What are you working on?

[ErikRak]

this was it. Not the best photo.

Wow. Superb ! This really talks to me ... The contrast between the backgrounds / the lady / the bunny / the greens / the acrylic / the oil... make this a dream painting indeed . So original ! Congratulations again.

 

[ErikRak]

"Magdalena" was also a real learning experience in that I found that I very much disliked the lighter tonality of the paper

... but the result is beautiful !

 

[Terri]

Thanks Erik, sure, this was it. Not the best photo. Typical over sharpened and hyped up cell phone pic. The painting had gone out before I got the good camera setup.

16x20 acrylic and oil. Many layers down on the canvas is a minimalist abstract. It went through a long evolution with more and more stuff added.

The gallery director told me it's getting a lot of attention. Partly because it's so different than anything else there. They are giving me their space at a food/craft market in January and she asked if I had more like this. I don't.

A Peconic Dream
View attachment 26859

Oh yes - now I remember! This is beautiful, and I am not at all surprised it got some attention. Congrats again.

 

[Artyczar]

John, that painting is absolutely STUNNING! I really think it would be worth your while to try to capture the technique again, layering and adding. Maybe get into the whole process of it. It takes as long as it takes. There's really a lot of unique qualities about it I have never seen before, which is for sure why it's getting attention. Congrats on such a successful work!!!

 

[Artyczar]

I just finished five little trailer paintings on those Thomas Bros guide book map pages, like the ones that were super popular at my show. I'll post a past one... They are all gone now, and I miss them. They are so fun to make and also give me an immediate sense of accomplishment, which I've been lacking.

The only thing is that the pages I've been working on were a little wavy. When I was finished with them, I spray fixed them, which didn't help. So, I gently pushed a damp cloth onto the backs and placed them between some Glassine. Then I stacked books on time of them. I will wait a day or two (if I don't get too impatient) and see if that helped. But I'm super worried that I've screwed up the paintings! Maybe I've made the inks bleed through. I'm scared. I have done this system before and all was okay, but I am a worrywart.

I planned to make fifteen more and just finished these five that I will post after they hopefully flatten. Then I'll scan them. I'm also waiting for a new map book to arrive from eBay, as I can only get a certain amount of desert pages out of each book.

 

[john]

Wow. Superb ! This really talks to me ... The contrast between the backgrounds / the lady / the bunny / the greens / the acrylic / the oil... make this a dream painting indeed . So original ! Congratulations again.

John, that painting is absolutely STUNNING! I really think it would be worth your while to try to capture the technique again, layering and adding. Maybe get into the whole process of it. It takes as long as it takes. There's really a lot of unique qualities about it I have never seen before, which is for sure why it's getting attention. Congrats on such a successful work!!!

Thanks a lot Erik.

Thanks again Ayin. I should listen to you. I'm already off on another tangent. But yes the layering, texturing thing is a cool thing about acrylics as you know. And it goes fast. That painting really showed me what acrylic can do, and it started by following a YT video. Gerda Lipski. A German woman, so not in English, but I think her paintings and techniques are really cool. https://www.youtube.com/@GerdaLipski


And I love your trailer painting. Great art that makes one smile. Doesn't get any better. What a great concept and execution.

It will probably be fine, not that much water.

 

[Terri]

I just finished five little trailer paintings on those Thomas Bros guide book map pages, like the ones that were super popular at my show. I'll post a past one... They are all gone now, and I miss them. They are so fun to make and also give me an immediate sense of accomplishment, which I've been lacking.

The only thing is that the pages I've been working on were a little wavy. When I was finished with them, I spray fixed them, which didn't help. So, I gently pushed a damp cloth onto the backs and placed them between some Glassine. Then I stacked books on time of them. I will wait a day or two (if I don't get too impatient) and see if that helped. But I'm super worried that I've screwed up the paintings! Maybe I've made the inks bleed through. I'm scared. I have done this system before and all was okay, but I am a worrywart.

View attachment 26861

I planned to make fifteen more and just finished these five that I will post after they hopefully flatten. Then I'll scan them. I'm also waiting for a new map book to arrive from eBay, as I can only get a certain amount of desert pages out of each book.

Love love love this!!

 

[Artyczar]

Thank you John and Terri.

I will take a peek under the books today and see if it worked.

 

[Artyczar]

I just took all the books off my maps and three of them have terrible ridges/wrinkles throughout made by the water and the Glassine shrinking up on top and they look permanent. I am going to try to iron those and see if I can get rid of the wrinkles. Wish me luck. As far as the inks and paints bleeding through, that's all AOK.

