Shameless Plug
Beyond My Walls, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 “
I almost forgot…….I need to shamelessly plug a show I’m going to be in
..The National Association of Women Artists Invitational, “Landscapes“.
The show will open with a short gallery talk at 6:30 pm this Saturday, September 15 ( I think I’m introducing the speaker, but this is kinda ad lib here and casual). It will be at my local art museum, the Longview Museum of Fine Arts, 215 E. Tyler St., Longview, TX. I’m feeling slightly guilty that I haven’t done more work with this show, but I did get it set up with the museum two years ago and waited for them to need a little help. Looks like they didn’t need much as the museum and NAWA organization got it all together without much from me. Good thing, too, as this week I’ve had tonsillitis and a little under the weather for a couple of days.
I’ve been a member of this organization since about 1998 according to my records. It’s afforded me the opportunity to show my work at venues I’d never known about if I was not a member. Some were art galleries, or museums or art centers. The NAWA is the largest and oldest association of women artists in the US.
I will have two paintings in this show…….Beyond My Walls and Summer’s End 1. If you are around the Longview TX area through October 27, please come by and see the show.
Related Images:
Conversations with Blue and Green
Finally….I think! Conversation with Blue and Green
I laid in more layers as mentioned previously with the intent to then partially obliterate that layer beneath the final one.
It took a couple of days of mulling to finally get out the big brushes and paint but I think this will do it. I took this picture outside but the light came and went so more documentation will have to follow if this is the final rendition. Sometimes, I find teensy little places of uncomfortable spots to rectify once I think the painting is finished but I doubt this does that much for the final effect. I don’t think this one will get any of that.
Here’s the intermediate step (lower photo)and the final version.
Related Images:
Waiting for Paint to Dry!
Everyone’s heard of “waiting for paint to dry”. Well, sometimes I do that a lot. Good thing I use acrylic or in my old age, I’d forget what I had in mind by the time I got back to it. I have found in my painting process evolution, that I spend more time laying down paint and waiting for it to dry, then staring at it for a long time, then waiting some more, than I do actually painting. I have to add all this paint so that I can then later cover it up. At least part of it is covered up. Gotta keep it simple, with interest when you get up close.
If I don’t do this, I don’t like what I get for a surface. I will admit that if the painting isn’t too large I can “sometimes” get a painting I like alla prima, but not often. These paintings are just gifts. The others have to be worked for, not so much physically as mentally.
Right now a third, or is it fourth, layer is drying on the blue/green diptych…and is waiting so I can go in and cover most of that layer up. I finally thought of an obvious title for this a painting ….and perhaps for many others. “Conversations with Blue and Green” it is. Don’t you just love it when a series title comes to mind so you don’t have to wrack your brain for a time for a new title? I can see them all now, Conversations with Red and Orange, Violet and Gold, …well you get the drift. And even conversations with circles or squares, or lines or or or……….hum, better get back to see if the paint is dry enough before I get too carried away
Related Images:
What’s with the blue and green???
What’s up with me and blue/green lately? Seems like I’m making lots of blue/green paintings. Oh yeah, I have to admit this goes in cycles. I paint so many orange and red paintings and then something’s gotta give and I paint cool tones for a while.The same thing happens with direction since I’m prone to paint vertical paintings so now and then I have to paint some horizontal ones.
Just hope the trend is for these colors right now. I do read up on that stuff now and then but by the time I get around to trying some new trend, it is no longer new half the time. Guess anything I paint will just have to wait for its own special “time” or wait around for the next cycle to come by.
Who knows as this is only the second layer of what sometimes turns out to be MANY layers, but it’s still blue/green. By the time it’s finished I might be feeling orange/red again! Of course that will be a lot of paint since these two pieces are a total size of 40 x 70″.
So much for the idea of keeping your in process stuff hidden until finished. But, that idea is just not my personality anyway. I’m using this blog to communicate with myself as much as anyone else.
Back to work!
Related Images:
Nice Day!
Nice day………..call from Gallery Mack, Seattle, that three paintings sold. They are now checking with me about sending some more out. The Dallas gallery also sold a small collage a couple of weeks ago………and my show in AZ. So, things are perking right along right now..
……and a Happy Birthday to me for tomorrow. I’m getting to be an old “codgeress“….is there such a word? Well, I don’t like it much but the years just keep sneaking up on me and another birthday is here.
