What a great vacation, but always good to get back in the home which includes my studio ….. my supermarket of art supplies.
Reading Iyanla Vanzant’s book, “One Day My Soul Just Opened Up. Day Two is headlined “Honor the Divine with Trust”.
Not always easy, so lots of meditation and thought before putting my expression on this intuitive art journal page.
#journalthroughit
My Easter reflection in my art journal became a bit too personal to share, so I gave it a little curtain of origami paper.
That’s the beauty of an art journal. Pour your soul out onto a page and cover it up, let it speak or scream, or pull it out and toss it. Don’t think I’ve ever trashed a page…..painted over it….hell yes. Cut it up for a card? Sure. But I usually remember the lesson that lies beneath.
In paintings, a dark placed next to a light creates a place to draw the eye. It is often used in the center of interest in a piece. You can make the same analogy in life. Without the dark, the light would not appear so bright. Hard to remember sometimes when times are dark.
Hoping your Easter (if you celebrate) was filled with the beauty of light and hope.
We took a week’s vacation and when we returned, my orange orchid had bloomed….to say I am obsessed is kind.
We’ve lived in Florida for nearly 5 years….I’ve purchased an orchid every year…..and tossed them out after they bloom once. But because this one was orange, I couldn’t bring myself to toss it. It sat out on some dang chilly Florida nights, so I thought it would be a goner. But, I was rewarded by ignoring it. Who knew!
My lesson this week was to work in a series. The art journal page was inspired by Kimberly Kelly Santini’s #journalthroughit class. Using watercolor pencils and your non-dominant hand, then you hit some of those lines with water to see what happened.
The other two are large pieces. I hardly ever work this large. I envision one hanging in my living room. As of right now, neither is what I had in mind. Hopefully, eventually, I’ll be happy with one of them!
And even if I’m not happy with one, the practice is invaluable, and there’s always gesso to cover them up and start again. and that makes me happy.
No Diane’s Home School, Art School this week. That’s because I attended the 4 day Art 2 Life Workshop given by Nicholas Wilton this week. What an eye opener.
The final painting I did received a lot of comments as it progressed through it’s stages. And some questions on process, so if you have some time, I’ll walk you through the process.
The above horse painting was from another workshop. It felt childlike and uninspiring to me. The beauty of acrylics is you can just paint over it. Or gesso over it and have a fresh substrate.
After watching Nick’s Workshop on design, I wanted to do an imaginary floral. Tried to vary the shape on the “real estate”…. the four quadrants in the painting. I drizzled some thick acrylic down the right hand side and let it dry. It is somewhat raised. Put various flower shapes and sizes, some straight and organic shapes. Added some water solvable marks with my chunky Stabilo crayons. For my taste, the colors felt dull. But there was a lot going on and felt a bit “garage sale” like.
Returned to the painting to brighten up some colors and add some interest in the “quiet” areas. Added some geometric shapes to contrast with the overall organic shapes going on in the painting. Different is exciting was a big message of this incredible workshop. Still not happy….but done for the day
Looks at what happens when you slap in the dark. And I harmonized the colors on the flowers. Getting them a bit brighter, Now we’re popping. And I chose the complementary (opposite on the color wheel) for my dark. If I’d chosen any other color, it wouldn’t have been so dramatic. Added some straight lines to offset the organic. Added the details on the right hand bottom to move your eye around the painting….it works. Your eye heads there. All that texture on the right hand side is still there, now just under some paint. Dang, Nick was right.
I didn’t like the box behind the orange flower, so I change that shape to a circle. And I felt that right hand side was still not speaking to me, so I added yet another light lilac like shape that cut into the negative shape behind the flowers. Hmm…..liking that a little better.
Woke at 2:00 am….that round shape looked too much like the vase and if I painted it over with lighter values, I could get some dramatic impact with leaf shapes….and maximize the impact of that lilac like flower that breaches the negative space on the right. Oh, and if I put some dark on the left hand side under the flowers, it would separate them a bit from the vase. Same shape as upper right, but different size. Differences are exciting! And, I felt like I wanted to refind that texture on the right hand side a bit, so I emphasized it with watercolor pencils, then had to make some delicate swirly things coming out. There was nothing delicate in this painting at all. And that white flower is still boring, even though I had added some watercolor pencil marks to it. And the other flowers need a little interest in them also. Washing my brushes at 5:00 am.
