painting the feminine

I have been busy with lots of stitching, none of which is finished, and my painting challenges.  I have also started a course with Connie Solera of Dirty Footprints Studio called Painting the feminine.

I am really enjoying the course and I felt the need to share my process with my first (official) page

I picked up an oil pastel and just played and these shapes came up. They could be babies, or women, or even leaves and seeds.  I wasn't sure yet.
I left them for a while and eventually, I started adding paint, and got lost, so no photos.

This is where I got to.  I started colouring the little areas and shapes in the middle, but they felt wrong, so...

I painted over it.  I  tried straight orange and yellow, but they were too transparent,so I added some white to them and added more, making a sort of stucco texture.
I still felt I needed something to connect the two figures

I had an idea of some spirals, but I wasn't sure, so I put a page protector opened up over the top and  tried it out with posca markers.  I liked that, but I added some dots as well.

Finally, I added more dots around each figure and the eyes.  I call this connectedness and for me it is about how the feminine connects us in our hearts.

Whilst I was working on this, which took a while and a lot of reflection, I also started painting over an old canvas, which was covered in flowers and a vase.

The same shape in another incarnation.  I was actually using up all the leftover paint on my palette and was not happy with the colours, but they have given me the form I wanted, so this is a work in process and we will see how it changes over the week!

Happy creating!

A bit of paint

I felt like painting the other day, but had no Idea what to paint.  You know we all suffer from that sometimes.  So instead of dithering, I just slapped some paint on a canvas.

This was my first layer.  Still no idea.

I added some stencilling.  Still no idea

I added some dribbles, still didn't like it, so I added some more paint.  Still no idea.

I saw a blue pot, so I painted that in.

The dribbles from previously made some yellow bricks, so I painted them in.

A bit more work on the bricks, and the pot.

I got rid of the yellow blob on the left of the pot and put some foreground in.
And that's where I am at, but now I have an idea.  Geraniums, perhaps, and I think an orange red glaze over the bricks.
But As usual, I will let it sit for a while before I finish it.
It's amazing where ideas come from.
Picasso said "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working"  It is one of my favourite quotes, because it is so true.

Happy Creating!

Hello dear, what did you do today?

Today was my weekly art class.  It is a very small class, so I usually have plenty of time to do something myself, so today, I did this

I was playing with a palette knife rather than a brush, which is something I love to do as there is tons of texture as a result.
My composition was not good, as I have placed the focal point in the centre, but I suppose I could cut a bit off the alter it.  anyway, it was just playing. The photo is not good due to the shine of the paint, but it's nearly dark here so no natural light.  It might perhaps look better on it's side?
This is acrylic, and would probably look better and have more texture in oil, but with the temperatures plummeting and winter nearly here, it would take weeks to dry enough between layers, so maybe in the spring.

Happy Creating!

Things to do whilst teaching

The last two weeks of Art class have been very quiet, so I got out a canvas and played around whilst my students were working.
and this is what I ended up with.

Although  I like parts of it, I have absolutely no objectivity regarding it and am unhappy with the flowers.  Probably, this is because I tend to put a lot of detail and structure in usually, but with this I used mostly a palette knife, which does not allow for detail.  I did add some detail with gel pens yesterday, which improved it a lot.
What I need to know is does it appeal?  Would you like it on your wall?  Don't just say it's nice, because you think you couldn't do it (I believe anyone can make art if they approach it from the right point of view).
I don't often have pieces of work that I am unsure of like this, so I need some real constructive criticism.

Happy creating!

A day of painting.

All the art videos I watched during the hot spell, got me wanting to do a bit of painting, so today I had a day off from my usual routine to paint.
Here is where I am at.

This is a 3x2 foot, quite large canvas, so the eucalyptus flowers are a bit bigger than real life, probably about 12x.  It is acrylic, so it will need varnishing to get rid of the dullness when acrylic dries.  It still needs a bit of work, but I am pleased with it so far and really enjoyed putting the paint on thick, sometimes with a palette knife, sometimes a large flat brush.

Happy Creating!

Little booklets

This evening I have been playing with some recycled cardboard stuff.
I collect all the boxes from scripts and other packaging.  I love my medication boxes, because they are small and I end up with sets of boxes that can form books

the diagram above shows how I remove the ends of the boxes and flatten them to form a sleeve that I can put things in.

Here is my palette with acrylic paint and a sponge which I used to cover the sleeves.

Above in this blurry photo (sorry), you can see some  of the box sleeves and some tags which I cut from other card pieces.  I must say that the surface of the packaging is usually a bit glossy, so I sand the surfaces and wipe them clean a little before applying the paint.

Above, you can see some of the texture I got on these surfaces with the sponge.

I will work more with these, so you will have to check back to see how little books evolve from these bits of painted card.

Happy creating!

A few stencils, and voila!

Here is my piece for Art Every Day Month, Day 20!

It is a 9 inch canvas.  I put down some acrylic colours, using a scraper to get streaks of colour, then when it was dry, I added some feathers in molding paste through a stencil.  When they were dry, I added the blue ink spray through a stencil, then after that was dry, I paintedthe feathers with some different lumiere paint. After that was dry (again) I added some black around the edges of the feathers with a black ink marker.  Since the ink was watersoluble, I went back with a damp brush and feathered the black out to create shadows.
It depends on the angle you look at it as to whether you see the sheen of the metallic paints.
I was pretty pleased with it.  Hope you like it.

Happy creating

Is it a mosquito, or a dragonfly?

No idea, but it's what happened on the page.
I had been watching a video on using glazes and decided to have a try with one of the pages in my journal where I had just slapped all the leftover paint.

This was the page I chose.  As you can see, a big mess, but I thought I saw something flying on the left hand side.

I outlined the shape I could see and put a yellow glaze over everything else to unify the background.  It worked well.  The texture is still visible underneath, but the shape is much more prominent.

Here I blocked in the shape I saw and turned a circle that was under all the paint but showing through into a sun. I still wasn't happy with my shape and spent a long time thinking....

And this is what I ended up with.  I got so engrossed that I forgot to take pictures in between.
I lightened the body and three of the wings with an iridescent violet then added highlights with a lilac paint pen, then I went back in with a silver and a red gel pen and added more, smudging as I went.  finally, I went over the veins and dark shadows with a black glaze pen.
Here are a couple of close ups.

So, it's amazing what can come out of a messy page!  I do like finding things in my backgrounds and this one, although he is not sure whether he is a mosquito or a dragonfly - turned out well.

Today is Day 15

Happy creating