Tag Archives: pencils

Oct4

“Back In The Day…..”

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“Back In The Day…..”

Wednesday morning is trash day around our neighborhood, and we try to walk before the trucks get really active around here.  The noise, and fumes, not to mention the smell of the trash make it unpleasant to walk if they are in the immediate vicinity.  As we  walk around block after block,  we start to look at the trash bins, and wonder if they hold anything good?   Back in the day when you could put all your trash out curbside there was a much larger variety of goodies.  Now all that has changed!  They have big mechanical arms picking up the containers, and dumping them into the top of the truck, making it impossible to leave a table, chair  or other large items out to be picked up.  It wasn’t too long ago that we’d put things out to the curb knowing someone would be by about 10:30 at night to rummage through everything in hopes of finding a treasure, only to put it in a garage sale somewhere a mile away!  Years ago, my mother brought home a set of four bent wood chairs she found, thinking they would be perfect with my dining room table.   They did look great, and we used them for many years.  Someone was just  tired of the look, and left them for someone else to love, and enjoy.  That would be me!

Today as I walked around eyeing all the trash bins, I don’t get the feeling that inside a bin is a treasure waiting to be found.  Rarely are they stuffed to the point of being unable to close the top. Occasionally, as today there were a few with cardboard sticking out, but I’m not looking for cardboard, and digging through someones trash bin isn’t quite what makes me happy these days!  Maybe all the real treasures are now in thrift shops, garage sales, consignment shops, or even swap meets if they still have those!  I long for a genuine treasure that just pops out in front of me on a walk, or even a super fabulous “thing-a-ma-bob” at a garage sale that I could use in my artwork!   “Thing-a-ma-bobs”  are more difficult to find these days, and I wonder how many garage sales one needs to go to just to find them?  Is there a better area to go to, ’cause this one isn’t cutting it!

Once upon a time we use to talk of going to the wealthier neighborhoods for the treasures no one else would find, but that was back in the day when people would put things of value out on the sidewalk so people like us, the pickers, could discover them!  Where are your favorite places to find treasures?  Do you have a treasure trove right in your own back yard, or do you have to drive long distances to treasure hunt?

Every time I buy new furniture, or a new lamp, I’m never happy with it! They don’t have any character, and definitely no energy from a previous lifetime to bring with it into their new home.  So now my motto is to rescue things from wherever I find them !

Oct3

The Epitomy Of Collage!

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The Epitomy Of Collage!

When looking for something to sketch, so many things entered my mind.  Today, I went to an Escondido Art Talk meeting at the Escondido Municipal Gallery on Grand in Escondido.  We meet on the first Tuesday of each month, and the artists that attend usually bring whatever they’re working on to share. Today we had a wonderful mix of artwork, all different kinds of mixed media!  For a mixed media artist, this is heaven!  We are able to see art created with a different flair, all the while getting to know people we may not have met before.  New ideas, and creative energy is  abundantly  flowing!   Now that’s what I like, the sharing and mingling of creative minds!

Today we had  an artist there from Africa, who brought  some wonderful artwork with him.  We were all in awe as he showed off what he was working on.  Not one of us had ever thought of anything like this, and he was so incredibly talented, and humble!  As I drove home there were so many thoughts, and ideas in my head I probably wont sleep tonight!  That wouldn’t be good!  In my studio there are many pieces of unfinished artwork just sitting there  patiently waiting their turn to speak to me, but I just can’t get into them.  My guess is, they have nothing to say to me at the moment, and I’ll just have to wait for them to speak up.    Rather than beat my head against the wall, another piece  will be started, and older ones will just have to wait tin line!

Part of the  technique  I’m doing today is from this gentleman, and part is my spin on it.  We’ll see what happens…..

Meanwhile  starting this collage, it came to me that nothing was as easy as it looks!  This is ever so evident when you stand in front of an abstract painting, and exclaim,  “What’s the big deal, my three-year old could do that?  All you have to do is slap some paint on a canvas!”   Sure you could, just try it!  I’m here to tell you, it is monumentally more complicated than that.  Sure it’s easy to slap,  drip, and spatter paint around, just look at the work of Jackson Pollock!  But to make it work, is so much more complex than one can imagine.   Even Mr. Pollock had a plan, and if you take the time to read about him, it will become evident that he wasn’t just dripping paint, he really did know what he was doing!

Me, I’m a mixed media artist – everything is an experiment.  Sometimes I repeat the experiment, sometimes I’m over it in a flash!  We mixed media artists are a strange bunch of crazies, and most of us agree on this!  Digging through the shredder is oh so much fun!!!  You look for just the right piece of trash to create a one of a kind artwork!  This is exactly what I did, I went digging.  Shredding paper to  collage is extremely labor intense, this of course would be common sense, but apparently when I’m in my right brain, there isn’t any  common sense available!  Once my collage dried, the sketch began, but it wasn’t as simple as I’d expected.! Since the medium was slick, the graphite pencils wouldn’t show up very well.  This leaves the sketch rather bland, and mid to light range.  It becomes very difficult to lay any darks into this…...lesson learned!   I probably should have tried some Derwent Inktense Pencils.  These are great water-soluble pencils by the way, that dry permanent.  The colors are intense, and if  they aren’t in your studio my suggestion is to get a small pack.  In my opinion, there aren’t any mistakes, only opportunities to be more creative, or at the very least, learn from the experiment!

Today is a college of Daisy’s friend Chesley.  He and Daisy are both  mutskies (new word),  and they have fun running, and playing together in the yard.  I apologise to Chesley’s Mom because this really isn’t a very good render of her baby, however it’s been a great learning experience, and I may even use the collage of shredded paper again.

