painting zen - 1, 2, 3 - black, orange, pink

We'll see if the viddler video upload works, because youtube tells me I can't upload a video over 10 minutes, which I think is bollocks. Whatever.

I'll do actual explaining about the pieces when the paint is dry & I've released the tape and gotten them ready for hanging.

It's two pieces - with 1 layer of black, 2 layers of oranges, and 3 layers of pinks on top.

Doin' it my way

This piece is one of two, because it was supposed to be one of four, but two of them were sent to the 'scrap it' pile.

This piece was submitted to the local art association for the juried show. It was 'not accepted'. My guess is because it's not a landscape or still life. (No, I'm not bitter... oh, well, maybe a little bit...)




This piece is called "Wishes Do...", because I thought it was cute and fun. And because it's only two feet long and the letters are like three inches each and they take up a lot of space, so word choices were limited. Logic. Of some sort. And because I wanted to have a happy little painting with a bit of meaning.


Actually, this is coming off as a bit jaded, and while I am about some things, I love the way these two came out.
They're cute, in a sassy kind of way. They're simple, and yet so many layers went into it, and I just want to run my fingers over the lines and layers... It's so tactile, the way I like my art. (<--- click on the photo for an extreme close up that makes you want to pet your computer screen.)

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Now, this is a picture of one of the two that are being repurposed. Gag. (In my opinion.)

Oh, I should wait for you to scroll back to the top to see if you can compare and see the differences...

There - did you see it?

You can see the words in the first one. In the second one, well, you can't. The paint bled under the tape lines on the second set.

What the difference is: The base.

The two that came out awesome, or at least the way I wanted them to, are the two I built and stretched myself. I use muslin because it's thinner than regular canvas is which offers the opportunity to see through it. This is a feature I really like. The bonus part of this is the way paint adheres to the thinly woven fabric, thus making it easier for shape shadows that are set with tape, and making the paint stay thick so it stands out, not bleeds down.

The two that bled? Were done on the store bought gesso'd canvases. The gesso makes the canvas smoother, yes, and for some paintings makes a pretty decent base. But when I lay tape down and drizzle layers of paint over it and peel the tape up, it should be bare under the tape, right? For some reason, the gesso base lets the paint bleed under the tape. Yuck.

Peeling the tape off the bare fabric of the muslin canvases leaves a fairly clean line 99.3% of the time. This is more to my liking.

It was a learning experience. The two for scrap will be unstapled and the paint covered canvas will be cut up for... strips on something else, for cut outs to glue to cards for sale or gifts, for tying together to make funky necklaces, for spelling out naughty words on the front lawn, whatever... the frames will be used to stretch and staple fresh, bare muslin on and go about the process again with new pieces.

The two "Wishes Do..." pieces measure 12 inches by 24 inches, have a plain white cloth backing so the staples won't scratch your wall, are wrapped on the edges by navy blue ribbon which also serves as the hanging anchor. The colors on the canvas are grey, light blue, light pink, dark blue, and a rust red. Each is signed on the back and will be custom wrapped for shipping.

$120 if you'd like one to pet, stroke, rub, you're interested:

Binary Rain

I have this fascination with painting designs in a mosaic or tiled sort of pattern... This piece is one of them.

Let me insert here that I have post it notes everywhere with half sketched ideas, usually no more than a couple of cross hatched lines and the names of colors quickly chicken-scratched down. I then find them the next morning scattered across the bed or floor with notes like "thre angle lines sherbet blue" or "7 rows 3rd shape black yellow", and they kinda make sense to the artist part of my brain.

This particular painting started out as one of those small crumpled squares. I'm proud to say it came out like I'd imagined it.

Here's a close up:


I like it when pieces come together like this. I like it when I just sit down and start painting something and then it looks how I wanted it to. I'm still figuring out how to make this particular style work on a few other things, but I really enjoy it.

I've realized I need to just paint, to stop worrying about making these perfect little paintings, to just make a mess, make it happen and see what comes of it. It will better my technique, it will help me be less afraid of screwing up, it will be a better chance to see what I need to work on instead of sitting here not doing anything because I'm too worried I can do it at all.

One step at a time, Heather. Enjoy this painting because it did work out.

ArtFire!

Visit heatherartworks's ArtFire Shop

If Only Everything Were This Easy

Ha.



Ok. So I put way more thought and effort into something I thought would be easy. It's taken me over a week to just get the photos done and downloaded, but when I stretched the fabric to begin with I had other ideas in mind which only after I was done painting did I realize I should have done it differently.

Happens a lot around here. Eh, I learn as I go. Thus I'm better prepared for next time 'round.

This was a small series of 7 canvases, paint on both sides. One layer is the blue and grey, a second layer on one side only is the red seen above.



