Bird Triptych









This painting was kind of inevitable. It's spring, and I had a TON of fabric scraps laying around the studio. And some painted rice paper. And some National Geographic clippings from the 70s. The bird triptych was crying out to be made. This is the start of it. Now I am adding line work and other things. The king and queen are on the center panel. I can't wait to do the eyes. Fun!!

Layers






























Three layers on the bird painting so far. a background painted in oils, then a layer of clear wax. A rice paper bird painting. The clear wax I use to affix the rice paper actually makes it translucent so that only the paint on the paper really shows. Then I used stencils around the bird and I'm starting some line work.

The green colorful picture is a detail of the deer painting I have been working on. It now has many layers of cloth, painting, line work and stenciling. I love how the layers have built up a rich texture.

There's something I like about taking my time with a painting. Painting a layer, waiting a week. It gives me time to know what the best next move for the painting will be. It gives the painting a chance to marinate before I put in the next ingredient.

Spring!

















I am usually in the mood to make art but not always. I have come to the realization that I only need to make art when I really feel like it, thus avoiding making bland art that is just "going through the motions". This past week I haven't been in the mood. Instead I use my studio time to organize my collage papers, clean and get rid of extraneous stuff, and basically gear up for when the time to paint comes. Out of the studio I have been drinking in the spring weather and colors. These are my favorite crocuses in my yard. I love the find purple lines, so perfect. There isn't a lot of color out there right now, so the color that I do see I really appreciate even more. It's very important to my process and to my spirit to spend time in nature surrounded by these beautiful colors.

Inspiring Me

Often I am asked- "What inspires your paintings?" This is surprisingly hard to pin down. I usually say, " Walking in nature, plants, people, animals, life." It's the truth, but vague.
For one, I love the stark quality of the world this time of year. Everything seems to be outlined. It's partly the quality of the light. I love the crisp air and the shadows. I love how all the plants are starting to think about putting leaves out. I imagine how, in a few weeks, there will be bright green tiny leaves coming out of every plant that has been bare.
I like how in the winter you can see the tree's skeleton so much better than when it has leaves. I enjoy noting the wildy differing structures of trees. I think about trees a lot.

The visual representation of a tree that branches at both ends is a model of the universe as a living organism, a metaphorical map that serves equally well for the cosmos external to the individual and the spectrum of consciousness deep within -- with its highest branches in the heavens and its roots deep within the dark underrealm.
-Howard Rheingold

Blips and blurbs

This dog is painted in oils on top of some encaustic paint. I scratched through the oil paint to carve the lines revealing the blue encuastic paint.

Next there are the two that I talked about in the last post. Now with deer and an octopus. Both were made with stencils I cut. Sometimes that's the best way to get a definite shape when painting with encaustics.

In the same painting as the dog, I have a floating lake with a swan. I have painted oil on top encaustics here too. You can see the difference in the textures really well in this photo.

Then there is a mandala that I've painted with watercolor on rice paper. It is something I will eventually use in an encaustic painting. I do a lot of rice paper doodles- and a lot of them end up as either backgrounds or cut shapes in the encaustic pieces.

For instance this green bird that I worked on today has a rice paper painting background.

And lastly an ode to our "new" car, an old volvo station wagon that is meant to be our "family" car. I was so happy to get this car old volvo station wagons are my dream cars. However, this car has brought heartbreak, having been in the shop twice now in one week. Everyone cross your fingers that our baby will be ok!!!







breathing butterflies and two newbies
















I have worked a lot more on the Breathing Butterflies piece. It is almost done but just needs a few finishing touches. It is very different from my other work, a bit of a departure for me. When I am working I like to always keep an open mind and try not to fall into doing the same sort of patterns and subjects I've already done. If I do a subject again, I want to re explore the subject and re interpret it. Anyway, this one is very different and I have learned a lot working on it.
I was lucky this week to give a demonstration of encaustic techniques to a group of college students. The two pieces on the right are the result of the demo. They are just beginnings at this point. I like doing demos and talking about my work because it forces me to explain what I do in words and then I really get more of an understanding myself. The one on the left was done by layering 7 colors and using my heat gun to swirl the colors together. On the right, the background is a piece of rice paper I had painted previously that I affixed to the panel with clear wax. Then I put several strips of cloth that I had left over from some sewing projects. I then demonstrated how to do stenciling with encaustic and also how to do linework. I really enjoyed doing stenciling, it has been a while since I have used that technique and I plan on doing more in both of these pieces.

swirling ideas....




























