"Work It Out" (3) (Process Piece)

It is quite amazing how much preliminary work has to happen in order to create a large piece. Today's piece is my color selection for a 30" x 40" which will eventually have this type of fiber treatment included. Text will be from the Bible, but I haven't made the final decision.

Today's process piece tells me several things. Do I want to paint the back of it with black gesso and take a chance of too much of that black color seeping through the fiber? Probably not, so I will need to be selective in where the black gesso is placed or do it before the exposed portion is completed.

Another important thing I was wanting to test was lettering done with fluid acrylic and an #6 Automatic Pen. It holds a lot of pigment and the writing is done on the corner much like a ruling pen. I did find out that the fiber has to be sealed on the back and prepared for lettering on the front.

The other techniques on this piece were created by writing into the dull brown color with a mop brush dipped into the yellow green color. I then cook a commercial stamp and dipped one end of it into the paint and stamped onto the background. These are textures that are now recorded and will go into my large journal as a reference.

My hope is that I've convinced others who like to do experimental work the efficiency of making notes. Another favorite way of notating "work off" pieces is to cut up some watercolor paper into a small size (i.e. 4" x 4")...glue the sample on the paper....punch a hole in the corner and place on a binder ring. It takes up very little space and provides a ready reference for all of your future pieces. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Work It Out (2)" (Process Piece)

Today's posting is another "process piece" that will continue to inform my decisions about larger works on canvas. Experimenting, making notes, and keeping "process" journals is part of the journey in creating a piece of art.

Yesterday afternoon, I tore off a good size section of fiber and covered it with black gesso. (I laid it on wax paper to keep it from sticking to a surface.)  It took a while to dry, but by evening I applied some Fluid Acrylic in a dull brown color with a "chip brush". (They are the best kind for applying paint to this type of surface.)

While the paint was still wet, I dipped a large "mop brush" into a raw sienna mixture of Fluid Acrylic and lettered directly into the wet paint. Brush lettering '"wet into wet creates a more subtle edge. I then dropped down to the bottom area and wrote with the same brush on dry and primed fiber.

You can also see an area in the middle of a stripe painted with the same brush. While the paint was still wet, I stamped into it with a commercial stamp for a bit more texture. You can see the difference in the stamping by how much paint was on the fiber in different areas.

The last thing I did was write with Bleedproof White Gouache with a pointed brush (WN Sceptre Series) followed by a few words with a pointed pen. It will obviously need to go much larger, but I am leaning towards the pen which gives a crisper finish.

I now have two fabric swatches to add to my large journal book. This will become a ready reference for techniques on fiber. It is wise to make notes on your swatches or cut them down and glue them into a journal and make notes on the journal page. "Process is the breath of creativity." And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Work It Out" (Process Piece)

The text for a large piece I'm working on is from Proverbs. The particular verses have not been decided yet, but today's posting is a "work off" piece created on the same fiber as in the larger work. You're just getting a glimpse at how I work things out. It's similar to rehearsing for a performance.

My goal in creating several "work off" pieces is to see how different instruments of writing and mediums respond to the surface on a 24" x 30" canvas that is ready for lettering. There were several others, but the one you see today is the one that informs me as to how the surface must be prepared to receive gouache and a new medium I'm experimenting with....enamel paint.  (Rust-Oleum from Home Depot)

So the first bit of information that I gleaned from this morning's work is that the back of the fiber must be painted with black gesso. The fiber side where the lettering goes must be prepared with at least (2) coats of (2 parts water to 1 part gel matte medium). If these steps are not taken the gouache bleeds a bit and the enamel paint bleeds a lot. The enamel paint (in black) that you see today was written by dipping a mop brush into the paint and writing by allowing it to drip. It is the perfect medium for this surface to create some expressive lettering.

I also used a ruling pen (the white larger lettering in Spanish) with limited success. On the next "work off" piece, I will be doing some brush lettering loaded with gouache. I also know from yesterday's posting that the Speedball C series works very well on this surface.

And this is the way pieces are put together...especially when they're experimental. The studio then becomes a laboratory to see what works and what doesn't. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Bienvenidos" (final)

($125.00....6" x 12".....Mixed Media on a 2" Depth Cradled Gessobord)

"Cowhide is the welcome mat of Texas." And all of the native Texans out there said...."Amen!"

