it the more I realized I was thinking far more about his reactions to the work and not my own. I was painting from the head and not the heart. The blossom painting felt sort of like stepping back into those cheap, ill-fitting shoes. The abstract is like a mini-salon treatment ... I washed away that mode of thinking and got a groovy new hairstyle.

Namaste', y'all ...

Sneak peek of Spring!

When I stepped outside yesterday morning to start my walk I was thrilled to see one of these guys ...

Bluebird Totem: Bluebird is about your happiness within and without. He signifies a contentment and fulfillment that is happening or is about to happen. Bluebird shows how to find those joyful gems in everyday life with an appreciation anew. He teaches a balance of work and play and reminds us to reinstate the fun back into life. Listen to the song of Bluebird in order to sing your own of joy with an awakened confidence and internal peace. It is time to look for chances to touch joy in your life. Dance and sing with every step, Bluebird will show you the way.

I also spied this tiny little fellow on the porch railing ...

Got him on a stick and put him over in the ivy so he could go along on his merry way, doing whatever it is Inchworms do. Not sure what Inchworm Totem Medicine is (probably that I need to get started with some serious Yoga!), but here's a bit of info y'all might enjoy about seeing and understanding Animal Symbolism in your life.

I love to see the bluebirds here at the house. Let's me know that Spring isn't too far away. Every year the Winter seems colder, longer, and harder to tolerate. Of course, if it weren't for cold weather, I wouldn't get to wear sweaters and thick, fuzzy socks! Got to find the positive in every situation.

Namaste, y'all ...

Mondays are for painting and snuggling a fat cat!

Monday of last week saw the beginning of a triptych. I've been wanting to do one for awhile. Okay, years. For reasons unknown I've never gotten around to it. I'm 'round to it now. Three panels of 1.5" gallery wrapped canvas, 10" x 30" each. Working in acrylic again on this one. Here's the start ...

Base coating of soft white, aqua, blue ...

Building up the aqua with glazes of deep green umber and a touch of burnt carmine ...

More aqua glazing, more green with a hint of black ...

Added some bright blue between the aqua and green, tamped in some moss green with a sponge on the green to look like, well, moss ...

Mix of black, greens, aqua, and a midge of a pastel shade of the aqua to make a tree branch and twigs ...

Hopefully this evening I'll get the blossoms painted. This is a rendition of a cherry tree, but my blossoms will be varying shades of pale peach, apricot, orange, terra cotta and burnt sienna instead of the traditional shades of pink. I want the complementary color play of "orange" against "blue". I think it will really make the blossoms pop and give the triptych depth and dimension.

This is my assistant, Tuck Butt Martinez ...

The husband caught me and the fur-boy snuggling at the computer and snapped the photos. Tuck loves to rub the top of his head against my head. He's a strange, but sweet fat cat.

Namaste, y'all ...

Time out of the studio ... it's good and it's bad.

Wednesday I took a road trip to Raleigh with my dear friend, Sue. Left early, got home late. Never made it down the hall to the studio to work on the triptych I've started. Haven't even gotten the in-progress photos downloaded from the camera yet.

Thursday was spent in town running errands, doing the grocery shopping, and then being totally unproductive at home. Getting up at 5:30am Wednesday morning and not getting home 'til after 9:00pm, then the town excursion, sort of wore me out. No studio time. I just couldn't focus even though I wanted to.

Today is Domestic Goddess day because the husband is on his way home for the weekend. Took a nice walk down our road with my neighbor because I've been too inactive the past few months. My plan is to walk every day.

Now, the rest of my day will be a fun-filled hoorah of dusting, cleaning bathrooms, and pushing around the vacuum cleaner. woo.hoo. Got veggies and a large roast in the crock pot after my walk so I can feed the man when he gets here. I put in extra veggies because that's what I'll eat. I am so loving this new crock pot! Extra big. 7.5 qt. Love it. My old one, a small 4 qt. would hold the roast, but not so many veggies.

In all honesty, all I want to do is run back into the studio and not come out. I feel cranky and frustrated that the necessities of life are in my way. But, I do realize time out of the studio is really a good thing. I get so single-minded and caught up in my own little world. Not much else gets done, which isn't so good.

Guess I need to practice some balance with it. It's just a little difficult.

To suit that balance theme, let's post a nice picture to reflect the concept ...

Namaste, y'all ...

Crankin' 'em out and hangin' 'em up ...

Not sure what's going on, but I seem to be rollin' along rather quickly with the painting stuff. I'm not complaining.

