Two more works on the horizon...

I have just finished the underpaintings for two more works in this series that seems to be developing from my inner voice. The first one is the male counterpart to my last blog post which I have temporarily named Divine Spirit. It is the second work to be created from the same design. So at this point I shall name him Divine Spirit II.

The third work is from a totally different design of bottles but has nonetheless become a "third

party." I guess an appropriate temporary title would be Divine Spirits III.

At this point i am just wondering how the concept of bottles (or vessels) fits into the designs. In looking up the word vessel in the dictionary i found this definition: a person regarded as a holder or receiver of something nonmaterial: a vessel of grace. hmmmmm.....food for thought!

My Art is About....

On my friend kathy cartwright's blog (www.k-cartwright.blogspot.com) we had a discussion about finishing the sentence My Art is About..... I began to think about this and how to explain what my art is about. Not an easy thing to verbalize. So as i let that thought simmer for a while i came up with the following:

My art is more than "just" art.

It's a way of life
It's an expression of myself
It's an extension of myself
It's a daily prayer
It's a meditation
It's a look into my soul
It's my soul speaking, singing and drawing
It's a deep breath
It's inhaliing life
It's gratitude
It's a gift
It's more than "just" art.
It's hard work
It's a best friend
It's sometimes a foe.

So for now this is the only way i can verbalize what my art is. The rest will have to speak for itself on the canvas.

Ta Dah! The Finished Work

After many weeks and many many layers of glazes I have finally completed one of the designs i have been working on. It literally took a turn from the original landscape format design (shown below and in previous posts) into an interesting figure. It is amazing to me that the results came from a bottle design. Posted below is the transformation from original design to grisailles to the final work at the left. I haven't named her yet. Any suggestions??

Original design. It needs more division of space or fracturing.

This became too fractured and overdone. I realized i had to go too far to find the middle place to come back to.

I was able to "unfracture" it by going back to the original design and reworking it.

This was much better. I now needed to find the design within the design. This was accomplished by rotating the work and choosing a portrait format. Adding the first glazes helped to define the figure and i continued to develop her with subsequent glazes. I chose a phalo blue and cad red palette. It was interesting working with only two colors. Even more interesting was watching it take shape layer by layer. Working over a grisaille helped me stay within my value ranges.

Adding some opaques in the final stages added definition and depth to some areas needing more than a glaze.

There are approximately 20 layers of glaze on this piece. I am developing her counterpart and hope to share that also with you when it is done. Both figures developed out of one original design. The most interesting part of these works is that the biblical looking figures that are coming out of the designs have been subjects that have been on my mind lately and in my thoughts. Creating designs from your mind or memory will certainly bring more meaning to your art!

Tool of the Trade

While i was reworking the design fractures Kathy suggested i use an overlay to see if i liked the changes before making them on the artwork itself. What a great tool! i highly recommend it especially for complex designs. You get so bogged into the work itself you can't see the forest through the trees so to speak. So i made up a piece of .005 overlay plastic and sectioned it off into thirds. By laying this over the top and stepping away i was able to look at the whole area (but also break it down into smaller areas) to check for unity and variety. I could marker in some changes and tell right away whether it might work or not. Best of all i can erase all marks and use it again and again. Thought i would share this with those of you who may not already use an overlay.

I have started to add the glazes and hopefully will be ready to share soon.

Never say....final

Realizing that i went too far to the left on my last grisaille I decided to go back to the drawing board and refracture the piece. I think sometimes you need to go too far in order to know how far that is so you can come back to a place that is moderate. That is what happened to me with the last work posted. As i began to add color i came to the conclusion that i had overdone the fracturing part of the work and needed to go back to a stage where i had not fractured the space enough. From that is was able to come to the two works below. After weeks of dividing up space i think i now get the importance of fracturing with variety, rhythm and unity in mind. Not an easy task for someone who has just gone with her intuition. So much to think about! But i found eventually you are able to keep more than one element in mind when working. It just takes practice, practice, practice!!

Final grasaille, really!

A bit more (ok maybe a lot more) fracturing of the shapes before adding the glazes. This one became so much more complex than i could have imagined. I added a few circles for good measure. I'm not sure if i will keep them or not.

The learning curve on this one was how much further i could take it than i thought i could. Kathy kept gently nudging me to go a little more. I think it is really fractured now!

So I will begin adding glazes now. I think i am going to start with an analgalous palette so as not to get into trouble quickly. This is new way of using acrylics for me. While i love layering colors i believe this technique can add many many layers of glazing before complete. It will also be interesting to me to see if i can get down to my original design or if it morphs into something better. We'll see.

Two final designs....now here comes the color

Making the final revisions to the designs has really made a difference. The first one i ended up turning upside down. It seems to have more of a dynamic feel to it in this orientation. The second one needed a few more changes that i think gives it a look of design moving off the surface, that maybe there is more to it not shown that may invite the viewer to want to see more. At any rate by the end of the week i should be adding the glazes. this is such a new way of working for me. Very deliberate and thought out. I was never one to want to spend too much time in the planning stage, but i actually enjoyed coating the watercolor paper with gesso to get it ready to transfer these designs over and then repaint in gray scale. It seems like a lot of work but it also seems to prepare my mind for what may come. Sort of like waiting for Santa Clause!!