Collage papers, birch panels and painting larger. It is all good.

** This is a repost of my post from June 18th. Blogger had a brief issue with uploaded photos, and mine were among them. I don’t know any other way to fix this. Unfortunately, I will loose all your kind comments, and my responses. But I wanted the pictures to be on the post.***
Art time has been preciously rare. This is a quick post today. If you read this blog on a more or less regular basis, you know my husband had foot surgery a month ago. Life has not been the same since. But yesterday he went back to work, and things are going well. On my side bar are photos of him gluing up a 36 inch by 36 inch birch panel. You can just see his cast/boot in one of the photos. This weekend I hope to get photos of the final steps he takes when finishing these panels. Mary asked how much the panels weigh. The 36 inch by 36 inch panels are 9 pounds. They are very easy to move about, and hang on the wall while I work standing up. I’ll post more about the whole process soon.
When I have been in the studio I have been working on these 36 inch square panels. I just love working large. Finally there is enough room for gesture, and expanse. In the process of creating my paintings, I also create collage papers. I use a variety of paper to put paint on and take paint off of the panels. These images are of some of the papers recently created. I think they are intriguing, and I can visualize them as an artist book perhaps.
I think my work on the panels is looking more encaustic like all the time. I am isolating layers with gloss acrylic medium. That is really adding depth. Then at the end I use a varnish or medium that is not glossy. I don’t like all that reflection, and I don’t think it suits the mood of my work. I am seriously toying with the idea of trying encaustic, although I wish I could use my tried and trusted acrylics with the wax.
During this time when my studio time has been limited, I have been out and about on the internet, discovering new and interesting blogs. I have added several to my side bar – encaustic artists and photographers. There is stunning work out there!

Jeane's Studio Visit

Jeane’s Visit to the Studio

Hello!
Tour the studio
Art work
Jeane’s art work is so deep!
Technique talk
Oils
Wax
Acrylic
Canvas
Birch Panels
That great soft yellow bag
Talk
Laugh
Bits of life stories
Tea
Dreams
Visions
Intensions
To brush or not to brush?
Scrub is a good thing
Laugh
OMG!
Show and Tell
Meet the kitties
Meet Wire Man
Talk
Laugh
Little gifts
Good By until next time

Great Energy!

I loved your visit Jeane!

Meanwhile in the Studio

“Nothing determines the success of your creative life more than doing it.” – Ian Roberts
Don’t you just love to make art? My current small pieces are Bone Prayers. They are 8 inches by 8 inches, and on birch panel. The panel is ¼ inch thick plywood that Kurt mounts on a box he constructs. (I promise more details this weekend, when I can get him to tell me about it, and take photos.) The birch panel itself is very smooth. I apply two coats of gesso prior to beginning the painting or collage. All four of the prayers are in the final stages. I am calling this one done …but you know how that goes…if it is in the studio it is subject to alterations. I’m happy with it, so I will try and focus on the others and leave this one alone.
I create the texture by applying paint, taking some back off with a variety of techniques, sanding between layers, adding transfers, writing with graphite, and using crayon d’arch, a high quality water color crayon. It is all sealed with acrylic medium. I really enjoy the process, which extends over several studio sessions to allow drying time and time to ponder the direction the piece is headed. I kept the design simple, so the textures and organic shapes could be complex. As I work, I think about my subject matter, and personal meaning. These prayers are humble, and are about the connections I have experienced in the past with my loved ones. Love is the skeleton of a relationship, and hence these are Bone Prayers – of gratitude and appreciation.

The Bone Series Continues

Old Bone Prayer

Painting Detail

“Own your creativity. You are a creative being by nature, and your creativity is one with the unending energies that flow throughout the universe. The question is not whether you are creative “enough” but whether you will free yourself to express the creativity that is uniquely yours.” – Ian Roberts

The Bone Series continues. This is a smaller piece on birch panel, measuring 12 inches by 12 inches. I have four more small ones in progress in the studio. I remember that in the past I have been told my work invites one to come up close. That is apparently how I am currently creating – a lot of small details, an invitation to come close, eye to painting as it were.

These pieces have personal meaning for me, and are containers or vehicles for rich awareness and “beingness”. I’m beginning to think about the artist’s statement I will write for this series.

I haven’t forgotten that I said I would post about the birch panel fabrication process or the cold wax final coat for the paintings, but family duty calls this weekend, and I suspect it will be next weekend before I get time to put that information together.

Out On A Limb

This is another scanned section of the Old Bones Painting, by Leslie Avon Miller

It takes a lot of guts for me to paint in nearly back and white, with a bit of grey, beige and brown. It takes a lot of guts to post paintings and collage on my blog that “break” so many design “rules”. It takes a lot of guts for me to follow this series along where it leads. I think my Muse has an astute wickedness about her, although she defies being defined or categorized. She is too individualized for that and she is fiercely creative and independent. And I think she laughs right out loud when I take delight and stand back from a delicious texture appearing on the surface of my work. She isn’t easy on me. And of course, I have to honor her, because I choose to and I know she has something to give me from all of this. I just don’t know what it might be.

