design

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2D Pine Cone

Monday, April 12th, 2010

2D Pine Cone, diagonal 28 x 28 x 1 inches, acrylics on woven canvas strips, wrapped sides painted, signed on the back so as not to intrude on the design.

Translation

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Translation: It’s snowing in Dallas today!

It snowed all day, huge Texas-sized flakes. Here, the snow melts on the warmth of the brick-work in the garden.

Good things come in threes

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Cycad Fossil Chair, Salish NW Pacific culture wooden whorl replica Chair, and Ancient Mayan bowl replica refurbished vintage chair, 29 x 29 x 29 inches mixed media. Read the feature article.

On exhibit and available for purchase February 11th – 27th at Visual Image Fine Art Puiblishing and Gallery Juried Show, 14320 Midway Road, Suite 300, Dallas, Texas. Come and meet all the Artists at the Opening Reception this coming Saturday, Feb. 13th, 3 – 9 p.m.

Good Artist Pals also come in threes

Some friendships will last forever, and how fortunate that three of mine also happen to be artists! Listed in no particular order of favoritism, each are miles apart geographically speaking and personality-wise, but they all have one thing in common: they’ll tell it like it is if you ever need a good critique, and on the flip side of the coin: a smile, a boost of energy; encouragement. I’ve posted my favorite works created by each, and highly recommend browsing each of their websites..

a) Chris Bolmeier: Happy Pigs, Oil on canvas I met Chris on the internet three years ago through Robert Genn’s Painter’s Keys newsletters. Formerly an actress and professional singer, she’s not through yet with entertaining you through humour, song and paint. She often posts mini-videos of herself singing, and her artwork is pure, straight from the gut, and some of the funniest, most original material ever. I chose this piece to share as an absolute favorite, portraying fanatically goofy pigs because it makes me laugh…not just smile, but laugh Christerically every time I look at it. In my opinion her best work is of childhood memories, and some of the baffling stuff that originates from who knows where in the infinite canvas of her mind!

b) Karen Xarchos: Restaurant mural in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Karen and I were neighbors many years ago. We designed and painted murals together in the Ottawa area for a couple of years. Thank goodness for the internet, we’re able to keep in touch when either of us needs a good eye and some honest advice. Karen’s style and mine are vastly different; our pace, the style, the manner and we continue to learn so much from each other. She reminds me to slow down and smell the paint; her blending techniques are amazing.

Karen accepts commissions for canvas pieces like wall borders painted at home, then cleverly installs them with wallpaper paste so home owners can remove the work and take it with them when they relocate. My favorite work of Karen’s are the murals depicting work of the Masters, which are enjoyed by customers dining in many of the Greek and Italian restaurants in the Ottawa area.

c) Virginia Wieringa: Prayer, mixed media collage Virginia and I met about four years ago on an Artists’ interactive website, wetcanvas.com, and I think she still participates there under the avatar name “Veedubya”. I’m positive she’d love to meet you there too. Virginia has well-developed drawing and painting abilities and currently experiments intuitively with mixed media collage. Her work, no matter what the media, reflects her open-mindedness and strong sense of spirituality. Formerly an Art teacher, she’s fun to write to because she puts up with my inner-most silly self and doesn’t hold back her own. My favorite work of Virginia’s are the subtly symbolic collages, and some of the more vivid, energetic paintings that are about two phases pre-Realism.

The Tree of Life Chair

Monday, November 30th, 2009

The Tree of Life, 29H x 29W x 29D inches mixed media; refurbished vintage plastic lawn chair, woven canvas strips and white glue, thin layers of drywall compound: cured, sanded, carved, acrylics paint, varnish. Durable, completely functional.

There was an interesting buildup of colors after a lot of changing colors and repainting the design many times, so the impressions of this chair are created like the other chairs in this series; ancient artifact replicas. The other chairs are listed here.

Bird Party

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Bird Party, watercolors on molded 140 lb watercolor paper, work in progress.

I’m not exactly sure where this is headed, but shapes were cut out of the painting, the paper drenched, folded, stretched and sculpted. Every evening just before sunset in the Dallas-Fort Worth area Grackles, blackbirds, Starlings and pigeons gather on lawns, parking lots, overhead wires and cables, roofs and trees. The event is unique to this area as far as I know, and exciting beyond words to be amongst the thousands and thousands of birds. Here is a previous piece on the subject.

