Windows Open

Windows open. Air on skin. Feet bare.

I moved on today to an optional exercise in Lesson 5 of my Jane Davies Dynamic Composition class where I'm invited to try a collage painting using a grid, abstract landscape, cruciform, or pattern format, and add line as a final element. I went for abstract landscape.

I pulled out gessobord for the first time in months. It was fun to hang out again with gessobord. Also fun was to tap into the lived painting experience of recent weeks and watch it express itself in this new piece.

Tire Swing, Spring Day
6x6", acrylic, collage, and ink on gessobord
abstract
2016

Mise en Place

When I rustle up a recipe in the kitchen I sometimes get impatient and bypass the mise en place part of the process.

But I have some collage exercises in mind for which I'll need a bunch of paper, and making that paper—doing the mise en place for those upcoming collage exercises—is so much fun.

Maybe I could be a prep cook.

Lesson 5, Project 2, Exercises 7 & 8

I'm loving this open-grid-collage-and-line assignment. I played with it again today, staying with a 5x8" piece of manila stock as my canvas. I really got into using the white space as a key element in my composition and being spare with my use of collage, a departure from the clutter of an earlier interpretation of this assignment.

Very soothing and satisfying.

Totally loved my handpainted collage paper all over again.

In two past exercises I also started with 5x8". In one I collaged first, drew an ink line second, cut in half last. In the other I drew a fabric paint line first, collaged second, cut in half last. Today I collaged first, cut in half second, drew wax pastel lines last.

open grid collage start

I had fun creating the wax pastel lines. I chose 3-5 analogous colors to add depth to each line.

Postcard 31
4x5", collage and wax pastels on manila stock
abstract
2016
[gifted]

Postcard 31
4x5", collage and wax pastels on manila stock
abstract
2016
[gifted]

I've got these perched in front of me at my desk where they catch my eye as I go about my business. I can imagine a set of four of these in simple frames, providing cheery pops of color, shape, and line in a child's room, or a bathroom, or a spot in a kitchen or family room.

Under the Lilacs

Louisa May Alcott wrote a book entitled Under the Lilacs—which I read as a child, though I remember not one detail at the moment.

I just looked it up on line to see if the story might come back to me: First published in 1878, the children's novel tells the story of two girls, Bab and Betty Moss, Miss Celia, a circus runaway, Ben Brown, and his dog Sancho.

Bab and Betty? Circus runaway? Sancho? Nope, not ringing one single bell.

Nonetheless, I'm appropriating the title for my current series of four paintings. I love lilacs, and I mourn the loss of the two very old bushes that were still alive when we bought our home nearly 40 years ago but are now gone.

Once I cut UPDH into quarters, I found and developed the heart of each individual piece a little further, and now I have a series.

Under the Lilacs

Announcing: Lilacs!
6.75x5.25", acrylic, charcoal, and oil and wax pastel on watercolor paper
abstract
2016
$140 for series

Sweet Syringa
6.75x5.25", acrylic, charcoal, oil and wax pastel on watercolor paper
abstract
2016
$140 for series

Lilac Perfume
6.75x5.25", acrylic, charcoal, oil and wax pastel on watercolor paper
abstract
2016
$140 for series

Syringa Reticulata
6.75x5.25", acrylic, charcoal, oil and wax pastel on watercolor paper
abstract
2016
$140 for series

---

For those of you with short term memory lapses, here's the first draft of the original painting:

UPDH, Just Won't Go Away

Jane Davies:

Yeah, I paint over a lot of stuff. 

I get attached to the parts 
I really spent a lot of time on— 
[the parts I] worked and worked and worked—
but,
OK, I'm attached, 
and I paint over it. 

Now we've got a new beginning.

—


Here's where I left off last time with UPDH, with about 16 layers under the surface:



Now we've got a new beginning. I start with oil and wax pastels:



I add glazing medium:



I paint lightly over some sections with titanium white:



This next part is cool. First, I draw an ink line from one side of the page to the other. After that I create a bit more opacity in various places, using white. Then, I introduce an olive-green-and-cad-yellow mix. The cool part comes next. I want to see what a white charcoal pencil will do. What it does is surprise me. It doesn't create white lines in this case—it can't write over the pastels; but it scratches through my layers and brings the original dark purple line back up to the surface.

Remember using crayons to color a sheet of paper in kindergarten, painting over it all with black poster paint, and scratching through the dried paint to draw a picture? This is kinda like that!



I go back in with acrylics and black charcoal pencil. Then I sit for awhile.

Eventually, oil pastels:



More paint:



Then, after turning my paper in every direction, after studying it up close and from a distance, and after walking away for a few hours, I sense that this painting comprises several smaller paintings asking for a little space to breathe.

 
 

When inspiration first came knocking days and days ago, I thought it had asked me to collaborate on creating hydrangeas. But I think I misunderstood. I think we're painting lilacs!

And it looks as though I'm back to working on another series!

Capricious

No wonder I struggled with UPDH. I thought the hydrangeas that Carrie gave me a few weeks ago wanted to be painted on an 11x14" sheet of cold-pressed Winsor & Newton watercolor paper.

They did not.

They were waiting over here for me to discover them on a 5x8" piece of standard-issue manila stock.

Capricious little characters!

I started with gesso and a layer of white acrylic. Tossed a few oil pastel lines onto the page. Brushed on some color. Very satisfying—fun to do, fun to look at.



