"Palm Branch"

($60.00.....6" x 6".......Water Soluble Oils on 2" depth Cradled Board)

There is no quote on this piece, but the word palm is written and then deconstructed by covering up part of the word. The lettering in these type of pieces is intended to create movement and a variation of line. This is an abstract of a palm branch describing its movement and color.

I was careful to use at least three values of green and three values of the tan to give the piece some depth. So this is something that still must be considered even in an abstract piece. The piece was created very much like yesterday's posting by mixing the colors and placing them on the support in varying amounts.

The greens are taking up a greater percentage of space. The dominance of one color in a abstract will calm the somewhat chaotic nature of abstraction. Dominance of any of the design elements always brings more harmony to a piece of artwork. This is very important to remember so that you know exactly what to do in order to calm a piece down when there are too many competing elements. This is an important design principle in all mediums.

It is also important to keep the shapes in mind. I intentionally added more yellow green going from the center down to the right hand corner and connecting with the other yellow green that goes off at the top. And anytime a shape can touch three sides of the design space is a good thing.

Rhythm was created by using the same directional strokes and bringing in a slight diagonal vertically and horizontally. The gestural lettering creates some more rounded lines. And by virtue of the tool itself (palette knife), some edges are sharp and some are blended into the neighboring color.

So abstraction in general is all about design. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"State Of Mind"

(Experimental Piece.....6" x 12"....Water Soluble OIls on 300 lb HP)

"Resting is a quieter state of mind." This is a deeply felt quote by me because I often struggle with maintaining a state of rest and a quieter state of mind. The word "quieter" implies that there is a comparison being made. And there is indeed. The opposite of quiet is noisy and chaotic and not a good place to be.

This is classified in the category of my gestural landscape pieces. This was yet another warm up piece in preparation for larger oil paintings based on the landscape. It is in the landscape that infinite value ranges are visible to give an artist unlimited motivation to interpret realistically or with various degrees of abstraction.

My dilemma as far as process goes is having a block of time to finish a larger work alla prima. (wet-into-wet) I don't like splitting up the time since a skin will form on the paint overnight and with the technique of palette knife this does not work well.

Since yesterday, I have made a large palette (18" x 24") out of float glass attached to the same size heavy duty white foam core with white duck tape. The important part is keeping this palette very wet until the painting is finished. I will be storing it in a shallow storage container and another one for the actual painting. This will allow me to spread out the time it takes to finish a larger piece into (2) days. Both of these containers will have a sponge in them saturated with water. A large box can also serve the same purpose if the painting is really large and simply laid on the floor with a sponge in a dish underneath the box.

This is all about strategies and process. To quote myself....."Process is the breath of creativity." So it is very useful to sit down and think about the process of any type of art you might be creating. If the process is faulty, the results will be "iffy" at best. Changing a process involves looking at the areas where there is weakness. If color is the weak link, it is worthwhile to find out everything possible about color. It could also be technique or  materials.

I have yet to meet a successful artist who uses inferior materials. Cheap oil paints, watercolors, brushes, acrylics, and papers and other supports will not yield the same results. And that's exactly where I am in my process right now. I am examining every thing I use to make sure my results are the best they can be. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Start Over"

(Experimental Study.....11" x 14".....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord Panel)

"Start over and see what happens." Starting over is part of life and definitely part of the art process. It is not always fun to start over, but it is part of the "learning curve". I have noticed that artists have an innate desire to skip the "learning curve" and go straight to the successful painting.....including myself. And wouldn't that be dandy!! It is not reality.

To break new ground or even to elevate existing skill levels, it is so important to simply go to the studio or wherever else you do art and simply begin. Equally important is observing what is actually happening on the canvas, clayboard, or paper. There is generally a few things that are worth saving in an experimental piece, but there might be a need to start over. Such was the case with the piece I created this morning.

This was my third effort with a lot of wasted paint. (Some can be scraped and reused, but very often it simply needs to be tossed.) And this, too, is part of the learning curve. It can be costly, but the techniques of mark making and how to deliver the paint to the surface is experimental in nature and requires practice.

