Post number 200! and Drawing Project #12 untitled

I typically like to post these drawings without any comments, but I have a few words about what is developing in the process of making them. I find that I am interested in experimenting with my drawings both large and small. The Drawing Project provides me a place to try something out on a 10 x 10" square piece of paper. If it works it is incorporated into the larger Botanical pieces I am creating. This way of working led me to use tea as a pigment, I drew with it, soaked the paper in it, wet string and laid it on the picture to dry. Then I began exploring with ink washes. My favourite outcome - soaking the leaves of the lavender plant in an ink was and then pressing them on the page in the top left corner.

#11 stalk

I was cropping the photo of this when I noticed I liked the drawing oriented both ways. The jury is still out. Any advice?

#2 warbler con frijoles negros

Here's an update of the 10" x 10" warbler panel. I will probably solve this in much the same way I did the first warbler panel - a graphite line drawing. Currently I am thinking it will be either an all over botanical pattern or simply a row of repeating botanical imagery. I am toying with the idea of gold leaf in the circle around the warbler, but am still undecided. Tomorrow I plan to visit the art store and purchase a few more panels to continue working on this series. But I am hoping I can open up my thinking about them and take a few more risks.

I have also begun a rather large pen and ink drawing, 22" x 60" - two sheets of watercolor paper end to end. I hardly have space in the studio for this let alone a way to photograph it. I've tried a few options, but once I figure that out I will post an image.

#10 lavender and doilie

#9 lavender

Tyler thinks this might not be lavender. Or more correctly he doesn't know, but he does know the plant is in the mint family. How does that work? Kings Play Chess on Fine Glass Stools?...So I suppose lavender could be a genus in the mint family. Does anyone know what this is?

#8 grass

plugging away...

Here's an update of the maple panel I began weeks ago. I poured a mixture of stand oil and cadmium red in the upper right corner and was patiently waiting for it to dry. I thought it was tacky the other day and set the panel upright against the wall. The next morning I woke up to find that the spot had run and puddled on our hardwood floor. Oops. I cleaned up the floor but decided to leave the accident on the panel.

#7 gingko and black beans

#1 finished; introducing #2; warbler con frijoles negros

I am having a blast making these - party in my studio everyone... I quickly finished the first experiment today; and apologize for including a slightly out of focus image of it. The second panel is 10" x 10" and I drew it all out before beginning which is very unlike me. I began applying the beans and photographed the project before the glue dried. I expect it will become clear as it dries.

#6 fuzzy dots

Blossom

#1; warbler with orzo 8" x 8"

Yea! I love it! I really felt I could loosen up when working at this size. I don't have to invest as much time or energy in each piece so I feel able to take more risks. Seeing the piece online, I think I will continue to develop the base of the composition.

Maple seedpods

Two more drawings on rag paper

I believe I found a place for this project in my studio practice. I am going to begin each session with a quick ink drawing as a way of loosening up and prompting the mental transition into art making. I mentioned I might name the pieces by the date on which they were created, but today I seem more interested in the subjects of the drawings. I am not planning the compositions or agonizing over what I chose to depict. The point is merely to do something, anything - to be open to the experience and (hopefully) surprised by the result.

Pictured above is a drawing I executed last night after I returned from the Cape. I worked with some acorns to hand in my studio, and incorporated a more automatic mark making practice (the dots) around the perimeter of the composition. I worked back into this piece briefly this morning with a mid-tone gray wash.

This piece was created when I began working this morning. I focused on outlining piles of cannellini beans laying in my studio. The emphasis was on tone, shading, and edge without a slavish devotion to getting it right. I began by laying down quick strokes of water near where I planned to draw and allowing my ink to bleed when the line and the wash met.

Experiment #1

I purchased a few very small birch panels at Artist and Craftsman supply. This one is 6" x 6". I have only just begun the work, but I plan to explore the possibilities of adhering seeds, beans, and pasta to the panel as part of the composition. I have already started the process although it is not pictured here. It is rather tedious so I am not too certain about its future...

The Drawing Project

Like I need another project. But I found this for the second time and was interested in trying it out now that I am regularly making drawings. For now the project will be named by the date that the pieces are made. I included a wider view of the work so that you could get a sense of the deckled edge on the paper. I think it contributes to the overall look. I found these sheets of unbleached cotton rag in packets for sale at Artist and Craftsman Supply. They're handmade in India, and I couldn't resist. They seemed to lend themselves to the project as they meet the size requirement - kismet I think.

Updates

I am working on all the pieces in succession right now. It helps keep me going - a) because the oil paintings cannot be worked for long periods of time, they get very wet; and in the case of pouring paint mixed with stand oil, I lay them flat to control the dripping b) because I am of a restless disposition and ready to be done with these! Let's move on already.

