Hearts on Video!

This is just a playful little video of me drawing and collaging simple heart images. I am finding this practice of making hearts a really good way to HAVE FUN in my studio, and I'm using it as a warm-up exercise. We discussed what it means to "have fun" making art, and the difference between doing it "just for fun" and doing it as a serious practice but finding it fun, in a previous post.

I realized that I didn't have a particular thing I go to when I want to relax a bit and just play around with materials in my studio. When I've been away from the studio for a bit and feel a bit rusty, I do have some really low-pressure practices that get me back in the flow, but there had not been one particular focus. The heart image might just be it. It could be something else - a landscape, a circle, a grid, a drawing of my cat or the view out the back window. But there is something just silly enough - cliché and sentimental - about the heart that keeps it from getting the least bit serious. See more of my hearts on Fine Art America.

So, here is the video. Miche Fambro has kindly allowed me to use his music.

A Few More Hearts for Fun

Just a few more in the collection. See my "Light Hearted" gallery on Fine Art America. Let me know your own ways of injecting a little "just for fun" into your art practice. All of the pieces below are 5.5"x7.5".

Hearts for Fun

OK, I finally found a thing in my studio I can do JUST for fun. As in, light hearted, for the purpose of relaxing and enjoying time in the studio without the kind of focus and effort that Art requires. Making valentines!  Just making collage, drawings, paintings, on a really small scale that feature hearts.

This is a collection of the single heart pieces I made. I'll be posting a video about this on February 1.

Here are a few more; these are 5.5"x7.5".

I found this a great way to play with color, shape, composition, and materials and techniques. You can see more of the collection on Fine Art America. Even if you don't celebrate Valentines Day, try making a group of heart images JUST FOR FUN!

2019! Happy New Year

As the days begin to get longer here in the northern hemisphere, many of us take the time to consider what we might like to accomplish in the new year. Do you have plans or goals for your art practice?

Thanks to all of you who have taken my workshops, read my books, and shown up to my blog posts, videos, or newsletters, I feel an overwhelming sense of support for my own work.

Here are a few things on my list for 2019:

1. Spend some time with oil and cold wax. I keep "dabbling" in oil media, but haven't spent concentrated time on it. Here is a post about pigment sticks and oil media. Here are some of the pieces that came out of that exploration; they are 10x10":

2. This is always on my list: work larger. By the end of 2019 I would love to have some idea of what it is like to work on a piece that is 6'x8' (72"x 96"), or somewhere on that scale. I don't aim to finish a piece that size, (if I make that a goal, it will not happen), but to work on pieces of that magnitude.

Here is a mock-up I did a few years ago that allows me to imagine myself working at a much larger scale. Thanks to Photoshop.

3. I want to do a project I'm calling "Art on a Roll": painting/drawing on a continuous roll of paper or canvas. This is inspired by Mayako Nakamuro. Check out her Emaki Study here.

This is a gallery shot of one of Nakamuro's continuous scrolls.

If you have tried this, let me know. It seems as if it would lend itself to a communal project, but I'm not quite sure how that would work. Any ideas?

4. Anther thought that has been kicking around awhile is: incorporating referential (representational) imagery into my abstract paintings. I don't know how I will approach this, but I've been dancing around the idea for a while and it's time to plunge in. Maybe I'll take a workshop, or work from photographs, or make cartoon doodles of chickens or trees or bicycle tires. I just have no idea where this idea would/could lead. Any suggestions are welcome!

In my teaching practice I have a few plans too:
I plan to offer more small mentoring workshops in my schedule. I love painting with people, and also love talking to people about their work, outside of any assignments or content that I might "teach". At the other end of the spectrum, I am adding some beginner workshops and resources to my offerings. THANK YOU for all the feedback and suggestions you gave me in this post about workshop suggestions.

I would love to hear from you, either in a comment on this post or in an e-mail, about your plans for 2019 in terms of your art practice. What is new for you in 2019?