More Black and White and a Giveaway

I made a few more papers using stencils with a sponge roller, but also with the GelliArts gel plate.  On these I used Golden Fluid Acrylics (Carbon Black and Titanium White), and also Golden OPEN Acrylics, which have a very long working time (they dry slowly).

Here are a few of the papers I made, using 9"x12" Cheap Drawing Paper:

In this I used a stencil I made myself with Cheap Drawing Paper.

For this I used OPEN acrylic, and made the lines using a Q-tip.

For this one I used a homemade gelatin plate, 8"x8", and then a stencil over it.

 The following two images are digital collages studies.  They don't exist in actual material.  I was fooling around in Photoshop, manipulating the scale of each of my papers as I put them together in these pieces.  As I am investigating the issue of scale, I am wondering if making either digital studies or small paper studies might be useful.  I've never worked from studies, so it's a new process for me.

I am offering a giveaway of the 14-product set of Golden's A - Z Workshop In A Box, to one person, chosen at random from those who comment on this post.  Please say something about working in black and white, and/or something about scale.  I'm interested in your ideas.  Identify yourself uniquely (i.e. "Mary in San Diego" rather than "Mary").  I will post the winner on Thursday, May 28.  It is the responsibility of the winner to get in touch with me.

New Work Available as Prints

I've made some of my studies and new pieces available as prints on Fine Art America.  Here is how it works:  you go to my page; then click on the image you want to view:

"89/100", 9"x12", acrylic and crayon on paper

You choose among framing and format options.

And then you can choose the size.

One benefit of purchasing prints rather than originals is that you get to choose the size.  The original of this piece is 9"x12", but you can get it as large as 36"x48". 

I have been pondering the issue of scale.  Often I see a piece of my own work or that of a student, and think:  this would be FABULOUS at a drastically larger scale.  But how do you DO that??  I also find interesting the juxtaposition of dramatically contrasting scales - teeny tiny marks next to great big marks.  In my studio I am investigating both of these ideas.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Here are a few more of the new pieces now available as prints:

Stencils! and Online Composition Class

I did a guest post on StencilGirlTalk today, which includes a video.  Have a look.   Here are a few of the collages I made using the papers I created with the stencils.  The first four are 4"x4":

This one is about 9"x10"

Composition Workshop Now Available for Download

Keys to Dynamic Composition, my online class, is now available as a download.  As many of you have found, my online classes have been filling rather quickly, and I've had lots of requests to "squeeze one more in", which I can't really do.  On the group blogs I create for each class, I comment on everything that students post, and give individual feedback and suggestions.  This limits the number of people I can take in a class.  I am working on formatting some of my classes as downloadable self-study courses, and this is the first offering.  Meanwhile, I am developing new courses to be offered in the interactive group blog format in 2016. 

Back from the Photographer

I just had my photographer, George Bouret, shoot a whole pile of my work, including pieces from a year ago, earlier this year, and pieces made recently in at the Vermont Studio Center.  Here are just a few:

22x30

20x20

20x20

20x20

22x30

19x25

18x24

19x25

19x25

 These are all acrylic and various drawing media on paper.  I'll be putting them up in Jane Davies Art Gallery and available as prints on Fine Art America, so this is sort of a little preview.  

Another Wax Day

Another day of working in encaustic resulted in a few pieces that I think are finished, and several more in the works.  I went to Jeri MacDonald's studio in Cambridge, NY, which is not far from Rupert.  I LOVE working with another artist!!!  It's great to have someone to comment on the work when I'm not sure what to do next.  We do this for each other, and it does smooth out the process beautifully.

Here are a the pieces I'm considering finished:

Thanks for visiting!

A Few More 4"x4" Collages

Continuing to use my recently made collage papers, here are a few more Teeny Tiny Art pieces.

I just filled out my 2016 schedule on my web site, so you can see what next year's workshops will be.  I haven't yet posted the online workshop schedule, but will do so soon.  The only workshop that is currently open for registration is Gelatin Print Collage, in Bennington Vermont at the end of January.  Check it out here.  It's limited to twelve participants.

One big change is that Big Fat Art Weekend will be in Gloucester, MA, rather than here in Rupert, VT, April 1 - 3.  I found a venue where we can work on the wall as well as on tables, which will save our backs, and also allow us to work even larger if we want to.  I can accommodate fourteen participants, and will open it up for registration in the next month or two.  I hope to offer a second Big Fat Art Weekend sometime in the fall.

Another big change for 2016 is that I am only offering two workshops at Art and Soul in Portland next year, but both of them are two days plus an evening, so we can get deeper into our topics:  Dynamic Composition and Layering and Excavating.  Open for registration by June 1, maybe before.

Making Collage Papers - and Collage

Thanks for all your thought provoking comments on my last post.  I so much appreciate the discussion.  In the studio I've been trying out new ideas, new ways of working with my materials, and valuing the "busy work" time I spend there.  Here is a video of me making collage papers from my "scrap paper", and then  one way I've been approaching some new 4"x4" pieces.

Here are a few of the papers that came out of this session:

 Have fun making your own collage papers or re-purposing your scraps.  And here are a few of the 4"x4" collages I made using these and other papers:

Well, ho hum, but it's a start.

This is actually my favorite, so I started making more painterly marks on my collage papers.  See how that goes, and maybe I'll post the results.

 Update on Summer Workshops

There are NINE spaces left in my workshop at Omega this summer.  

Expressive Abstract Painting: The Power of Process

July 5 - 10

Read about it here.

Register here.

There are FOUR spaces left in my workshop at Dillman's Bay Resort in Wisconsin.

Abstract Painting: Working in Multiples

September 13 - 18 (four teaching days)

Read about it and register here.

Photos from the Residency

One of the most valuable things about the VSC residency was meeting all the other artists and seeing their work.  I took pictures of their work at Open Studio on our last day, but won't post here.  Instead, here are a few of the artists who were there:

Galen Cheney, Molly Bosley, Kit Donnelly, Lyal Michel, Janet Fredericks, Kathleen Fiske, Lily Hinrichsen, Irene Cole, Warren Kimble, and of course there were many more (fifty-six of us altogether).

Here are a few more pix of my work in progress, maybe some are finished:

 

 

This is just some of what I worked on.  The verticals are 11"x30".  

Another valuable experience from the residency was coming to terms with my own limitations - my attention span, my stamina.  Not just how-long-can-I-stay-in-the-studio, but How Long Can I Sustain An Idea?  Do my ideas only go so far and then peter out?  What happens when I try to push an idea further than my usual attention span and studio time allow?  I tend to work in short series, and often feel like I flit from one thing to another, and yet I know that common themes and aesthetic issues surface across various series and bodies of work.  Should I be more intentional?  Should I try to push my ideas further? Should, should, should.

What I discovered is that my brain peters out before my physical stamina for staying in the studio.  I want to be working longer, but the paintings come to a point where they need to be left alone for a bit, even if I work on several at once.  My work is pretty decision-intensive, even though the decisions are intuitive.  There is very little "busy work" that I can do on my paintings when my brain is tired.  So maybe this is a good time to make patterned collage papers, do cut-outs of shapes that I am now painting, make repetitious marks, or go back to my 4"x4" collage-paintings (of which I did NONE last week), or push paper around.  Thanks for listening!