I hope this process has shown the contrasts that are available by using very shiny acrylic and very textured fiber pieces. If you would like to experiment with fiber, I would suggest a lightweight muslim or something with a slight open weave in neutral/solid color. I have tried heavier fabrics and they are not as easy to manipulate and sand as the lighter weight. I personally gravitate towards a thin muslin fiber. Once the paint gets applied, it becomes stiff, but is very easy to deconstruct using a palm sander.

Another thought about Fluid Acrylics. It is expensive, but it is highly pigmented and brushes on in a thin, but even coat. And even though it takes (3-4) coats, it is quite smooth. This smoother look is very difficult to achieve by thinning down Heavy Body Acrylics. So the combination I have found to be really cool is to texturize Super Heavy Gesso by spreading it on with a palette knife and then laying different textures into it or scribbling into it with a bamboo pen. The Fluid Acrylic adheres to the gesso quite nicely, creating a very glossy and textured surface that is created in the gesso.

Experimentation is very important, even if it does not yield a successful piece. What it does yield is information on mark making, materials, process, and how to develop a strategy for a larger work. So the piece you see today has helped me work out the "kinks" for something that will be a 30" x 40" size. Doing it small first saves me a lot of time. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"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.

"Experimental Watercolor"

Today's posting is simply an experimental piece that may get finished....or not. This was created as a demo piece in a mark making class I taught yesterday. Lots of marks were made and the atmosphere was "electric"!

We worked on several types of papers because papers receive the medium differently from each other. The paper used for today's piece was Rives BFK. It is a print making paper and a bit softer than other papers used for watercolor.

Because of its ability to receive impressions, it is a natural choice for inscribing into the paper and paint while it is wet. And you can clearly see those marks in the background. They can often look like pencil marks, but the inscribed erratic lines that are a bit diffused were written with a bamboo pen into wet watercolor. That first color is a neutral tint.

After leaving this first layer completely alone until it was dry (no hair dryer)...I added some darker erratic lines and gestural marks with a pointed pen and FW Ink. This particular ink is a good choice for this application because it is acrylic and will not bleed when a watercolor wash is brushed over. These lines can be dried with a hair dryer and then shapes of color can be applied with a broad watercolor brush on dry paper.

It is good to leave some of the paper white and not to make more than two passes with the water color in the same area. (Over brushing is the death of this technique.) If you choose to use two colors...dry the first layer of color before applying the second color. It might be fun to see how these very same techniques work on Arches 140 lb. HP or Fabriano 140 lb. CP. These papers are thin enough to ripple when wet, so if working too large...you may want to consider taping your paper to a masonite board with watercolor tape.

This whole process reminds me of layered glass, so I am deeply interested. It's definitely worth a try. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Floating Flower"

(unavailable....4" x 6".....on 300 lb. Fabriano CP.....mounted on masonite)

"Floating flower is pure nostalgia." There is something quite mesmerizing about looking at a flower floating in water. This is my interpretation of my hibiscus floating in water from yesterday's posting.

This piece is altogether experimental. In fact, truth be known, most pieces are experimental. The most creative and dynamic images do occur when the piece ends up in a different place than planned. Too much planning can result in a contrived image unless the piece is totally realistic and the technique is flawless.

You might be surprised to know that this piece was originally turned upside down from what you see today and the blue shape was actually an old wall image I was studying and ended up using masking fluid and glazing techniques. There was also a ledge in the wall with a partial flower hanging down. When I finished the flower, it didn't look right to me so I turned it upside down and glazed some orange into the blue / brown shape. And as it turned out the light blue shape has the same curving lines as in the flower and provides a partial echo of the flower shape.

"Changing horses in the middle of the stream"....happens frequently. It can be fun to figure out how to make everything work, but there always seems to be an alternative solution. So the lesson learned today is to view the piece in a different direction before making the final decisions. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Old Shack" (final)

(final)

(unavailable at this time.....finished size is 8" x 16")

"Collections of memories often reside in places like an old shack." I am not quite sure where we lived when I was around age six or seven, but I do know that there was an old shack out back that seemed like the perfect place to set up my table and chairs, along with dishes, and serve mud pies to my dolls and stuffed animals. You probably have a similar story of an old shack with tools or other paraphernalia that captured your imagination.

