Creating Space

Extremes

2008-07-25T07:38:00.004-04:00

It seems to me I am painting in one style or another these days. As you know, I have been painting the details of the little squares or cells combined with the reflective paint. But in preparing for those paintings, things like this happen:

I thought this was going to be a base for another one of those paintings, but this came up. It literally appeared before me as I was applying base paint on the canvas.

I have done some of these minimal canvases before and really enjoy them a lot. This one had to stay. In my heart, I felt it just did not need to be touched at this point, so I have not. Well, there will be some fairly heavy glazing added.

How about you? Do you find sometimes you are stopping just when you are getting started? Do paintings kind of present themselves to you when you least expect it?

Now, have a good weekend. And next week, I will be publishing my Conversation with New Zealand Glass Artist, Lesley McIver. You are clearly in for another treat!

We Have Twins...

2008-07-23T09:13:00.003-04:00

Yesterday my son called my attention to the backyard, again! This time, we realized we have more new fawns. This set of twins were grazing there without their mother (the single fawn is always seen with it's mother and she is very protective). I am still amazed to see all of the wildlife in our yard since we are so close to the city.

It is a busy week here, but I wanted to share this with you!

Is summer (or winter, for my Southern Hemisphere friends) in full swing at your house?

Adding Glaze

2008-07-21T08:38:00.004-04:00

I spent the weekend in the studio. One of the things I did was to put glazing on this painting. I know you have seen it before, but I thought you might get an idea of what the glazing does for the colors. You can scroll down to the post titled Walking the Path (just one post between these two) to see the same painting without the glazing.
As you can see, I again just took quick shots. But they are in the same location with the same type of light (even taken the same time of day).

Now this edge shot was a lot more difficult to get for some reason. But you can see the glazing clearly here.

This particular painting has about 12 layers of glaze on it.

Sorry you are seeing the same painting again, but it is one of the things I did this weekend and I thought you might like to see the changes this technique makes. I will be showing you a few other things later on.

Did you make any art this weekend?

Have a Wonderful Day!

Bab's Plant

2008-07-18T08:15:00.006-04:00

As some of you know, Babs, who writes Off The Wall Arts, sent me these very cool seeds earlier this year. I planted them in this pot and protected the young plants from the deer who like to visit me. Right now, this is what these lovely plants look like. Babs posted some photos on her blog and mine is not looking as good as hers, but maybe it is the difference in our climates. Most likely it is the difference in the gardeners, though.
As you can see, this one is sending out shoots, so I am hopeful for those lovely purple flowers and purple seed pods. Don't you like the way this spirals?
Do you think this is a flower bud? Maybe it is more leaves. I don't know.
But I love these leaves...look at the great color combination. I am not a gardener, but I can say these seeds have pleasantly surprised with at least the foliage of these really cool seeds. Thanks so much Babs!

How does your garden grow? Your outside garden or your art garden.

Walking The Path

2008-07-16T09:42:00.004-04:00

This is one of the paintings I have been working on lately. As you can see, this is just a quick snap, but I thought you might like to see it. Additionally, it will get a lot of glazing which I hope to begin this weekend.
At this point, there are no glazes applied. So hopefully I will be able to show you the difference once that happens. The exciting part is I have the glaze ready to begin applying. The working title for this painting is Walking the Path. This is copper, inference and regular acrylics on canvas.

This shot shows the edge of this piece. Most of my paintings also wrap around the edges like this one.

I am thinking of some other ideas along these lines and am continuing with some of the other ideas within the Contemplation Series.

Soon, I will be making the rounds to your blogs. I am missing you but need to get a few personal things straightened out here as people are going here and there and I am the director of traffic! :)

Here is to a Great Day for Everyone!

Wildlife or Wild Life!

2008-07-14T08:15:00.006-04:00

My apologies for not making this an art post, but my daughter leaves tomorrow and my focus is in a different place today. Actually, my husband and son have taken the day off from their respective jobs, so we can have an additional family day! I hope you will understand and will also understand about the quality of these photographs. They were taken just before a storm late yesterday afternoon. I had to take them through a window and take them fast. This little guy has been kept under lock and key by his very protective mother, so when she allowed a little freer roaming, I did what I could on short order.

She had this precious little baby in the wooded area of our back yard. They have been there ever since. I am not sure about where she is getting water, though. I have caught a little glimpse of them both from time to time as they would venture forward for some grass in an area we are allowing to return to forest floor.

In this photo, s/he is looking back to encourage Mama to come a bit closer.
And in this photo, Mama agreed. Isn't it cute? When I see it, I don't dare hardly move, so taking these photos was a huge risk as Mama is very, very protective and would have sent Baby running for cover.

We all stood enthralled as they ventured close to the house (maybe within 10 or 15 feet) last night.

Are you having wildlife (of any kind) adventures? I will be returning to the wild life of art soon!

See you Wednesday!

A Gallon of Soft Gel Medium

2008-07-11T07:17:00.005-04:00

Do you recognize this tiny little sample? If you do, then you may have purchased some Golden Soft Gel (Gloss). This is the product I use when I glaze. So it may not come as a surprise to you I recently purchased a gallon of this particular medium. But there is a story about this gallon of medium.
Art Supply Warehouse (the online supply shop I use) was having a great $1 sale on some items, so it was the time to place an order. I am also signed up for emails from them and they had sent me a great coupon to use. So I worked on my order which included a gallon of this medium.

Normally, ASW gets the orders to my front door within 3 days or so. This time, because of the sale, it took a bit longer. When I received the order, however, guess what? There was not a gallon of Soft Gel Medium in Gloss included in the shipment! I was devastated, but emailed them to see if I misunderstood - thinking it might be arriving under separate cover. But I had read things correctly and they sent out the missing medium. Again, because of the sale, I had to wait longer than I normally would.

