Merry Christmas

I'm sorry I have bee slow at posting this week but it is a busy week for all of us. We will be leaving day after tomorrow for Las Hadas in the Pacific Coast of Mexico for a different Christmas this year. Two of ours sons with their families will be going also although it won't feel much like Christmas in very warm weather but it has been sometime since we have been to the beach and we do love it so it will be nice.

I'm posting something that I might have posted at the beginning of my blog since this was done last year around this time, but at the moment I think it is the most appropriate image I have to post.

I also have something very exciting to look forward to at the beginning of the year. That is a mentorship with Michael Newberry. I think this will be one of the best opportunities I will have had, art wise, and I intend to put my heart into it. It will be interesting to see if this will sustain my love for abstracts or open a new horizon for me.

Have a great holiday season!

Profiles V

These last two posts have been a turn for me for something a little lighter. I like the change of colors and hope I can make a series that will keep its continuity. Newsprint, copper leaf, acrylic and oil on stretched canvas. 16X24

Profiles IV

I had one of those aha moments today that very seldom come to you so I decided to get out a canvas and see what happened. To my surprise this turned out fortunately different from the last two. It was one of those fast ones and it actually pleased me when I fisnished it. Newsprint, gold leaf, acrylic and oil on stretched canvas. 16X20

Encaustic Mixed Media

One of the things I find fascinating about Mixed Media and alternative materials is that you can play around with it so much. If the result is not what you wanted you can't put it back the way it was but you can alter it and change it completely. In this case there was something I did not like about my last post image and I still do not know if I am satisfied because it is something a little different from what I usually do, so sometimes I have to see it up on the screen, in a post and in my house to really know if I like it or not. So far I have just added some encaustic to the previous post image, and I am still tempted to pour some black over it but I think I will watch it for several days before I decide. This is not the best picture since it is nightime and the lights in my studio did not help the image but I will replace it for one taken tomorrow.

Mixed Media

I have not decided if this is finished yet. I was playing around with it is so it is a small piece. 10X8 canvas panel. What I am not very happy with, is that the patina I used over the page to tone done the color makes it look dirty instead of old. I'm thinking of going over with dribbles or pour but am not quite sure. I would never tear a page out of an old book but this book was already very torn and had no salvation. Unfortunately it is a 19th century Theology book and I would not want to use it disrespectfully. 10x8 canvas panel and ribbon, acrylic, feather, sumi, ink and oil.

In Memory of Pao 1999-2005

This is Pao, my grandaughter that came into this world in a very tragic way, as her mother's uterus scar, burst open from a previous C Section, leaving Pao without oxygen for five minutes. This left her severly brain damaged and the only thing she could do was smile radiantly and return the enormous amount of love she received from all of us and the peolpe who knew her well from the frequent visits to the Teleton Center (CRIT), for her weekly therapy and evaluation. Pao left us quietly March 13th 2005 at age five, leaving a huge vacuity in our life and heart.

Pao's happiest years were the last two of her life, when my son and daughter in law started to take her to the Teleton Center, (CRIT) in Agauscalientes, a city two hours driving distance from our city. In 1997 Televisa Foundation started annual 24 hour fundraisers on TV and with the help of a great number of companies and people around the world they built the first Center in Mexico City for Handicapped and Brain Damaged children. This has brought hope to thousands of children with special needs. Today two more centers will be inaugurated makingn a total of ten centers in the country. The goal of this foundation is to have a center for every state in the country. The economic capability of the parents of each child that is admitted as a patient of the Center, is evaluated also. Those who can pay the fees do have to, but those that cannot are treated for free. The great majority of these children are from rural remote places and it would take their parents a day or more to get the child to the center and the cost of transportation would be high, so these children are left without assistance. This is why it is so important that each state have a center and at the moment there are 15,000 children waiting to have a center near them. There is still a long road to travel to reach the Foundation's goal but hopefully with events like the 48hour TV fundraiser that will start tonight, another two centers will be built by next year.