So forget everything I said yesterday about setting this piece aside for awhile. I kept looking at it last evening and this morning I knew that it would be better to change up the sizes of the color blocks a bit by making another cut or two and then create a larger color block on the right hand side by having the low intensity red color touch three sides of the design space. That is also true of the blue areas and by cutting a bit off of one of the other blocks, I now have some alternation going on.

I also came up with a quote that happened to fit perfectly at the top of the small painting of the shack. However, this surface (because of the heavy acrylic) was a bit "bumpy" to write on so I did not spray it this morning and if I feel the need tomorrow, I will rewrite the quote by washing it off and doing it again. (The brown lettering was written with WN VanDyke Brown.)

It's all about leaving open as many options as possible. And that's why I did adhere the pieces to a 300 lb. HP paper rather than a clayboard....just in case I have the urge to crop it up and do something else. Whatever is decided will be what the piece is telling me to do, but this morning I am satisfied with the outcome and it will probably be mounted to a clayboard on down the line. I could also opt to place it in a frame. Once again, it's all about options. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Transparency"

(unavailable)

There is no quote associated with today's image because it was created to be incorporated into a mixed media piece. There are many of the same lines and edges from yesterday's posting simply because this piece was create from the leftover fragments from that study.

We are all aware that art is a process. What we know in creating a piece of art always stems from our process...the way we work. I like to work by incorporating techniques that I have discovered in isolation. For instance, if I want to see what happens when I lay one element on top of another, I will be inclined to do a small study to see what that looks like before delving into a larger piece with many components. So what you're seeing today is a small study experimenting with transparency.  This study informs me about how much texture I would want to include vs. how much transparency I want.

In yesterday's posting much of the same imagery you see today was fired again after arranging the textured black and white areas on a sheet of opaque yellow glass. In today's image, I laid those textured pieces of white and black on top of another piece of glass that had been fired with transparent powders sifted on top of Tekta (clear glass) rather than an opaque piece of glass.

However, the powders were not sifted randomly, but in a gradated fashion by starting with a heavy sifting at one end of the glass and going lighter as I continued sifting to the other end. This created a touch of color, but illuminated many of the  hard edges and shapes which you saw yesterday.

It's simply another way of being more subtle and also allowing other images to be seen through the glass. So I laid the two layer collage of fired glass over an old text page to show the level of transparency. This gives me a good idea of what to expect when I incorporate it into my mixed media work. And so it goes with my particular process. 

I think the "take away" here is to think through your process carefully and experiment in small pieces before trying to complete a more complex work. So many things in process are not particularly difficult, but must be broken down into "bite size" segments in order to get a clearer picture of how to integrate your elements together. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Imagination"

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

"My imagination is fully alive in the spiritual realm of the unknown." Removing all of the obstacles to living a full life is best accomplished by living in the spiritual realm where the Holy Spirit resides. (This piece is a possibility for an upcoming exhibit.)

This gestural landscape is part of a series of experimental pieces I have been creating to allow for a backdrop for gestural writing and mark making. By nature of the challenge, I must keep the imagery simple with minimal detail. Most of these pieces have been created from a mental reference of what constitutes a landscape rather than looking at a reference photo.

In spite of the abstract quality I am looking for, I am still taking lots of pictures of skies in all kinds of weather. Just filling my mind with these images absolutely informs placement, shapes, and color notes. It is also fun to depart completely from the colors that typically describe a skyscape.

After creating 103 oil paintings in recent months, I can verify that it is an excellent way to speed up the learning process, but I can also verify that there is much more to learn and think about in every part of the process. My next thought is to do one right after the other until my internal critic is dead and the paint just flows and "fussing" over the piece completely stops.

So my encouragement today is to set aside a few hours and simple sketch, paint, create a glass collage, etc. until the process becomes free flowing. Shut everything else out of your mind and simply do it. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Sunlit Meadow"

($200.00.....8" x 10"....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord....Presented in a Custom Frame)

"Sunlit meadows dance in the light." There is something about the light shining through trees and revealing a sunlit meadow. It reminds us that the landscape is vibrating with life.