Then I added collage. Found just what I wanted in a Kripalu catalog.

Brushed on more acrylic. Played with some texture.



Grabbed a palette knife and scraped on more color.



Then, more palette knife work, use of oil pastels, brushwork, more texture.



Fiddled with some finishing touches. Headed to my paper trimmer. Done.

Happy painting day!

Postcard 31
4x5", acrylic, collage, and wax and oil pastels on manila stock
abstract
2016
$20

Postcard 32
4x5", acrylic, collage, and wax and oil pastels on manila stock
abstract
2016
[not for sale]

UPDH, Pushing Its Weight Around

UPDH has been taking me for such a ride. It's like a bucking bronco trying its damnedest to toss me. When I perceive being tossed to be a failure, I try like hell to hang on tighter—I want to show that horse who's boss, gosh darn it.

But, a few fleeting moments of exhilaration aside, the ride is pretty painful.

I eventually decide to let loose the reins. I take the resulting airborne journey, replete with inevitable bone-rattling landing, as a gift.

I dust myself off, hobble out of the ring, take stock.

Three things are clear to me:

1. the ride was wild,
2. every inch of me is sore, and
3. I am fascinated by the creative dynamic that was in play. From the moment I started this painting, there was some kind of mismatch between horse and rider. Our energy never aligned.

I've put a blanket on the horse; I'm putting myself in a hot tub for a soak.

The latter part of the ride in review:

Lesson 5, Project 2, Exercises 5 & 6

Back to my open-grid-collage-and-line assignment again.

I cheated this time—drew the line first! Loved making a completely uninhibited line on a blank canvas without having to take into account how a pen or other line-maker would fare going over collage.

I love the line itself—it reads as calligraphic code in my mind.

Used my own handpainted collage paper again. Continue to love it. I chose to focus only on neutrals in this piece—had to push myself a little, what with several sheets of vibrant colors competing for my attention—but the neutrals were fun, especially with the muted background of the wash on the manila stock I'd prepped.

As I've done before, I worked with a 5x8" format, knowing I'd cut the piece into two postcards at the end. I like the challenge of that approach, creating something that with any good fortune will hold together compositionally both before and after cutting.

 line with open grid collage

Yes, I do hesitate momentarily at my paper trimmer. When I like a piece, cutting it in half takes a bit of derring do.

I like the interplay of the soothing neutrals and the little spritz of energetic boldness in the line.

Postcard 29
4x5", collage and ink on manilla stock
abstract
2016
[not for sale]

Postcard 30
4x5", collage and ink on manilla stock
abstract
2016
[not for sale]

UPDH: the Messy Middle

What a process it is when you don't know where you're going, you don't know what you're doing, …  and you go there anyways (paraphrasing Jane Davies here).









Still in process.

More DIY Collage Paper

I did some painting this morning that landed me squarely in the big messy middle of a great big mess with a great big middle that kept being a great big mess as I painted.

Remember a few days ago when I was feeling excited and curious under similar circumstances? Today—not so much!

I've put that mess to the side for the moment.

I needed a dollop of fun to shake off my morning, so this afternoon I indulged in painting up another sheet of my very own collage paper for my stash. I feel much better.

Huh. It looks kinda like a landscape.

more yummy collage paper

UPDH Gets Restless

Ugly Painting Day Hydrangea (aka UPDH) was last seen looking like this:



I had started with a few charcoal marks, and went on to add some acrylic. When I added the acrylic, the charcoal disappeared from view, and the acrylic brushstrokes … well, I can't find words; take a look for yourself.

Yesterday UPDH started getting restless. I went in again with some fun quick charcoal marks. Then, this morning, I used a brayer with white paint over some areas, and scribbled with a metal stylus in the wet paint. Kinda interesting.



This afternoon UPDH started yammering about really wanting to take an aerobic walk, none of this one-step-here-one-step-there nonsense. So off we went, walking fast, changing direction often, working up a sweat.







A folk song I remember from childhood pops into consciousness:

The old gray mare,
She ain't what she used to be,
Ain't what she used to be,
Ain't what she used to be,
The old gray mare,
She ain't what she used to be,
Many long years ago.

More Exercises with Open Grid Collage and Line

Got in the groove today.

Worked on manila stock instead of drawing paper.

Loved using my handpainted collage papers again—loved the colors, loved the patterned textures, loved the heft of the paper itself, loved the feel of the matte medium brushing over it.

Layered some of my collage paper with tissue paper.

Wasn't shy about leaving plenty of open white space.

Used restraint in the number of collage pieces.

Found pleasure in juxtapositions: asymmetries and balances, cut edges and torn, thoughtful decisions and impulsive.

Remembered to snap a photo while the open grid collage was still lineless.

Had to decide whether to add line before cutting this exercise into two postcards or after. 

The so-called "decision" process was kind of funny. First I traced my finger along a few potential paths. Then I pulled out a Pitt pen to see what width it was, trying it out on scrap paper. 

Next thing I knew, I'd drawn a line from top to bottom on my collage exercise. 

I looked up, blinked, and said aloud, Oh. Guess I'm going to cut after I draw my line.

Really like this composition!

But, chose to stick to my plan to cut it into two postcards—holding my breath as I did so.

Postcard 27
4x5", collage and ink on manila stock
abstract
2016
[not for sale]

Postcard 28
4x5", collage and ink on manila stock
abstract
2016
[not for sale]

Loved the process. Love the outcome.