Leaning into Subtlety

 Do you ever feel that your art is "too busy"? You know you have too much going on, but you are not sure what to do about it? Afraid of wrecking it, or 'losing' some of the parts you like best, you get a bit creatively paralyzed over it. 

Join me for Leaning into Subtlety, Friday, February 12, 2021, at 5:00 pm EASTERN time. This is a quick (hour and a half) demonstration hosted by Winslow Art Center via Zoom.

I will demonstrate a few go-to techniques I use that keep me loose and unafraid of painting over. These techniques are about building subtlety as part of the process, but also toning down high drama, or 'editing' to bring your piece into focus. 

Here are a few examples:

This one includes tone-on-tone collage in the yellow area, plus a little spatter of yellow ochre. 11"x14" on bristol.

Tone-on-tone mark making, collage, and spatter bring a little depth to this piece. 11"x14" on bristol.

Fog, lower right, is the main technique I demonstrate on this piece. 11"x14" on bristol.

This piece has a lot of texture, but I've toned down some if it using a dry brush technique. 11"x14" on bristol.

This is another example of toning down texture. This is the "after", so the texture is considerable more subtle in parts than the "before". 9"x12" on bristol.

Series of Texture Studies

I've been looking at visual texture, which is to say "implied" texture, or very shallow physical texture that is enhanced by paint.  Here is a series of studies that explore texture against flat color and line work.  The translucent paints, like the Quinacridone Gold I've used here, are great for getting texture.  Opaque colors like the white an bits of turquoise (not sure how I mixed that) are good for flat areas.  These are all 10"x10" (20x20cm), acrylic on paper.

Texture Study #1

Texture Study #2

Texture Study #4

Texture Study #6

Texture Study #7

Detail of Texture Study #7 above.  You can see that just the brush strokes of the previous layer offer a great opportunity for texture.  This is simply black paint applied to the surface, then wiped away.

Working in series like this is a great way to explore different options within a focused area.  I am teaching Series As Process, in which we take this approach, at Madeline Island School of the Arts in July.  Take a look here, and register soon, as there are only a few spaces available.

Some New Work in Nuetrals

I've been experimenting with layering acrylic paint and scraping through, creating texture and line with a minimum of colors.  You can see some pieces I did about a year ago here.  Mostly I've done these pieces as technique demonstrations, but thought I'd try to take it a bit further.  Here is a video on some of the techniques I'm using:

And a few of the finished works:

You can see the whole collection at Jane Davies Art Gallery.  And learn the techniques at my workshops in Gloucester, Whidbey Island,  Rhinebeck (OMEGA), and Dillman's Bay Resort in Wisconsin.

A Few Finished Pieces

Here are a few that came out of the Deli Paper Print series.  I have, at this point, about sixteen in the works, some of which will come to conclusion.

 

 

 The following are still works in process.

I am really excited about the layering, making marks, scraping back, painting over, creating texture.  I am not limiting these pieces to a specific set of techniques.  They did all happen to start with the deli paper prints, but could just as easily start somewhere else.  I'm really enjoying seeing how space develops: flat space and layers of depth.  These shapes keep emerging, so I'm going with it.  Shapes, scribbles, grids... 

Layering and Making Textures

I am working on a series of pieces that are 12"x12", collage and paint on paper.  I'll be mounting some of them (ones I want to exhibit) on wood panel.  I don't know what these are about yet, what themes might emerge, but I am clearly working with a grid format; printed text as a background, a limited palette, and lots of layering.

Here are some of them spread out on a table.

Here is one in process.

Another one in process.  This one may be almost finished.

I thought I'd share some of my layering techniques with you.  These are just a few of what I'll be teaching in Layers and Textures in Kansas City in March, and Layers and Textures in Portland in April.

Here are two that are finished: 

This is the first one I work on in the video.

In this one I use the same contact paper masking technique a in the video.

Texture on Deli Paper

I am done with Friday Drawing Practice for a while, but I thought I would continue to offer little tutorials on Fridays. It's fun, and it keeps me in practice.

Here is a technique for adding texture to paper. I use it in my Scribble Collage workshops, but just recently tried it on deli paper ("dry waxed paper"). Sue Bleiweiss does wonders on deli paper, which she demonstrated at our Sketch-In at Ink About It a few weeks ago. She gets hers at BJ's Wholesale Club for a lot cheaper than elsewhere, but they don't sell it online, so I did not include a link.



Here are a couple of samples of the deli paper with texture. The nice thing about this paper is that is is stronger than tissue paper, but it's almost as transparent.




Then I ripped them up and made a collage in my sketchbook:

Thanks for visiting. Have fun!

One More

Just wanted to share one more background. I applied gesso to muslin, which had been ironed on to freezer paper for stability. Textured the gesso as before, painted with acrylics, scraping and wiping it to add more texture. THEN... after it was completely dry, I scrubbed some parts with rubbing alcohol to remove some of the acrylic paint. I forgot about that technique. Maybe I'll do a little video demo on it, since I need practice with the video camera. Click on the image to bring up a full size version. I left it big so you could see all the detail.
This is just a quick post. No links, only one picture. But thanks for visiting!