About the art: I recently had the opportunity to demonstrate oil painting to an up-and-coming young artist who was moving from acrylics to oils. Over the course of several hours, we built layers of oil paint on abstracted landscapes while pondering the trajectory of our creative lives. These pieces were started during that paint session, and completed over the weeks following. Intuitive landscapes built rapidly and then refined, with a focus on lean-to-fat paint building, color and texture. They are small but impactful, and the process reminded me of the value of just diving in and letting the paint lead where it wants to. The November Reader Giveaway is here! Leave a comment on any blog post in November to win a Question Exchange with me! Five questions each, asked and answered. We're building connections in the world, moving closer in small steps. Ready? Set? GO!
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I spent four years in a studio of white walls. Slowly, inxorably ruining the walls with tape, paint, nail holes, bumps and scuffles until the walls pulled my eyes away from the art and chastized me. What are you doing with these white walls, they demanded to know. And I had no answer. What color do you paint walls when you live in a wonderland of color? But knowledge is vast and the internet is astounding and I came across this article which was a lightbulb moment: there are specific colors best suited for studio walls. Who knew? Not me. And now, after the crew has departed, the walls are nodding and high-fiving me and waiting for me to start painting with them as the backdrop. Ok, challenge accepted About the art: this piece began as an intuitive response to color - a dash of leftover red-orange on a piece of Yupo, a need to put teal nearby. And before I knew it there was full immersion and a palette full of paint, a palette knife and time passing without my knowledge. A landscape of sorts, a place to rest from the world, vertical tree-ness and flowing water-ness and a deep sigh of contentment. If only all paintings flowed this way! Thanks to Trina T. for the idea she placed in the "suggestion box" last week! For the month of October, the Reader Giveaway winner will have the opportunity to participate in a Question Exchange - five questions asked and answered between the reader and myself, via email, phone call or Zoom. Trina's idea to foster connection during tumultuous times is a grand one, I think, and I am looking forward to seeing how this experiement resonates with all of you, dear readers. XO
To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on any blog post this month - even if it is another idea for the "suggestion box" for reader giveaways! And thanks to all who read, comment and share this blog. You make me smile!
About the art: Beginning with a gesso'd canvas board and a rough idea of composition, I sketched the basics with a brush laden with thinned oil paint. Slowly building the sections - working back and forth between colors and shapes, not lingering in any one place too long. Coming back into the wet paint with chopsticks, rubber wedge, fingers and an edge of cardboard to rough up the smooth sections and add texture and veiny lines. Stepping away before any section became too precious to me.
Thanks heaps and bunches to everyone who has participated in several years of Reader Giveaways! What a wild ride - over 75 pieces of art given away to lovely humans around the world. I am just beside myself thinking about that! WOWEE!
The inner muse says it is time to do something different in the giveaway space...I am not sure what it is yet, but I am very excited to see what happens! The suggestion box is open! What would YOU like to see replace the monthly Reader Giveaway? Leave a comment below!
These things are exquisite on their own, each a treasure to be gently held and admired, but also reminders of the places we've been to find them, the beauty our eyes have beheld, the sweat and seawater and poison oak and bug bites and scrapes and falls and tangled hair and sunburned shoulders and frozen fingers and toes. Sometimes recalling those times with awe - wait, did we really go there and do that? WHOA! So off we go on another adventure (while we can, while the world allows it, while our bodies are strong) to return with treasures outside and inside, laden yet lightened of world and worry. Blog and blogger will return in October! Just in time for the spooky season....muwahahahahahaha. About the art: taking the idea of grounding a painting against a bit of black (which I have been playing with on the pen and ink drawings) and adding both color and a bit of negative space play, I used a mask to place the form of this piece onto a piece of artboard gessoed in white by using black gesso around it. I then sketched in the details with a pencil to deliniate color blocks and shape changes. Over several weeks, loading the color in layers and layers with small brushes and a bit of precision (similar to pen and ink work). Then layers of mixed darks to deepen the parts deliniated with black gesso, and warmer white for the left side of the background. A wet brush for background swirls and paint drips from the black wing, followed by a final layer of Gamvar to seal the piece and add a little shine. Voila! She's brave and flamboyant all at once. Congratulations to Marta and Dotty! Wonder Mike chose your names as winners of the August Reader Giveaway! Send your mailing address to [email protected] and your prizes will be in the mail pronto!
Thank you to all who subscribe, read, comment and share this blog. Your participation brings this space to life! Hooray!
That doesn't change the need to react to fire and dragons now, no no no! We must! And we do. But it does mean we can also begin to allow our curiosity about what comes afterward to blossom and grow. To make a space for something else, even if that something may take a long time in coming. About the art: this piece emerged from a call-and-response moment in the studio - this color calls me, that color responds; this movement feels right, that movement feels next; this tool wants to be used, and that tool raises its hand and yells "me next!" Maybe it is a response to all of the wildfires here in the PNW now, my heart sitting out there with the trees and creatures and willing them to safety. The unpainted edges of white Yupo feel like cooling snow, which is coming, along with the rains. Soon, so soon. The August Reader Giveaway continues! Not one but TWO lucky readers and commenters will receive a small landscape painting free! To enter, subscribe and leave a comment on any post during the month of August. The winners will be announced right here on September 1. And thanks to everyone who reads, comments and shares this site - it warms my heart. xo
About the art: beginning with a gesso'd canvas panel, I roughed in the figure with a long brush laden with thinned dark oil paint. Just a light wash to get the gist of it down. Then a base layer for the background, refining the figure proportions from the outside in, and a long drying time. As has become my habit, I then tackled the face, shoulders and hand to remove any trepidation, allowing them to dry thoroughly while working on the dress and hair. This piece has the requisite 80 million layers to achieve the color saturation and shading. More layers for the skintones, more layers for the background, more layers for the dress and then a final layer for that blush foreground. Oooooh la la! She is a powerful one!