I have sent two of these paintings off into the world to live with shiny, happy people whom I admire greatly. They know who they are because they got the packages earlier this week. This leaves me five more to find homes for.

So if you've got a small empty space on your wall and you've been saying to yourself "Self, I think we really need a small painting that has the colors red, blue and grey in it, wrapped in a cream ribbon for hanging. I wonder where I can find one of those." then look no further - I've got them here!

Actually, I'll have a couple of options. I've got a Zibbet and an Artfire account that I'll be posting one or two things on, and will happily deal one-on-one with anyone who asks.

This leads me to go ahead and explain I've been working on the website for heatherartworks.com and rideandrub.com in efforts to make them prettier to look at. h'art works will become a gallery, my freelance writing contract site, and the blog, so contacting me for all my talents will hopefully be easier. (Like it's oh so hard to find me now...) and Ride & Rub will be a sales point when we get our product in.

More. Soon. I'm working on it. I swear! (Everyday.)

~

Oxes? Oxen?

Happy New Year!

Ok, Happy Chinese New Year! There, is that better?

A Video! (I will stop with the exclamation points now.)

More paint flinging - a red layer. I will eventually figure out how to add music or edit these things, I hope. I want to, it's just like trying to convert the picture in my head to a painting or convert code into a proper website - I don't have a fucking clue so I push buttons till my computer growls at me or I have to call Lawrence to fix something.

No singing this time. You have been spared. Partly because I can barely breathe & partly because I've got a sore throat, and both of those combined are thanks to the lovely dry winds of West Texas. Doing this and building the 1x2 frames Saturday night was the most effort I put into anything all weekend.

Ok, I'll quit yammering now and let you watch. Have fun. I'll be traveling this coming weekend & then sending my computer to Apple so they can fix her, so it'll be a bit before I'm back.



~

flinging a little paint

Since I've been putting forth efforts elsewhere - sorting writing and DBA stuff out and figuring out the minutia of a web design, a logo design, and a few other random things - it's been a full few weeks already.

It's not scintillating, it's almost boring because it's nine minutes of me half singing along with my ipod (and my singing voice is better reserved for the car) and yammering on about painting. Or flinging paint. With a straw.

The ones you make yourself hold the most meaning

I gave my paint tool box away.

It was one of those plastic tool boxes for about five bucks that I'd modified for carrying paints and paintbrushes. I didn't have a permanent shelf or place to store my stuff at the time. It had enough room for several brushes and most of the colors I used, and the tray carried extra carving blades, small wood pieces, random beads, and electrical tape because I learned the blades were sharp before I invested in gloves and used the electrical tape to wrap around my fingers and thumb to protect them at the time.

The tool box had been gathering dust for awhile now. I still used it on occasion for travel or working in another location and it made a decent foot stool a lot of the time. My brushes are scattered everywhere, the paints are mostly corralled in a drawer unit, and I still have random pieces of wood here and there.



Well on Friday night I kept an eye on my cousins while my aunt & uncle had an evening to themselves for dinner & shopping. I won't call it babysitting because they're old enough to take care of themselves, really. I just hung out to make sure the boys didn't set the house on fire or throw cupcakes at the dogs.

One of the boys is kinda quiet compared to the other two, and really good at the science fair stuff and has an interest in painting. They're all three sharp, just different interests. Anyway, he was showing me stuff he'd been working on but had run out of green paint.

So I cleaned off my tool box, tossed a couple of newer brushes in there and picked up some new paints for him, just basic colors to get him going. When I felt better on Sunday I took it over, telling him it wasn't a Christmas present, it was a gift from one artist to another. I told him what I'd done to modify it years ago & showed him the brushes and paints and a few board canvases if he wanted to paint pictures for someone else for Christmas, he could.

It was a little hard. To let go. Of something I didn't use anymore, I know. But when I was in kind of a turmoil-y place once, and I used art as a stability, and I picked up wood carving and took to it nearly every night, well, it was a grounding thing. Carry tools, foot stool, sitting stool, drying dock, everything.

But I know it's gone to a good home now. Pass along something that he can use to make his own art with. And that makes me proud.



The photos are some of the wood pieces.

Tonight I picked up my detail brush and started working on them again. I haven't touched them in over a year and a half, since before eye surgery the summer before last. Because before that all I could see was up close. Details and tiny cuts were so easy. I've partly been afraid to try since, and have kept myself busy with other things. The lines are not the same. The details are not the same. But it felt so damn good to pick up something that I remember and have a groove with.

I apologize for the craptastic clarity, or lack thereof, of the pics. I used the phone camera because I could send them straight to the computer without having to dig out wires and download my camera. I'm lazy like that. And was busy being productive anyway.

