Wrapping up 2017

At the end of the year I always contemplate where I have been

and where I plan to go.

This year I have focused on retiring, not quite accomplished, but almost.

When our art instructor retired at the Art Center, I was thrown into turmoil which I think

has pushed me into some growth.  Although I had trended toward the abstract, I hadn't 

specifically studied it.  I did that this year.   It is a tough stretch for me.  We will see what develops in the coming year.

Left on my own, I have painted more in a political direction the past couple of weeks.

#ME TOO

Collage and faux encaustic.
I have been so happy to see this #Me Too movement evolve.  I worked in the
construction industry (selling new homes) and I have seen a few scum bags in action.
It isn't just the high profile world, this happens in ALL businesses.
And on a lighter note, this was painted for my two angels, my mom and my sister.

A big thank you to Eva and Kristin for keeping this artsy family together on a weekly basis.
Happy Paint Party Friday

Cattleya orchid

I hear that monkey again

Danny Gregory came up with the perfect name for that noise in our head that doesn't like anything.

He referred to it as a "monkey".

Well, the monkey has been raging in my head lately.

Nothing is "right", what ever "right" is.

So be it, I am a happy camper when I am painting.  The results just aren't "right"

This is the fourth layer...I am serious, there are 3 paintings under this, along with

collage.  The surface is all bumpy.  I have promised myself that I will not bury this.

I have to make it work for something.

This one also has a couple of pictures underneath.

Hopefully when the Holidays are past my usual positive countenance will return.

In the meantime, I will NOT let myself bury any more work until I am in a more positive

state of mind.

Wishing all a Happy Holiday Season 

This beautiful 15 year old orchid blooms every year at Christmas.  The blooms are about 7" across and the plant usually has about 30 blooms by the end of it's blooming.

Spectacular isn't it?

Happy PPF

Decisions

This is my latest abstract attempt, a diptych.  Since I will never frame them,

I show them here on my floor.  

And with these two, I have decided to move on from the very abstract.  My brain just has to work too hard and I am never satisfied with the results.

I got one of my paintings on yupo framed and was delighted with the results.

This is one of the old dogs that I pulled out from under the bed and reworked.

I am quite happy with the results.

We have had a quite spectacular November as far as my orchids are concerned.

I have blooms everywhere and was even able to give away a couple of plants that were duplicates from last years repotting.  I love to give my "babies" away.

Wishing you all a stressless Holiday Season
and Happy PPF

My old friend, yupo paper

It has been probably 8 months since I did anything with yupo paper.

That is a plastic paper I used exclusively in 2016.

Then I got involved with abstracts on 300# watercolor paper and forgot about yupo.

Several artist friends rented a room at the ArtCenter and "played together" for a morning.

I decided to use my last sheet of yupo.

This is watercolor sprayed through cheesecloth.

When it drys I remove the cheesecloth and spray it with a fixative.

I used stencils I had made to create this design.

I had an old background on a canvas board that I wanted to finish one way or another.

I added collage and the collage just seemed to sit on top, not a part of the composition.

So I mixed a thin off white paint and used a kitchen spatula to smear the paint around.

What fun!!!  I will definitely use that again and I was happy with the result.

I am not sure if it is done but it is further along than it was.

The Holiday Season is upon us!

Keep painting.  It is a good stress relief.

Happy PPF and thanks to Kristin and Eva for managing our "zoo"

P.S.  Almost forgot my blooms this week.  They are gorgeous and too numerous to share them all.

Inspirations right in front of us

We have lived in this house for 15 years.

For most of the 15 years a sunflower bouquet has sat on my credenza.
I have been struggling with doing collage (I still hear my art teacher saying "collage is not art).
I took a new Saturday class at the Art Center and our project was to do a mixed media.
One evening I looked at the sunflowers and thought "why not?"
It is only paper and I didn't even buy it, it was supplied.

And I don't need to be so tight about paper when I happily spend fortunes on silly shoes.

So I sketched an idea in my giant sketch pad and then went to work rounding up scraps of paper.
This is a VERY simple collage, for the most part, one piece of paper per petal.
But when all was said and done, I am happy with the results.

We have had cooler weather here in Florida and my orchids have gone nuts.

This was a scrap that I tied to the palm 4-5 years ago.  Each year it gets prettier.

This one was repotted last spring and obviously likes it's new digs.
Wishing all a Happy PPF

You Tube Junkie

I think I have confessed before that I am a You Tube junkie.

When I am stuck, like recently when I decided to try using more collage in my work, I always 

turn to You Tube for help and new ideas.

Beyond the "dirty pour", there is another viral idea out there.  That is using Citrasolv and National 

Geographics to make unique papers for collage.  You can look it up for yourself to see how it is done, but I hustled off to the Goodwill Bookstore and bought two old National Geographics and ordered Citrasolv online.

This is NOT a pleasant process.  It stinks and it is messy.
You have to lay the pages out to dry

And here are some of my results.

I thought the results were amazing.  In some cases I could just pick a 6 x 6 area
and frame it and be done.
I did two magazines so have pages coming out of my ears.
Hopefully next week I will have some new collage work to show.
Wishing all a Happy PPF

My single orchid became triplets.  I love it when that happens.

Adventures in collage

The cool weather, in Florida that means weather under 90 degrees, arrived this week.

Yesterday I think it was only 74 degrees so work on the lanai will be much more enjoyable.

This week I decided to explore collage a bit more.  Rather than just adding bits, I 

wanted to do something that was all collage.

This one, I started it upside down from what you see.  When I got to the "tree space" I

turned it around and saw the mountain scene and added the trees and called it done.

