Paintings on the Easel

Recently I signed on to take an ecourse with a few other fellow artists. This course has had us marking our canvases and moving through some yoga and meditations. I say marking, meaning making random marks onto the canvas with odd bits of tools and brushes, even my fingers. Staining or tinting the canvas with translucent paint colors also has been an interesting technique.

We have also been instructed to journal our surroundings in sketch form, and then transferring, if we wish, those images onto the canvas. When we do this all the beautiful marks that have gone on before, show through the imagery. One of the images I had sketched onto this canvas was a huge bubble with smaller bubbles in it.When I stepped back and looked at the other marks coming through they had all come together to form a face. So, that is what is happening here. Obviously more work remains to be done, but you begin to get the idea?

On this canvas I have the hands of God supporting what represents Me, the flower image. If you turn the canvas upside down, you get a peacock! Which one will I pull out.....?

Hendrix Collage

Feb, 24th Class

Assemblage Art

Here is my first assemblage piece. Made from the gifts given to us from our foreign exchange students from Japan in the year 2001 when they came to visit us. All those bits of beautiful things they brought us stayed in a drawer, never to see daylight. It was a shame really. Now with assemblage art, where you put together a piece of art with recycled materials and odd bits of unique things, you can salvage and use these old treasures and bring them to light again.
This piece is three dimensional and multilevel-ed inside the box.
come down to the Gallery at 16 main in Madison to get a better look at it.

Cruciform Abstract on the Easel

Here is one example of one style of abstract that I was learning. This is in the Cruciform style. There are a lot of considerations to take into account when building this form. This one is not finished and is still under construction. Some of the considerations for the cruciform are that all the corners be different, and that there be an area of slight interest and I think I've begun that with the ink in a circular motion in the center of the form. Also, the form itself shouldn't be to straight forward in it's shape and design. Mine is here. I have some plastic wrap in the upper left corner drying with some paint to add a pattern in the paint. I'm still very elementary with my instruction yet. I have introduced many textures and colors for interest so we shall see in the future how this painting morphs!

New Works and Ideas

I was recently invited to attend a workshop taught by the woman posed in between myself and my friend here , Joan Blackburn. She is one of the most gentle spirited teachers yet boldly honest in her appraisals of your artwork during class which I greatly valued. She taught watermedia abstracts. Abstracts in the classical sense. I had no idea there were so many considerations in building and an abstract piece! Well I have no art training to help me or build upon in class as a base of knowledge so the one thing I do know is educate yourself! I struggled to keep up but enjoyed every moment at the same time. Joan poured fourth her knowledge , no holds barred. I came away a rich and more expansive person.