Monday, December 7, 2009

Returning to Torn Paper


Modifed Paper
As usual the suggestion of the landscape in the horizontal lines.
I had it turned to a vertical at one point but it wanted back to horizontal.
I added in some extra darks via Photoshop to try out some contrast.
An easy way to test before tearing....more paper.

 
One Moment

Another landscape appeared yesterday even though I was

                              just (so I thought) preparing papers for backgrounds for journals and
                                                                     Christmas cards.
I'm thinking about adding more words phrases and small images into
the larger image so this is the first.
Also discovered cheesecloth to paint through with the painted brush.
(sky texture above.)
Willl add the painted cheesecloth into a future painting or
paper project





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Saturday, November 28, 2009

Paper Painting


Paper Tree Line

Playing with collage and assemblage.
Simple shapes as strips of paper and torn paper.
Layered on to create the landscape.
Still in need of contrast. Not quite right.
BUT...liking the use of my own painted paper.
And the fun of playing with tones on tone....
More to come.


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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Impressions


Distant Light



Red Trees / Blue Hills



Foggy Morning

Some recent paintings from the new impression focus.
 Again with big brushes and some pretty simple color combos.
These were done in a group and have some surface
texture. layers of color in some and not
so much color in the others





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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Cute as a Button

BeBe Girl in Paper


An assemblage on paper using newsprint
 painted with acrylic paint and then torn into shapes and fit around the
blue printed outline.
Her eyes and nose are small peices of painted newspaper.


Here she is with a little more of the newsprint detail showing.
I cut the papers in squares and rectangles to fit around her
but am thinking about torn paper to fit into the spaces


The work table when I'm working on assemblage and collage.
 Lots of papers and tones to choose from.
 Lots of added paint detail to create texture.


How I started
Using a left over foam meat tray as the print block. Easy
to cut with an x-acto knife and then glued the
foam cutout onto card stock for stability.
Easy to ink up with a foam roller and acrylic paint.

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Mountaintop Painting



Thinking of High Peaks
Another example of quick painting. This was painted months ago but left in a pile of quick paintings in my basement painting area. I haven't spent much time lately on the quick paintings.
I intended to work on some small projects like greeting cards with decorated papers so came back to the pile of painted papers and found.....this. Not quite like this at first. No sky was there...just really dark colors laid in with the big brush. I was thinking of autumn in the Northeast and recent high peaks views and painted in the light sky above the distant purpley blue mountains. Happy with the bold yellow and red in the foreground. Imagine the colors of Autumn.......

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Monday, October 5, 2009

Thinking Fall


Red Ridge

So after being outside most of the morning chopping down dead plant growth and cleaning up bulbs and containers I  came inside and painted a quick painting for Fall. It started raining so my plant chopping came to an end anyway. Working with red paint as the undercolor again. Adding orange and yellows and then the quiet Fall sky....with a hint of weather to come. I also painted the side door in red today in between this painting and another I'll post later. Something about a nice red door......








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Monday, September 28, 2009

Puffy Cloud Sky


Big Sky
My acrylic painting from a year ago. Painted in the quiet of my studio with several other impressionistic landscapes. Painted with a large brush and a few colors on my favorite....tissue paper over gessored watercolor paper. You can see how the big brush on the texture lets some of the whites show through and breaks up the colors. And the brush is pretty dry...almost without moisture ( I always have a cloth or newspapers right by my painting so I can brush it out hard before I bring it to the surface. Some patience required to build the colors but better than too heavy and too fast.




Inspiration!!
Driving home from Lake Placid a week ago I had to take some pics of the clouds and the sky. I may not have them near me when I'm painting but I have them for a reference. Most likely to look at them here and then go to my studio and carry the image in my head. Not to be a slave to the photographic image ....just to capture the feeling.....







