To Life!

Oil & Cold Wax "LIFE" 16x16

"Life" was a fun abstract to paint, As with most abstracts, I had no pre-conceived idea as to what this would become. 

Adding color here and there, removing a bit, layering more colors playing over the week until what I wanted to say was finally said... 

"This is Life!"

Day Brightener

Here's an update to the post of my first sale of 2020.

It's always a little sad to say goodbye to a painting that I spent time and love on. However one of my favorite joys, is when someone takes the time to leave a review.

Dana received it & was so kind as to not only write a lovely review about this little painting, but also sent me a photo to let me see where she displays it!

"Sweet little landscape painting. Bought to sit on a shelf and it's perfect. You can feel the love Diane puts into the painting and the whole process of the transaction. Thank you!"

And thank you Dana for being so generous and brightening my day!

Wabi-Sabi = "Happy Accidents"

Initially this piece wasn't going the way I had hoped & decided to just take a chance. I splashed Gamsol onto it, letting it drip & flow naturally. After a moment or two I squeegeed it removing a couple of layers. Suddenly my heart laughed loving the color that was revealed! There it was, "Streams in the Desert"! What a Wabi-Sabi happy accident!

Are you wondering what is Wabi-Sabi? Well I first became aware of Wabi-Sabi in art after reading these two books by Serena Barton:

"Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop: Mixed Media Techniques for Embracing Imperfection and Celebrating Happy Accidents" and "Wabi-Sabi Painting with Cold Wax: Adding Body, Texture and Transparency to Your Art" 

available at Amazon

In her introduction Barton describes 
Wabi-Sabi as a Japanese philosophy "that honors the imperfect, the transitory, the handmade...…. It evokes a sense of acceptance of the transitory nature of life. Creating intuitive Wabi-Sabi inspired art...….is like taking a journey, a journey without a map."
Reading both of these books helped me not just to loosen up for abstract painting, but to play and experiment with art and to just go with it. Oil & Cold Wax is the perfect medium for Wabi-Sabi style. 

The medium is so wonderful especially for painting abstracts. It's playable & versatile and allows you try all sorts of tools. It's perfect for "intuitive" painting! If I don' t like some part, it can easily be changed in a number of different ways and almost always I discover a "happy accident" as in this piece.

6x6 "Streams in the Desert" 

Breathing Free

                                            

Breathing Free

Painting "Breathing Free" was pure joy! The of layering colors with my palette knives and scraper seemed to lift my spirits and  set me free from the doldrums.  One of my favorite parts of this piece are the loose grasses. 

                   

         This is done in Cold Wax & Oil on a 

12x12 cradled gesso board

                                     

September Field

September Field 8x8 oil & cold wax

detail

When I first did this little piece, the sky had a much different feel & look as you can see in the picture below.

As often is the case, I decided to rework part of it, 

I changed the sky to the one below

I liked it much better, yet it still didn't please me perfectly. I had another go at the sky &  finally it's done!

September Field is available at etsy

Oil & Cold Wax

Early in 1999 I experimented with a new medium... Oil & Cold Wax. Unlike encaustic in which the wax is melted with resin & gives off toxic fumes, cold wax can be done anytime without toxic properties. All you need is oil paint, cold wax medium (which has the look & consistency of shortening), Gamsol by Gamblin for cleanup plus your tools & surface.

The above pic  shows  my first purchases for this new medium, a set of oil paints, 2 different brands of oil paint sticks (one brand I didn't like working with at all) a small can of ColdWax Medium, small bottle of Gamsol, palette knives & a couple squeegee like tools. 



I immediately discovered that I love painting in Oil & Cold Wax! The process of blending the oil paint and Cold Wax Medium with your palette knife to a creamy texture is relaxing & restorative. You can paint wet into wet, or let the paint dry before adding another layer. You can remove layers with Gamsol or carve into the layers. It's wonderfully versatile. Painting in this medium usually takes me much longer than painting in acrylics, but I find it much more satisfying & enjoyable. 

The above painting was my 2nd attempt, learning and experimenting with this different medium & to see what I can do in Oil & Cold Wax.

Collage with Tea Bags

One of my morning rituals is drinking tea after my devotions & I thought

 "why not incorporate/reuse the teabags into my collages?" 

Here are examples & a mini film as how I do it.

 The one above is called "the Golden Hour" and is available at etsy.

Below is a mini series call "Tea Fields" also at etsy.

All these collages can be found at etsy

tea bag collages

So It's Like This ... Part 3

If you look at the date, it's been almost a year since I wrote "..Part 2". 
I'd like to say that I'm 100% back to my pre-stroke status; but alas I've come to accept that this is the new normal. Yet I have 100's of things to be grateful for! 

And here's the one my hubby gave me... a studio!!!!

God bless him! He had our tiny leaking back porch converted into my own studio! I made this photo collage shortly after it was finished, but it looks a bit different now. I put away my easel as it took up too much room and instead he made a way to turn a wall into one! love it :) I have more supplies now of course; my collage supplies are temporarily packed away with my paints taking center stage.
What a blessing and joy it is to walk into my little studio and create anytime & everytime that I am able!
I will be sharing pics of my new work and details of my new favorite medium soon.

