Artful Thinking

Mixing the old with the new

I spent last weekend at Venus Art Studios and Supply in Palm Desert, CA.  The desert in winter is glorious. Each time I visit I think to myself, I could live here.  There is an energy there that is contagious and I so enjoy the artists I meet.  I taught for two days straight and it felt like I was amongst friends the whole time.  There is nothing more exciting for me than to be with other artists and see the ideas literally fly from one person to the next as the enthusiasm mounts throughout the day.  We revisited collage in a contemporary way and in this piece which started as a sample board for techniques the ending was a faux encaustic.  Whenever I can capture a tecnique or a look from another medium and translate it into acrylic products I am happy.  I'm on the road again this week, in fact, a lot of the month ahead, so I'll touch base as I can.

A sigh of relief...

I just got home after spending the last couple of days with my art partner, Julie Prichard working on the final photo sequences for our book together.  The art work is glorious and now we move onto the final writing stages before the editors at North Light/F & W do whatever it is they do to books to make it available to the general public.  The one really great thing about this project is that it is  forcing us to really think about our art and how we communicate with all of our students both in the online network in The Land of Lost Luggage and in my "in person" workshops .  We want our art to communicate, but we need to be able to explain how we do things so you can understand.  Understand?  All kidding aside, the teacher in me is always happy when you "get it!" 

Go make lots of art!

The joy of getting carried away

There is something so joyful about black-lined colorful and whimsical images.  I don't know what it is.  I think it goes back to my love of coloring books.  They were so stress free and offered hours of color fun.  The background on this piece is mixed-media with collage and transfers and several paint treatments.  But it seemed so tame to me.  Once I got started I just kept going.

Stepping back to go forward

For the last couple of years I've been doing more painting than mixed media.  But recently I stepped back and decided that I really missed all the stuff I used to put underneath and into my earlier work.  This piece is built upon a piece that was highly unsuccessful and I could never seem to complete.  I just decided to add more collage elements to define a horizon and then worked paint in and around the shapes.  I am so happy I stepped back because it allowed me to move forward. I am devloting this year to more mixed media applications!

Visiting old places

There was a time when I did a lot of spatial abstracts.  I loved filling up canvases with color and exploring what happened with the edges collided.  I've been revisiting this idea a bit lately in the studio.  I find that it is harder now than it used to be.  I've learned a lot of new techniques and there are new paints to explore.  They keep me from falling back to how I used to do things.  I think it is  good thing.