What a great time to receive my copy of the new book, Journeys to Abstraction, by Sue St. John…….. I have two paintings included in this book…..one acrylic on canvas, and one encaustic/mixed media on wood panels.

I have have been worrying around with packing, un-packing, re-arranging for my month long trip to Italy.

A good break was called for and this book provided me a little down time. I have been introduced to a number of artists I didn’t know before and that is always a lot of fun. The text and the copies of the work is also really great. I know that ebooks might be the future, but I still mostly enjoy holding that book in my hands and sitting down to browse through the book wherever I might open it.

Thank you for including me in this book and your first e-book, Sue…….

To read and learn more about Sue.……..Or go to Amazon.com to place an order

Journeys to Abstraction

 Author:  Sue St.John

Publisher:  North Light Books,

Release Date: April/May 2012

Hardcover * 192 pages  * full color  * step by steps

OR to buy this new book from Amazon.. 

It’s a little hard to convey what you did or learned from this sort of workshop. It is not a technique demo type learning experience. Deborah gave us a plastic bag of various materials like 4 inch squares of stainless steel mesh, paper napkins, twist ties and that sort of thing. We were to all use our own aesthetics of art making to use these materials or anything else we brought with us or could scrounge up to make something that would not be the usual ‘hang it on the wall traditional work’. The work that everyone did was totally different than anyone else’s.

Deborah showed us a lot of work she had encountered and the processes and thoughts behind these works were discussed. Although we worked… we talked and watched all this more than making something to be taken home as a finished piece of work.

We did all make something with one of the stainless mesh screens though……… I can tell you ..I panicked, what in the heck and I going to do with a piece of wire mesh?  I pulled the outer edges until 6 or more rows were left unbraided.. we twisted 3-4 strands together all the way around… then started trying to add other elements in whatever way you could think of. I started folding and pleating mine. It started making me imagine the creek bed. I know… a far-fetched stretch for a piece of wire screen. I was shocked when we were showing them that Deborah did see it before I said anything as ‘landscape‘ in feel……..good gosh, maybe the idea was not so far-fetched as I thought.

Anyway, we set all that aside and kept up our immersion into how all kinds of forms could be made and joined or connected. The next day, working on something new, I pulled out the Stonehenge paper I brought with me…along with a ton of other stuff I thought it possible I might use or need. I felt lost… so I just started on that paper like I would my other collage work (work I haven’t done in quite some time). I was interested in the past in ‘pleating’ paper but never had gotten around to doing it. SO… this was the time to do it. The piece I will show here has collage elements from various places along with that paper I pleated and sewed down with black thread with a darning needle. I did not put encaustic on that pleated paper as I wanted the paper to stay white and a different look than all the other work that is embedded with wax. It was an intuitive process like most of my work. It built on itself. Getting toward the end of the day, I picked up that little stainless steel mesh piece and just dropped it down on the work……………WOW, I liked where it landed so I then attached it right there with more thread.

This is as much of the process of this piece as I can remember now…….I like it but now have to consider how I can disply this besides putting it into some kind of traditonal frame (which it could look good in)……..find some other ‘connections’.

This workshop was about making work that is meaningful, while using your personal process but thinking of ways you might display it in a more non-traditional way. It was about making 3-d work… even if it is 2-d, but a little more projected from the surface like mine. It was about finding new ways to make connections.

Oh yeah… how can I forget… Deborah is a font of knowledge about how to get your work out there, being professional… I could go on and on.

3-d collage on paper, approximately 12 x 12 inches

I am fortunate to have been chosen to show five of my encaustic on wood panel paintings at this 1st annual exhibit in Denton, TX.

The works chosen by curator, Katy Crocker are my Johnson Creek, Summer series. …1-5.

This work was inspired by the summer here on the ranch. It was HOT to say the least…many days of 105 degrees, drying up pastures…even almost dried up Johnson Creek that runs into our small lake. My studio looks out over the creek line.  It is always inspirational to me.

These pieces are all encaustic paint on cradled wood panels………10 x 10 x 2 inches.

I hope any of you who happen to live near Denton, will take the time to go by and see the show AND look around at  Earthwise Gardens. The festival should also be a lot of fun. http://wiseearthart.tumblr.com/artists

I now have eight but they still look a little like multiples of two. Maybe if they are re-arranged that won’t be as apparent. The first two have a lot more of an orange in the ground as well but I like them as they are so I hesitate to ‘fix’ them to go with the others.

