I Want A Painting
I got an email from someone a few days ago………..saying “I want a painting”. You know how that goes, you wonder is this another email from someone I’ll never hear from again?? A few more days go by and they respond to your email back. YES, they want a painting…and today I went out and bought a canvas in the size they wanted. I’ve now got it on the easel with an undercoat of a beautiful golden color and I just know it will please his wife for her birthday.
You know, I just have a feeling this will be one of those special ones that will just float right off the brush and I’ll wonder how it came to be. Ahhh……and he even likes blues and purples and I had been thinking I’d have to stay away from some of those purples unless someone tells me they like them. It’s a smaller canvas than I ususally paint on so we’ll see how it goes………..
Makes me wonder if someone else wanting a painting is the biggest muse out there.
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That Other Place
Finally……….I think this one will work. I looked at it again this morning and signed it. The title will be That Other Place. It’s acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50″……..and the first painting of the new year.
I waited until the sun was right for a photo……..can’t get the wind to quit long enough to keep my black felt background cloth in place for slides but I did take a digital.
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New Year 2006
Here I am on the first day of the New Year 2006…….doing what I’ve been doing for months, everything but getting into the studio. Recording old LP’s so I can load them on the I-pod. That I-pod is supposed to be for background when I’m painting…….making a home-made pizza. As if I need to eat pizza. Seems like there’s always something and none of it is of much importance. Maybe the printing out of the past year’s accounting and finding I did pretty well this year.Who ever thought they’d want to do accounting rather than paint?
I think that’s the point, do anything but my art. I just don’t like anything that is happening with my work for months. Does this mean that I’m in a period of growth? Have my expectations gotten ahead of my abilities? I certainly hope it is a period of growth… but there is that little niggling feeling back there in the back of my mind that I have nothing to say. How can that be….me with the big mouth?? Well, it could be said that having a lot to say but that is inconsequential is not really saying anything. Okay…let’s stop all this thinking negatively….I’m a positive person.
Finally…….I went to the studio, looked in the palette keepers and all the paint but one pile was dried up. SO…..I threw it all away and put out all new, clean paint…..how glorious those new piles of paint always look. A new beginning, a new year, a new painting. Well, maybe a new painting, the one I’ve added lots of arbitrary lines to with charcoal just now has had two incarnations already since September and now it’s time for old number three. Hopefully, as the saying goes, the third time’s the charm.
Okay, okay….I’ll save this in drafts and go back….no more putting it off. Back later.
Wow, back again AND……….. a good session in the studio. It’s about time. Hope I can feel the same way tomorrow when I look at it again with a new eye. It’s dark now so I can’t photograph it for the blog. If it looks like I hope, I’ll do it tomorrow if the sun shines.
‘Til tomorrow——
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Back in the studio and other stuff
Well that started out with a bang….I pressed enter and nothing but a title comes up. Good thing there is an EDIT button. That’s what happens when you don’t post for so long. Also trying to remember the log on info :>)
I haven’t been in the studio a lot the past month and a half. I’ve been preparing to ship a lot of work to my gallery in Winston-Salem, NC for a show that opened there at the West End Gallery November 4. Here are some pictures taken at the opening reception …. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cheryl75604/album?.dir=/dc47&.src=ph&.tok=phnNN5DBG4RPSbbj
I did work on something I planned to give to the pilot who took me to Santa Fe in June…..gosh was it that long ago? How time flies. I wanted to make a collage using some materials and information from the flight. His plane is a Seneca II, so that, and some flight maps of the area and the tail letters of the plane were incorporated in the work. I did have an idea to add other images but lost the hard drive on my new computer and along with it some of the photos I took on the trip.
If you look closely you will find a small image of a Seneca II plane. This collage is 22 x 22″.
Now that I’m back from North Carolina, I’ll be back in the studio with a lot of work to do. First, will be to start back to work on the 40 x 50″ canvas that I started earlier when I painted the “storm”.
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September 6
It’s been quite a while now since I’ve added to my postings. I was spending a lot of time in the studio determining what more I needed to do for my show in November. I was finishing up some work, framing, and thinking about a couple of new large pieces on canvas. One turned out a little low key and had somewhat of an ominious look……a stormy look. I finally decided that it wasn’t my usual painting but it worked………titled Storm’s Brewing.