The second one is in the style of something I saw on Pinterest and had been planning it in 

my mind for a while.  

These were fun to do.  My fingers got awfully sticky with matt medium.

And then I returned to my comfort zone.

This guy was a doodle from many of my notebooks in highschool days.

I had covered an old painting I didn't like with black gesso and just like in school

he emerged on the paper.

Wishing everyone a happy Halloween.

And last but not least (for me anyway) I have a new bloom on my orchids.

I think the excessive heat and rain have slowed down their blooming.

Anyway, here is a cattleya (that someone has been nibbling on).

Wishing everyone a Happy PPF!

Where did this week go???

I can't believe it is Friday.

Where did this week go??

I remember Wednesday.  We were having fun at the art center.

This week "fun" was in my head.

I think I am starting to understand this abstract thing but it has taken almost

a year to start to have a grasp.

I think I need to give these a rest under the bed and then have another look at them.

Wishing all a very Happy PPF

P.S. Still no orchid blooms...

And Again...

I am still rummaging around in old stuff that just doesn't make it, yet.

This week I thought of one and had to really hunt for it as it wasn't under the bed in the 

usual location but had been moved into my portfolio of signed work.

Don't know why it was signed.  I have never been happy with it.

So here it was.  And here is the background that I loved.

This was created with transparent paint and lots of stamps.

And here it is today.

So, I promise, this next week I will try something NEW but I have really 

enjoyed this journey through old paintings.

Wishing all a Happy PPF

Rework, revisited

Last week I shared a painting I had reworked until that little voice said "It is done."

This week I tackled another one.

This one never worked for me  so decided to give it a coat of gesso and start over.

The flower was still raised in the original gesso so I figured I was stuck with it.

I cannot tell you how many layers of paint are on this.  There are a LOT.

It got busier before I quieted it down.

I think I will call this done.  The thing I love about this is the center of the flower is
made from a paint "skin" pulled off of my plastic work surface.
I like this better.  What do you think?

I also played around with collage this week.  I am experimenting and still not comfortable
with the process but I did like this one.

And the best news of all is my very favorite orchid is blooming on the lanai.
It is cattleya, Chocolate Drop and is not only gorgeous but has a wonderful mild scent.

Some more good news, I entered two of my paintings in the local art center show
and both got selected.  One of them had not been chosen in a previous show but decided
to see if this judge might like it and they did!

The moral here is never take one person's opinion
as the absolute.

Another side note, the one on the right was
ANOTHER REWORK!


Wishing all a Happy PPF

Rework

Recently I have had fun pulling out old paintings from the "file" under the bed,

and reworking them or giving them a full gesso treatment so they can bcome something

entirely new.

The one one the left was too bright for
me so I gave it a glase and was very
happy with the results

This one was ok but after a few months under the bed, I pulled it out
and gave it a bit of a face lift.

I am much happier with it now.  For whatever reason the fact that the flowers
didn't have stems drove me crazy.
Am I the only one that entertains myself with old paintings?
Let me hear!
Wishing all a Happy PPF

Experiences

I live in Florida

The last 11 days have been a whirlwind

and a hurricane named Irma.

We watched the TV reports and decided that we should evacuate.

The storm was a big one and was headed right up the Florida peninsula.

So in two hours we loaded ourselves and our dog and headed out.

We drove and drove...and drove north and west until we arrived at our former home in Denver, CO

Along the way there were issues because we had 15 lb Harley.

Never mind that my children have (in the past) caused more damage than this dog could ever think of doing, at the Fairfield Inn in Milledgeville, Georgia with a reservation at 11:30 at night,

we were NOT welcome.

Thankfully we were welcome elsewhere.

After that we researched carefully on the internet where we could stay.

And we ended up at the Brown Palace in Downtown Denver.

It is a grand old lady of the hotels in Denver and they treated us, and our dog like royalty.

Harley watching the news of Irma  from the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, CO

We got to catch up with old friends, all the while monitoring the progress of Irma up

our home state.  Luckily for us, the news was good and on Tuesday morning we

set out for home.  The first day we drove 800 miles, the second 650 and the last day 

we drove 400.  Now that is haulin'.

We are home,  and it is intact!

We are so thankful!

Before we left I was working on this 

The idea came from a wire sculpture in one of the homes I sold this last year.

We will get back to normal today.

Wishing you all a happy PPF!

Collage play

The past few weeks I have been playing with collage.

I was delighted to find that my road map book had so many different colors of maps

for this family out enjoying the beach.

After lunch with art friends, we decided we should all pursue our own peace

in our artwork.  This is "the same...but different"   My take on our world population.

This is another take on the same theme.

I must say I wish each of us could somehow make a difference.  It seems

that our environment is so angry and hostile.  The press contributes to it all.

I don't know anyone in the press but wonder if they are as nasty and mean spirited as they sound.

That is my rant for the day.

Have a good one and Happy PPF

  

Opportunity

It is too hot to paint on the lanai and I make too big a mess when I paint in the house

So not much painting is going on.
My inspiration here was opportunity.  I decided it comes when we least expect it,
and we almost never recognize it for what it is.
So this is my idea of what an opportunity might look like.

It is another attempt at the weaving.

The blue was left over paint from another project.  I had spread it all over  a piece of scrap

watercolor paper.

I may try this again without the petal shapes so I get a more abstracted look.

The petals are paint on paint but could be collage squares.

Then I added a trio of suns in my skies from last week
and a bit more turquoise.

Wishing everyone a happy PPF!

I am looking forward to visiting everyone and seeing what they are up to.