Two tree paintings

I love trees; they are so varied and beautiful.  Late last year Carla Sonheim offered Diane Culhane's online class, "For the Love of a Tree".  I signed up immediately :-)

One of Diane's assignments was to create two small 5" x 5" paintings focusing on value. 

The first painting began with a warm base color to which was added its complementary color:

Blue-violet overlaying Yellow-orange

After much layering of opaque and transparent colors, the finished painting:

The second painting began with a cool color which was overlaid by its complementary color:

Vat orange overlaid with cobalt blue.

Final painting:

I enjoy the spontaneity of this approach.  I have to suspend judgment and to go along with what happens, respond to the previous mark or color, allow for accidents - very liberating :-)

Using line

The next lesson from Karine Swenson's online class, "Elements", was creating an abstract design using line and linear variety from the previous exercise.

The assignment was to produce a painting using these same elements:

18" x 24" acrylic painting

My how you've grown :-)

The final lesson from Diane Culhane's "Doings of A Doodle" online class - growing your doodle!

Mark a grid on a larger canvas and then doodle away:

16" x 20" canvas

I used a fairly limited color palette to finish the doodles.

Introducing the grid

Painting assignment, Lesson 5*:

Line and circle doodling on a grid

I enjoyed painting this so much I did another one :-)

"Signal"

*Diane Culhane's online class, "Doings of A Doodle"

Layering transparent colors

New still life where I used layers and layers of transparent paint.  I have always loved transparency even way, way back when I used an air brush to create colored screens and glass-like panels in imaginary landscapes.

This time I incorporated the techniques of glazing, sgraffito and painting negative shapes that Diane Culhane demonstrated in her online class, Table Top: Drawing and Painting.  For more about Diane Culhane, visit her website http://www.dianeculhaneart.com/

For my still life I chose vases; here is the beginning phase:

Basic line work

An interim phase:

Glazing.

An the finished painting:

"Five Vases" :-)

Landscape of Attraction

I have some paintings-in-process of vases, and vases with flowers.  O, there also might be one of a quartet of dogs, too :-)  I am experimenting with glazing, a technique which does require time for the paint to dry between layers.  Not a huge amount of time, but enough to get on with something else.

I have several canvases that already have backgrounds of random colors, but this particular one was also pretty heavily textured.  I enjoy having something down on the canvas to start.

Out of the background emerged this:

"Attraction", acrylic painting

Now back to glazing.

Winter white

Single-digit temperatures for quite a few days now.  Looking out the window... snow caps on the leaf-less shrubs.  Are the birds okay?  I hope they are keeping warm.

Perhaps these thoughts prompted me to paint a warm-weather scene with plenty of color :-)

"Journey"

It's Still Life :-)

A bit tardy, the final painting for Table Top: Drawing and Painting is finished.  Class was so enjoyable and I explored still life painting, a subject that never caught my fancy before.

Here's the still life:

"The Oval Table"

This is how it began:

Whoa, something is different...

The table changed, the flowers changed and some of the veggies became fruit.  How did that happen?  As I think back, I was focused on the paint and I let go of the power of the "line"; the application of paint and the colors indicated the direction of the painting.

As odd as it sounds, relinquishing control is empowering :-)

Table Top Paintings

More still life work from Diane Culhane's online class, Table Top: Drawing and Painting.  I am finishing up the painting assignment.

The emphasis again is on laying down transparent layers and then building more layers, both transparent and opaque, on top.  I became so involved with the technique, I let my improvising slide (see this post).  I figure I will get better with practice :-)

Beginning with a graphite drawing (on a birch panel), transparent layers of primary colors are quickly applied, a nice way to get the paint brush moving and paint on the panel:

Initially two green peppers and a pear...

However, after laying down more and more paint, I decided that apples were calling me more than peppers, hence:

"Pear of Apples"

Mixed media, glazing

The world outside has gone cold and snowy white, but in my studio it's color-wow time :-)

Glazing (the current Table Top: Drawing and Painting lesson), layering transparent color upon color is a lot of fun and perks up this gray day.  Choose some acrylic color, gel medium.  Ink a simple still life sketch and then go...

 

The colors glow.

Magic horses that are basically the same... but different :-)

My sketch:

The use-the-paint-tube as a tool technique (Carla's 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale) yielded this horse:

Bold.

Using the same sketch for inspiration, here's the next drawing:

I immediately thought, "Inktense colored pencils".

And here he is:

Art journal - Love This Day

I have been working on this spread intermittently for awhile.  Many of the layers needed time to dry.  And so I'd do something else in the interim and then, oops, get distracted and somehow not get back to my journal.  Distraction... a technique that allows for painless and plentiful drying time :-)

Imaginary bird friends.

 Here is a closeup of some texture:

The joy of modeling paste.

Birds, flowers and sheep

Beginning with a surface covered in random colors of paint, I found imaginary flowers – next came birds (a favorite subject) and then, out of the blue, little sheep:

I think it's a happy painting :-)

 Masking, sgraffito, stippling, blown blots techniques, again, from "Paint Your Garden", an online workshop by Diane Culhane.

Techniques

I prepped a couple of small canvases using techniques from Diane Culhane's online workshop, "Paint Your Garden", the goal being flowers in a garden.  But following where the painting activity led, this particular canvas yielded flowers and trees in a small meadow:

A different look.

Here's a look at the other canvas (in process) with the beginning base layers:

At this point I have no idea of the outcome...

This painting process is exciting because many decisions are made in the moment and in response to something that has just happened.  The outcome may be undesirable and even unsalvageable, because unpredictability is rife; but then again, the results can be surprisingly wonderful and perhaps that is what appeals to me :-)

Class is out...

Diane Culhane's online workshop, “Paint Your Garden” that is.  Currently I am working on some assignments that I made up for myself and I will share them upon completion :-)

However, to catch up on what has been going on… I have been working toward my goal of freer expression in this medium, and I have been having fun taking chances, letting go and enjoying the characteristics of the paint. 

One of last week’s assignments was a continuation of creating mostly visual texture by way of frottage, blown blots and splattering - fun and messy.  The different techniques Diane has been teaching build on themselves; the layering, the techniques of masking and sgraffito (love sgraffito) combine with the newer ones and, voilà, a menu of texturing options.

Here are the vignettes:

Masking is key.

The triangles at the bottom appeal to me...

 

A fav -  because of the semi-opaque layers and the dots (!)

This one is different.  I sort of followed the paint.

I love it when I can hardly wait to get into my studio and begin :-)