Joke's on Me!

When I last posted this piece, it was still a work in progress and I ended by saying, I don't think I'm done yet.

I was not.

I had the feeling of wanting a surprise, of wanting to do something more, something bold.

Well, the surprise was that no matter what my thinks-with-words brain was saying about bold, my art heart evidently had the final say, with subtle I-spy-with-my-little-eye eye-openers.

                                                                  

Let's Twist Nervous Systems Around One Another
And Construct a Place That Wasn't There Before
5 x 5.5"; acrylic, ink, and collage on card stock
abstract seascape
2023

Poking Around With Paint

Limited palette: turquoise green, quinacridone rose, quinacridone nickel azo gold, oxide black, white gesso.

Limited tools: palette knife, fine line applicator, nylon screen as stencil.

This little exploration came about mostly as an outgrowth of offloading unused bits of paint while creating other work.

It is now only visible as a photograph since I went on to paint over it completely later.

exploration; putting layers on 5.25 x 5.5" paper

Late Afternoon Reset

I keep a steady, focused, get-things-done pace doing the work that is mine to do on this feels-like-summer day in June. Late afternoon finds me a little rough around the edges, the needle on my energy supply getting low, and my mind offering little by way of initiative or self-discipline.

But!

I take myself into my studio. 

In mere seconds the work of the day falls away, and little sparks of timelessness and joy ignite as I rummage through a stash of sandwich paper enlivened by off-loaded paint, open a brand new package of what Jane Davies refers to affectionately as cheap drawing paper, select a beat-up paint brush, and dive into a jar of Utrecht Acrylic Matte Medium. I lose myself in color, in texture, in using my hands to create, in process—heading I don't know where, entirely content not knowing.

work in progress

Anything Goes

I'm grateful for the times when (a) I know I'm in search of something, (b) I don't know what, (c) I trust I'll know when I find it, and (d) I do!

A newsletter from artist Carol Nelson announced last week that she'd created an Anything Goes Project as a challenge for myself and other procrastinators to produce one painting per day during the month of April.

I haven't produced a painting per month of late, let alone one per day. But I sat up and took notice. I knew I'd found something I'd been restless to discover.

The fact that the announcement didn't even reach my inbox until April was already half over was somehow perfect! 

I find myself skittering all over the place—adding touches to my 36 x 36" canvas in process, starting something else on a half sheet of drawing paper the next day but not returning to it the day after that, cutting up old starts from months ago, leapfrogging back to something after five days to muck about with it again, and so forth. It's a haphazard approach, but (a) I'm getting to my studio to paint daily, and … (b) anything goes! 

I haven't been this active nor this unfettered in a way long time.

work in process, third pass

5.5 x 8.5"; acrylic and collage on drawing paper

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history thus far:

first pass

second pass

all paths lead where truth is here [e.e. cummings]

in winter after-

noon light I am a pilgrim

hark! revelation!

work in progress; 
lost myself in the pure joy
of mixing paint and applying it with palette knife
over roughly and irregularly textured surface

Down to the Studs

I have a favorite story from our recent bathroom renovation.

One weekend morning, Dave and I were companionably engaged in parallel play across the upstairs landing from each other, I in the study at my laptop, Dave in the bathroom tearing walls down to the studs.

I heard him pause and say, "Huh."

Then, more construction noise, another pause, another "Huh."

Then, more construction noise, another pause, and, "Dotty, come here for a sec."

He pointed, I scrutinized.

"Oyster crackers," I pronounced.

Indeed, about two dozen intact oyster crackers nestled in fiberglass insulation in the space between the wall of the bathroom and the wall of the adjacent bedroom.

Defies imagination, but there you have it.

I think of those oyster crackers every now and then when I paint. In the end, most of my paintings have more layers on them than we had layers on our bathroom studs. Usually, well over half of what lies beneath the surface of my completed pieces isn't visible.

Defies imagination sometimes, but there you have it.

Those of you who follow my blog or my Instagram page, however, often get to see the oyster crackers as I tuck them into place.

where I left off yesterday

rotated my paper end-to-end,
added yellows, orange-pink, and orange-red on top of India ink

rotated my paper every which way, flung some drops of India ink, and dribbled yellow latex

The Height of Summer

Process: bouquets of freeplay, a whole mess of weeds to tease out, plenty of watering, a touch of fertilizer.

