'mervin the magical magenta intercessor' ~ oil paint on canvas paper

by the time this post goes up i'll be in virginia, but as i write this i have a few hours before i leave for the airport.   i know that i like to see the art supplies that others take on trips, so i took pics of what i'm taking with me.

my trusty watercolor set with 4 brushes stashed inside it.   the lid is covered with paint that i've squished out onto it, not colors i've mixed.  i rarely mix anything - which i guess is pretty obvious...  : )  i think there are between 50 and 60 colors here.

this colored pencil case which holds 72 pencils.  i bought it for the trip and i really like it.  it's very lightweight and well designed.  the flap in the middle holds colors i use the most - 'face colors'.  the opposite side has misc. colors on it.

the back side of the middle flap doesn't hold pencils, which i thought was a waste of space at first, but then i saw the logic behind it...   this side has mostly albrecht durer watercolor pencils on it, and i also have room for a tube of white gouache, an 8B pencil, a signo white gel pen, and a gum eraser.

everything i need for three weeks, except a pencil sharpener... colored pencils, paint and a new 4 x 6 stillman and birn 'gamma'.  in the end there was nothing that came close to being as practical and versatile as the gamma, so it was an easy choice for paper.  if you're wondering what happened to my unfinished 'daily book', i finished it.  yep...   i've had a sort of mini painting marathon for the last few days...  : )

i wish you happy and creative days while i'm gone...

i appreciate you.

xoxo

lynne

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 “I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to ... I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-- things I had no words for.” 

~Georgia O'Keeffe

'beulah' ~ watercolors and goauche on canvas paper, 4" x 6"

well, i got sick after the last post....   and then i felt tired and generally lazy about doing a new post!   

i haven't painted much; the painting juju was just *gone*, but i think i feel it coming back around.

this is so you can have a good laugh...  : )

it's the page i showed in the last post testing out watercolors and colored pencils in the stillman and birn 'zeta'.   when i was sick i thought i'd add to what i started and this is the result.  nope, nope, don't ask me what i was thinking;  i'm chalking it up to excessive sneezing and nose blowing. as best i can figure something really strange is headed their way and they're not sure what to think.    even the people in the cloud are perplexed! 

i also painted this...  i was practicing drawing baby's heads, but i haven't drawn any since.  i may have scared myself off...

the other thing that happened last week was that i realized my trip to the east coast to visit my family is almost here.  for so long it was far away!  i had to think about getting ready, sending a package ahead so i can just do carry on.

one thing that i did was refill my small tube of white gouache.  i cut the bottom off of the small tube (scissors work), open it up and squirt in fresh gouache.  then i fold the bottom over again with a pair of small pliers.  this is the second time i've filled this tube, so it's getting short - hence only one fold on the bottom and a piece of metal tape over the edge to make sure no paint gets out.  this keeps the big tube fresh, which is helpful because they last a long time.  

otherwise i'm looking about eagerly for signs of spring ...

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via tumblr

gouache, colored pencils, acrylic paint, graphite and watercolors in stillman and birn 'zeta'

i went out of town and it's taking me a while to get back in the blogging/internet groove...    

the whole page ~ 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"

before i left i got a stillman and birn 'zeta' in the mail...  it has 180# smooth paper in it, suitable for anything!  i've been layering the pages *way* up!

i've only done a few pages because i didn't paint while was gone, but so far i really, really like it.

the pages lay flat no matter how much stuff you put on them.  i've glued muslin and different weights of paper to them and used two to three layers of paint (at least) as well.

in my opinion the paper truly seems made for mixed media art...

this is what it looks like...

i was going to post this last night but realized i hadn't worked directly on the paper!  so this morning i drew a smudgy face and painted a watercolor flower.  wow, i really liked it!  unfortunately there wasn't any sun today so this is a very poor pic...

i also made a new book box because the other one's full.  i was patting myself on the back for doing such a good job when i turned the book over

and saw that i put the 'box' on the front cover instead of the back!  ha!  oh well, i'll just have to flip it around.  this book was sent to me by a blog reader...  : )

finally, this is what the piece i was working on in the last post turned out like.  she may have been better left alone, but, nah, i had to keep going...