Why? Because making art, being an artist, creating artistic pieces is largely a solitary life. It requires vast stretches of solitude and loneliness, and we may just "go a little mad" as Le Carre says, spending so much time in a world no one else sees. But there is also a sense of community - slim strings of connection and resonance - which allow a little feeling of being a bit less isolated when those strings are strummed (or twanged or plucked). So here's to all of you out there in lonely places of creativity, making magic behind the curtain. I'm sending a geishanaut to your galaxy to check in on you. :) About the art: this is a paint over of an older oil painting. The beauty of it is the instant texture and colorful underpainting (which shows through a wee bit in the geishanaut's uniform). I jumped off from Stoveland's idea with my own AI bot session, asking for a mash-up of Diebenkorn, Moebius and Fritz Scholder as style instructions. Armed with a bevy of painterly compositions, colors and figures, I ultimately settled on this piece. I began with the background, taping off the quadrants and applying thin layers of color. Then the figure, loosely brushed in and then refined as the composition took shape. Carving back through the wet background to create some swirling movement. Adding many many glazing layers to suggest light and shadow. This quiet explorer has been most excellent company in the studio. It's June! A new month, a new giveaway! Leave a comment on any blog post during the month of June to be automatically entered to win a piece of original art - FREE! And thanks always to everyone who reads, comments and shares this blog. It helps make this solitary artist feel a little less like a voice in the wilderness of the internet. :)
About the art: an intuitive piece which was spontaneously created after the crows returned from the murder season and began hanging out and talking to us again. Beginning with a rough sketch of the crow in wet oil paint, working from the outside in with loose strokes and a wide brush, then from the inside-out with a detail brush. Resisting the urge to overly define the background and allowing the mystery of a crow in the suggested nighttime to dominate the piece. The frame is painted in matte black gesso, and the painting itself has been finished with a heavy coat of varnish to provide protection in the event it is used as an altar. Holy macaroons! Is it the end of May already? Many thanks to all who read, listened to and shared the blog this month. And all the commenters - thanks hugely! Your thoughtful words and responses to the art and writing informs my creative process, and I am deeply grateful. :)
Congratulations to Kris and to Dotty! Wonder Mike chose your names at random this month as winners of the May Reader Giveaway! Send your mailing addresses to [email protected] and your prizes will be in the mail lickety-split! A new giveaway begins next month!
And though our explorations are nothing like Colonel Percy Fawcett's many journeys to the Amazon jungle, I can see and understand why his inner self became more inward facing even as his body became more outward exploring. Fawcett disappeared in the jungle, never to be heard from again. Now, rest assured that is not our plan. No, no, no! But it would be ok if some of my mental thought habits were left behind in the tides or suspended from a cliff. I wouldn't miss those one bit. About the art: the wickedly glorious copper panel makes a return here, with a portrait embracing a limited color palette. Beginning with a quick sketch with a brush laden with thinned oil paint, then working from the sunglasses outward. Resisting the urge to overly separate shoulder and hair (right side) from background so the focus remains on those dazzling spectacles and the adornment on her neck. The sunglasses suggest she is outside, while her hidden eyes point to her inward focus. The hair was created by carving back through wet paint with a tiny rubber wedge, allowing the copper substrate to come through as hair highlights. The May Reader Giveaway continues! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered to win a piece of original art - FREE! And thanks so much to everyone who reads, comments and shares this blog. I so appreciate each and everyone of you! xo
My impatience makes me feel awkward, clumsy, like this character perhaps. It isn't the first time I've painted a young werewolf with a balloon. It symbolizes something to me...in this case, I think the balloons might be joy, and the werewolf doesn't want to look at them in case they may disappear. Joy can be elusive, especially since our brains are primed to look for trouble instead. Perhaps joy is yet a book written in a foreign language on some days. But I plan to sit and wait, as patiently as one can, for the words to make sense. About the art: Something new for me this week. Of course I have painted on wood panel before, but not with the objective of making the wood itself part of the art. Beginning with a high quality wood panel (this one from Jacksons), I covered it with a good coat of clear varnish. Once dry, I sketched the character on the wood, taped off the center section and added a coat of black gesso for the background. The rest was a very patient labor of love with the smaller Uni Posca Paint Pens used in the same way as Rotring Tikky pens for pen and ink drawings. Just black and white, simplicity and a bit of innocence. The wood tone comes through in parts of the garment and body, warming up what might otherwise be a bit too stark. This one makes me smile. Congratulations to Julie (aka Mighty Athena on Bluesky)! Wonder Mike drew your name at random as winner of the April Reader Giveaway! Send your mailing address to [email protected] and your prize will be in the mail!
Thank you to everyone who commented in April. Your participation means the world to me! A new contest begins today - leave a comment on any blog post in the month of May to be automatically entered. |
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