Monday, February 16, 2009

ONE NEW PAINTING

This isn't all that new.... I did it over two weeks ago and haven't painted anything but my daily postcards since.... I did make an attempt but I won't get into that. This is from a photo taken on the dock road looking north. This photo of the painting looks better than the painting..... the actual painting is darker in value..... too many glazes. And there was a bit more sky before I splattered on the snow and put a big glob that I couldn't fix and had to crop it a bit.

Van and I will be leaving on Thursday on our way to Florida and for the last week we've been busy getting things ready so we can be away for 2 months. Besides trying to figure what we're going to take and getting the tax stuff done, we've been putting all the liquids and food in one room where we'll put a light bulb heater so the things won't freeze and have been taking the house plants to friends houses..... the hoya has been in a high window for year and Van had to bring a tall ladder in to get it down today. We'll drain the pipes before we go.



This is fun thing I did a few months ago and took photos of today. The plywood form was cut out by a friend, Jim Healey along with a bunch more. He decorated several and gave some others away including this one to me. I collaged it with various papers.

This is a close up of the collage.

Good bye for now. I'll post again when we get settled in Florida.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

YEAR OF THE OX WOODCUT

For the last several years I have participated in a print exchange of Chinese Zodiac New Years animals, sponsored by the Baren Forum. The gallery for last year, the Year of the Rat is here. 2009 is the Year of the Ox and I just finished my contribution for the year.... a little late as the year began on January 26th. I will send out 53 prints to 53 other printmakers and they (most of them anyway) will send one that they make to me.

My image is a composite of several pictures in books and strongly influenced by a cow in a print by one of my favorite woodblock artists, John Platt. I referred to a black and white reproduction in a book I own which I used in planning my image. When I looked for an image on line to refer you to, I found this on the Woodblock.com site.... I'm not sure copyright allows me to show it here. I was thrilled to find the book by Platt (I had seen it listed before and thought it was the same book that I have which is more just a catalog.) and plan to read it through soon. David Bull has put together an amazing amount of information on woodblock printing on the Woodblock.com site, in particular the Japanese method and is also responsible for starting and maintaining the Baren Forum which sponsors the exchange.

Anyway, back to my print. A lot went wrong, as usual when I make a print. I love the process, but haven't made a print for almost a year and like playing a musical instrument or painting, it takes lots of practice to be even half way good. I print using Japanese technique. I printed it reductive using one piece of locally milled yellow cedar, carving out parts of the wood after each color printed.... this probably won't make much sense at all unless you know what reduction printing is... go here if you're really interested for an explanation on the last print I made. My husband had planed the wood with a friends planer and we both sanded it. Evidently not enough. I should have stopped after doing the first impression and started over, but continued, and didn't do as many impression (different colors or values) as I had planned to. There was a area across the middle of the block which was lower than the rest making getting an even print impossible. My old bamboo sheath covered baren did a better job than my ball baring one but not enough to get an even print. I couldn't get a good bokashi either.... gave up trying. The worst thing I think is that there isn't enough contrast between the oxen's hooves and the light colored grass .... and he seems to be levetating. Oh well, it was fun to make it and even more fun to get the one's made by the other participants.


Here is one of the better of the 70 or so that I printed. Its about 4 by 6 inches.

AN ART AWARD

[award_art.jpg]Thanks to James Parker, I've been awarded this art award and am suppose to list 7 things I love. I appreciate this and thank James. Since I'm very far behind in my blogging duties, I'm going to be very brief here.

l. My family
2. My friends
3. My home
4. Art
5. Music
6. Beauty
7. Life

And now I'm suppose to send this on to 7 other bloggers which is causing me some slight distress.... I know I've seen lists of loved things on some other blogs I read, and wonder if those bloggers might not want to feel obliged to take the time again. And I haven't corresponded with very many bloggers and wouldn't feel comfortable sending on to folks that don't know me from Adam. So, I'm going to just make a list of some blogs I really like and honor them that way,.... and hope I don't have 7 years of bad luck.

http://lindablondheimartnotes.blogspot.com/

http://makingamark.blogspot.com/
http://pharmwife.blogspot.com/
http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com/
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/
http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/
http://foxyartstudio.blogspot.com/

Sunday, February 1, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO VICTORIAN

This is my interpretation of the latest DSFDF challenge put on by Karin Jurick. You can see the photo and all the other renditions of it here. I love the Victorian houses in San Francisco, but this photo just didn't do much for me. I decided to change the colors on the house and give some contrast in the sky and windows. I did it smaller than the other DSFDF paintings I've done and figured just a couple of hours would do it, but I spent more like 6 hours. If I'd known it was going to take that long, I'd have been more careful on my drawing. I'm not very happy with it, probably more the drawing than anything. I have been printing out a print to paint from as I can't get the internet on the computer in my studio. After painting it, I see a lot of things in the photo I wasn't seeing correctly.

The fact that the photo didn't inspire me made me do a different painting than I would if it was something I chose to paint from one of my photos or in plein air. When I paint from one of my photos, there is that memory of the feeling I had when I took the picture, a wish to depict what I saw at that time. Without that personal connection with the image, I am definitely painting differently, changing things, actually putting more thought into the outcome. My husband said that people will probably wonder why I'm painting such things.... his kind way of telling me he's wondering why. At that point, I was wondering why too, but now know that besides the fact that I like a challenge, it is a great learning experience. It is like an assignment in a class. I've tried not to peek at the paintings done before mine but when I have, it has made me try harder to do my best. Later, looking at all the others, I've learned so much. Putting mine out there for people to see is a new thing too. Though I've put my work on my blog before, I've never gotten much traffic. Getting positive comments has been a real plus.