Ascending Spirit WIP

I haven't posted in quite a while because I have been working hard on this project but it is a slow and very new process for me, starting with the amount of thumbanils sketches needed to finally come up with an idea I was satisfied with. Thanks to the mentorship of Michael Newberry I have learned the importance that a piece have a reason and meaning for its creation.

This piece is not even close to being half way done and it needs corrections in what is done but I think the idea of where it is heading, is pretty clear. I still have to establish my vlaues, soften my folds and extend the lace to fill in that space it is in right now. I am truly enjoying this part now since I think compositon and light is on the way to being solved.

Charcoal on Rives paper 17x26

Finally on the way to a new piece.

I have not posted because I have been working hard on the inspiration stage of my mentor program with Michael Newberry. I have worked on at least 30 gestural thumbnails and have finally found an image that I would like to put on the big sheet of the Rives paper. This will be an emotional piece and I must say that working with charcoal on such a big format in a different technique is being an exciting and fantastic experience. The process of saturating you paper with charcoal and then taking some of it off, is a very fulfilling practice. I started my big piece yesterday and have put five hours into it. There is not enough to show yet, but I do hope to post an update in the following week.

In the meantime I am posting the compositional thumbnail sketch. The practice of doing these sketches is to use as a guide and a tool as with the atmospheric sketch. They are sketches that are not supposed to take more than 2 min. to do but the purpose of doing so many is to have several alternatives to choose from for the real thing. The subject of the sketch has to have some emotional meaning and the objects used should be part of that meaning. Once I have posted an update I will write a little about it.

A new year a new experience.

Eloquence is not my gift so it has always been rather hard for me to express myself verbally. I wish I could find the words to express what a wonderful experience it has been for me to find such incredible giving people through the Internet and blogging. I appreciate all of the words of ecouragment and friendship I have received from you and hope that after I get on my way with Michael Newberry's Mentor Program, I will start posting maybe a WIP at first, but in the meantime I will continue enjoying the vist to your blogs.

All the best for this coming year!

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