Simple Beauty

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Simple beauty, McKinney Ave. sidewalk, Uptown Dallas, Texas

Grackles

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Grackles, 11 x 10 inches soft pastels and graphite on paper. 20H x 16W” framed.

The Dallas area is notorious for its Grackles. In some places they gather in flocks by the thousands. I’m not exaggerating – they are especially notable during evening just before sunset; bird parties I call them, lined along telephone poles and wires, sitting perfect wingspans apart from each other, and packed full in the trees. Photos can’t capture it all, because the experience also includes their loud calls. It’s fantastic! I love it, but they’re a nuisance in public places like near restaurants and malls. Park your black car under a tree if you don’t mind driving away with a fairly white one when you leave.

What Bigleaf Maples Do At Night

Monday, May 25th, 2009

What Bigleaf Maples Do At Night, 57H x 20W x 4D inches muslin, glue, acrylics on canvas wrapped over custom-built stretcher frame. LED light system in back.

Alain, my husband, signed his name on this also, because he spent the entire week designing, soldering and wiring a system of 30 LED lights for the back. He was not impressed with the eight inadequate push-lights I was initially going to use to create this Day- Night Art. The electric source is a rechargeable 12 volt battery placed neatly in the back, with an easily accessible on-off switch in the lower left corner. He’s not thrilled to ever create another, so it looks like I’ll be learning a little about soldering and electronics, because there are plans to transform the other two canvases exactly the same size as this one. Originally l hoped it could hang in any of four orientations, but that was revised due the battery pack in the back. Thank you Alain for making this piece what it is!

______________________The original blog posts; process:___________________

Nov. 17th, 2008: While finishing the final stages of Sun Shower #4, at this point more study than stroke, I’ve started on the next piece… a bit of mystery thrown into this one just for fun. Hint: Step 1 – Unbleached muslin is painted with glue; place over top parchment paper and turn or lift frequently so it doesn’t stick. Nov. 18th: Step 2– When dry the muslin becomes stiff and can be crumpled, pinched and maneuvered to create 3D textures.

Nov 18th, aft. Step 3 – OK, enough guessing. I have three beautiful sturdy 36 x 12 x 3 inch canvases, hung vertically or horizontally. Each one will have a 3D design of life-sized leaves created with the stiff muslin. This one is of Large Leaf Maples seen on salt Spring Island, B.C. when we were there last summer. They are really this big – about 15 inches across! On these canvases, all dimensional surfaces will be considered; the front, the sides, and possibly some sticking out from the back. Everything will be primed before painting and I love Virginia’s idea to use glue as a resist for the leaf veins. In the above three images the design is still in planning stages.

Nov. 19th – A few thoughts before continuing work: this could be as simple as a sillhouette or painted realistically, still haven’t decided..maybe a compromise of the two, on the abstract side of things. Putting lights in the back could be interesting too, as in the recent Zen Garden #8 but would like to come up with something that does not have a distracting cord.

Nov.21st – Seen here, the leaves have a splotchy base coat of Hansa Yellow Deep, a color chosen because when it is so vibrant when it peeks through built up layers of other colors. Now that the entire piece has color though, I think I prefer the sculptural purity of the unpainted sillhouettes better – something to remember for similar work in the future.

The weight of tinted primer and each application of acrylics makes the fabric limp from of the paint, meaning the creasing process needs to be done all over again once it dries, even on successive layers. Because of this I need to slow down and be more gentle with the painting process also. It’s funny how you can overlook things like that when you are ten steps ahead with anticipation for a new project; things always take much longer than you imagine. There is going to be a lot of stopping and starting with this one, which is exactly how overlapping projects occurs.

Also: looking forward to a day-long workshop tomorrow, learning about Encaustic painting with Deanna Wood. Encaustics is an ancient process of painting with beeswax and natural resins. Not usually a “workshop” kind of Artist because I’m too greedy with my work-time, but this is one of those things that’s best learned from an expert. Am bringing a fabric leaf to the class to see how it could be incorporated and if this entire. Large Leaf Maples piece could benefit.
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All posts and comments for this piece are now combined.

