Mixed media.canvas with paper napkins

Using paper napkins to collage the background and details of this piece produced a colorful, sweet piece.   Only a minimum amount of paints were used.

My art friends and I used to buy a lot of packages of napkins, which we would swap so everyone had some of each.   These date back to those times.   

Mixed media fish in studio

 At our latest mixed media group, we painted fis with watercolors and acrylics.  My old ones in the studio had faded from sunlight so it was time to refresh them.    I love how colorful they are. Two were done with alcohol inks.

Elizabeth Parrish took this snapshot of me during our meeting. 

Pandemic California

Just now the governor has issued the order that we are all to stay home.   This is to prevent the spread and exposure to the virus.  Not just the older people, but everyone not essential in the workforce.  Schools and stores are closed.   

Im lucky I stocked up on foods just days before the panic struck.     I was only in one crowded store, Trader Joes.   It was like the day before Christmas.  A lot of shelves were empty.  Every check stand was open and all had lines about 6 deep.  I got most of the things I buy routinely.  4 peanut butters. 4 bottles of merlot.  4 bags of frozen broccoli, etc.   

A few days earlier I placed a large order for restocking my pantry at Raleys online.   I use their pick up service once a month.   I pick up at the store, I dont need to leave my car.    It has never been busy.    But i hear that within 2 days, the panic struck and lines were filled with people grabbing everything they could reach. 

So I am staying home, working  in the garden, visiting with neighbor from yard to yard

, enjoying the beginning of spring with the arrival of first white lilacs blooming and california poppies wildly blooming out front. 

Those of us with  passions for art or music, or reading, or gardening, or whatever....  are lucky.  We always have something interesting rattling around in our heads.      I miss seeing and being with family and friends, but my little dogs an I will spend precious time together.  Valerie will not be over to see me this week, but her mom snap chats pictures and videos. 

For the past couple years I thought about getting Acorn channel to watch fav British films and programs.     I never felt like I had time to enjoy it.... but now I do.   The most important one was the last season of Doc Martin.     I am watching it on my tablet.      One episode every afternoon.    What a treat.    From the opening music and scenery, it grabs my attention and holds it until closing credits.   A precious bonus for staying home.   

Im very blessed.  I hope you and yours are healthy and not too inconvenienced by this historic situation.   

More fish prints

Fish prints

I have been making more gelli prints of fish cutouts.  Here are samples.

printed on deli wrap paper with acrylic paints.

Gelli plate experiments. Isolation, what to do?

With the pandemic scare, and my age, it is advisable by most sources to isolate from the outside world.      Its rainy so I would probably be home today anyway.  The senior centers are closed.   The libraries and schools are closed.  My friends and I are texting and calling.  We just are not out doing things together.     

I didn't want to watch the news, so I watched a you tube video this morning under AliceArts.    Ruth Alice Kosnick was the creator. She is a brilliant artist.    Her demo of "Herrings" was si intriguing, I got my stuff our of drawers and boxes and laid things out on my dining table.  Each time I experiment with gelli printing it is a new experience.  Getting familiar with the timing is my biggest issue.     But little by little I began to get the feel for it again. 

Here are my first halfway successful attempts.  Tomorrow Im sure I will produce even better pieces.   

Looking for koi in deep water.

I plan to build up some acrylic paint and stain layers over a background collage, with no sketching on a new canvas.    Then go back and carve them out with Citrosolv .      I know I will find koi or other water creatures.     

Obsessed with Koi

Jean Janssen is a local watercolorist and one of my best friends.  She has been teaching for many years, at community centers,  the Universify of the Pacific, and privately.  Many of her paintings have won blue ribbons throughout the Central Valley here in California.    One of her best selling themes are koi.  She has developed her own palette and technique.

One day Creative Catalyst sent a promo for a watercolor video for  an artist she had heard of but had never seen his workshops.   I showed her the prmo and she was so excited, he used a slightly different technique.  We ordered the video. I watched it first and OMG I was excited too, knowing she would soon be trying out his techniques  and adapting them into her own style.
Well, that got me kind of hooked on koi, but in acrylics.

Not long afterwards Creative Catalyst offered a video on painting koi by a different artist in a totally different way.  So I ordered it to and we compared them and had a lot of interesting discussions about the techniques.   

I had recently restocked my acrylic paint supplies, and I decided to paint koi myself.    Mostly because some years ago Jean had given me 3 canvasses that she didnt plan to use. I had painted over one but had two left.  When I dug them out, I found she had sketched several koi on one  in pencil.  She decided she didnt like acrylic paintings so had never done anything with it. 

Well, there were those koi.   Hmmm.  First I thought I would collage them,  but instead collaged a background of old maps from an atlas I use as a paper source.

Then i played with sketching koi from internet koi sources.   I kept three of Jeans original koi, but did the others based on my sketches.    Layer by layer, tweak by tweak gradually it came together.

I remembered reading about using Citrasolv to clean acrylic paints and inks from brayers, so I wondered if I could scrub out some fish shapes from my dark water background.  It worked. Just as Jean and these other artists could lift watercolor paint with a damp clean brush to bring out their fish, I could do it with acrylics.  Only instead of water, I needed a product to scrub away the layers of paints and glazes.  I tried using alcohol first but wasnt as successful  as using the Citrosolv. 

As the first fish began to emerge, I felt like I had really accomplished something.  It took some time and heavy scrubbing and some judgement to decide when to stop and let it be.    It was so much fun.  I think I am now obsessed with koi. 

The painting lives above my bathtub.  Here are some pics.  You will notice I collaged and then stained and painted over some of the fish.

Fish in pond

These koi are on a new companion piece to the larger koi painting.   I am trying to keep the background lighter, so the old maps show through the glazes. But I rather like the darker one better.  I will live with it awhile and see. 

Another fish..... muxed media

I was going for light hearted simple piece.  I dont want to fuss over it. I think it will end up out on patio wall.

Whats that fish doing there?

This one was pretty mych done but the fish cutout was on my work table.....  mixed media artists can guess the rest.     It was a use it or lose it moment.  

Flowers and fish

Here are some recent paintings.  98% completed.

  this one I thought was finished a month or two ago, but it needed something more. So I added greenery, fallen blossom and foliage and finally the fish.  I want to add a shadow behind the fish and then let it go. 

Mixed media play day.

After seeing Jane Davies post, I challenged our group to either draw, or collage cards with heads, torsos, or legs and feet.   Most did theirs before our meeting, but some worked on them here.   We passed them around, and changed them and had lots of good fun.   There were 11 at the table.  Chitter chatter and giggles.  Here are some of mine.

Busy busy

So many interesting things going on lately.
Our old Wackos group has started meeting again in Modesto.  Beverly has turned her parents house which is on the same property as her own home where she and her husband raised their children, into an art house.   She calls it THE HOME.    It is full of rooms of books, supplies and work spaces. Im looking forward CV to our next get together  when we will work on gelli printing.  Its magical.

Some of our projects will be using supplies we havent touched for a few years, so we can revisit techniques and learn new ones.

The mixed media group that meets at my place, which I call THE BEACH HOUSE, had a bang up day yesterday.   Carol, Sue, Marilyn, Nancy, Sally, Trina, Taffee, Elizabeth, Pamela, Rosemary, Cat and me.  Full table.   I will post pics later. 

This is a piece I did for Valentines day.  I will be teaching a couple of the newbies how to create similar pieces later this month. 

 Basically its layers of papers, napkins, tissues, glazes and tissues.     There are a lot of steps. 

I need to prepare for this mornings painting group. Ill try to update my blog this weekend.