Eternity

I finally went to pick up this piece which had been in a members show for the Hampton Art League. It was so much fun to make! I've had this cast of my hand for two years and couldn't figure out how to use it but this all came together. The bird is much more interesting in person because he has lots of texture in his feathers and I used interference colors on the black base. Now let's see.....what else can I use the hand for?

Happy 2010!

WIP

A new painting for a new year

After weeks of thought, I've made some choices about how my creative life will change in the future. If you have been here with me for the last year or two you will already know about my difficulty in choosing one special part of my art life to concentrate on. It has been hard for me to settle down on one thing, I love all the things I've tried. Remember? Acrylics, colored pencils, lino cuts, collage, polymer clay. Everything has been fun. I've learned a lot.

This is the year that I get serious about my art. I have already enrolled in a class with a local artist whose work I respect. There are several juried shows I will enter, and there are two shows to get ready for this month. Having a large desk calendar on my studio wall has helped me see my time better.

These are my resolutions, or more importantly, my heart's choices.

1. I will concentrate on figurative art, my real love after all is said and done.

2. I will spend at least 4 times as long in the studio as I do on the computer, the theft of my time.

3. I will be a student of polymer clay techniques, using it as a hobby.

This is a shot of my junky clay table. I can see this will not be enough room. Hmmmm......the dining room?

Sticking With It

Since Thursday I've been chugging along, staying with my stamps and scissors. I've worked on three of these at the same time, but I'm disappointed because they just don't have the liveliness of the first three that took much less time.

This week I'll stay with the stamps and continue collage, but I think I'll try another subject. I'll have to cut more stamps before I begin painting. On the new work, I plan to use the collage for the background only. We'll see how that works.

For some reason, this photo will not show up as vibrantly as I see it in my iPhoto program. This is the best I could do.

Stamping and Snipping

On November first it will be two years since I started this blog. That occurred to me today as I was thinking about what I've accomplished. When I started, I was using colored pencil exclusively, and my work was selling. But my work with cp was boring to me. I got a lot of positive feedback, but that didn't make it more interesting. Because what I was doing with cp was copying photos. At least they were all my own photos and I wasn't copying someone elses.

I just felt there must be something else I was meant to do.

Fortunately, I had the time and enough money to try different mediums. So the pencils have been on the back burner as I experimented. The fact is that I've hardly sold anything since then. As I realized this, I had to stop and ask myself some questions. Do I have a body of work to show for the last two years? No, I don't. Have I found a medium I want to stick with now? No. Have I enjoyed my experimenting? Yes, definitely. Then I asked the most important question. Where am I going? I don't know. I thought I would feel more accomplished by now, I expected to be more successful at selling than back then.

This morning I was going to change directions and not even use the stamping and collage ideas I'd used all week. Then it hit me......I never stick with anything! Nothing gets practiced enough for me to improve with it. I get discouraged and try something else.

I realized that I need to make plans for myself. I need a loose structure ( is that even possible?) to keep organized with my work. I decided to work only with the Anne Bagby video ideas this week and see where that leads me. Then, if I feel I'm going somewhere, another week. This way I won't get off track and start another project.

Now, I still have those two miniatures due in a few weeks, and my cp portraits of the two little cuties waiting to get done. But this way I'll know that I'll give them exclusive time when I plan it. Does that make sense?

Still Stamping

The last three days have just zoomed by and I've gotten into my studio every chance I can, but have not accomplished as much as I planned. The whole idea of including my stamps into a collage or painting has given me so many ideas that I hardly know where to go next. Well, that's not true...I have a plan and hope I can get it done by Friday. Stay tuned.

My new friend, Nicki Ault, brought up an interesting question as she responded to a comment I left on her blog. Her work is so beautiful so I said she should drop the word 'beginner' from her introduction. Her response was to ask how do we know when to stop calling ourselves beginners? I thought about that for awhile. What do you think? Do you still call yourself a beginner? If not, when and how did you decide not to be called that anymore? Thanks for your comments, friends.

Three Practice Collages

My weekend has been productive and quiet. If I get too many phone calls or go out anywhere I can never pick up the pace until the next day. And even my little cat guys slept all day and didn't demand too much attention.

I've been practicing making collages according to Anne Bagby's video and I've been stopping and starting it all day, just to listen very carefully to what she says. The video is packed with ideas and information. It seems as if I took a course, but this is better because I can go back and watch reruns.

My goal was to understand what she does so I can take some of her ideas to incorporate into my work. I've always been fascinated by collages, but wasn't sure where to start. I've tried some, but was never 100% satisfied. The real hook for me was the stamping because I've tried to make my own stamps and have a few succesful ones, but didn't know how to really put them to their best use.

So what do you think about my little experiments? I can tell you I learned a lot! Now I'm anxious to start my five paintings for a show in January. Hmmm.....my head is spinning with ideas.

These are all about 6x14. I didn't include hands which I would have done if these were not just for learning purposes. I think I'll tack them up in the studio so I can study them for a few days. They were a heck of a lot of fun!

