"Su Camino" (draft 1)

"Espera en Jehova, y guarda su camino." This verse from Psalm 37: 34 is translated...."Wait for the Lord and keep his way." It is a short verse packed with two specific commands that give guidance in all kinds of circumstances.

This piece is a continuation of a new path I am taking with acrylics and fiber on canvas. If you look closely, you can see texture and writing in the background.

The background was created with Super Heavy Gesso (Liquitex) on a 12" x 12" stretch canvas. I used a strip of grid like mesh used in taping and bedding a wall by laying it in rows on top of the wet gesso and picking it up with a palette knife. This was repeated until the whole piece had this texture. I then used a bamboo pen to write my text in Spanish at the top and bottom.

After all was completely dry (overnight), I primed it with black gesso...allowed that to dry....and then mixed up the yellow orange color from Fluid Acrylics. This mixture was applied with a sponge brush in two applications...drying in between.

After the last coat of paint was thoroughly dry, I lightly sanded it to reveal some of the black and white gesso underneath and cause the texture to be more visible. While all of that was going on, I was also painting black gesso on my fiber followed by sanding, painting, sanding, painting, etc. until the texture you see today was achieved.

It has not been adhered to the support because I like to write on a flat, hard surface rather than fighting with a canvas. Of course, lettering will make all the difference in the world and I will be posting that tomorrow. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Psalm 100" (final)

(final)

($350.00......18" x 24"......Mixed Media & Kiln Formed Glass on 300 lb. HP....Mounted on a 2" Depth Cradled Board)

This is quite a lengthy psalm to write out completely, but if you click on the image, I am quite sure you can read the entire psalm. You might also notice that I have "weighted" some of the words more heavily and made some of them a bit larger so that the eye falls on those phrases first. It is my experience that not everyone will take the time to stand in front of a piece and read every word so it is prudent to emphasize some words that can be read in a glance.

As a recap, I would like to draw your attention to several things. First of all, the initial underlying bands of color from the first draft are still visible in the piece, except for the areas around the edge where I painted them out with black gesso. What you are seeing is opacity, transparency, and translucency in those bands of color which create an ethereal look. I kept the bright green and parts of the turquoise, and much of the black in its original state.

Some of those areas were diminished a bit by laying down fragments of psalms from old bibles plus some plain rice paper to tone down the very textured monoprinted rice papers that went down in the second and third draft. White and black gesso were also used to tone down and block out certain areas.

Then rubbing alcohol and a stiff brush were used to highlight some of the areas that were covered a bit too much by the dilute white gesso. And in between all of these layers, the paper was sprayed (2x) with spray acrylic coating followed by brushing on 2 parts water to 1 part gel matted medium (3x)....drying in between. It's been over a week since I started and that's the kind of time it takes to create an 18" x 24" piece.

However, the time would have been greatly reduced if I had worked on it all day for several days. The time spent on this piece was (2-3hrs) per day. The piece is finished, but I will spray it once again at the end of today and allow it to dry overnight before I adhere it to a 2" cradled clayboard and leave it to dry under a rock overnight.

I will then install the screw eyes and wire...paint the sides....spray the piece again with spray acrylic coating...dry....and finish with a spray varnish. The last thing will be adhering the piece of glass and then it will be totally done! And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Psalm 100" (draft 6)

(draft 6....18" x 24")

Today I realized that I had forgotten just how much longer it takes to do lettering on a large piece. What you see today is my lines ruled with a white charcoal pencil and the roman versals written in skeletal form with a pointed pen. I need several days to finish due to other obligations so the final will be posted on Saturday (I think!)

You can now see where the piece is headed in the final stage. For my lettering art friends, I always write my versals in a skeletal form first just to make sure it reads and flows well before building them up with a Mitchell #6 nib and also a pointed pen on the smaller letters.

When writing free form letters like this, it really does help to draw in some free flowing lines first. It is also a good way to emphasize some of the words by making the space in between the lines larger. I am pleased with the flow, but the real test is after they're finished.

There is a lot going on in this piece, but I hope you can see how the black areas ground the piece and by adjusting some of the other values and toning down the texture, the piece tells the viewer where to look. The focal area is framed in by a band of textured areas with an outer frame of black, but just on three sides. It's a very interesting division of space.

And for my glass friends, a two layer kiln fired piece of glass is a very nice inclusion in a mixed media piece, especially if a part of the glass is transparent. In the case of the glass made for this piece, there is a totally transparent band in the upper center of the glass that magnifies the lettering from an old bible which says "The Book of Psalms". All of the text pages in the piece are also from the psalms. Keeping the main thing, the main thing keeps confusion out of the eye of the viewer.

There are also many "echoes" in this piece as well as a full range of values.  Another thing to notice is that well placed shapes of black and white plus other colors works every time it's tried. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.