I consider today's piece an oil and palette knife study rather than a finished and polished piece. But the good news is that I now have several pieces to study and they will definitely inform me in my continuing study.

I do think I prefer paper for these types of abstract pieces because there is a drag to the surface that allows for more expression. So tomorrow I am switching to 300 lb. HP. Since I already know that I want to go in the direction of gestural abstract pieces, the only thing to do now is to continue to work with these mediums and tools until I feel my artistic voice shining through with clarity.

I also have a desire to switch to canvas and acrylics with the same goals in mind. What a journey! And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"The Secret Place" (draft 2)

(draft 2)

You are viewing the step-by-step process of Psalm 91:1. It is an abstract of boulders on a hillside and being interpreted with color and texture rather than the actual image of a boulder, grass, and trees. Today's posting represents a little less than half of the total piece. I will begin introducing yellow-green tomorrow.

One of the things that I truly believe will help any artist who is confused about the enormous selection of techniques, colors, and materials is to make a firm decision about what you want to include from the outset. For instance, I have only chosen (4) neutral colors for the representation of boulders. Even with a limited selection there is a hugh range of values to choose from. You can use any of the combinations of these colors to create the undercoat and the same for the topcoat.

These initial choices will keep the piece unified and get rid of visual overload. Nothing creates visual overload like too many disparate shapes and colors. It's similar to the person who cannot choose what to wear, so they pick out separate items with no concern for any common denominators and then wear every piece of jewelry they own. It's simply too much! And the same is true for art. It will also keep you sane as you work through your process. It's called boundaries.

You can see that I have added (4) more pieces to this collage. Nothing is adhered because I do not yet know where everything looks best...value wise. It always becomes apparent as the piece progresses and the good news about these puzzle pieces are the fact you can trim them to fit where they need to fit.

I have added some old bible text and plain rice papers to the left hand corner piece along with some charcoal powder and soft pastels. However, as I am typing this commentary, that one piece will probably end up at the the top left corner because of the text placement. (It contains the first few verses of the psalm.)

And today I will be picking up the pace a bit and adding a lot more and taking pictures intermittently so that I will have a few days of posting even after finishing the piece. (Next week is the exhibit installation.) So I hope this has helped you understand the meanderings of my thought processes. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Blessed" (draft 1)

(draft 1)

Today's piece is the beginning of Psalm 1. The text will appear in its entirety in the final. This is a new technique woven together with other techniques to hopefully create a very dynamic piece.

This is a quarter sheet of 140 lb. HP (Arches). It has not been cropped, so I will have many options today as I decide on placement of more papers (or not). The entire text of Psalm I will be written in Spencerian Script and some brush lettering in the background.

The color selection was two complementary colors plus mono printed black papers. The delivery of paint to the paper was done first with a brayer (1.50" and 2.00") This technique can be achieved with most water soluble paints.

In this case I chose Speedball Printing Inks. The challenge was to mix the two complementary colors of blue and orange + white to create a range of grayish colors. The first mixture was equal parts of both colors + white and mixed with a palette knife on a glass printing surface. I also sprayed a lot of water in the mixture. Extreme dilution of most colors will yield a measure of transparency which was the goal here. If I had chosen transparent watercolors, there would have been a much more ethereal and transparent look. Gouache and Fluid Acrylics are also options.

The key is to have the paint very "soupy". The brayer was rolled through this mixture and rolled from edge to edge on dry paper. I created several stripes with my first mixture and then added a bit more blue and more water and did more stripes, followed by adding more of the orange + white and water and doing it again. So it is a very spontaneous process and you can see the shapes that are created and various windows (or openings) created when the paint crosses over previous stripes.

After drying and spraying this sheet of brayered stripes with spray acrylic coating, I began to select some mono printed rice papers to fill up some of the shapes. It is very important to cut these papers on the actual painted stripes and doing it with a clear grid ruler (available at Hobby Lobby) to make sure the papers look as though they are a continuation of the lines already there.