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Sunday, August 30, 2009

Start With Red

Summer Scrub
Another one of the "start with red" series (I never know they are really a series until after.......but it makes sense that they will have the same feel when I paint them at the same time) Again with the big brush and using it really dry along the middle ground to create the feeling of shrub and brush and scrub. Letting it sit and then returning with the simple pale blue-white sky. Busy foreground means a quiet sky for balance. Complicated sky means simple foreground. Sometimes its really that simple.
I changed my header picture to a photo I "stitched" together from a recent sunrise. Inspiration for future paintings........

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Simple Bright Land

Simple
This started as a red piece of primed watercolor paper. Thinking about the simple combination of colors and the simple composition, A real tribute to STOPPING soon enough. I used my usual 3 inch wide brush and laid on the purple to blue shapes....then...STOP. Letting it rest is really hard. I either walk away or move on to another painting ( in this case I had three primed watercolor papers ready with the red undercoat) so I did two other quick paintings at the same time (to be featured in future posts.......) as  usual I had added tissue paper to the primed watercolor paper. This particular paper ended up giving me vertical lines as part of how the surface took the paint.  Ghostlike tree trunks or cosmic lightening strikes????? After waiting or walking I came back to this painting and added in the plain misty sky line with a very dry brush and the very flat sky.  Pretty happy with simple.......submit to reddit

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Heaven Sky

Heaven Sky
More from the poured painting group. I ended up with quite a few good paintings picked out of larger paintings. These are on primed masonite and are pretty small....only 8X8 (inches).
Hardly big enough to make a difference in the world of big, bold paintings.
 I like these square ones on small easels as part of a grouping. I have also mounted the 8x8 square on a larger background board of textured luan to give it more power.... submit to reddit

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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Lovely Looking Sky

Lighted Sky
Another attempt at SIMPLE. Close colors and the lit sky above the simple shapes of the landscape. lots of texture on the surface by adding tissue paper before the paint. Not a very big painting...just a quiet little piece of art.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

First Light - Poured Painting

First Light
A poured painting picked out of a larger poured painting.
This on primed masonite.
I primed both sides with two or three coats of gesso and let it dry.
Then I added a thinned layer of drywall compound with a bristly brush allowing it to leave some brush marks for texture.
Then.....
the fun part.
Start pouring paint.
Some happy accidents here ...from the pink and yellow of the sky to the maroon mountains that showed up.
These masonite boards have to take a lot of saturating with the liquid paint so priming both sides is the key...as many coats as you can ( Yes, the tedious prep work) but worth it to keep the finished art from warping.
These paintings are for everyone who thinks they can't paint...because they CAN.
The paint does all the work.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Painted Newspaper Package

Leaf Detail
This from the top of the package...little leaves made of primed and painted newsprint. I cut them into freeform leaf shapes and added the veining with paint in bottles with a pointy tip. (Probably used for fabric painting)
Newspaper Bow
Looks like a cabbage or a mum but it IS really the bow for the top of the package. Got a little out of hand and threatening to overtake the whole package........ Strips of primed and painted newsprint glued to a square light cardboard base and just layered and layered and layered. It started out as loops of newspaper and then I ended up cutting the loops open to try to release some of the form. Having to think in 3D and about the sculptural qualities. I wanted it to be different but it's OK for a first attempt....

The Present itself
Wrapped in painted newsprint. I gessoed it and then added the colors and folded them into each other ( sort of like cooking!) When the muted background was dry (pink,rose, gold and white) I added on the white hearts randomly with a stencil I had cut. I had to tape two pieces together to fit the box completely so I planned ahead a littel to try to make two similarly painted pieces of painted newspaper.


A close-up of another newspaper wrapping paper idea. Similar to the present but with the red hearts.



This is the bigger sheet of the red heart wrapping paper. Liking the variation in color on the background and the random placement of the hearts. I'm working on more wrapping paper and card ideas from the painted newspaper. Liking the idea of creating, using and discarding the painted paper in the shape of the I Ching...all about change. ( Thanks to Erin Mishalanie!)