I broke through my hesitation with this piece and risked it getting ugly or making a mistake. There are still more boundaries to push. This panel is very new and the idea is still in its first stages. I can say that working directly on the panel with charcoal is very satisfying. Look how rich and satiny that black is.

We are still pushing along on the botanical. It's sort of only a fleeting thought, but I have sought to build these compositions by keeping one side light and working the other to a darker value. That inkling has solidified more with this piece. I seem to be working the left side with little or no water while darkening the right with layers of washes and heavy lines.
I really felt that this piece was dead in the water compositionally. I introduced the medium tone grey to begin building structure and visual hierarchy. It reads really well now online. Perhaps it is really truly finished.

Botanical IV

I got some more face time with my drawing today. I think there are some exciting things happening with ink washes in the top part of the composition. Otherwise I have been flirting with the idea of beginning more panels. But I would like them to be rather small - 6" x 18"; and that introduces a little problem on the carpentry side. I need to find someone or somewhere with a table saw. Hmmm...The last panels I had cut at Home Depot, but there are some size restrictions involved with their equipment. And 6" x 18" is just a bit too small. Although perhaps the best thing would be to get over there and talk to them about it.

Botanical IV 22" x 30"

Gosh darn tungsten lights. I'll get a better picture of this soon, but here is a new ink drawing I started today before leaving this morning for my internship. I had so much source material for the last drawing most of which I didn't get to properly explore. So I decided to begin another. I love these drawings. And this one at least feels like it's off to a good start.

Botanical III

I think this is finished. Lucky for me I had a great walk yesterday through the misty rain. And I was able to photograph some interesting plant life and collect some leaves and seed pods. It all helped me to finish the drawing.

Okay, okay, okay...

Here they are...

I don't want to say too much about them, but I couldn't resist offering small comments.

This is third in the Botanical series. It is smaller than the other two drawings at 18" x 22". I think these pieces are about first impressions, and a kind of dumbed down or simplistic drawing. They are also very much about exploring ink and mark making.

This was the easiest of the three panels to execute. And it seems to have maintained a light, airy, openess. The jury is still out as to whether or not it is finished.

I feel I finally had a breakthrough with this piece and am expanding it beyond a simple stencil and fill of the maple leaves. I am beginning to find ways to introduce visual language into this panel. Exciting!

This piece I have simply gone crazy on. Perhaps because it was the most desperate out of the three. It wasn't working out and that gave me permission to take big risks here. I have carved into the panel, applied gold leaf, scratched and sanded the paint surface. We're talking serious abuse.

Mural for Brookline Teen Center

Yes, yes; no new painting photos yet. I volunteered some time again today with Art Builds Community. They were meeting near my apartment to complete a mural for the upcoming Brookline Teen Center. (That's the director of the organization in the background with the blonde hair, Anyahlee Suderman.)

Above is a sketch of what the finished mural will look like. The mural will be suspended from the side of the Center once they settle the details of its location. Because it must be moved the mural was made on 6 sheets of 4' by 8' poplar panels which will be framed and bolted together for hanging.

Fuller Craft Museum

There are so many wonderful things to write about. My paintings are going well and I have photos of progress on all of them ready to post, but later. First I want to tell you about an exciting trip I had yesterday to the Fuller Craft Museum - New England's foremost exhibition space for the genre of craft. (Think handmade objects, wearable art, and domestic craft gone wild.) Not only is the building and setting amazing - a twisting wood shingling house seemingly built upon a large pond littered with lily pads. (It was made all the more surreal by the fine mist falling off and on all day.) The museum itself actually housed a collection of very finely crafted and stunning exhibits which meandered much more closely to the category of "fine art" than the museum's title would have you think. My favourites are pictured here, and here.

I applied some gold leaf to the panel and began working into the piece with a darker color. I think I need to work to break up the shape of the underlying grid and perhaps add a stronger image to anchor the composition. The introduction of the dark brown is helping to build contrast in the piece and I am looking forward to developing this further.

Birch panel #3

All this work happened yesterday. Previously the panel had a very graphic green and red background, but it wasn't getting me anywhere; for a lot of reasons. Yesterday Carianne visited my studio and the process of talking about and sharing my paintings from the last three months clarified a lot of issues for me. The best word or phrases that came out of yesterday are "collage sensibility" and "language". The recent works are a bit of a hodge podge of visual styles and painting techniques and it made Carianne think of the way collages look. For me the impetus to work this way lies in visual language. I have always been interested in diversifying and exploring the ways in which I can create an image. Whether it be stitching, using photographic processes, stenciling an image, creating multiple copies of an image and adhering them to the work, or simply painting the image - with either a hyper realistic or a more painterly sense. I can't identify what is behind this investigation. But I see it with each project appearing almost like a formula in each painting.