Got the Poppies done last night. I like how they turned out. I like that I'm done and ready for the next victim, too. I've got months of not being able to get into the studio to make up for.

So here's the last half of the process and a grand finale ...


When I paused to take a lunch break I came back to the studio to find a seat thief ...

After relocating Zipper Doodle, I cranked up the colors on the poppies ...

Glazed some darks to start building the forms a little clearer ...

Painted in a watery line of black around the flowers and stems to separate them from the background a bit, as well as to highlight the petal edges. Lightened up the inside of the petals a touch to give more dimension. Decided it needed some gold to catch the light ...

Signed my name and it's done ... (fuzzy photo, not sure what happened.)

Grabbed the hammer and a picture hanging hook and put that thing up on the wall in the office area ...

Woo Hoo!

Namaste, y'all ...

Poppin' poppies and small spaces.

For the past couple of years the husband and I have been in a slow but steady process of home redecorating/remodeling. We haven't gotten wild and crazy, busting down walls or ripping out plumbing. We don't have big bucks to spend, nor do we have good amounts of time. The husband is a truck driver, so he's not home every day and weekends like most people. It all has to be done as we can, when we can ... hence the fact it's already been two years and we're still working on it!

Most of the areas we've worked on have lots of things to do to call them finished. Some places it's major stuff. New chest of drawers in the bedroom. New rug in both the living room and the dining room. Curtains, throw pillows, etc., etc., etc. After ten long years I'm finally gonna' get my living room furniture reupholstered!!! And, there are rooms we have yet to tackle. Kitchen untouched. Guest bath also untouched. Laundry room tagging at the end of the line.

One of the areas we have pretty much brought to completion is the foyer. When we bought our first computer we didn't have a good place to put it, or the God-awful monstrosity of a computer desk we purchased for it. (I give all the blame to the husband for picking that thing out.) Since we rarely use the front door the niche area in our foyer was wasted space, thus it became our 'home office' area. Honestly, I'm glad I don't have the before and after photos to show you. Just the after. I don't even like to think about the before. Suffice it to say, it was bad, and over the years it I developed a progressively stronger and stronger 'hate this space' feeling for it.

Now, we have this nice, functional, streamlined work space ...

Pretty impressive what you can do with some plywood, stain, and peel-n-stick floor tiles. The husband did a great job. Just one minor problem. You see that big ol' open wall above the computer monitor? Screaming for a piece of art. I love the new space, and enjoying working at the computer now, but it's a little bland. Needs color, a touch of personalization and some warmth. Good thing an artist lives in the house! Also going to reupholster that chair, but that's another story.

Well, I'm on it. Paint barely dry on the last work and I'm at it again!

Right after I finished the White Lotus I got started on a new painting for the office/foyer. My original intention was to do something like this ...

Came across this image on the internet. Unfortunately, I can't find out who the artist is to give credit where credit is due. What I will say is I love the softness and simplicity of it. I love the contrast of the vibrancy of  color with the subject matter. I also am completely enamored by the way the image travels across the canvases into a triptych.

When I sat in the chair and stared at the wall I wasn't thrilled with the way I thought a triptych would look between the shelves. Too linear. I got to thinkin' about some paintings my friend Kasey had done of poppies. Here's one I particularly admired ...

Poppies #4

I really liked them, had been inspired by them, and wanted them for my very own. Alas, that wasn't meant to be, but it didn't mean I, since I can paint, couldn't do some for myself! Ka-ching!

I think one of the things I love so much about Kasey's work is that her style is so different from my own. She has a freshness and spontaneity to her work. It's happy, full of color, texture and originality. Huge fan, I am.

Anyway, I copy-catted her poppy theme and began this ...

30" x 30" ... quick sketch of placement of poppies and some Golden Molding Medium for texture. Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to go so big with my next piece of art but I couldn't help myself. I think the size will work very well on the office wall.

Base coat of black paint to create depth under the colors I will be adding ...

Glaze coat of chocolate brown to warm the black ...

Drew the poppies onto tracing paper, cut them out, decoupaged them onto the canvas for more texture ...

Smooshed more molding medium over the tracing paper, used a pallet knife to create a sort of ruffled edge to the petals, then used my finger to smooth the surface and give a bit of directional movement to the flower ...

Started glazing in browns and aquas ...

Building up the colors of the background and first coat of a deep orange glaze on the flowers ...

Still a lot of work to do, but it's getting there.

Namaste, y'all ...

