Art at Stone Lake

Abstract Explosion

I've had a wonderful couple of months taking painting workshops at the Art Center in Sarasota. Art Center Sarasota classes & workshops.  Thanks to my two wonderful teachers:  Fernando Madridejos and Gale Fulton Ross. They provided guidance but allowed me to explore and deepen my understanding of my unique style and artistic vision.  Most of these are 18 x 24 inches or smaller.   I've learned so much this year --now I want to paint even BIGGER canvases!!

Check these out.  Some will be for sale -- please check my gallery site in early Arpil!  Gallery Website

 

 

Paint, Paint and More Paint!

I spent the past few days watching blog videos and studying abstract painting.  The more I paint, the more I realize how much I love it!  I'm learning a lot and I've created a few very nice abstract paintings and collages as the lessons are starting to come together in my mind.   Mostly, I approach each session in my studio as a chance to learn, experiment and play.  If something successful happens, so much the better!

Anyway, I'm posting some of the recent ones here.

This is a detail of a study in blue, magenta, red and white.  The image is actually better than the original painting.  What I've learned from this is the importance of light/brights in a piece.  In the original, the whites are not nearly as bright.  I may go back and tinker with it at some point...or not!

 

 

Detail of a study in grey, white, magenta and red.  I love this section of this study.  First time EVER that I used grey extensively in a painting.  Love it!!

 

Collage--papers that I monoprinted, tore up and collaged onto canvas.

 

I will post others later this week.

 

 

 

Cleaning Eco Friendly in the Studio

Well, as a person who works a lot with paints, inks, dyes and glues of all kinds, I've been looking for an eco-friendly way to clean my hands, tools and work area.  While I was shopping for gloves at Home Depot the other day, one of the very friendly saleswomen in the Paint area suggested I try Krud Kutter.  I bought a bottle and I have to say that this stuff works amazingly well!  

It's gentle and has a light pleasant odor.  Personally, I don't like the strong odor of the citrus based cleaners  (although Krud Kutter does come in that version as well).  I was sooooo tired of scrubbing paint and other stuff off my hands -- leaving behind so much residue in the my nails.  I know I could wear gloves, and sometimes I do remember to do that.  Most of the time, I'm working so fast that I hate taking the gloves off and on, off and on.

I use it to clean all kinds of tools, brushes and work surfaces.  It  even takes off most dried paint and inks.

So Krud Kutter Original to the rescue!!  Website has lots of information about the eco-friendly properties.  You can buy it lots of places, but you'll probably find it in the paint aisle or where other industrial cleaners might be found.   (Disclaimer0--I have NO affiliation with this company!)

Here's their website:

Krud Kutter

And, here's an image:

New Work--2012 Launches!

I completed a new small collage--continuing to wrk the Secrets and alphabets theme.  Here it is.  collaged found papers.  acrylic paint.  oil pastels.

 

Working in Series: Scale

For the next assignment, we were challenged to work wth variations in scale.  I chose to dramatically increase the size of the letters in the first pieces. 

First, here are the two Journal exercises--I am so pleased that I slowed down enough to make 2!  Both are done using spray paints--one of my favorite mediums.  I used a limited palette that echoed some of the colors from the foundation piece.  The large letter stencils were created by me using Word and cut out by hand.

Here's number 1:

I only used a tiny bit of fancy stenciling in the upper right corner.

Then, here's number 2:

 I played wth Large scale letters (R, X), and then used the commercial stencil in the background to create smale scale letters and symbols. 

 

Finally, I made an artquilt working with scale and color.  Big letters--I find that I am intrigued by the effect.  I also painted some of the letters in colors as well as in black.  Acrylic paints and Spray paints.

TWO CLOSEUPS:

 

 

Working in Series: Color and Value

During this workshop, I decided to do studies each week in my journal. This is a sharp contrast to the way I usually work, which is to think a bit, maybe sketch out a general idea and then go straight to the design wall or the paint palette.

In this Assignment, I am exploring color.  I realized that in my Letters series, I usually default to creating the letters in black paint.  In my sketchbook, I used watercolors and experimented wth differnt pairings.  I deliberately chose not to pull out the color wheel.  I wanted to see what my eye would find through experiment.