The sacred gift of a dormant seed's coming to life awes me every single time.

A Life in Which a Traffic Jam Is the Worst Thing That Will Happen to You
11x14"; acrylic, ink, oil pastel, and collage
abstract floral
2018

enlarged details:

Losing All Track of Time

So, yeah, had a long list of tasks I wanted to accomplish today but, right after I meditated, I went to my studio as is my practice early every afternoon. Next thing I knew it was no longer 1230p.

My painting-in-process changed.

My list did not.

started defining blossoms,
created a bit of shadow

used negative space—love what that does!

reflected a little light off the foliage,
added some playfulness to the blossoms
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work in progress

Repartée

Another day with a few minutes in my studio and further interaction with free canvas #3.

I set the canvas in front of me.

Give it time to speak to me in some way.

Several pockets of neutral make a little noise that catches my attention. Develop them a bit and, once I set paint and palette knife in motion, the conversation picks up for a short, rapid, playful back-and-forth that includes bright pops of oil pastels and bold marks from a black paint marker.

The canvas now sits on the landing at the top of the stairs near my studio. We exchange greetings in passing. Intermittentlythroughout the day I take in its color, composition, linework, and layers.

Will continue to do so till sometime next week.

free canvas #3
work in progress

Inspiration

Along with moseying back into painting and blogging this week, I've begun to mosey back into Instagram.

While scrolling through my IG feed, I took inspiration from artist Maz Hawes.

Literally.

I inhaled and then before I even had time to exhale, I took that inspiration, squeezed some white paint on free canvas #3, and spread it around with a palette knife.

Then I let my breath out.

Love that all-action-no-mind kind of painting—thank you, Maz!

free canvas #3
work in progress

detail

detail

That's How We Roll

Please laugh with me. 

We just finished up holiday breaks—public schools had ten days off, private schools as many as 18, those in the workforce a good handful. 

After which, kids went back to school, adults back to work. 

After one or two days of that … everything closed down for a good old-fashioned S*N*O*W D*A*Y!

Actually, two. 

Might as well get a long weekend out of the snow because, ya know, we won't have any days off again until … the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend one week from now.

That's how we roll here in New England!

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In my studio today I continued working on the edges of 'free canvas #1' and then picked up another free canvas from my stash to use as a repository for a small bit of paint left on my palette.

 free canvas #2,
8x10",
as already primed with hot pink
when I acquired it from a free yard 'sale'

first marks on free canvas #2

Scrappy

I work on another bookmark today, a scrappy little one.

I scissored Quick & Quixotic into 10 pieces in October, and this morning the second of two narrow cut-ups pushes itself into my field of vision, as does a bunch of rectilinear scraps that had become paper 'tiles' in the service of an entirely different studio undertaking.

I decide to run with what's calling out to me.

I puzzle over how to bring a skinny, muted, kinda blah strip of unstretched painted canvas together with slick black & white tiles from a printed postcard that had featured strong graphic design.

blah strip of canvas

I fiddle with glazing medium and a catalyst tool to add texture to the canvas. I add color with a matte knife.

work in progress
1.5x6"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #5

I snip, arrange, and reconfigure the bold black & white tiles. Then I push all the tiles aside. 

I set everything on a tray and opt to let the gathered elements percolate overnight.

Trickster Art

I have a collection of bookmarks I've painted, and I love finding just the right one to go with the cover of whatever book I read. I moseyed into my studio about a week ago with the idea of painting one to go with the neutrals on this book cover:

Tricksters were waiting for my arrival.

trickster start, work in progress

trickster start detail

trickster start detail

trickster start detail

I'd Rather Learn

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing, from one painting how to paint that one painting.

I'd Rather Learn from One Bird How to Sing
11x14"; acrylic, collage, ink, and oil pastel on canvas board
abstract
2017

detail

detail

detail

Now I Know

The neutral wash and veiling I used yesterday came from a mix of bright aqua green and vivid red orange. I was thinking ahead to wanting those colors in subsequent layers. Today I take those same colors and spread variations of them onto my textured surface with a palette knife.

Very enjoyable in the spreading, very appealing in my close-up detail photos.

detail

detail

detail

detail

Not so appealing when I step back. Too sparse and patchy.

Just Kidding 22417 [working title]

So now I know what problems I've created to resolve tomorrow.