The Project Continues

 I'm having fun just throwing paint around and not really paying attention to the result.  

And I'm finding that the less I pay attention to the result the better.  I got a few good postcards and entered three in the MMA Postcard Salon. We'll see if anyone else likes them.   I didn't photograph them before I entered them; have to take a photo when I go up to see the exhibit.

In addition to just throwing paint around I'm trying some different techniques -- some work, some don't and it really doesn't matter.  So far it's just been watercolor and I have learned that trying to make good doesn't work as well as not trying so hard.  Still want to do more play with acrylics, collage and my gelli plate.  Yes, I'm going through a lot of paper but I hope at the end of the 100 days a habit of Play With Abandon will be well established.

I do Love Rocks and Stones

 Rocks are nature’s reminders that even the toughest 

obstacles can be overcome

Stable and vintage -- two things that draw me in.  I've been a stone collector forever and have always been drawn to cobblestone walls, houses and streets.  I've been doing a watercolor pebbles series for over a year and decided to try some different ways of painting them.  This new series is in a concertina sketchbook so when I'm done I can see the full spread.  I may or may not continue with the pebbles series using new techniques.  

That really doesn't matter.  For now I'm having fun exploring.  Here are a couple more ,,,

I've been doing the same thing with flowers in another concertina sketchbook but didn't get to many of those this week.  It's been a busy one working at the International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA) annual symposium that was held here in Grand Haven this year.

I did get a couple florals done -- one the way I've recently been doing them in watercolor and one totally different in acrylic ...

As with the stones, I may or may not do a series of florals, doesn't matter, I'm having fun exploring.

And if you are in the Grand Haven area do check out the ISEA exhibit at Central Park Place, it will be up until the end of October.

I'm Liking Watercolors Again

 

August in the time for my annual art retreat in Traverse City and for the past several years I've done acrylics and collage or a combination of both.  This year I decided to downsize my supplies and just take watercolors.  

I took along my ipad because I had seen a demonstration on watercolor abstracts that looked interesting and wanted to have a better look. I didn't find it but did come across an interesting demonstration on healing stones by Jean Haines and decided to give it a try.   

Why?  I'm not sure but as I write this I'm thinking about the first time I swam in Lake Huron. There were so many stones on the shore that we had to walk out on sandbags to get to an area that was just sand.  A childhood memory that always makes me smile. I've seen the shore of  Lake Huron several times since that day in Jeddo and every time the stones were a reminder.  I expected to see the same thing when I moved over to the Lake Michigan side of the state, not a stone in site but the water was still delightful.  Not so good for swimming but great fun to play in the waves.

The painting above was my first try at her technique though I didn't really follow it.  The next one I did watch what and followed direction, or at least tried. I didn't particularly like the result but found doing the stones very meditative so I kept at it.

I like the third piece a bit better...

And I really liked the meditative part so I moved on to 4 and 5...

And by number 6 I began thinking doing a bit every morning would be a good way to start the day before moving on to more serious paintings.  These stone pieces have become a way for me to do some experimenting with more of my watercolor colors and texture techniques. Texture is another love. 

This one is almost done but I keep seeing more stones.  I may end up overworking so I'd best quit while I'm ahead. 

Weeding

 

"Gardening has reminded me to be ruthless. Weeds must be pulled for the other plants to live."

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer 

And weeding reminds me that it's necessary to part with some things in the studio that haven't been used in years. I keep telling myself that I will get around to that one of these days but it's time to get realistic, I'm going to have to live to be a 120 to finish the things I want to finish let alone all of the things I may do one of these days. And much of that extra stuff is in the way of getting anything done.  

Clutter in closets, clutter in the garage, clutter in the junk drawer -- well those are pretty well sorted and kept clear here but not my studio so a lot of stuff is going away to give me room to work on something I want to work on.

Which brought me the poppies above, I did the drawing over a year ago I think.  Finally last week I added some paint and this morning a bit of gesso for texture.  I have no idea where the piece is going but so far I'm liking it. This is the first floral I've tried using acrylics.  I once did watercolor florals but that was a long time ago. And since I've recently been trying non-representational mixed media and now am experimenting with a more representational mixed media piece, why not try watercolor non-representational?  Well it started that way but ended up becoming a landscape and I kind of like it.

