new works for a new month

I have an exiting new series that I am calling Artifacts. An artifact is an object made by humans that have cultural significance. A secondary meaning is something that occurs unintentionally either in science, medicine or mechanical reproduction. It also shows my unfortunate tendency to create painfully obvious word play- ARTifact.

There are two bands called, with various spellings, artifact. One from Nice, where my husband grew up and one from Norway, to which I don't even have a tenuous connection.

These two examples are not finished. I would like everyone to be surprised by how fantastic the finished paintings will look. I don't know if I'll be able to finish the lower one. The shapes are so satisfying to look at. They speak something to the depths of my being. I don't want to mar them but I don't want the paper to remain so exposed.

Art walk is the sixth of May. My studio will be open during the day for calmer viewing from 12 to 4. I'll take a two hour break and be back at 6pm until around 9:30. I hope to see some friendly faces there.

Another large, monochromatic figure.

Evening Song
acrylic on paper
22"x30"

 I managed to confuse the computer and I cannot add the drawing, as I wanted to. Screwy machine. It's the end of a long day and I'm tired, in a good way.

I finally figured out how to approach figure painting. I've been told over and over to draw the general before the specific. I need to paint the solid figure before putting in the shading. That will make the gradual shading easier. And more fun because you can see the figure emerging as if from a block of clay.  Next week, I'll try a more neutral color scheme. I was thinking that her face is too large, even after I brought the eyes down, but the real problem is that her left hand is too large. And I was feeling pretty good about how I handled them. So that's the job for next week, reduce the back of her hand.

Nostalgia: works on paper

Grounds for Hope
multimedia on paper
22"x30"

It seemed to me that my Nostalgia Series was better received this month than my What's Next Series was last month. Though I don't have any concrete way of telling as nothing has been sold from either one. I had more people interested in talking about the Nostalgia paintings. So I have been working on some paintings on paper.  Perhaps it's the landscape effect of the hard lines which mimic a horizon.

I'm having a lot of fun with these paintings. I can get a lot more effects on paper, more easily than I can on canvas. I can get right to painting without a lot of fussing.

In painting this series, I was thinking of the potential of the past and how it can effect the future. 'Grounds for Hope' is either life developing under water and on land or an embryo and the promise of life it contains.

A daffodil for spring.

A daffodil for spring
acrylic and pencil
22"x30"

Again, I approach figure painting with trepidation. So that I could get a handle on gradual value change (well, gradual for me) I kept to a restricted palette- yellow, orange pencil and titan buff. At the end, I added green gold because the yellow was hurting my eyes.
I get so much satisfaction from a good figure drawing and when I achieve a passable figure painting. Some people feel that a painting should have soul. I agree that a painting should have some reason for being, some philosophy or thought behind it. But when I'm honest with myself, I paint because I like doing it.

Looking at the photo, her right shoulder does not recede enough so I painted a little yellow on it. This is a very modern painting, it's already obsolete.

When are the installers going to come? I'm starving.

new paintings

I'm blogging from art walk. These are my most recent paintings. They are acrylic on paper with water soluble crayons. They are in my Nostalgia series.

The colors and shapes are simple which hark back to earlier times when life was lived in the present and with in an comprehensible world.

We've seen a lot of people during art walk, brave souls coming out despite the uncomfortable weather.