my friend, kathy dorfer, is giving away an alala painting on her blog. alala is the raven, and kathy has painted her many times...
these are my alala paintings, given to me by kathy since 2007. they're beautiful, just like her...
XO
prismacolor pencils and woodburning tool on western red cedar branches
that's what i've got...
this is huge if you click
i finally got jiggy with the woodburning tool on branches... experimenting with different tips and just generally learning how to do it. this is a montage of (some of) what's on the sticks above, as well as another long one that i'm about halfway through. i (evidently) am unable to not*completely* cover each stick.
wild turkeys by my 'stick sculptures'
some pics from the last few days... it's been mild and mostly sunny. been out wandering with my dh; stick reconnoitering and general gazing...
juicy fuji apple and my trusty knife
sky, rocks, tree.
wet weather waterfall
jimmie holding a heart rock he found
thank you to new followers and to everyone... i am thinking a lot about blogging these days. ways to continue on; whether to continue on. and tonight i do not want to end this post without saying that my heart is with the people of egypt...
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prismacolor pencils and woodburning tool on western red cedar
"Don't repeat, don't copy!" We have heard that statement over and over. We assume that to repeat a subject is proof of our dullness and our lack of inventiveness.
On the contrary, it often shows sensitivity. When you paint an image or a color that has great feeling, it is not only natural but perhaps essential to repeat it. The more powerful the image, the deeper its root, and the greater the likelihood you will have to repaint it. As you do repaint it, you are exploring different aspects of the feeling, with all their subtleties, from every possible angle. The image will come back as long as it is needed to fulfill its role."
~Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley, 'Life, Paint and Passion'
XO
milk white horse ~ gouache, watercolors, oil pastel, pencil and casein paint in 3 1/2" x 5" hand book
inspired by a children's poem on natalie merchant's CD, 'leave your sleep'. the CD is very good and very inspirational. it got me thinking about how many ideas and images there are in children's poems and fairy tales...
gouache, watercolors, pencil, colored pencil, and casein paint in hand book
colored pencil in hand book
pogo prints...
and in my 3 1/2" x 5" zecchi journal,
red and green map
i'm painting 'maps'. the zecchi journal appears to be the same as this journal (the sketchbook with 48 sheets). and speaking of journals, i've written to moleskine asking about the carcinogenic plasticizer in the covers thing. a friend sent me an article by someone from moleskine that says they stopped using it in august, 2010. if i hear from them, i'll post their response here.
mauve map
these are all done on white casein paint that i've tinted with tube watercolors. i'm putting these 'maps' on the backs of all the pages. it's a great deal of fun...
celestial map (for star travelers)
i usually smear soft pastels on the page to get some more color action going. i rub them in well so they don't smear onto the opposite page.
sunday map
this is a bigger version of the pic in the pogo print above. we went to redding last wednesday, and i snapped *a lot* of pics of mt. shasta coming and going. this was one of the first,
and this was the last...
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“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”
~Kurt Vonnegut, via tumblr
XO
oil pastel, watercolors, colored pencil, gouache and casein paint in pocket hand book
i finished my pocket moleskine a couple of weeks ago, and have been working in a pocket sized hand book since. i went to buy another moleskine, but saw that they have a prop 65 label on them because the covers have a known carcinogen in them. good grief! i love moleskine sketchbooks but i feel a responsibility to support businesses that aren't using stuff that harms people and the environment, so i bought a 3 1/2" x 5" hand book instead.
this is what it looks like - very much like a pocket moleskine except with a cloth cover. the paper has more tooth that the sketchbook paper - no comparison there. i like it for watercolors and colored pencil, but wish that the pages were a little thicker. paint doesn't run through to the other side, but you can see where dark colors are on the other side of the page.
colored pencil in hand book journal
watercolor, colored pencil, and gouache in pocket hand book
because the sun is so low and it's often cloudy, it's not easy to take photographs that actually look like the original. sigh... especially of images like these, which are barely there to begin with.
watercolor, colored pencil, gouache and casein paint in pocket hand book
i put a layer of white casein paint down on this page first. love doing that...