I've changed my fingerprints by making art*

So that canvas I stretched myself, that five foot by three foot one, the one where I didn't quite measure the corner cuts right and it looked a little, well, 'off'?

I did something with it today.



In a couple of hours I threw the paint down and sang along to the music in my ipod. I started out with a paintbrush, but after about, oh, say two minutes, the paintbrush was shoved into my ponytail and forgotten until about an hour ago.

Finger painting is what I went with. Dipped my fingers in the light pink and the wine red and the cream white and the magenta and the ocean blue and the peach and the apple red. Dipped and scooped paint and smeared across the canvas. Blending colors and smooshing edges.

I was in the zone. Grooving. I was making colors move and I love it. I love that zone. Totally in the groove. *happy sigh* That is a feeling I want to hug and squeeze and love and adore forever.

As for the painting... anyone have a 5x3ish space on their wall they want to fill with a giant heart? Let me know.

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*Umm, since I was fingerpainting approximately 15 square feet of canvas with my bare fingers, I, umm, abraded several layers of skin off my first two fingers by rubbing them across the canvas. Crazy. Thankfully I already love Burt's Bees Res-Q Ointment, so I've smeared the green stuff on and am learning to type with my pinky!

All These Things That I Have Done* Part II

Layers of blues. Will overlay in... something else. I'm not entirely sure what yet. But, I like this base, so if I can keep from going overboard and throwing some crazy non-complimentary color onto it and then cringing.

Because I totally did this. The non-comp color & cringe. I have this beautiful dark green weave on a canvas, that for some reason I decided to try to write on with a paint pen. Yeah, my handwriting isn't readable when I write on paper, so whatever crazy inspiration hit that made me think I could write on a painting, well, that crazy inspiration should be ignored next time. So I tried to paint over the words in blues and pinks, hoping to make it look like a flower pattern... Yeah, not so much.

Probably a good idea to sketch these things out before jumping in, but then, it wouldn't be me if I did.

Ooof. Pardon. I just pulled the dried paint brush out of my ponytail & went to wash it & see if I can save it. Yes, it's savable. (It was only $1.49 & I have dozens of them, but still...)

Hmmmm... I was probably 12 and taking some art class during the summer at the college and I remember the boy across the table from me reprimanded me for leaving my paintbrush in the water!

"You'll ruin the brush!" he exclaimed.

I'm pretty sure I ignored him and left the brush in the water, because I don't like being told what to do by anyone, especially a boy. That, or the fact we were probably using like tempra paints and the cheap plastic paint brushes you get a dozen for .50 cents.

Admittedly, most of the art 'techniques' I've learned over the years came from listening in while standing as a model in the middle of the room. And from trial and error. Error like writing on a painting then covering it over with bright colors in hopes it'll work. Error like leaving paint brushes in my ponytail to dry, then remembering them hours later and trying to wash them out. Like I said. $1.49 at the worst.

Anyway. So. It's blue. Ish. It's a start. And it's a better frame for my mind to be in than the days before.

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*More of The Killers. It's a good one. Loud. Very, very loud.

"I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier"

some art bits

Painting. Spent the evening playing with green paint on a cardboard heart, rearranging paints & brushes, gluing random things to other random things.

I like being artful.

This one is the large 5x3 painting I currently have leaning against the wall in front of me when I'm working at the drafting table. It's a work in progress, like many things are, I just haven't figured out the pattern for the overlay yet. Very inspired by Pollack, yes.

the need for green

Today is a very cloudy, weather turmoil-y day, and with all the stuff that is going on with family and friends right now, well I turn to the green for some comfort in color.

This started out as a pre-prepped, store bought canvas. I use the Van Gogh Acrylic in one of the deeper, more emerald green.



I used a one inch brush as I applied the paint, going with one layer, but a very thick layer. While applying I used the thickness of the brush to measure out a one-inch-ish basket weave pattern across the whole canvas.

One solid color is rare for me, but the thickness and thinness in the lines gives the whole piece enough variation to appease my sense of light and dark compliments.

Falling into the "I like texture" category, because I like things that I can touch and feel, I broke out the glue and fabric leaves!



All those pretty green leaves that didn't get used on the Queen's Rose Garden in "Alice in Wonderland" last summer were just hanging out waiting for a project! So I glued them along the edge, making a pretty alternating level border.

But then my color contrast needs kicked in and I found some orange faux maple leaves, the fall leaves with all the orange/green/yellow veins that make it stand out on the green canvas background.



Much in the same style as the roses, I tossed a handful of the leaves in the air and glued them down where they landed. Only, not totally glued - just a small attachment dot of glue at the base of the leaf, so that the rest of the leaf moves with a breeze. Gives the entire pieces some movement, makes you want to touch it, makes it 'dance' a bit to the eye.