I was having so much fun in my studio today that I didn't want to come out. If the body could keep going, the mind and spirit sure can. However.....anyway, I want to show you what I've been up to the past few days. I decided to spend a little time seeing if I could come up with some stamps to use in my backgrounds. I really like that look, especially the way Uta Mooney, of Australia, does it. She manages to still have a whisper of her background show through her paintings. Really beautiful.  So here are my new stamps, which were fun and fast to do. I'm sure I could improve, but they look good for now. What do you  think?

 

I finished all of the collages I will send to Dale Copeland in New Zealand for the International Collage Exchange. I don't know how she does it. We all send a dozen collages and she shuffles them so that we all get eleven back from all different people. And one collage is put up for sale in a show. So how great is that? So, these are two of the collages. What do you think? I have alot of fun making them.

Collages And Acrylics

I'm happy. Here I am experimenting with collage and acrylics and it just makes me feel as if I'm on the right track for now. I love using the glazes and iridescent colors on the backgrounds. There are so many possibilities! I also began working on my self portrait which I  plan on submitting to the CPSA show. We'll see where that leads. By the way, neither of these is quite finished.

Collages and Thinking About Colored Pencils

Yesterday I had a painting (below)  of mine critiqued by a very estimable artist who I admire very much. Well, he ripped it apart. No, not literally. He really gave me a detailed critique and it wasn't as hard to take as it would have been in my 20's or 30's. Isn't age wonderful? So, now I have no doubt about how he feels. It turns out it was one of the reflections paintings I did last year and was so proud of. He even said that if I had ideas about doing more along that line to forget it. Well...he he......I already did several. And they are hanging in the gallery, right out there in public.

 

While I was working on two new collages today, I thought about where I need to go now. What direction should I take? Tomorrow, besides finishing the two collages, I have to start one of my entries for the CPSA show. This will be a self portrait, a first for me. So, wish me well. My confidence is just a little teensy bit shaken today.

Collages From My Studio

Wow. I bet you thought I had disappeared. No, I've been lurking around, admiring everyone else's work and then going into my studio and fiddling around and not coming up with much. But tonight I feel a new excitement about working in there tomorrow. 

These are two of the  little collages I've been working on. They go to New Zealand soon, to be a part of a world wide collage exchange.

More on the Acrylic Painting

The above work is another collage I tried today, not finished. I was liking it until I added too much white to a glaze, so I 'll have to try something different with it. Just an experiment, anyway.

I had the best surprise today! When I looked at my blog, I noticed I had several new followers. Well, that made me happy, because it's kind of like making new friends. They are people who are saying they like my work, they like reading my blog. Well...one of the new people was my son, Adam. So that made my day. :-)

It doesn't look like it , but I spent hours on the airport painting. It's bigger than I'm used to, about 13x18. Even though portraits are my favorite to do, I'm having a terrible time with the man's face, the man with his leg crossed, I guess you could say the main man. In addition to acrylics, I'm using gel pens. I tried some colored pencil, but the watercolor paper is not a friendly surface. But the gel pens work well, even on top of the paint. It's hard to tell, but the girl's jeans are crosshatched with a white gel pen.

A few weeks ago I started looking at pictures of seeds and pods and I made some sketches from them. Then I started this, which is 16x20. The background is gold acrylic, and I'm using some copper, too. I'm kind of stalled on it, but I'm certain I'll stick with the metallics and some oranges and turquoise, which is departing from the actual seed and pod appearances. They were just a jumping off point.

 
So, all in all, I feel pleased that I've been able to branch out and try new things. I can always go back to strictly colored pencil if I need to. Of course, I'm about to begin an entry for the CPSA annual juried exhibit, which is in Atlanta, where my sons live. I hope my work will make it in. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

A Collage Try

I've been accumulating books about collage, which has really been interesting me. So, today, after working, I went in my studio and flung paint around and had a great time. Now, I think the result is strictly amateur, but at least I gave it a try. I' m not giving up! In between my other projects, I am going to hone my collage skills. I think it's a great avenue for expression. In case you can't read the embossed letters, they say, 'into the night'.

My Difficult Giraffe

This is another shot from my day at the Lafayette Park Zoo. I tried to finish this today because it was dreary and rainy outside and I had no other pressing things to do. But I don't know where the day went. And I'm having a harder time with him than I usually do on things. So...tomorrow.  And I have some collage ideas I want to work on, too. I've been visiting collage artists' blogs and I've seen some really exciting work, and it looks too good to miss.

A New Direction

We had some crazy weather today... first thunder and lightening, heavy rain then sun and breeze, then wild wind, more thunder and lightening, then hail the size of popcorn. Cooper and I watched the hail ping off my table and chairs  on the deck and Perry slept through the whole day, unperturbed. What a temperment!

I wanted to start a collage for the longest time and I couldn't decide what the subject should be but today I thought I'd do a self portrait with a lot of meaningful pieces. I've thought about doing a self portrait for awhile, but unfortunately this is  too late to submit for a competition I'd wanted to do. Since tomorrow is the last day I work at school for this year, I'll be able to devote more time to art. I'm so excited. Can't wait! I swear I'll get organized this summer and put my art before everything and treat it like a business. 

Okay, you may  be looking at this and saying to yourself ( or out loud)....'What the hell????' But honestly, there is a plan taking shape here. Only I know, of course. I hope I can finish this by Thursday night, so check back.....