Sunday, July 13, 2008

Another effort



It was a miserable day yesterday, so I worked on this painting most of the day. It began the same way as the previous one and this time I decided to concentrate on the linear quality - some of the subtlties aren't visible in this photo. I'm thinking it might be done ..... I'm going to let it simmer for a few days and then decide.

Finished? Maybe




















I refined this with green and red glazes, then cleaned up the darks again - may leave it now.




















I had a second look at this - August - and added some interest within the white are - now I am done!

detail view

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

second effort stage 3























I might be over working this - I decided to knock back some of the perimeter with a green wash - will let it dry and then glaze over it with a red wash. J Salimen assures us that this is an amazing technique and I'm willing to try. I also forgot to rotate the photo to match the orientations of the first 2 images.
We shall see what happens!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

second effort: stage 2

the next step included wiping back some areas; refining shapes and adding some more definition - I puttered at this for 3 hours - will get back to it tomorrow or Saturday .......

I took this photo outside and so it is brighter here then irl

Second effort

I decided to try a second stab at the Salminen composition - I had drawn up 3 of these earlier and since I'm still thinking about directions to go for "Spacial", I thought I'd start another - this time actually following his method. Once he has drawn the image he selects a white shape and also a dark surround before laying in the mid-values. In this one I did these steps but my dark surround got really scary - I will have to work on modifying it today.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Spacial Fractions

30" x 22" Fluid acrylics on 140lb watercolour paper

This is a start I've made based on John Salminen's video "A Designed Approach to Abstraction". It involves using contour drawings of unrelated objects which are traced over top of each other to create an interesting series of new an abstracted shapes. This one includes an ice cream scoop; kitchen shears; a milk frother and a pair of pliers. I since have decided that 3 shapes would have been plenty - I'm having to eliminate some of the smaller bits and tighten up the composition.

Ooops!

Ooops! Forgot to mention - this blog is a direct result of my buddy's encouragement. Lauren Everett Finn is an accomplished artist and great friend - she has been urging me to start my own blog for a bit now - so I have.
A link to Lauren's blog.
http://artworkandartplaylaureneverettfinn.blogspot.com/