White Lotus, Part II

(Technically, this was written on Friday night but I didn't want to double-post.)

After publishing Friday's post, White Lotus, Part I, things started rolling. I wasn't sure I was liking the amount of terra cotta in the upper portion above the flower. It seemed to dominate overmuch. I also felt I didn't have enough dark (purples and greens) in the lower half to give the work depth like a pond. I loved the burst of the aqua yet thought maybe it was a bit too large.

So, I propped the painting against the wall in the dining room where I intended to hang the finished piece. My dining room and living room are basically one large rectangular space, and the colors I'm using to decorate are incorporated into the art. I needed to see how well the wall color, a medium toned khaki, played together with what was happening in the painting. I knew the fairly neutral background would 'pop' the colors even more and I could better judge what I needed to do. I want color, but I also want an element of softness as well. The white of the lotus needed to 'glow' and make the flower the focal point, even when juxtaposed against the more vivid colors.

With the painting leaning against the wall I sat down at the table and stared at it for a long time. I compared it to the printed out version I was using as my reference and realized I was right about the dark half. The upper half needed a bit of a 'tone down', too. I took it back to the studio and got busy.

On the lower half I pulled more of the darks up closer to the reflected petals of the lotus, both reducing the area of the bright aqua and giving it another layer of shadows. I also blended in a small amount of a deep burgundy to 'dirty' the water. Ponds are murky.

I brushed a wash of a soft buttermilk white mixed in glaze medium over the upper part, and added some areas of the darks to give a bit more 'depth' to it as well. I used a rough brush to tamp and smudge some of the burgundy above the lotus to break up the intensity of the terra cotta. This also gave the painting a bit of visual 'texture' to counter balance the expanse of predominately smoothly blended colors.

I brushed a bright white on the lotus petals to play against the more creamy white they were painted with. I also brushed the white horizontally across the canvas with a small brush, then blended it with a clean fat brush to blur it, creating a soft illusion of ripples on the surface of the water.

I carted it back to the dining room, propped it against the wall, and stared at it again. Then I walked away and watched a show on Hulu.com for about forty-five minutes. Sometimes you just have to stop looking at something in order to see it again.

When I walked back over to study it some more I suddenly realized it was finished ...

I'm pleased with the end result. What a wonderful feeling. Particularly after taking so long to get the Angel done! This painting, even though it's large (24" x 48"), only took around a week to paint. I think I'm still surprised to be finished so quickly. I wasn't prepared for an, "Oh, well, I'm done." in a week. Yeah, good feeling.

Not sure what's next, but whatever it is, it starts tomorrow!

Namaste, y'all ...

White Lotus In Progress, Part I

Picking up where I left off, sort of.

Despite a few interruptions and detours with other things commanding my attention, I've been working on the lotus painting. I get back there in the studio, crank up the iPod, and moosh paint around on the canvas. Sometimes I think the process of paint mooshing is the best part. Blend a little here ... drop a little of this color there ... swish in a bit of that color ... mist it all with a spray bottle and moosh some more.

Can't help it. I love blending. My lovely and impressively artistic friend, Kasey, calls me the Goddess of Blend. I admit, I like to blend. And this particular painting is all about blending on the background. Happy camper, I am.

But for snorts and giggles, I thought I would post an update on my progress. It's often hard to show 'work in progress' because, as the artist, you know so much isn't done yet. Kind of like having your date show up early and you're caught in your ratty bathrobe, legs still unshaven, half your makeup on. Nope, not pretty.

While working on a piece of art things change, they develop, and sometimes, they disappear. As you can see from this canvas, the background is still evolving. And it may very well do that for awhile. It will be what it will be until I moosh the paint into something that pleases me and I don't want to moosh it anymore lest I muck it up. It's not really a process I can explain. I either know it's working and I like it, or it's not and I don't.

Then again, it may totally and utterly frustrate me. Not unknown to happen. I could easily end up painting over parts (or the entire thing) and try again. This seems to freak some people out. I've gotten the "Oh My God! You Didn't Just Paint Over That!!!" reaction from a few people over the years and I'm never sure what to say to them. Maybe what I had painted looked good to them, but it wasn't working for me and I wasn't going to keep paddling that canoe upstream. The creation of a painting should be enjoyable, not make you want to attack the canvas with a machete.

The beginning ...

Phase 2 ...

Phase 3 ...

Phase 4 ...

Phase 5 ...

Phase 6 ... lotus close up

Phase 7 ... where it's at right now. The weird, shinny spots are wet paint.

Namaste, y'all ...