Deliquescent Glow

3.25"x4.5"

Another gold leaf piece.   Varnishing sometimes enhances the contrast and saturation of the coloured pencil and wood, so I wanted to see how the gold reacted to being varnished.  Not too bad, doesn't change the surface too much.  If anything, it brings out the colour and contrast of the body so it's not overpowered by the gold...

Back to the dragon...

Gold is worse than wood!

11"x14"

I've been working on this piece for a few days (in addition to finishing one piece a day, I'm trying to have a larger one going at the same time). I found my old stash of gold leaf and thought I'd try it out on the wood. So of course, instead of doing some test pieces first, I dive right into this behemoth. A bit big for an experiment, but I love the challenge of figuring it out as I go along.  Especially when I don't really know if it'll turn out or not.  Keeps me from getting bored with the whole process.  Still needs a lot of work, but the hardest part is done.  Although I'm not sure I'll try gold leafing individual scales again any time soon.

So, the birch: If you don't go too thick, the coloured pencil sits on the top of the woodgrain so the picture seems to move as you move past it.  Different colours fade in and out, shadows deepen, highlights vanish and then reappear. If you look at a piece straight on it may look dull and flat, but take one step to either side and there's a face bursting out of the wood at you. That's one of the main draws for me, the reason I love working on wood.

I've kind of figured out how to photoshop the birch pieces so they look at least similar to the originals, but this goldleafing... Hmmm. It does the exact same thing, multiplied about 10 times. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the way it's turning out, but it's going to be a bitch to photograph.  

How the hell do you take a straight-on photograph from a 45 degree angle???

The edge of the moon

4" x 7 "
coloured pencil on wood

Like a sunset going down

6.25" x 8 "
coloured pencil on wood

two trees on a hilltop

3" x 4.5" 
coloured pencil on wood

After that last one, I needed a change of pace, fresh perspective and all that...  and so, a landscape

closing your eyes (won't make you blind)

3" x 4.5"
coloured pencil on wood

Not sure I like this one as much, this cheaper wood (not the birch I prefer) gives a courser look...

Shift

4" x 12 "
coloured pencil on wood

That's What Keeps Me

5.5" x 9" 
coloured pencil on wood

With this one, I stained the wood before drawing on it.  I like the look of it, the way it brings out the woodgrain and warms it up.  I think I'll do more.

a little more each time I crumble

3" x 4.5" 
coloured pencil on wood

I was going through my old life drawings thinking I could use some of them, and found a sketch I'd done back in Chicago.  I transferred it onto a small wood panel, and coloured it in...  The background of circles/bubbles/cells/stones is something I've used over and over in my work.  

More to come...

And so it begins...

I am, at this moment, filling out the application for Art at the Source, "an open studios event sponsored by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and focusing on artists based in western Sonoma County".  Yay!!

So, I need to greatly expand my portfolio, to pad it with less intricate and time consuming (ergo, less expensive) works. With this in mind, I have set myself a goal of making at least 5 pieces each week priced under $100.  This is the first, to get the ball rolling

On the calm black water where the stars are sleeping

Did a bit more on her face trying to get the proportions just so.  
Not quite there yet.

This is what 30 looks like.

Just a wee bit of grass...

K and I went out painting last week, down by the Laguna, found some cool grass by the edge of the water...  Above is what I did that day.   


And this is what it looks like after working on it in the studio for a bit.  It's about halfway finished, I think.

**update**
Finally finished:

A couple loose ends...

Not sure what this thing is.  A few years ago (ok, closer to 5 yrs) I was experimenting with collages and image transfers.  This a collage I transfered onto a piece of wood.  Because the wood was dark and only the ink transfers over, the whole thing was really dark.  I just went back in and added some shadows and highlights and blues in coloured pencil...  

And I finally got around to finishing this piece:

Not much of a change, a few shadows, a bit more detail in the eyes...  And finally got a more colour-accurate picture, after a bit of photoshopping... 

Can't think clearly enough to write coherently at the moment, tired and listening to Firesign Theatre...  Gonna go to sleep now.

A penny-farthing rodeo

And it only took 6 hours...  I got to watch the sunrise (quite rare for me)

I've been listening to eastern european surf music all day, and thinking about getting the shrine ready for the Handcar Regatta.  Hmmm...  

I also figured out what to do with my backyard,  pictures soon...