In the color workshop, Nick shows us how to bring our colors in harmony. He mixed a puddle of “mother mud” using all the colors on his palette. Then he would add small amounts of that mud to his basic color. It harmonized the colors. And for every color he mixed that he would say, “Look at how that’s a gorgeous grey, yellow, etc. “, my visceral reaction was they all looked like baby food…or worse. I was stunned, shocked. I hated what he was teaching me. But I am in class, so I gave it a go in a small 6” x 4” piece. Most people like this version….I am feeling it is dull and boring. But I will try the mud method in a few other pieces, to see what happens.
And if you’ve managed to get through this missive…..the take away is to take a class from Nick Wilton. He will forever influence my work. Thank you Nick Wilton for your generosity.
Yesterday brought an outing to Selby gardens in Sarasota to view the annual Orchid show. Breathtaking, theatrical, and inspiring. And that means….bring out the art journal!
Here’s the reference photo. While I could have gone for more accuracy, I went more for feeling. It was a lovely, peaceful day in the midst of the chaos of news.
Have I told you lately that I love to paint?
When I woke on Wednesday morning, I knew the world would be crazed in analyzing the Tuesday night debates. In my efforts to curate what I allow into my life, I had gone to bed.
You all know that Kimberly Kelly Santini and Ardith Godwin’s #journalthroughit video classes have been a highlight during the COVid crisis for me. Eagerly awaiting Kimberly Kelly Santini’s class, I was somewhat sad to see she, like everyone else, was a bundle of raw frustrations and emotions. She worked with crayons as a resist with watercolor. Clutching her crayon in a fist, she advised us to take some time to feel our emotions, draw them using colors and marks that expressed what we were feeling. Her demo was filled with dark, angry marks. She said she felt better.
My meditation was very different. Sad versus angry. A feeling of fading and frayed, a hopelessness, a realization my mortality is slipping away in quarantine.
Rather than angry, I felt like a pair of worn out, ripped jeans. Exposing naked knees and strings of what had once been whole fabric. Picked apart, frayed, tired, barely hanging together. A soft, floating feeling, with a lot of sad. The resulting piece was accompanied by a bit of water accumulation in my eyes. It didn’t make me feel any better.
The piece sat for a day, reminding me of the melancholy, chaos and sadness in the world, in every conversation, in me, in loved ones.
The concept of tattered clothing spun around in my head, when my dear friend’s sweet departed Mom made it into my thoughts. She would buy damaged clothing with a hole, or imperfection in it at a discount store, and would proudly announce how she would make it beautiful….often involving covering it with a butterfly appliqué. Her own version of kintsugi.
What would happen if I covered the melancholy with that which is beautiful?
So thank you Mom Mom for you inspiration from above. While the sadness may still lie beneath, we can lay some beauty on top, using love, light, kindness and pretty to help us make our days more peaceful.
What beauty will you bring to today?
The delivery truck dropped off my new Gelli plates a few days ago. So I just had to get them broken in.
Experimenting with prints pulled with plants, I wasn’t feeling any of the pieces that happened. They were laying on my desk when I saw the female figure in the one. Then a crock of flowers in the other, and a bit of floral in the third.
The cat is watercolor. Just because I needed a bit of familiar after messing with the prints!
Finally set up my new Masterson’s acrylic palette. What a wonderful thing to have your colors moist, available and accessible.
Stretched with this one. Roses are always difficult for me, then added very sharp edged shapes in the background. Diluted some Titanium white with airbrush medium. Then applied that to the background and scratched in some marks with a toothpick. Not bad. Wish I had left some soft edges on the rose. Next time.
Just realized I didn’t sign it.
Been doing lots of beach sketches also.
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My new Facebook group, DID YOU ART TODAY? is small, but has definitely inspired me, reunited me and introduced me to some new creatives.
Cleaning up photos on my iPhone, I realize I take a lot of “reference” photos that I honestly believe will someday be paintings. Next goal: paint some of those babies, then delete them!
Yesterday I broke out the oils. I think this is the 5th time I’ve ever painted with them. By the time I finished, I was covered in paint and felt sticky. I realized if I want to continue messing with them, a new red is in order. Alizarin Crimson just ain’t cutting it. And, I’ll have to wait until it dries a bit to sign it….otherswise I’d be covered in paint again as I drag my left hand across the wet paint.
Then I grabbed my trusty watercolors. Liked that rendition much better! My palette has a bit more zing. Much easier clean up too.
Both pieces are 8” x 10”, oil on canvas, watercolor on Arches 140 Lb. HP.
Put a check in the Yes box!
“‘Did You Art Today?”
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