I had a teacher in the 7th grade like that - Mrs. Smith. She really forced us to learn the parts of speech, and the elements of writing. She wasn’t very nice about it, and she was strict. She didn’t let us get away with “good enough.” It had to be correct. Remember diagramming sentences? Thanks to her, I have the skills to be able to write a decent sentence and to have the guts to also break those rules when it serves my purpose. For instance, the use of an occasional sentence fragment. For effect.

I have on occasion had the thought “I don’t use realistic subject matter, I don’t use color, I don’t use much contrast, I don’t use known, traditional compositions, and I don’t use much variety। I do use a lot of unity and texture। Could I make this any more difficult?”

It’s not like I don’t know the rules; I really do. I don’t know why the muse is leading me out on this limb….I keep thinking that this severely restricted color palette will run its course and I will move to something else, but the limb keeps stretching out before me….

I have been enjoying all the great comments and questions you have been leaving of late. So I’m going to address them in this post, rather than the pop up window of comments. After all, there is a conversational element to the enjoyment of blogging.

When I get to New Zealand and Australia with Kurt and Derrick as my traveling companions, I will definitely be up for all experiences including a secret sister Aussie initiation and a “chiko roll”, which I hope is vegan if it something to be consumed….

Mating and framing. What an issue. I had a 22 by 30 inch piece on heavy water color paper framed professionally once, and decided I better learn to do it myself. A local frame shop owner retired and we were fortunate to buy her professional (manual not computerized) mat cutter, her wall hung glass and straight edge cutter, frame tables, and other assorted odds and ends. The mat cutter lives in the mud room, protected by a cloth, and a barrier of empty cardboard boxes so no one sets anything on it. The space is too small to really use the cutter. The wall hung cutter is hung on the wall of the bedroom that was once the studio. I use it all the time to cut paper and mat board on the straight edge. The framing tables are in pieces awaiting installation in the new studio, which awaits insulation in the high ceilings and then drywall….in other words, I can’t really mat and frame yet, because the equipment is not set up. But yes, I yearn to mat and frame the small collage. The larger birch pieces, which Kurt makes for me, hang on the wall just as they are. Same with the gallery wrapped canvas he is learning to do.

Yes, there is an element here of rawness as well as darkness and light to the Old Bones and the Big Rocks. Thanks for putting those words to it. There is a lot of collage on the Old Bones piece. I don’t think there is any on the Big Rocks piece. Both pieces have been through a few incarnations in their process to be where they are today. As for textures; I have been creating textures for a long while now, and I pretty much know what I am going to get. There is an element of “accident” because it is not a tightly controlled process, which suits me, but I know which technique will give me which texture. And I do experiment and discover new things. I use a lot of acrylic paint, both liquid and heavy body. I use some water color, some inks, crayon D’arch, occasional pastels, graphite pencils, markers, and oil pastels (I love Sennelier oil pastels, as they are butter soft.) I have undoubtedly left out something in this list. Sometimes I use a lot of transfers. I put pigments on with a wide variety of techniques including my fingers, sticks of wood, bamboo skewers, rags, papers of many varieties and sometimes even a paint brush. I take some pigment back off with alcohol, sand paper, rubbing, more reverse transfers. Sometimes I work with my eyes closed, to get closer to intuitive gesture.

I don’t often varnish my work. I should explore that more. I know that Margaret had a list of how to do this at her blog, including spraying a mixture of mediums thinned down with water. I want to try that. That would keep graphite from smearing. Some times I put a mixture of cold wax and Gamblin Galkyd oil as the last layer. I have tried the faux encaustic recipe written by Golden Acrylics. I would love to find new ways to write on my work also.

I believe the Universe has great plans for us, and does smile on us. I think coaching helps us see, believe, and be brave. I love coaching. I love to be coached and the muse is clearly a fan of coaching. I believe that if you have read this whole post, you have read a lot! I’m off to the studio….the muse calls.

Studio Views Sunday

Real snow, pretty to look at. And it’s snowing again as I write. We are cozy and warm, and tired, after the long night last night. There are a lot of birds at the feeders today, including a beautiful Flicker. I love the coloring of the birds; gray, soft browns, cream, orange, and black. I have started three more pieces this weekend. This is one in its initial stages of layering textures, and starting to create a design. Working on the birch panel boxes is fun. The surface is absolutely resilient. I have been sanding these pieces this morning. I love the way it allows some of the under surface to show through in interesting ways, and creates new edges. I am thinking about the six foot piece I saw in the gallery window last night. Could I work that big? Do you?