Crackled photos

I was being lazy, rather than rephotographing a couple of paintings, I photographed the image from my cell phone screen.    Bad idea. I dropped my cell phone awhile back and shattered part of the screen.  Im not planning on paying 400 dollars to replace the glass, so it will stay this way for quite awhile.    I just look past it.   But now that I see it on mybtablet screen, I realize that it doesnt work to copy photos that way. 

I copy SnapChat videos of my great granddaughter by photographing them with my tablet as I play them when I open them on my cell phone.    Its a bit tricky, but I am determined to save some of them. 

If you are not familiar with Snap chat, the pictures can only be viewed a couple times and then they disappear.   Never to be seen again.     Valerie is not yet 3 months old so these videos and photos are precious to me.   Because of the crackled screen, they are not

Worth printing or duplicating, but I can see her first smiles whenever I want.    Its a limited success, good enough for me.   

Floral on black

Here's the other floral based on the black and white base.  With only a minimum amout of tweaking of the flowers which seemed so delicate against the black, I put more emphasis on the vase which I collaged with tissue paper.

I changed the shape of the

vase, used a printed tissue paper to collage the vase and added the table with stencils and some textures to the background. 

Reworking a piece

This painting had a green background.  I love green. Its my go-to color.   But after awhile it started to annoy me. Just too much green.  Too bright.    So I loaded up my brush with grey and covered it.   Now this painting has so many coats, its getting thicker and thicker.  I really must stop tweaking it.  Lol

Green leaf

Its totally absorbing to try to draw a true likeness of something from nature.   I can see why botanical drawings have fascinated so many artists.  Im not at that level so that it looks like a photograph.... but I enjoy the concentrated effort. This is a simple leaf found in the grass, dandeliom, I'd guess. 

Nature meets pencils

Continuing my nature journal, here are more recent pages.

Mixed media group project

A You Tube video by CeeCee showed her doing this warm up exercise using watercolors and a permanent ink pen.     I made a couple samples and posted the link to our group so they could be inspired and know what to expect. 

After our show and tell and sharing time, we settled into doing our own versions of CeeCee's exercise. We are usually very chatty, but everyone got so involved with this project, you could hear a pin drop.

Here are some of mine. 

Drawings from nature

These are from the journal I work in at the senior centers.     I usually take something from the garden, or find something there to use as a subject.    Sometimes other artists bring me a subject.    It is relaxing and we can visit while we make art.   Lovely way to spend a morning.  Here are some recent drawings.   

Black and white gesso experiment

Bob Burridge sometimes starts his paintings in black and white, then adds color by rubbing very wet acrylic paints on with paper towels.  It came the time I needed to gesso some canvases, so thought Id use black for a change.  Then I remembered Bobs videos and thought Id give his method a try. 

Heres the first one done with the addition of just two colors. Yellow and opera pink. I love the orange it makes.    But what about the green, you ask.... thats a Jane Davies hint.   Mix yellow with black and add white to make the greens.  Wow.   Ive been waiting to try that as well.  Kind of a dark olive. She adds much more white and gets a celedon.    I threw on the black and white striped tissue paper over the color glaze and added another light coat of glaze over top.

My blast from the past

This is a painting I did in March 1999.   More than 20 years ago.    It never sold...probably because purple and orange dont fit in every decor.  But i liked enough to keep it without painting over it.   Lol

my obsession with eggs is evident here. I used to put them in all my still lifes.

Light against dark, short choppy strokes...the mantra

This painting was done much more quicklu than most of my paintings.  Repeating the mantra in my head, I charged ahead.  Im liking the looser look.

New vase for red floral.

A little abstract paint

ing over the vase finished this piece.

Color shift floral w vase

Using the Bob Burridge method to start this floral, i didnt particularly like the vase. So I looked for an alternate in my paper stash.   This wonderful gold marbled turquoise color caught my eye. After it was cut and applied with gel medium, the color changed to a deep blue.  Not what I planned but its workable. Just means color tones in background needed adjusting.  So here is the vase shown next to raw paper.  And finally the finished work. 

