Sunday, January 31, 2010

the finder

colored pencil, oil pastel, matte gel medium, and acrylic paint on moleskine page

this week i did not feel 'becalmed'... i wanted to swim madly out of my little spot on the ocean and find what was calling me! was it painting with broad strokes or simple line drawings? i'm still not sure! so i did a little of both, knowing that when the time is right, it will be Revealed...

i did a lot of covering up with black paint and then wiping most of it off. the face above looked nothing like this before the black paint treatment. the black paint and 'blonde' hair treatment that is... anyway, i liked her a lot better after The Treatment.

colored pencil, oil pastel, matte gel medium, and acrylic paint on moleskine page

this page had many incarnations and i finally just left it at this. it had the black and brown paint treatment. plus several others

colored pencil, oil pastel, matte gel medium, and acrylic paint on moleskine page

more black paint treatment and then i added the little flying Being that was already sorta there. one thing about rubbing paint off of gel medium that's on top of oil pastel, is that the gel medium rubs off fairly easily. this can work to your advantage and leave some nice ragged edges like the ones on this creature's face.

colored pencil, oil pastel, matte gel medium, and acrylic paint on moleskine page

no black paint here, but i did rip the page out (and up) and glue it back down on the next page. at first i was just gonna use the dog, but then i decided on a little grass, and then a little sky...

3" x 5"

inbetween covering up and ripping up i did my first embroidery piece that i'm happy with. it's on painted and sanded muslin, and it seemed perfect for the job. inspired by jacky, this is the beginning of my slow cloth... and jude i thank you for putting the knowledge of a slow cloth in my head in the first place. i'm going to ask my sister if she wants to work on it with me (she's going to be surprised to read this here).

the finder

this is the last thing i did this week, and by far my favorite. it's just pencil and colored pencil on muslin.

i made two videos today! one is of the green shrine tree (and it's much blurrier here than it was on my computer - don't know what's up with that), and the other is me talking about colored pencils and drawing on sticks (please forgive -and ignore- me clearing my throat in the second one).

one last thing - i've switched from 'big cartel' to etsy and have just barely got my shop open. i still have work to do on it, but i wanted to tell you that i have 3" x 5" samples of muslin for $1, including postage ($1.50 outside the U.S.), so you can try it out. you might decide you want to make your own, or you might buy more of mine! i've decided to try and keep the 'muslin for you' in stock, and also add some (blank) muslin books.






* * *

"That's the way it is with my work. Like a lot of them artists try to copy things or take pictures. That I can't do. I sit down and it just come to me. Some things I make is from memory. Some are things that you never seen. Sometimes as I'm working, things change. I start with one idea, then wind up making something entirely different than I intended. You take the people I make: Sometimes they look like certain people I know or have seen. But I can't take a pencil and sketch them. I'll just be working on a face and it will be revealed to me and I can do it. Or you take the buildings: They ain't buildings I see. It's my own development."

William Dawson, outsider artist, Raw Vision magazine


XO

29 comments:

  1. Aaahhh....I'm the first (or it looks that way)..no other comments yet!
    Very different all this black, but I quite like it. I love that our art allows us the freedom to express ourselves.
    Its funny reading your words about large brush strokes Vs line drawings...we all seem to be working out what is 'our' thing one way or another.
    Lynne I love your face on the muslin for your slow cloth...mmm sanded muslin, I havent tried that. How lovely to be able to share the slow cloth process with your sister. Nice to have some help as getting started is a devil of a thing.
    Your piece titled 'finder' is my favourite. I love your people with their antlers - and that piece with the dog is great. Love how you have separated the sky etc.
    Thank you for your sweet words too.
    Jacky xox

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh I'm so excited about the painting with the little winged being. Wow it's powerful! I'm loving your new colour combinations ....black, turquoise, white, walnut.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love these new pieces of art!

    It is funny I was thinking this morning before I came to visit you that I think I will start a moleskine page in black and paint on it. LOl!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh Lynne, you are such an insppiration, you really are. I love your shrine tree. When I move from this town (hopefully soon) I am going to look for a shrine of my own. I need to make friends with a special tree.