I’m meeting tomorrow with an artist acquaintance, Lee Cohen , who is coming up from College Station to bring her work for the National Association of Women Artists’ show to be held at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts. I’m looking forward to meeting her and seeing her wonderful work. The show, Personal Landscapes, opens at LMFA with a reception on September 15, 6:30 pm- 9:00 pm. Come by if you are in Longview, TX. The show will be up until October 27.
After all this running around, I better get back to the work in the studio bright and early Wednesday morning……..or even Tuesday afternoon/evening.
Related Images:
Kids are so great!
Today two of my grandkids came to stay while their mom was working. Since it was the last day for them to come here before school starts again, they decided they wanted to paint.
It’s been some time since I’ve had them in the studio since I had so much stuff out all over the place with the wax,etc. Today was special as their granddad pointed out….last day to paint for awhile.
So out came the artist quality watercolors (only kind they’ve ever used). I hunted for something to paint on and came up with rag mat board. The nine year old pointed out that sister Kayleigh’s mat board wasn’t as large as his….so back to the bin of mat board so they could be fairly equal. I got all the water, brushes, paper towels and everything out and left them to go at it.
I came back later and they had switched painting spots and Brendan told me they were working on each others work….(collaboration in youngsters already). I noted that they had chosen a complimentary color scheme and pretty good, minimalist composition. (Wondering if they’ve been watching more than I thought.) Next time I came back they explained that they were going to combine the works by placing two of the pieces together (good gosh, a diptych)………and how they might put the smaller piece in somewhere to add to it, maybe, but maybe not. Heck, they even have been subscribing to my thought processes of relationships. I asked if they wanted to add some marks or drawing to the work. They worked really densely with the watercolor and couldn’t lay light over dark as they must have been watching Gran with acrylic. They thought about it but decided, no, not on these, just keep it simple and start a new piece. But I saw them both pencil in hand going at some of the other pieces of mat board. Brendan told me this was really gonna be good. He told his granddad the same thing when he came in to check on them. …Said they were getting LOTS better at painting.
I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture. Take my word for it…..blue and orange for the diptych. Blue, green, yellow analogous combinations with a tree shape no less for the extra piece.
Related Images:
Progress, I think!
Progress on the 24 x 24 encaustic…
It’s possible I will do more to this painting, but, also, entirely possible that this painting is finished. Now that I’ve photographed it and see it in a different light, so to speak with a digital image, I know what is bothering me more than just the actual physical texture. It’s the little white dots from the first layers….they peek out all over where I don’t want them unless I actually pour huge amount of color over them to fill in the spaces. I’ve scraped, and fused and that doesn’t do all that much unless I want to totally melt/scrape down the previous areas. I don’t want to do that too much but need to make less visual texture in some areas. Now I think this does work so I’ll remember in the future that unless I plan on a very light valued finished painting, I can save myself some wax/time and effort to start with a darker under-painting or tone all over like I do with acrylic.
For some reason this painting makes me think of snow on the mountain. I have no idea what the title will eventually be. Maybe just coming home from the White Mountains of AZ is the reason that title popped into my head. Although there was no snow in August…funny, huh! Wishing for the cooler climate today and all this past week that I enjoyed there at my show reception.
I got a photo from Gwen of the two of us at the second day reception. The show closes at the end of the week. So, go by the Joyous Lake Gallery if you haven’t had a chance to meet Gwen and see my work while it’s still there in the gallery.
Related Images:
It’s the process and it’s not over!
OKAY….this will NOT do. There is waaaay too much texture on this encaustic painting. Working on a 24 x 24 canvas covered panel is like using a tiny brush and making dots……not the big swaths of color I’m used to getting with the gesture of a more fluid medium like acrylic paint.
First off, adding medium to the untreated canvas was a two day off and on job. Canvas soaks that wax up a lot more than just wood panel. There must be a better way to have absorbency but not so much. Then I got out my oil pastels and oil sticks and made gestural drawings and a design as such. I added more medium…fused and all that good stuff. Then I figured I’d try to add more color variety by getting out the oil paints. Oil paint and beeswax are compatible while the oil is still wet and can be fused together. I’m still bumbling around with my palette of color with the waxes. I don’t have a full palette of my usual colors to mix. I guess you can say that might be good at times to get out of your rut, but I kinda like my rut until I decide to get out of it.
Getting back to the texture and limitations on the palette. I put the oils out and they are fairly stiff texture so they wouldn’t flow onto the painting. I hesitated to add anything to them as then I wondered if I could fuse them safely. Finally I decided, “what the heck, I gotta thin these paints down”, and I used a solvent. I made sure it had all evaporated before getting out the heat gun, too. It seems to be working okay but I missed a couple of places last night putting medium on top before fusing so I had to do that this morning as I could feel the paint tackiness in just a couple of places. Then I just kept adding medium, encaustic paint, fusing and scribbling with paint sticks.
