moving forward

Sometimes things seems to progress soooooooo slooooooooowly. In the past, while preparing for an upcoming exhibition, I have been able to maintain a crazy schedule of working feverishly to create new pieces of art. It surprises even me when I think back to last year and the Road Trip exhibition. I sketched, painted, collaged and printed almost 30 new artworks in the span of 5 months. That was pretty crazy.

Everything comes in cycles. After completing a large series of work, I have to take a break. Put down the brushes and paints and spend a little time in observation. Explore the art world around me and let the creative juices rejuvenate.

I am still playing around with new techniques for acrylics. I want to be challenged and expressive, always learning more about how to communicate through paint and paper and canvas.

Seascape

start and nearly finished

I have overcome the fear of showing unfinished work, too. I hope I convey just how much I love what I do.

Comments Welcome.

I Lost it on Tuesday

"Gnarly but Nice"
It is so exhilirating to paint in an intuitive manner, at least for me. I know one thing for sure with each canvas..."this will be a challenge." It helps to have painted for a while. One of my favorite artists, would tell his students that to be a good painter you had to paint for miles and miles. I think it was a famous quote. I would have a great painting coming along and he would say, "now go home and start 10 more like it". I tell my students that they must paint a lot of paintings before they learn how to develop as artists. You learn something new with each painting. The next one forces you to recall the lessons of the previous. It's sort of like that muscle memory you learn about when you play a sport. Practice, practice, practice.

I don't pre-plan my large paintings. I work on them a while and eventually they ha, ha..."speak to me." Tuesday, I saw this wonderful alligator. He was slithering around on my canvas, part of his head, two eyes, one front leg...I know he was there. It was a colorful abstract canvas with texture and all those alligator parts. The next step is to "capture" the subject. I work out the composition with chalk or paint and try not to lose the little surprises I find so appealing. I have learned that not all paintings proceed in a orderly manner. I have to be willing to change directions or let alligators go. I lost my alligator Tuesday, he just refused to cooperate. All the work of the day was lost.
So today, I start again to capture that magic...just to relax and paint big shapes, color, line. Tomorrow the search begins...

"Swamp Thing"
a previous alligator that didn't get away

one is good, five is better

I am always working on something, or several somethings, at one time. I hear about artists who are intimidated by the big blank canvas, but perhaps because of my process I look forward to starting new work.

Spring seems to inspire new beginnings. I have been looking through some old canvasses that either didn't develop as planned, or did not fit with the project I may have been working on at the time. Some of these were pieces that I was very excited about. I set them aside and wait to see what happens. If after several months, I don't get back to the canvas, I cover it with texture and color and start again. I almost never work on one painting at a time. I like to take a break from a painting I am working on and look at it with fresh eyes. If I have two, or five painting to work on, I can rotate from piece to piece and give them all the time to develop. Started new work is exciting...texture and color and no plan whatsoever. Finishing is the hard part. A favorite artist/teacher once told me that you know a piece is finished when you can take a large painting and visually divide in into many small paintings, and all of them are interesting and finished. That is what I try to do with each canvas.

I will post the progress as I go.

a new triptych I love the colors in this piece

my lovely palette I draw with chalk once I have the colors I want

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Still Working

I have a brain full of thoughts and ideas for new artworks to create. Just don't ask me any questions that require me to recover a long lost number or memory. My brain is too full with diversions of reality. I am still in that gathering mode, which goes hand in hand with spring cleaning. I hope to tackle some of that soon.

I am trying to play with a lot of new materials and reviewing my sketchbook to see where that takes me. The following pieces are in progress. Some are barely started and some are near completion. I love books of all kinds and I am hoping that they will be an outlet for some magical little images.

book cover and book spread (in progress)

summer days (in progress)

More to follow...I am actually working on about 10 art projects right now. Juggling the order, according to my mood after a good cup of coffee each morning. I hope you will stay tuned...

a new path

I have always loved mixed-media. I did quite alot in my show last year, Road Trip, impressions of a memory. I was somewhat restricted (self-imposed) working with subjects that pertained to the Road Trip experience. I have been gathering...aren't all we women gatherers? Rediscovering the oddist objects saved from all kinds of places and events. Sometimes you step out of your vehicle in a parking lot and behold a treasure. I have lots of those. I have a hard time leaving them lying there. I always presume they were waiting on me to retrieve them.

I am starting work on some new mixed-media pieces. I actually loved working on the book project for Hopes and Dreams, (check the previous post for more info) and want to do more, more, more.

As I get started, I am working with a sketch on acid free paper, the number 2, a fairy drawing clipped from an old book, a die-cut tag, an old painted piece of canvas (I couldn't throw away), some yellow plastic binding and assorted papers. I will be applying all of this to a board I have prepared with gesso.

I will try and remember to post new pictures as I work. Let me know what you think.

Still working, it is coming along...

Hopes and Dreams Opens Friday Feb 6, 2009

Finally,

I probably shouldn't say finally, since my artwork for the show is not framed yet. I need to refinish my frame, and it is too cold to use the spray paint. I am hoping for lots of sun today. It is sold though, an area artist stopped by to get a preview of the show, and purchased my entry, "Dream".

Hopes and Dreams, the exhibition to benefit Genesis House opens tomorrow night at the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery. I am so pleased with the exhibit! We hung three strands of the hand pulled prints yesterday. Artists and visitors were asked to write a hope or dream on one. They are hanging above the exhibition's artwork. Several artists friends and I printed almost 200 of them. They are so lovely.

Visitors to the gallery during February 09 will have the opportunity to write on a print and share a hope or dream.

Hopes and Dreams

Hopes and Dreams will open at the Fifth Avenue Art Gallery on Friday, February 6th. This is an invitational art exhibition to benefit Genesis House, a Melbourne organization who assist women who are pregnant or who have children and need a home.

I wanted to do another charitable art exhbition like last years, "Give them the Farm" but for a local charity. Each artist was asked to produce an artwork and a book with "Hopes and Dreams" as their inspiration.

The book has been a challenge for most of the artists participating, including me. Eventually, I started to feel more comfortable working in mixed media with paper, gesso, markers, etc.

Here are a few of my pages.