Autumn is Upon Us

The calendar may say Fall but the weather certainly hasn't quite gotten the message yet. We've had cold weather to the point that I've turned my fireplace on and the yearly maintenance for the furnace has been done, but the humidity right now outside is reading midsummer! Only one more day to go and then things will cool off to whatever is supposed to pass for normal now.

Okay, on to the art! Experimentation is definitely where my head is at these days. After long resisting the idea of an art journal - a physical one - I have set one up. It's not my go to place by any means but I think I can make it work for me. (I won't bore you here with the details of why I've resisted this for so long because well, it's just flat out boring)

I thought long and hard a couple months back about taking Tara Leaver's Abstractify course but the timing didn't work out as my August was filled with other things. I decided when she offered it again in the new year then I would sign up*. BUT this month I am doing her Expressive Charcoal online course. I can't say enough fantastic things about her approach to all of this - she's definitely a kindred spirit. 

Anyway, here is a sampling of some of the things I've done so far. They're from my phone so the lighting is horrible, apologies.  The bottom two are self explanatory but the top one is part of the magic! It started as an exercise: on a big sheet of cheap paper, close your eyes and draw a favourite place. That was a no brainer for me so I drew the big perennial garden on the far side of the pond and circled around to do the outline of the house. Took a lot of imagination to see it when I opened my eyes LOL.

Next step, cut the paper in two sections and tape it back together in an interesting way.Now, start adding lines, marks, shapes whatever your brain tells you to. Thick lines, thin ones, smudging wherever you feel like. Just play with it. Now cut it again and retape it. And this is what I ended up with. I see an abstract headless nude figure! What I don't see is any evidence of a pond, garden or house LOL and that is the beauty of it. It delights me so much I think I"m going to frame it!

* note to self. Don't forget!

Hibernation is Over

It's not that it's been a horrible winter per se - it just feels that it went on forever! This is partly due to a 2 week period mid February where we had spring like temperatures, total absence of snow and the return of the robins. We couldn't be faulted for feeling like maybe, just maybe Spring was coming early.

Well, HAH! said Mother Nature. Fooled ya! And that she certainly did. We've had an ice storm of late and as recently as 4 days ago awoke to fresh snow on the ground. But I think, finally, that we can put Winter behind us. Fingers crossed! 

So, during my period of hibernation, literally nothing artistic happened. I had set this dark time aside in order to devote myself to researching my family tree. Don't know if you've ever explored your own but I will tell you that it requires a lot of dedicated focus. My left brain just sings doing this kind of work and becomes a bit of a brain hog about it. Now, I know myself well enough to accept this and move forward with it. But once Spring came, it was move over LB because your creative counterpart is all rested up and ready to play. 

I was inspired by Tara Leaver's most recent 7 day mini series challenge. I have long resisted painting the same thing over and over again and I don't really have a good reason for why, just innate stubbornness. So confronting something I usually avoid seemed like a good place to start. 

I would use the same photo reference and create a new piece each day using a different medium. Pencil, water soluble ink, charcoal, chalk pastels, watercolour, mixed media and collage. There was - to my mind anyway - an organic progression to this process. The drawing became easier each day I did it; I developed my values before moving into colour. Each day seemed to build on the previous ones. 

I had never worked with chalk pastels before so that was a first for me. This last one bottom right was intended to be just acrylic but after I gessoed the paper I started playing with whatever I felt like so it ended up being a combo of Inktense blocks, Sharpie pen, water soluble markers and acrylic paint. It was also done with a bright yellow underpainting beneath everything but the blue and purple berries. 

Not surprisingly, there is something about each piece I like but no one favourite. And yes, there are only 6 images here. These were done on 5 x 7 cold pressed paper and when it came time to do the collage I found the small size quite restrictive so that one will have to wait for now. 

Okay, enough for now. I have some pieces from my orphan drawer to play with next. 

Cyclamen

Came across a lovely painting of cyclamen in Ros Jenke's journal and I was inspired to try and paint my own version. 

This was both drawn and painted very loosely - it wasn't a completely blind contour drawing but pretty close LOL. Colours used are Sap green, ultramarine blue, quinacridone magenta and just a few touches of raw sienna. Took about 30 minutes in total, including drying time. 

Quick sketches like this are an excellent way to warm up my painting brain and to remember to not take myself so seriously sometimes. I need to remember to do more of this. Yeh, yeh, I've said it before but I'm going to really try and remember it this time LOL. 

Catching Up with some more orphans

I love just about everything about blogspot except my inability to put pictures where I want them to be. This layout doesn't make me happy but it's the best of what I can come up with! You'll just have to use your imagination and move the cat up to the big open space at the top middle, where she belongs LOL. 


I was going through a few of my old sketchbooks looking for some small images to put into Cooking at the Hedge and found these few, that with a few adjustments, would work nicely. So here they are here first. 

Hoarding Bits and Bobs

I'm always amazed when something that seems to have gone wrong in the first pass can eventually be turned into a much better something with a little time and perspective. 

This was a random doodle basically done as a stream of consciousness painting last Fall. No pre-planning just sketch out a pumpkin and some indian corn using only my brush. 

Wasn't happy with it - the husks from the corn were going every which way, defying gravity; it just wasn't speaking to me. And yet, I couldn't put it in my scrap/testing paper pile. Fast forward to this year where I had forgotten what my original intent was behind the exercise and sat down to see what I could salvage. This is what I came up with.

The husks are still as willy nilly as ever but i feel like this was more what I was hoping for. Knowing me, I'll continue to play with it - the husks continue to cry out for more attention in terms of texture and shadow - but at least I don't feel like I should be using it to test colours on either. 

Line drawings

 

 

Just needed to 'see' for myself these line drawings before I go any further. The one on the left is both front and back of a 5 x 7 in card. The image on the front of the card will be watercoloured; the remainder of the image, once it's completed, will either be coloured or left as just the ink lines. I've seen cards where the design is carried over to the backside and wanted to give that a go myself. Not sure I'm making my idea clear here but it will make more sense when I've posted the completed page.

 

I'm also fairly pleased with the whippet line drawing - trying to get the proportions right was a bit of a struggle but I think I got there in the end. 

More Card Ideas

Previously I've printed some of my work as A2 size notecards for use as either general notecards or xmas cards but lately I've been more focused on hand painted A7 (5" x 7") cards that will be one offs. Here's a sample of what's been swirling around in my brain of late.

  

I think the one on the left surprised me the most as it started out as dobs of pink and blue paint randomly placed on a cream coloured wash, with no idea as to what the final outcome would be. I stepped away from it for a few hours and Alliums came to mind when I revisited it. A few simple ink stems and I'm calling it done.

Just a doodle

Playing with my paints!