Lately I have been making good use of my studio time. I seem to have been busy for several months on seemingly unrelated projects that are now coming together. I think last month I was focusing on oils, now I am doing lots of mixed media work. I had a lot of nice rice paper painted and ready to collage. Several older encaustic pieces were revamped with some scraping and collage. I am working on a gouache painting of mice and some of the rice paper worked it's way into that painting too in the form of raindrops. Then a watercolor/gouache painting I had all but given up on found it's way into an encaustic painting full of swirls and clouds. It's the green ones up top. I am probably most excited about this one, I feel like it's new and strange. Most of the others involve animals and creatures. Probably influenced by the many many many kids books I have been reading to Ingrid. Look out- one of these days I plan to self publish my own!!!

















I am working on an encaustic and an oil painting this month. The encaustic one- working title- "breathing butterflies" is on the left. The woman in the painting was made by cutting up an old Time Life book- that series has inspired a lot of art from me over the years. There's always one in the thrift store it seems. The woman is cut from a black and white photo of monarch butterflies. I used wax to affix her to the surface. She is totally encased in wax now so the paper is impervious to the elements and won't yellow over time! I want to make it seem like she is exhaling all these butterflies. The background was really fun to do, a lot of scraping and gouging and filling in and then more scraping. I've never made a painting quite like this one before. I'm not sure what else I will do to this one. Something......
My oil painting (on the right) is almost done. It's a manifestation of mother earth. The lighting is bad, sorry, I'll take a "real" picture of it when it's done. It's really colorful. Something I notice while I hike around or even just walk around my neighborhood are all the colors there are in nature. So many subtle variations and striking combinations. I want to celebrate the colors I see in this painting. I worked really hard on the trees. They each have at least 4 or 5 colors in the bark and I painted each leaf individually(!) which took forever. I didn't notice the time going by- it's like a meditation painting those tiny leaves.

Mural is a no go

Unfortunately I didn't win the competition. I was a little disappointed after all the hard work but I gained a lot of experience that I will be able to use next time I enter. I will do a mural some day- this just wasn't it. I offer my congratulations to the artist that won. Rejection is always a part of being an artist and I have faced my share like everyone else. It bothered me for like an hour. My good friend Leslie said- rejection is good- it means they weren't ready for your art!! I definitely don't take it personally anymore. It's like water off a duck's back. Now I need to enter another contest and get some more irons in the fire!

DONE!

Here is the finished proposal. Of course I could have spent another week on the details but I am happy with the painting and it's due monday, so I have to be done now so it can dry in time for it's trip to Greensboro. I am nervous to present it but happy with what came out of it. I hope I get the opportunity to paint this mural! But even if I don't I have learned a lot from this painting and have enjoyed working on it. Here are some details from the painting. Keep in mind how tiny they are! ( the people.) It's hard to really refine the faces at that scale. But I wanted to keep them small since in the actual mural they are going to be 6 times bigger.



Here is the painting as I started working on it this morning (below) and as I finished at the end of my session today. I am enjoying the detail work. I focused a lot on the people today which was excruciating because they were so small. If I get the mural, it will be a lot easier to do the faces large scale. I reached my limit today with the faces and started working on birds. Both the birds and people need more work. I will be back at it tomorrow. Monday I present the painting to the committee. I know I will be ready.


On Thursday I was flinging paint. I have lots of details left but I am happy. The purple house in the front is dedicated to McGirt and Horton. The left is McGirt and the right is Horton. The big windows will have portraits of them. I put an oak tree next to McGirt's side of the house as a reference to his poem. I have someone holding a candle on Horton's side as a reference to his torch poem. I am going to include 3 librarians. The kids playing are a shout out to the Boys and Girls club in the neighborhood. One house has 2 old men on the porch and 2 dogs in the yard, something I saw while I was in the neighborhood. The red house on the bottom is the sunflower house- dedicated to the kids who made a sunflower quilt that hangs in the library. There are clotheslines and a bus stop. There will be cats birds and squirrels and maybe a bunny and a lot more people in the finished piece. I am excited about this painting!

More Inspiration



James Ephraim McGirt

Success is a light upon the farther shore,

That shines in dazzling splendor to the eye,

The waters leap, the surging billows roar,

And he who seeks the prize must leap and try.

A might host stand trembling on the brink,

With anxious eyes they yearn to reach the goal.

I see them leap, and ah! I see them sink-

As gazing on dread horror fills my soul.

Yet to despair I can but droop and die,

‘Tis better far to try the lashing deep.

I much prefer beneath the surge to lie,

Than death to find me on this bank asleep.


BORN LIKE THE PINES.
Born like the pines to sing,
The harp and song in m' breast,
Though far and near,
There's none to hear,
I'll sing as th' winds request.
To tell the trend of m' lay,
Is not for th' harp or me;
I'm only to know,
From the winds that blow,
What th' theme of m' song shall be.
Born like the pines to sing,
The harp and th' song in m' breast,
As th' winds sweep by,
I'll laugh or cry,
In th' winds I cannot rest.

