Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Safe travels



I framed a set of two monoprints I made in a workshop with April Richardson
before hearing of a woman's shelter 
looking for art to be auctioned as a fundraiser. 
That made me think about the unintentional symbolism 
possible in these "abstract" prints. 


I didn't write down the shelter's name or website. Sigh. 
So they hang in my office, some of my favorite prints.





Monotype. Love it. Always surprised by it.



Hiding in plain sight


At a printmaking class with April Richardson, I sketched a child's face and began adding color and texture.

Idea: we think we know what children are thinking, but do we? (Did people know you as you saw yourself, when you were small?)

Monday, December 3, 2012

Bird hideaway


A friend gave me a canvas with brown marbling and an underpinning of crimson haze. She put a hanger on the back for portrait view. The horizontal lines did nothing for me.

Then a Chinese artist I'd met in a printmaking class sent me a bird she'd painted on rice paper. I turned the background to a landscape view and blended the two art offerings.

Modifications: I put light modeling paste behind the bird, tore the edges, and glued it on the original lines with acrylic medium. I used acrylic paints (VanDyke Brown Hue, Crimson Lake, Indian Yellow Hue) to blend in the rice paper, fade back white lines carrying the eye out of the painting, and create berries. Highlighted with a Staedler watercolor pencil and a deep pink Sharpie fine point marker.

Had some little peacock featherlets: put those on as glowing "grass" with acrylic medium.

Done for now. Might do more later.