Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Thinking of Spring (Subconsciously)


I have said all I need to say in the first one here - turns out my subconscious is wanting Spring very badly. Strange flower images appeared on the canvas and ghostly little flowers waiting to pop up through the frozen ground.

I don't know what is going on in the second one - needs more work! I am finding it difficult to unclutter my mind lately and it definitely is showing up on the page. Keep on working!!!!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Workshop Play


This past weekend I enjoyed two more days of play and experimentation in a workshop setting. The objective was to apply paint randomly using a variety of tools and try to find shapes to begin a painting. All participants had a large amount of difficulty finding any shapes and the level of frustration could be felt and heard in the room (heavy sighs, lots of scraping and dry-brushing noises).

It was interesting to see how people react to trying to learn a different way of doing something. Many people, including myself, after working away for a few hours and getting nowhere, simply reverted to their old, comfortable methods. For me, that was applying collage papers to try to get some shapes going. The first painting shown here was done the first two days of the workshop when I was not seeing any shapes appear on my canvas. I simply started to collage and found a way to begin. I will paint the small white shapes green to tie in with the green already there and maybe darken it a bit. I'm not sure what will happen to the grey shape, it may get darker or lighter.

The second painting was done on the last day of the class, when, with a degree of frustration, I decided to give it one more try and randomly stamped, scraped and rolled reds on and then blues. I stepped back with my chalk and looked for shapes. With the help of our leader I did see a vase or flower pot which, of course, meant that I needed some flowers. I drew loosely with chalk and then painted the negative shapes. I did get something but didn't like it and wiped the chalk away intending to apply white gesso over the canvas and start yet again. I kind of like what is on there enough to try and make something out of it just to see what happens. It may change into a vase or even a potted plant, time will tell.

And then, it may just get gessoed over! It is play and experimentation after all!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Stage 2

Today I worked on this canvas a bit more and the other three a bit also. This weekend I will try to finish at least one.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Possibilities




I am thinking that finally I might be on the right track! The struggles of the past month or so seem to be coming together for me and I feel positive about continuing with this method of painting/collaging on canvas. The first canvas is just starting to come to life so I thought I would do a few more in the same vein while the mood is right. More posts to come in the next few days as I develop these further.