Where did the cicadas go?

On June 19th the cicadas started singing.  Two nights of night music.  Then no more. Not one.  So what happened. Im trying to figure it out.

This occured at a time when my garden needed severe cutting back of overgrown spring things.  I pruned back armloads if mint,  borage, and nasturtiums.    Did I scoop up the cicadas with the greenery?  Did they end up in the green barrel?

Or perhaps a neighbor with sensitive ears sprayed the back of my garden.  It could happen. There is only a decorative wire fence between us.

I love night sounds. The distant train whistle is a favorite, and wind chimes right outside my open bedroom window.   Early morning flocks of geese flying overhead, and my favorite birds that with lengthy repertoires.    Cicadas were on this list.  Last year was the first time I heard them here. Perhaps they have an unusual life cycle...and a few were off track.  Time will tell. 😒 

 Updated novemner 7th.  I have one green cicada on a large rose bush.  He is so well camouflaged it takes me a minute or two to find him with his long legs, and body thay looks like a rose leaf.   He moves very slowly from leaf to leaf.    The last three days I have not found him.  Nights are getting cold and days are short.   I suppose his life cycle has ended, but I know so little of this insect, it may be that they can burrow somewhere and dig out in Spring.   

Here a pear, there a pear...

Bob Burridge demonstrated painting pears on more than one of his videos. You can find them on his web site or on You Tube.

I love pears. I love the shape, the flavor, the scent.  All things pears.   (You dont need to spread this around-- but I am a pear shaped woman😉 LOL).  For years I have explored the artistic possibilities of pears in art by painting them in watercolor, photography, print making, rubber stamp carving, and acrylic painting.

Now that Bobs Blasts are part of my art life, I was excited to try his technique.  First to get his mantra into my head.  "Short choppy strokes!  Light against dark, dark against light!"

Before I knew it I was on a roll.  Here are the results.   If time permits I will try to post individual pictures of my favorites.   Im quite proud of them.

Everyone asked what paper or canvas these are on.  Its like book cover board.

 Years ago the US Postal Service had a program to check up on their deliveries.  They sent out envelopes with a book board in them.  Two sizes.  Recipients would then report the tracking number, date they received the  package and the condition of the envelope.  Quality control before internet.

 My aunt was one of the recipients. Her report was filed monthly and she received a small check in payment.   And she could keep the book boards.  She shared them with schools and artists who could use them.  She had stacks of each size.

I have been using and sharing my supply for years but have about reached the last of them.  Sadly the well is going dry.

These book boards always bring back such fond memories of my aunt and our days at the beach house,  pouring over her art books and going on little jaunts.

Politics and art collide

Sometimes we have to let our emotions and convictions flow into our art.

 Immigration is, and has been a problem around the world for centuries. This is nothing new.  But we butt up against it daily on the news.  We only have one planet.

Americans are more than 99 percent immigrants.  Not everyone was desperate or in danger in their mother lands, but the hope to change their situations and have better lives brought them here. 

This is a little family following their dream...
Im thinking of adding a barbed wire fence behind them, or between them. 

It started as a black and white study over a red primer.  I was playing with the light against dark, dark against light Burridge mantra.

Florals ala BB

Since discovering Bob Burridge online, and warching hiw weekly Bobs Blasts - incuding those in his archives, some of us in our local mixed media group and also painters at the senior center have been trying his techiques. 

I tried his florals first.  I start with good intentions, but soon veer off to make it mine.  But I will try again until I can get his loose easy abstract style under my belt. 

Basically what he does is make splotches of colors all over the canvas with a wadded up paper towel dipped in wet juicy paints.  Then he goes in with a background color covering whatever does not look like a vase and floral arrangement.  A subtractive technique, like sculpting.  Its a lot of fun.  Knowing when to stop is the tricky part.  

Im going to give it a quick shot of gold webbing sprat and sign it.  I like it enough to put another nail in my family room wall and hang it there.