Inside

This painting was painted in the same series as "It's Beneath". I was inspired by an artist's abstract work that I'd seen in Art News, and thought the way I was painting could change a bit, try something new for a thrill. The series didn't go far, but I do have several paintings now of round shapes with blobs in them that remind me of crows.

It's Beneath

Swirls and lines and dancing birds. I think this is about the stick game they used to play in the streets. Hoop game. My father played it, rolled along a hoop with a stick. Now there are video games and skateboards.

Cursive Loops

When I painted this painting, I wasn't thinking about trying a new style. It just happened that I felt a certain degree of boredom with what I was doing and smeared white paint over the surface and this lovely transparency happened. All's well that ends well. I'm at a new phase again with my art, which I think is difficult to execute. Anyone feeling uninspired knows what I mean. I can wait, or I can create. I'm more believing that it's the jumping in and doing that gets me going again.

A Woman's Place: Write your destiny

A Woman's Place: Write your destiny

Fig

Swirls of color painted with Daniel Smith acrylics on Arches paper. This one I painted alongside the other one I posted a couple of posts ago. I often tape down more than one piece a paper at a time. Sometimes the paintings become pairs that I frame and hang together, other times they remain individual pieces. I cut my paper the same size and mask the painting area the same size. If I keep all my paintings the same size, it makes it easier when I got to buy frames. I have a friend who makes everything the same size and them exchanges the frames from one piece to another when putting things in different shows. I'd prefer to frame the ones I like the best, if I can afford it. American Frame has great prices on mats and frames.

Bones From the Beach

This is a collection of jaw bones, a tube worm shell, and some rocks and marbles. They are beach items I collected and kept on a window ledge at my waterfront home. Recently, my husband of twenty years and I split. To keep my collections, I decided on making shadow boxes. Then the beach glass, the bits of ceramics, the bones and special rocks could have a place on my walls, rather than leave them behind.

Pastel Swirls

An experimental painting in which I attempted to compose a piece that arrives in flow without forethought. The piece hangs over my bed; I like the feeling of water currents.

I painted this piece on a gessoed Masonite board. I like to leave the brush strokes in the gesso , so that when I paint over the ridges, the paint will catch on the high spots and create depth in the layers of paint.

Rose of Watervein: copywrite Aug. 2007

The painting process: Tape down the paper with removable masking tape. This will give you a clean edge when you are finished painting. The tape should not be left on the paper for a long period, I remove mine the following day. Most of my small pieces are painted in an hour. This one includes metallic paint by Daniel Smith and other acrylic paints. I like painting with acrylic instead of water color, because the colors are more intense. I can also get texture with the acrylics.

Once the paper is taped to the table, I begin painting. My process is to not think. Like my writing, beginning with knowing nothing is better for me as an artist, than to think up what I will do. Then everything is fresh and bold. Brush strokes are alive, vibrant, confident. Try a painting a day, like a writing practice. A short piece, perhaps ten minutes worth of words on the paper a day. Paint fast, write fast.

Southwestern Wind: copywrite 2000

When the artistic flow is blocked, I go to another form, such as writing or dancing. Or I watch movies. Basically I need to have input so I can generate new material. In the Artist's Way, the suggestion to take yourself on an artist date is very helpful. I like yarn stores, second hand stores, and imports. All the detail stimulates ideas. This piece was painted during the year I was taking a fiction writing class.

Acrylic Painting: Birch Reflection

In the woods, standing water reflects a stand of paper birch. It is fall, and my friend, Charlie, who paints very large oil paintings, shot a nice photo of the trees reflecting in standing water. Leaves were floating on the surface. I wish I'd kept a sketch journal of our treks into the woods together. We'd cross streams and shuffle through brush, all in the name of a good shot for a painting. The paint in this piece is Windsor Newton Acrylic, the liquid type in tiny plastic bottles. The paper is Arches 80# cold press. I taped off a border with removable masking tape, painted for about an hour, removed the tape the following day when the piece was good and dry. When the tape come up, the crisp edge is a thrill to see, and the painting really pops out.

Artistic Multi-Media Wall Hanging

Found objects become a meditation and perhaps affirmation for the interior life. Here, inside the tuna can, I've collaged with magazine photo, buttons, stones, and jewels, making a whimsical wall hanging to put over my dresser. Multi-media pieces can incorporate all kinds of found objects. At Michaels, nice little shadow boxes can be come by cheaply. What you do with them can be inventive. They are good for collections, say if you are like me and bring a lot of stuff home from the beach: bones, rocks, shells, glass, ceramics. Have fun.

Book Cover: Kelp Bulbs

The art of the sea, tangles of kelp washed ashore in a windstorm. The hold fasts becoming squiggles and the stems, compositional elements.

Small painting: Vortex and Ruby

When I paint, power sometimes looks like the wound, and then the wound becomes empowered. All is welcome and invited in the creative process. Sometimes imagery coming from the subconscious can have a frightening effect on the artist. Sometimes the artist isn't moved, but the viewer is. Either way, art is a journey unfolding in waves of power.

Water Color: Not SoTimid

There are those who say abstract doesn't sell. I'm thinking I don't do my art to sell it, I do my art because it is what is coming out of me, an expression of my self that I can't control. It's like a stream running, if I try to stop it there'll be a whole lot of flooding, or a back up that will eventually break. My view on art is to keep it flowing, approach the page without knowing what to expect. Be surprised.