I also played with the fact that letters create words by creating 3 new English words.  I don't thnk they exist...smile....

 

 

COLOR AND VARIATION:  Also, I did a Journaling page. First I floated watercolors and allowed them to blend by spraying the paper. (Wet on wet technique).  Then I wrote some thoughts about words and created stencil letters by hand.  Usually in my earlier work, I used commercial stencils.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Mixed Media

Although I have been silent for a few months, I have managed to do some work.  Here is one of the 12 x 12 inch canvases that I created in April.  I used spray paint and stencils, along with some text from poetry by my nephew.

 

 

   More to come later!

 

 

My MiniStudio is Launched!

Well, I had an epiphany on Sunday.  Although we are in small, temporary quarters, I realized that I COULD make art!  I would simply have to focus on certain types of materials and techniques that would be easy to clean up, compact to store, etc.

I decided that using watercolors, pencils,  and the like would be safe enough in the apartment.  So, off I went to buy a few supplies, and a work table.  A couple of hours later, I was up and running.  I decided to focus on making collages using watercolor, found and purchased papers, other materials and my digital art.

Here's one of the first pieces:

Title of this one is simply #101.  I painted tissue and watercolor papers, collaged them and added snippets from an old book of Japanese poetry.

Here's another experiment that went rather well:

TRANSFORMATIONS: 102 AND 103

These two pieces are siblings.  I created 2 collages on watercolor paper.  Then placed one on top of the other, cut them into 4 pieces and reassembled them by using 2 parts from one with 2 parts of the other.  You can't see the cuts in this photo.  I like them both and plan to continue to transform them.

I am building my stash of painted papers and this weekend, I'll start working on photos that I will print on various papers to be used in collages.  I also plan to scan some of the painted papers to use in digital collages.  Wonderful!!!

Sometimes a limitation can lead to greater freedom.

Stay tuned as I continue on this Journey. 

Long Time, No See!

Hello Everyone,I should explain the very, very long silence on this blog (in case you're wondering...).  In the past 6 months, I have been in a long process of selling my house.  That's all done now, but we're living in temporary quarters and I am without an art studio space.  The withdrawal has been difficult....and I may not be back in my art space until this fall. 

In the meantime, I am reading, thinking and dreaming about all the wonderful times to come in my new studio space.  And, I plan to jump back into taking photographs.  I'm shopping for a good, new lightweight digital camera.  I also plan to upgrade to the new Adobe Creative Suite.  It can do magical things and tinkering with software is fun! 

All the best to everyone out there,

Regards,

Carole

Artomatic Washington DC -- New Work on Exhibit in May 29 to July 5, 2009

Hi,

This summer, I will exhibit artquilts at Artomatic.  Click here to go to the Artomatic Site  for all the details about this wonderful monthlong event. Artomatic is run by volunteer artists, and there are several hundred artists on display, along with bands performing and workshops all month long.  Best of all, you can directly get to the building by using Washington DC's Metro system becasue we are right over the Navy Yard station--Note that there is very, very limted parking in the area so Metro is definitely the way to go!!  DATES: May 29 through July 5.

In the meantime, here are some sneak peeks at in progress photos.  I'll post finshed photos here and on my website when Artomatic opens.

Artquilt made with Batik fabrics.

What do you see?  A seascape? landscape?  moutains and villages?

   A detail view of another Batik artquilt.This is a wild variation on the traditional 9 patch...smile....

When you look very closely at the completed piece, you can see the 9 patches--all of which are the same size. From a bit of distance, the 9 patch grid is almost invisible, but it does give subconscious structure to the piece.  And, I am quite proud of the way the intersections of the 9 patches actually line up...I know that my early quilting teachers would be sooooo proud....

A very early stage of another Batik artquilt.  This one is an abstract based on the central image of a doorway. At this stage, I am working from a base drawing of my own, cutting the shapes indicated by the drawing, and then playing, and playing with shapes, values and color. The final piece may or may not be close to my original drawing.

I love doorways....I photograph interesting ones that I see on my travels.