. . .used monoprint technique

to paint some of the elements in this piece. I wanted the blue and the black areas to look random and a bit less structured that the rest of the painting. I painted these colors onto a piece of newsprint and smooshed them around, then pressed them onto the painting. Here is the result. From a distance it is eyecatching. Up close, there are lots of marks and textures. I am starting to loosen up here. . .

. . . used collage elements

in this painting. The yellow, blue and red geometric figures are handmade papers from my collaging binge. Lots of circles, dots, round things. I am loosening up a little here, but as I remember, still a bit rusty and unsure of myself. It is a bright and cheery 33 x 33"" painting despite the black background.

. . . painted a collage

I did have a chance to photograph my paintings yesterday morning. If my neighbors were watching me, they were treated to a slapstick comedy routine. I used painters' tape to attach the paintings to the outside wall. I would have the center and one end of the tape attached and the other end would fall down around me. Over and over again. Very frustrating for me, but amusing in an idiotic kind of way.


This painting is one of the first I did when I got back into painting from my hiatus as a collage artist. It is approximately 36 x 48. And you ask, did your collaging have any influence on your painting? Well, I guess so:





At the time, I was having trouble switching from glue and paper back to paint, and from working small to working big. what better way to get back in the swing of things that to just basically copy something I had already created once? And I don't even have to worry about plagiarism.


Walt the Art Guy liked the painting. Happy colors and all, right? No gloom and doom colors in this gloom and doom economy. I like it, too; I'd put it in my house. I think you will find it interesting how much more freely I painted as I kept working on these canvases. I am going to try to post them in order so you can see the progression.


Have a great day, everyone. Let's make some art.

. . . had to wait

until later today to take more pictures of my art, because it's supposed to be about 65 degrees today and I can take them outside and try to get some good shots. I decided after yesterday's post that I don't want to put up crappy pictures of my art anymore. So, with luck, I'll have some tomorrow. In the mean time, I was browsing through my stash of digitals and found this screw. Seems appropriate under the circumstances. The photo probably should be cropped a bit off the top to omit the shadow, but I like the colors, texture, and of course, the rust. I took this photo back in April 2008, on a walking trail over which construction crews were building a bridge. This is from one of the pieces of equipment on the site.


Yesterday was a good day: I was treated to lunch by Toni, a good friend from my working days; then a meandering drive from downtown to the Plaza; a visit to Barnes & Noble to kill time, and then the appointment to have my hair done. I'm blond again, sort of, and a lot less shaggy. Another slow meandering drive home with a stop at Marshall's, where I purchased a pair of blue yoga pants, which are apparently a somewhat dressier version of sweatpants, for $9.99. I will wear those in place of all the other pairs of sweat pants that are splattered with paint when I have to venture out into the real world. I do wish someone would invent something to remove acrylic paint stains. I could triple my current presentable wardrobe without buying anything but that stain remover. (While we are on the subject of things I wish someone would invent, how about a strong clear tissue paper???)


Hope everyone has a great day. Go make some art.

. . . thought about it

Here is one of my paintings that will be going away on Friday, hopefully to be snapped up by a discerning buyer. I need to take photos to document my work and to keep a record of what and when I painted and where it is. However, it's a problem because, since they are unstretched, I have to rig the canvases up somewhere vertically to take the pictures. I brought this one up from the studio and taped it to the wall with blue painters tape. But the photograph is not of good quality since the lighting is so bad. Oh, well, I hope you get the general idea. This painting, as yet unnamed, is approximately 36 x 36". My son told me it looked like a garage floor. Is there a name in that?


I like this painting. It looks deceptively simply, I think. I spent a lot of time getting those blocks of neutral to be interesting, by varying the colors, making marks, lots of texture. That appears a bit in the gray area on the top right, except it just doesn't have that much of a yellow cast in person. And the blue, too, is actually the result of multiple layers of many different colors of blue. And what appears to be a black oblong on the left side of the painting is really a deep purple. I really took the quote in Nita Leland's book to heart. . . I tried to make sure that this painting actually had a change in color within every inch.


Am I, as the artist, supposed to have an explanation of why I painted this piece? I mean, am I supposed to have expressed in this painting my innermost feelings? Because I am unaware of it if I did. Granted, I'm not the deepest thinker. But can my explanation for why I chose to paint this piece be nothing more than I liked the colors? Or I was working on my neutrals? Or I was influenced to paint geometric shapes by the collages I had done for a couple of months before I went back to painting? I guess I could always say something to the effect that my personal life was in chaos and I chose to harness that chaos by painting something rather structured. That sounds interesting, but is it true? Was I actually thinking or feeling that when I painted this? Somehow I doubt it. There are other pieces, yet to be photographed, that reveal a lot of chaos, the latest one I did especially. Maybe there is a kernel of truth somewhere in there. . .

. . . fed my habit

I am a magazine junkie. Yesterday at the grocery store I stumbled across the premiere issue of "Color" subtitled "for collectors of fine photography." What a feast. . . The photo above was taken by Eliot Porter and is titled Macau (Incense) - 1980. Paul Martineau, assistant curator in the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum in San Diego, California, wrote this about Eliot:


"In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Eliot Porter pioneered the use of color photograph to capture nature's intricate patterns and details by revealing the nuanced hues and tones of the natural world. Porter's work played a central role in bringing about the widespread acceptance of color photography as an artistic medium, and in transforming the genres of wildlife and landscape photography."


But this is only one of the many fascinating photographs included. The magazine features photography artists from the past and those who are currently working. There is such inspiration in the pages of this magazine. . . as an amateur photographer and one who can only use a digital camera, I have much to learn. I look forward to future issues.

. . . scanned another experiment

This is another one of the four little experimental paintings I have made lately on foam core. It and its companions have been sitting in the family room for several days while I try to figure out what to do with them. Probably nothing. Maybe the Random Acts of Art.


For several years before I settled on painting, I experimented with all kinds of different arts and crafts, and I have the swag to prove it. Now that I am contemplating a relocation, I face the daunting task of cleaning out the basement studio. I could have a garage sale, but so much of the stuff I have is meaningful only to an artist or a crafter. First I tried scrapbooking, but after I finished one for my daughter and one for my son, I still had a bunch of leftover supplies and little interest. Then there was polymer clay; then jewelry making; then briefly I considered making assemblages. There are stamps of all kinds. And I have tons of fabric and trim and yarn etc. It's too good to toss, and frankly, I can't afford to do that. I have collected some pretty exceptional stuff in the studio and I know I will never ever use it. So it's going on etsy sometime soon. And it will be cheap, because the goal is to clean it out, not to make a profit. So stay tuned if you are interested and I will let you know here when the shop is open. And tell your friends who are artists or crafters, too, because I promise, you will not want to miss this.