Gwen Fox Online Coaching and Critique Group, Continued

My abstract, "Balancing Act" 

"The Batchelor" by Andrew Wyeth

Back to the critique group after the post on my latest collage.

A few days after the graduation, we left  Brooklyn, NY, on the ocean liner, Queen Mary II. I could paint and when I got to England, I could post on our private group Facebook page. I selected "The Batchelor" by Andrew Wyeth and focused on shapes on the left side of the painting. If you look carefully, you can see how I arranged my shapes in a similar way. This was a tricky one, because I purposely violated the rules and put the center of interest smack dab in the center of a square. With my line work and a tiny sphere, I completed "Balancing Act."  This is also a small watercolor on paper done with Koi set and brush pen and using care to soften some edges and blend the shapes. Gwen said I succeeded. She liked the red and yellow at the center of the painting that emphasiΩed my balanced sphere.

Gwen Fox Online Coaching and Critique Group, Continued

 

My abstract, "On the Move"

 

"Still Life with Fruit and Jug" by Paul Cezanne

I was on a roll with abstracts, and I was now in New England for our granddaughter's graduation from Smith College. I sat at the counter of our large rented Victorian amidst family and friends and selected "Still Life with Fruit and Jug" by Paul Cezanne.  If you compare my shapes with some of the larger shapes in the painting, you can imagine my selection process. I did lots of soft edges and blending. This I did in watercolor using my travel Koi set with brush pen. I got good reviews from Gwen and fellow artists.

I learned as I looked at Cezanne's still life paintings that he painted many variations on the same subject. For example, there is "Fruit and Jug on a Table" that is similar to this piece. Painting in a series was not invented recently.

Gwen Fox Critique Group: Getting Started with an Abstract

          

                  My abstract, "Dreaming in Color"

Actylic on paper

Picasso's "The Dream"

Gwen talked about a good way to start an abstract. Select a painting by a famous artist and use some of the arrangement of shapes as your starting sketch. I chose Picasso's "The Dream" done in 1932. I used acrylics on watercolor paper. I should rework it somewhat and haven't done it yet. I identified two problem areas, the highly eyecatching green shape on top and the lack of variation in the he sizes of the shapes on the right side. Gwen agreed. However, I had a blast painting this piece.

John Salminen Workshop

"On The Edge"

Watercolor and Collage on Paper

20" x 32"

 

After a very busy travel schedule, I am going to post art done this year that I have not yet shown.

In February, I took an amazing workshop from very famous watermedia artist John Salmanin. John is both a great urban landscape painter and a fabulous abstract artist. I missed taking urban landscapes from him, but managed to enroll in Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society's abstract workshop featuring John. I really believed myself incapable of doing abstract art, but he proved me wrong. He is a wonderful instructor and his wife teams with him. In their workshops, everyone has equal access to the instructor and assistance.

He had us sketch four individual random objects, then we drew the objects onto a full sheet of watercolor paper, overlaying them upon each other. We removed some lines to create pleasing shapes in mama, poppa, baby sizes, while maintaining a path of unpainted white that is not cutoff at any point--a mouse could run through it. We spent the entire week painting and reviewed our progress each day in an individual session with John.

Along the way he taught us some favorite techniques: taping a shape, removing the paint, and repainting if we desired; using the Pat Dews atomizer to add shading to some areas; and adding bits of collage. Because I do collage, that part was especially pleasing to me. We were artists at various points in our journey, and he made sure that everyone was successful.

I was pleasantly surprised to have John tell me in a private conversation at the end of the class that I am a very good artist and to keep going.

Another Experiment

"Ancient Wonders"
8" x 10" Manipulated Papers on Canvas

A friend had done some nice abstracts using paper she manipulated with Citrasolv. Today I spent quite a bit of the day working on a floral magazine collage and I needed a break. The other day I tried the Citrasolv on some magazine pages. So I played around with a small canvas and some of the papers. The results made me thing of cave dwellings.

Betsy Dillard Stroud Workshop

"The Three Muses"

22" x 30"

In progress

It's been a super busy week with coordinating Betsy's workshop. Betsy is so creative and such a free spirit. I've taken her to dinner a couple times and we've had some fascinating conversations.

Next week I will catch up with my blog friends and write more about the workshop. For Betsy, painting is all about making your personal marks on the paper. In the 90s she modernized her approach by making very complex backgrounds and mixing realism and abstraction. Her demo Sunday was fascinating. She started with a "brush painting" - no image drawn on the paper and no plan. Consulting with the group on what they wanted to see, she did a large floral with a small figure. She first sculpted a beautiful floral arrangement, then she started adding tape to the paper, creating divisions and random shapes to paint around. She added the top of a Freido Kahlo type woman in an abstract manner in one section and began applying beautiful combinations of about 5 transparent colors to the background. When she removes the tape, she paints into those areas.

For the first three days of the workshop, we are having a model. Christina returned. If you click the link on her name, you will see a previous painting I did and entered into a show. Christina is a wonderful model who can twist herself into the most interesting poses and hold them without a flicker. We had a bonus with one of our SCVWS members, Jane Ferguson, offered to pose without charge one afternoon.

