Following a Dream

Leaving HERE

to go

HERE

You can go HERE for the backstory.  Five days/nights of sunshine and starlight... hiking, birdwatching, sketching, sleeping and being in the desert.  Catching up with a friend!

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.

From Here to There (sketch to painting)

This summer I spent a few days with my sisters at the beach in Vermilion, Ohio on the shores of western Lake Erie.  I sketched a bit one afternoon, loving the variety of blues in the water.

For the last two weeks while "trying" to paint a commission piece--which isn't going so well--I started and finished the painting above.  I usually work on a couple of pieces at the same time, if a painting is too wet, I'll move to another.  It also keeps my energy for the paintings fresh.  This time I think I was using other paintings to avoid the commission, but also in hopes that I could take my enjoyment from the other works and infuse it into the commission.  So far its not working. ugh.  Fortunately there isn't a huge rush on the commission and I plan to get to it when I figure out what is blocking my creativity. (maybe I'll post a pic of what's happening so far)

So about the sketch and painting pictured here. In the painting I ended up turning Lake Erie into a landscape. Initially I had painted water, but I came back to the canvas a day or so after the water was in and it kindof morphed into landscape--which I know so much better than water--simply because I don't see the Lake on a daily basis, whereas I do study my little corner of the world everyday.
I painted a few pieces this summer which have a similar composition to the painting above.  I'm toying with the idea of painting a Horizon Line series.  I love the meshing of color, verging on abstraction; still landscape.

Twenty Minute Challenge and a Bonus Bald Eagle

Not such a clear picture of a Bald Eagle, but, I had to share it!  My neighbor and I have decided to walk every trail in every park in our local park district; no set time limit for the walks or for when we complete the venture.  It is serendepitous in plan, we go when we can, weather permitting.   The mild November weather lingered for our walk today.  As we emerged from the woods into a large open meadow, one bird flew by (Bald Eagle #1), a second followed.  The second Bald Eagle rode the thermals for a long time.  We lingered.

It seems I can't stop with the Twenty Minute Drawings.  I'm loving it!  Its great practice. The two shown here were done during AP Studio Art Class.  It was a quiet day, the students were working with such intensity that I was able to sit (for the most part uninterrupted) and finish in twenty minutes. The top piece is oil on watercolor paper and the bottom was done in my sketchbook using mixed media; prismacolor markers, watercolors and pencil.

I guess I'd better enter  The Twenty Minute Challenge soon.

What have I been painting lately... on a cloudy August morning and sketchbook inspiration.

okay, so there's plenty to look at here.
it was one of those clouds hanging heavy over the trees and earth kind of misty mornings.
i was hoping to go out and do some plein air painting but the weather kept me in. i was staring out the studio back door wishing i could go out to paint.
just looking out.
it started with a quick study (not shown) then led to another.



then another.



then this big one. 36 x 48. it's striking in real large life. i wish the digital photos conveyed how they feel like the atmospheric cloudiness of the day.



this is a sketchbook scribble paint drawing which



led to this.



i bought this canvas at a yard sale when i was in Chautauqua earlier this summer. it was already painted on and heavily textured, 36 x 36 in size. i had some fun messin' around with the surface texture--scraping away areas and adding my own lines, shapes and textures.

i call it Flight. i think of my mom and dad, not that they fled but are in flight, beautiful flight.

Where is Home? what started as a sketch

Continuing with the sketchbook inspired paintings and the series which I've titled "Where is Home?", this piece is completed.
Where is Home? The question emerged sometime after my Dad died. Home in memory. All that is in a home, who makes it home.
The image of the triangle, symbolizing journey, our journeys...but there is always home in some way for most of us on our life journey.
One night I was driving home and a barn down the road was illuminated in moonlight. I identified with image of the barn and have related it to the universal 'home shape', four walls and a pointed roof.

Bird Moon

This sketchbook drawing was a precursor to this painting. In real life (not virtual life) the sky is more of a purple in the painting.
The house image is a shape I've been toying with for a few years. (One of the shapes that emerge from within when I sketch and play, (along with the triangle)) I've posted other images of the house/moon connection. (When I figure out how to post a link to previous posts, I'll connect you) There are more percolating in my sketchbooks. Future episodes will tell as to whether or not they become paintings.




The moon was rising one late summer night, it was misty. It emerged from behind a barn. Captivating.
Two weeks or so ago, the moon was setting behind my neighbors house off to the right, attached to the house. Just like the sketch, which had been drawn already.

More Sketchbook Paintings

Happy December 31st and a Happy Birthday to my brother Mike!


Following up on the last post's content I thought I'd post a few more images of works inspired directly from sketches.









This one is titled "Home in the Woods". There was a theme developing this year with the concept of HOME as its center. The typical house shape began to emerge in my sketches; sometimes with the triangle other times with a circle (which I began to consider a moon) and other times somewhat realistically in the landscape--more to come there.








This painting is titled "Do You Know Where You Are...Part 2" (not sure how I feel about part 2 in the title, I might retitle it). This one is the second of two paintings, the first shown in the last post. (the ideas behind the paintings are also discussed in the last post)

Visiting my sketchbook

When I paint I use my sketchbook as a space to wipe my brushes. Later I draw, write, add media or paint into it. The painting below is derived from the sketchbook page above. Regarding content; in the sketchbook I was still processing my Dad's death. At the time the sketch was made, I'd begun to tuck all of 'it' into a place in my heart. Nestled in, tucked in. The little circle is the tucked away space.