"Obvious Things" (unavailable)

(unavailable.......in the permanent collection of dee day)

Many times there are things in life that are not obvious because there seems to be a veil over our understanding. Knowledge and truth can lift that veil so that the deeper things in life can be understood. (Implies a deeply spiritual application in our understanding of God.) In this piece the veil is represented by the thin layers of gesso that allow lines and color to peek through.

There was much excitement in the air when Yves Leterme came to teach in February of this year. (It is still hard to believe that we battled an ice storm that week!) His remarkable ability in executing gestural writing plus his gesso works made an impression on all of us who attended those classes. This is a cropped portion of one of those pieces with a few additional touches.

Long before Yves came to town, I was deeply attached to graphite and pencils of every kind. (And very fanatical about how sharp pencils should be!) So my desire is to develop pieces with gesso , pencil, and imagery and make them uniquely my own. The technique of applying the gesso is not complicated. I use (3) methods of application, depending on my goal. Credit cards cut in various widths, broad edged shaper tools, and sponge brushes are my tools of choice. You can cause the gesso to "pool" along an edge or scape it off, add water to the edge to soften and blot with a kleenex for very ethereal effects.

The soft divisions of space can be created with pen and ink, pencil lines, or soft color blocks. Soft diffusion of these lines or color are then created with the overlay of gesso.   If you use water soluble media, you will need to fix that layer with spray acrylic before applying gesso or you can use "thinned" layers of acrylic.  This technique is very conducive to the inclusion of drawing or small painted images within the piece. It is a meditative process of working which you might like to try. Just something to do or think about.