Painting - Spring is Here!

Spent a great day yesterday painting outdoors with friends. Our weather has been unseasonable warm and dry and we need rain!! Hopefully this weekend - keep your fingers crossed please. We did spend a lovely day outdoors and I did a couple of watercolour paintings. I find it easier to pack watercolour supplies for painting out. It is always inspiring and fun to paint with friends. Here are the watercolours....

7"X7"

8 3/8"X6"

Looking forward to a summer of painting day trips in and around our area - we have such variety - mountains, foothills, prairies......best wishes

Painting - Brian Atyeo Workshop

Have been so busy with 'art' and haven't had time to post. Would consider that a good thing. I was at  Brian Atyeo's workshop in Calgary the beginning of April (April 2-5). The workshop was hosted by Leading Edge Art Workshops' - if you live in the area they offer great workshops with great instructors!

This is the second workshop I have taken with Brian Atyeo (hope to have the opportunity to participate in more!) and this one was right up my alley. 'Layers of design in acrylic and mixed media'. Lots of layering of paint as well as removal - scratching in with palette knives & x-acto knives. Adding line with crayon, graphite, etc - just about anything you want to experiment with. It isn't just a 'free for all' - it is about responding to marks made and challenging the emerging composition. Nothing is preplanned and instead it is the use of imagination and allowing the evolution of the process to take its' course. Below are some of the images created during the workshop and a couple that are still in the 'process'. I appreciate any comments and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! Am very excited with the work started in this workshop and as we speak am working on more images in a study format to develop into more finished works! Happy creating to you all!

16"X12"
work in progress!

12"X12"
Considered this finished, but..can't you see this 'large'!!
Stay tuned for a larger version

12"X12"

8"X8"

For a long, long time I have had a vision/idea of how I see the landscape around me - not every blade of grass or leaf on the tree, but shape, lights and darks and colour. This is a real break through for me to create these images and to celebrate them realized!

18"X14"
Work in progress

Started this in the workshop and have been working on it at home. Apologies for the picture quality!! Will post a better image once finished. I am really enjoying the painting process as I work on this image. This reminds me of the view to the west from the top of our hill - one that I never get tired of looking at. 

Will post some of my work from my '100 Drawings on Cheap Paper' workshop with Jane Davies in my next post - just not enough time!! In the meantime happy creating to you all.

Painting - On-Line Workshop Practice

Have been working hard over the last weeks on my two on-line workshops with Jane Davies'. Haven't spent this much time in my studio in a long time. 100 Drawings on Cheap Paper is all about the practice, silencing the inner critic and lots of experimenting with techniques and materials. We are also learning to observe our work - not the technical process but the visual content - stepping back observing and commenting on what we see. 'Pretend someone else made the work' - not as easy as it sounds!  Give it a try.

This is a small sampling of some of my work from the workshop. Am averaging 6 images for each lesson - would like to have at least 10, but finding time is at a premium participating in the two workshops! I am not an abstract painter, but these lessons are invaluable in my growth as an artist! Will post more as the workshop progresses. Hope you enjoy.

Each image is 9"X12"
Left is the 'Start' and right is the 'Finish'

Each image is 9"X12"
Left is the 'Start' and right is the 'Finish'

Image Size 9"X12" Variety using only black and white media

Image Size 9"X12" Variety using only black and white media

Painting and more Painting! (Colour Workshop)

Lots happening in my studio!  Signed up for two of Jane Davies'  workshops - not sure what I was thinking but am making time for painting - lots of painting! Taking 100 Drawings on Cheap Paper and Beyond the Colour Wheel- Advanced Colour Studies. The colour workshop is very time consuming - making value scales mixing colours with black and white, colour wheels, taking the colour work and desaturating them to a grey scale (using your choice of app or scanner). And that is just Lesson 1. There are six in total and we receive a new lesson every two weeks.  Glad for the two week time frame. Have posted a some samples of work from the first lesson where we worked with value of colour. When looking at art work I probably don't even realize how much value plays in the way I am viewing it.

.....I know this is a little 'dry' to be reading and looking at images of!!


VALUE SCALE

Used carbon black and titanium white paint and created a grey scale. The left shows the colour scan and the right scan is in grey scale. Interesting to look at in the desaturated photo - is 'grey' vs the colour image.

VALUE SCALE OF A COLOUR - COBALT TEAL

Adding black to create a shade and white to create a tint.  Trying to match the values to my grey scale.

