Enough Fruit

Painting in progress. Chocolate Cannoli, day two. Chocolate cannoli
have to be easier to make, then they are to paint.

I imagine Cannoli aren't easy to make, for they certainly aren't easy to paint. I spent the day searching for the mix of the darkest cannoli chocolate with some life in it. I wasn't entirely successful. As I keep working though, the answer will come; it always does.

Pink is the connective color  in this trip tyke.

 Hung on the wall to dry, it looks to me like the piece of chocolate cake in the foreground of the lowest panel may have to be pinker to balance the pink powdered sugar in the left hand corner of the top panel. Pink is the connecting color. I was just feeling out the colors today and the brush work. Naples Yellow is a Godsend--as is this Titan Buff that I bought once on a need for a warmer white than Titanium. I have to order some more paint.

After a few comments yesterday that said these pastry paintings are more commercial than residential, I looked at my kitchen wall decor. I've got my mom's plate collection mounted, my MIL's needle point of a Matisse (where she replaced the white in the picture with beige for God sake. What did Matisse know); and three paintings of mine and one large platter I got from Mexico. My pastries seem right at home and do not tempt me to run out to the bakery to get a piece of torte. I just like the colors and that the painting is uniquely different.

 I have thought of taking that painting down, replacing it with my mom's bagel dish and hanging the three new pastry panels over the three doors like fascia paneling. Might be cool? Certainly would be colorful. If my kitchen was bigger and I had more counter top runs, those acrylic panels would also look great in the back splash area. Practical too. Acrylics are more washable than walls. But I'm a cook. Unlike my clients, I keep a lot of utensils on the counter top. Those would have to go to keep the look simple. Ellis would be thrilled. He is not an advocate of "point of first use."

 Now you see what you started? You asked me, round about, what are you going to do with these? I'm going to finish painting them. Then maybe I'll take them down to Greek Town to the bakery where I took the reference photos and ask them if they're interested? Or I could make a list of possible commercial "homes" for these and send a brochure--also to  interior and kitchen designers. There are marketing possibilities--including over the three doors in my own kitchen. I'd put the three panels together in my dining room if I had one. Ellis and I eat around the large coffee table in the great room  (that will seat eight). And when people come over (which is hardly ever), I'm a buffet hostess. People can eat where ever they like.

Enough Fruit

Give me some vivid color in my kitchen and
something different.

My Genius Was In Today

I woke up resolved to put in fuller days in the studio. It was six thirty. I dressed, went downstairs,poured coffee, replied to comments, viewed a few blogs and stumbled into this video of a lecture given by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love that reinforced my determination, by easing those little anxieties I have about my capabilities. I was in the studio by nine fifteen dancing to BB and working with the yellows I have (CYM, Hansa and Naples) and hoping my genius was in the room. It was. The session went well. I didn't finish the painting; I didn't expect to. I took it as far as my knees would let me then came up to ice at the computer, before the afternoon session.

 Behind me on the other side of the glass I could see my paint order on the porch. After lunch there will be stocking to do and then I would see if cadmium yellow light was really all that important. It was. I also discovered that I didn't make a mistake buying Titan Buff a couple of years ago. It's warmer than Titanium white and that's what I wanted for the chocolate. My muse was by my side in the studio again. It may not be there tomorrow, but today was a good one. The two paintings are looking well together and will be striking when hung horizontally three inches apart. Tomorrow, I'll start the third panel. I'm getting excited all over again about the project. See if Elizabeth doesn't excite you with her philosophy about creativity.

CYL People in The Flesh

Work in Progress: Banana Cream Pie, 30: x 10", acrylic

We followed a UPS truck moving slowly down our street. He was looking for an address. I was hoping it was mine and all the paint I ordered last weekend would be on my doorstep in moments. But he stopped short of my house. Yellow Cadmium Light would not be on my palette during my afternoon session. Shite. 

So I carried on without it incorporating Naples Yellow in the dots and dabs and then moving on to analyze the colors of chocolate under the fluorescent light of a display case. Cool.

 I still haven't gone to Michael's to get a canvas for JD--I still haven't heard a word from the art association I joined in order to take the gestural portraiture workshop, which begins on August 13th. Half of me wants it to be a go; the less confident other half wants it to be canceled--well actually, three quarters wants it to be a go and only a quarter wants it to be cancelled. I'd like to size the place up with regards to its value in my life. You all are great, but some talented people in the flesh, who share my interest would be a big plus.

Detail of a work in progress. There's a lot of crimson in chocolate.

Potato Chip Junkie

Work in progress: Banana Cream Pie, Acrylics; middle portion of  30 x 10" stretched canvas.

