What are you working on?

[john]

I need another word for cool.

That is cool Ayin. Good luck with the work. That's awesome.



I've been finishing my friend's house painting and making frames. Trying a new frame style in my never ending search for a frame I like. Painting is easier.

 

[Hermes2020]

I like where you are taking it with the dots and the colour choices. I am also impressed with your stamina!

 

[Artyczar]

Holy crap! You're going to be seriously busy getting ready for this show. It must be a wonderful feeling to know your gallery is really liking your theme and calling for more pieces like this one (even as they wear you down to the bone!).

It's exciting times for you, even though it probably feels daunting at this stage. Hang in there!

Thanks for the support Terri. Yes, it feels good that he likes the work. It's just a lot, especially because it's hard to stand at the easel for even an hour and a half! Today, I'm going to try to put in three hours, if I can get off the forum soon.

 

[Artyczar]

Thank you John and Hermes. I appreciate your kind words.

John, I'm so glad it's getting easier!!!

 

[john]

Thanks Ayin, but I meant the painting is easier than deciding on and making frames.

I was watching this artist and liked the style of his frames. His painting is wonderful also. And at the end of the vid he shows the paintings at the competition and their frames. I liked his style frame the best so I made one sort of like it. Especially for small landscape paintings I think the frame is important.

So it ended up like this, looks black here but is really dark grey. To give an idea of just how much work this was....a partial tool/mat list.... I remind myself it will be easier next time. And before I did this I had to adhere the oil on paper to a board.

23 inch "pro" miter handsaw
tiny fine handsaw and miter box
radial arm saw
drill
pneumatic nailgun
hot glue
wood glue
various paints and coatings
framing vice (holds the frame pieces at 90)
brackets
screws
wood putty
sander

patience

Actually it was fun. And I got to use these tools I have.

I might want more gold showing but this is about right I think.

The previous frames I made were easy by comparison. I'm wondering which of these styles you all prefer. Maybe more gold? The other painting has the minimalist look frame.

So that's what I've been working on. Fun work.

 

[Artyczar]

Great job John. I personally like the simpler one on the right, but that's just my preference. I find that after selling work, buyers usually like to change the frames anyway. Frames are such a personal choice. So, I find the simpler the better.

I usually use very simple wood frames, typically light maple ones. They have a thin facing and float around the painting with a black backing.

 

[Artyczar]

I've been super busy, even though I've been going through a lot lately. Sorry I've been absent the last week or so. I'm going through a lot of dental work and it's actually been pretty brutal, but I won't bore you with it, or get into the gory details. Working on art is the only way to get through it for me.

I'm working on a few things at once. I have four oil paintings going, all in progress. Two are desert aerials, one is going to be a school bus buried in dirt with an abstract mountain range in the background, and the fourth is a kind of rabbit house thing near a Joshua Tree and an outdoor bathtub with a mountain range in the background. That one is only sketched out on the panel and I only have the original sketch of the house for that:

Other than that, I'm also working on some promo packages for my show for some art critics and VIPs. These will include 13 x 19-inch posters folded up in a box, along with a press release, post cards, and some other goodies, like a pocket compass, a vial of desert sand with coordinates, a packet of sunscreen, some chapstick, and a few other little items. I've been trying to get a good photograph of my largest painting to use for the poster and it's been a bear. Going to try again today, and if I can't get it, I'll have to call in my professional and pay the money for him to drive out here. I haven't been able to get a good shot of it (perfectly "square") even with the tripod and a laser measure. Going to use a telephoto lens today (I think it's flatter). But I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm also taking "Plein air" pictures to use for an installation, and for resource material for a bunch of sketches that will also go into the wall installation in the show. Lots of driving around for that.

So that's the news for now.

 

[Terri]

Fantastic stuff going on, I see (we don't have to talk about the dental work)! I love this photo!

Can't wait to see the rabbit house - that sketch is so cool. The bus looks interesting already, too!

Your creativity blows my mind.

 

[ZenDruid]

Good luck with the dental work Arty, been there.

I love that rabbit house!