I also wrote into sections of the wet paint with a stylus to create some softly diffused letters and then when all was dry, I did some gestural writing with a pencil. All of this will make a nice backdrop to the final lettering which will be written in black.

And if you're not a lettering artist, simply allow your piece to be totally abstract and perhaps include some old text pages or line engravings, drawings, etc. A small drawing or a fragment of watercoloring would also be nice. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Etched In Stone"

(unavailable....6" x 6".....Experimental Piece......Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Lines etched in stone are abstract." This is a totally experimental piece based on a slab of marble. It clearly shows that God believed in abstraction because it is ever present in our created world.

Lines and their direction create shapes and sometimes the lines themselves are the focal point. There were tons of lines in this piece of marble. There was no way to include them all, but I tried to include enough to make it convincing. There are many artists who choose this element of design as the foundation to all of their work. And I must say, even though there is not a recognizable image involved, it is extremely compelling. 

Juan Iribarren is one artist who uses different sized bands of color going in many directions and often creating a grid which forms little cubicles where gestural mark making can be included. It's quite fascinating. Just google his name and you can see for yourself. 

Another artist who likes to paint abstract landscapes by reducing the imagery to slashes of color is Brian Rutenberg. He is prolific and his work is extremely compelling. 

And, of course, there is Yves Leterme (lettering artist from Belgium) who also uses gesso, line work, and some color to create small compartments with the line work and also a lot of gestural writing with a pencil. 

So if you like sketching, line work, and abstraction, these are definitely artists you might want to check out. They are all on the internet. If you like Roman lettering and line work...it is fun to incorporate angled and manipulated monoline romans into a piece that is based on abstracted line work. All in all, it is different and might open up your horizons. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Behold the Lamb (2)"

($125.00.....6" x 12"....Water Soluble Oils on 300 lb. HP.....mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." This is a second experimental piece with the same words. It is a possibility for an upcoming exhibit.

Back to oils today after two days of mixed media. This sky scape was inspired by a photo I took just two days ago in the late afternoon. I kept pulling off of the side of the road to take pictures and didn't think I was ever going to get home. That's why it is very important to have a pocket camera in your purse with a small zoom.  You never know when the sky will be exquisite.

The strategy for this painting was to paint the first layer over the entire sheet. It was white, lemon yellow, and a small bit of purple mixed from ult. blue and alizarin crimson, but mostly white. The grays and oranges were then mixed with several variations....some lighter and some darker. For most of this layer I blended it slightly with the previous layer. I then added some heavier and less blended layers in key places which gives the piece its texture. 

What I can now tell you after having done (5) of these sky scapes, is that they look deceptively simple to do. To capture the atmosphere with several layers of paint with a wet into wet technique is quite challenging, but I think the best preparation is to simply do bands of color in different sizes first. It's a great way to create an abstract piece and it provides a way to practice laying horizontal bands of color down without thinking about clouds and where the darks and lights are placed in a true sky scape.

Tomorrow, I plan to paint one that is totally abstract and doesn't really look like a sky at all. And if you like color and simply want to loosen up and have a great time, it's a fun thing to try. You can then call yourself a "colorist". In this case, the color becomes the focal point. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Abstraction"

(unavailable)

"The evolution of an image equals abstraction." When an image is altered, it is abstracted. Today's piece is 100% abstracted from the painting posted yesterday. It is part of my experimentation with different ways to abstract an image.

In this piece, I emphasized the horizontal bands from yesterday's painting. I used the painting as my reference point rather than the original photo reference which is somewhat like "morphing" the image into something completely different. The color palette was identical from yesterday, but the blending and application of paint is different. The "sgraffito lines revealing the first layer are reminiscent of the obvious weeds in yesterday's work. I even included the snow, but the cactus image is gone except for the color. And the lettering became more prominent and really is readable in the original although you might not be able to see it on your computer screen.

