finished again

I revised this as per the Somerville crit group. I'll keep it in the corner of the studio for a few days and see what I think. I am hoping to have it done my midweek next week in time to show it for a competition, if I am so lucky.

All at once

I am working on quite a few pieces at the same time right now. Making small changes to them before moving on. Rather than post them all separately, here they are together. I developed the circular mark in the warbler drawing. The texture is begininng to read like birch bark. Today I began drawing from observation in the daisy drawing capturing a wilting bouquet of flowers we have in the house before they entirely fade. I also worked a long string of circular shapes through the composition to create a strong visual movement. According to the group at Joy St, the last panel needed some work to incorporate the disparate elements of the red blotch and the highly realized sparrow. They suggested adding a second bird, and I'm still not convinced. I am trying to work it out now with simple changes like extending the green maple leaves beyond the blotch and working on top of it with collaged leaves.

Maple

Do you like the collaged leaves on the panel?

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.

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.

New stuff

I got some birch veneer panels at Home Depot and had some poplar 1 by 2s cut to glue on the back and prevent the panels from warping. All four are assembled and two are already gessoed with a few beginning oil paint images. Here is one of them.