Colour Scan

Desaturated Scan

COLOUR WHEEL

Picked three primary colours and tinted the red and blue to match the value of the yellow. I used nickle azo yellow, phthalo turquoise and napthol red.  You can see when looking at the 'yellow' side of the colour wheel in the desaturated image the colours are slightly off.

Seed Pods - Painting

I was cleaning my studio...again....in preparation for two more online workshop with Jane Davies. If I have time over the next few weeks to post some of the work from those workshops I will. But...back to the studio cleanup.  I found these seed pods from some poppies and put them out for a painting day with my painting group.  The image below is what came from the day.  I have a BSc in Agriculture (with a major in Range and Pasture Management) and have always enjoyed plants.  Learning to identify different plants was part of the curriculum and although I never did land a job where I would use these skills; over the years I have enjoyed being able to identify a variety of plants in our rural area. Sometimes much to the chagrin of my family!  I have drawn on some of the subject matter from my university days for my artwork and as I am writing this I am thinking of a couple of subjects that could be expanded upon!  Stay tuned....

9"X12"
Watercolour, gouache, Derwent Inktense & Graphitint Pencils
Arches 140lb rough watercolour paper

Knitting - A Change of Pace

I've been taking a break from painting the last couple of weeks and have taken out the 'needles' & yarn.  I like to change up my routine every so often and work with other materials.  I am still creating - albeit in a different way, but it does keep the creative juices flowing and I can recharge my 'painting' side of the brain. I have made a couple dozen hemp dish/face clothes - I use these for dishes.  These are the best - can reuse again and again and you can throw them in the laundry - they wash up like a charm. Have also completed a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves. I usually carry a bag of knitting 'stuff' with me (and a small sketchbook too!) when heading to the city for appointments, etc. For me there is nothing worse than sitting somewhere and waiting with nothing to do. I love going to yarn stores and checking out the different yarns and colours. There are so many beautiful colour ways available.  I find them very inspirational. Some of my favourite yarn companies are Malabrigo, Manos del Uruguay, The Verdant Gryphon and Noro. And for the record....I am not a great knitter! My knitting repertoire consists of scarves, mittens, fingerless gloves, hats, cowls, the 'washcloths' of course and the occasional lace shawl. The shawls only happen once in a blue moon! I like to knit for family and friends and try to have extra knit goods on the shelf for gifting. Now...if I could only find someone to weave the ends in for me!

Hemp Washcloths (hemp for knitting designed by Lanaknits) and
Fingerless Gloves (Noro Nadeshiko yarn)

Monoprint Collage Workshop

I have just finished taking another online workshop with the great Jane Davies. The workshop was Jane's Monoprint Collage.  We used the GelliArts gel plate (8X10") with acrylic paint (heavy body and fluid), stencils, mark making tools and lots of paper!! The first 2 lessons had us making collage papers using a variety of techniques - masking , stencilling, layering colours - lots and lots of different techniques....you were only limited by your imagination!  I used a variety of paper weights; 20lb up to 80lb.  I wanted to see what paper worked the best for printing and collaging with later. I made over a 100 collage papers and there were times that I wished I had more!  I have shown a few examples of the papers made below.

As we progressed through the workshop we worked with collaging, printing and adding paint to our images.  (A progression of lessons that built on one another.)

These are the open grids created with collage and printing with the gelli plate - with some cleanup using white paint. (Middle image is 10"X10" and the left and right images are 8"X10")

These are images that used main shapes created with stencils and printing.  Once printed we worked on the ground and could add more shapes if we wanted using more print and collage and line as well. This is an example of the start and the 'finished' image of one.  Image is 8"X10"

For this lesson we could start with printed images or collage and then print over the collage.  The image below shows the collage start and then the finished image that was printed, painted and had some line work added. Image size is 8"X10"

And finally the last lesson....using print starts and then cleaning up edges, enhancing or changing colours and adding collage and line if wanted. The images below show the start on the left and the 'finished' image on the right.  

I have only shown a small sampling of images created in the workshop, but I think it will give you some idea of the work involved and how the lessons built on one another.  When I started the workshop I told myself I was going to step outside my box and go with the 'flow'. Hmmm... I think I need to work on this a lot more! I am really looking forward to experimenting more with these techniques and adding them to my art practice. Jane's online workshops are so well done.  Each lesson has a 'written' lesson and a video demo.  A blog is set up (that can only be accessed by class participants) where you post your work and comments regarding your images for the particular lesson.  You can see other participants work and comment if you like.  The real bonus is Jane looks at all the work that is posted and provides individual comments to each artist about their work. I really do encourage you to check out Jane's website, sign up for her blog and check out her UTube videos. You won't be disappointed!