anonyrrie

Wide-Eyed

journal page - 5/17/08

...a quick break from big paintings to do another journal page. This one was inspired by Illustration Friday's topic "wide," and Inspire Me Thursday's challenge to use crayons to make art. I made this with acrylics, Caran d'Ache Neocolor II artist's crayons, and ink. And... two finished paintings.. finally!

Flora - 24" x 36" x 1.5" - acrylic & ink on wood panel

Vernal Spirit- 18" x 24" x 1" - acrylic & ink on wood panel

It's all I have to bring today –
This, and my heart beside –
This, and my heart, and all the fields –
And all the meadows wide –
Be sure you count – should I forget
Some one the sum could tell –
This, and my heart, and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.

- Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Well, I also have great news! I am excited to announce an interview at my Wings 4 You Coaching blog with Susan Tuttle in celebration of her new book, Exhibition 36: A Gallery of Mixed-Media Inspiration . I am honored to have contributed a painting and article to her book, available for preorder prior to its release in November 2008. Please stop by and read about Susan's inspiring creative journey!

Planting & Growing

Vernal Spirit - 18" x 24" x 1" - acrylic & ink on wood

This painting is not completely finished (It's based on an earlier journal page, and I need to do more work on the hair detail), but I wanted to share it for both Inspire Me Thursday's "Kitchen" topic and Illustration Friday's "Garden" topic.

The background has at least eight layers, several of which are built with washes of paint that I sprinkled with salt. This is a great technique for creating pattern and texture. When the salt dries, I rub it off to find the small dots and stars that are left where the salt has lifted the paint. This method works really well if you build several very thin glaze layers - in person, the background of this painting has such beautiful depth and texture.

The garden connection is both visual and conceptual. For a long time, I have been focusing on making positive changes in my life that will give me space to express myself more genuinely. That means aligning my life with my most important values - individuality, creativity, family, learning, and sharing. I think of these values as the seeds I must plant to grow my own beautiful life-garden... and so, I am currently in the process of becoming a certified life coach.

I have always been a believer in big dreams, and I love working with people to help them find constructive and viable ways to create a vision and then turn it into reality. I've been doing this for almost 24 years as a teacher, and now I want to share my passion outside a school setting. I have recently launched a blog where I offer motivational articles and weekly challenges, and within the next few months, I will be offering personal, creativity, and career coaching, tele-seminars and live workshops.

Please accept my invitation to stop by Wings 4 You Coaching and participate in my Weekly Wings challenges. I'd love to have you along on the journey!

Background Check

untitled work-in-progress - 24" x 36 ' x 1.5" - acrylic on wood

When I saw that the topics this week over at Inspire Me Thursday (Action Painting) and Illustration Friday (Multiple), my immediate thought was to bring both topics together and share a little bit of the process behind my paintings.

journal page - 2/1/08

Most of my paintings are conceived in a small 5" x 7" journal, the place where I go to play without the big elephant of artistic performance anxiety sitting on my chest. Although I rarely have any idea what I want a page to look like, I always start off with brushed, smeared or sponged-on leftover paint, experimenting with color combinations and application processes. As the background takes on a personality, I start getting an idea of what I want to do - perhaps add paper elements, drip some ink, paint a figure, stamp in texture, draw with pens, scribble with crayons. Sometimes I finish a page rather quickly, and other times I keep layering on the elements until the original background is pretty much obliterated. It starts out as an active, intuitive process that becomes more and more focused as I see what's appearing on the page. If it really speaks to me as the journal page above did, I decide to go forward and recreate the page as a larger painting.

Like my journal pages, I build my paintings from the background forward. The large painting at the top began as a wood panel my DH made for me a while back. After applying the gesso and sanding it smooth, I used my favorite Blick's mega-brush to paint a base layer of cadmium red and quinacridone crimson. I let it dry completely, and then used a fabric paint roller to randomly apply diarylide yellow, cadmuim yellow medium, and titan buff paint over the red. Between "rolls," I spritzed the surface with water and blotted with a paper towel. When I had added and subtracted paint until I had a nice balance of yellow and red, I spritzed again, sprinkled salt on the surface and dried it with a heat gun. Finally, I rubbed off the salt to see the little dots and star designs it left behind, and finished the background by using a texture stamp here and there.

Creating the background was a very active and loose process, in contrast to the very deliberate and focused work I did on the figure. The final stage of this painting will be to add the details – the floral designs, and patterns in her hair, and whatever little surprise elements I might think of before I feel it's done. I find that I lose my concentration after several hours, so a painting this size ends up taking a long time to finish! In fact, I am going to put her aside for a while and start the background for another painting.

journal page - 12/20/07 & Spirit- 18" x 24" x 1" - mixed media on wood

Above is another example of page-to-painting. In this case, the backgrounds began with collaged torn paper. Below are two other page-to-painting images that I have already posted individually.

journal page - 9/9/07 & Migration- 12" x 16" x 1" - acrylic/mixed media on wood

journal page - 10/10/07 & Enchantment - 12" x 16" x 1" - acrylic/mixed media on wood

More Action Painting here... and more Multiple(s) here... Enjoy!