So it's like this - part 2

In April of  '16 I wrote this post
https://theexpressivepalette.blogspot.com/2016/04/so-its-like-this.html   things were going well but suddenly I had an update to that post...  a stroke in Dec.

Once again, life as I knew it changed & my art came to a stand still. I closed my etsy shop.  After months of therapy I was able to pick up my art  supplies. I began reworking & experimenting with 2 pieces I no longer cared for, & liked the result.  I ended up making a few more mixed media landscapes. I like the simplicity of these pieces and the more subdued color palettes.

I still have trouble painting. Since I paint on the kitchen counter & stove top, setting up, painting, then cleaning up so I could prepare dinner, and setting up again - well it's just to difficult for me  these days.

But there is good news that has come from all this, & I'll share the news in a future post :)

When the sun goes down

Lately I have been trying my hand at mini sunsets. I would love to go to an artists retreat, take classes or even take an on-line class on sunsets, but right now with money the way it is,  it's just learning as I go.

Sunset 4x4  SOLD

 

"At Sunset"  4x4 ~ Sold

Sunset II 3x5 SOLD

Sunset III 3x5 SOLD!

Speaking Abstractly.....

Genesis

Lately I have been drawn to abstracts, the freedom, the color and the movement of the art is exciting.
When I did the painting above I started with modeling paste as the base for texture &  my limited color palette of blue and brown. As the painting progressed, I got a feel of where it was going.  I kept thinking, " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"  adding a bit metallic gold to represent the Divine touch or spark of God.  It's a small 6x6.

My husband left a note on the kitchen counter before he left for work saying he really liked this one. Encouraged by that I decided to make  a series like this only in a larger size. Sounds easy right?  well not really.  I made four attempts on 2 canvases during 3 days and was unable to recreate it. It seemed the harder i tried the more awful the results!

So I washed off as much paint as I could with the kitchen sprayer and resigned myself to the fact that i couldn't duplicate it.. at least not for the time being.

I painted glazes over the much abused canvas and came up with this

Taking a break from abstracts  I painted one of my favorite subjects, fiddleheads. But this time instead of the tiny 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches format in water colors, I did it in acrylics on 5x7 aquaboard. I had lots of fun with this one with it's warm & happy  color palette and it took away that sense of failure from the "Genesis" series I had wanted to do.

Celebrating FiddleHeads

Not wanting to give up entirely I yet again took the other abused canvas re-gessoed, added a bit more modeling paste, and began again with a much warmer color palette.... and this is the result

Bursting

Is there a lesson in this for me? I'm not sure but I think it's that I can't paint an abstract when I'm all tense, my better abstracts happen when I'm relaxed and just play with the colors. Perhaps one day I'll be good enough at this to the point that the paint will be subject to me and not vice  versa!

still feeling the love & lessons learned

I'm still feeling the love of the landscape.

Since I last wrote about the new direction for my art

I have painted four new landscapes.

"Green Mountains" 8x8

I did another, 5x5, that is on it's way to a friend 

who sadly moved away from Vermont.

That and the 8x8 were a joy to paint!

The one below was not! 

First i struggled with the size & shape. 

I have been so accustomed to working on a small scale,

that even though it was only 8x10, it threw me off.

I eventually  got my proportion & layout to suit me;

but I also struggled with the canvas itself. It was a different brand

and although it was tripple gessoed, 

it soaked up the paint like a sponge! 

Is there a difference between 100% cotton and "cotton duck"?

"Green Mountains" 8x10

and then there's this!

"Autumn" expressive abstract 8x10

I know it's a bit out there but I couldn't wait

for autumn to come to me, so i created my own autumn.

For this one I just let myself play in free loose strokes.

~

What I learned from these last two paintings is:

* there are differences in canvas

* and I need larger brushes for larger canvas! 

( I knew that, but i kept reaching for my favorite brushes 

which were too small- next time I will hide the smaller brushes!)

UPDATE 9/29/13:
 It's a year since  I wrote the post &  I have found i really do like the larger canvases... for me that is 8x8 - 12x12, they are perfect for mixed media paintings.  Oh i re worked that last painting... it's funny but i cringe when i look at that now!

a Pair of Pears for Artists Play Room

Jenn McClean, IA sister, friend, artist, blogger extraordinaire, and now a contributing editor of the new art magazine "Featuring", has another challenge for  The Artists Play Room this week  ...  "Pears".

I thought I'd use this challenge to see if i could do an 

abstract collage of pears.

Pears 1

&

Pears 2

Here's how i did these...  

*WARNING, Don't try this at home!*

Because i have no idea of the "proper" way to do this and wouldn't want to lead any of you astray!

(also color and quality of step by step photos aren't very good 

as they were taken rather hastily 

on the kitchen counter where i work)

I made "sketches" in acrylic paint on 

Strathmore Archival Acid-Free Premium linen canvas 246 lb. paper

casually painted the backgrounds knowing a bit of those colors will be seen under the upcoming layers of paper and paint

then i begin adding torn papers

more paint and more papers

still more layers, 

sealed with varnish

& finally trimmed the edges of the finished pears

I wasn't that happy with the 2nd pear, it was too "warm" and drab.
I also needed better contrast
so i added blue and a touch more white.
~

I have noticed that my method of work has been changing.
It is more loose and free. 

i have a vague idea of where i want to go and

allow the painting to guide me... 

 i am loving this new freedom!