This pretty ditty was a gift to Bobbi, and I'm hoping it compliments her decor in her new home!

keep on keepin' on

Not much to see here - I've gots things to say, plenty thereof really, it's the forming of actual words in an attempt to make sense that seems to be complicating my process.

Anyway, the photo above is of the red canvas I'd started, the one that eventually got finished and is now belongs to Amber.

Pre-prepped canvas bought from the store (they do the staples so much better than I do...), red acrylic paint brushed on thick then using a half-inch brush to swirl into the base coat. Let's see if I can find a photo with a closer view of those swirls - can you see them?

Then I started lining out in orange paint across the canvas lines at angles. Odd angles, angles that don't appear to be on purpose, but they are to the whole picture! Really!

And here's where I failed to get a whole picture of the whole painting - see, all that loading the car to drive back across to Texas, and all that driving, and all that weekend with the girls where I wired both paintings for hanging for them, and the hanging of this red & orange one on Amber's wall where she said she likes it and it fits her personality - well, with all that going on, I forgot to take a photo of the finished piece! (hanging my head in mock shame) (so, Amber, can I get a photo?) (grin)

Oh - and I have a job! Yea! I start monday!

back to the art stuff

Since I'm sure that's what you came here for.

This one is an 11x14 pre-stretched canvas, picked up at either Michael's or Hobby Lobby, since those are both relatively easy to find and procure canvas' like these.

It started off as white, really.

I had picked up a remnant of wine and blue colored fabric and some wine and blue colored little woven roses, miniature ones that come in a little bunch for like a buck.

Gina had told me about this magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors, and I was a little inspired to try out this form of mixed media. Sorta. In my own way.

So I have a canvas, some fabric, some roses, and some 12 inch dowels... oh! and some muslin, can't forget the muslin!

Of which I have glued one edge across the back of the fully painted canvas. (Note: when painting the front and back, it is not advisable to be like me and try to accomplish both sides at once, because this ends up with wet paint somewhere- hands, knees, carpet... Best to do one side at a time so something is dry when you lay it down.)

Anyway - I painted the whole thing with black, with squirts of wine and blues to pick up the colors I plan on using. Glued the muslin on one side on the back, in preparation for attaching other stuff to it. I've made a four inch cut in the center - opening it up like doors.

The plan is to roll the "doors" onto the dowels - attach the dowels to the canvas with wire or glue and ribbon, open up the center to show the layout attached to the muslin behind it. Does this make sense? It does in my head. Hopefully it will in reality...

a bit more

I'm about halfway down the board now. Lawrence asked if I was gonna use this for printing purposes. Umm, nope. While using relief carving for printmaking is where I first saw this technique used, it's not what I look to do with the pieces.

I enjoy the carving process the most. It's the smell of the wood, the feel of the wood, the feel of the hand tools, the movements, the texture of the finished carved piece. Usually, and what I'll be doing with this one, I then stain or paint the piece of wood - laying in color into the grooves, painting the color on the surface, then outlining the cuts in effort to make it "stand out", so to speak.

To me this makes the final piece dimensional. It's texture. I want these pieces to be touched. For you to run your fingers over them. I want it to be about the color and sight of the piece as much as about the feel. It's about the tactile impression as well as the visual.

Oh, yeah. That.

The Bubbles! They are FINISHED! (Eh, except for sealing it, that really will have to wait till there is a day where the humidity here is less than 40%. It may be awhile.)

Used eye hook screws and hanging wire on the back, and now this piece is hanging in our living room.

Rob's comment was "I feel like an adult now, with art on the walls."

More Red

Another red added.

A few more circles filled in.

It looks less like the large greyish stretch of nothing now and more like what I had in mind.

I know, the pictures do not do it justice. I prefer the tactile medium of the paint over the plain visual of the photograph myself, but all too often there are things caught in a click moment that someone else posts on their site and I sit in awe at the beauty they are able to capture

more shots

The wide shots, the close up shots, the in-between shots.

dark pink

The darker pink now lays down. I pour it on thick, making waves in the creamy, rich, pink paint.

I do this with all the colors, trying to give the piece a bit of texture.

dark red bubbles

So the color scheme is falling into place, much as the bubbles are closer to "popping" out on their way down. Or up. I'm not quite sure which with some of these, really.

The idea sketched out was a couple of circles in a couple of colors, red, pink, and black. It has grown to fit a 24 inch canvas, with many circles drawn in all over. The hard part so far is when painting in the different colors, not getting them too close to each other. As in the reds can't overlap each other as they blend right into each other. Same with the pinks. (That comes next post.) Anyway, I'm aware that the blending would make it more, well, blended, but I want this one to stand out on it's own. And so far, it really does.