Submitted on 2008/11/18 at 11:48am
If you don’t want to see the seed bits in the muslin, you can get unbleached muslin without the seeds.
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Submitted on 2008/11/18 at 1:03pm
OK Lynda, thanks for offering this valuable tip. With regard to what’s in mind for this project, the rawness of the fabric will provide extra texture, but others may want to know that finer quality muslin is available.
Nikki
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Submitted on 2008/11/18 at 1:53pm
Hmmm…looks like a resist process to me. Is it a mask? You are a very adventurous soul!
Virginia Wieringa
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Submitted on 2008/11/18 at 2:06pm
Nope, not a mask or resist…at least the glue wasn’t initially going to be used as a resist, but once again I owe thanks for the tip via a viewer’s comment – thanks Virginia! It’s true, glue can be used on anything as a paint resist, usually on wood it works similar to crackle glaze (ask me how if anyone is interested). I haven’t tried that technique on raw fabric yet though and for what I have in mind, painting extra glue in strategic places could produce some interesting effects. Let’s see…
Nikki
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Submitted on 2008/11/19 at 1:16am
This is great Nikki. I’ll be back tomorrow to see how this project is coming along.
Jim Drury
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Submitted on 2008/11/19 at 4:12pm
Hi Nikki
This is getting really interesting, can’t wait to see the finish project
Elizabeth
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Submitted on 2008/11/19 at 7:07pm
Thanks for staying tuned Dad and Elizabeth, I also can’t wait to see the finished project – it’s always a mystery even if I think I know what I’m doing.
Nikki
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Nov.27: What Large Leaf Maples Do At Night, detail images of 12 x 36 x 3 inches Muslin, glue, acrylics on wrapped canvas. As seen here I imagined the leaves glowing in the moonlight, which took me to the idea of turning it into a piece that can be viewed differently in a dark corner or at night so the sculptural sillhouette shows best.

Since Saturday’s Encaustics workshop I’d like to try another sculptural piece doing the whole thing with Encaustics tecniques, see right sample. Beeswax doesn’t adhere to acrylics though, so another will need to be planned with that medium in mind right from the start.

Sumac Bushes Chair finished

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Sumac Bushes, 47H x 22W x 16D inches refurbished Director’s Chair, acrylics on canvas.

Four cropped pieces of the 1999 painting that inspired this chair hang above it, updated and framed with red narrow plastic w/glass frames. The chair and small paintings are a set.

Fossils Chair, Homage to The Earth – finished

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

January 12th: While sanding the wood for the Sumac Bushes Chair during coffee breaks, I have started the Fossil Chair, paying homage to the fact that without trees, all life on Earth would not be so prolific, and might not exist at all. Fish and Trilobites are carved into the plaster on the front surface of the chair as well. in this series.

January 13th: Lower detail of Fossil Chair, carved plaster, acrylic paint inlay, sanded. In progress. Trilobites will have painted detail.

Jan. 14th and Jan. 24th updates, below: front details, work in progress on back/underside of the chair. After this stage, all details will continue to be refined with more carving and layers of acrylics. Haven’t done many details on the trilobites yet. The colors in the palm leaf still are too vibrant for a fossil, but are a perfect underlying color because it shows through when layers of blues and black are wiped away with a cloth.

Fossils Chair, Homage to The Earth, started in January and finished today, except for refining the bark fossil patterns on the back/underside. 29 x 29 x 29 inches refurbished vintage chair, canvas strips, plaster, carved, acrylics, varnish, waxed.
The back of this chair has authentic 225 – 345-million-year-old fossilized clam shells embedded around the circumference. Next, the Encyclopedia Britannica listing. The fossils were found in a mixture of playground pebbles in Dallas, TX.
The Cycad leaf fossil replica original was discovered in a Wyoming, USA river basin. Portrayed on the front of the chair is the fossil of a Cycad, the first of palm-like trees that grew about 50 million years ago in a Wyoming riverbed. The first trees on Earth were actually nothing more than woody stems standing in and absorbing nutrients from water. Patterns of fossilized Paleozoic Lepidodendron bark- leaf scars are painted on the underside of the chair. Lepidodendron were a primitive species of the very first trees on earth, reaching heights of 130 feet (40 m) tall around 400 million years ago. Can we even relate to those numbers? That’s what I love about fossils – holding one and contemplating Earth’s timeline is mind-blowing.