At the Confluence

(no longer in inventory)

This painting is 18"x20" on canvas, and she was quite illusive. I struggled with this from the beginning. I was afraid I had lost it--whatever that is that brings the inside onto the canvas. The color was wrong, everything too controlled and tight--so I sprayed a lot of water into the red and black--had to lose control. Finally, I could exhale. I hadn't lost it.

But then, I had trouble with the light. I couldn't make a commitment. I decided it had to come from the back. Okay, but how did it move through the painting? From the bottom right? Blast out the top? Where? What marks? What did the light look like? What color? What's the dynamic it creates with the dark? I worked it and worked it, and it kept taking the wrong shape, not really communicating anything to me.

Then I had a moment to look at a magazine while at the dentist's office waiting to get a temporary crown made. From the stack, a National Geographic cover revealed itself. And there were the answers to the light questions I had. On the cover was a rendering of moons colliding. Light was blasting out of the spheres. I told my dentist, "The answers to many of my painting questions come from the universe."   I borrowed the magazine. It just may inspire another painting--I mean, moons colliding? That's compelling.

I do believe I've pushed this one as far as I can--for now, anyway.

At the Conjuring

(no longer in inventory)

This painting is 18"x20" on canvas. It was an experiment in using gesso heavily applied on stamping tools. After the heavy marks dried, my first layer of paint was blue; then I added the compliment of orange--to make a shade of brown that I rather liked. I moved the paint around letting some of it go thin in places so the canvas texture showed, then let that layer dry. I went back in with orange in the foreground on the left. And used Nickel/Azo Gold to bring up the heavy gesso marks. Lots of flowing and swirling--and the idea of a conjuring of sorts.

Whatcom Artists Studio Tour 2013 (part 3) Paintings move into the hallways at the Waterfront

Whatcom Artists Studio Tour 2013 (part 2)

Whatcom Artists Studio Tour October 2013 (part 1)

Amulets to the Guardian of Rust (size 22 1/2"x43 1/2")

(no longer in inventory)

This was quite the challenge to finish. Well, technically, it's not finished; I haven't figured out how to hang the structure, yet. To create the architectural look of the styrofoam, I first put drywall tape on the structure to strengthen it. It takes a bit more for it to be jabbed and the surface compromised. Then I covered it in spackle. That took a lot of time because there was a significant learning curve. And I wanted to get lost in creating texture--a temptation I resisted by promising myself a chance to play with creating texture in the archway pieces. After the spackle dried, I added a coat of gesso. Then I added various shades of orange. Then I sought to compliment the rust colors by adding shades of blue-green. I darkened that down with my perfect grey. The rusty bits were adhered with gel medium. I have re-inforced the edges of the structure by laminating cotton sheeting to the sides. Right now, that's just painted white. The back is still exposed styrofoam. That needs to be remedied, though. Do I use Power Grab to adhere a piece of Masonite or something to the back. Will Power Grab melt the styrofoam? My preference would be to construct a metal frame. I wonder how I do that? I think I'd need to have tools beyond my capabilities for that. Anyone know a welder? And then, at the Art Walk this past Friday, someone asked me how much it costs. I don't know. Any ideas about framing or creating a hanging structure? (A friend suggested brackets--that could work.) Any ideas about what price I put on this?

Study of Archways

These pieces were inspired by the collage of charcoal marks on paper that I posted earlier--created last summer, in fact. Because of my fascination with archways, I wanted to create something more dimensional. These started as styrofoam sheets. I added spackle that had a lot of water in it--it had settled to the bottom of the container. This made the spackle particularly smooth when applied. I rather liked that effect and wonder if I can re-create it by adding water to regular spackle. I also made more marks for texture and mystery, to create a crumbling effect. I'm rather liking these and rather like the re-purposing of styrofoam. Sizes framed are 14"x11" for the single archway and 13"x16" for the triple arches.