watercolor, colored pencil and gouache in pocket hand book
watercolor, gouache, and casein paint in pocket hand book
most spreads are something like this - a mix of pogo prints and paintings. the page on the left has a layer of casein paint laid down first, and then i painted on that.
the little table to the right of my art table used to be covered with containers of acrylic paint; i've put those away because i'm not using them now - i feel like i can get the opaque color that i want with gouache and casein paint. this makes me happy!
tom ~ oil pastel, watercolors, gouache, and casein paint on old book page
tom was painted on black casein paint - his skin is oil pastel, and i added some watercolor and white gouache on top of that, but if you click you can see brush marks left behind on the casein paint. as a ground, i can't say enough about white and black (or any color!) shiva casein paint.
here's a link to a page by john molnar, who painted with shiva casein paint. there's a video too that's not especially informative about casein paint, but it does show his casein paintings.
a couple of other things...
this is the week that michaels has the 40% off coupon for your total art supply purchase... if you don't get their coupons, you can go to their website to sign up. the coupon applies to everything in the art section - the one with paints, pencils, pastels, etc. in it.
anne bagby now has a blog! she just put up a video about printing stripes with acrylic paint. and she's been talking about working on yupo - sharing her discoveries. i'm a tremendous admirer of anne's work and would read what she writes/watch what she does no matter what medium she's working in...
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mlk arriving home after receiving the nobel peace prize in 1964. via tumblr
"I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems. And I’m going to talk about it everywhere I go."
~Martin Luther King
XO
bill (brother of john) ~ watercolors, gouache, colored pencil, collage, and casein paint on old book page
XO
woodburning tool on page 3 of 'war and peace'
here we are at 1-11-11... that's a lot of oneness...
i found an old copy of 'war and peace' for $1 at a library sale a couple of months ago - it lays open beautifully whether you're on page 7 or 700. i started reading it around the solstice and finished it a couple of weeks later. now i'm going to draw and burn my way through it...
XO
jane (l) and gwen (r) ~ paperclay heads who appear to talk non-stop
jane: really, gwen darling, i think lynne should tell everyone what she's found out about preventing streaking on her pogo prints.
gwen: yes, jane, i think she should...
ha! so what i do is run the piece of blue paper (that comes with each package of paper) through the printer every time before i print (with the lines facing down). before i starting doing this i had a lot of streaks, and since then, none...
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"You paint as you live. True creation faces you with your tendency to stop the movement of life by thinking, clinging, and holding to what you do. It keeps you inwardly on the move through its demands to go anywhere, anytime, no matter how unfamiliar. To truly create is to enter the fluidity of time and energy.
~ Michele Cassou and Stewart Cubley, 'Life Paint and Passion'
XO
john (on a day when he realized things) ~ watercolor, colored pencil, soft pastel, gouache and casein paint on old book page
i'll put john up here since the pogo deal is no longer happening...
in answer to some of the questions i've gotten re: the pogo printer: it's about 4" x 6", and yes, you can hook it up to all digital cameras but not all cell phone cameras. it's also 'blue tooth capable'. since you hook it up to your camera, you can't edit the images in any way before you print them. the printed image will be cropped a bit (from the way it looks in the camera lcd screen), so if i'm taking a pic that i know i want to print on the pogo, i keep that in mind. the prints are 2" x 3", and if you peel the paper backing off they're ready to stick somewhere. because the printer uses an inkless technology the prints never smear.
XO
pogo print of shaman the horse in pocket moleskine
amazon has pogo printers for 29.99 again... and a good deal on pogo printer paper here.
edited to add: wow! never mind! they were 29.99 for one day! it seems worthwhile to check back periodically, though, as the price can change quickly and for no apparent reason...
XO
louise in 2011 ~ soft pastel, colored pencil, watercolors, gouache and casein paint on old book page
wow, here we are in 2011! and today, 1/1/11! somehow this seemed almost miraculous to me when i realized it this morning...
i send you wishes for all the best in 2011... may we as a planet realize peace and acceptance of all. not long ago i read a quote on tumblr by thaddeus golas, "love it the way it is". those are the words that i want most to take into the new year.
i think i'll be quiet here for a while, or at least without many words. it feels like the cocooning and metamorphosing aren't over yet...
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tumblr
“If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.”
~Joseph Campbell
XO