Betsy begins with warmups, 2 minutes and five minutes, and no erasing is allowed. That's true even on our finished paintings. She said the artists marks and corrections add interest, so the piece I've shown has no erasures. This is the piece I started on Day 1. Betsy had Christina take three different poses and we drew all three on our full sheet watercolor paper. Then we followed the process of applying tape. We were to do a dark, mid-tone, and light value on the three poses. When this piece is done, there will be no white showing. Betsy told me she likes this piece very much and I made good divisions of space. Be sure to carry the Scarlet Lake and the purple into all parts of the painting. I am really liking this painting.

The second day, Christina was back and Jane joined us. We did lots of warmups and then drew Christina in a prone position on paper coated with mat medium. I haven't had time to work on that one yet. I also have a great drawing on watercolor paper of Jane in very colorful clothes. Jane is a very accomplished artist and wears such unique and beautiful clothing. She says she is the original "Second-Hand Rose."

I hope to describe soon the process I learned for making stamps.

Rosicrucian Cactus

"Rosicrucian Cactus"
9" x 9"
Watercolor and Sumi Ink

Source photo

I usually don't post twice in one day, but today is the exception. I finally finished a painting! I started this piece about 3 weeks ago, but the Open Studios work, cycling education, and traveling got in the way. The piece had its roots in a plein air session with Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society at the Rosicrucian Museum in early April. We had a lovely sunny day and I was so taken with this sturdy old plant that I took several pictures. I knew then that I planned to paint a structure that day, so the photos would be for reference later. I liked the shapes and the suggestion of color.

I selected an Adjacent-Complementary Tetrad color scheme from Nita Leland's book, "Confident Color." So basically I used yellow and green against magenta and blue. I painted the piece using lots of artistic license and then added some sumi ink with a bamboo pen to the star of the show. I like the abstract qualities of the background against the defined, colorful branch.

I seem to be a serial painter. Somehow I must finish one piece before beginning another, so I would not allow myself to start the Memorial Day paintings I have in my head before I completed this work. I've always been very goal-driven, perhaps the result of being the oldest of seven children. I want to learn to have several paintings in process at one time. Next up is a scene from the San Luis Obispo railway station that is in my head and not my camera. I will begin the sketch today.

House under Framing Seige

Framing Table "aka" Dining Table

"Nepenthe Christmas"
11" x 14"

Here you can see part of the mess created by our matting and framing activity as I get ready for Silicon Valley Open Studios on May 9 and 10. The adjoining livingroom is equally disheveled. We are making good progress and might even finish today. Fortunately, Bob is really good at cutting mats, so he cuts and I frame. We have good tools; I use a power stapler and portable drill in the framing process. Bob uses a Logan Mat Cutter.

I've been going through my stash of painting sselecting the works I want to feature at Open Studios. Every Christmas Bob and I spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Big Sur Lodge. On Christmas Day we treat ourselves to a lovely meal at Nepenthe, an iconic restaurant developed by the Lolly family in the 60's during the hippy era. The family still owns the restaurant and were featured recently in the San Jose Mercury News. The restaurant sits high over the Pacific with a southern orientation over the coast. Mountain ridges meet the sea and recede into the distant view. The restaurant is surrounded by lovely old gnarled trees. This year, Bob set his new camera, a Christmas gift from me, on our table and took a photograph. I loved the reflections, so I developed this painting from it. You see the distant view through the window and the reflections of the greenery on the table. The bench cushions look colorful and add some abstraction to the painting. I love the shapes in this painting, and as I discovered in Mike Bailey's class, I tend toward being a shape painter when designing works for which I have no reference.

Cards are very popular items at the Open Studios. I have some prints being made now that I will adhere to the Photomount cards I ordered from ASW. I also want to make up "story cards" for the framed works, in which I will explain why I painted this particular work. This is a suggestion from Jeff Bramschreiber of University Arts on Meridian Avenue who taught marketing your work at "SVOS University." I am quite impressed with the organization that runs Open Studios. If you are in the Santa Clara Valley/Santa Cruz area, check your library or other public places for the Mapguides that give samples of artists's work and maps to guide you to the studios.

Future experiments

Source for future experiments

My latest edition of Watercolor Artist had the most interesting creativity article. The author suggests using Photoshop to alter your original art, which will help you abstract your painting. I played around with his suggestions a bit yesterday. (1) Open an image of your original art in Photoshop. (2) Select Filter, Artistic, Cutout, and then play with the three parameters presented to get variations of your art. (3) Use these as a source of inspiration for a series of paintings that can be ever more abstract. Here are a couple of mutations that I did with "Mujer de Gaucho 2."

I can't wait to try these, but wait I must. We have a major wedding in the family with Bob's daughter being married on April 18. We are very involved with events and will be hosting about 80 people for brunch the day after the wedding. So if you don't see much activity here in the next week and half, you know I'm cleaning house, shopping, or cooking. We are very excited about Jamie getting married and being a part of the big event.

I just tried the same Photoshop process with one of the cyclamen pictures and that one has awesome potential as an abstract./p>