Word Paintings

I made several little word paintings and gave them away as Christmas gifts.

They were done on stretched canvas that measured six inches square.

I painted the canvas, applied vinyl adhesive letters, painted it some more, and then removed the  letters.

I chose short phrases that were designed with each recipient in mind.

This was a fun way to create personalized gifts for a group of special people.

The Runaway Doodle

Week Two of the online Strathmore Artist Workshop, Doodles Unleashed by Traci Bautista, produced what I call a runaway doodle. The object was to create a watercolor background using a variety of water soluble media such as paint, crayons and pencils. Apparently, my doodle wasn't about to become any one's background and decided to run away and join the doodle circus.

I decided to start with a "warm up" piece on watercolor paper before attempting this lesson in my journal. Step one involved painting with watercolor using various sized brushes.

Next came acyclic ink, and watercolor crayons and/or pencils. In retrospect, I should have stopped somewhere around this stage. But I didn't. I think the hardest part of this method of painting is knowing when to stop.

I decided to add white gouache into the mix. This is when I had my "OH CRAP" moment. Oh crap! What have I done? What was I thinking? Why did I do that? I have this moment during every piece of art I make. Once I feel like I've already ruined a piece, I have no choice but to venture on and see what happens.

As you can see, once I get going it's hard to stop! I continued adding watercolor and gouache until I ended up with this--the runaway doodle. Does this look like a background to you? Me either.

I think the cropped views are better than the whole shebang.

Once again, I'm glad I took photos of the piece in process. It helps me see what I should have done or what I should do next time.

Plus, I have digital files of the stages that I can never get back to again. I like this little view right here a lot. There's enough there to be interesting and it still has the spontaneity that was the goal of the exercise to begin with.

I started working on this lesson in my journal and I'll share that soon. Hopefully this time I'll quit before it gets away from me.

Happy doodling!

Holiday Play Day

For me, holidays usually mean long, uninterrupted studio time, also known as a play day. This weekend I decided to work on something that I've been wanting to do for a while...something messy involving paint and paper. I have a big stash of paper that's been hanging around for, I don't know, maybe 20 years? It goes back to the days when I worked at a design firm and paper samples were plentiful and free. I've been slowly using it up over the years and most of what's left is dark with a linen or textured finish. It's too dark and rough to use for journals so I thought I could use it to make paper for collage or for artist books.

I also have a bunch of craft paint that I'd like to use up so I can trade up to Golden fluid acrylics. I need big girl paints!

I started off by using wax paper to make Rorschach monoprints. You simply blob some paint on the wax paper, fold it in half to make the design, then place your paper to be printed on top of the wax paper, and roll the back with a brayer. It's fun. It's random. It's instant gratification.

Check out this cool tool I found at the thrift store last week. It has a wooden brayer at each end and a handle in the middle. I have no idea what this tool is for, but I knew as soon as I saw it that it would make a handy studio tool.

I sometimes repeated the monoprint in different colors once the paper was dry. After that there was a lot of spraying, splattering, dripping, and stamping that went into each sheet of paper. It was a virtual free-for-all of good, clean (I mean messy) fun.

One technique that I really enjoyed is something that I read about somewhere--maybe in Cloth, Paper, Scissors--maybe not. I applied glue from a glue gun to the wooden roller above in random squiggles. Then, I inked it up with paint and rolled it over the monoprints. You can also do this with an old rolling pin. The best part is that the glue can be pulled off when you're done and you're ready to go with a brand new design or to use the original brayer. I really like the way it came out looking like some kind of a secret language.

The wax paper is good for a number of prints. You simply add more paint and start again. Afterward, it's pretty enough to be used in another project.

You can still see some of the original dark green paper that I started with. On this piece, I used black fabric paint to draw circles, then made a monoprint onto another piece of paper. I  put the second sheet on top of the first and used the brayer to flatten and transfer the image. I added the white and red circles by stamping with ordinary objects like plastic caps.

As usual, I'm not sure if any of these are finished or if I'll go back and work on them more. I still have a big stack "in process" that I'll most likely work on tonight and tomorrow while the studio is still a big huge mess. The results remind me of graffiti and I'm happy with the way they turned out. I hope you're having a fun-filled weekend wherever you are!

Seeing Spots

I wanted to post another photo of the painting that I worked on a few weeks ago because I'm not always good on the follow up when a project is complete. Now I remember why. It's because I don't have a decent camera. I tried shooting it in the house. Then I went outside. I stood it up. I laid it down. I tried every setting on the camera. Pretty soon I was seeing spots. Plus, I think I photographed the thing upside down! Not that it really matters, right?


There's a lot more detail than I was able to capture in these pictures but they'll just have to do for now. On to the next step...getting it hung on the wall.