Little Talismans

Yet more works in progress, these are the starts of a series of 4 inch talisman pieces that shall incorporate a lot of mixed media surface work before they are completed.

 

They are good fun to work on, I hope to get at least one finished by the end of the weekend.

Work in Progress

Time has been short this week for art and I am desperate to get back to my new project.

Meanwhile, here are some more clay goddess blanks that I have sculpted.  From these I can make more elaborate ones, with individual features, holes for threading, etc.   They are just over 2" tall.

I must credit Karen Scofield for the technique of making these little pieces.

I may get a chance to make some porcelain ones at the weekend, plus I have some Cernit modelling clay on order.

The "boundaries" project is also ongoing, I have some new ideas that I want to investigate as well.

Sneak Previews

I have some small pieces that are going to be more elaborate with more 3D elements, but I shall not say too much, just leave this picture here as a hint of things to come.

Fearless Friday

Just for fun and to see if I could do it, I made a little Willendorf Venus (about an inch and a half long).  It was fun and took several attempts before I got it right.

I think I need to smooth out the nail marks before she gets baked.

Sketchbooks

Can you call them sketchbooks if very little actual sketching gets done in them?  One of my favourite artists, Elisabeth Couloigner, calls them Carnets de Travail - workbooks.  I like the sound of that.

Anyway, I have pages and pages in my Carnets of mainly paint, texture and some scribing, here are a few.

Scribble Sunday

10"x10" on Canvas

I love the scribble on this painting, it was my handwriting, gone over the top several times, within a masked area, which forced it to be confined within specific boundaries.

Fearless Friday

Sometimes, the idea you have in your head of how a piece should look, is not what you necessarily end up with!

The triptych that I envisioned for the gym was to have three running figures - one on each panel and this is what it looked like.

 

But then I photographed them and looked at them on my computer and a chance image appeared on my screen - this:

The Finished Paintings

And I really, really liked it!  So now I had a dilemma, keep all three figures or remove the first two.  Luckily I had used Golden Open acrylics and I had a bit of time to scrub the first two images off, keeping that final figure.  

The client was delighted, phew!

Triplicate Tuesday

I have worked these three together, so all their colours are uniform.  Each has it's own voice, though, so they could stand alone.

Usually, I begin my paintings with the darks first and then move to the lighter ones in subsequent layers (of which there are many), but I decided to experiment with the light, transparent colours first and move towards the darker, more opaque colours as the painting progressed.  It has resulted in quite vibrant lights, requiring less paint to get them to shine. There also are subtle colour gradations as transparent colour on transparent colour merges to form another colour.  It means that there is less of a need to mix colours prior to application, they mix on the canvas.  This was how I used to paint in watercolours and makes for some lovely, bright mixes.

My paintings have been rather difficult to photograph, but I decided to get the Canon SLR out and I am pleased to see that it picks up the texture much better.  You can just see on the first one, the top left corner has crumpled leaves as well as modeling paste text (from Rumi's Meditations).

I intend to use them together as they are to occupy a large wall space in a gym.  There will be more done to them before they are completed, so watch this space.  Will I be able to post another Fearless Friday or will it be a Failure Friday?

Stencil Sunday

One of my favourite ways to include mark-making is to use my own home-made stencils.  They remind me of screen-printing and I love how I can reuse them again and again.

I use a hot stylus to burn the design and as it is held like a pen or pencil, my own hand is evident in the finished stencil.

Today's new stencil is on the top left of this painting, the interlocking squares.  This is a negative image, the stencil blocks out the paint, whereas other stencils, like the chevron to the right of it, uses the positive image.

I am still working on the theme of boundaries, so all my stencils reflect that subject in some way and this design is based on field shapes.

Fearless Friday

Well, I really liked my sewn painting from earlier this week, but I knew in my heart it wasn't finished.

It needed something to unify all the jumble of paint colours and to give the texture the opportunity to shine.

I nearly didn't do it, I was really rather scared of spoiling a piece of work that I was very fond of, but the idea of brushing paint all the way down it wouldn't leave me.

So here is the result.  Sometimes it is worth messing something up in order to make it even better.

Mixed Media Monday

Sewn Paper on Canvas 8"x10"

Okay, I know it is Tuesday, really, but I intend to do a mixed media Monday post every week, where I try out a new technique.

All throughout the January challenge, I had been wanting to sew a lot of strips of painted paper together to make a whole piece and I also wanted to burn some Tyvek!

So, I decided to combine the two techniques and this is the result.  I am not sure I consider it a finished piece yet, I may end up cutting the sheet up and using it in something else.