work in progress

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Magic Hour – work in progress

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Magic Hour, 60H x 40W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas, work in progress.

Art history is human history. What we call Art is the expression of individuals finding connection with our humanity; who are we? How do we respond to our surroundings and who are we in relation the things we depend on for survival? Standing in front of the Totems I realized that the answers we sought long, long ago are the same, and the things we love now are the same things people have always loved. As Artists and Art Viewers we’ll never venture far from subjects that speak to the heart.

The originals of all the totem poles erected in Thunderbird Park on the grounds of the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, Canada are now protected from the effects of weather inside the museum. The totem portrayed in this painting is a replica of the Gitxsan Pole that was moved in 1958 from Kitwankool, BC. This version of the pole is named Skim-sim and Will-a-daugh, belonging to Chief Wiha (Wee-kha, Ernest Smith), the chief of the Wolf Clan: only the top 3/4 of the totem is portrayed. Due to deterioration caused by weather, the originals of all the totems in Thunderbird Park are now erected inside the museum and are replaced with replicas carved by Mungo Martin, chief carver, Henry, Tony and Richard Hunt (this one 1960).

Symbols/crests: The bird at the crown is a giant woodpecker (wee-get-welku). Legend reads that a female ancestor kept a pet woodpecker, feeding it so much it grew to be a giant monster that ate everything made of wood until it was killed. It sits atop 5 human figures who stand on the head of the Mountain Eagle (Skim-sim), who kidnapped and mated with a woman then devoured their offspring. The eleven small figures are humans fishing through holes in the ice. Under them and not pictured in the painting is Will-a-daugh, also known as “Person With a Large Nose”, holding her child who was conceived from a wood grub.

Magic Hour started

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Magic Hour, 60H x 40W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted, work just started. This is the top half of the magnificent Gitxsan Totem pole, one of the Haida totems in Thunderbird Park near the Inner Harbor downtown Victoria, B.C.

The drawing is sketched with Alizarine Crimson and Red Oxide base. We were there a week ago just as the sun set, shining light on the right side of the totems and rising moon light lit the left side. I changed the tree silhouette to a typical B.C. horizon of tall Red Cedar, whereas the trees in that park are Maples.

Portraits

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Josee, a portrait of one of my nieces. Gift, 11 x 14 inches graphite on paper. Drawing portraits is like brain surgery – one millimeter off, more or less, in any direction makes all the difference between success or failure!

Pumpkin leaves and blossom

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

The first of the pumpkin blossoms are opening; they open early in the morning and close fairly quickly. This morning a bee was struggling inside a flower that had collapsed before it finished gathering pollen. When the flower wilts, the sticky soft petals bond together, and the bee would never have escaped had I not investigated where the frantic-sounding buzzing was coming from. I didn’t think a tender flower could be so strong!

The 4th of July on the 22nd of June

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Added darkest values, mapping out the composition more clearly, now will define a few blossoms in the foreground by washing off dark areas and paint with pure colors from the tube and bring back to the cheery lights and brights that were present at the start.

The Fourth of July 01, work in progress

Friday, June 20th, 2008

The Fourth of July 01, 36H x 48W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted, sturdy custom built stretcher frame. Work in progress. Rarely do I draw outlines to start paintings.. just start splashing paint in a frenzy around the canvas, responding to the subject matter.

Not only does the Orange Milkweed remind me of fireworks, but it was on July 4th last year that I stopped to photograph the vibrant wildflowers growing alongside the highways in Kentucky.

Sun Shower 04 update

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

Sun Shower 04 work in progress, June 19th after a layer of white wash; white diluted with matte medium, then am giving the whole surface a layer of streaks of masking medium to bring all that texture out again that was there at the start. Tomorrow will start another painting and study this one before going back into it. My husband said this morning “Uh-oh Nik, you’re losing control of it”. He’s not an artist and rarely comments on paintings, but he sees things that I don’t. He saw exactly what I was starting to feel about the work. More accurately, I was starting to take too much control.

June 19th June 17th

Sun Shower 04

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

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.

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.

May 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.

Plans for Sun Shower 04

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

I inadvertently leaned the large painting of Maple Leaves near the framed photo of Sun Shower 03 that hasn’t made its way to storage yet after a show.

Ever since I took that photo, left, last summer I have wanted to use the idea of dramatic light rays in a painting, but not until this morning did I think to use it in Maple Leaves. One idea leads to another; I’m also going to use some tricks I learned during the painting of Sun Shower 01 (2007) where Watercolor masking medium was dotted on the canvas with a toothpick in areas where I wanted water droplets to remain white or lighter in color.

The thumbnails here are details of that work. It worked great but I removed it too soon before finishing and the results weren’t as obvious as I had hoped, so this is another chance to try again. This time it will be creating small streaks, left it on much longer so the vibrancy of all the colors will show through when the medium is pulled off.

The painting could be left as ‘Maple Leaves’ which is how it started out, but it has that bright glare acrylics are notorious for and I see a lot of potential in trying something fantastic with this painting. It’s one of those huge decisions made at key moments in the life of a painting – to risk or not? The 84 x 45 x 3 inch Maple Leaves title is now changed to Sun Shower 04.

Zen Garden 08 – work in progress

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Crackle glaze was applied at one stage, but the humidity is too high so it didn’t take, may apply again later at some point. Today playing with the patterns, colors, refining the pebbles, splattering to give them more realistic texture.