My lower level, my favorite place to be. The watercolor station is
on the bar (left).  Oil and Acrylic studio down the hall., past the bath.
Exercise area with mirrored wall beyond the couch. I designed
the space, Ellis built it. We had a great business partnership. I miss it.

On the weekend following my physical where I learned my bad cholesterol is on the rise, I chose to paint banana cream pie. Typical me, do what you shouldn't. I haven't touched this painting in a week or more. As you know, I needed some Cadmium Yellow Light, but I kept putting it off. I finally put in my paint order yesterday.I figured bite the bullet, put up the money; all my acrylics were low. Too tired to do watercolor, after I had divided a couple of large wc sheets, I chose a session with acrylics to wile away an afternoon.

 Opening my acrylic palette, I discovered much to my delight that the paint mixes were still as moist and workable as I had left them over a week ago,(Masterson disposable paper palette with a dampened sponge pad liner in an airtight box, excellent), so I figured go ahead, jump in, add CYL when it comes. The more I worked, the more I felt myself loosening up.  

After a lifetime preference, I do feel comfortable with acrylics. I do enjoy painting pastries. Oddly enough, I don't like to eat them. I'm a potato chip junkie--was a potato chip junkie. That report put me back on the elliptical trainer and  sunrise swimming  this weekend. Love that lake--with no wind squalls and no people.

Mirror Lake

All To Myself Alone

I Gotta Have It NOW!

What's coconut creme pie without cadmium yellow light? Impossible.

What's a weekend without a glitch? Unusual.

 I really let my acrylics dwindle down as I stocked and explored oils the last months. I'm close to being all out of the essentials. I was forced to turn out the lights and end the session. I could have turned my attentions to the chocolate cake and the strawberry strudel, but I really wanted a piece of pie. Cadmium Yellow Light is the connector, the color that will run through these three sections. I gotta have it now!  

Coconut Creme Pie

Serving up Coconut Creme Pie, Strawberry Strudel and Chocolate Mousse Cake on the easel

A carefree day at last. I got off to a good start for the weekend. I started panel two of the trip-tyke I had started last year. These are such fun. No heavy thinking, no serious measuring of points, just color and and imagining the texture of chocolate and whipped cream and toasted coconut and wondering how am I going to pull this off? The answer was "It's Pie. Enjoy"

This is the panel that I finished first. I call it Chocolate Mice. Ellis hates it. "They're disgusting he said."
I adore it, because the idea is disgusting and that's why I took the photograph and what makes the painting fun. --And the mice themselves were delicious. They're filled with chocolate creme. There's nothing disgusting about chocolate creme. He's so straight.

The trip-tyke is going to be great. Here's my reference photograph:

I took this photograph at a Greek Bakery,  in Greek Town, in downtown Detroit
The trays weren't displayed as I have them here. This is a composite of
three photographs put together   as I see the trip-tyke hung.
Coconut Creme Pie is the lower shelf thus the change in perspective. The
top shelf looks a bit boring, but I prepped the canvas for that one, so I'm ready when I'm ready.
I'll pump it up.

Just When You Thought You Failed

This may get to be a painting after all.

The reference photo

May be you didn't. Your eye says, don't scrap that just yet. Keep playing. There's something coming here. That's what I thought walking back into the studio after avoiding doing so.

When I left the studio this morning, I figured what was I doing using that photo for a painting reference; it's a good photo by itself, not a painting for me. It's soft. It's fluffy.  All I was doing was making a mess and wrecking a canvas. I closed the door figuring  get the gesso!

When I returned,  I thought  well, maybe not. The spacial depth is there. The viewpoint looking down from above is coming.along.  Hold off.  Trust instincts. I'm almost out of acrylics and this baby is going to need a lot. Worry about it when the kids leave.

This quote from Degas fits this situation: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things." This  morning's palette knife approach, then drawing in and scraping  had a positive effect. I'm starting to see what I see in that photograph.

I Hate Dirty Pictures!

Detail upper left-hand corner of Rain.

So I threw out that dingy mess and went in for the joy of it.

Georgia O'Keeffe, when asked about her painting process, said, "I start at the upper left hand corner and paint till I get to the lower right"--or something to that effect.  I attacked Rain (I'm dropping the forest part of the title) with my best deKooning approach. The session became fun. No spray bottle. No rivulets. No thoughts of a grid. Just wet into wet with brushes, knives, fingers and palms. 

Finding Rain Grays

Rain Forest, underpainting 2.

And establishing a palette. In the process of feeling out the palette by formulating grays, the stuff that holds compositions together, I started drawing with Rubbing Alcohol. This painting will have a striated composition. Alcohol did some nice dribbles. The resulting columns still look too equally spaced, but it was time to give it a rest.  After it dries, I'll be shooting with the hose to make sure all that chemistry is washed away. One wants a clean, sturdy build up of healthy paint layers.

