March 30, 2017 April 1, 2017

I always have fun painting my abstracts using watercolor. I use a very wet, spontaneous process and drop paint, spritz paint, tilt my paper and generally just “go with the flow” literally. My new painting is titled Celebration 1. With Easter approaching I have been thinking about all that holiday entails, including Mardi Gras. And that is one of the most exciting celebrations in the world! Full of color, movement and life. That was my inspiration and I hope that you are able to see that I have attempted to simulate confetti falling through my painting.

Celebration 1 – 12″ X 16″, 140 # CP Arches, watercolor

 

I am very careful to let my layers dry completely between painting sessions. When I do this you can often see the layers and feel depth. This painting has seven layers of paint. It is painted on Arches cold press 140 pound paper and for this painting I used primarily Dr Martin’s Liquid Watercolors. They come in a dropper bottle and retain their vibrant color as they dry. I gave it a splash or two of white gouache and then grated some watercolor crayon to create the confetti and spritzed with water to adhere the crayon. Now its done…lets celebrate!

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March 27, 2017 March 28, 2017

As I walk at Ft Benjamin Harrison State Park I see the first signs of spring. The grays and browns are now accented by a froth of light green rolling over the landscape. The bushes are leafing out and lighting up the undergrowth with a gentle color and a clean fragrance. The skies are bluer and the breezes invigorate. As you may remember I tried a small color field painting using the winter colors I saw on my walks (here). I painted with my new acrylics and didn’t like the look of the canvas underneath. That painting was very small and I learned a lot about acrylics as I worked on it. I decided to create a new Ft Ben color field painting using burnt sienna to represent the leaf covered earth, a mix of light greens to represent the budding bushes, winter white to represent the sky and burnt umber to represent the trees. I started out by thinking about three blocks of color and a blue background. Then I decided to split the large upper block into three with white spaces between to represent the large, white sycamore trees that grow throughout the park. That was my starting point as  I worked on this painting.

The most important decision I made was to choose Strathmore Aquarius II paper as my surface. I soaked the paper until it was wet all the way through and then painted with my acrylics on very wet paper. I wanted blurry edges (the acrylics did run a little) and a soft look to the surface. My painting is 11 inches by 15 inches and, as you can see I further developed the idea of trees as I saw the painting develop.  I’m finding ways to love the Indiana winter!

 

March 24, 2017 March 24, 2017

After I completed my post yesterday I realized that I had never posted the completion of my third “Zone” painting. I completed Green Zone earlier in the week and it was sitting on my mantle undergoing continual scrutiny. This painting went through only one round of revision while the Red and Blue paintings went through many more as I continued to learn. This painting was completed entirely with a palette knife and I like the effect created by the broad swipes. This painting completes the series of “Zone” paintings inspired by the three abstracts in Penny’s apartment on the TV show Big Bang Theory (see more here). I like the spontaneous approach and have now started a new watercolor abstract that uses what I have always called my splash-splash technique (because I paint REALLY wet).  This process is also spontaneous and responds continually to the way the watercolor is behaving…not always predictable!

 

 

 

May 22, 2017 March 23, 2017

I have mentioned before that I put my paintings through a lengthy “living with it” period. I have my three acrylic abstracts propped up in my family room so I can scrutinize them. I thought you might want to see them together.

 

 

This final evaluation is very tricky. It is easy to ruin a painting at this stage. I don’t think that I will risk further changes. Your thoughts?

The painting behind my abstract is an original watercolor done by an Indiana artist named Jimmy Faulkner. My husband fell in love with it at a fundraiser. Paintings were awarded by lottery and – happy surprise! – my husband’s name was drawn. The painting could not have found a happier home. You can learn more about Jimmy Faulkner here. Be sure you check out the online gallery.

 

March 19, 2017 March 21, 2017

I have been working on my Green Zone painting and as I worked I decided that I was not happy with Blue Zone (published recently). This style is very new to me as is painting with acrylics. I am learning as I paint and am finding that I need several days of looking at and “living with” a painting before I see and have thought through how to deal with basic problems. I have now updated Blue Zone and think that it is finished. It is at the paint that I am saying to myself “Do not ruin it by continuing to tweak…don’t over work it!” With abstracts that is very hard to do – a squiggle here, a dot there. When is enough, enough? I hope you enjoy Blue Zone redux!

Just a note: Ruth, a fellow blogger, had asked if I had purples included in the painting and complimented the use of purple so I increased the use of different shades of purple. You can visit Ruth here. For Blue Zone I used the analogous color scheme of green, blue and purple and for Red Zone I used red, yellow and orange.

 

March 15, 2017 March 16, 2017

I wanted to continue to work on the creation of a series of three paintings inspired by but not replicating the red, blue and green abstracts shown in Penny’s apartment on Big Bang Theory. I posted my Red Zone painting a few days ago and now I have completed my Blue Zone painting. It is a 12 inch by 12 inch acrylic painting done on canvas. I focused on using spontaneous, swirling brush strokes. I also used a palette knife and toothpicks to create the painting. I used the toothpicks to swirl colors together rather like chefs do when making a marbled cake or cupcakes. The little white flecks are intentional. I was listening to an old 78 recording of Blues standards and the white flecks represent the crackling sound I heard as I painted. Painting like this is fun…you can just let go and play. And with this type of painting all accidents are happy!

 

Blue Zone, Acrylic on Canvas, 12″ X 12″, 2017

 

 

March 13, 2017 March 13, 2017

When artists have a painting that doesn’t feel right they will frequently turn their painting upside down and that will help them find the problem. With my abstracts I frequently try sitting them on each of the four sides to be sure the composition is balanced.

When I saw the photograph of Red Zone (posted a few days ago) I did not like what I saw. In the photo the areas around the outside of the painting looked bare, flat and uninteresting. Face to face the actual painting didn’t look quite so bad but it did have a problem. I decided to “tweak” the painting to increase the texture and color variety around the edges. To do that I actually worked my way around the painting always painting on the bottom side. I would rotate it 90 degrees as I moved from side to side. I do think it is a better painting now. In the future I will think of my photographs as a way to see my paintings through the eyes of an unbiased observer. Showing the good, the bad and the ugly!

 

Red Zone, 12″ X 12″ Acrylic on Canvas, 2017