Floral Fantasy

Floral Fantasy

24"x48"

Acrylic on Canvas

If you know my work, you know that I don't normally paint flowers. Yesterday, as I was trying to salvage an abstract that was on this huge canvas, I found that my usual tricks and techniques just weren't working. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to paint. When this happens, I usually resort to completely freeing myself from any preconceived plans or ideas.

I started to apply my paints in a heavier, more painterly manner. At first it dawned on me that I might be wasting alot of paint and that I'd end up gessoing the whole thing. But, stubburn as I am, I kept plugging along. Suddenly, something in the lower right corner of the canvas drew my interest. It looked like a flower of some kind!

I decided to go with that. Sometimes the muse whispers in our ear and we need to pay attention. I grabbed a pencil and started drawing floral shapes into the still wet paint. After doing a little negative painting, painting around and between the shapes, the whole image began to come into focus. I stepped back and decided that I liked what I saw!

I don't know if this particular painting is the start of a new trend. Probably not, but it was sure fun painting it!

I have the painting listed on eBay right now but if it doesn't sell I might just find a place for it in my own home.

Old becomes new again

Tapestry

22"x30" mixed watermedia on paper

While cleaning out my studio this morning, I opened an old portfolio that had been sitting in the corner since we moved to this house nearly four years ago. I pulled out this painting that I had done back in 2003. It's a mixed media on watercolor paper. Back then I was doing alot of this type of work - and I may go back to it one of these days.

I love the detail in this painting. I remember that I used a clear wax crayon to create some resist areas. While trying to get the wax off with a heat gun, the melted wax spread into other areas and created an interesting effect when I layered other colors over it.

Yesterday I decided to purchase a set of photographic flood lamps and tripods. Up until now I was setting my work on an easel and depending on the sunlight that floods my studio to provide ample light for a good picture. Unfortunately, these short winter days have made it difficult to shoot a good picture. It was taking too much of my time to try to adjust the colors with Photoshop. Anyway, I discovered that the lamps certainly make my life easier and now my pictures are truer to the original.

I just uploaded this image to Fine Art America, a really neat website that any artist would want to know about. Prints of this and other images are now available. You can have a print of this painting on paper or canvas. You can even order mats and frames through this website. How neat is that?

Weird, isn't it???

Morning Mist

30"x40"

It's funny that no matter how much I'm determined to blog every day, life seems to get in the way. Before I know it, a whole month has gone by!

I have been pretty busy working on some new paintings. You know how I love to experiment with new techniques. I think I have AADD - Art Attention Deficit Disorder. After exploring a particular style or technique, I seem to hit a dry spell and need to try something totally different. But, don't worry, I won't be mass-producing any nostalgic little cottages with golden light pouring from the windows!

Lately, I've been working on unstretched canvas that is stapled to a luan board. I like the hard surface. It lets me do my stamping and scrubbing without flexing the way stretched canvas does. Lowe's and Home Depot are great sources for supplies that I can't find at the art supply houses. Paint rollers, sponges, acrylic patch compound and floor adhesive spreaders are great to have in my arsenal of tools and materials. There's absolutely no reason why an artist can't use whatever materials are available to create an image. Of course, it's always a good idea to make sure the materials are archival. If you're wondering about the acrylic patch compound, I use it to texture my canvas before painting. It's a great substitute for the more expensive modeling paste. Just be sure not to buy the kind that has limestone in it - that will suck the moisture out of your paint faster than you can imagine. In no time at all, the paint and spackle just flake right off the canvas- believe me, I know from experience! Anyway, if you plan to try the texturing technique, use Elastomeric Custom Patch available from Home Depot.

I staple and tape the edges of my canvas to the luan board. After applying a thin layer of the patch compound, sometimes mixed with gesso, and allowing it to dry, I apply a couple of coats of gesso. That pretty much seals the surface and then I'm ready to paint as soon as the surface of the canvas is bone dry. When the painting is complete, I remove the tape and staples. I love the nice clean edge around the canvas. It almost looks like a print! Now, the painting is ready to be stretched on bars or to be rolled up for shipping. This is one method that allows me to paint in some large sizes that I normally would not attempt.

Here is one of the paintings I finished a couple of days ago. It measures 30"x40" and is pretty spectacular, if I say so myself. It is available on Ebay right now for a one-time listing. Hope you check it out!