Teletòn Page

Video

New Mixed Media

This to me seems quite raw and visceral as I see it on the screen and when I saw what the result was when I finished it. My intention was to use the page of and old torn book that had no salvation to composed something appealing but I let myself go and before I knew it I had the ink spots on it and finished off with the addition of a dramatic stroke of texture. I decided to leave it because this one has taken me to another one that is not quite finished but might make me turn to something very different. I don't consider this a pretty painting but I do consider it expressive, either it be my love for earthy and old things or my frustration for not remembering the image revealed to me the night before.

Charcoal Drawing

I haven't posted anything in quite a few days but I have been working on several projects. This morning around 4am I woke and started thinking of a new Mixed Media painting and since I couldn't get back to sleep I decided to start my day early. Putting coffee on first and then taking my shower and getting the chores out of the way so I could go straight to my art with the new project. All of this time I had not thought of the idea I had had at that hour of the morning. What terrifying feeling when I got to my art table and could not remember what it was I had thought of and had already worked out in my mind, in the early morning. I think I must have been half asleep but fortunately as the day has gone by the idea came back to me. I am setting out to start it right now but in the meantime I will post this charcoal drawing I did for the Weekly Drawing Thread at Wet Canvas.

Profiles II

I wish I could post something more often here but in my desire to learn oil painting, I have been spending time on the small daily paintings. I have been working with my abstracts also but I feel they don't work right in small sizes so I prefer to take a little more time and do something larger. I enjoyed this one! It gives me the impression of a still life with fruit and flowers but I had already titled it so, I'm sure a profile will show up in this, anyway.

Sofia's bath

Hours fly by and it seems I never get all of the things I would like done in one day. I have an abstract almost ready to post and a small still life for my Daily Painters Blog that is just about ready too, but both of those had to be put aside today for other priorities such as visitng my one month old grandaughter while having her bath. After having three kids and five grandchildren that put on a good show crying while being bathed it is such a delightful experience to see the pleasure this baby finds in her night time bath. This is one of her first smiles and now we are making sounds that reach us like a little conversation expecting acknowledgement.

Profiles

Titles never come to me very easy but I do see some profiles in this one so I will use them as the title. This one is a little larger that the other tissue paper ones. I love using tissue paper and this one got quite busy but a I have one prepared with a little less and I might add something else like encaustic to it. In the meantime here is this one that I enjoyed doing. Tissue paper, copper and gold leaf, oil on MDF board 16X20

Free Hugs!

While I finish my latest work, please visit Paula Manning-Lewis' blog. It will make you feel good!

Free Hugs Campaign

A Possible Triptych

Yesterday evening I was preparing this board to start another one of my series with tissue paper but I didn't prime the board this time and just used some careless acrylic strokes, to have something under the tissue paper. Looking at the unprimed board reminded me that it takes ink squirts nicely, so I got out my black, red and yellow ink. Actually this was all going under the tissue paper. When I carelessly squirted the black ink, in organic forms, I realized the result was not bad so I waited until today to cover with tissue paper or not. Now I believe I will try to paint two other similar ones and make a triptych. Technorati Tags:Yellow, triptych,tissue paper,ink

Untitled

This is the second small abstract I try although I do prefer to do much larger. I think I am finding what I want to do in big formats again. I just have to play around with the small one's a little more.

Oil, sand, sand and tissue paper on canvas panel. 8X10

Embrace

It is funny how when you distract yourself from one style of painting it is hard to find your way back again. I have been doing a little realism in my continued search and will continue for the Daily Painter blog but I have thought of reducing the size of my abstracts until I find exactly what I am comfortable with and then try a big series of abstracts. Oil and tissue paper on 8x10 canvas panel. Technorati Tags:embrace, realism, absract, style

Working!

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything but I got myself into several things and I am struggling to get organized. I have three abstracts in the works right now and hope to post one tomorrow.