So why not try the same watercolor spatter paint method and flowers.  I like that too though I don't think I'd like them larger, these are about 5 x7".

Both of these were fun to play with.  The poppies have been fun too -- so far.  I'm going slow with that one because I don't want to mess it up.  Then again, why not -- I can always sand it back and start over.  That is part of what I like about working on wood.  And I may do more experimenting with non-representational watercolors.  Stay tuned.

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.

At Odd Sides With Urban Sketchers West Michigan

 Missed painting with my Tuesday Group this week but joined some of them to sketch at Odd Sides here in Grand Haven with #uskwestmichigan.  It was fun meeting new sketchers and at a place the Tuesday group often meets in cold weather.

I had recently tried foreshortening sketching a chair and decided I needed to work on that so I choose this long view.  I really do need to work on foreshortening!  At the last minute everyone behind the front counter moved and I spied the coffee grinder.  This is the type of thing I like to sketch so I did a very quick one.  The elipse is off but I don't care, next time we're there I'll do it again more carefully.

And I'm keeping up with my 5 Minute Challenge, now 82 collages done and 2 and 1/2 eco dyed journals used.  This morning I tried something different, I used stitching to add a piece of bark that I picked up on my walk yesterday. 

Another type of fragment.  This may lead to a whole new series.  Time will tell.

I’m a beginner again! And I’m loving it..

                                         

I’m moving out of my comfort zone to work in a new way so I'm a beginner again.  It’s a new way for me and it came about because I took one of those free weekend workshops.  I liked how she started because it was a way I hadn’t started in the non-representational (abstract) works I’ve been doing recently. However, I didn’t like the way she moved forward with it so I decided to explore on my own.

I’m working on four at once but I haven’t photographed them all through the process.  I’m quite happy with one I finished at Spider Lake.  I posted that a couple weeks ago.  These three weren’t working for me.  I was liking the first one but it needed something.

Having worked on non-representational for some time trying to learn the genre I began to think “what if I can’t do this after all?”  So far I’ve used unfamiliar media and worked across all sort of substrates.  All these experiments and I still felt stuck – until the free workshop.  I’m still not certain what I’m doing and some just turn out lousy.  But I’m remembering – many times trying a new medium and how long it takes. I ought to write about my first attempt at a poured watercolor sometime.  But I digress.

I thought the first one above had promise. It's a combination of media including collage. This one is something else I don’t usually do – work in a grid format.  I shared with one of my artist friends.  A suggestion, a tiny tweek and it’s done.  Can you tell what I did?

The Art Tribe Is Back

 Art is a solo sport, sort of like playing solitaire. It’s just you and your art supplies. Like many of my artist friends, I thrive in the “aloneness” which is why the pandemic didn't bother me.  However, there are times when we need to be with friends, other artist friends -- the Art Tribe.

Memebers of my tribe are showing our latest creations at the Gallery Uptown in Grand Haven.  The opening reception is Friday, July1 from 5:30 to 7.

We recently lost one of the tribe members, Carol Brauer Schmidt, so we have dedicated the exhibit to her memory.  This is one of three florals that I did for the exhibit.  It wasn't until I did the 3rd one that I realized what paper I was using and most likely why I was using it for this exhibit.

The day I learned that we lost Carol I went to one of those Wine and Paint workshops with a friend.  It's not my thing but the friend wanted to go so I went.  We were painting sunflowers and mine were nothing to write home about.  But the paper that had been covering the table had some wonderful paint on it and so did my palette.  I went to work spreading paint all over that paper and took it home.  The pots holding the Flowers for Carol are cut out of that paper.

I believe an angel was with me in my studio as I worked on these.  As Mary Oliver wrote: "Only if there are angels in your head will you ever possibly see one."   Do come and see the exhibit if you're in the area.  The rest of the tribe: Margaret Benefiel, Carol Cousineau, Bette DelVecchio, Barbara Fugazzotto, GG Havens, Sandy Meyer and Annie Morgan. 

Back To The Challenge But First

 My new travel journal.

We headed south for a short break from the cold and I took along a small concertina sketchbook.  Normally I do postcards and/or take lots of photos with the intention of putting them in separate travel journal once home.  The last part rarely happens.  

