purging

I'm purging old work! Man, it's quite a trip down memory lane for sure. Each piece reminds me of where I was in my art journey and things that were happening in my life at the time. It's exhausting. Two piles - one pile for the huge burn and another pile for surfaces I can rework. You know me, love having all that history under a painting - both piles are about equal. The photo below shows a painting I dug out from under our sofa in the living room - this was a painting I loved!! I even showed it twice! It marked a transition point for me three years ago - Today? not so much! It had good bones so I clipped it onto my work board and worked through it yesterday afternoon. It now feels like where I am now. Some of the shapes still appear through as ghosts and I like that. Who knows how I will feel about it in another three years. This could be the ongoing visual diary marking my place in three year increments.

And the photo below shows the new painting.....

mixed media on paper, 'Vodka Sliced Thin'

On another note, #@^%(*%!@#$, WHY DO THEY DISCONTINUE MY FAVORITE PRODUCTS!!!  sigh - my very best, best, best face cream has disappeared from the stores and online!  Sooooooooooo frustrating.  Okay, so now I have ordered a new product and hope it is WAY BETTER then the one I was using.  That would be very nice.

And yes, you are seeing ads on my blog.  I'm at the beginning of an experiment and research.  Will let you know how this all shakes out in a couple of months.

Geez, March has finally thrown up it's last few days and I won't be sad to see it go.  Hope you are all making fabulous plans for the weekend!

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'One Half Of A Possibility'

I'm still working through the waxed pieces that became unstable because I didn't fuse the bees wax properly. I was actually able to sit in the sun, yes, you read that correctly!!! SUN! and scrape off anything that my chisel could dislodge from one of the pieces I did on a wood panel. I had a really interesting under painting left behind. Sometimes that can be a deal breaker because I've locked myself into the bits I love and then I end up painting myself into a corner - sigh - AND that happened today - had to wipe out some of my favorite bits to get to a resolve (I still fight that one). Anyway the photo below is the new piece.

mixed media on wood panel with bees wax, 'One Half Of A Possibility'


 Hope you are all enjoying this wonderful weekend! See you all next week!

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re-entry

Hello! First of all, I want to thank everyone who left comments on my last post.  I thought I would check back in while we were gone, but I went totally offline for two weeks.  We spent two weeks in the sun, on the beach, eating and imbibing - it was heaven.  I finally went back into the studio this afternoon trying to find the place where I left off.  Didn't happen, but the little wee 'peeking  from a drawer' video below shows how I started.
 

Then I scraped off everything that would come off.  Already it interested me more then the original.

 

The above pic is the final piece. This is so much more interesting to me and was a good start back to work. I hope you have all been working and creating. Will see you at the end of the week!

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info

There are two questions that I get asked over and over so I thought I would answer them here on my blog. The first question is, 'what colors of paint' do I use.  For the most part I have 7colors that make up my palette.  I very seldom vary from these.  I have tubes of paint that I've never opened - at one time I thought I might like a color, but I guess not because they are still sitting my my paint tub unopened.  The photo below shows my palette of colors:

yellow ochre, raw umber ( I use lots of raw umber), small tube of black (don't use alot of this, but it's there when nothing else will do), titanium white (tons of titanium white), yellow, alizarin crimson, payne's gray - those are my go to colors - sometimes I will use a sienna or burnt umber, but not often.  This photo also shows what my brushes look like - I'm a scrubber, not a delicate stroke in sight.

The next question is, what tools do I use. There they are below - an old steak knife that I have to sharpen with a file at least once a week, my old, old, old brayer - it is pitted and ridged and lays the paint down in the weirdest patterns. I do have a newer brayer I use when I really need to press the paint into the surface and finally my putty knife. My really favorite favorite one is my husbands and he came and claimed it back. Sigh, it was the best, but I've broken this guy in and find it does the job. Those are my tools. Paint brushes of course, the cheapest ones I can get because I abuse them terribly.

And then I wanted to show you the glue I have fallen deeply madly in love with. This stuff sticks almost anything to anything!! I did however, find out something interesting that I'll pass on to you about some glues - some glues don't like to be frozen. A studio like mine that is unheated unless I'm working is not a good home for this PVA glue during the winter. I was told if it freezes and then you use it, it will appear like it is working but won't cure.

I've been preparing work to change out at one of my venues, so very little painting this week. We are leaving this weekend for a vacation for a couple of weeks, so that's it from here for awhile. Will try and check in with everyone on the road. Have a great weekend!

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