After a couple of days of painting and doing nothing but art related activities at Colony this time, I got ready to mix it up a little. This is usual for me. I go from large paintings on canvas, to smaller collages on paper… to hot wax encaustic painting. I try to keep my work looking like MY work but with a different medium and emphasis.
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
I have found that book inspirational as well.
These paintings are really lush. I like the depth, the marks, the blend of colors.
The largest I’ve painted is 16 x 16 and I am ready to go larger……..you’ve inspired me. Do you use stretched canvas? I prefer something more solid….what would you recommend?
Hello Paula,
Yes… all these paintings are on stretched canvas. I do paint on wooden panels for my encaustic pieces…and recently for an oil that I thought I might be hard on so I used a wood panel. However, in large sizes they are very heavy to move around. That book’s exercises should get you to painting larger for sure. Maybe try not to make a finished piece but an experiment with the largest paper you can find. Good luck.
These look great Cheryl! This coming from a yellow ochre addict… so I guess I am jaded…(heehee no pun intended)..I think they are spectacular! I thought you posted them too but I think it was on FB and not G+, so glad you posted them here! I am finding myself using G+ more and more and FB less and less….and then just tumblr when in a hurry…I am finally unpacked all electrical stuffs handled and lights going again in my house. Got company for a week but after that full tilt back in the studio for me…
I’m still mostly using FB still but I think blogs get less notice for comments now as people comment on FB instead. I kinda regret that as I like to be able to go back and see the comments if I want to…and you can’t with FB comments.
I’ve got all my stuff unpacked as I expected a studio visit that had to be postponed… maybe next week but that will give me more time to varnish and put hangers on all the new ones.