The whole point of explaining this is to throw out different ways of arriving at abstract work. Since letters are abstract, this is a subject of paramount importance to me. However, even without the lettering it could stand alone as an abstract piece of artwork.  If this is too much abstraction for you, another option is to pick and choose which image to be recognizable and which ones to abstract completely. I could have done this piece and made the cactus recognizable and even a few weeds surrounding the cactus. That would also be a very interesting experiment. 

As you can see, this is where my passion is presently, and perhaps you, too, will be inspired to think about your process in a totally different way. Don't ever dismiss those fleeting insights that come to mind for they could be the impetus to a completely different way of working. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Peace and Simplicity"

($50.00.....6" x 6".....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Peace washes away the clutter of life with simplicity." Have you noticed that clutter and general chaos disturbs the spirit of peace? By tackling those troublesome areas of life with simplicity, we can all have peace in our environment which will contribute to peace in the spirit.

This is an entirely experimental work in preparation for a larger piece. It was inspired by a photo of the sky that I took yesterday. I happened to be driving at the time so I pulled over and whipped out my iphone. Obviously, it is not a realistic interpretation, but a lot less blending than I was seeing with my eyes. It was meant to be an abstract piece with all of the emphasis on design.

I began with orange as my first layer. It was quickly followed by white with a tint of the blue added. The dark blues were then added followed by the process of adding a bit here and there of all the colors until I was satisfied with the texture and directional lines. Notice that the striations of light gray in the top segment are at a slight diagonal. The tinted white in the middle also has a slightly diagonal tilt while the bottom is straight. Slight diagonals in bands of color will always add more energy to the piece. 

The center of interest is in the middle band of colors where you see the darkest gray and very bright orange as well as more texture with piles of paint added in that area rather than smooth blending. The word "simplicity" is also inscribed into the paint in that area with the quote following in the lower bands of gray. 

Because the lettering at the bottom seemed to look contrived, I deliberately raked by palette knife over a part of it (deconstruction) to break up the surface tension. All in all, I am pleased because it is abstract with lettering. And that has been my goal for a long time.

However, people who do not like total abstraction will need to check out my other work. Hopefully, I can strike a happy medium as I go along. This is what experimentation is all about. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"The Unexpected"

($50.00......6" x 6"......Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"The unexpected is found in spontaneity." It may be difficult to allow for spontaneity, but it is a good thing in art and in life. In today's image, I have included the photo reference. That was the starting point for total abstraction with the emphasis shifting to the lettering.

Yesterday, I made a declaration about my intentions of speeding up and slowing down the painting process. This piece was completed in (45) min. I began laying in the colors, but I bumped up the intensity because I knew I was going to abstract the entire piece and I wanted some strong color.

After placing the color notes in their places, I took my palette knife and swept through all of the colors in the same direction I was seeing in the photo reference. So I have completely obliterated all realism, but I think the piece still has hints of the photo reference. So this is one way to begin learning how to move into abstraction with an abbreviated image. This one actually went a step further with no image reference at all. It definitely will not appeal to everyone.

My husband (who gives me great feedback on what the average "non art" person would think does not like this at all.) His response was..."but what does it mean?" So if you choose an abstract path, you will definitely have viewers who will rebel and not want to look at your work.

But it is great fun and by placing a few more details in the piece...you can bring it back to an abbreviated image. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Movement and Color"

($40.00.....6" x 6"....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Movement and color describe God's creation." It doesn't take very many observations of the landscape to notice the hugh variety of movement and color. Visually, movement doesn't not necessarily mean actual movement, but the erratic placement of line and color of the images found in nature.

There's no better environment in which to learn these two important design elements. This piece is actually a depiction of weeds and brush along the side of the road in New Mexico...near Santa Fe. The intense colors were surrounded by numerous variations of green and especially the "sage" green which dominates the landscape in that area.

It was an easy image to abstract which I did by simply applying energetic strokes where the color notes appeared amd giving no thought to detail. So if you have a hugh stock of photos from trips, you might want to take another look at them and simply mix the colors you see and apply them to your canvas or panel in a very energetic fashion with a palette knife.  It will be made much more interesting by slightly changing the color with each swipe of the palette knife.

