Tangents

Anyone who has known me for very long will suspect it...a tendency toward AAD...Artistic Attention Deficit.  I have a hundred different ways I would like to try to make art and all the supplies to prove it.  Some ideas are way too involved and common sense tells me I'd lose interest before I got the first piece finished.  The learning curve has to be pretty short and the process fairly direct.  Some are more toxic than I want to expose myself to for any length of time, should I actually stick with the technique.  This horse is a collagraph I worked on in 2013.  The plate is made with a collage of cardboard shapes and covered in aluminum foil.  From there, a brayer is used to ink the plate with water-based printing ink.  The drawbacks are the fact that I have to go to another artist's studio to use the fabulous printing press (with the associated chance that I might be sidetracked along the way) and the messy process and clean up.

Other printing processes that I'm mulling over in my artistic mind are mono printing with open acrylics on plexi-glass plates on watercolor paper or trying out the  Gelli Arts  synthetic gelatin-like plate I bought awhile back to make mono prints.  If they turn out, I will be sure to post the results. 

The Colors of Winter

We don't have cardinals in the Pacific Northwest, that I'm aware of.  I wish I could see one of these beautiful little birds out my kitchen window.  I do have holly in the yard.  Thankfully, no snow...just gray rain.  This little image was done in transparent watercolor with black gouache and is ready for the 2014 Christmas season.  Ahhhh.  Ahead of schedule.  A great way to start a new year.

First Painting of 2014

A Happy New Year to you all.

With a backyard filled with birds and squirrels, it seems only reasonable to make this little squirrel the subject of my first painting for the new year.  Within several yards of my kitchen window, I have seen 7 different squirrels, a red tailed hawk, a deer, and half a dozen varieties of birds.  It's such a privilege to have a wild backyard in which to spy so many creatures.

Goals for the new year include painting more, posting originals to my site on Daily Paint Works, posting new cards and prints to my etsy site and being very ready for the Bellingham Farmers Market in April.  (See links in the side bar to the right)

A Merry Christmas To All

Christmas Day 2013.  I have managed to keep things simple.  Simple greens at the doorway.  Simple gifts for the twelve littles.  Not-quite-simple home interior rearrange, but it got done and I love it!  Some rooms are spring-loaded, but those are projects for the new year.  Many goals to define for 2014, but for today--Christmas Day--I will reflect on the significance of this day and what I am most blessed to have.  I wish those blessings for one and all.  Merry Christmas.

Daily Paintworks

I've just successfully added Daily Paintworks to the places my artwork can be viewed and/or purchased.  Daily Paintworks is a wonderful site where artists can post their original work.  For the minimum investment of $12.95 a month, artists can post and sell paintings with no commission taken.  If one chooses to use the auction option, there is a commission.  Now, I just have paint more consistently.  That will be the tricky part.  Stop by and check out the site--there are, on the average, 200 original paintings posted every day, or scroll down and click on the Daily Paintworks link on the right side of this page to visit my DPW gallery. 

Lifting Fog

I'm pretty happy with the outcome of today's hours of experimentation.  Clayboard with acrylic utilizing negative shape painting.  8" x 8" cradled.  I'll paint the sides black and it will be ready to hang. 

Frost on the Rose Hips

It won't be long now.  Winter's icy fingers are reaching out to wrap around our temperate weather days of late fall.  Like the old saying "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."  I've taken a LOT of foliage photos this late-fall season in hopes of discovering what can happen on Claybord when I focus on the negative shapes and paint deep into the thicket.  Still more work to be done on this one I'm thinking.