    Love Jxxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. the green shrine tree opens, and your voice in the forest, i can almost say how wonderful it must be for the forest to receive your soft sounds... there something happens-- you saying, this one is almost two years old in a place so old, those trees that earth; and the newborn snow absorbing your footsteps and your voice, old and yet now. All of it moved me.

    .
    love the top image, and the emotional sensitivity in the faces of the others, comes across.
    .
    thank you .
    .
    blessings

    ReplyDelete
  6. good morning Lynne - that first painting is by far my all time favorite - the looseness and mood around that figure is wonderful! loved the videos xxo

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lynne--I love seeing the Green Shrine Tree. So peaceful there. I follow a blog http://ornamental.typepad.com/ornamental/ that I think you would really enjoy. She is an artist who lives in No. Carolina and is very spiritual also. Go to her blog and look at two specific posts "from sand to snow" and "giving back to the sea". You will love the tree she has there I think. I am loving the black in your work. Black is one of my two most favorite colors and I think it makes everything so rich and mysterious. I admire you sitting there on the ground with snow all around. I know it must be pretty chilly. We have had so much rain here that it has been really hard to get out. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ooooh!!!! I love the way you work Lynne!! I'm really digging the black paint thing you've got going on. I like to do that with black gesso! It's so freeing!! As always.... you're work is very inspirational to me!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. thank you for this! it is so nice to hear that your work sometimes goes through many incarnations... we are all like that, but still.... it is so NICE to hear!
    you always inspire me!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What dark frightening place have you been to? These are soaked in a painful knowing. "Dare to look at me. Dare to see who I am in here."

    Perhaps its not what you were saying at all but it is what I'm hearing. Seeing. Feeling.

    I LOVE this work. It is really powerful. And as Manon Doyle says...there is a freedom about them. I'm bowled over.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You are going new places in the darkness, Lynne. Love to witness the results of you putting your light there. The one with th ebeing reminds me of a trip to the bottom of the sea, darkness filled with things I have never seen before...
    I will definitely check out the etsy shop - how great to share some of your favorite materials with us !
    Big Love to you, Explorer Woman...

    ReplyDelete
  12. everything here is very exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hey Lynn, I'm enjoying your explorations and experiments of new painting styles. The third painting you posted here just calls to me; I feel it's visionary mystery - just beautiful.
    Also enjoyed your wanderings - the shrine inside the hollow is delightful, and your pencil case is very cool! Mine are all piled together causing me to waste a whole lot of time digging for colors, but having them spread out like your is really nice. You might like the results of a little fine steel wool on your branches - it's amazing how smooth the wood will become from a few strokes, but it's not as user friendly/handy as your nice muslin piece :) xox K

    ReplyDelete
  14. hi jacky, yes, our art allows us freedom... this is the biggest gift, i think, this gift of expression in any direction we want. as for the slow cloth, well, i feel it's really going to happen and all thanks to you. (and jude : ) thank you about 'the finder'. she just popped out on the muslin and made me smile right off. xo

    hee, thank you, robyn... it's making me smile a big smile to read your words. : ) that winged Being surprised me... xo

    ha! janine! i got on a real black background binge over the holidays - it's NICE. a whole different look...

    oh jasmine, a tree (or *many* trees) will be calling out to you once you move, of that i have no doubt. i was so happy to get up to the green shrine tree yesterday - it had been calling for weeks... xo

    m, first of all, i love seeing you here again... and reading what you wrote i'm feeling a little teary. you know, as i was walking away from this tree yesterday i was thinking about how much it's seen. i cannot put into words the awe i feel for trees as witnesses. it's beyond all logical thought. it's Love... i think this is their biggest teaching for me. xo exo (hey! three little birds' just came on my mp3 player! everything is teaching us!)