Copper Leaf again.

Close up:


It has been almost a week since my last post. My life has been so busy lately and I do paint daily but just haven't been able to get the abstracts done fast enough. I don't feel that this one is finished. There is something about the bottom left gold rectangle that I'm not sure of. Maybe I sould subdue it or do away with it all together. If anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them.

Copper leaf and metallic oils on MDF board. 24x24

Copper and Paper

I came across some copper leaf that I had never used and tried to put it together with some amate paper and blue Indigo oil paint. These are colors I am not quite used to and have to look at this for several days to see if i didn't overdo it.
Technoarati Tags: copper leaf, amate paper,indigo

Getting back on schedule

Sorry I have been slow posting and visiting other blogs. These last two week have been very busy and then I started a new blog with the desire to paint a small format realsitic oil everyday but I have been having trouble with the templates on this one and that one. My mind is not technically equipped. I accidentally deleted my Art Quotes but will get them back today. My intention of having two was to have this one for the larger and abstract work and the other for the smaller oils. The new blog is on my links. A Daily Effort.

I am excited about starting a new medium today Cera Colla. Hopefuly I will do it right and be able to post something by tomorrow. I am adding a link to this interesting medium.

Red Earth

This painting was done in pauses with a different idea in mind. As it rested on my easel while the week got busy for me, I lost the idea I had at the beginning and I started seeing it as a finished painting. I might decide later on that it is not finished and continue to work on it but in the meantime I'll just post it.
Acrylic, oil and gold leaf on MDF board 24X24

Reflection

It has been over a week since I last posted in my blog but a million things have been in my way and also the fortunate arrival of a beautiful grandaughter. I thought I had a good picture of her last night but it is blurry. Hope for better luck tomorrow when I go over and help with the bath. It is such a precious moment to carry a baby and watch how it examines every part of your face with such interest and curiosity while it clutches it's hand to your finger.

We have had a values class at Wet Canvas in the Drawing and Sketching forum and it has taken me away from my painting this week but I do have another abstract on my easel hoping to be finished tomorrow. In the meantime I will post a partial of the drawing for the value class.

Mayan Gods

The story of this painting is pretty long. It started out with a transfer of the images and then I tried to add some encaustic in the shape of tiles. The tiles looked pretty cool, but I know now, I should measure to be sure I have them straight. The color was not quite right and the gods did not show, so I decided to melt the whole thing down, start over with texture and had to draw the gods in with my brush. Anyway I think this is much more my style, so I will try encaustic tiles another time. Texture, amate paper, acrylic, oil on MDF board. 20X20
Technorati Tags:Mayan Gods, acrylic, encaustic

Habanero Peppers

I have seen so many nice, painting a day blogs, with small paintings that you can't help but want to give them a try also. I have never really painted just oil and I really like the feel of it after using texture on almost all of my paintings. This is another very small one 4X6.
Yechnorati Tags:habanero peppers, oil, texture

Petroglyphs

I have been short on words lately but life has been busy this week. I hope to get down to reading all of the wonderful blogs I visit tomorrow, and try another little still life.. In the meantime this is my latest piece. Encaustic, wall texturizer, acrylic, oil and gold leaf on MDF board. 20X20
Technorati tags: petroglyphs, encaustic, still life

A small still life

For a change and some practice using just oil this week, I thought I would paint a still life. Life has been busy but I hope to catch up with my blog and other blogs starting tomorrow.

Vestige IV

This week has been a little dry for me, art wise. I have to get back to the swing of things and try to post more often. Sometimes I work on a painting so much and the result is just not what I wanted. I have another painting drying at the moment and hope to post it tomorrow.