Brutus, our family's new dog.

At this early point, I see "Rain" to be not all that colorful, but rather grays mingling in patterns. So I think now; who know what the painting will dictate later once it takes on a life? I have a desire to use a palette knife. I'm sitting on it at this point. The foerground below the focal point isn't prominant as yet--neither is the focal point.

Our family has a new dog! Brutus. He's part Pit Bull Terrier, part Chesapeake Bay Retriever. He's two years old, past the puppy stage and very sweet. I could kick myself for not having any doggy cookies. Anyway, I tried to catch a sophisticate photo for the album, but all I got was what dogs like to do best.  Phone camera skills: Nil.

Breaking The Ice

New Beginnings

I woke up this morning thinking Payne's Gray (my favorite black), Alzarin Crimson, Hooker Green, Cobalt Blue or Ultramarine(?), lots of white. Mix up a tinted gray--maybe some Umbra?  After two suduko puzzels on my iPad procrastinating beginning, I descended the stairs and just picked up my palette knife and started mixing those colors on a little canvas that happened to fall off the shelf when I straightened up a bit.

Playing around  with color on the side.

Instead of pulling out the canvas I had in mind, a three feet by five feet gallery, I pulled out a 30 x 40. It was big enough for something I wasn't sure was my kind of painting. I sprayed the ground with water and using a sponge laid in the med dark sections. I then decided to let the paint run,  for the rivlets would divide the canvas more naturally than I would with a ruler and pencil.--this is not a painting to be constructed mechanically. Plus rain equals rivlets. Now I'm siting here and waiting for my initial  wash to dry and playing around with the little canvas (8 x 10) that I used to mix the gray on. I haven't incorporated all the colors used  for the gray, but I will. As I worked,  I kept thinking about Clyfford Still's work, even though there's nothing pastel about it, but has a lot to do with pattern and the spacial effects of color.

For now, I like John Simlet's title from the comment he left on my last post . Rain Forest is quite appropriate. Thanks John.

Clyfford Still. Not the Naples yellow spot on the right, but
no where else. I couldn't leave it like that.

Not A Chance in Hell!

Summer Shade,  2008 - 2012,  36" x 36", Acrylic on Gallery Stretched canvas.

The reference photograph taken in late August, 2008

This painting was an obsession, a catharsis, an acting out.  It made me antsy for years. I could never get it  right. And I wanted to. So every now and then,  I kept attacking, as you all well know.Even though I claimed  that I was finally finished with it, Memorial Day I attacked it again.

Then early Monday morning, full of remorse for not leaving well enough alone, I was out with it in the yard  at six with my denatured alcohol, scrub brush and power washer shooting off  my latest angst. Lo and behold newer parts melded with older parts leaving the feeling I was after.The painting felt  the way I felt the day I took the photo.  I  put a refresher coat of paint on the edges, varnished it and hung it on the wall.  Under the spots, it's gorgeous. The painting is alive with emotion and a wild  mix of Bachelor Buttons, Goldenrod and Queen Ann's Lace  blooming in deep shade in late August. It makes Winter look sick. The two are not good companions.

Winter hanging next to Summer Shade on my observation wall.

Summer Shade is made up of many layers of under-paintings applied brushstroke after brushstroke, forever drawing and correcting, that built up a rough texture.  Scrubbing those layers with denatured alcohol revealed the painting's history. It's a rich one. Here are some details of the surface. I figure if I cut this canvas up, I'd have four decent abstracts. Not a chance in hell!  The painting came too hard.

FOOTNOTE:  I was going to change the title of Summer Shade to The Summer After--suggesting there was a serious  impetus for this painting, but it emerged beautifully. In its darkness, rich with colors, it's a bit awesome--which probably means it stinks if that's what the artist thinks.

Another Crosses the Final Finish Line

Remember Summer Shade, the first painting I did  in the summer of 2009 after finishing a full load of cancer treatment? Well it got a bit more cheerful this morning. I've been staring at it for three years thinking it's freaking depressing. Today, it got splashes of red, pink, a lot more yellow, happiness.  2009 was a scary year.  While I went through all the docs said to do methodically and in good spirits, beneath my upbeat demeanor was terror. It's gone. I painted it out.  Do you notice how more controlled my brush strokes are today versus then? Then I was angry. Now the kids are coming, the kids are coming and I'm looking forward to the mess and the noise and the chatter and the laughter and all the shoes scattered all over the front hall. Break a leg.

A Little less; A Little More And Bingo!