Spinning The Thread of Life with Thought and Memory (unfinished)

(oil paint, pen, coloured pencil on pine frame)

Another piece that I've had sitting around for a while.  Originally, it only had the figure, straining against the sides, trying to escape the 'box'.  Then I added the string and the crow on the bottom holding the end of it.  After I drew it I felt really bad at creating this world where a crow was being jerked around, like I'd tied a REAL crow to the end of a string.  So I stopped and stuffed it in a box...  Until last night...

I added a second crow and continued the string past the bottom crow, giving them both a more 'active' role in the situation.  But then I needed to do something at the end of it...  

__________________________________________

Lately I've been reading more Norse mythology and a bit of it seems to have worked its way into this piece.   

• The most logical choice for the end of the string was a spool or spindle. The Norns are Norse demi-goddesses of destiny, dieties who "spin the threads of fate" of both gods and men.
• The crows turned into Odin's two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (their names mean 'Thought' and 'Memory') who fly about the world delivering messages and gathering knowledge.  At night they return and perch on Odin's shoulders and whisper into his ears everything they've seen and heard.

  So this is turning out to be a Norn spinning the thread of someone's life, deciding their fate, with Huginn and Muninn watching closely (and maybe lending a foot or two) so they can tell Odin all about this new person coming into the world...  But even as she's spinning she's getting tangled up in the thread as well, maybe losing a bit of her objectivity...?

I love it when these things happen.  This thing has just been sitting for the last 6 months because I couldn't figure out how to finish it.  Then everything just falls into place.  Stuff I've been reading, pictures I've been looking at, all just seem to fit together perfectly to make it complete.  

  ---   
norn=woodsprite?  The woodsprite was my consolation/therapy piece for not being able to finish this one when I started it.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

I've been toying with this idea for ages, finally decided on the right figure and composition this week.  

Now that I have the room, I decided to take advantage of the space and use my overhead projector for the first time - almost four years in storage, it's about time I used it. But the smallest it would get (and still be in focus) was still too big for the canvasses I had.  So I went to the hardware store and picked up a few sheets of 2'x4' birch plywood.  It's the largest painting I've done in a long time.   Eek!! 

I've been making it a point to stop periodically and take pictures of each stage. I've never done it that way before, since I generally like to finish paintings in one sitting...   I have the feeling that it's going to take me a while to finish this one.    

This is just the underpainting to get the  colours and shadows figured out before I start the real painting...

waiting... for what...?

I have been bouncing off the walls of my skin for days... weeks now... vibrating with the urge to create something.  It's the most frustrating thing in the world, this all-consuming need without the inspiration to temper it.  To make it useful.  To make it more than just this paralyzing itch that is always moving just ahead of where I'm trying to scratch with fingers I have no control over.

I've started several pieces mostly just as busywork to keep my hands occupied, if not my mind.  Even finished a few.  

I did these figures months and months ago, but couldn't decide what to do for the background so I just stuck it in a box and left it for a while.  I'm still not sure if I finally figured out that this was enough or if I just gave up and did what I could to correct previous missteps:

Having such a simple background, on one hand feels like sort of a cop-out, since I didn't really even think about what to do, I just did the first/easiest/simplest thing that popped into my head just to get it finished.  But I think it keeps it from being too cluttered. 

There's still a few things I want to do to it, more highlights/shadows on the rocks, shading on the leaves...  strengthen a few outlines...  Need to find a title too.

Out of the Rolling Ocean - still splashing in puddles

My last "studio" was definitely getting a bit claustrophobic by the time I moved.  Working in such a small space I'd started to produce very small pieces, didn't have room for anything I couldn't hold in my lap...  So when I moved I chose a place where I could have more space to work on larger pieces.  I get this nice big (relatively speaking) studio and what do I do?  

I keep working small!!!  

1.5" x 2" !!!!  

I gotta stop doing this!

I was born cloaked in the absent sea

I have a studio! I have a studio! I have a studio!
And I finally used it!!!

Instead of watching a video, or wasting time online, or unpacking more boxes, I decided to spend the evening making something. I'm paying for the space, I'd damn well better make use of it. The only thing I've done in there since I moved in is make pillow covers for my couch. So I dug through my boxes of sketches looking for an idea.

I've had this sketch laying around for several years, just this body curled up on the ground.  One arm, no head.  I didn't know what to do with it, I could never figure out what to do with her head.  Then it dawned on me.  Waves!  It took a while to make them look like both hair and waves.

I had to finally hook up my scanner, since I can't find the cord to hook my camera to my computer. (It's odd, when I first moved in, I knew where the cord was, but not the camera.  As soon as I found my camera I lost the cord.)

It was so nice to actually be in the studio.
Aaah. Makes me smiley all day long :)