Valentine Card Workshop on Zoom

Actually, it is a workshop on elements of abstract visual language, disguised as one on making valentine cards. Get details and sign up here. Friday, February 10, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Eastern time. All who sign up will get the recording, so if that time is not convenient, you can still get the workshop.

 

 

Scraps

 I seem to be obsessed with scraps these days. They call to mind the debris from explosions (think Ukraine), fragments of lives washed up on a beach from a plane crash or shipwreck. But also the piecing together of worn out scraps to make something useful or beautiful (think quilts in the traditional sense).

This and the next two images are the 'parts' that I'm making, which are then cut up and reassembled.

These consist of painted papers, gel prints, found papers, and repurposed 'pieces'.

Though these have a random look, I do pay attention to varying the scale of the pieces, and the scale of the patterns, textures, and marks on the little bits.

This work in process combines one of the 'collage quilts' (cut edited) with another work in process. 20"x20" on wood panel.

Similar in process to the above piece. Both are works in process.

Collage quilts combined and edited over a painting, 20"x20"

This one is finished. Ta DA!! 24"x24" on wood panel.

4"x6" window mat. Trying to see some possibilities of up-close tiny collages in this and the next two images.

4"x4"

4"x4"

Another option I'm considering is 'floating' these reassembled scraps as 'maps' or continents, with lots of space around them.

Same as above.

This process was inspired by my workshop, The Visual Sentence, which I taught in January in Tucson (hosted by MISA) and also at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops last June. The student work was amazing. 

Here is some student work from January (click the Facebook icon to see the post):

 

And this is from Last June:

 

New Composition Class Online

I have just published my first online class on SkillShare, called "Abstract Collage: Creating Compositions with Tissue Paper". Take a look here, and get two months of access to all of SkillShare's video tutorials free. Following the SkillShare format, the class contains ten short video lessons in 43 minutes. You can post your work on the site, ask questions, see other's work, etc.

I take you through the process of painting/staining tissue paper, cutting out the shapes, and playing with arrangement, all in the service of exploring abstract composition. Check it out! And let me know what you think. This is a new platform for me for teaching, though I have been a member of Skillshare as a learner for over a year.

More Work In Progress in June

Here are two more of the pieces I have in the works, both of which have left me a bit stumped.  I started these with no clear intention, and although I advocate letting go of the idea of a specific outcome, it's not a bad idea to start with a clear beginning.  It can be quite fruitful and also fun to begin with no particular set of parameters: let's just make marks and see where they lead.  That's where these started, but I'm not finding it very satisfying at this point because I had the idea that they would be Pieces, not just marks.  I've found some elements I'd like to work with - the white-on-white texture, the veiled lines, the incised marks, and to some extent the primary colors.  OK great.  I've discovered, perhaps, some new vocabulary.

Here is where I left off at the end of May.

 

The piece went here...

And then here, and it is very much unfinished.

 Another Piece in Process:

This is several steps/layers into the process.

Another couple of layers.  I liked the quality of the black lines in the upper right, made with High Flow acrylic in a fine line applicator

Emphasizing blue

Painting over the blue

At this point I think I will just take what I've learned from these and begin some fresh pieces.  Put them aside, and see if subsequent explorations suggest any further development on these.  I browsed Pinterest and made notes of specific things that resonate, which I might incorporate into these or subsequent pieces.  I'll see how that translates in the studio.  What To Do Next, I think, is to start another group of pieces and try to be specific about my Starting Points.  What issues do I want to explore?  What elements do I want to work with?  And then let the pieces develop from there.

This business of making art is such a balancing act between intention and spontaneity, between considered decision and intuitive response.  This is one of the things that makes art exciting and fresh, but also, at times, frustrating.  I will let you know how it goes.

Blind Drawing video up next.  Stay tuned.  Thanks for visiting!