This year I had intended to do some collage with ephemera collected along the way.  That didn't happen.  Instead I ended up doing what I normally do on postcards but the sketches are already in the sketchbook. I believe this will be my new form of travel sketchbook.  I can make it with a page a day for however many days we will be away.  Perfect. Here are a few more pages. Some still need color but I've made color notes or taken photos so that can be added.

I've already added the color to the fish that were everywhere at the Thirsty Turtle, an excellent place for seafood in Port St. Lucie, FL

And now, back home and back to the #100daychallenge -- this is a new old piece that got put away because I had no clue what to do with it.  It now has three new layers.  The last one being some collage, papers that I unwrapped yesterday.  More on that after the challenge piece.

The black scribble was the first new layer followed by the graphite scribbles.  The graphite scribbles were done with my new carpenter's mechanical pencil.  Love it, the pencil that is.  And today I added collage in the lower right corner.  That's some of the paper I unwrapped yesterday from the bundles I had put out behind our garage last December.  Here are the bundles unwrapped...

And now I think I'm caught up and hopefully will get back on track.  I've been trying to post every week but traveling got in the way.

A Relaxing Week Away

My annual art retreat at Spider Lake was a refreshing week away from any news, just water, art and conversation with my dear friend and fellow artist, Terry.  I was taking advantage of a workshop, Zen Painting by Jodi Ohl. Like many artists during this pandemic, Jodi offered some of her classes at a discount rate.  Given all that has been going on this year I figured I could use some Zen time. It was relaxing -- some of the time.  

I got carried away with the doodling and think I over did but it was/is relaxing once I accepted that I wasn't in charge of the outcome.  This photo is four 6" x 6" pieces.

I have a few more mixed media pieces in process and I got a couple watercolor pieces done before coming back to reality. This is one of the watercolors.

and this guy done in mixed media was fun --

Sketches, A Doll and Other Stuff

The Tuesday Painters group has been at a friend’s cottage overlooking Lake Michigan.  We’ve gone two weeks in a row and may go again this week…. If she’ll have us.  The cottage was her sister’s, another friend who lost her battle with cancer a few years back.  Four sisters had cottages on the ridge,  When Elaine died the other sisters fixed up her cottage and use it as a rental or for friends.  

There are great views of the lake, the beach and the pier from there and in this between season it’s an ideal place to paint and sketch.  It’s too cold to be outside and though the cottage has no heat we are protected from the elements and we dress warm.  We are taking advantage of it while we can; it will be closed up once winter comes.  

Last week I showed you the start of my Catrina for the Day of the Dead exhibit coming to the Gallery Uptown in November.  Here she is… finished and ready to be delivered.

And I got a few more of the small boiled paper pieces done.  These are fun little pieces to do and I still haven't decided what to do with them.

They make nice little gift tags but could also look nice as a little framed piece, or on a note card.  Does anyone have any other thoughts?

A Treasure Found

I have a couple old photo albums that were falling apart.  One had some great hardware on it so I didn't want to just throw it away.  The covers and spine were in bad shape.

I'm in the process of trying to eliminate some of the clutter in my studio -- old books and photo albums take up valuable shelf space.  After checking their value I decided it was time to deconstruct.  The material in the books is wonderful and good ephemera for collage.

One of the pieces set aside for deconstruction was the photo album.  You may know the type -- about 5 x 4 inches with 1/8th inch thick pages, one photo on each side of the page and gold on the edge. I first decided to remove some of the hardware, there is an inscription on the inside of the two brass clasps....

Fannie was my maternal great-grandfather's half sister. I'll have to look back at the family tree to see which family, she was older than my great-grandfather, his mother's child by her first marriage.  Back to the deconstruction.  It was a faux leather cover and much was torn and worn but not in a way that made it usable, at least on that side, so I began to remove it.  That's when I discovered how wonderful the gold page edges were.... as long as they stayed together.

WOW!  I knew that part had to stay together so I removed photos and began gluing the pages together.  I've finished gluing it together since this photo was taken, it is now the substrate for a college.  I've started it using some of the pile I had from other books I had recently deconstructed.

This was the start.  The more I looked at it the more I didn't like the coat of arms... here is where it stands currently....

I'm going to have to look at this for awhile before I decide if this part is done.  I still need to come up with something for the top...

or not...