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“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” 

~Friedrich Nietzsche

'lulu' ~ watercolors, gouache, acrylic paint, oil pastels and matte gel medium on collaged paper, 4" x 6"

i've been having a good time painting on collaged paper...  it's great to let the paper tell me what to draw/paint.   i take my glasses off, hold the (collaged) paper at arms length and see what shows up. if i don't see anything i squint either harder or looser!

 

'sir edgar and lady elaine' ~ all of these pieces have the same ingredients as 'lulu'

sir edgar and lady elaine (of the magenta branch of intercessors) are headed out. sir edgar appears to be in charge, but don't let appearances fool you...

a nameless white intercessor...  

on all of these pieces i used cream or white oil pastel for the skin. this may be my favorite way to do skin...   one thing that people have asked is how i get the oil pastels into small places;  i use a blending stump to push them around, or i use a white prismacolor pencil in very tiny spots.

the piece i'm working on now...  i've just put white oil pastel down for her skin.  i so love the way it looks, as is.  sometimes i just wanna stop there.  the bird is under a layer of gel medium.  i painted him last night but couldn't see anywhere interesting to go with him (within my skill level, lol), so i decided to make him a layer.  somehow or other the girl showed up after i did that.  (i may have been squinting just right)

if you've been coming here for a while you know that i stopped using acrylic paint a while ago, yet here i am listing it as an ingredient again!   i decided to switch back to white acrylic because  i just don't like the smell of casein paint.  so i bought the blick white acrylic, which i really like.  it's very thick.  the bleached sand was leftover from my acrylic days...   they're good for covering stuff up...

 

'adele' ~ colored pencil and graphite in pocket moleskine

i drew adele this morning.  as you can see, she and lulu have the same kind of hair and shape of head.  and they both have flowers in their hair!  maybe lulu's her crazy older sister...

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"The art student should be doggedly persistent.  If things don't go well in a given practice session, s/he should know that the best of artists have had many such sessions. But, the remarkable thing about going through a disheartening session is that the student is very often on the threshold of marvelous discovery."

~ Jack Hamm, 'Drawing the Head and Figure'

'edna rose' ~ watercolors, goauche, oil pastels, graphite and acrylic paint on collaged paper

after doing (more or less) precise, neat paintings for a while, it feels great to get messy again...  and i'm always impressed by how they inform each other - what i learn while doing neat influences the messy stuff, and vice versa.     

the main reason i'm working messy again is that with my dh's help, we reorganized my art room.  he took out an iron drain pipe that kept me from pushing everything against the wall.  now i have more room and easy access to what i need without getting up or turning all the way around in the chair.  this room was originally a laundry room - so imagine a space a little bigger than a full size washer and dryer side by side, and that's my art room.   i've always loved it, but it had gotten way too crowded.  it feels so much more spacious now and i wanna work in it again.

these days, any being i draw/paint that has wings or a feather/s i'm calling an 'intercessor'...  so edna rose is an intercessor,

 same ingredients as edna rose

and this is her partner.  you can tell they work together because they're both wearing green feathers.  ; )

that blue is really periwinkle, but nothing i can do in photoshop elements will make it so...

i'm working in three books (not counting my 'daily book') besides on pieces of loose paper.   it occurs to me that with blogging what we do tends to appear linear, when in fact for me nothing could be further from the truth.   i'm all over the place - working on/in whatever calls to me at the time.   

these pages are from the 'smudgy face' pocket moleskine i started in october.

i haven't stuck with just faces,

but i do always use colored pencil and graphite.

i'm okay knowing that it might take a year or two to finish a book...

watercolors, gouache and colored pencil on old paper

back to loose pieces of paper, this is too big to fit in the book box.   but, wow, that old, soft paper called to me... 

so maybe i'll do this with it...   if you click you'll see rows of bulldog clips hanging on nails; art can easily be rotated by changing what's in the clip!  i really think i'm gonna do this in my art room...   

