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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Oil and Acrylic Mix in The Studio

A couple of paintings, in different mediums, in progress simultaneously today.
Letting intuition be my guide without
worries of making any errors. This painting is
more about design than the actually subject.
How confusing is that? One painting in oil, the other, in acrylic. I had to pay close attention to what I was doing with JD.  I could just respond as  intuition prompts with the abstraction. For me this is perfect balance--careful combined with carefree.

 JD got his red shorts and  A Tree Fell (I have to come up with a better title), got dabs, dashes, lines as I continued to perfect the drawing, the composition. I optimistically thought I might finish this  landscape today, but it didn't happen. This is one of those that you just keep responding  till "Just right" pops to mind. It didn't; it never does. "Good enough" will put an end to it eventually.

While I worked, it did occur to me how much I need to learn about the power of my brushes. I've never really taken the time to investigate the variety of marks different brush shapes can make. I think that might be a good idea. I think the idea was late in coming, but then, so was I to painting.

NOTE:

There will be no more lallygagging around in the studio this summer. I've got to get with it and clear the deck; I made an appointment to have a MAKOplasty, i.e. a half knee replacement, September 10th. OMG!  --Pencil will have to do over the rehab time--six to eight weeks.

Scrutinizing JD in this format, his shirt needs to be taken down a couple of shades and the background paled out--maybe?  It's amazing what I see when I translate a painting to photography for this blog. It's like getting as far back as you can get to see what you have been up to.  I love it--and I always notice a correction.



26 comments:

  1. I am still exploring abstract painting myself, I know what path I don't want to take, other than that is a work in progress. I like how you focus on the landscape painting in itself and pay less focus on the subject. I like how it is going. It got a nice abstract feel, but still with a organic feel, that there is something, some structure. Sorry for rambling.

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    1. The organic feeling snapped in today. As I keep correcting the initial "drawing," the subject may become more recognizable? I'm like you. I can't separate myself totally from the subject, for it is the why of the painting, the attraction that made me pick up the brush in the first place.

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  2. Bonjour,

    Vous êtes absolument incroyable ! J'aime votre manière de parvenir à créer et peindre tout en cherchant à découvrir le "vous" qui vous habite...
    Deux oeuvres qui vous tiennent en haleine.
    Gros bisous

    Ps : j'espère que tout se passera bien pour votre genou.

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    1. I have a little time before I have to worry about my knee. I do hope I don't change my mind, but I am a coward and as I get closer to the date, could back out. So we'll see.

      Thank you so much for your kind remarks. My seemingly unrelated styles has bothered me for years--but I do think it has to do with my design orientation. I do appreciate all the styles and periods and can work with all of them. That ability has been good for us in business. That flexibility isn't particularly good in the art business from what I've read.

      J'ai un peu de temps avant, je dois me soucier de mon genou. J'espère que je ne change pas mon esprit, mais je suis un lâche et que je me rapproche de la date, pouvais revenir en arrière. Donc, nous verrons.

      Merci beaucoup pour vos aimables paroles. Mes styles apparemment sans me tracasse depuis des années - mais je ne pense que cela a à voir avec mon orientation du design. J'apprécie tous les styles et les époques et peux travailler avec chacun d'eux. Cette capacité a été bon pour nous dans les affaires.Cette flexibilité n'est pas bon dans le domaine de l'art, ce que j'ai entendu.

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  3. Your page is looking great - LOVE the new header! JD is coming along well ... and balanced. And I surprised myself - I love your abstract, and I am not usually attracted to them. Damned if I could say why.

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    1. Thanks. It's really not all that abstract; it's a wood pile. A tree actually did fall in the forest and this is a close up of where the trunk split. As for JD, I'm still feeling the colors out. Never was the organized type to compose the palette first then get into the painting. Tried different blues today. Could use a few lessons on fabric painting. I've spent hours, days. Weeks, months of my life drawing nudes; now, I wish they had had some clothes on! :-)))

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    2. Oh, my, Linda that made me laugh as so many times I have wished for the same!

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  4. Well, I love this--not only two wildly different approaches...but different mediums as well. It shows off your versatility. I read somewhere that Georgia O'Keeffe worked on 2 or 3 paintings at the same time as a matter of course. I love that idea--though, I have always painted one thing at a time. I may have to take a page from your book(s) and try this for myself one day. I would think it might be very engaging to shift gears from one to the other. I'm glad you are getting your surgery. Frida Kahlo painted while in bed....why can't you? haha! Seriously....I want you to think about it!