Farewell

Twenty three years ago my husband and I bought an old run down Hacienda at a ridiculous price. Situated 40 min. to the south of our home in the city, in a beautiful mezquite valley and surrounded by rolling hills. It was so run down that I couldn't see anything pretty about it as it's grandeur was hidden by rubble and mondern day patches, here and there. Through the years, with love and constant work we were able to turn it into something truly unique. It became our weekend home, a place to socialize with friends, the home for one of our sons while he started the cattle business and the place where our youngest son was married last year. Today, I went out to pick up some things and as we left, my husband closed the gates behind him, for the last time. As beautiful and loved as the place is, it was becoming a financial and physical burden for the two of us. Our sons are all busy with their work and lives and our plans of turning it into a Bed & Breakfast, were far from becoming true, since it is in the middle of nowhere and the people we would like to cater to, might not find much to be entertained by, except maybe, hiking. Fortunately a buyer showed up at the perfect time and the whole negociation happened so quickly, I had no time to sulk about it. Mixed feelings I do have, but now I can turn the direction and do things on the weekends I have not done for twenty three years.

We have kept our cattle land and cattle that are very close to this place, so now we will see it from the distance, whenever we go out there. The people that bought it said they will not change a thing and leave it decorated as it is. There is a sort of mystery, spirituality and energy that I hope will prevail and will give it's new dwellers the serenity it gave me.

Technorati Tags: Hacienda, mezquite, spirituality, cattle

Still struggling

I think this will be my last try with this. It shows I have been out of practice with encaustics. The black was too much and now it is very busy but the only thing to do to fix it, would be to melt it all down. I'll leave it for a couple of days and see if it grows on me.

Same encaustic, revisited

I wasn't completely satisfied with the encaustic last night so I decided to do a little work on it.

New Encaustic

I haven't done one of these for over a year and I think I went overboard with the amount of wax and pigments. I can't get the wax bars here so I buy pure beeswax from the beekeepers and mix dry pigments into the molten wax I keep in small jello cups. I have heard you are not supposed to use encaustic over acrylic but I have done it before with out any problem and it adds depth to the whole piece. In this case I didn't and I poured my pigmented wax directly over the MDF board. Unfortunately my red mixed with the black and got a little muddy. I used a hotgun to fuse everything and I will have to wait a little to be able to buff it. In the meantime I have another wall textured one, waiting to be sanded and worked on tomorrow. Technorati tags:encaustic, beeswax, acrylic, pigments

What next?

I am still playing around with textures and colors but this will be my last piece of this size and I hope to start a bigger size with a little more serious work on it. This is another recycled piece. It started with a still life over gold leaf but I ruined it by adding some burlap to it. After taking the burlap off the only solution left, was the wall texturizer to cover with. I had covered it weeks ago and now that I decide to brush some paint over it I found those scratchy indentations but don't find them disturbing so I will leave them.

I was discussing intuitive abstract art with another abstract artist. It is so hard for me to reason with abstracts because then I freeze and connot produce anything. I know a lot of people abtract from reality but it is something I cannot do.
Technorati Tags:gold leaf, abstract, intuition

Earth Again!

I have been quite absent from my blog this week but I just got back from a trip to McAllen, Texas. My husband bought me a very, far in advance, birthday present but we probably won't get up there again before the end of the year. He bought me a Nikon D50 Digital Camera. The shutter speed is so much faster than the Canon Power-Shot I have. Hope this will improve the quality of the pictures I take of my paintings. I haven't been able to do much painting either since my two grandsons are visiting from Sonora. Although, I did get a quick experimental painting in this afternoon and hope to get some larger one's done this week.

Technorati Tags: Texas, Camera, Nikon, Sonora

Two of Three

This is the second painting working in the same way I did the previous one of my pour series. I feel that these are too dark but I had to continue with the color palette since I plan to group these. I will have to find a way for the ink to keep it's original bright color. After these three I wiil try with a lighter background and hope the ink reacts differently. The top image is a close up fragment.

Close up of pour 1

closeup pour 1, originally uploaded by marianuch.

Group of three

Pour 1, originally uploaded by marianuch.

