sketching with collage

I haven't felt very well for the past month and so my energy level has been pretty low. Thank goodness the Dr. found the problem and I should be back up to speed in about a month. As many of you know, it's hard to work without much energy, but I found a wonderful way to continue in the studio this past month besides prepping. I've been sketching with collage. You know all those bits and pieces you save for something but you don't really have a clue what? Well my stack runneth over and so I sat down and started collaging on board. A very good low energy endeavor. It's kept me in the studio, working, and I learned/still learning alot from it. I've started painting again, but am still intrigued with laying down these bits and pieces - the work has given me some unexpected jumping off points. I picked a few that were somewhat successful - there is no additional painting on any of these - just cut and glue and on the bottom two I did some mark making with graphite. Such easy cleanup!!!








Hope you are all enjoying these last days of August!

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prepping........

Well crap! On our last little venture out of here to do some major shopping, one of the stops was Home Depot to stock up on boards for the Fall and Winter - after 1/2 hour of searching the mdf stacks for my fav board, we came up empty handed - no where in sight - finally got someone to help us and he couldn't find the dreaded board either - they stopped carrying it - sigh - I had to choose an alternative - doesn't even come close to what I've been using, but what can you do - I bought one sheet to try - this has a slick coating that I had to sand off - not a fan of sanding - today I prepped two of them - I have been asked how I prep my surfaces so I thought I would show you what I do most of the time....the first photo is the board after I sanded off the surface....


found some green acrylic paint that I covered the surface with.....
surface covered and then I use a few tools to mark/scratch into the board



the bottom photo is the prepped board after I've used ink/graphite/more acrylic paint and my knife to do some more damage to the board.....

so that's pretty much it - these two boards will sit at the side of my workspace and I will start cleaning my brushes on them - when I need a new surface, I'll grab one of these and start working for real - can't believe we are running up on another weekend - enjoy everyone!

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whew!!

At least a year and a half! That's how long I have been pushing paint on this surface. This painting is a visual diary riding through four seasons and coming round to almost another Autumn. As you all know, some pieces are like that. Refusing concentrated efforts and process - staring at you from a corner while you finish piece after piece of other work - but there it is - still - a resolution only in bits - in the upper corner, a section in the middle, a large area at the bottom, but not all together - Finally - a whole piece - months of my life blended together to tell a story. This is mixed media on board - 38x48 - "She Made A Poem"


We are starting to ride into Fall - strange since we really didn't have a summer, or at least a summer like we think of summer - it's been a sort of non season - but the sun is definitely lower in the sky, the mornings are chilly, night brings heavy marine mist - hope you are all enjoying your week.

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new directions.......

For the past couple of months I have been exploring some new ideas that keep pushing themselves to the front burner. Like everything new, it demands time, so I've given it most of my attention with very little success - though not very successful, it has lit a new fire under me - pushed me into an area that I'm completely excited about - it has all my abstract ideas, but takes a turn into another part of my imagination - I'm a strong believer in giving new ideas their due - these are not ideas to be ignored, but pursued and followed as far as I can - the reasons are never really clear to me, but I go anyway - this work will enrich my art practice in ways I don't know yet - it's not easy - it challenges me in ways that are hard for me - the two photos below show a couple of the pieces that were somewhat successful - I feel this is just the tip of the iceberg - I have no expectations, I'm just enjoying the journey - egad! another weekend looms and another chunk of time has evaporated - have a good everyone!



mixed media on paper


mixed media on paper

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totally out!

Man! I am totally out of painting surfaces! No more paper, no more boards, nothing on the top two layers I want to rework, sketch book too small, can't find the mylar sheets (geez, where did I put those?) Yikes! So I'm taking old work out of frames and burning them and I had some old pieces of mat board that I used to back the old paintings - that works - so I painted on old backings today - I'm just messing around and doing some quick one session paintings the past couple of weeks - the photo below is one I did today on old mat board -


it's mixed media on mat board about 14x10 - 'Her Peripheral Vision'

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend - now I am off to the art store and hardware store to resupply.

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quick stop.....

hello, I wanted to make a quick stop here in blogland while I had a chance - July is GONE! and now we are two days into August already - I just can't imagine where it has all gone, but gone it has - the photo below is a painting I have worked on for the past year - it's one of those that has evolved and evolved and I'm feeling this is the final evolution. I have a couple more of these works that I go to when I just want to move paint around. It can be very relaxing and expectations are low - a good thing when time moves at lightening speed!



mixed media on board, 48x38 - 'She Thought She Had It Right'

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