The Outdoor Studio

This week I start Flora Bowley's online workshop and the nature of that experience is that the canvases need to be big. Because I have such space issues at home, I knew this would be the time to set up my outdoor studio at Dulcinea. My hubs erected the backer board for me and I have a removable 'wall board' that I can use for large canvases. He also set up a glass table so that I can pour directly on the glass and pull skins after my acrylics dry. He did this so that I wont stress my back from bending over and that I will have an adaptable reach so I don't stress my shoulder joint. My hubs values what I do so much and tends to look after my spine issues way more than I do, for that I am grateful. 

You can view her video by clicking on  the link below 
her book: 

Flora's Video

Here is the view of my table and my canvas. I am currently working on a series of mixed media collages which combine my love of the southern coastline and my fond memories of Dauphin Island, Alabama. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful coast to enjoy here, and much of my younger days was spent in Gulf Shores or Dauphin Island. 

First stages, getting my background papers and landscape glued on. 

The house structure was already part of the painted paper so I embraced that image and began to build in the pilings and definition. You can see the view from my studio underneath this board. This is my smaller backer board and I have a larger one as well for big canvases thank to that sweet many in the background. 

For this series I am showcasing the coastline in an unexpectedly colorful way, yet simplistic, which is how I view our beautiful coast. We had a beach house on pilings like this, and those days were grand. 

 

This is the finished piece, 8" by 18" gallery wrapped canvas. 

"Reflection of Bright Waters" 

Up close detail images: 

I can't wait to go big with my outdoor studio and begin slinging, and I mean....literally, slinging some paint. It is beyond peaceful at Dulcinea and painting outdoors is one of my favorite ways to create. My challenge for Flora's class will be two fold. I hope to master a few new skills in mark making and incorporate my love of collage into the acrylic, intuitive process. We shall see how it turns out. 

In the meantime, I send you lots and lots of ((((((creative energy))))) especially for those of you in a funk lately!

Intuitive Painting Within A Framework

Intuitive painting comes easily to some and others, not so much. For me, it is pretty much how I begin all my abstracts and I enjoy connecting with that artistic spirit from within. There are times though that my intuition gets cluttered, I stop listening, I get to painting, and I go way overboard when I should have stopped hours ago. For this reason I decided to first, choose which elements I really wanted to use in creating a mixed media painting and two, stick with a specific color palette. 

Using a framework before I began turned the mental organizer on in my head but it didn't seem to silence my creative spirit which is what I was hoping for. This morning, I set up my studio outdoors, cranked up the Indie Songwriter station on Pandora, and got my paint on. 

As the process started I made it a point to take many breaks, breathe through the process, and not rush the outcome. Within a few minutes of starting each piece I knew I would love painting this way. I could see my path, I connected with my inner child, and I 'played' through these pieces, which is about as much as painting nirvana as I can get. 

Below you can see the setup, a few stages of the process, and the finished five pieces. Four to five collage pieces were used on each one and painted papers as well. The framework that I gave myself is listed in this pic. Elements I love, simple enough to follow, but lots of freedom to explore color, line, pattern, and texture. I am going to paint many of this type of abstracts for a while as I tinker with more monochromatic color palettes and neutrals, which is something I struggle with and I hope to paint in this style using BIG elements, because it just lends itself to a celebration of it all on canvas or paper. 

Setting up my outdoor studio. Working in a series is easy on a round table.

Adhering collage elements and building layers.

Finished pieces drying indoors.

The titles come from a conversation I had with my hubs throughout the process. It gave me much fodder for thought and humor, ;)

"Yes Dear, You Had Your Keys This Morning."
12" by 6" Gallery Wrapped Canvas, Acrylic/Collage
(Private Collection)

"No Dear, I Don't Have Your Keys."
12" by 6" Gallery Wrapped Canvas, Acrylic/Collage
(Private Collection)

"Did You Check Your Floorboard?"
12" by 6" Gallery Wrapped Canvas, Acrylic/Collage
(Private Collection)

"Gee, I Am Not Surprised."
12" by 6" Gallery Wrapped Canvas, Acrylic/Collage
(Private Collection)

"I Love You Dear, Always."
12" by 6" Gallery Wrapped Canvas, Acrylic/Collage
(Private Collection)

(ALL OF THESE IMAGES ARE MY COPYRIGHT. PLEASE DO NOT COPY AND PASTE AND STEAL MY DESIGN TO TEACH, REPRODUCE, OR COPY. THAT IS STEALING AND NOT COOL! )

View of them drying after being glazed.

Intuitive painting is what I know as painting from the heart of the creative. With a bit of a framework, it freed up my spirit to spread its wings a bit and develop a specific style without being contained within a rules set. 

Intuitive Painting with Angst

There are times as an artist that the piece of work I am tinkering with morphs itself over time. What I mean by that is I can create a piece of art, see it as finished and put it aside, only to come back later to view it with new lenses and realize it simply isn't what it should be, it needs to be tinkered with. There is a fine line with this process as it can be easy to 'overwork' a painting, but I have found that when I breathe deeply and get quiet, I can connect with my intuition about a painting and usually it leads me down a more successful path rather than to artistic mess.

The first picture here is actually how it began, as a mixed media collage that was a product of an Exquisite Corpse Game. The center figure drove me nuts and I just decided that to be content with it, I needed to work through my emotions about it. There are parts of this image I really love, but the overall piece left me wanting and I knew it just wasn't where my intuition was telling me it needed to be. I let it rest.


The second version was a nightmare, to the point where I wasn't even willing to photograph it. Pretty much I thought I had ruined it, and it pained me deeply. Once again, I let it rest.


Thankfully, after I began to tinker with it for the third time it began to evolve and take on a life that I could embrace. The color, the glazes, the hidden elements, all called to me and connected with my intuition in a way that said to me...."this is where it needed to go." At first, I really thought it might be finished, but once again, after letting it rest I was still a bit uneasy and couldn't really put my finger on why. There where just a few elements, like the line structure, that I wasn't willing to keep. One more time, I chose to let it rest.

When I picked it back up the other day it was on a day I was frustrated and filled with great angst. Ordinarily I wouldn't have chosen to rework a painting through that type of emotion but when my eyes landed on it my spirit said....it was time. I began to layer more colors, scrape glazes, and add collage elements. Very subtly, my emotions calmed and my artwork began to arrive at a place of blissful peace, despite its energy.  This finished piece carries with it many days of emotions, layers of vision and effort, mistakes and successes, and angst. It carries with it the laughter of friends, their own unique creative input, and is a perfect metaphor for how I live my life as a creative, and how I muddle through my days and feelings.

Regardless of our medium, be it writing, sports, teaching, or painting, there will be times when we need to rework what we are creating. The choice to quiet our spirit and trust our intuition through a piece may be the difference between artistic contentment and frustration. Thankfully, at least for me, processing my emotions through the arts is one of the best ways I have found to maintain balance. What a blessing it is to know and understand that.