So while this was a long time arriving, actually getting it was no problem. ASW was very pleasant to work with, they were very kind about all of this and worked with me in the most professional way. I hope you have a source you like however, you might like to see what this particular company offers, if that is not the case. For me, their prices are good and as you can see they worked with me on this particular issue. So many times it is difficult to find companies who work with you so kindly when issues arise, so I really wanted to share this little story with you. While this is the way business should be conducted, it is not always done so.

Who is your favorite supply source? Do you order or use a local resource for your supplies?

I wish for you a wonderful weekend!

I also want to thank ASW and Golden Paint for the images used in today's post.

An Award and A Bit Different Creating

2008-07-09T07:15:00.004-04:00

The very talented Jess has given me this very nice blog award. She is an abstract artist and illustrator with lots of wonderful work, and she is so prolific with her illustrations. It is a great honor for me to receive this award from such a wonderful artist. If you do not already, please visit Jess to see what she is doing. If you like color, you will not be sorry at all!

The rules for acceptance are:

1) Put the logo on your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Now for the hard part...my nominees are:

Paint, Poems and Ponderings

Second Studio

If you do not already visit these blogs, I highly recommend you give them a look/see as there are some wonderful works of art on each of them.

My summer days here continue to be full of life and art. I hope the same is true for you. I am currently working on another interview for you, too. At the present, my art making has taken a slightly different turn as my daughter is eagerly learning to sew. We are planning a birthday celebration for two this weekend before she heads back to Los Angeles for her studies.

On Friday, I will be sharing a story with you about an adventure with an art supply shop and acrylic medium!

Are you having any fun summer (or winter, for those of you in the southern hemisphere) adventures? Are you so busy you can't find the time to blog about them?

Have a Beautiful Day!

"Phases of Life"

2008-07-07T07:37:00.005-04:00

Good Morning Everyone! I do hope you have had a lovely weekend.

Today I grabbed s quick shot of one of the paintings I recently completed. You have seen this as a WIP before, however since then I have added layers of gloss glazing. This will go into my Contemplation Series and will have the subtitle, "Phases of Life". It is painted with acrylics (including silver, pearl and inference), and each small canvas is 4" x 12" (12" x 20" overall).

This is different for me, but I have had a great time doing it. It fits right into my work with slow, meditative art. Actually, Andrea gave me the idea when she was doing drawings of jewelry. Thanks Andrea...I guess this goes to show you no two painters see things the same way. :)

Summer is in full swing at my house these days with lots of stuff going on. I hope you are enjoying what ever form summer or winter is taking at your house.

I will be back with another post on Wednesday this week!

Have a Beautiful Day!

Shine On and Happy 4th

2008-07-02T07:16:00.005-04:00

Over at San's blog, A Life With A View, a lot of sharing goes on. San always has a story to tell or a life experience which brings her art to life. And San's wonderful blog has people sending her all kinds of awards. With her recent post, she tells of grabbing this special image from another blog for herself. It was there for the taking for anyone who desires it. I thought the message and the image was really cute, so when San offered it up, I also grabbed it! So here it is for you...if you wish...just for the taking!

I hope you print it off to remind you how important it is to Shine On with your work!

As we enter into a holiday weekend here in the United States, I want to wish you A VERY HAPPY FOURTH! May you have the fun filled, inspirational and picnic filled time with the people you love.

I will not be posting later this week. I will be commenting, checking blogs and responding to email, though! So do not hesitate to leave your comments or to otherwise contact me.

Everyone have a great and creative weekend!

The Gift of Slow

2008-06-30T07:16:00.004-04:00

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read the Conversation I had with Fiona Long. I do hope you enjoyed it. Again, my apologies about the titles below the photos, however blogger just didn’t want me to do that the day I posted. If you have any specific questions about specific photos, please email me and I will give you the titles.

Also, you will note, I have not listed a name under “My Next Conversation is with…”. I will do that as soon as I can make arrangements with another willing artist. Be patient with me, it is summer and we are all busy.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Slow Art. Andrea read the post and sent me this book which her brother had introduced to her some years ago. The Discovery of Slowness is about Sir John Franklin who did a lot of exploration at the North Pole at the turn of the 19^th Century.

I have really enjoyed reading this book and actually saw a great deal of myself in how John expresses his own slowness. His life was brutal as a child as he was so misunderstood. His father was mean to him because he felt he was a son who had a life not worth living. The children at school picked on him horribly, as you can imagine. But one day, a teacher thought there was more to John Franklin than met the eye. As an adult, John became a focused, but kind and gentle man. The book really details the adventures, the thinking, the struggles and the joys of this slow man. While the book is a work of fiction, it carefully chronicles the life of Sir John Franklin as close as possible when writing so many years later.

If you are interested in understanding slowness, in historical fiction, exploration or in learning to move through your life in a rich and rewarding way, I recommend this book a lot. It begins slow…imagine that…but as the story line picks up, you are swept up in the adventure and thinking of this man. One of the most interesting parts to me is his outline for the education of all types of people.

Have you experienced any slow art recently? How about any slow life? I am continuing on my path of slow art with some different types of details and lots of glazing. I began two new paintings recently, one is moving forward smoothly while the other one awaits work on the details.

Everyone have a beautiful and creative day!

Friday...

2008-06-27T07:14:00.002-04:00

I have decided it is important to leave this Conversation With Fiona Long up through the weekend, so enjoy all of the wonderful things this amazing artist has to share.

Note...

2008-06-24T16:01:00.002-04:00

Blogger has been given me a real time this afternoon. I have tried to upload this conversation 3 times (that is formatting it 3 times) and still cannot get it to publish the titles to the photographs. My apologies to you and to Fiona.