When life gives you lemons, draw them, 11 x 14 inches dry pastels, graphite on paper

"When life gives you lemons, draw them." (Nikki)

"Color! What a deep and mysterious language." (Paul Gauguin)

summer

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Strawberry Fields

Sunday, May 25th, 2008


 

Green Anole living indoors near my computer. Green Anole living indoors near my computer.

I wonder if the Anole that lives indoors with us thought it saw lunch when it climbed near the two photos of strawberries, pictures of my sons when they were two and three years old.

Sun Shower 04

Friday, May 23rd, 2008


 
Removing the masking medium, upper right of the painting.

May 30th: Today I’m starting to remove miles of rubberized masking medium. It’s so exciting to unravel the results; they look a little like Batik, where wax or resist is applied then removed.

Sun Shower 04, 49 x 84 x 3 inches, acrylics on canvas, contrasts added just before masking medium removal.Sunshower 04, 49 x 85 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas. 29th: Starting to build thin layers of acrylics, gel medium and water. As previously posted, when painting is all finished I plan to remove all of the masking medium and reveal the original colors underneath.  Paint catching on the textured surface gives the look of 3D raindrops…very interesting, and in retrospect I don’t know why it wasn’t obvious that this would occur.

I was mostly thinking ahead about the atmosphere and negative spaces. There are so many things that you can’t anticipate or put into a plan, that you only discover by doing, even the obvious. As the painting changes you have to keep changing your plan along with it. Preconceived ideas are a must, but you have to be willing to let go of some and stay open to others. This is what I love so much about painting..how one thing leads to another; planning and surprises working together. Now this will have multidimensional surface of every grade from watercolor-like washes to thick applications of paint.

May 28th: Anxious to finish placing the raindrop patterns and get to painting the light rays. The next layers of paint will resist those raindrop areas. I’m usually content to go with the flow, following how the painting gradually comes together. With this painting I have to think ahead, visualize, and plan the completed piece more than usual. As the canvas fills in more with the resist, mark-making is more strategic. I can’t wait to see how it will look when the resist is removed.

May 26th: …am on the third bottle of masking medium. Soon the surface will be ready to start painting light and dark sun rays, layering color washes of acrylics and gel medium.

Masking medium, toothpicks, and smallest paper pencils usually used for smudging graphiteMay 23rd: As I fill in with streaks of masking medium to block off areas of rain, progress is slow because of the painting’s size, but I work a little on it every day. Toothpicks keep breaking, and my hand gets cramped and numb after a few hours, so I bought some of the smallest paper pencils usually used for smudging graphite, and those are working out much better. I devised a sort of brush with a few toothpicks taped to a brush handle, but this is awkward to use, and there is not much control over mark placement. One streak at a time.

Green Thumb

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008


 

 Green Thumb - photography, Sunflower leaf

Green Thumb – photography, May 7th: A volunteer Sunflower, must be from last year’s seed, sprouted about 2 weeks ago, is already 5 feet tall with very large leaves.

Crowning Glory

Red Sunflower bud opening   Main flower developing   The other side of the flower. Two ants share in the bounty.

Main flower detail - developing seeds

Red Sunflowers and rooftop - the plant is over 9 ft.tall.  Red Sunflowers

Red Sunflower, photography – May 22nd: the plant is already 97 inches high, almost to the eavestrough today – that’s over 8 ft., and growing a few more inches every day. I cut off quite a few of the large lower leaves and some secondary flowers to enable the energy to go toward developing the main flower and seeds, which I definitely want to collect. There are still 19 long-stemmed secondary flowers unfolding and 8 more blooms stemming from the secondary flowers. May 26: With more secondary blooms unfolding every day, the plant is now over 9 ft. high.

Red Sunflower secondary bud  Mandala - Red Sunflower seed-head

June 14th: The main flower seed-head was removed. Only a few seeds may be mature enough to reproduce another plant because most of the energy has gone into secondary buds, then as those mature, smaller third and even fourth successive buds are still unfolding.

Office help

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008


 
Anole sitting on the stapler on my computer desk.

Today my little friend helped with the paperwork.

Today’s work, details

Friday, May 9th, 2008


 
Maple Leaves, details after a few more hours working today - 48 x 84 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas.

Maple Leaves, upper right details

Maple Leaves, details after a few more hours working today – 48 x 84 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas. Changes may be subtle from here on; time to set it against a wall and study for a while before adding more. It’s a good time to start another painting.

Maple Leaves, work in progress

Thursday, May 8th, 2008


 
Maple Leaves - 48 x 84 x 3 inches Acrylics on stretched canvas. Work in progress - 3rd day.

Maple Leaves – 48H x 84W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted. Work in progress.

On paintings with such large surfaces, acrylics are used more like watercolors, with gradually built thin layers of paint and matte gel medium. Soon after this stage as I become more confident with the subject, paint is applied thicker in areas helping to give a better illusion of depth.

Painting large again

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008


 

Maple Leaves, 48H x 84W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas. Just started.  Maple Leaves, 48H x 84W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas. Work in progress.

This morning I started painting Maple leaves on one of the large heavy-duty frames we made last week. Trying to think of a catchier title as I work. 48H x 84W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas. It should be a good study of the color green.
And speaking of green, yet another photo of one of the Anoles running around in the back yard this morning – I love watching these little guys!
 
Male Green Anole in our back yard, Lewisville, TX

 

White Pine Bows

Friday, April 18th, 2008


 

White Pine Bows, 20 x 34 x 1.5 inches acrylics on canvas
White Pine Bows, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted. (sold 2010)

Some paintings take a long time and change dramatically from start to finish. Others have a clear direction and seem to flow out in a day, as this one did.

White Pine Bows, 20 x 34 x 1.5 inches acrylics on canvas, just started White Pine Bows, 20 x 34 x 1.5 inches acrylics on canvas, phase 2

Post-dated note: showcased in Visual Arts Society of Texas’ 125 Show July 24th – August 15, 2008.
Also, Debby Davis a local Denton TX poet wrote a poem inspired by the White Pine Bows painting
Bouncing branch to bough within stiff white pines,
finding my eyes uplifted; what a show!
Violinist gently pulls; taut bow whines.

Bouncing branch to bough within stiff white pines,
like the beat of an orchestra playing.
Violinist gently pulls; taut bow whines
raining harmonies; colors displaying.

Like the beat of an orchestra playing,
my thumping heart strings tug me into now!
raining harmonies; colors displaying,
I am an audience of one somehow.

My thumping heart strings tug me into now!
It is the secret that only I shall know.
I am an audience of one somehow.
Fragile notes fracture light into rainbow.

Rocky Mountain Vista finished

Sunday, April 13th, 2008


 

 Rocky Mountain Vista, top detail image, acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted

 Rocky Mountain Vista, central detail image, acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted

 Rocky Mountain Vista, lower detail image, acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted

48 x 24 x 2 inches, acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides paintedRocky Mountain Vista 48H x 24W x 2D inches, acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted, detail images.

Left: Complete image. Paintings that are proportionately longer than wider don’t photograph well or show impressively on screen, so this has been split into three separate detail images.

Progress on Rocky Mountain Vista

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008


 
Rocky Mountain Vista, 48 x 24 inches acrylics on canvas, work in progress. 

Rocky Mountain Vista, 48H x 24W inches acrylics on canvas after one more day of work, still in progress and almost finished.

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