By the way, if anyone is interested in reading of the life of Jackson Pollock, this is a really interesting  book!

Recommended Book

Tom And Jack: The Intertwined Lives Of Thomas Hart Benton And Jackson Pollock By Henry Adams
Tom And Jack: The Intertwined Lives Of Thomas Hart Benton And Jackson Pollock By Henry Adams

The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock trailblazing the Abstract Expressionist movement appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton’s highly figurative Americana.

Oct2

Things That Creep In The Night!

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Things That Creep In The Night!

Last night as my husband, Les and I were rounding up the cat for the evening,  With flashlight in hand, we were out back calling his name when…….Les caught sight of something with eyes on the fence.  It didn’t look quite like eyes of a cat, they were eyes he’d never seen before!  And, it wasn’t Kramer!  What was it?  Hard to tell since the branches from our big Mela Lucas were hanging down, leaving us looking through the branches, and leaves from the bushes, and trees. From what we could see, it seemed very large!  The creature froze in the beam of the flash light, leaving us wondering if we were seeing things, or was there really something there!  As we moved around the back yard it never changed position, it didn’t even blink, and didn’t look like it was even watching us, but I  know it was!

Logic told us it wasn’t anything we had seen around here before, like a coyote, or even a racoon.  We get rats, and mice now and then, probably more than we realize, but this was much larger than a rat!  For a moment, we thought it might be an owl because it was so still, and had a kind of barn owl look, but it wasn’t wearing a mask, so we ruled that out!  Besides, even though we couldn’t get a clear look at this mysterious creature, I didn’t see anything that looked like feathers.  That was a clue!  Slowly, we inched closer, and closer, while it sat frozen in time.   We shinned the light on it from all angles, while still keeping our distance.  Finally Les  said to me unequivocally, “I don’t like it, not one little bit!”  He didn’t know what it was,  didn’t want to get any closer, and definitely didn’t want to have anything to do with this wild kingdom stuff!  Well actually, I didn’t want to get too close, but it wasn’t attacking, growling, or hissing so it was hard to believe we were in imminent danger.

After much discussion, we decided it had to be a possum.  The funny thing is, he was probably more afraid of us than we were of him, no wonder he was playing possum!

Oct1

It Never Hurts To Brushup!

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Over the weekend some of my artist friends and I took a portrait workshop.  It’s been years since I had taken a life drawing, or a class on faces, so for me it was a much-needed review!  Believing that we can never practice too much, or review technique too frequently, and gathering together all the […]

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Sep28

I Just Couldn’t Help Myself!

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Two days ago I found this cool metal skull at Cost Plus, and had to have it!  When it was purchased,  I had ideas about what could be done with it, but didn’t know what exactly I would do!  So today it will be a stenciled,   sprayed through, sketched around, and some ideas that […]

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Sep18

Let’s Talk About That Sharp Left Turn Again!

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Let’s Talk About That Sharp Left Turn Again!

In my post last Thursday, I spoke about how if a project isn’t flowing like I expected, I’d make a Sharp Left Turn, and keep going!     I don’t believe in mistakes, only opportunities to be more creative!     But every once in a while something happens and, the project makes me wonder if it’s worth the effort or the agony…

I’ve worked with these darn pods for over four days now, and after getting more of the green pods, I decided to soak them in water, an attempt to keep them soft! Good idea or not, here’s what happened…..

These “green” pods that caught my eye last week sat in water, and hardened.     Can you believe it?     Instead of getting pruny like I would if I were left in water for a day and a half, they called my bluff, and started to get tough and dried out feeling.     I have been working with them to see if in an attempt to prevent them from getting the better of me, I could do something with them.     I’m determined to win this game!     It just occurred to me I might just as well use green beans, even the tough, old beans are more flexible than the green pods.   I wonder what the green beans would look like dried, or if they would draw ants?     Would they resist being used in an art project, or would they rise to the occasion, and become elegant, royal looking green beans worthy of an art project such as this?

Finally my thought process was;   if I put the pods on a canvas, cover it with burlap, maybe it would give them the message that they were not going to escape being the object of an art weaving, and maybe it would help me see where I need go with this!     The other day, I purchased three colors of burlap thinking, “Organic.” I bought dark brown, light green, and a wheat colored neutral.     All beautiful, but I had thought the green would be perfect, and it turned out there wasn’t enough contrast!     Remember, “It’s the journey!”    I’m now leaning to the dark brown for contrast.     What do you think?

Originally, I thought of just weaving the pods all alone by themselves, but as I worked with them, I’m  realizeding they needed to be beaten into submission if I wanted to use them at all!     Next, I thought of using wool roving and dry felting them so they would stay in place, but after running the needles through my finger, I’m not so sure! Then maybe using other fabrics such as yarn, or gauze?     I’m going back and forth on this, all the time wondering if it’s worth the effort?    Again it occurred to me that, “It’s the journey!”     I’m thinking this only applies if the journey is going well!     You can see why I’m wondering if it’s worth it!

By nature I rarely let things get the better of me, whether it’s figuring out the use of electronics, creating art, or reading a book that isn’t holding my interest.     I usually finish what I start!     Problems simmer in the back of my mind until around three in the morning, when an idea or solution   awakens me, and  won’t allow me to return to sleep!     This hasn’t happened as yet with the pods, I’m trying to conquer them before they conquer me!

Have any of you worked with pods in this way?     I’m finding them not as easy as I thought originally, these are actually kind of a pain!     But I love pods, and  pick them up regularly! Read the rest of this entry →