    :)

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    1. I don't think recovery is going to be that difficult (unless aging has altered my usual speedy recovery capabilities?). They tell me six to eight weeks till absolutely mobile. But I'm driving in a week and I'm supposedly walking around the house day two. My concern is I want to be swimming by week twelve when we take our annual trip to Mexico. As for painting, my painting chair is on casters so I can wheel around pretty good if I have to. I hear sliding down stairs on your butt is great for toning the glutes. I will get to the studio. Though the decision makes me nervous, I think it's a good one. How long can I fool around with this on again off again knee pain; it's stupid.

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  5. PS! What kind of acrylics do you use, regular or slow drying like Golden Acrylics?

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    1. Golden up until the last batch I bought. I decided to try Dick Blick's less expensive brand. I buy the jars. Blick's is a little thinner than Goldens. I use Liquitex too. All are regular. I'm used to how fast they dry; I've used acrylics ever since they first came out on the market. Sometimes I speed the drying time up using a hair blower. Other times I slow the drying time down by whetting the surface with my spray bottle. Then there are times when I mix the colors in food containers and add as much water as I need to make a nice flowing paint with good coverage. This last is the best way; it eliminates matching tones over and over again on the palette. For this painting, I'm just playing it by ear off the palette.

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  6. Leuk om te zien twee totaal andere werken en ieder een kunststuk op zich lieve groetjes Danielle

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  7. Wonderful progress! And great new header.

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    1. Glad you like the header Dan and didn't get off point by my age showing in that particular drawing, which I think is Rockwellien. ( I wish).

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  8. The juxtaposition of the two styles shows your color eye is the constant in both. Maybe you use the same palette in both medias? What I find interesting is the implied energy of the abstract by technique. The strokes look fast and deliberate. I love that. I feel I am caught up in the artists energy.
    Thanks for the neat comment today.

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    1. Multilevel styles has been troublesome to me with my art throughout the years. That isn't the way of the fine artist. With this designer, the subject evokes my treatment of it.. A pile of splintered wood I saw on the floor of the forest, gets treated differently than a boy sitting on a railing crowing. Changing styles was very fitting in the design/build business where I always thought the architectural design of a client's home either had to be honored fully or carefully merged with the client's style. My abstracts, which aren't very abstract really, evolve from continually drawing while painting. It was very astute of you to notice that my strokes are very deliberate and spontaneous. That's from continually drawing and correcting. I do use a limited palette which seems to satisfy me. In that respect, my work is consistent.

      You are very welcome. That painting totally surprised me.

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  9. Love the header, and love your unique approach to everything! Glad to see JD has his shorts...he is looking really good. You have a perfect drawing to start with and that always helps. The abstract, I'm afraid, I can take or leave, but I do appreciate the thought and work involved, and know it is not as easy as just slap it on!

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    1. Thanks. It does show my penchant for repetition as well as my graphic design experience. --how else would you paint a pile of decomposing tree trunk? Perhaps in graphite, done very articulately? But it was the play of darks and lights that made me want to paint this subject--the design aspects of the subject. What else can you expect from a retired designer? This abstract is a drawing, the color makes it a painting.

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  10. I find a lot of the world's vignettes worthy of painting and choose only those that fascinate or tickle me personally--as all of us do.

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  11. Your virtuosity amazes me! I think your brain must be astoundingly flexible to accommodate the shift from realistic figurative to landscape abstraction and from oil to acrylic and back again.

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    1. Mediums and style all dictated by how the subject strikes me. That is not a fine art thing as far as I've noticed and has been annoying to me. It makes me think I'm not centered or focused. Nevertheless, the way I see a subject dictates my choice of medium and style. It's not a very conventional way of working.

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  12. yoooooo hooooooooo---LW...did you have your knee surgery?? We miss you! Where are you? :)

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    1. Thanks for thinking of me. I've been enjoying summer--biking, strengthening my leg muscles for a faster recovery in September when I will have the surgery on the tenth. There's lots of doc appointments to make in prep for that surgery too--CT, blood plus consultations on the best anesthetic for me. I do not want a repeat reaction that I had with general anesthetic when I had the arthroscopy. I'm looking forward to putting this knee behind me.

      I'm also taking an art/blogging break. I needed to refill my cup as someone once said. I haven't stopped painting, I'm just not publishing. I am keeping an eye on what you and the rest of my followers are up to. I loved your big shapes study. It's the only way to go

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    2. Well, good! I'll keep checking back to see if and when there are updates. Glad you are preparing for the surgery--you are smart to do that! AND it will be great fun to see what you do publish when you do! :)

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    3. Don't get too excited. It isn't going to be anything you haven't seen. There's nothing new going on here--painted that is. Lots of new recipes for favorite sauces are being devised, cooked and frozen. I HATE COOKING! The muses are not amusing. They never have been.

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