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.

 

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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

March 10, 2017 March 11, 2017

Have you ever heard the expression “in the zone”? The Urban Dictionary defines “in the zone” as “Being completely unaware of what’s going on around you as you are so extremely into what’s going on right in front of your face”. In other words you are totally unaware of time or activities going on around you. When I draw or paint I am usually in the zone.

So why do I bring this up? Well, the path I followed to get to my latest painting is rather disconnected and a little weird but I wound up in the zone. I bought three 12 inch square canvases when my daughter closed her shop and I was trying to decide what to do with them. I love color and normally like to work with clear, crisp colors – like the primary colors.  Thinking about the primary colors led me to remember that I had often noticed three abstract paintings in Penny’s apartment on the Big Bang Theory television show. They attracted me and I thought they were lively and interesting.

I have never been able to see the paintings clearly but the idea of doing a lively square abstract in red sounded like fun. I would be able to work in acrylics which would be a good learning experience and I could use a process that was spontaneous to create texture. This led to the creation of The Red Zone. This is a play on words since I am usually “in the zone” or totally focused when I paint. As you can probably see, I built up the paint in three layers. Acrylics dry really quickly so I had to stop painting when the paint became tacky. When the paint was completely dry I would paint another layer building up different layers of color.

 

 

Here is Penny’s apartment with the blue, red and green abstracts on the wall at the right side of the photograph. What an explosion of color!

 

November 29, 2014 November 29, 2014

For all of those from the United States, I hope you had a wonderful, family fun-filled Thanksgiving and have recovered from our typical over indulgence. We had 26 family members at our dinner and it was quite lively (3 great-granddaughters under 6 years of age). I am blessed to have a wonderful family and we are each other’s best friends. I sincerely hope all of you are equally blessed in your own way.

I have completed the ATC’s for my sister’s two children. My niece is a kindred spirit – independent, adventurous and horse-loving. I wanted to give her something soft and beautiful to enjoy during her busy days working in advertising. I found this beautiful image of two geisha in a National Geographic Expeditions catalog, The red and white “rainbow” is actually the rim of a plate from a painting of food. I liked the vintage feel. The burgundy strip is brocade fabric from a clothing catalog and the background is from a painting of a nude surrounded by roses.

Collage 6 2014 ATC

My nephew recently completed his masters degree, took his first full time job (as an agronomist working in the farmlands east of Indianapolis) and married. I wanted to present the start of his life’s voyage as an adult, something indicating opportunity and smacking of adventure. The images came from my usual sources. I particularly loved the curve of the horns of the alpine sheep along side the billowing sails and the round pumpkin.

Collage 7 2014

November 25, 2014 November 25, 2014

I have finished my battle with yellow, orange and red! Not my best, not my worst. The hardest color to work with was quinacridone violet, a violet-red. I am glad this is finished and am thinking about where to go next – paint a traditional subject in yellow, orange and red – harmony in yellow, green and blue – decision time!

Harmony in Yellow, Orange and Red

November 23, 2013 November 23, 2013

I haven’t been able to post for a few days because I’ve been busy with volunteer activities. I did finish another new ATC for my Christmas gift giving.  As you may know I love geraniums and paint them often. This was my second ATC painted with acrylic paints, a medium I don’t frequently use. I decided to paint red geraniums because my pots are filled with them every summer. I haven’t decided whether to glaze matte medium over the top. The surface is  a little too shiny for my taste. Hope these take you back to warmer weather!

Red Geraniums 2013 – ATC

November 4, 2013 November 4, 2013

When I get stuck or when I have difficulty with one media I switch to another. A year or so ago one of my daughters gave me a whole stack of ATC sized papers, including an assortment pack that included canvas. I don’t do many acrylic paintings but I did sell one last year. It was an impressionistic landscape that included our giant neighborhood oak tree. I decided to try an ATC sized acrylic with a big red maple as my subject. You probably remember that I am fascinated by the glowing oranges, golds and reds of the Indiana forests during autumn. Well here it is. I call it The Red Head at the End of the Road – big name for a little painting.

Red Head at the End of the Road – ATC

 

 

March 23, 2013 March 24, 2013

I have been playing with my watercolor crayons. I have been doing studies to see how the colors mix and behave when wet. I always have trouble working with green because its hard to get a range of values. I did not get a wide range of values but this was just FUN to do. It is on 5″ X 5″ Liquid watercolor paper. This one has multiple layers of crayon and I learned that each new layer can wash out the vibrant layer below and you loose texture with each new layer.

Green Study using Caran d’ Ache Crayons

Next I tried a study using analogous colors of blue. I love the results. The first layer was done by spraying the drawn on colors and using shrink-wrap to give texture. After this was dry I floated a small pour of paint over the center area. When I saw the results it spoke to me of a frosty winter morning. This is on 5″ X 7″ Liquid watercolor paper. Learning – don’t forget to leave some white!

Blue Study – Frosty Morning

Finally, I decided to work with reds and pinks and oranges and yellows. I’ve had difficulty capturing the vibrant, glowing Indiana autumn so that’s what I wanted to do with this one. I worked on 9″ X 12″ Arches CP paper. Here are the results.

Red Study – Indiana Autumn

So, I am learning and playing and enjoying and going back to my childhood, crayons in hand! What fun!

 

April 22, 2012 April 23, 2012

Good Morning to all my blogging friends. I have been going through a very dry spell lately – buried in one final tax return and administrative responsibilites for the docent program. I have not felt creative, just tired and worn out. When this happens, drawing or coloring seems to help rejuvenate me. Yesterday I decided to use a set of celtic stencils to create a postcard for my granddaughter who is out of town. I colored it with my Sharpie markers. I chose the colors carefully – green is her favorite color, blue is my favorite color, yellow is her mother’s favorite color and red represents her grandfather (not my husband – other side of the family) who is also suffering from cancer. I hope it looks interesting and cheerful. Like a family, all overlapping and woven together!

Celtic Design Postcard

 

September 17, 2011 September 21, 2011

I am trying to build up my stock of ATC’s so I have enough to give my rather large family at Christmastime. My latest subject is flowers and particularly geraniums. I’ve been walking around my yard with my camera shotting marigolds, geraniums, zinnas, tomatoes, anything that looks interesting. I’ve switched back to watercolor and am trying to paint shapes rather than individual petals. So far, so good.

Red Geranium - ATC

I do not normally do an underpainting for the ATC’s but in this case I did. It turned out pretty well…much better than a plain white background.