They are not varnished yet or signed so I can always make a few adjustments but I think I can say these are about done. They will be hung as a group 5 or 7 of them probably anyway instead of all eight.

Ready for something really big next OR get out the wax.

Is this you? I don’t want to just be all alone in this feeling. I know others have the same problem. We all know about it first hand. We also know that we finally just cannot take it any longer and we go and just make that mess we have to make before we can get the groove going again. Even if it’s a little groove and not a long one.

Another thing is that I didn’t have any deadlines or obligations. I think I work better under a certain amount of time constraints if it’s not too stressful.

Last post * I was working on eight little 16 x 16 inch canvases that I was painting over. I do have a number of paintings I could paint over… and I eventually do. I prefer starting fresh though most of the time. This was pushed on me by having so much work in the studio it was good to get some out and it could then be replaced without adding to the inventory. I thought I was going to turn these little babies out in no time. So much for that notion. I think I take longer working on small pieces than I do with large ones. I started by just painting over the whole canvas with a mother color somewhat like variations of yellow ochre. Heck, everything goes with yellow ochre doesn’t it? Then I drew with a long Egbert brush with Payne’s gray… then I drew with Ebony pencils and charcoal…………then I started with black and white paint. Before I knew it I had a couple of them I thought I liked. Man, I was going to be more graphic and more minimalist.

I was wrong… the next day they looked like that stuff I mentioned before in the pasture….and dead as a doornail. SO, I went on to others and started working. I tried sitting down… not a good idea. I have to paint standing up. Finally got back up and worked on two I think I liked. Those are the two I posted last time.

SO…. I kept reading books and making food for holidays, shopping and in the back of my mind were those canvases just up in the studio waiting. I couldn’t do anything else until they were done…….I am built that way. I can waste an awful lot of time with this kind of thing but it has to be or I would have hundreds of unfinished projects.

Today I think I have two more of these eight done. I took pictures anyway to post two more. When all eight are done, then the decision will have to be made as to in what order they are hung.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who can tell me a great way to get through this self-imposed slump……….
*correction………… there was no ‘post’ about the other two canvases… it seems I posted them on FB. SO look there for the first two.

This morning I was going through my email while the coffee was dripping. One of the emails was from Lisa Call. Lisa is SUCH a wonderful writer with so many great ideas for taking control of your future… in art or anything else. I am always inspired after reading her blog. She has two that I subscribe to… one for her art and one for helping out all the rest of us out here needing some inspiration for our own careers as artists.

The link I am going to show today is Lisa’s site called, MAKE BIG ART. If we could all take even a portion of Lisa’s advice, we would make more progress in the coming year. If you just cannot get this organized (and many of us cannot)… then just prioritize and take a few of the tips you will find on this blog and make them your ‘to do’ list for 2012.

If I don’t get back to you before the first of 2012, know that I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous, happy 2012.

This is really something to strive for. Nita has some really great information along with projects outlined if you have never done collage. There are as many ways to collage as there are to paint. You’ll have a lot of fun with this book………available from Amazon with a number of pages to preview. I’m prejudiced of course…….my work is featured on two pages and a part of the montage of painting images on the cover.

This is also a beautiful book, made to be used. The book has spiral binding inside so it will lay flat while you are using it and referencing demos.

New Creative Collage Techniques by Nita Leland 

Gregory… a special thanks to you for climbing up and down to measure and hang the work.

This time I was not looking to do away with the horizon line as I did when I was working on the “Meander” series of paintings………but what I got is still a version and continuation of that meandering. This time my take off point was to do some gestural, automatic drawing, both with drawing implements like charcoal, pencils and art crayons as well as a large well-loaded brush of dark paint. I prepped my canvas in the usual manner with lightweight modeling paste and chose a transparent yellow, Transparent yellow iron oxide. I didn’t have any black with me so I chose Payne’s gray for my dark paint. I just started with a 30 x 30 inch canvas on the first one. It’s hard to say what else I did as I was using some of the suggestions in a book I have and have not really used before………. Steven Aimone’s, Live & Learn: Expressive Drawing: A Practical Guide to Freeing the Artist Within.

This is the result of that first painting. I liked it.

Meander 12

So, on to do another. I only had two 48 x 24 inch canvases left. Since they would not go on my easel side by side, I used them as a diptych vertically…………same size overall anyway, 48 x 48 inches.

I used much the same automatic drawing and painting but with a larger surface and different marks and gestures.  This one might be my favorite……..at least for now.

Meander 13