"Psalm 103:1" (draft 4)

I only thought I would be posting the final today. On viewing the piece this morning and also viewing several times during the day yesterday, I realized I would like to push the layering a bit further. The title has also changed slightly to Psalm 103:1...since it is a very long Psalm.

My desire is to improve my skill level in layering letters and incorporating more brush lettering. Brush lettering is very expressive and compelling. This morning I spent 1.50 hours practicing and finally writing a few words on the piece.

One of the best brushes to use for brush lettering is a Pentel Pointed brush that comes with cartridges. I never use the cartridges for fine art pieces since they will fade. After removing the cartridge, I cleaned the brush thoroughly of the cartridge ink and then mixed up some gouache on a paper plate with a palette knife and then dipped the brush in a bit of water and "paletted" the brush in the gouache on the paper plate. The surface of the piece had already been prepared for lettering by brushing on a mixture of (2) parts water to (1) part gel matte medium. I generally apply (3) layers...drying thoroughly in between. This is the same process you would use to apply stamped imagery, graphite, etc. The surface will simply not receive other media because it is too slick from the spray acrylic coating applied to secure the previous layer.

I have already sprayed this surface again with spray acrylic coating. So after I have decided on the finaly lettering placement...I will need to brush on the dilute gel matte medium again to prepare the surface for writing. As of right now, I am strongly considering adding some more plain rice papers and possibly a bit more charcoal pencil sparingly before doing the final lettering. It is all about values and choosing what to conceal and reveal.

When layering lettering or other line work, it is necessary to carefully consider the values of the background letters or line work. The final lettering will be either dark gray or black and will integrate well with the darks of the glass and the slivers of black showing from the base support. For that reason, I did blot my brush lettering with a kleenex dipped in water and squeezed out to push that lettering into the background further.

So you can see that the process really slows down towards the end and more time is needed to process design decisions. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Psalm 103" (draft 3)

(image 1)

(image 2...cropped section from image 1)

On this occasion of Mother's Day, you will be blessed by Psalm 103:1. This is the last draft and so I will be posting the final with lettering tomorrow. Enjoy your day!

Since yesterday, I have added more plain rice papers to create some more translucency and transparency. I then sprayed it with spray acrylic coating and decided it needed a touch of color. I chose not to use mono printed rice papers since that would create too much texture and compete with the texture in the glass.

Soft pastels came to my rescue...again. And they really must be soft pastels which contain enough pigment to do something for you. Chalk pastels are cheap and should be thrown in the trash. They are useless. After choosing my color to go with the blue/green in the glass, I used a break off knife to shave some onto a foam disposable plate. Using a hake brush or something akin to a blush brush, I placed the brush in the pastel powder and brushed it onto the rice papers. It was stronger than I wanted so I took a kneaded eraser and removed a lot of it until I had a light tint.

Soft pastels are useful for delivering color to a piece without creating hard lines when you need some color in a particular area. It works with any medium. If your surface is too slick to receive it...sponge on a coat of Liquitex Clear Gesso which creates a textured surface for this very purpose. The last thing I did today was to use a regular .05 mechanical pencil as well as a charcoal pencil to create some erratic line work and a few words. I then smudged the lines with my finger and also used the kneaded eraser to make it a lot more subtle.

And lest you think that you might be copying someone else's style by including these erratic and gestural lines in your work...not to worry. Every mixed media artist on the planet knows how to do this and many make it the hallmark of their work. Katherine Chang Liu....Fred Otnes...Peggy Brown...just to name a few. These lines add energy to the piece and also make connections between the shapes. It's like advanced "scribbling". If you know how to scribble, you can do this. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Psalm 103" (draft 2)

(draft 2)

Psalm 103 is still center stage. I am going particularly slow with my steps this time to completely show how to combine elements to create opacity, translucency, and transparency. My love for glass is meshing with my love of mixed media. In just a few weeks, I will have completed 800 postings and what I have learned about my own artistic voice is helping me now to completely focus on the above mentioned elements as the core of all my work.

Yesterday's posting was completely easy to do because very few decisions needed to be made. Today, I have cropped that larger section of 300 lb. HP down to a 6" x 12" size. It has not been adhered to the 2" depth clayboard yet. When there are three dimensional inclusions, it is best not to adhere those to the support until the piece is mounted on the clayboard.

My decisions about where to crop had everything to do with the title of the piece. The glass has areas with no darker powders fused so I was careful to make sure that Psalm 103 could be read through the glass. It was also important to include as many of the tabs which create that half moon shape. (A wonderful thing to look for when purchasing very old bibles for this type of work.) It creates a repetitive shape, which in turn, creates rhythm.

Even though you cannot see it clearly in my posting, I also placed some metallic leaf where the glass will be mounted...being careful not to cover all of the text. I also have a piece of plain rice paper which falls underneath the glass to further heighten the value of some of the letters in the glass. So you can see that the process now slows down a bit and becomes much more deliberate.

