ArtSoluble

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Okay, not really ugly (well, I guess that's a matter of taste!) but here is my latest work from my class "Painting Inspired by Pop Culture."  We started with abstract expressionism and I think this was really hard for me.  I guess I like to plan too much.  My painting started out like this:

Then it turned into this:

And that turned into this:

I am going to keep working on this - it's definitely nowhere near being done.  I think what it really needs is some collage, some black and white and some serious texture.

My second piece is about half-done right now.  We are working on stain paintings and I've always loved stain paintings - one of my favorite artists is Ronnie Landfield - a colorfield painter.  I think that I'm faring better with this second painting because it is more contemplative and I can soften the paint and work slowly.

It is still wet in this picture and I apologize for glare from the water.

I'm looking forward to completing this piece.  I am really bothered by the idea of ripping this piece out and having ugly ragged edges to deal with.  I might wait until class to do that part!

Alphabetical Artists - E...and a promise.

This is just a quick post - I am finding myself busy with art classes but I did want to post the "e" artists.

The first is Hans Erni.  Although I didn't find out much about him as a person, I did learn he is 103 years old!  He has some really neat work and you can check it out HERE and HERE.

The second is Arthur Webster Emerson.  Again, I didn't learn a lot about his life, but I did find an interesting painting, and I thought the title was also interesting, "Blue Shimmering Into Green."  You can read the wikipedia info HERE.

Finally, my promise is that I will be sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly from my class in a few days.  It's been fun, frustrating and stressful to be working in abstract expressionism (or not!)  

A dream come true for me, and more about Collage in Color Volume II.

For a while now, I've been a faithful reader of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine - I love this publication and I can admit that it was a dream of mine to be published in this magazine.  My dream came true earlier this year when my work was published in Collage in Color, Volume II, which came out for iPads first and is now available for PCs and Macs.

My mixed media take on cityscapes was made into a very cool time lapse video, but that's not all.  There are many great (and interacrtive!) articles in this publication, including videos to help you incorporate new techniques into art, an interview with Tim Holtz, artists using carved stamps in collages, water soluble oil paints, and more!  There is something for everyone, lessons on analogous colors, learning about different kinds of brushes, fast projects with stunning results, tips...I am really loving this and I am so honored to be a part of it.

If you would like to purchase this, you can click HERE for Macs and HERE for PCs.  Please do check it out!

Alphabetical Artists - D

This week's artists are "d" artists - it's funny how this project seems to have been going on for quite some time, and yet I'm only on the letter "d."  Maybe I should do twice weekly alphabetical artist posts... 

I came across one artist quite coincidentally while doing some research for another project on art with circles.  Robert Delaunay was an artist who lived from 1885 - 1941 and he used geometric shapes and bold color.  One painting of his that really made me want to read more about him is called Primier Disque and is made up of quadrants of concentric circles.  You can see it in the Wikipedia link HERE.  You can read about Robert Delauney's life and see more of his work HERE and HERE.  I am really into geometric art right now, and Robert Delauney seems to have a style I really appreciate.

The second "d" artist is Allan D'Arcangelo, a painter and printmaker who is know for his work with road signs, highways and pop art.  This was very interesting to me because I will be taking a class starting next week called "Art influenced by Pop Culture."  I am enjoying discovering these cool, minimal paintings of road blocks, highways and signs.  You can read about Allan D'Arcangelo HERE.  

 

Art Journal - Two colors

This week's page uses just two colors - orange and blue.  It's interesting to see what two colors, some watercolor paint and a gel pen can do to a blank piece of paper.  Because I mixed wet into wet, I got some gorgeous neutral color on the page as well as the pure orange and blue.  I am loving the way these two colors mix together.  This gel pen is a new one - a nurse gave it to me when I brought someone to the hospital - I guess I really must have expressed how much I liked that pen!  Once it was mine, I just knew I had to use it in my journal, and I knew just where to try it out.

One other thing I did differently on this page was to add a border.  The page seemed so disconnected - the boxes were similar but not together and it just wasn't working for me.  I decided to add this simple border to tie it all together and I am happy I did, even though it is a bit wonky.

Seems like concentric circles are showing up a lot in my art lately, too...

 

I put them all over the place on this page...

I might be doing even more with concentric circles soon, since I seem to like them so much.

I think I might be looking at just using two colors more often, too.  I do like the neutrals on this page!