Breaking Through

Lately I've had so many interruptions and distractions that have prevented me from actually finishing very many paintings. I don't know why that is. I certainly have the time and I do go to my studio, but new ideas and the motivation seemed to be missing.

This morning I was determined to break the cycle. After going through my usual ritual of reading the paper, doing the crossword puzzles and catching up on all my email, I decided to tackle a new painting and not worry about the outcome. I had a false start, that is, I had to gesso over my first attempt but I was hell-bent on actually completing a painting today.

I decided to approach this painting from a totally different angle than my usual way of starting a painting. I normally like to wash in my colors, slowly building layer upon layer of glazes. Today was different! I needed something bold! After laying in a ground of diluted red tones, I drew in the composition with a diluted neutral tone. I started to apply the paints thickly. As they dried, I continued to layer more creamy colors, allowing under colors and textures to show through. Finally, the painting decided it was finished!

I needed that! Sometimes we get in a rut and rather than sit around mulling about it, we need to break loose and just do something totally different. I think that refreshes our psyche and causes us to look at things with a fresh eye.

Oh, I almost forgot. The painting reminds me of someone dancing in the garden at the start of Spring, so I named it "Garden Dance". If you like it as much as I do, take an opportunity to bid on it on Ebay.

Check out my website for more original paintings.

Critical Mass

Sometimes working on a particular project for a member of the family is more difficult than working on a commission for a stranger. One is never entirely sure that they are being truthful about the work or just being polite.

I finished this painting yesterday as a gift for my son and his wife. They just completed extensive remodeling at their home and I felt that offering them a new painting would be in order. After getting an idea of what they wanted, I began to work on Critical Mass, a three-panel painting measuring 48"x72". My daughter-in-law wanted something bold and vibrant in hot tropical colors to compliment their Florida home. The colors in the home are warm neutral tones and she wanted something that would be a focal point in the room.

Well, I definitely feel I accomplished that with this painting.

To get in the mood to paint something that would reflect the movement and energy that was needed for this painting, I decided to listen to music that would put me in the right frame of mind. Thank goodness for Oscar Lopez and his Seduction. As soon as the strains of his guitar started, I literally began to dance in rhythm to the music. My hand flew across the canvas as I drew in the composition. Before long, I had the "bones" of the painting pretty much established and was ready to start painting. I added textural elements as well as metallic silverleaf accents - one of the prerequisites of the painting.

I'm pretty happy with the result and after emailing some images to my son and his wife, I know that they are too.

I'll have to check out what other CDs Oscar has out. If you've never heard him, I hope you'll listen to some clips from Seduction. You'll be dancing too!

Check out my website for other new paintings.

Momentary Reflection

Finally, today I was able to spend the entire day in the studio without having to run errands, make phone calls or any of the other trivia that seems to fill my days.

I started this painting a couple of days ago but today I spent the time refining the design and building up the subtle layers of glazed color. It's a constant process of adjustment. Just when one area looks finished, I have to go back and "balance" it out with another areas of the painting. After several hours of this, I finally felt that I could pronounce it "finished".

Every artist goes through the same struggles nursing their works along, until finally, the image that once only resided in the brain has been transferred to the canvas, clay or what ever medium of choice. I like to always leave my options open because sometimes I don't have a preconceived idea of what the finished painting will look like. Those moments of serendipity when everything comes together are the times when I feel that the struggle was definitely worth the trouble.

I hope you'll visit my website to see this painting and the many others I have available.

Persuasion

Persuasion...that's the title of my latest painting. And, I guess it's appropriate.

Sometime last week I started to work on this particular canvas. I poured on the paints, scrubbed some areas out, added metallics and iridescents - anything that I thought would add the spark of life to the rather bland, dull canvas. Finally, tired of working on it, I moved on to another painting and just set the canvas in the corner.

Walking into my studio this morning, I saw the painting in an entirely new light. Rather than gessoing the poor thing, I decided to continue adding to it until it started coming to life. I guess that in some way the painting persuaded me to continue to work on it. As I added new elements and refined others, suddenly I realized that it was going to be a success.

I guess every artist has those "ah-ha"moments. They say a painting can speak to you...and I think this one did!