There will be more plain rice papers added, but I stopped with the sections of metallic leaf and one layer of rice paper to show you the translucent effect that one single sheet of rice paper creates. (Remember that it will not become translucent until sprayed with Krylon Spray Acrylic Coating.) The metal leaf, of course, is completely opaque and covers up everything.

You will also notice that I overlapped some of the plain rice papers over the metal leaf to create interesting values, shapes, and edges. The choice of placement for the metal leaf was based again on edges. I tend to frame things out with my elements (loosely) unless I choose an all over grid format arrangement. Almost all of the metal leaf is position on an edge of the perimeter.

Even though there were not too many additions today, there were many choices made. As I move forward, I will be choosing what part of the text I want to remain translucent and what part I want to cover up completely. And the choice of transparency has already been made with the glass. One other thing...if you are not into glass fusing, you can also use stained glass. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Alive and Active" (Draft 3)

(unavailable)

"Words become alive and active when they take root in the heart." The quote is now becoming a part of the piece with the word "active" written in  pencil and pointed brush lettering. Tomorrow I will be posting the final.

After posting yesterday, I did crop this piece to its final size of 6" x 12". The paper is 300 lb. HP but I have yet to adhere it to a 2" depth clayboard. This is the beauty of working on paper or canvas that is larger than the final cropping and before it is adhered to a board or placed in a frame. (The lettering is much more difficult to achieve on a board 2" off of the table.)

In addition to cropping the piece, I also added some more pain rice papers to cover up more of the black gesso in the background. By doing this and by mounting the initial metal leaf and papers in a very erratic grid format, I now have some energetic black lines that give some definite shapes and structure to the piece.

After adhering more plain rice papers, I sprayed the entire piece with stray acrylic coating and left it to dry overnight. This morning I prepared the surface for lettering with (2) parts water to (1) part gel matte medium with hair dryer in left hand and brush in the other hand. Three coats were applied and dried thoroughly with a hair dryer.

The last thing today was some gestural writing with a pencil and then a pointed brush. It was an empty Pentel brush using burnt sienna and bit of gray gouache. Initially, it was too prominent, so I dipped a paper towel in water, squeezed out the excess and blotted the lettering to make it look aged and lighten the value. By choosing the burnt sienna, I have created an echo with the aged papers. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

"Amen!"

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


"Say amen to something every day!" It will make you feel good...like everything is right in the world again. Try it!

This is a very, very, experimental piece of artwork. I took it to the brink of destruction several times and then decided it was done when nothing else came to mind for me to do.

It began as a mono print on rice paper that was cropped and adhered to a clayboard. It is necessary to attach it to a hard support in order to work since rice paper is thin. Silver leaf, an extra piece of rice paper mono printed, the flourished Amen, and finally some fragments of metallic leaf were adhered in that order.

The method of deconstruction was used to add interest and make the darker purple piece more integrated into the support. After I adhered everything, the darker purple piece was still damp from the gel matte medium so I lifted up an edge an tore it off as far as it would go. I did that in several other places, revealing the mono print underneath. It truly is another spontaneous technique that yields good results in situations like this.

The quote took a back seat and is barely noticeable in the upper left hand corner. Writing it in pencil also helped to keep it subtle. I can't decide whether I like the end result completely, but I am pleased at the very strong shapes that were established. The ornate lettering is an old style which contrasts well with a very contemporary look. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about. So if you're frustrated with anything today, try deconstruction. It's very therapeutic!


Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"The Right Door"

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


"Choosing the right door produces the best opportunity." We cannot always know what's behind every door, but some doors are so dilapidated that it becomes obvious not to go through that one. Choices are everything...literally! It is best to choose the right door.

This is an odd piece in the way it came together. There are actually two backgrounds, one adhered to the other. The top piece was torn, creating an erratic edge and then painted magenta. In person, it is very bright because of the silver and gold leaf, but the brilliance cannot be seen on a computer screen.

The door was painted with gouache and a palette knife and I felt like writing a very erratic line of lettering. Sometimes, I just get tired of everything being regimented and feel the need to break out into a "scrawl".

You can also see a clear division of space with the magenta producing a nice edge and several other shapes. This piece is all about texture which fits my mood today. It's different and it's funky and fits in perfectly with a relaxed Saturday.  So there you have it. Just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Don't Stop!" (sold)

(sold)

"Working through the process means to start and don't stop!" Any endeavor requires this kind of determination. It has both secular and sacred implications that affect every area of life. It sounds easy, but it is not. Just something to think and pray about for a very long time.

Circles are symbolic of eternity. The most common use of a circle is probably a wedding band symbolizing eternal love. In this piece I have chosen to include circles made out of steel. One is a sculpture and the other is a "gear". Gears imply that something is happening....there is work going on. So in thinking about working through a process, it was the perfect symbol.

In thinking about the division of space, I chose to place the lettering where it would connect or overlap other shapes that would then touch two edges of the design space. The more I do this, the more I've come to realize just how important it is to have strong divisions that go from edge to edge. So the placement of metallic leaf and collage elements becomes very strategic.