In order to step into the world of abstraction, it is absolutely necessary to ignore detail and simply placement the colors and their shapes in the right places. Squint if you need to, in order to keep yourself from getting too tight. And the other approach in arriving at just the right mix of realism and abstraction, is to time yourself and allow very short segments of time (one hour or under for a small painting) and then take longer than you need for the next one. I am finding great satisfaction in doing this and it does help so much to go back and forth with your time and the amount of detail you choose to include. 

The palette knife will help you stay loose because it is not possible to put in as much detail as you could if painting with a brush. So you're in for an adventure if you choose to include the palette knife to create some "jazz paintings" this coming year. Give it a try...you might find yourself obsessing and being a part of the "year of the knives"! And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Unfettered Joy"

($40.00.....6" x 6".....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Christmas is unfettered joy." For many reasons, good things seem to create an effervescent bubbling up of joy. The main reason, for me, is the birth of Christ which has changed my life forever. It was and is the most pivotal moment in history.

The piece today was a complete surprise to me. Here I was, minding my own business, and painting a cactus scene from Arizona. It happened to be one of those "raspberry" colored cactus that look so different from the typical green ones. Everything was going along just fine. I had painted the sandy looking foreground and the brush and bits of green that were in the background. It all went south went I began to paint the cactus. I couldn't tell whether they were roses, cactus, or some other strange looking flower. In the "blink of an eye", without even thinking about it, I picked up a palette knife and swiped over the entire painting! I followed that action by doing it several more times, but stopping before I went too far. 

The lettering then became quite important to me, so I picked up a Mitchell #6 nib in a holder and practiced my gestural writing...wiping off the paint after every stroke of the pen. And so goes my excursion into total abstraction.  And just a side note for those who work a lot with acrylics and wonder if they should get into oils.  This type of action could not have happened with acrylics...even with a lot of retarder.  The paint needs to be quite "squishy" and able to move easily.  Only oils will give you that ability.

The important point to note from all of this is that by showing up in my studio every morning, this very unexpected thing happened and now I have a plan to create more abstract work. Now I am thinking that by starting with an actual realistic image, I can break away from that and abstract it a little bit or a lot. This gets me one step closer to the "marriage" between abstraction, realism, and gestural writing. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Evergreen Friends"

($40.00.......6" x 6".....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Evergreen friends are faithful and true." The comparison of evergreens to friends seems like a wonderful comparison since these trees appear in the landscape in all of their "greenery" no matter the season. I am blessed to have friends like that who are always there no matter the circumstances.

In this piece, I pushed the envelope a bit by laying down a bright, intense blue over the surface first. The sky color was then painted over that color followed by expressive writing and marks which revealed the more intense blue. It is like stepping my "toe" into the water of extreme abstraction without really taking the plunge. 

Eventually, I will take the plunge, but I also want it to be convincing and therein lies the problem. Other artists who are doing this successfully, seem to be studying the works of very abstract "colorists" where color becomes the focal point.

Many of them are developing their concept based on an emotional response to the landscape which is experienced by painting "en plein aire", rather than simply laying in the color notes. The energy created by the expressive writing and marks is my own way of going in that direction and also maintaining a "nod" towards realism. 

It is an exciting approach and if you are so inclined, I would encourage you to do your own search of abstract colorists and other landscape painters who are doing a great job of this. The recent issue of Plein Air Magazine has several artists who are working in this way. Check it out to get fresh inspiration for your future works. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Incredible Shelter"

(sold)

"A rock provides incredible shelter." The symbolism of a rock is replete throughout scripture and came to my mind as I painted these two huge boulders, one in front of the other. The small tree seems to be perfectly secure.

Painting this was scary! Rocks are a hugh challenge in values and angles. I was not pleased with it while it was in my hand, up close and personal, but when I sat it across the room, it came to life. It feels very abstract, but that's a quality I'm going for so I was altogether happy about that.

