MosaicGlobe

I am working on putting together a website. I have already done the free site and will probably upgrade after my daughter's wedding. Here is my website address: http://abstractartinroyalpalmbeach.mosaicglobe.com/
Right now I can only put 25 paintings online and I have posted most of them here on this blog. Once I upgrade, I will be able to fix up the site more to my liking and add more paintings. I spend most of my free time painting, so my portfolio keeps growing. I have quite a few paintings that I need to bring to work and scan.

I started working Wednesday night on some paintings using wavy lines. I just had a thought about possibly doing more striped pictures only with wavy lines. Okay...I have to remember that, but back to what I am working on now. I am trying to paint people. No faces. No arms. No legs. Just a basic shape of a person with hair. I used the wavy lines to do hair. My first attempt is a girl in a long dress standing on a raised platform with an arbor around her. The rest of the painting looks like a wall in a room. I thought of someone getting an award or winning a contest. Of course nothing is realistic. It is all part of my abstract world. I guess this would be sort of representational art. You can tell it is a girl. She has long flowing wavy hair. So far I have not added flowers to the arbor, but that will happen tonight. I made the stand red, her hair yellow, and the arbor green. She is wearing an ultramarine violet mixed with white and cyan mixed with white dress. I have taken all my flower colors. I will have to put pink and white flowers on the arbor. The painting is not large, but it will need something added to the area next to her. So far I have no idea of what I might use there. I also did another one using some of the extra paint I had mixed up to paint a woman's head. I did the wavy hair and then I did a wavy top. After I got the top done and looked at the hair...I decided it looked like a woman sitting in a salon getting her hair cut. The hair is kind of wild and the top looks like the drape they put over you to keep the hair off. I am thinking I will add some silver lines behind her to look like a mirror and add some black around her to look like the chair. Hopefully it will all turn out like I am visualizing. The first wavy backgrounds I did are still sitting in my studio (my daughter's old bedroom). I still haven't decided how I am going to use them. They are not in wavy straight lines, but I might use them as a different stripe painting. We will just have to see where the weekend takes me. I will bring the paintings in to scan them so that anyone who might read this blog can see them after this big build up. I hope they don't disappoint.

Well, it is almost time to go home for the weekend. Till next week.

More Paintings

It has been a while since I posted anything on my blog. I have finished a number of pieces so I will be posting them here today. I have to say that I haven't tried anymore gelatin paintings. I don't think the result was exactly what I had hoped for. I have to remember that this was my first time using this process & the process was originally for fabric, so I probably should try it at least one more time. I tried another form of the gelatin painting last weekend, but still, it was not what I wanted. I am going to try an overpainting of the pieces I did last weekend to see if it changes the look.

Last Saturday I went to a small shop in downtown West Palm Beach for an art show. This shop teaches pottery and glasswork as well. They also sometimes have art shows. I exhibited some of my work at this shop two years ago. The shop is also affliated with the art gallery where I exhibited my work earlier this year. When I went down to the shop to see the artwork, the owner of the shop asked if I would be interested in possibly exhibiting my work at their next art show. Of course I said yes. So, she said she would try to contact me next time they had a show & see if I had pieces I wanted to exhibit. Of course I will have something to exhibit. These ladies are very connected to the art scene here in Palm Beach County. I hope to keep a good relationship with them in the coming months and years so that I can continue to show my work.

I am also working on a Blurb "BookSmart" coffee table book of my paintings for my children. Every time I think I have added as many paintings into it as I want, I create something new and like it enough to put in the book. So, the pages continue to grow. I really like the idea of Blurb.com and making your own books. I am really thinking of also doing a book for my daughter after her wedding. I bought cameras for people to take pictures at the wedding. I might include those in the book I do for her. A friend of mine is taking the pictures for the wedding and he is just giving my daughter the memory card. She is going to pick and chose from the pictures to have printed for her own album, but she will have all of the pictures taken to choose from in making the album. I will probably get some of those pictures as well & put them in the book for her as well. It will be a different kind of wedding album.

I added my paintings & they are kind of mixed in with my blog today. I moved them in & around my words.

