A Floral Challenge

"If an inspiration comes back to you at least 3 times you should take it as a serious

sign from your inner self and consider acting on it."

from The Artist's Quest for Inspiration

Floral has been coming back to me more than three times.  I guess it's time to act on it so that is my 100 Day Project for 2023.  My plan is to try different media, different substrates and different techniques.  I have an assortment of small odd sized papers so those will be the first substrates. Documenting the process is another part of the plan.

The first day I had to clear space on my desk and one of the things left there was a stone my friend Terry brought me from Spain.  She said I was supposed to be able to draw with it so I made a few marks to try it.  It worked and the marks sort of started to look like a flower so what could I do but see where it took me. Ink, gesso, a rock from Spain and lots of fun with brush, pen and fingertips. And I posted it as my first entry in the journal.  

Day 2's piece started by getting the paper wet and adding some yellows along with a bit of Ultramarine Blue and Quin Rose.  I'm happy with the result but it wasn't as much fun as drawing with the stone. And then I ruined it by adding an ink outline.

Today's isn't done.  Once again, watercolor but this time I did the ink drawing first.  Waiting for it to dry before finishing and I have other things that I need to work on so probably won't finish this until late this afternoon.  I am posting my progress on Instagram if you'd like to follow along. Here's a link to my instagram account 

Working on Some Collaborative Pieces

 And one of those pieces is an Exquisite Corpse.  These are two views of my section in process.

There are 7 of us involved in this.  For my portion I'm experimenting with doing some abstract

 combining acrylics and watercolor.

If you aren't familiar with Exquisite Corpse here's a brief description. Each of us adds to a

composition in sequence by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person

contributed. All I could see when I started this was a row of black and white checks and a bit

of the quin gold.

A bit of history from Wikipedia -- I edited the information.  The technique was invented

by surrealists and is similar to an old parlour game called consequences in which players

write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the

next player for a further contribution. Surrealism principal founder André Breton reported that it

started in fun, but became playful and eventually enriching. Breton said the diversion started

about 1925, but Pierre Reverdy wrote that it started much earlier, at least as early as 1918.

Later the game was adapted to drawing and collage, in a version called picture

consequences, with portions of a person replacing the written sentence fragments of the

original. The person is traditionally drawn in four steps: The head, the torso, the legs and the

feet with the paper folded after each portion so that later participants can't see earlier

portions.The name is derived from a phrase that resulted when Surrealists first played the

game, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau." ("The exquisite corpse shall drink the new

 wine.")

My grandson and I play it once in awhile.  When we play we do people; my artist friends and

I are doing whatever we choose.  This one had no original instruction so who knows what the

 end result will be.

And speaking of my art friends, I'm going to introduce them to you over the next few weeks.

Maybe not one a week but I hope to introduce all of them before our 3rd annual Art Tribe Exhibit 

at the Gallery Uptown in July.

Looking At Some Older Work

 In between working on two new pieces (layers need to dry) I'm doing more sorting and realizing that there was a time when I enjoyed playing with florals.

Maybe I need to go back to doing some watercolor florals, at least in my sketchbook.  Another one that is more recognizable yet still very free is a Trillium piece I did in Door County many years back.

Neither of these are available except as notecards.  These two and a huge bunch of geraniums that I did before I photographed them are long gone.  Only a couple notecards and one geranium left and it hangs in our guest bathroom. Yes, it's time to start playing with florals again and see where it takes me.  

Once I get the clutter cleared away I can work on both the mixed media and the watercolors.  Maybe even do some floral mixed media.  Another path to wander down.  I'll see where it takes me.

My Muse Is Back

I've recently started working on new pieces and doing so made me aware -- My creative muse has been missing in action for a very long time. Yes, we need rests, we can't be creative all the time but sometimes we extend those breaks longer than necessary and I'm guilty. I don't know if my daily walks and Art Journal practice have helped get my muse back but it certainly hasn't hurt.

Today's Walk, Harbor Island's walkway has been cleared.

I came into the studio earlier in the week intending to do something in that art journal but remembered that I needed to take more work to a gallery in Grand Rapids at the end of the week. For the first time in quite a spell I was inspired to do something new.  I have a lot of older work so it wasn't as if I didn't have anything to take but I really wanted to paint. And in the process of starting I realized a truth -- action is better than inaction. As I worked I was enjoying the process of adding texture, marks and collage materials. And I began to think about one of my Art Journal spreads. 

I don't think it's a good idea to force things.  Working on a piece when one doesn't feel inspired is going to result in a piece that just doesn't make it.  But playing in a sketchbook, making collage papers, messing about with some paint just to see what happens -- maybe that will shift ones thinking.

Another confession.  Sometimes I have so much fun making collage papers or playing with paints that I want to keep doing that instead of actually working on a painting.  Maybe best for me to stick to working in the Art Journal for awhile.  Even when I just make a mess like this bunch of experiments on a spread.

I can always cover it up with collage or gesso