A little less color was had with a little more "black" added to Spring

A little more density was had with more  deeper colors added to Fall.

Winter at a healthy weight

Summer at a healthy weight

ALL FOUR CORNERS OF MY FOUR SEASON PAINTING WILL STAY DOWN NOW THAT THEY WEIGH THE SAME. With multiples balance is everything.

I knew I'd have to go back into these things, that's why I left them propped against the wall so long. Well, their weights have been evened off and their edges have been painted mahogany--actually a mix of umbra, alizarin and dioxinine. Tomorrow or later, I am going to oil them out.  I like that process. It gives a nice oil painting finish. Then I'm going to hang them. In a month, I'll varnish to ward off dust. polishing silver is easier than bringing a painting to its finished state. I'll photograph them when they're mounted on that Chinese red wall upstairs. After that I'll stop boring you to death; I promise.

Winter in May

So I mixed up a batch of  dark mahogany to paint the edges of this winter scene along with the other three paintings in  Four Seasons  and I think Winter isn't carrying its weight. It's not as intense as the others. It wouldn't hold down its corner. It also needed a tad of sunshine. Yellow turned out to be the connective color between the four paintings. I  added weight. I added yellow. I can now sign it.

Separating oneself from a painting, before declaring it is finished and signing it, is a good thing to do. The time expanse allows me to see where the painting succeeds and where it  falls short.  The time expanse allows me to separate myself so I can see the painting objectively. I think that time expanse is a good thing before sending it out into the world. 

Bog Blog

This is how I really see the bog. It's not a pretty place. It's a muddy umbra spot, a hopscotch puddle that once connected our little lake to the pond beyond these trees. I weeded  out a lot of brush and blurred  out trees. This one would have made a good oil painting. The reference photograph can stand on its own.

What was satisfying was using the Masterson Acrylic palette box with sponge liner and disposable paper. The colors squeezed from the tube and mixed on the paper stayed wet since I first showed you this little relief painting.  I've  returned to the palette system  for acrylics because the acylic palette I had premixed and stored in small food containers had run out. I haven't felt like mixing new batches.

On With The Show

First impressions are the best.  This 8 x 10" acrylic is my first impression of the bog off the  little meadow behind my house.

With this little painting of a bog , I gave up obsessing over the bog of my blog. My savvy computer son said my loss of images was my fault.  A very trusting me bought a  custom domain from Blogger and then let it expire. I suppose the expiration  and my resolve back to the Blogspot domain broke the image reference?  The break happened on page two,  on April 13th, 2011. (I wonder if that was a Friday)? Though I have no recollection of any charge card inquiry emails from Blogger who previously automatically charged the yearly fee to my account, the good news is: all  images previous to that date are intact and I have restored my profile photo simply by removing the previous one in the profile folder and downloading the photo again. Nothin' to it.

ON WITH THE SHOW:  Over the weekend I visited  all the fine art supply stores around the city and failed to find a mahlstick, which I desperately need to get intimate with my portraits. I concluded Sunday I would have to construct my own. Yesterday, I discovered the perfect stand-in in the garage: a snow removal/ice scrapper. I removed the brush, washed the stick and fittings and tried it out. It is going to work just fine held firmly against a solid board on the easel behind the portrait. I had been using a long stretched canvas to expand  the upright work space. To use the scraper as a mahlstick, I needed a solid backboard. I just happen to have some Masonite lying around , which slid into place nicely. The bulldog that I am, I will not quit looking for the real thing , of course.

A Painting for Therapy

I hate changes. They throw me off my feed. This weekend was the worst; my blogging life was totally threatened. My Blogger Custom Domain was sold out from under me after it had been paid for through this year, all my Picasa albums were opened up to the world even though I had them marked "do not share." Then when I removed photographs I did not want the world to see,photographs disappeared from published posts, my list of blogs that I follow isn't on the page at all--all because Blogger/Google has been redesigning itself to be just like Face Book. My sons said, "What do you expect mom? Going on Facebook, Twittering, IGoogling and all those social networks let's everyone in on your life and they screw it up." I knew that. What I didn't know was that photographs I had deleted in my computer were still available to the world when I never posted them anywhere. I'm feeling a bit violated--and a lot perplexed. Not a wonk, I don't know where to begin to resolve the situation. I don't think I can. I no longer care. The whole ordeal left me wanting to just throw some paint around for therapy. I chose to paint the destruction in Hom, Syria inspired by William Daniel's moving photographs in Time Magazine,VOL. 179, No. 11, 2012. There was a man hurrying along in the photograph. I left him out. The street didn't look like a place anybody would want to be. Follow the link, I think you'll agree.