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)

work in progress

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Zen Garden 08

Monday, May 12th, 2008


 

Pebbles / Zen Garden #8, 24 x 24 inch stretcher with woven canvas strips. Phase 2, work in progress. Pebbles / Zen Garden #8, 24 x 24 inch stretcher with woven canvas strips. Phase 3, work in progress.

The Emerald Tree Boas is out in one work-area, the recently started Maple Leaves in another, and in the afternoon when I feel less like thinking but still want to keep the hands busy, have started painting Zen Garden 08.

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

 

Woven canvas

Sunday, April 27th, 2008


 

Woven Canvas strips across a 24 x 24 inch stretcher, possibly to become another painting in the Zen Garden series  Woven Canvas strips across a 24 x 24 inch stretcher, possibly to become another painting in the Zen Garden series.

I started covering the new stretcher-frames we built last week. Leftover canvas was cut and ironed into strips about 1″ wide, then woven across a 24 x 24 inch stretcher. I have a few ideas, and will start painting this one when Artini is finished.

Rocky Mountain Vista started

Monday, April 7th, 2008


 

48 x 24 inches acrylics on stretched canvas - work in progress.

Started last night, work in progress: Rocky Mountain Vista 48 x 24 inches acrylics on stretched canvas.

Myrtle At The Zoo, March 10 – April 2

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008


 

Myrtle At The Zoo - 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, Phase 18, work still in progress

Myrtle at the Zoo, Crepe Myrtle branches and seed-pods, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas study, sides painted. Posts here go back to the start of work, sharing the process.

I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed playing with different ideas. It’s been interesting teetering back and forth between frustration and fun, but sometimes that’s what painting is all about. There’s been such a tension over this one as with no other painting, where the urge to throw it away is pitted against the determination to see what could happen. I still like a lot of things in it, such as the technique of dripping paint down the front that I’ve tried in previous paintings. Dripping re-energized the painting and me, and took the work in unexpected directions.

Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, Phase 16, dripped violet and purple down the canvas  Myrtle At The Zoo Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, Phase 17, work still in progress

April 1st: 1. dripped violet across the top and deep yellow from the bottom. This move brings about a new set of problems that may lead the way to what I’m searching for; could be that recovery is impossible 2. Later notes after one days of work, Apr.1st: I like where the drips made me go…sometimes you’ve gotta take a leap.

Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas, phase 12  Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 13

March 27th – 30th The zebra is too prominent no matter what I try to blur it into the background, so more branches have been added to the foreground.
Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 10

March 20th – 26th: After another few days of remapping, I like the direction it’s taking with the larger Myrtle seed-pods in the foreground…hardly touched the zebra, except before starting today, scrubbed and washed off a lot of the surface and concentrated mainly on re-working the whole composition.

Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 9 Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 8 Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 7

Art in general, no matter what the media, has us confront varying emotions while we work, pleasant and unpleasant. If the piece is taking longer than anticipated, any self-expectations that mount don’t help the progress at all. There are also echos of things other Artists say, like “if it’s taking too long, trash it and start over”. That one always puzzles me – why tell someone to quit? How about searching for all that the work might possibly become? Fear of ruining work that’s already accomplished can hold us back from throwing our whole selves into it, bringing it to a new level.

It seems that so much fuss is made about paintings that are whipped off in a day. While the method of finishing work quickly is great, this is not the ideal for every painter. Most paintings do have a lot of life and zing after only one day of work and sometimes it’s best to leave them that way. Some Art is best left as “pure”, responsive, raw… and some work begs to be analyzed and dissected, perhaps to the death of the piece and having nothing to show for the labor.

Each artist knows if each painting at the end of the day has potential to become something more, and the decision to stay or to search is different with each and every piece. I say don’t give up if a painting takes too long to come to fruition.

Myrtle At TheZoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 6 Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 5 Myrtle At TheZoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 3

March 15th – Freestyle brushstrokes have livened work up a little since the last post. Intentions are for the painting to be more about the Myrtle than the zebra, but the zebra is key to determining the rhythm of the whole composition. The biggest challenge is that the zebra is such a striking subject alone, and competes for importance with the branches. Color is a huge issue also, because the ground is dry and bright during winter, but so is the zebra. This is why I have yellow tones in the ground, and gradually am adding darker values, playing with colors throughout the painting process.

Every aspect is gradually worked through as painting progresses; no definite decisions made until the final day. If/when work finally succeeds, all the stages of color transitions show through in bits and pieces across the canvas, contributing to the final color and depth impressions. It’s really the process of change in a painting that’s most enjoyable and educational. Every stage is photographed or scanned, and the process can be evaluated after it’s finished.

– am finding it hard to maintain a balance of weight on the right and left sides beside such strong tones in that fur…I may add is a couple of unusually large detailed seed-pods in the foreground to take the eyes’ attention away from the zebra at first glance. I keep playing with colors, patterns, brushstrokes, scratching/removal of paint and anything I can think, still aware that the painting needs more depth.

Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 2 Myrtle At The Zoo, 20H x 34W x 2D inches acrylics on canvas Phase 1

March 10th – striving for an accurate portrayal of Crepe Myrtle branches in winter, and except for a few detailed seed-pods in the foreground, an overall abstract representation more than realism. The zebra is purposely off-center in an attempt to allow more space for the main subject. Establishing the composition is always priority over accurate colors at first, which of course are to be considered but like other details are left until the final day of completion.

Windswept Cypress, NC – phase 2

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008


 

Cypress, Kitty Hawk, NC - 24 x 18 inches graphite, oil pastel, watercolor pencils
Windswept Cypress, Kitty Hawk, Outer Banks, NC  – partial image of 24 x 18 inches graphite, oil pastel, watercolor pencils, mixed media experimental, work in progress. Low light conditions today, so the photo below left, is a little dark. Plans now are to erase some of the color, then see what happens when painting lightly over some of the watercolor-penciled areas; there will be some resist because of the oil pastel base.

Cypress, Kitty Hawk, NC - work in progress, phase 2   Cypress, Kitty Hawk, NC - scanned detail; accurate colors (work in progress)

Windswept Cypress, NC started

Sunday, January 20th, 2008


 
Windswept Cypress, Outer Banks, NC - work in progress

Windswept Cypress, Outer Banks, NC, USA, 24H x 18W inches on paper, work in progress: Sculptural, windswept cypress are common ornamentals in yards along the Outer Banks, North Carolina. This started as a graphite drawing, then added some energy with the use of oil pastels, which were mostly scraped away before continuing with watercolor pencils. Hoping to see the effects created by mixing oil and water mediums.

 

 

Salt Spring Island Fog work in progress

Thursday, January 17th, 2008


 

Salt Spring Island, B.C. early morning - phase 01  Salt Spring Island, B.C. early morning - phase 02

Salt Spring Island Fog, B.C. Canada, 16H x 22W inches graphite, dry pastels, colored pencils. Stages 1 and 2 work in progress

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