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“Look at any inspired painting. It’s like a gong sounding; it puts you in a state of reverberation.” 

~ Philip Guston

'charlotte' ~ watercolors and goauche on white arches drawing paper, 4" x 6"

i've been feeling mighty quiet... 

i'm still painting/drawing on arches cotton drawing paper (both white and cream) and dura-lar;  i enjoy the arches paper so much, and i'm slowly getting to know the dura-lar.  definitely best to use a kneaded eraser on it.

colored pencil and graphite on dura-lar

i like to draw/color pieces on dura-lar to lay over paintings on paper... 

watercolors, gouache and colored pencil on misc. papers

i've also been working on this canvas paper and i like it a lot!  the piece on the top right is on it.  the piece in the middle left is strathmore 500 series bristol (vellum surface) and i don't like it so much.  watercolors aren't brilliant on it, and it just feels sort of flat to me, even with colored pencils.   i still might try the plate surface, though...

and i've printed out photos of art that i love (by artists who are no longer alive - i think this is legally cool).  after my pogo printer quit working i bought a canon selphy cp900 printer; it prints truly gorgeous images but i've hardly used it.  one of the best things about it is that you can print up to eight different images on one 4" x 6" sheet of paper.  i printed two per sheet for most of these images.

so what am i doing with all of these pieces of paper?!  i'm putting them in a box that i made from a book.  this is what it looked like in the beginning. i love the modern library logo and didn't intend to cover it up,

until i saw this picture of frida.  i wanted something to keep everything in, and so far i'm tickled with this idea.   the 'box'  looks full, but if you press everything down it's only about half full.  i am already thinking about the next one, though. 

the book was published in 1944 and is what they call a 'flexi-cover'.  it's fabric over thin-ish cardboard (thin bookboard?), so it's very lightweight.  plus it's a modern library book.  i adore modern library books...

one thing that i like about painting on loose pieces of paper/dura-lar is that you can mix them up and create new combinations.  in the morning i had this dura-lar piece over another painting;  late in the day i put it over this one.    it's very smile making!  i'm still painting on both sides of the paper, just as i would in a book.

if you're wondering what happened to my 'daily book', well, it's sitting there...  still dearly loved but not being used for now. this is the first time since i started painting in 2006 that i've worked outside a book.   i'll just follow this trail and see where it leads...

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"The mouth is singularly the most important feature of the face for conveying the mood or feeling of the individual.  It is the number one sign of expression.  It is forthright and seldom subtle as the eyes may be.  The corners of the mouth alone speak worlds."

~ Jack Hamm, Drawing the Head and Figure

'pearl etta' ~ watercolors, graphite and colored pencil on arches drawing paper

i drew pearl etta while looking at this painting by irina korsakova;  within minutes she was a (mini) woman instead of a child, though,  and little boots seemed like they'd just look so good!  she's up there because her dress is pink, which fits in with this post...  otherwise i've been drawing and painting a lot;  getting to know dura-lar and arches drawing paper. 

once in a while as i'm scrolling through my tumblr dash,  i think about why i like some paintings and not others. there seem to be many factors,  but one thing that will almost certainly make me adore a painting is the presence of pink.  so, for a little something different, here are some of my recent pink favorites...

August Macke ~ Rosa Azalee

 Henri Lebasque ~ Seated Nude Woman 

 Edgar Degas - Avant l’entrée en scène

Henri Matisse ~ Geraniums

Sano di Pietro ~ L’Ange de l’Annonciation 

(did they really have neon pink paint in the 15th century?)

Marjaana Savander ~ Karhunruusu oljy kankalle

 Kees Van Dongen ~ The Pink Hat

 Suzanne Valadon ~ Still Life with Flowers and Fruit 

 Edouard Vuillard ~  Nu couché

 Paul Klee ~ The Garden in Hot Weather 

 Gabriëlle Münter ~ Blumenstilleben

 Louis Michel Eilshemius ~ Snake Dancer

it wasn't easy to pick just twelve...

: )

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“The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.”

~ Glenn Gould