Creating a Dali

This oak leaf was the inspiration for my abstract leaf below.

My art friends say this looks like a Salvador Dali inspired leaf.

I have to agree.  It is about 8 x 10 on watercolor paper done with crayons (of all things) and black marker pen.  

This was the result of a short class one evening sponsored by Lakeland Art League on using crayons in art (again).  Because my paper was textured the crayons took that texture on. 

This is a very "free form" activity with drawings done in graphite first and mine turned out the most abstract of anyone's which was a surprise.  It was fun to do but I am not very excited about the result.  Still it did give me some ideas about how to start out free form art.  

And it's always fun to think outside the box now and then.   

Abstract Studies in Jane's workshop

So how this works is that we are now combining some of the "elements" from day one (shapes, colors, lines, etc) with some techniques like mono-printing from deli paper, veiling with white paint, overlapping and transparent see-through elements.  Scraffito and scraping (with an old credit card) were used in most of these.  

I don't LOVE any of the above but they are learning studies that will remind me of the way Jane suggests working in multiples. All are 10" x 10". 

We are now preparing to work on collages by making our own "hand-painted collage papers" with a variety of ways to think about these from size to colors.  Not quite the way I usually think of collage papers.  I'll post some of mine tomorrow.  

Merit Award

What a nice surprise I had at the awards ceremony tonight at Howard Young Hospital exhibit in Woodruff, WI.  I won a merit award!!!  This is my first piece that is non-objective art that has won an award!  
The piece is called "The Power of One" and is dedicated to the people who ignore the odds and power on to make a difference in this world. 
And it utilizes hand painted papers done on my Gelli Plate!

It's been a nice year for me winning best of show at the Manito Art League show and two merit awards in two different shows at Howard Young this summer.  Sometimes things seem to come together!!!  All 3 were very different…one a Zentangle pen and ink, one a watercolor, and one an acrylic collage.  

Stamps and Stencils

Okay...so here is a piece of canvas which has on it a "sampler" of watercolor textures and marks that can be added to the fractured watercolor paintings. In addition to spatter and random marks.

Optional only.

Being a mixed media artist, more or less, I am drawn to adding texture and design to most of my paintings. Most of what you see here is "stamped" with watercolor paint on to canvas. There are some "stencils" which I find are best put on with a stencil brush (bushy flat brush). But this is also only watercolor.

Some stamps are jar lids and bubble wrap. Others are professional rubber stamps I've accumulated over years of garage sales. The musical notes are painted by hand on to a stamped design...an experiment as I think I want to add some music to my Christmas painting.

I have not sprayed this, so with a wet sponge the could all be washed off. Now all these will work with fluid acrylics too (permanent then). And of course one could add ink lines, and watercolor pencil! And one could add a little gouache for areas of opaque paint! Endless variety.

Christmas Collage Fun

Well, this photo looks a tad "pinker" than it really is...it's really more purplish. My ideas is to get away from traditional red and green and go with the purples and gold of the Church colors for Christmas. With a little Phalo Blue for contrast. The thinned acrylics were rubbed onto the gesso textures with paper towels. I've added some tinted sheet music with words that seem to tell of memories, friends, and golden times. That's sort of the theme.

My original thought was to add tinted and aged photos of family gatherings but I see that it is really too small a piece (11 x 14) to do that well. So now I am thinking of maybe using photos of us and the grandkids...collaged in. I am not sure...It could get too busy that way.

I need to let everything dry now and then come back to it. Maybe just one strong image somewhere near the center of interest.

Before.

Bob Burridge Workshop: Day Four

This was the last workshop day for me. Many participants spent an extra $150 to take the marketing workshop he and his wife Kate put on tomorrow. I opted out. Although it did sound very very interesting.

This clown was my last painting (I did several today) and I sort of liked the whimsy of it. The title is "Last Clown Standing" or "I Think I missed the Train". Despite the smile painted on his face...he is somewhat dejected to see the steam cloud from the train...but no train. It's not signed or varnished so there may be some small additions. He is based on a photo of clowns I took last February and if you look at my Feb posts you'll find the real guy. Acrylic with collage on canvas/board 11 x 14.

Bob demoed his "landscape" technique for us today. Starting with tissue paper to give it texture.

Here is the studio that we used for the workshop...studio One is also called the Tom Lynch Studio. Nice and airy and light. Boy, did we make clutter!!! Bob is way in the back on the left and Kate is in the white blouse taking photos.

Check out Bob's website in the days to come as we may all be featured one of these days!!!

We had a nice wine/champagne and snack reception at 4 pm. Very relaxing.