Not too many days later, Katrina hit the gulf coast and I felt odd about that painting for some reason. …as if it were a precursor of something to come. I have so many good friends all along the coast of Mississippi and around and in New Orleans. We have all been communicating a lot through our Mississippi Art Colony group/list and rejoicing when we find another is okay or that their home might not be totally ruined. This is consuming the time I ususally would want to work. I just want to know that everyone will be okay. They all have such a remarkable attitude about this catastrophe. I admire their resilience. There is no doubt in my mind that they will be better than ever when this is all over and their lives can resume some degree of normalcy.
I know I need to get back into the studio and work out the moods and feelings that come with this but I can’t seem to do it right now…………….soon I hope.
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August 8
Over the past few days, I’ve worked on two more monotypes not previously pictured and re-worked another that was.
I kept looking at the one with the chine colle pieces with the rocks from Collioure and just couldn’t keep the rocks. I pulled up the edges of the paper and peeled and scraped off as much of 
it as would come loose. I, then worked on the bare spots with oil based relief inks again to protect the bare paper from the linseed oil in the oil paints. After I did this I just kept working on it and turning it around. The final piece is now in a horizontal format instead of vertical. I may need to re-think a title here now that the rocks are gone.
I continued to work on two more pieces that I think of as aerial views of the landscape. They also turned into horizontal format by the time I was through with them. I added oil paint to the monotype……one of these is the ghost of the other.
I’ve also determined that the two chine colle pieces from France and Spain from the previous post will need a lot more refining and simplifying……..they are just too busy looking and lots of the information will have to be edited……..but that is for another day.
It’s also good that I determined some time ago that it didn’t matter if these pieces remained true to the monotype process………’cause they sure aren’t and have turned into paintings.
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Monotypes, continuing
Working over the weekend, I put up some of the monotypes on the easel …I think some may be finished. With that in mind, I put those away and pulled out four more that are 16 x 20″ printed on full sheet copperplate paper.
After making the decision to forgo the pure monotype process, I feel better about permitting anything goes to develop them further. I will keep in mind the fact that they are oil based and use compatible materials on top.
Since I’m no longer using a plate to work on these pieces, I just decided to work directly with both oil based relief inks and oil paints. I’ll extend the inks and paints with burnt plate oil to be more compatible with the paper surface.
The first two are the ones with the Spanish and French brochures and maps I chine colle to the paper when I printed them on the press. I’ve found it better to use brushes most of the time although I’m still using a brayer in some areas. By the time I get to the other one with the picture of Collouire rocks I’m changing up the colors and layering more….also using more of my customary marks on the pieces.
By Sunday I’m on to working on that very first piece I ran through the press……yellows with gray and black. I do like it’s simplicity but I think it lacks in surface quality. Starting to mix up more pigments, I use a brayer and brushes again to add a lot more black and subdued greens into the lower section (now at least, lower) to help it contrast more with the brighter, smoother section in the top.
Will leave them to hang on the wall for a day or two and consider “what next?”…….when in doubt, leave it for awhile . I also took some digitals of these steps.
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July 11-12 Working on the monotypes
I got back to work on the monotypes I started in Santa Fe now that I’m finished with the collage work I started before I left. I got out the old oil based relief inks so that I could use something compatible with what I call “starts”.
Suddenly it dawned on me that I no longer had the ghost image on a plate so that I could match up and register the print with a new layer. I finally remembered the old light box back behind the work table. It’s large enough for a full sheet of paper so I turned my “start” from the workshop on it’s face and could see enough of where the design was placed that I could ink the plexiglas for another layer.
I started with the piece that was the least developed and had design problems due to a prominent piece of chine colle on the left side. I do this all the time (starting with the one that might be beyond help) so I don’t have to worry about ruining something with a lot of promise. Practice makes perfect so they say so maybe I’ll have had a little more practice by the time I get to the ones with more promise…..or that are almost resolved.