    teri, i will look for those posts on 'ornamental'... yeah, black is wondrous... i can't imagine painting without it. and it *was* cold out there yesterday! i didn't lounge around at all after i drew one face. i really wanted to put my gloves back on! xo

    hee, manon! yeah, the black paint thing is very freeing! and it feels so great to leave the parts i don't like just completely covered. ; ) xo

    aw, cat... thank you... yeah, the many incarnations... xo

    boy loani, i don't know if i was saying that or not... i never know, it seems. i just keep going with the paint and there they are. i think that i always feel like they are friends that show up on the page though - so maybe i am showing myself some dark part of myself but it feels friendly because i know it's me. i don't know... what i just want is for it to feel honest and real. xo

    dear big heart walking... well, the heart must go wherever, and that's the Truth... so here we are, going... xo

    jude, thank you... : )

    hey karin, yes, the pencil-in-the-box thing is the other reason i got this case! the color i wanted always seemed to be hiding and would only come out after extensive searching! the third painting was a real surprise... the creature at the top of the page was sort of there in the background paint, but the winged Being only showed up at the very end. how lovely, i thought... xo (if steel wool were as user friendly as muslin i'd sure use it : )

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh Lynne, it is like I am there with you, just like last august, but with snow. You are getting so good at making videos. Is it just your camera, and do you edit or just use what you have? I love everything here, thank you for sharing your walk! roxanne

    ReplyDelete
  16. Lynne,

    It was so nice to see your videos. It was like tagging along the walk with you, listening to your voice and the crackling of the twigs as you walked.
    Your first painting feels like it was revealed even to me. I love the dark surround making the face pop.
    Love your colours in the dog. Juicey!
    The Finder is awesome!
    Thanks for sharing your creativity with us. :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. The finder is a keeper. And I really like the look of all the black elements in these pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love the lack of color you are using... the triptych area is very interesting, what could have been washed and scoured away? -J

    ReplyDelete
  19. what a wonderful maiden voyage into your world ... your work is so diverse, and brilliant, and colorful, and magical, and whimsical, and LIFE-full. i will be sailing back in to your world, for sure! :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  21. ah.. the colours! loving your way.. phases and waves..

    ReplyDelete
  22. roxanne, i thought about you when i was at the green shrine tree. :) yes, i'm just using my camera - and not editing the videos doing or anything fancy... love to you! xo

    thanks patti, and you're welcome. it's been quite the ride lately. : )

    hey seth, thank you about 'the finder' and the black. i was making extensive use of black last week. ; )

    you know, jayne, i tore the triptych thing off (it's muslin) and almost left it off. then put it back on. it seemed the bird wanted a window to fly out of, but i don't know for sure of course...

    erin, thank you for your wonderful comment... i hope you DO sail back!

    wow, alexander - bacon-esque! i am honored! oh bacon was so free... i aspire to his degree of freedom! thank you for your nice words!

    hey viv! yes, phases and waves... that's the way, isn't it? xo

    ReplyDelete
  23. what an illuminating post. i think the final outcome on all the pieces is really remarkable and very clear and true. thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  24. so many things here that make me smile along with a chuckle or two ... the finder is such a perfect self-portrait and the videos are a delight.
    The first three paintings feel like a deep exploration, very expansive and penetrating.
    And it's ever so nice to hear your voice and follow your wonderful hands.
    xoxo
    blessings sweet friend

    ReplyDelete
  25. That first face is so haunting! And I love the freshness of your little muslin pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  26. It is fun to read about and see your process and art come to life! Each piece is wonderful to see.
    I think it is time for me to get some colored pencils. When I saw your pencil case in the video I wondered if you have a favorite brand? there are so many to choose from.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Not Becalmed and the Creature are my favorites...very powerful. I had to look for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  28. hello,
    it is fun and wonderful to read these posts again. I forgot I saw these videos, it is before we have come to know one another a little bit more. I love hearing your voice. Blog friends gives us bits and pieces of one another, which can be so powerful, not diluted by voices and looks. Still when another bit comes in I can only smile. Thank you for taking me back to these posts.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.