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 :)

mixed media abstract

When I was making this piece in 2016 before my stroke,

it had me thinking of deep space,

it was as if I were on another planet singing praises.

It's mixed media and acrylic on cradled ampersand.

I haven't listed it on etsy as yet.

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!

That Elusive Certain Something

I was talking with a friend about some new landscapes I've been working on that had a bit of a  Nebulous feel; yet for the life of me I couldn't describe them.  I am  trying to paint something... to capture something that I can't seem to put into words. I want it to feel dreamlike, other worldly,   mysterious and compelling.  I want the viewer to look at the paintings and want to linger & wonder. 

These are the first three... I love these paintings & can see they're getting closer to it, but that "certain something" still eludes me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And then, this one. 

Nebulous IV

You might have seen the beginning of this painting on my last post. 

It was to be an abstract with collage accents when I picked up paint instead of acrylic medium. With each stroke of color I could see the painting was attaining that nebulous dreamlike feel. 

So far, this one captures that elusive certain something more than the others, but now I am hopeful that I might be able to attain it.