About getting a square picture: I take a digital picture as tight and square as I can - download it to my computer - drag it to Photoshop - use the cropping tool again to get the art as tight as possible, sometimes trimming the edges a bit. But there's always slices of background around the edges. Then use the smudge tool to drag the edge of the art work to the edge of the frame to push out the background slices. The result looks like a perfectly framed shot. I've done this with every picture I've posted here. Try it before hiring a professional.

 

[Bongo]

Many of us have cool ideas - but (imo) that's not being creative - that's being imaginative. To be creative - you have to follow thru and actually create, actually turn the "cool idea" into a tangible object. That's what I admire about Arty - she makes cool stuff.

 

[Desforges]

Working on this oil,
Now I have flipped it and building houses on that mess. Anything can happen now. I am watching! Could be disastrous!

 

[Artyczar]

Thanks for the great tips and compliments! I really appreciate the support! I was actually able to get a successful picture of my large painting on Saturday with a telephoto lens and backing up from the painting. That lens is much flatter and I was so relieved! I didn't have to snip off any edges, and if so, it was so slight, it was barely noticeable. It's for sure usable for the print.

Bongo, thank you so much for your amazing compliment. It means everything to me. I don't mean to lessen it by any means at all when I correct you, but I am not a "she" but a "them." I haven't corrected people as often as I should about that, but I need to start making sure I do it more often these days for my own self-care. My pronouns are they/them, in case you weren't aware.

Jocelyne, I LOVE the piece you've started. Please keep us updated on its progress! It looks awesome already!

 

[Desforges]

Where it’s at today!

 

[ZenDruid]

That's great, I love it!

 

[Desforges]

That's great, I love it!

Thank you!

 

[joe1It]

John, wonderful job.
Ayin, Desforges, I really love what you are creating

 

[Terri]

Where it’s at today!
View attachment 20309

I'm smitten with this!! Love it!

 

[Artyczar]

Oh, Jocelyne, I absolutely love your painting. Seems you are onto something new and it's extraordinary!

 

[rcleary171]

Where it’s at today!

Beautiful work! A complex yet primitive execution. Good choice of colors.

 

[Artyczar]

I've been making these promo packages for my show for VIPs, like art critics and museum curators. I have probably mentioned this. I made eighteen in total and won't be sending them out until July, but I needed to finish them to make room on my drawing table so I could get back to work on the rest of my paintings and drawings.

I got the idea for these from the Artist book I made a while ago. My show is called THIS LAND, which you can read about in the link. The idea for the promo box was all in lieu of sending out Save the Date postcards. That seemed boring to me, and I wanted to make something more memorable. So, I came up with this promotional idea to put a bunch of themed items inside a mystery box.

Before this, I thought of just making promotional posters for the show after seeing one from the '80s by Keith Haring on Antiques Roadshow. It was kinda giant though, and I couldn’t afford anything that big, so I made one about the size of a 1960s concert poster, a 19 x 13-inch. I scored and folded them so they would fit inside the boxes I got. The rest of the posters will be given away for free at the show.

Also inside the box are my Save the Date cards, along with a drawing sample and a photograph that will be part of a drawing installation at the show. All three of those go into a kraft pocket fold that are tied with some jute, as seen here on top of one of the posters.

The box also includes a vial of desert sand marked with the coordinates of Lost Horse Mine, a famous destination inside Joshua Tree National Park.

There are a few other items in there, like a compass wrapped in handmade paper, sunscreen, chapstick, and a weird pencil made from a tree branch—just because it was cute.

The folded poster goes on top and then the box is tagged with the person’s name.

See? It’s a whole theme. Get it? I hope so. Or I hope it inspires at least a couple of these people to come to my show. I guess I could have placed a 100-dollar bill in there too as a bribe, but I'm not that crazy. Shipping all of these will be expensive enough!

Now I can get back to finishing the paintings. I think I'm done with all the drawings for the wall installation, which is a nine-foot across area, but some of the left side will be taken up by a big ink drawing I made into a large vinyl decal about eighty-two inches high:

This leaves me about fifty inches across to fill instead (much easier!). I have about 30 little drawings and at least 10 photographs to pin and tape over a few topographic and plat maps of the area, which will stuck onto the wall nilly-willy, yet arranged purposefully to look random.

I think these are the final drawings...(I haven't scanned all of them):