I'm in the studio today. No appointments, no distractions just me, my doggies, my finch and my paints. Oh! and my laptop. I am writing this after taking a break for lunch. I needed to let the paint dry on the three canvases that I am working. Working is the word. Not sure exactly where I am going with these three. It's exciting, but frustrating as well. I work an area wondering if, in the finished product, it will even be visible. That has become my process. I just let some things happen.
Along the way, I snap quick images to document where I have been. I like to do this and then go back and analyze my choices and re-address the direction the painting is taking. Sometimes, I see things in the flat presentation that a photograph supplies that gives me insight into new ideas. I have decided to show you the series that has developed. What the heck, right?!!
The canvases are 20 X 20 each. This is the first few layers of paint that I put down. I combined Mars Black with White in varying combinations to create a few different hues. I also watered down a few to create washes. I felt like starting with something that would loosely feel like a landscape. Here are a few details.
I allow some of the washes to drip and run on the canvas. I don't try and control this because I like the visual texture that they can lend later on in the process. I let this dry, took a look at the images and decided to play a little bit with some of the areas with solid coverage of paint color. Here is what I got.
My son saw these in this stage and said, "Oh, mountains!" I thought, "Maybe." I don't like to label anything as I go. In fact, I avoid labeling things because I find it restrictive. I am not always successful in that endeavor.
So, I get sick of all the grey. Without much thought (I seriously mean this) I painted a few colors straight out of the tube onto the painting. I mixed a wash of Alizarin and wiped it with a paper towel across the top and allow some to smear in other areas.
I take a look at the image above and decided that I hate the dang wavy lines that I put in the grey-blue area above my sons "mountains" They had to go. They 'felt' wrong. I decided to use blue tape to mask off the bottom of the paintings like this...
I took the leftover blue-grey mixed colors and spread them across that area with 5 brushes in my hand all at once. Crazy? Yes. I know. Every painting has an experimentation phase. I was in it. It produced a horrible muddy mess in that quarter of the painting and I knew I needed to take a serious break before I made a dumb decision that ruined the paintings. I let that layer dry.
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| Giveaway item. Cute! |
This is the point when I check the blogs. I need a good distraction from my canvases as the paint dries. I actually found an awesome solution for my master bath windows on this break. I will show you that in another post. I also entered in a
giveaway on my friend Deneen's blog,
dreamingincolor. Fingers crossed. I might win. What is it that I want to win? Well, go to the link and find out! (wink)
Okay. That aside... I decided that I had a good base of color on the canvas and I want to use it as an the under-painting. I took down the paintings from the wall and grab my gesso. I proceeded to use a brush and my hands to cover all the canvas in a destructive and fun manner. The first time my kids saw me do this, they screamed, "No! You are ruining your painting!" I then sprayed water on them to moisten them and covered them with grocery bags, pressing down as I went.
After letting them sit like this for 15 minutes, I grabbed up the bags and pulled them off the paintings. I threw them wildly at the door. I did. See here is the pile filled with gesso that I am sure got on my floors too. I'll clean them up later. Maybe.
This is what they look like right now. I consider this the first stage in the process.
I like the texture that the baggy gesso gives the surface. The gesso takes well to glazing too. I will let these dry all afternoon and attack them again in the morning when I am fresh. I realize that the above image is hard to see, so here are a few details.
Hope you enjoyed the little sneak peek into my studio time today. Coco did.
-The End-
Linking this to:
This past week, I was walking around the Hillsboro Antique Mall and I ran into a nice gal named Pami who owns a shabby chic booth named Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. We chatted about blogs and such and she let me take some images of her Halloween decorations in her booth. 
It's been a few days since my last post, mainly because I have a ton of projects that I am happily working on and I am not ready to write about them. I am making progress on the master bathroom project, (yes, I know...it's been dragging,) preparing for Halloween around the house, re-planting some areas outdoors, getting set to start my tomato plants, trying to clear the garage for an upcoming tag sale, and started working on an update and branding of the Homeless Finch. (Take a breath girlfriend.) 