True to one of my goals for the new year...I am working on a larger piece for at least one posting per week. Although I have gotten a bit carried away with my Gestural Landscapes in a 6" x 12" size. Today's piece is an 8" x 10"and was painted from one of my Texas Hill Country photos. It is more abstracted than some of my other ones, but I suspect that is a result of several days of the Gestural Landscape pieces. 

And that brings me to my talking point for today. It is good to go back and forth between mediums because they influence each other. Even my mixed media pieces are influenced by my oil paintings and vice versa. It enables you to see a lot of your work from different inspirations and notice the common denominators that are unique to you. It is good to know what those particular marks, techniques, and other elements are so that you can hone them and mature in your artistic voice.

After this morning, I could clearly see how the gestural marks keep coming to the forefront and I am pretty much convinced that I need to go more abstract with the landscapes done en plein aire as well as the ones using a reference photo. It only makes sense, but I did not see it as clearly until I began working on the (10) Gestural Landscapes. I absolutely need areas of the painting that have little or no detail to incorporate expressive lettering. 

And of course, all of the palette knife practice helps me to be able to do the same types of works in acrylic so that I can prepare the surface for lettering and do it more precisely for those who simply tolerate gestural "stuff". I do know who my audience is and realize that often the readability factor is hugh. No problem. I will just do both...and maybe in the same piece!

And so go my thoughts today. It may seem like rambling, but I hope it will inspire you to have these same conversations with yourself. It's very instructive. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Open My Eyes"

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

"Open my eyes to see wonderful truths in your instructions." The text in this piece is from Psalm 119:18 (NLT) It is a potential piece for an upcoming exhibit.

Another "Gestural Landscape" without giving heed to the natural order or color of an actual landscape. The focal point is color. I am enjoying doing these because they create a wonderful backdrop for gestural writing and expressive mark making.

I purposefully try not to have straight bands of color, but allow the palette knife to do its work of creating an erratic edge. And from a distance, no one would suspect that there was lettering in the piece. Using techniques that actually integrate the lettering this well keeps the piece looking like an abstract oil painting. The lettering is an extra surprise for those who view the painting up close.

Some lettering artists still prefer lettering to be placed in the middle of the page of a white sheet of paper. I must admit that those types of pieces have their own personal charm, but to be competitive with other artists who are doing everything under the sun, not to mention the millions of images on the internet, it is important to combine disciplines to come up with other ways to visually communicate.

As for me, I like both approaches, but it is quite exhilarating to throw caution to the wind and let loose with some very free and expressive approaches. It's all part of the process. I have friends who paint very tightly and realistically and it's beautiful. I have other friends who are somewhere in the middle between realism and impressionism. So my encouragement is to try it all and notice the common denominators that keep pulling you in a specific direction. For me it is the "gestural mark" and the inclusion of lettering in every piece whether it's oils, mixed media, or glass. 

Once you decide what your common denominators are...you will have discovered your artistic voice. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Visual Memory"

(unavailable....8" x 10"....Water Soluble Oils on Gessobord)

"Color is the visual memory maker of life." This is a totally abstract piece with color as the focal point. The quote is totally unreadable and isn't even there really. Some days I simply need to experiment. This was one of those days.

It is often said that we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes. I heartily agree with that quote and today is a prime example. It is a totally experimental piece of work that I am calling "Gestural Landscapes". Some of them will succeed and others will not. And that is the nature of experimental work. 

So the point is...to act as though you are going to create a masterpiece by working on good surfaces with good materials just in case. One of the major things I learned about this piece is that my left side of the brain got involved too much. I was over thinking the process and consequently overworked the piece. Yesterday's piece was far more successful because I had a very hard deadline (mosaic class coming to my studio) and I could not "fuss" with the process.

This harkens back to all of my narrative about the value of timed work. Often, the imposition of a timed situation causes it to work out better. I absolutely think that is the case in this type of work. But alas, it is very difficult to break lifelong habits of "tweaking" a piece to death. I also remembered a very wise teacher who said that the hardest decision an artist makes is knowing when to stop.