Just a few words about keeping your paints wet from one day to the next. I use a fairly good sized glass palette which, to me, is the absolute perfect surface for everything art related. To keep the paint from drying out, I went on the hunt for an oversized cake pan with a cover. The palette fits in there perfectly and I also place a wet sponge in there to keep the humidity high.

On the painting side of things, I know artists who try to get their colors to match the subject perfectly and can do a very good job, but my desire is to paint the image so that it looks like the reference, but then veer off into my "colorist" mode. My desire is to go even more abstract, but that is easier said than done. 

A good exercise is to see how few strokes can be used to paint a given thing. When I can paint anything with three strokes of the palette knife, I will be a happy camper. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

"Abbreviated World"

(unavailable....water soluble oils)

"We live in an abbreviated world." The arts often reflect contemporary culture. The most descriptive word for me is...abbreviated. We all expect others and ourselves to accomplish everything in a very short time period. Sometimes it works, but more often than not, the steps to become skilled cannot be abbreviated.

My mixed media has come back with full force. This piece began on a 9" x 12" piece of linen canvas using water soluble oils. So the very abstract background was done first, followed by a tree limb and some leaves. By placing a layer of cad.yellow light over the entire surface first, I was able to reveal that layer as I wrote and created gestural strokes in the wet paint. My goal was to be able to crop the piece to give myself more options. However, the canvas cannot be cut to size until the painting is dry so I actually did the cropping after bringing the image into iphoto.

It's an interesting way to work if you can follow my convoluted thought process. But it is worth the effort to have more options when beginning the work with total abstraction and not knowing where additional images will be placed. Even with all of this montage of color... shapes and division of space were still in my decision making. The tree limb goes edge to edge as well as the red-orange color. And by working with a limited palette, the colors are harmonious. 

There is also a lot of freedom involved by working in oils which stay wet for several days and even longer with thick paint. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Abbreviated Orange"

(unavailable)

"Orange is the color of fall." Orange is beginning to permeate yards and landscapes with pumpkins, but very soon (hopefully), we will see leaves begin to turn and many of them will cycle through yellow, orange, and red, and then brown. The title and inspiration for this quote came from the fact that this piece is entirely created with the color "orange" in all of its tints and shades.

I attended an oil workshop this year and when any student in the class asked how to mix a particular color, the instructor would always say...red, yellow, and blue. And she was right! Of course, white is also needed, but that's what this piece is all about. The very dark brown in the background is the color orange with a less yellow and a lot more red and blue. The light foreground color that is the color of hay is a small bit of "grayed down" orange with lots of white. And of course, the pumpkin is what we would normally identify as orange. 

When looking up the word abstract...some of the other words that describe it are words like abbreviate and summary. I like those words because they perfectly describe what happens when an image is abstracted. In this case, I am giving the viewer an abbreviated image or a summary with many details left out. For instance, the orange in this piece is definitely a pumpkin, but the "ribbing" and minute shadings in the pumpkin are absent. The stem helps to differentiate it from an orange, but even there, the details are left out. 

The foreground color represents hay by its color and value changes, but every straw in the hay bale is absent. This is an exciting approach and hope you will try it sometime. The palette knife is the perfect tool for this because it creates the erratic edges that happen, especially when painting "wet into wet". This piece was done in acrylics with retarder added to the paint. I love oils, but it is very difficult to include lettering in oils. I also have plans to make an extended return to "Open Acrylics" which stay wet for a long time, but will also enable me to write on it with water soluble media. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Sparkling Life"

($60.00.....6" x 6"....mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)

"Sparkling life moves parallel to darkness and gives birth to grace." Everyone has encountered periods of darkness in life. This is a quote and a visual showing the sparkling life called "grace" during those times.

The very heartbeat of abstraction is capturing the essence of an image or concept without showing all of the detail. Abstract means to summarize. Abstract Expressionism goes a step further and aims at a subjective emotional expression of an ideal rather than a picture of a physical object. It is nonrepresentational.