Dictionary of Artists

I had a wonderful thing happen to me after I put my artwork in the Saatchi Online Gallery. A woman saw my work and asked me to submit some of my pieces for possible inclusion in the "International Contemporary Masters 2010". This is a juried program, but unfortunately I am not able at this time to afford the $665 if I was chosen. My daughter is getting married in a month & all our money is going for that. Maybe next year they might ask me again and maybe I will have the money. We will see in 2011. I did though contribute a piece to their Dictionary of Artists. It was only $105. We won't tell my husband. He wouldn't like me spending the money for it, but this gets my work & information out to anyone who buys the dictionary. I think that is worth the investment. It was hard deciding which piece I wanted to put in the dictionary. I sure hope I made the right choice. I put one in that I like. I have liked this piece called Xs & Os since the day I finished it. There was just something about it. Anyway, I was very honored to have been asked to possibly be a part of one project & am part of another.

Gelatin Paintings

I scanned more paintings into my computer this morning. The ones shown here are the paintings that I did with the gelatin. They turned out okay. I have not tried anymore though. Shame on me. I should do a couple more this weekend. I have everything set up...I just have to take the gelatin out of the fridge. Maybe tomorrow since it is again Friday. I did do a couple where I just mashed the two pieces of paper together. Almost like an ink blot only with acrylic paint. The first ones I did turned out good. The 2nd group not so much. I will have to scan the better of the ink blot paintings next week. I can only bring a small group to work at a time to scan. Well, I am done for the day. If anyone reads this blog be sure to comment on my gelatin paintings.

Saatchi Online Gallery

I have just set up an account at Saatchi Online Gallery. I was able to put 20 of my paintings there. http://http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile//112381.html
If there is anyone out there reading this blog...check out my work.

Gelatin Experiment

Well...I tried the gelatin experiment last weekend. It was very very messy. The paintings were done on 12 inch x 15 inch pieces of watercolor paper. I was able to get three paintings out of one color scheme with some differences in each. I had to add a little paint by the last painting, but for the most part I put enough on the gelatin to make the paintings work for a 9 inch x 12 inch painting on each piece of paper. I liked the way the paintings turned out, but they were not exactly what I expected. I am sure that I will need to work with the process more and not just give up after this one time. I just have a problem with instant gratification. I need to learn a little more patience. I will try again this weekend and try for a little more variety in the paint and paintings themselves. I might even try doing them like a lithograph. Put on some color and let that dry before using more colors in different places on the gelatin. The first try was using all the paint on the gelatin at the same time and just pressing the paint around. I meant to bring some paintings in today to scan, but I was rushing to get out of the house this morning and forgot to get them. I will try to bring them in next Friday. It takes a while for the gelatin paintings to dry because the paint can be a little thicker in spots. That is something that I also need to work on...getting a more even looking painting so that the paint doesn't crack. Possibly adding mediums might help as well. Like I said...this is not something that is going to be perfected quickly. I titled the paintings Gelatin 1, 2, and 3. I will for sure have them ready to be scanned next week along with the ones I do this coming weekend.

It's The Weekend Again

Well...not much blogging this week. Nothing really to talk about. An experiment I was going to try last weekend never happened. Maybe this weekend. I need to use the gelatin that I made up before it goes bad just sitting in the fridge.

Tomorrow is 2ND Saturday at my local quilt shop. I love to go and look at all the new books and fabrics.

I spent a lot of my morning on Amazon looking for good children's books. I have 4 surrogate grandchildren and I was looking at books for them. I found a few and ordered them. Amazon is one of my most favorite sites. You can find almost anything there.

I did get some paintings finished last weekend. I haven't brought them in to scan though yet. I have a few more I want to finish before I bring them in.

So...that is it for this week. I feel like I am talking to myself and I guess I really am.

These are a few of my new paintings. I keep trying new things and new color combinations. I am usually pretty happy with my work, but I continue to strive to do better and to express more in my work. I continue to read books and watch videos in an effort to learn more about how to expand my technique knowlege and then put it on paper.

Well, this is the end of my blog for the week. I will hopefully be able to finish a couple of paintings that I have started while I am home this weekend and can bring them to work next week to scan. Wish me luck.

Have a great weekend.