One more decision that added depth was the inclusion of charcoal powder brushed  over both sections and sides of the metallic leaf. It mimics the "smudging" techniques that also create so much depth. Just something to try or think about.

"Happy Companions" (sold)

(sold)

"Coffee and creative thinking are happy companions." On a Monday morning this is particularly appropriate. Grab a cup of "java" and head on into your day!

Metallic leaf can certainly add some contrast and a bit of "bling" to a piece of art. There are many ways to adhere the leaf to the surface. The method I've been using is Liquitex Pouring Medium brushed over the surface. Not waiting to allow this to dry, I immediately press the leaf into the "tacky" surface. It is helpful to use the leaf that is attached to a piece of glassine paper. It now comes that way in the imitation leaf bought in craft stores. It's much easier and you don't need to fuss with leaf flying over the studio.  If buying real leaf, order patent gold or patent silver.  The word patent indicates that it is attached to glassine and not the loose leaf.

Another aspect of metal leaf that is often overlooked is the fact that it also has a color temperature. Silver is cool and gold is warm. Copper would also be in the warm category. In this piece, I chose to use silver to contrast with the warm orange and push the cool temperature in the piece to the dominant side. Blue is also cool, so by adding the silver, cool color then occupies most of the design space.

Another exciting thing to do with metal leaf is to lay it over textured areas or score it with a sharp instrument. In this piece, I scored it with an etching tool and then burnished it with steel wool. Just something to think about.

"Listen to Your Heart" ($60.00)

(adjusted price....$60.00.....mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)

"Listen to your heart and guard it with prayer." This quote expresses the meaning of a verse from Proverbs 4:23...."Guard your heart above all else for out of it flow the wellsprings of life." To put it in even simpler language, for me, it means that I need to pay attention to my internal dialog. Negative thoughts about myself or others will lead down the wrong path.

You might say about this piece...where are the hearts and why did she include a pot and bowl? One reason is that a still life that includes simple and beautiful forms is very meditative and leads me into a prayerful spirit. There is something quite peaceful and settling about a still life arrangement.

So if you already have a somewhat successful division of space and soft colors, you might want to think about creating one or more very simple still life arrangements by carefully selecting some collage elements. Gel matte medium (undiluted) is the adhesive of choice for most artists doing this type of work. And if you have as many old magazines lying around as I do, then you might enjoy spending an afternoon on this type of project. Adding some black gesso plus metallic leaf is also an option. I used GAC 200 to adhere the leaf. Scoring the leaf adds a bit more drama and texture as well. Just something to try or think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"A Clearer View" ($60.00)

(adjusted price....$60..00....mounted on a 1.50" depth clayboard)

"The arts offer a clearer view of the human soul." The passion and excellence seen or heard when experiencing the arts is phenomenal! It has the power to cross cultural and language barriers like nothing else can. Perhaps you will have an opportunity to plan such an experience soon...how about this weekend?

This is my first venture in adding collage to my process since starting my blog. The reason I haven't is because it is a very "risky" medium. It can go wrong very quickly. But yesterday I threw caution to the wind and decided to give it a try. (Actually, it was out of necessity since I was traveling, and could not paint in the car!)

The first layer of this piece was gesso and acrylic paint with a few erratic lines and expressive writing. By using the shapes and lines that were already present, I tore up some segments of a magazine. I do think it works, if the colors and concept have a common denominator. By sticking to the theme of going to the theater, and repeating several colors already present in the background, it works. There is a clear center of interest and definite division of space.  There are also some areas that have very little going on which gives the viewer's eye a rest.

It is a fun process because the collage elements can be moved around endlessly until you're satisfied with the arrangement. (A cameral can help so you can document all of your arrangements. Seeing the different arrangements on camera makes it much easier to compare and contrast before deciding.) Just something to try or think about.



Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.

"Hot Commodity" (sold)

(sold)

(12" x 12")

"Wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her." (Proverbs 3: 14, 15) In today's economic world, gold is considered a "hot commodity". However, in this timely verse from Proverbs, wisdom is considered the "hot commodity". It is a profound comparison and worth thinking about on a deep level.

Creating the intense color of rubies in this piece was dependent on Quinocridone Magenta plus Black over a gesso and unprimed base. Even the acrylic paint was not intense enough to suit me so I applied another layer of Magenta Ink (Bordeaux) plus Higgins Eternal to achieve the brilliance.

The bowl was painted with black gesso, followed by gold leaf and Acryl Orange Gold. Because of the inks and gouache, the surface had to be prepared to receive lettering without disturbing the first layers. Here it is again....after spraying the surface (2x) lightly with Acrylic Spray Coating...mix (2) parts water to (1) part gel matte medium by brushing it on and blowing with a hair dryer simultaneously. The acrylic coating and gesso often cause a "resist" which is the reason heat must be applied while brushing. (It helps to secure your paper to the surface with a removable tab or removable tape so you can use both hands to paint and dry.)

The gel matte medium eventually attaches to the surface and then the lettering can be done. Just something to try or think about.

This piece is currently in an exhibit at "Open Doors Gallery" at Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, Tx.