THE SPIRIT OF THE OAK.
The spirit of the oak am I,
With head uplifted to the sky,
Though hail and storm beat in my face,
Through weal or woe I hold my place,
With head uplifted to the sky,
The spirit of the oak am I.
Birds I have sheltered many a year,
They hear the storm, desert in fear,
The strenuous eagle strives to stay,
But, ah! at last his heart gives way,
He stretches forth his feathered form,
And sails to heaven above the storm.
Devoid of every earthly friend,
I stand undaunted till the end,
With head uplifted to the sky—
The spirit of the oak am I.
And when the raging storm is o'er,
My feathered friends return once more,
And find me standing calm and free;
They chirp aloud and sing with glee,
With outstretched arm I bid them rest,
I hold no malice in my breast,
But welcome every passer-by —
The spirit of the oak am I.

MAN, A TORCH

by: George Moses Horton (c.1797-c.1883)

      LOWN up with painful care and hard to light,
      A glimmering torch blown in a moment out,
      Suspended by a web, an angler's bait,
      Floating at stake along the stream of chance,
      Snatch'd from its hook by the fish of poverty,
      A silent cavern is his last abode;
      The king's repository veil'd with gloom,
      The umbrage of a thousand oziers bowed,
      The couch of hallowed bones, the grave's asylum,
      The brave's retreat and end of ev'ry care.

Inspiration from the site

I love the color of these two houses together.
Thinking about including some clotheslines.
The recreation center's gazebo has an interesting roof.
Behind the roses is a yellow house- another great color combination.
This is a nursery school. More bright colors!


I want to reference some of the things I learned about the history of the neighborhood. Also the library was named for two poets so I need to read some of their works and see what that inspires. I am still figuring out how these images will translate themselves into my vision.

Mural Proposal



This is a big deal for me- I am now one of 3 finalists to do a mural. I applied with my portfolio several months ago and just got a call last week letting me know I was selected to present my proposal to the jury! I am working on a scale version of what I will be doing at the library if chosen.
Since the mural is going to be in a library in an African American part of town, the mural must be Afro- centric. I am using for my inspiration the memories of an African American neighborhood I know well in Jacksonville FL. It was the neighborhood I went to school in. The houses were older and the colors were vibrant. I am trying to capture the energy and the vibes from my memories.
Right now I just have some very basic colors but this painting will resemble some of my other cityscapes- with lots of trees, cats, dogs, people, squirrels and birds.
I am taking a trip tomorrow to the actual neighborhood the library is being built in to see if I can gain more inspiration. I am so excited about this project!
Wish me luck as I focus my energies on this!

Finished!


Here are two paintings I recently finished. I am finally done with my triptych. It's amazing how much longer it takes to finish a big painting while being a mom. I decided to name it The Morning After the Rainstorm.
The colors are bright and vibrant and alive. It gives me a feeling of renewal to look at it. I imagine walking through the garden or through the arboretum after a rain, and the smells of the plants and the dampness of the earth. I imagine the spirits that live there.

I also finally finished The Pollen Collecters.
Keith named this painting for me. I was at a loss for a title, as usual. It's the first painting he's ever named for me.
This is a painting of flying humanoids in buckets. They each have their own small flying bug that is trained to fly into the cup flowers and collect pollen for it's master. The background is encaustic and the rest was done with oils.

Triptych







So, Here is the painting I have been spending most of my time on as of late. It is coming along slowly. I enjoy working with encaustic over collage, deciding which part of the collage will show. Also scraping through the paint to find a previous layer- I always forget what's under there! So here is the painting as it is- and a few details. I am probably about 70% done.

Beginnings





I love working large. Since starting encaustics, I haven't had the space to do a really large piece because they need to be worked on flat. After some experimenting, I decided to do 3 large wood panels that will connect together to create one painting. A triptych of sorts.

The panel were bought months ago. Something about the size and the blankness was intimidating. I wasn't sure where to start. A lot of artists do preliminary sketches but I don't like to work this way. To me, painting and drawing are 2 totally separate things. I like to draw, and I feel like the drawings feed into the paintings in a conceptual way.

Keith suggested that I start abstract. This is something I have done often enough. I will start a painting in an intuitive way and let the shapes suggest images to me. Kind of like looking at clouds. I decided to start this painting with a collage.

I didn't worry a lot about getting the collage "perfect" because a lot of it will be painted over when I start the painting. I love this part of the process- anything is possible at this point. The more choices I make, the narrower the path gets. In choosing one image, I reject other possibilities. This is the part of the process that keeps me intrigued. The paintings I like the most are always the ones I am working on.