Now I’m at the point where I started……too much texture all over this painting. I know some people might like this all over stuff, but I like texture vs. smoothness….not all over for my aesthetic. I, also, will be doing more with all this color all over….hum, maybe lay down a big solid area.That’s if I can get a big solid area going. OR, maybe cover a whole lot of it up and scrape down to excavate some of it again. Whatever, I’ll have to keep working although I was supposed to be painting on those two 30 x 40 and 40 x 40 canvases over on my painting wall today. AND it’s HOT.
Related Images:
Arizona Show
I’m sorry to say I really don’t have any pictures yet. I took two cameras but the gallery owner’s husband, Lloyd, loves photography so he will get me some later and I will post some.
My daughter did take a few as we prepared to leave Love Field, Dallas. This is her boyfriend and my excellent pilot, Paolo, in the picture with me. The “in flight” picture is from somewhere over New Mexico. Your guess is as good as mine.
I had a wonderful time meeting Gwen, Lloyd, and all the people who came into the gallery during the two reception times. We even had an interview with an area magazine that I look forward to showing you all later when I get the information.
We had some serious “lookers” and it is the usual thing not to have sales during the receptions but later when they can really come back and think more. One large painting sold before the show opened. And two sold in other galleries right while I was gone…..so feeling pretty good right now.
But as all good trips must end, I am now back into the house getting things in order and will get into the studio as soon as I can to get all the UpTime out of this great cycle right now as I can. Hum…maybe I should order more canvas…and I have some panels being made.
Related Images:
Show Invitation
I thought I’d upload the beautiful invitation the Joyous Lake Gallery owner, Gwen Pentecost, designed for my show that starts Friday. Please do come by if you are in the beautiful White Mountains of Arizona…..or visit online at the gallery website.
Opening Reception……Friday, August 3, 5-9 pm and Saturday, August 4, 2-5 pm 1869 E. White Mountain Blvd, Pinetop, AZ 928.367.1319
Related Images:
A Little At A TIme!
Slowly…a little at a time. That’s what it takes sometime to get my studio in a little more order. Today I took slides of the last of the small encaustics and printed out little images for all the boxes and stored them away, except for the ones going to the show this week-end. So…….since I had more of those boxes, I decided it would be a good idea to box up the acrylic 12 x 12″ panels I painted just before I started with the wax. I didn’t have to do all the bubble padding on these but I did print out the little images for the boxes and now they are all lined up nicely in the closet..
And for several days I’ve had the light box, and a mass of slides I’d been putting off organizing, numbering, etc and filing away….Whew, finally through with that and all that put away. I’m all caught up with every single painting having a slide or one still in the slide camera. When all that film I ordered quite some time back is gone I guess it’s time to stop taking slides and just convert entirely over to digital.
Gosh, now I can actually see all the wax paraphernalia all over the table top again…….and the 24 x 24″ panel that is not covered in the first layer of beeswax yet. I know, I SAID I was getting out the acrylic but for some reason I figure it would be a good idea to put the first layer on this piece so it will be ready to go when I get the urge to pull out the wax in cooler weather. It takes a LONG time to get one layer on a 24 x 24 with canvas over panel. Maybe tomorrow I can get the center part layered in. I’m going to put all this stuff away and come back from AZ with a studio ready to paint in.
Well……grandkids will be here tomorrow and Curry is back home, too……so I can hope anyway.
Related Images:
Is it finished?
I’m trying to decide if this is finished or not. Yesterday I went back to working on the last of the dozen small encaustic panels. I’d been playing around with making another few colors of wax paint and found a gorgeous Cobalt Violet oil paint in my supplies. SO….that with some reds, yellows, orange and a few slight mixtures produced this painting.
It is an intense color painting. First I needed to break up the overallness of the design……and I kept thinking that maybe it needed a little color contrast as well so I came up with these painted and incised yellow-green lines. After I photographed it to send to my friend Pat I realized I might like it better turned around to another direction. Now I have the line on the right side instead of the left or the top. It’s funny how photographing something can help you see it with a different perspective. I, also, photograph paintings and put them up on the computer to take myself away from being so close.
I may possibly glaze over it slightly with plain medium one more time…hum, and a tad more green if called for. Gotta be careful I don’t just end up with another painting though.
Recent Comments