What I have been doing with my "moving color" pieces is to land somewhere between being a colorist and having a line engraving or graphic element to ground the piece and tone down the power of all that moving color. A very good way to learn how to use color is to pretend you are a "colorist" and design pieces using color with absolutely nothing else added.

The act of doing this will eliminate all of the other design decisions that could come into play and help you focus on color shapes, color percentages, and different techniques of applying the color. Besides pouring medium, some very nice effects can be achieved by layering with thin glazes of color...using a brayer, palette knife, or adding mediums to the paint to create textured color. And if any of you will be involved with the upcoming exhibit..."Visual Rhapsody", this would be a good time to do a piece consisting only of color. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Decadent Chocolate" (sold)

(sold)


"Decadent chocolate with a raspberry filling is the perfect treat." I absolutely know I have some partners in crime out there! Who can resist a quality piece of chocolate? It's a perfect treat to celebrate Friday and the upcoming weekend.

Some chocolate factories have elaborate displays of hot chocolate moving from one glass container to another. There is such a place in the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It is mesmerizing to look at and the chocolate is glorious to eat. That's what this pouring medium piece reminds me of and so the quote was a "no brainer".

And that takes me back to a very important thing to remember in creating abstract art. I've noticed in myself and others, a very strong tendency to place infinite detail in a piece to convey what it is. Did I need to paint a chocolate bar with the wrapping and the lettering on the wrapping to convey that this represents chocolate? No, I did not. My encouragement to those who are experimenting with mixed media and layering techniques is to keep it simple and describe the essence visually. Even the simplest representations can get complicated when finalizing a piece so it is prudent to start simple since it can get complicated in a hurry.

Also, take note, once again, that the entire piece is not covered with extreme detail. The viewer must have a place to rest their eyes and then they will stay focused on what you want them to focus on. If everything is covered with detail from edge to edge...the viewer will have no clue where to look. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Playful Dance"

($40.00....6" x 6"....mounted on a 1/8" depth clayboard panel)


"The colors invited me to join in their playful dance." Of course, we all know that colors do not have the power to actually speak and offer up invitations, but they do have a way of captivating your imagination. In that sense, it is an unspoken invitation. Color is wonderful!

This piece was done with pouring medium. The blue and white were my base colors that merged over the very wet 140lb HP watercolor paper. The other colors were added one right after the other, but the small isolated color spot was an afterthought....not knowing what the quote would be. It is quite playful and fits the quote perfectly. By placing the lettering between the two detailed color shapes, there is cohesion in the composition. Lettering can almost be considered the needle and thread that binds two or more shapes together.

Laying down a light color first, adds another layer of depth and interest which would not have been there had it not been done. The blue also introduces the cool side of the color wheel, otherwise, it would have been a totally warm color palette. Even though violet can go either way, in this case it is a red violet which causes it to lean towards the warm side. Another interesting color fact is the hot pink...but even though the root color is red, the addition of a lot of white causes it to trend towards the cool side. Just a few more things to think about concerning color and composition.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Creative Power"

($40.00.....6" x 6"....mounted on a 1/8" clayboard panel)


"Creative power erupts from the fire of passion." Try doing anything without a deeply felt passion and it shows up in the work immediately. It is the passion that compels us all to go that extra bit to make something as good as it can be. There have been many negative connotations to the word "passion", but today we are looking at its absolute necessity in the creative process.

This piece was created by laying down horizontal bands of color on very wet 140 lb. HP watercolor paper. I wanted to see what would happen if I laid the color down and did nothing else to redirect the flow of color. Just by virtue of the paper being more wet in one area or the table not being completely level...it went its own way. You can clearly see how pure the colors are when there is no external factor (like a marbling tool or plastic fork) affecting the flow of the paint. There is minimal blending of color. This is good to know if you want very intense color and very little gradated effect going on.

The shapes of color are also more defined with a more prominent display of hard edges. One line of lettering was all that was needed because the piece is so intense. It is still amazing to me how one line of lettering going from edge to edge creates another division of space and is an elegant touch to a dramatic piece. Just a few more things to think about.


Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.