on the fence

Got old paintings that will probably never sell, that don't fit in your house, that friends don't want, but that yet... yet... you just can't bring yourself to destroy?  Here's a solution: hang them on your fence!  They may look better there than they ever did indoors.

... and then a friend mentioned that birds might fly into them.  Never thought of that.  I'll leave them up for now, but if any bird is hurt, down they will come.

everything is getting in

A good productive studio day.  Stretched two small canvases and was so excited to begin working on them that I forgot to photograph before painting!  

Here they are:

33w x 18h

This one may be finished, anyway I will let it sit for awhile.

31w x 19h

This one is just begun, and I like its beginnings!

I've been experimenting with drawing with acrylic mediums on the raw canvas, letting it dry and then painting over with watery washes.  

The resist is sometimes really dramatic and sometimes more subtle - it seems to depend on the thickness of medium used and on how long I leave it to dry.

Alberta landscape #27

oil on canvas

10x10"

Early spring, first blush of green in the treetops, beautiful day!

And a couple of paintings finished last week:

This Time Between

acrylic on stitched canvas

71w x 33h inches

Water Line

mixed media on canvas

108w x 31h inches

Can also be viewed like this:

Life on Earth

Went to Brasil to visit relatives, brought a painting kit & sketch book along:

cousin Arie's house

Tante Reikie & Om Heni's house

Brasil landscape #1

view from Reiki & Heni's house

Brasil landscape #2

at a nearby lake

Brasil landscape #3

pioneiro trees at Om Joao's house

Brasil landscape #4

across the road from Reikie & Heni's house

7:30am on our last day there

water

Open air painting of the river, done a couple of days ago.  There's still ice at the edges but the sun is warm!

"water line"

Stitched and stretched.  Next thing will be to add some drawing lines, then some large areas of subtle colour.  I need to think about it for a few days before I begin making unalterable decisions.

let there be light

I put up some spotlights so I can see things on the back wall with fairly even lighting:

The lights are your basic clamp lamps which can take 150 watt halogen flood bulbs.  I bought some heavy-duty cupboard handles which I screwed into the ceiling studs and clamped the lamps to them.  

Then I plugged both lamps into one extension cord, and stapled all the cords to the ceiling and down the wall to the outlet so they wouldn't get in the way.  Low-tech and reasonably effective.

Another photo-based piece started.  This is one half of what will be a diptych:

laid out

 and mostly stitched in

All the lines are not stitched down yet - I need to sleep on it before I can decide exactly where to place everything.

ways of seeing

Wednesday's skype portraits

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

11x15"

pencil on 80lb paper

9x12 sketchbook

Hmmm... this is starting to feel a little formulaic.  I have another skype session set for Sunday and then perhaps I will take a little break from these.

mind's eye

A couple of skype portraits done this afternoon:

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

15w x 11h

I think I'm starting to get the hang of making portraits! There is something really nice about using skype: unlike a photograph, the image on the screen is not so flat - and unlike having someone actually in my studio, I find I can relax more when it's "only online".  An interesting realization.

A finished painting, from here:

to here:

Who Will Remember Our Houses?

mixed media on stitched canvas

30w x 62h

And some progress on this one:

The strong orange shape in the middle needs to be toned down quite a bit in order to arrive at a nice sense of space.  Working with acrylic can be difficult because it dries differently from how it goes on, especially when working on raw canvas.  

Ha!  "It's not my fault; it's the paint!"  Oh the classics...

At any rate, I will figure it out and make this painting work one way or another.

Several painting streams on the go these days - feels good!

finishes

varnishing paintings outside - how nice!

a little wonder

the portraits I made via skype last night

pencil on paper

9x12 red sketchbook

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

19 x 11"

the beat goes on

skype portraits done last week:

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

while I was painting Anne, she was drawing me:

pencil wash on paper

old small works - 10x10 and 12x12

found a skull while hiking - in it there are many faces

one thing becomes another

Happy days - I have been finishing paintings lately!  This is the part I love, when logic relaxes its grip and intuition takes over, and my brush seems to know what to do without much intervention on my part.

A piece I began in November, finished tonight:

Stained Glass

acrylic on stitched canvas

16 canvases @ 12x12" each

canvas #5

Another "raw canvas" piece finished:

Stream

mixed media on stitched canvas

2 @ 39x39" each

Second photo piece finished:

Portal

mixed media on stitched canvas

51w x 31h

And as always there are many works in progress.  Here is a sampling of 3 branches of ideas I have going at the moment.

A canvas I stitched several weeks ago, with its stretcher:

It now looks like this:

I have several paintings on the go right now which I've sealed and gesso'd prior to painting with acrylic.  I had been painting on raw canvas for the most part, but now I want to try again with acrylic on a gesso'd surface.  So far so good...

Another canvas stitched and stretched several weeks ago:

has got to this point:

This one is painted into the raw canvas, no gesso.  The middle bit will be left mostly unpainted.  I like the contrast of drawing and painting - lines and colours - on the raw canvas.

And another photo piece in progress:

The composition comes together as I move pieces around and begin stitching.

Stretched and ready for the next steps in the process!