It's like the first time you meet Someone

When I draw or paint in a new place; especially one that is so different from what my eyes are familiar with, it feels like that first conversation you have with a person you've just met. 
And if you like the place, its like knowing that you like the person you're talking to.
Newness, Curiosity. A need to know more.

Catalina Park, Tortolita Mountains

Pencil-Moleskin Sketchbook

 Madeira Canyon Watercolor w/oil pastel in Moleskin Sketchbook

Madeira Canyon, Oil pastel, Moleskin Sketchbook

Watercolor on watercolor paper sketchbook

We spent an afternoon sketching/painting in Madeira Canyon where the Cottonwoods were the most luscious spring green. Except for birdsong, the breeze, and the sounds of my brush moving on paper all was quiet.  I sat up on a hill, Muggsi down below.  A few hours passed. 

I've only begun to know the colors, shapes and the light of the Arizona desert.  A mere aquaintance for now.

 

More Book Art

For this post I chose some of my favorites from the book plus the ones with similarities in style.
With the exception of the second picture, they all feature the odd figures that I've been drawing/painting for about the last ten years.  I'm not sure where they come from, but they happen on pots when I glaze,  in sketchbooks and sometimes in paintings.  To me they're universal symbols--part of the collective unconscious I guess.  I feel they represent a sense of joy or lightness.

The lefthand side of the  second picture is a dream image--my house was on fire with a moon overhead.  (On the right hand side, I was just drawing legs!)

oil paint, oil pastel, fabric, old peterson field guide, pencil, colored pencil, thread

Book Art

As I said in the previous post, this book began as a place to wipe my brushes while I painted.  I picked up this idea from another artist who will use her sketchbooks in this fashion, which I've been doing for a few years now. For me having color already on the page is a good starting point for sketching into and lends itself to playfulness and a lack of inhibition.
The book making was an organic, intuitive process.  Each page grew on its own and at first there wasn't a relationship between the pages. I'd just open a page and start working on what moved me, either the brush marks I'd made or the text in the book.
These are pages 2,  3 and 4.

watercolor, string, photographs, photocopies, oil pastel, assorted paper

Book Art

                                                      PEACE

During the months of November, 2009 through the start of February, 2010 The Geauga County Park District held The DiscARTed Art Show revolving around the theme of recycling.  Artists submitted a range of works from stringed instruments made from cigar boxes (a bluegrass band played them the night of the opening), to lamps, jewelry, wall art, huge iron sculptures......

I submitted this book.

Last spring our school librarian was getting rid of boxes and boxes of books, to make room for more computers. (I've got mixed feelings about that.)  

I took many of the books for conversion to Art; for both me and my students. The book I reworked was from a series called THE GREAT IDEAS.  Full of writings by philosophers of whose work I know next to nothing.   The first page (shown above)  includes some of the names; Cervantes, Descartes, Spinoza, Newton, Locke, Hume. Faraday--these last three names are significant for any LOSTIES out there!

When I started with the book this summer, I used the pages in a random fashion for wiping my excess paint from my brushes.  Which then becomes a nice start for sketching, painting or collaging on.

What you see here is the Front Cover and the inside cover (p. 1)

Collage, oil paint, oil pastel, photographs, string.

Skeleton in the Classroom

This friendly fellow (seems male to me, don't know why) is part of a still life that is set up for my AP Studio Art Students.  I decided to work alongside the students.

What I re-learned....Sketetons are hard to draw!!

The one on the top is done in watercolor and oil pastel on gessoed backing board and the Smiling Fellow  is done in waterbased oils and oil pastel.

Artwork on YouTube

About 10 years ago a friend of mine bought a oil pastel painting of mine. Until a few nights ago when Bob was youtubing our friend, I hadn't seen the painting since I sold it. Follow this link here and see an earlier piece. Done during my oil pastel years.

Plus you can listen to some music!