Postcards

I recently started to make some arty postcards.  They are really pretty simple, but I'm loving the way they are coming out.  I make them much the same way I make my art journal pages - watercolor and markers and gel pens.

This above photo is one of the postcards I made recenly.  I used black gel pen and a white Sakura gel pen.

This one is black gel pen and Sakua gel pen in a gold/black color.  It probably has a better name, though!

These postcards went off in the mail to a friend.  Maybe I'll make some for me to use, too!

 

Alphabetical Artists, Part C

Today is "c" artists, of course.  I had a few I would have loved to include here, but I stuck to my rule of only listing artists I didn't know about before - I am trying to learn, after all!

The first artist I learned about was Mary Callery.  Mary Callery was a modern and abstract expressionist sculptor.  I was very excited to discover a modern sculptor - I am looking forward to checking out more of her work, but you can see what I've found so far HERE, HERE and HERE.

The second artist is Jon Coffelt.  He is an artist that does several kinds of art, including book arts.  You can check out some information about Jon Coffelt HERE and HERE.  Very neat art!

Art Journal - Experimentation and Good and Great Things.

I am loving working in my art journal lately.  Just yesterday I was working on it regularly throughout the entire day.  There are several reasons for this, besides just a desire to make some personal art.  I made a template to trace some boxes onto pages out of a piece of watercolor paper and it's been fun working within my template, which is surprisingly versatile for something with basically a lot of boxes on it.  I bought a new pen to try in my journal - it's always fun to work with new supplies, right?  And finally, I used color a bit differently in the next few pages of my journal, so I was interested to see how the black pen and my new color idea worked together.

Most of this journal page was made with my new pen, an Inkjoy pen made by Papermate.  I wanted to try these because the advertisement is that they don't skip.  It's true - the ink flows very nicely and it was a nice surprise.  I found out they make these in colors, so I might just have to check them out.  I do like the look of gel pens, though, so I think my journal supply bag will soon be bulging with many kinds of pens. 

Of course, not all things worked out the way I thought or hoped they would.  My new template still results in shaky lines, not the straight, crisp lines I want to have.  I think I need to break down and use a ruler.  I hate using a ruler!  But I guess I have no choice if I want nice neat boxes.   I am still thinking about my backgrounds as well.  When I first made this background, it was a little more dramatic looking and once I added the filled boxes, I think it may have lost something.

However, I do think this page is pretty cool, especially my good things/great things lettered box at the bottom.

It's pretty  simple, but the whole page is, and I do seem to like that about it.  And this journal page does say that I need to simplify, and I really do.

At any rate, that's the page of the week.  I'm looking forward to posting next week's page (more experimentation - no black ink!)

 

 

Alphbetical Artists: B

Today was "B" day for my journey through the artistic alphabet.  The first artist I learned about was Peggy Bacon, who was known for her illustrations and caricatures.  She used a process called drypoint for much of her career, which is a kind of printmaking.  You can read about Peggy Bacon HERE and look at some of her work HERE.  Although I can't imagine personally wanting to do drypoint, I do appreciate the time and effort it must take to complete such work.  Peggy Bacon also seems to have had a very interesting childhood and life in general, lots of travel.

The second artist I read about was John Button.  I was excited to find an artist whose work included cityscapes.  I also liked that I saw his work in guache, water color, oils, pastel and pencil.   You can see his work, read a biography and more HERE.  

School starts soon!

Well, not school in the sense of yellow buses and a new lunch box, but I am signing up for my next few classes at the art museum.  I was particularly excited to look at what I might take for a few reasons: 1) I am now in my second year, which means I'm a third of the way through my studio arts certificate program. 2) The museum has some classes that seem right up my alley running this season with a new exhibition called "Kennedy to Kent State: Images of a Generation."  This exhibit sounds like one not to be missed.

I am taking two classes if all goes my way.  This will be my first season taking two classes during the same term.  I haven't taken two classes of anything at the same time since college!  But I am excited and looking forward to taking classes back to back.  I will have a whole day, once a week filled with art.  The two classes I most likely will be taking are  Color in the 21st Century and Painting Inspired by Pop Culture.  I love taking classes that run with an exhibit, probably a class only offered once before the next exhibit inspires new classes.

And if you happen to be in the area and want to check out the Worcester Art Museum, I would absolutely recommend it - it is a fantastic museum, a great place to spend a rainy Saturday (or any Saturday!) and it has something for everyone, from decorative arts to contemporary.