In looking through all the “starts” I’ve decided that if I like some of the ones that slipped under the press and caused a “craftsmanship” problem with the edges, I’ll just cut them off and float them like any other work on paper…………..who says you can’t? I don’t like messy edges, reserving apparent messiness for the painting. I’ve never preferred work that looked too “slick”.
When I started the roll outs, I’m finding I don’t like what I’m getting in the layering process. It makes beautiful layers but layers alone don’t make a painting in my estimation. The inks just don’t move like paint. SO…………out came the old oil paints and brushes. These heavier applications may take a gazillion years to dry in comparison to my acrylics but they sure worked better for the overall look of the work.
Over the next two days, I’m working on more and more of the works. I don’t need to do much to the small 12 x 12″ square ones. Looking and working on them, a few titles came to mind………Fields and Holiday……….Holiday since some have elements of some of my traveling around in France and Spain.
I’ll post a link to some of the before and after when I’m done with all of them.
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Mixed media collages done
I finally decided yesterday that all eight of the mixed media pieces on canvas are finished. I took digitals and slides and got out the varnish. I’ll order some “floater style” frames for them as I think that it will enhance the work and also help protect the edges.
Altered Visions 1 is the title for this one in the series of eight.
The others can be viewed at http://www.cherylmcclure.com/canvasworks.htm
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Recovering from Workshop
I’ve been home from the monotype workshop for almost a week now. I’m waiting impatiently for a few supplies so I can work on the pieces I started there. Rather than write this several times and upload a lot of pictures, I’m including a link to two web pages I set up for the workshop. Note there is another link at the bottom of the first page.
http://www.cherylmcclure.com/pokrassoworkshop.htm
It was certainly a rewarding experience. I know that down the line a lot of what I learned will show up in my work….all it takes is one or two things to make a lot of difference in the progression or evolution of your art.
Now that I’m home, I started back to work on the mixed media pieces I left behind on the easel. I hope to have them finished in another week and then start on the monotypes and some large easel paintings.
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Off to Santa Fe and feeling like a jet-setter
I haven’t had a spare moment to post anything since leaving for Santa Fe. I had the great good fortune to have my daughter and her friend Paulo fly me out in his plane. It was quite an experience to be arriving in a private plane….what a treat. I took a few aerial pictures but I’m having problems with the computer “finding” my camera connection for some reason. If I can figure it out I’ll post some pictures but it may have to wait until I return home.
There are quite a few of the artists attending the Ron Pokrasso Monotype workshop staying at the same place so we’re getting acquainted and traveling back and forth to the printmaking building at the American Indian Arts Institute south of town.
There is just SO MUCH to learn. It’s so exciting to be learning the ins and outs of another means of enriching my painting and collage work. Ron is a super, energetic, knowledgeable teacher and so generous with his time with all of us. There are some who have done some printmaking in the past but several of us haven’t. We come from all over, California, Connecticut, Florida, North Dakota,Texas (me), Arizona and several live here in Santa Fe.
We are all working hard…..standing all day is a given. This workshop is sponsored by Making Art Safely …www.makingartsafely.com and they strive to have as few chemicals used in the studio as possible. We are using oil based inks but clean all the plates, brushes, palettes, brayers, etc. with a product new to me SoySolv. I’ll be sure to get some if I continue to use oil based paints and inks in the future. We use Gamsol only as necessary and I haven’t been bothered with the smell at all.
We spent a lot of time today learning about adding chine colle to the monotype. I got two that I like a lot more than the three I started with yesterday. They definately will have more work done on them before they’re finished. Of course, some may never see the light of day anywhere :>). You have to have a few duds now and then and they serve their purpose of learning a new process.
Well…gotta got put these swollen feet up and rest up for tomorrow and another day of discovering more about monotypes.
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hanging in there
I’ve not been doing a lot with the collage these past few days. I’ve been getting my gear ready for a trip to Santa Fe. Every time I go in the studio, I look at all of them…add a little bit more here and there and decollaged a lot on one. I had every intention of having these pieces finished before I left town……….so far, intention hasn’t gotten me very far. It’s amazing how long it takes to do such small pieces……..I could have probably finished two large paintings in this time and these are still not there yet. Maybe tomorrow……….
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