 

[ErikRak]

I am going to try to iron those and see if I can get rid of the wrinkles

Ayin, what works sometimes is to spray some water on the wrinkles / ridges and iron the wet places, the vapor could repair the paper maybe ... not sure because maps printed papers are sometimes a bit glossy...

 

[ErikRak]

I like the map + the trailer. Very well balanced stuff ... Beautiful...

 

[Artyczar]

Well, I tried almost everything: dry ironing and doing the light water spray and ironing, which was actually worse. I pushed down on the iron as hard as I could and the worst one is still has the little ridges/waves at the top of the paper. I am unsure if it's salable. Here's what that one looks like. I think the rest are decent enough. I'll post the other four under it.

EDIT: Also, looking at that top one, I think the side windows need louver lines in them, but I did spray fix it already.

 

[john]

Hmmm that's a tough one. That thin paper is going bend all over the place. Perhaps mounting them on a cradled panel with gel medium. Use a brayer? Put a ton of weight on, gel both the panel and painting. That's how I'm mounting my watercolors. And varnished on panel they look better.

And you can use acrylic right over the fixative and then varnish.

 

[Artyczar]

Thanks John. I assume throw them out or sell them for less than do that, as they would not match all the other ones I've already made in the series. They are supposed to just be on the maps as a single piece of paper. I'll try making them again. Or put them under some book for a few days and see what happens without wetting them. All the others I've had didn't do this and they were from the same guide book.

 

[stlukesguild]

I've started work on a new painting/drawing. This is a bit larger than the previous 3 "portraits (30x38") giving me a bit more space to work with. Obviously, I could always reduce the scale of my imagery/figures... but I like many things about working "life scale".

The shape and linear contours of the figure are largely worked out... although I will likely make adjustments as the work evolves. I'm not even certain whether the figure will be nude or clothed. Right now I am working on the surrounding space/background. I'm not even thinking of color at this point. I'm thinking a great deal of this painting as building off of my earlier painting, "Lenore":

"Lenore" is actually quite a bit larger... approximately 33X55". Now that I am on work on this new painting I find myself wishing I had used paper of the same dimensions so that I might create something of a diptych. I am especially thinking of this pair of Renaissance portraits:

Perhaps I'll explore such a pairing down the road. Multi-panel work would be a way of creating larger works within the limited space in which I am working.

 

[Marc]

View attachment 26949

He only had one eye didn't he? Lost his right eye and upper part of his nose in a tournament. Hopefully he wasn't too much of a horror show for his wife.

 

[Artyczar]

Well done SLG!

 

[Enyaw]

Ayin: just love the wonky wheel on the blue guy .. I can see a line going through the eye of the needle .. cool.

 

[Artyczar]

Hey, thanks Wayne. I appreciate your insights.

 

[john]

I've been working on which paintings to sell, making my paintings actual market hangable with framing, mounting etc, painting new stuff, getting the studio in working order and trying to figure what and why and how to paint. I need ten for the food/craft market in Jan.

So...what to paint? I did this watercolor painting six years ago partly just to see all the pure colors on my pallet. This started my looping circular painting style that I did for a few more paintings hoping to improve on it. Yes a few got more "real" or different but none has been better than this one. Among all my paintings there was something about this one that just beamed out. Like it has some inner light. I don't know if it's the saturation or the color contrast or the transparency play or what. Probably all of those things.

I didn't know what to think about the painting. It was too loud to hang in the living room. It was weird. My friends and relatives would ask what it is. So I made some realist landscapes like a normal person would. No one could make fun of me then and they looked good on the living room. Meanwhile, exiled down on the basement wall, still bordered with the brown gummed stretching tape with all the color's name written on it, the stupid painting refused to be ignored. It made me stare at it. It was fun to look at. It had a sunny can-do disposition even with that ugly brown tape around it. It worked it's way into my heart despite my criticizing it at every turn.

So, anyhow, thinking about getting it out in the market I mounted on it a raised panel. This was a new way to do it for me and I like the result but next time I have to watch out for the gel medium squishing out on the edges. You can see at the edges a little. I might try to exacto knife it off or just leave it. Can't see it unless close. Looks worse in this photo.

And now I realize......"hey dummy stop fighting it.....make more of these. And bigger. It doesn't have to hang in the living room it can be sold. Or not. " So that's what I'm going to do. But first I do have this other idea..............



9x12 inches watercolor

The Preserve