And so it is with abstract pieces. They are called abstract because of the abbreviation of an image or no image at all. So if you are compelled to try this kind of work, my advice is to keep the bands of color simple with just enough laying down of the color with a brush or palette to cover up the surface and perhaps to blend with the edge of a previous color and then leave it alone. Overworking is the death knell of gestural and abstract pieces.

You might wonder if it is wiser to wipe the paint and begin again or to keep the piece as a reminder of what not to do. I definitely vote for keeping the piece in tact. One of the purposes of doing experimental work is to do a lot of it and then compare and contrast your work before selecting the one for exhibition. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Behold the Lamb (1)"

(unavailable.....6" x 12"....Water Soluble Oils on 300 lb. HP)

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." This is an experimental piece to add to my collection so that I have many choices to choose from before submitting the work for an upcoming Easter exhibition. My intent was to showcase very light values against very dark ones to visually describe the Lamb of God who is also the Light of the World.

This is my fourth sky scape in recent days, but I am still not quite ready to say "yes to the piece". I am just letting you all get a close up view of my process. 

Process is always on my mind because it involves a complex strategy of coming up with a concept and actually birthing it into a piece of art. I am learning a lot about painting a sky scape. One of the main things I'm learning is to have a strong contrast between very blended ribbons of color and some that are laid down in one spot with no blending. These are also much easier to do and more convincing (at least to me) if they are painted with a palette knife. 

The other very valuable thing to learn is that this is a pathway to creating full blown abstracts without using the typical color of the sky, but rather using any number of color combinations and staying with horizontal bands as the main format. And even placing a gestural stroke of intense color in one spot can send the piece into ecstasy.

So I am now thinking about devoting an entire afternoon with papers lined up and doing one right after the other with some very good music playing. It helps if it has a lot of passion with good rhythm. What this will do, is get rid of the internal critic and soon you will develop a rhythm.

If you choose to paint on unmounted canvas or 300 lb. HP Watercolor Paper.....you will have many cropping options after the paint has dried. For instance, you can have some narrow vertical pieces or some wide, but skinny horizontals that could even be viewed as a series. 

So if you're just starting out and want to see what the paint will do and give you some experience mixing color with a limited palette, this is a wonderful place to start. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Swept Away"

(unavailable...6" x 12" experimental piece)

"Swept away by ever changing clouds..." This is more of a phrase than a quote. Whether it's clouds or circumstances, being swept away aptly describes the process. And that's why I pray to an unchanging God.

This piece was painted on 300 lb. HP Watercolor Paper and is a 6" x 12" size. I plan to do several more, not just sky scapes, but abstract landscapes that I am calling "Gestural Landscapes". Even though the 300 lb. paper is $13.00 for a parent sheet, it is a wonderful surface to work on and because I haven't yet mounted it on an Ampersand Panel, I can set it aside and keep working on this size until I am certain I have my best one. (I can probably paint (8) of this size from a parent sheet.)  So this is just a tip on working on unmounted canvas or paper before mounting and then you have options by choosing the best one out of your collection.

My goal in this experimental piece was to compare the difference between painting with oils on gessobord and Hot Press Paper. I can already say that I like both surfaces. The advantage of the paper is that it is easy to crop and to store until I decide which one I am willing to mount. Anytime you can come up with more options, you will immediately understand the advantage of being able to choose the best from your own work. It gives you confidence in analyzing your own work and knowing you've done your best at this point of your art journey. 

Trying to create a perfect piece with no back up plan can be very frustrating and may weaken the desire to try over and over again. Why not do it over and over again and then have options?  It's a winning strategy!  And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Fleeting Moments"

(unavailable)

"Savor the fleeting moments." There is nothing quite so fleeting as the sky. It moves and changes continuously much like the spontaneous moments of our lives. They should be savored before they are gone forever.

This painting is an intermediate step into the world of abstraction and also an experimentation in the ideal amount of paint for expressive writing. I wiped off the paint at the bottom several times before I was able to have a suitable surface for free movement of my pen. (In this case, I used a very sharp mechanical pencil...sharpened on a sandpaper block. ) 

The reference photo for this piece was taken a few days ago after the rain. It was early morning and the sun was beginning to rise behind the trees. I have had very little experience in painting sky scenes, but that is exactly why it's a practice piece. I will keep this piece in my repertoire so that I can go back and compare with future pieces. It is very instructive to look at all your work as if looking at a collection because your next piece can only begin where the last one left off.

