New Pinterest Board

 I've just created a new Pinterest board on the use of neutrals and bright colors together. Take a look here. I love pushing the ratios of neutrals to brights. How little bright can you get away with and still have it sing? How much bright can you get away with, and not have it "too busy"? 

Here are a few examples of my own work in which I'm focusing on this kind of palette:

8"x8"

12"x12"

20"x20"

Big

24"x24"

24"x24"

Golden Artist Colors Conference

Just heading back from the "Golden Gathering" in Florida, where I got a fresh dose of information on Golden products, but so much more!  Re-connecting with colleagues, meeting artists from all over the world, taking workshops and attending super informative talks and demos. Here are a few pix.  I'll put together more posts when I get home, with more links and video. 

Here is me (orange T-shirt, gray hair) in Adria Arch's class on teaching intuitive painting.  She is right up my alley, and gave me some FABULOUS ideas for improving my teaching.  We did some really fun exercises that got us painting immediately, totally engaged in the process, without thinking and agonizing.  She got us to tap into that direct line between intuition and process.  I will be trying these in upcoming workshops.

Here are a few things that came out of one of Adria's exercises.

The venue wasn't too shabby, though it was not this sunny. 

I took a watercolor workshop with Bianka Guna, in which we used Golden's new Qor watercolors.  Yes, that is Q  O  R, Qor, pronounced "core".  So I'll be experimenting with them in my studio and share with you.  The colors are intense and rich, and they work beautifully on many different grounds and substrates.

Here is Bianka.  She is an engaging teacher, very entertaining as well as knowledgeable.

This is one of the collograph plates I made in Shari Pratt's workshop.  I have some better pix, which I'll share in a later post.  We used all kinds of textural materials and many of Golden's texture gels to make printing plates. 

Then we printed using OPEN acrlyics, which have a long long long l o n g drying time. They are great for monoprinting because you can take your time working the paint into/on the plate.

Melanie Matthews

One more person I want to introduce you to (if you don't already know her) is Melanie Matthews.  I attended her slide talk on using Pinterest, and found her to be one of the most generous artists I've met, in terms of sharing information.  Funny, fun, a GREAT presenter.  I would take a workshop with her any day.  Check out her Pinterest Boards and follow her.  OMG, what a wealth of carefully curated images she shares.

More Big Fat Art

My Collage Journeys in Vermont starts today, so I'll be taking pix and video clips to show you next week.  I am very excited to see students I've worked with before and meet the ones I haven't.  LOVE this workshop!  More on that next week.

Meanwhile, I've been working on my Shapes pieces and 4"x4"'s, and also trying some new things with the Big Fat Art.  In perusing Pinterest, I've noticed that I really gravitate towards pieces with what I'm calling "expressive mark making": very free-looking scribbles.  So I did a bunch of Big Fat Art in which I explored scribbles and marks in a new way.  All are 19.5"x25" on Canson paper.

All of these are unfinished pieces; some of them will come to resolution and some will not.  It is about the process, the exploration.  I'm seeing that the shapes are emerging in these pieces, which is exciting - could I combine my shapes stuff with the expressive marks?  I'm trying different materials: pastel, Inktense pencils, graphite, India ink in an oiler boiler, airbrush colors (the drips), and crayons.

Pinterest

I've finally discovered Pinterest, and posted a bunch of my work on a board.  Check it out.  I'm so excited to be able to "collect" work that inspires me.  Suggestions on how to use this fabulous tool are much appreciated!