SURPRISED AND HAPPY!

50 YEARS LATER

The National Watercolor Society published the names of the artists that have paintings to be included in their 2013 International Exhibition.  I was surprised and thrilled to have the above painting included!  I didn't make the cut that past two years, so it is wonderful news.  I like this painting a lot but wasn't sure how much others would take to it.  Trying to second guess the judges is an exercise in futility.  In the end, we have to be the final judge and jury.   I start with a concept or idea, do my best to carry it through, evaluate the outcome and go on to the next one.  I love when others find value in a painting or drawing, but ultimately, mine is the only vote that  counts.

This painting is a tribute to my husband, who has been an unwavering support and cheerleader of my artistic endeavors all these years.  Sunday will mark our 50th wedding anniversary.  

Jerry's Highschool Yearbook Picture 

Still handsome after all these years.

I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST!

DEMO DAY 4 BROOKINGS WORKSHOP

DETAIL DEMO DAY 4 BROOKINGS WORKSHOP

This was my favorite demo from the workshop.  I love when happy surprises show up unexpectedly.  Pretty boring if you know exactly what you are going to get before you even start.  I start with an idea and have a mental picture of what I think it will be like.  Of course, that never happens, but I have a direction.  In this case, I have been working on putting gesso on part of an old painting, stamping into the gesso and transferring that gesso pattern onto the rest of the painting so that part of the old painting shows through the stamped pattern.  This time my idea was to gesso the general shape of the image I planned to paint and stamp the rest of the page, thus having more of the old painting showing through and having a total white space for my new image.  The old painting was on YUPPO from a George James workshop I took.  The surface was covered with watercolor and in some areas heavy concentration of watercolor.  Watercolor on YUPPO can be easily activated by moisture because it is just sitting on the surface, nothing has been absorbed into the plastic paper.  The old painting color scheme was complementary with Indigo and Brown Madder (a low intensity red orange).  My new color scheme was a different version of blue/orange compliments.  

Here is where the serendipity came in.  As I scraped the gesso over the old paint, it became activated and some of it mixed with the gesso.  Then, when I painted over the background, the old color activated and mingled with the new color  resulting in some beautiful color I will never be able to recreate again!  I drew the image with walnut ink, a water soluble material, because I wanted to be able to make corrections is necessary.  I love the edges that are created when painted over or next to.  

Now, where are those other cast aside paintings from the GJ workshop?  I want to do this again!

DAY THREE IS ALL ABOUT THE ELEMENT OF "LINE"!

Have you ever ranked the elements of design according to  your personal favorites?  For me it is Texture, Line, Color, Size, Value, Shape and Direction is last.  On  Wednesday of the workshop we think about the element of LINE and the roll of the dice had me pairing it with the element of color.  The most gorgeous use of a colored line is the mastery of Wayne Thiebaud with his shimmering contour line, and of course, Vincent Van Gogh who constructed stunning paintings out masses of lines, lines, lines.  Another Red/Green complimentary color scheme and we are off and running!  

This is the third painting on this piece of paper.  Two unsuccessful  paintings are underneath.  The letter M was on the previous painting but worked out for this one.  Maybe a letter sweater from college?  I think this will be the final incarnation as I added Portfolio Oil Pastels on top of the paint to brighten things up and bring out the color of the lines a bit. I have never tried to cover oil pastels.  I'm not sure they would cover easily.  

This looks very much like a caricature which are lots of fun to do.  If you appreciate the art of caricature, check out Caricature Showdown 3000 on Facebook.  Every week they pick a different person to draw and paint and then vote on Friday.  The winner gets to select the next subject.  Lots of people submit entries in a wide range of styles, techniques and materials.  Different aspects of the face are exaggerated by each artist.  I love to browse each week and evaluate whether they captured the essence of the likeness.  It makes you think about what makes "us" look like "us".  It turns out that programmers who are working on facial recognition software are studying caricaturists because they see the differences in faces so easily.

SECOND DEMO

This is only a quarter sheet.  I wish it was a bit bigger.  I started with an old painting that had been covered with collage .  I love how the collage papers make this very simple drawing and painting so much more interesting.  Roll of the dice called for a compliment with Red Orange and blue green color chord.  

WONDERFUL WORKSHOP AT WRIGHT'S FRAMING AND ART GALLERY !

DEMO BROOKINGS WORKSHOP DAY 1

On the first day of the Variations workshop we deal with the element of SHAPE.  We also roll the dice to see what color chord we must use.  I drew analagous  colors with red.  Playing with shape can be lots of fun.  Distortion is often involved.  Here is my demo using an old unsuccessful painting with gesso stamping as my sub strait.  

SERIES WORK!

BLUES MAN

This one had an interesting progression.  It started out as a very precise shape painting.  I wound up keeping the shapes more distinct in the face but softening the edges as it moves away from the focal area.   The International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA) International Juried Art Exhibit deadline for entering is tomorrow.  I think I will try my luck with this painting and see what happens.

ONE MORE FOR THE WORKSHOP!

MIKE HENDERSON ELONGATED

MIKE HENDERSON STEP #1

MIKE HENDERSON ELONGATED PARALLAX 

MIKE HENDERSON ELONGATED PARALLAX CROPPED

I think I am closing in on how I want to paint.  At least for this week!!!  I get bored with doing things the same way every time but I want to do more in this style for awhile at least.  

This is the image we are going to use in the workshop I am giving a week from tomorrow.  I put the photograph through some of the filters in Photoshop Elements and created an image that is elongated  with simplified shapes, soft edges and interesting colors.  That is what I started with.  I like my work to have an element of mystery (how did she do that?) This assumes you didn't read my detailed descriptions of exactly how I did "that".  Using a photo program to manipulate an image should just be the starting point.  If you copy the distortion directly then there is no mystery.  I like to use these technical aides as a way to nudge me in the direction I want to go, help me visualize possibilities and then combine it with other ideas for a finished painting

So, using the photoshop manipulation as my starting point, I blocked in the shapes, values and initial color with traditional brushes onto an old painting that I had covered with gesso and then stamped into the wet surface.  I used the same palette from yesterday's painting and the same tools, mostly a thin wooden coffee stirrer and some finger painting.  I managed to stop before I overworked this piece.  I am happy with the balance of line, broken color, intensity texture, hard and soft edges.  

By photographing this piece at an angle, I was able to create another distortion called parallax which gives me my next variation to try.