The pervious pour paintings I have posted are still not what I wanted them to be so I am still trying and covering up. I think this one is a little closer to what I want although I would like the brighter color to be more intense. This would be the ink in this one and I feel that it breaks down as it combines with the acrylic. This looks much better in real life because the there is so much going on in it that is not visible on the screen and there is an iridescent glow to it. It is acrylic, acylic ink and pigmented sand on MDF board. My idea is to group three of these in one paintng but with a box frame for each that will only hold the paintings but no decorate them.
Technorati tags:paintings, ink, sand, MDF

The Weekly Drawing thread

for flicker, originally uploaded by marianuch.

The Weekly Drawing Thread

Three years ago I came across Wet Canvas. I began to hang around the Mixed Media forum but my desire to learn to draw took me to the Drawing and Sketching forum. There I came across the Weekly Drawing Thread hosted by Stoy Jones at that time. I don'y know if he was the creator of the thread. I was very afraid to post my first drawing but with the excellent critique and kindness of Stoy Jones, Dee, JayD, alfredart, mcbecket and others, I soon felt welcome in the thread. I don't always have time to do the weekly drawing but it is something I am always looking forward too every Sunday evening. I believe it is an excellent way to keep the drawing practice, active.

This is this weeks drawing.

Technorati tags: drawing, sketching, critique

Mango again!

Mango again!, originally uploaded by marianuch.

I think this will enter as another post because I am posting the image from Flicker since I am still having trouble with the image uploader.

Mango again!

Today has been another one of those frustrating days where you think you have a fabulous idea, you work on it for hours, think it is finished, take a picture of it, put it up on your screen and you find that is is a total disaster. I had the brilliant idea of using my leaf and acorn drawing to collage into a geometric abstract but chose the wrong color and also realized that geometric forms are not my thing. I have painted around it in black and poured a gold and ochre oil pour over it. I hope that by morning it will dry and be decent enough for me to post.

That said I will post Mango again after having a stressful business meeting.

Technorati tage:geometric,leaf, cat

Pour Series II

I haven't been able to post anything for my blog because the image uploader has not wanted to work for me. I will try again and see if I'm lucky this time.

Now it seems the page is not found so it might be the blogger and not specifically my blog.

Pour Series

I started a series yesterday titled earth series, due to the first that made me think of this but after finishing this one it really doesn't look like earth, it looks more like sky so I will just call it, Pour Series. I am a little disappointed because it doesn't like it looked before it dried and I think the secret is to let the top pour dry a little before adding the squirt of ink. The red you see in this is red acrylic ink and when I squirted it into the wet pour it was fascinating to see how the threads of red ink spread out like veins of color through the blue and black pour. I am posting two of these. In the first one I added tissue paper for texture but I believe they look better without the texture, except for the granules of sand I sprinkle in, before it dries. They are both acrylic, acrylic ink and pigmented sand on masonite board, 16X16. My intention was to group these as one whole piece, now it depends on what the outcome will be of the two remaining surfaces I have to work with.
Technorati Tags: earth, ink, masonite, red

Amate Paper

I used this paper to draw the Weekly Drawing Thread, drawing at Wet Canvas but found out quickly it is not the best paper for graphite. I know people use it for pastels and it could have looked better with the colored Derwent Drawing pencils because of the natural tone the Amate paper has. It does not show up much in the photograph.

"This bark paper is boiled and soaked over night until soft enough for the fibers to pull apart. It is then pounded using a rectangular rock with finger grooves until the pulp is evenly spread out in the shape the paper-maker wants.

The sound of people pounding pulp into paper can be heard echoing off the hills around the town of San Pablito in the Sierra Norte in Puebla.

The color and grain of the paper depends on the bark used to make it. The typical coffee color comes from the Jonote tree (ficus family), white from the Xalama Limón, and the silvery beige color from the Mora (mulberry family), to name just a few varieties. Years of practice let the Otomí artisans make different sizes and thicknesses - from poster-board to crepe-paper weight.