There is nothing wrong with analyzing other artist's work so as to improve, but the fact remains that none of us can do what someone else does. Your work is your work and will be your most comprehensive guide to notice where you are in your art journey. Trying to do exactly what someone else has done....especially without putting in the practice time...will never work and it will be a hugh discouragement in your own process. 

All of this reminds me of another favorite quote..."Doing is the one condition of knowing." The best thing any of us can to do to promote our growth is to go to the studio everyday, even if you don't have a clue what to do next. If you simply begin where your last piece left off, you will soon be inspired and will have completed one more step in this important process called creativity. 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.

"A Visual Proverb"

(unavailable)

"A visual proverb is seen in cactus with snow." A proverb is a pithy saying that often includes an unlikely comparison. One such example is found in Proverbs 26:1...."Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool." And it is very unlikely to see snow where prickly pear cactus is growing. (These was painted from a photo reference taken during a very rare snow storm here in Austin, Texas.)

Horizontal bands are often found in the landscape. It is an exceptionally easy format and works best if the bands have sufficient contrast in color and width. By taking this same photo reference, using the same colors, but creating more of a contrast in the band widths and including no image....only color and texture...or just color a completely abstract piece could be created.  

By looking at your reference photos from a different perspective, you probably have tons of inspiration sitting in your iphoto files. There really is no better inspiration than the created world we live in. For instance, yesterday morning was a great time to take photos of the sky after all of that rain. The size and shape of the clouds was stunning. So be on the "look out" for those special moments when the light is just right for capturing a good "shot".

There are plenty of artists out there who also take several photos and include fragments of them in the same piece by arranging them in horizontal bands or simple cutting them up...mixing and matching to create a whole new piece...very much like a puzzle.  This new reference could then be used as an inspiration for a painting or mixed media piece.  Of course, in these types of work it is good to select photos with several common denominators....such as color, theme, texture, etc.

It would probably take an eternity to complete all of the concepts that come to mind, but there is great satisfaction in experimenting with many techniques that fit into your own particular artistic voice. These are just a few. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Music, Art, and Life"

($50.00.......6" x 6".....Mixed Media on 140 lb. HP.....mounted on a Gessobord)

"Passion and tempo are the core of music, art, and life." If you can think back to the times where you were truly energized and at the top of your game, there were probably two ingredients that entered that equation. Those two things were probably passion and tempo (or pacing). Nothing gets done without them.

This is my warm up for beginning and completing a 12" x 12" mixed media piece. If all goes well, it will be posted on Sunday. 

There are several things I want to emphasize about old text pages and rice paper that you might not have noticed. Old book pages are often stained with age, spills, or simply fingerprints. Placing these text pages in a layering situation with white and pristine rice paper creates a wonderful dynamic. What really brings out the contrast, though, is spraying the piece with Spray Acrylic Coating. It's like a transformation of the piece right before your eyes. All of the "aged" qualities of the old book pages come to life and make an interesting background on which to build the piece. 

Another point about these two materials is the many different directions it can go. What you see today is only one way to use them. If you eliminate the mono printed rice papers and simply create a pen and ink drawing, you will have created a very strong piece which is totally graphic.

You could also change the base color of your support (140 lb. HP) and have a completely different look. Another way is to adhere strips of rectangular shapes in many different sizes and completely cover the support. ( I have done this on canvas.) After this first layer dries thoroughly (overnight)...it is then possible to paint over the entire piece with acrylic paints using a palette knife, sponge brush, or brayer.  The edges of the rice paper will always show through the paint.  I found it very useful to dilute the acrylic paint and apply it in thin layers as though it were watercolors. Fluid Acrylics would be good for this technique. You then have the option to use sgraffito effects, hand cut stamps, et. And if you're really brave, you can get out your sander and truly alter the surface. (I did learn the hard way that it is best to use a variable speed sander for more control. Otherwise you could sand straight through your piece. It would be wise to practice on a work off piece first to get the feel of the sander and what it will do.) 

My mind is whirling with all of the possibilities of rice paper and text pages so the studio will be a sea of activity today. Hopefully, you will also be in yours, working away on your work. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. 

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.