Blue Canvas

Here is the sequel to the last post, a video of me working on this blue painting. What I love about video is that it makes the process look so straightforward, as if there is no hesitation, no uncertainty about What To Do Next.  This painting was challenging and, at times, frustrating.  You will see a big difference between the finished piece and the version in the video.  At one point I just had to turn off the camera and work it out without being "watched". 

Fresh Paint..... Monday

I am postponing Fresh Paint Friday until Monday, as I will not have time to edit the video.  I'm teaching  Abstract Painting: The Big Picture tomorrow at AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH.  My Fresh Paint #6 is completed, but I'll wait until Monday to show it to you.  Meanwhile, here are a few things I've been working on; they are all 10"x10" on paper:

I will not show you all the sequences of the work, but, believe it or not, these all started out with the idea of line and soft color washes:

I love the process of creating a series from a simple starting point.  I have no particular intention or idea of where each piece will end up, but I throw a visual idea out there, and then develop each piece individually.  Fun fun FUN!

Thanks for visiting.  Stay tuned for Fresh Paint Monday.

Working Large

Thanks so much to all of you who posted comments and e-mailed me about my Art and Yoga post.  You certainly gave me food for thought, and we will definitely continue this discussion.

I wanted to update you on my project of working large.  I posted last month about this and showed you the small changes I made in my studio to accommodate working large.  Well, the studio update was not enough.  No surprise.  To make large work I actually have to: Make. Large. Work.  And this is uncomfortable for me.  My usual methods don't scale up particularly well with my usual tools and techniques.  So here is what I did: I gave myself the assignment of working on 18"x24" cheap drawing paper with a limited palette of relatively inexpensive paint and a large (well, larger) brush.
Here are the pieces I did in the video:

 This third one I painted over quite a bit after the video, as I felt I'd overworked it and it needed a bit of simplification.  Here are a couple I did before and after the video, using the same techniques.

I think the next step is to work on real paper or on canvas at this size.  Or maybe do a whole bunch more playing on cheap drawing paper.  It is like working in a sketchbook, but just a lot bigger.  Fun!!!  I would like to hear about what challenges you face in your art making, and if you have found solutions or made inroads.  Thanks for visiting!

Encaustics Workshop with Daniella Woolf

I am just back from a five-day encaustics workshop.  What an experience!  If you do not know what encaustics is, go here or here.  The workshop was given by Daniella Woolf through North Country Studio Workshops at Bennington College.  Unbelievable group - the students AND the teacher were all accomplished artists with a lot of inspiration to offer.

One very cool thing with encaustic is doing collage on paper.  We did a group collage in which every student made one horizontal collage piece, and then we assembled them as a hanging scroll. Here is Daniella Woolf and Wen Redmond (do check her out!!) assembling the scroll:

 And the finished scroll hanging in the window overlooking the back field.


Here is the first stage of a self-portrait I did, as I am in the midst of my online class "Exploring the Self-Portrait".  I drew directly onto the wax (encaustic medium over paper laminated to a plywood panel) with china marker:

 I was not too thrilled with the mouth, so after scraping it off, I applied a coat of white encaustic paint mixed with a lot of medium over the whole thing.  then I cut out another mouth from one of my sketchbook drawings, and applied it with medium.  I added a few more details in graphite, and built up color and a bit of collage on either side of the face.

Here are a couple other photos from the workshop:

Another 8"x8" panel, "Ink and O's"

This untitled piece is on a panel coated with plaster.




This piece has many layers of wax as well as encaustic collage:

"Shino"
Shino is a kind of traditional Japanese ceramic glaze, some beautiful examples of which I found here.  The Alizarin Orange coming through the white wax reminded me of this glaze:





"Cruciform with Rust"


"Red Square 2"




"Red Square 1"



My work space

R&F Paints provided a vast array of encaustic paints and medium.

  I am so grateful to North Country Studio Workshops for granting me a scholarship to take this fabulous, life-changing workshop!!  I know it will enrich my work, and I hope it will enrich my teaching.  I am also grateful to Daniella Woolf for being so generous with her knowledge and resources.  She has two fabulous instructional DVD's available, which you can purchase here.