"Leaf Duet"

($80.00.......8" x 8"......watercolor on Fabriano 300 lb. CP....mounted on a flat panel)

"Fall duets hang on with fierce determination." Fall is definitely here and so I have my North Carolina leaves from last year all mounted in a journal for easy reference. This is my favorite time of the year!

If you have ever been on a trip to the "Smokies" or the East Coast during the fall, you will undoubtedly love to bring some of those treasured leaves home with you. You might even find some in Central Texas worth preserving. I will share my way of preserving them just in case you're interested.

After gathering your leaves...tuck them between wax paper and place them in a book. (preferably with a rock on top to give them a good pressing) When you return home, take them outside and spray them with Spray Acrylic Coating and lay them out to dry. (both sides)

You are then ready to mount them in a journal with gel matte medium (undiluted). Glob a lot of medium over the stem area and then leave to dry overnite. It does take awhile since you must wait for the gel matte medium to completely dry before going to the next page.  The color will stay for a long time...like several years or longer. They also look good just piled in a wooden bowl for a centerpiece. 

The leaves today were begun with a soft neutral tint in the background on very wet paper. I did a bit of writing in the wet pigment with a bamboo pen and then left it to dry.

The leaf color was not painted with one glaze. After drawing the leaf shapes on the paper very lightly with a pencil, I painted them with a dilute portion of raw sienna on dry paper...blotting every so often with a kleenex. This first glaze was dried with a hair dryer and then I began the second glaze with green and raw sienna fairly diluted and also blotting with a kleenex. This glaze was then dried.

The last glaze was sepia + the green color + a touch of alizarin crimson. This was applied and dried in the same fashion. The last bit was the leaf tips and a few spots of sepia with a bit of the last glaze. After painting in the leaf tip, I banged the brush in water and squeezed out the excess water and then softened the edge of the leaf tip and spread the brown out a bit. The spots where placed on with the tip of the brush and then some extra was splattered very finely into the background. I also did a very, very light glaze of the yellow green mixture from top to bottom...right over the leaves.

Lettering was done with a mechanical pencil sharpened on a sandpaper block and held completely vertical to get as fine a line as possible and to shade the down strokes. 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.

"Point of View"

(unavailable....water soluble oils)

"Point of view determines what you see." Not only is this true in art, but it is true in life. A particular point of view about anything will determine outcome.

My experimenting rages on...literally...and I am once again reminded that paintings are made of shapes. It is good to remember this when taking photos as well. Look for contrasts and shapes to get some photographs you can actually use as a reference. In this piece, I probably could have done a better job of visually showing that this barn and foreground tree are at the foot of a hill of green grass with no blue sky showing. So one of the things I learned is that I might want to include blue sky in the photo for a more convincing piece.

However, I am satisfied with the fact that all four corners are designed. And the lettering is inscribed vertically along the right hand side without interfering with the image. I did do an under painting of a "grayed down" orange with acrylic paint before beginning. Hopefully, you will soon see more abstracted landscapes with more lettering included in the background. I plan to have a departure from this to an even more abbreviated image with some of my mixed media techniques also included.

My plan is to do what I know will work over time. And what I know works is that anyone who has a very strong desire to learn something can definitely do it if there is a desire to stay in the game and learn how to be very observant. I am now convinced that the skill of keen observation is foundational to learning art. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Determination"

($40.00.....6" x 6".....Open Acrylics on a Gessobord)

"Determination hangs on to the bitter end." The comparisons that can be made between nature and life are stunning. This tree had only a few leaves left before being done for the winter. The remaining leaves reminded me of those persons who are determined to hang in there until the goal is reached.

By choosing a palette knife as a way of delivering the paint to the surface, many unexpected things will happen by virtue of the tool. There are some artists who do very realistic work with a palette knife, but I am not inclined to do so. The idea of capturing the essence of something and not trying to control every mark is exhilarating to me. The palette knife is the ultimate mark making tool.

I am in the process of creating some larger pieces on linen canvas so that I have cropping options and then choose the way I want to present the piece after the fact rather than before. One never knows how something will turn out, so it is quite nice to be able to mount a piece on a 1.50" depth clayboard and to even change the size. So I only share this with you in case you have not thought of these other options. If you begin with a predetermined size, you are absolutely locked into that space with no option but to start over if it doesn't turn out well.

Another thing I have been observing is the amount of visuals that come before our eyes on a daily basis. I have concluded that every artist needs to consider that fact and not create the predictable. That's why "deconstruction" and throwing very unexpected things into a piece is so mesmerizing. It simple creates more interest, and yet it still needs to be well designed. It's an interesting thing to observe and I would encourage deep thought on this issue. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.