Lesson 5, Project 3, Exercise 6

Well, this piece was a sweet little surprise. I continued to play with Project 3 of Lesson 5, spiraling back to earlier lessons. The focus: pattern and scale, with the addition of line.

I painted a loose grid background in neutral colors. Satisfying. Soothing to paint.

From there, I took a variety of steps, each of which—unwittingly—created a problem to solve. I mostly didn't go anywhere I thought I'd be going but I like what happened, and I like this piece which has the not-quite-logical, slightly surreal feel of a dream.

I had no intention of using collage but then there I was doing so, and here's the scoop on those bits of collage. Until I started watching Jane Davies' videos a few months ago it hadn't occurred to me that when it comes time to clean a paintbrush the very first thing to do is to snag every possible bit of residual paint from the brush, using stencils and other materials to create patterns and textures on drawing paper. All the collage pieces here come from precisely that kind of brush-cleaning starting-point.

Soft Breezes
4x5", acrylic, collage, and ink on watercolor paper
abstract
2016
[gifted]

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

This was a fun project! I continue to spiral back to earlier lessons in my Jane Davies course to revisit them and integrate learning that has taken place since my first go-around. Today I focused on the cruciform format again, but with the addition of line.

I took pleasure in using some of the collage paper I handpainted recently and I took pleasure in digging through past work to see what else I might have created that could be used for collage—even though its original intent was otherwise. I found a juicy little color study I did in September 2014 on a three-inch square of unstretched canvas. Very satisfying!



Collage:



Collage, background, and texture:



Collage,  background, texture, and line:

Commencement Compass Rose
5x7", collage, acrylic, and ink on canvas paper
abstract
2016
[gifted]

About ten years ago, a sweet young girl came into my life as a tutorial student. But, really, the tutorial was just the universe's way of flinging a door wide open to a soul connection. This painting is for that girl—who is now both a wonderful young woman and a world-class high school graduate.

Congratulations, Chloe Rose!

Beginner's Mind

You know what? I could start my Jane Davies course all over again right from the very first lesson, redo each and every exercise, and learn so much. Is that cool or what?

I am always a beginner.

Every single time I put my brush to canvas.

I went back to the Abstract Landscape lesson again today. I think the word landscape snags me and then I can't shake my brain loose of whatever associations that word carries for me.

So I renamed the lesson: Composition with a Line of Visual Density that Divides a Canvas into One Third and Two Thirds.

Here's my favorite part of today's painting: I like it in every direction!

Shenandoah Valley Airport Tarmac
5x7", acrylic, collage, and wax pastel on unstretched canvas
abstract landscape
2016
$35

Hotel Lobby Art #1
5x7", acrylic, collage, and wax pastel on unstretched canvas
abstract
2016
$35

Hotel Lobby Art #2
5x7", acrylic, collage, and wax pastel on unstretched canvas
abstract
2016
$35

Picnic on the Esplanade
5x7", acrylic, collage, and wax pastel on unstretched canvas
abstract landscape
2016
$35

Spiraling Back

I'm loving this last/optional set of exercises in Lesson 5 of my Dynamic Composition class, which opens the door to revisiting prior assignments and trying my more experienced hand at them all again. I can feel myself integrating many bits and pieces. I re-watched the very first video of the class and understood it so differently from back in January!

Today I made two pieces, each of which incorporates a soft grid painted format as background, uses collage in a grid composition, taps into my stash of handpainted collage papers, and utilizes line as a unifying element.

I Can Walk There
4x5", acrylic, collage, ink, and wax pastels on manila stock
abstract
2016
[gifted]

Let's Walk to the Park
4x5", acrylic, collage, ink, and wax pastels on manila stock
abstract
2016
[gifted] 

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.