The paper is dried in the sun on the same boards where it is pounded and shaped."

More at this link......http://home.earthlink.net/~kering/amate.html

Tchnorati Tags: Amate, paper, Otomi, Jonote+tree

Recycled Mixed Media

This was another Fossil painting but I made the grave mistake of putting varnish on it and had not seen some granules of orange pigment on it. As I applied the varnish I streaked the whole painting with orange pigment so I had to cover it with wall texture and start again with something else. I am not completely happy with this one either but having nothing else to post tonight I will use this one and see if it grows on me or I dislike it more as the days go by.

The Power Behind Us
People That Support Us
Behind each of us stands at least one supporter. This was once thought to be the spouse who ran the home while leaving the other spouse free to work. While this is still one valid scenario, most of us will find that we have other kinds of supporters in our lives. In some cases, our supporters are the people whose help allows us to do the things we're best at, see to our obligations, or pursue or dreams. In other cases, our support may come from the people who are there to help us through life's challenges by offering us their strength and bolstering our spirit.

Our support may come from our families and friends or from the people we hire-nannies, assistants, gardeners, healers, therapists, and advisors. Our supporters may be the mentors who help us express ourselves by listening to us as we share our thoughts and feelings. Our supporter can be the person sitting next to us at a networking meeting or the teacher from our childhood whose words still resonate in our minds. We have always had supporters around us whether we noticed them or not. No matter where the support comes from, few of us can make it through life without assistance.

As we take the time to acknowledge everyone that has every supported us, we can't help but feel grateful. Understanding our place in our human support system helps us see that just as there are people that support us, we are a supporter to many people. By gratefully accepting the expertise and assistance of our supporters, we can consciously and more easily build a life that we love. Thanks to our staff, groups, friends, and loved ones for all their support. We all need each other's support to thrive this world. From DailyOM
Techorati Tags: texture, pigment, healers, painting

Mayan Series II

There are days when I just can't seem to focus on what it is I really want to do and find it so difficult to face a blank canvas. I would really like to try abstracts with a brush and tissue paper like I have done in the past but I get inspired with something else and jump around from one thing to another. I felt that the pour in this painting needed a little more than just the pour. I worked on it trying to get some depth but being used to oil and this being acrylic, I found it hard to follow the original shapes, of the pour. I drew in the Mayan design with a quill pen that I found much easier to control than any other type of pen but still there is something missing or maybe, these are just not my colors.

Patricio

I haven't quite finished this drawing with the three pencils. I seem to have a lot of trouble getting the tone even and it looks a little scratchy. The position of his head is not the way I would have liked this picture but I loved the expression when I took it. It is so true of him when he is cooking up something in his head and the dimples form around his mouth

Mixed Media Still Life

"Artistic illumination are found in unlikely places because these areas have the potential to turn heads, medicine the soul, and infuse perception with a new vantage point on life. Implausible sources are vivid reminders that the process of creative expression will forever amaze and do it's best work where we least expect results." Shaun McNiff

Mayan Series

The above is a fragment of the same painting showing a little of the drawing of the mayan ritual.



While letting my third painting for the Fossil series dry, I decided to try another acrylic and ink pour because they are so much faster and dry quickly. After I had managed to sort of control my pours and let them dry, I thought I would try to incorporate some Mayan figures to the whole piece. This I thought of a little too late because I had already brushed on an acrylic sealer. Neverhteless, I tried to draw in some figures from one of the famous paintings in the Mayan Site Chichen Itza. The real painting is depicting The Battle of Jaguars which was a ritual in that culture. Unofrtunately my drawing of part of this painting does not show up. next time I think I will draw in the my theme first and then pour over. Since I had thought of this after the pour was down, the colors are definitely not the Mayan colors. I will try the next one with the colors the mayans were so well noted for.

Technorati Tags: Fossil,Maya,ChichenItza,ritual