I met so many nice artists. You might want to check out Constance Grayson's website. She leads art tours in Italy (and cooking tours) and she lives half the year there.

Bob Burridge Workshop: Day Three

I am starting with one of Bob's paintings first today. This is, believe it or not, a watercolor. When he completes this, he sprays it several times with a fixative. After it is dry he varnishes it with an acrylic gloss varnish. Then with a thick layer of acrylic gel, he glues the watercolor (or acrylic) to a canvas that is about 1/2" larger than the painting. He supports the inside of the canvas with block of wood and then cover the painting with a poly plastic sheet and then a weight on top of that and let's it dry for 24 hours. After that he revarnishes the whole thing one more time to seal the edges to the canvas. He is quick to point out the advantages of such framing (no mats, no frames, no glass). However, he does mention that not every gallery or exhibit will accept this kind of framing so you need to check before doing it.

This acrylic collage is one of mine from today. It is a background collage i that the idea is that I may add more to it as I go along. You can probably see that I have already painted some acrylic on top of the collaged papers.

The only criticism Bob might have is that I really did not start out with any "intention" other than to experiment with the papers and colors I brought with me. So we'll see where this one goes. He really wants people to have some "idea" or "intention". And I agree that this makes perfect sense.

My Puerto Rican angel is from yesterday's post with some added collage. The music is to "A Bicycle Built for Two"...thus the wheels in the collage. She's just kind of funky with that hair. No golden curls for this angel! We'll see where this goes.

I came home totally exhausted at 4:30. How the class is going to go out to dinner and to a gallery tonight I have no idea. Usually I join the group for stuff like that, but Greg had a model train meeting, and I have already been to Moondeer Gallery this season. So I begged off. PLUS I am ready to drop!

Bob Burridge Workshop: Day Two

Those of you who have taken a Burridge workshop before have some concept of how "outside the box" this workshop really is! Most of us are really struggling BUT having a wonderful time. These first two painting are not by any means finished.

Like most paintings they are created in "layers" and in "stages". Bob calls this part a "resting" stage where you let the image settle and start looking at it from all angles, checking the values (which are way too much the same in the circus one) and light source (WHAT light source?) The wonderful part of working in acrylics, of course, is that you can go back as many times as you want, adding and subtracting.

We had our wonderful Puerto Rican model/dancer again today and she had all kinds of poses for us.

In additions we had lessons on varnishing your work (that is what Bob is doing in the last photo). And on fixing mud (which we all mix up from time to time). We got some excellent recommendations on art books to read.

Toward the end of the class Bob demonstrated how to use Citra-solve to create collage papers out of National Geographic magazine pages. How out of the box is that? The last two days of class are on collage. So stay tuned for more on that!

Never mind

Well, never mind what I said before about taking the watercolor class at Dillmans. I have changed my mind. Hopefully for the last time. I told you this gift certificate is making me like nuts!

I've decided on Bob Burridge's class the end of August. Totally different from anything I've taken before. And that is JUST what I need right now. The time is not too bad, starting August 22 for the reception and teaching the week after that. I wrote to Nancy Standlee in TX whose blog is a link on this blog and she has taken like 5 of his classes and said "go for it".

Bob is acrylic and collage. And a tad more abstract than my normal paintings!

This Painters' Retreat pushes you out of your safe zone and into a brand new looser, abstract direction. Painters use the first two days to reacquaint themselves with loose painting and drawing the undraped model. Starting each day with wet paint sketches plus Burridge's popular warmup exercises - fingerpainting - you will be producing a fresh new body of work with your own artistic voice and point of view. Days three and four cover creative tearing and paint splashing, starting each day with small paper collaging - making new work and al

so utilizing the figurative paint sketches. Plenty of lecture and demo notes, constructive critiques and personal painting time. Come prepared to paint your own stuff!
Includes:

• Contemporary Abstract Figure Painting (Mon-Tues)
• Post Modern Painting & Collage (Wed-Thurs)

As a former kindergarten teacher, the finger painting part should be right up my alley...but the rest is way outside the box for me!!! More to follow!

Carol Steven's workshop

Today was my day to think more "abstractly". Starting with the black and white photo and then moving back up to the top, you can see how Carol teaches the progression into an abstract painting.

This is, of course, MY version of how to do it. Everyone in the class had VERY different versions.

We worked in watercolor and collage but it would apply to any medium. We traced the photo (or painting) twice...first just an outline and then a second time she had us pick the center of interest and draw some lines that would separate the center of interest from the rest of the painting and then design the lights and darks. Then put what we drew onto the watercolor paper and begin.

I don't think abstract is my "thing" BUT I did find it refreshing and relaxing and I would do it again.