Evolving

Crumbling

Black and Gray and Red All Over

Keep On Trying

Gelatin Monoprint Process

I love getting and reading Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors. Although I don't do much quilting, I love to read the magazines and dream of making something at some point when I have a place large enough to put out my paints and sewing machine. But back to the purpose of this blog...The front of the August/September 2009 Quilting Arts Magazine has an absolutely amazing quilt on the front. The article on the process starts on page 14. It is written by Frances Holliday Alford. In the process she uses gelatin molds to make monoprints on cloth which she then free motion quilts. The paint is put on the round gelatin molds and the cloth is put over the mold and she uses a brayer to spread the paint. The rest is magic and her great sense of style in making an art quilt. I read the article and thought that this same idea might work to make an abstract piece of art. It would work best with smaller sized pieces like my current size of work, 9 inches x 12 inches and 11 inches x 14 inches. So, I went out and bought some cookie sheets and some gelatin. This weekend I am going to begin the process of creating some new artwork. We will see how it comes out. I personally think it will be amazing.

The pieces should look a bit like the pieces I am currently making that I call Acrylic Watercolors. With them I spray the watercolor paper with an acrylic medium and tension breaker mixed with water. I then drop fluid acrylic paints onto the paper and spray more water to move the paint around even more. The result is often times more magical then planned out. The colors are dropped where I want, but the mixing is just magic. What I was originally trying to create was marbled paintings. My acrylic watercolor is what I got. Magic. LOL I will upload some of those pieces for everyone to see as well.

I am also learning more and more each day about the texture of paint I should use with each of my creations. I use structure or heavy gels for a lot of my work. I am finding though that some things I want to turn out a certain way require fluid acrylics, much less structure. I started working on some new pieces last night. I am still working on the last of my green paintings, but last night I was in the mood to start something new using fluid acrylics instead of structured acrylic. This time around it looks like violets and lavenders and purples will be my primary choice of colors. I don't know what other colors will be used except a buff color. That for sure will be used somewhere. I used it to mix in with the violets I used last night to change the shades and tones. So, the buff will be added somewhere in the painting.

You will see as this blog progresses that I don't know the exact terms for what I am trying to do with the shades and tones and hues of colors. I need to read up more on those terms so that I get them right.

Okay, I am going to stop for today. I don't work on Wednesday so I won't be writing tomorrow...not that anyone is reading this, but I will put more artwork up on Thursday when I return to work. I am thinking about opening an Etsy account to possibly sell some of my artwork. Well...try to sell some of my artwork. We will see. This whole process is a learning one.

Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend. We saw the Harry Potter movie & it was very good. Everything is winding down to the final movies. I heard from my daughter that the last book will actually be made into two movies.

I also went to church with my daughter & her fiance. This is the church that they will be married in this October. My daughter is doing all of the wedding planning & she just comes to me for money. Of course, she is 29 years old so I figure she knows what she wants & her matron of honor is helping her too. So...it is about 11 weeks till the big day.

The rest of my weekend was spent painting and watching a lot of DVRed things. There was a show on the History Channel that was really good. It was called Life After People. The season is over, but I hope they show another group of shows next season. It is amazing what they can do with computer graphics. In just a few years most of the buildings & towns would be so overgrown & in several hundred years there would be almost no trace we were ever here. I recommend that everyone watch the shows when they are shown again. Very interesting.

I am still kind of stuck in the green phase of my paintings. I am going to try something different though starting tonight. Color wise I mean. As of yet though, I don't know what colors I am going with. I have a few finishing touches to do on about 5 paintings that I have started & haven't finished yet. Sometimes inspiration is slow in coming. : )

I finished scanning my paintings to my computer on Friday. I will add more of the paintings to this blog, maybe tomorrow. Today, I have to get back to work.

Scanned Paintings

Going Green 1

Going Green 2

Above are two paintings that I finished last week. They are a first in a series of green paintings that I am doing. I use Matisse-Derivan acrylic paints from Australia & you buy them at Jerrysartarama.com. I love these paints. My detailing is not in the same colors all the way through, but the greens, browns, yellow (yes-yellow is used to get some of the different shades of green & brown) & white (also used in the green & brown colors) are all the same. I am working on a series of green, brown, & white paintings. I have three at home that I am working on that should be done shortly.

Well, this is my first art posting on this site. I hope that anyone who might see my work enjoys it.

Bummer

Well, I tried to get some of my artwork put on a website for abstract artists. It is a site where you agree to post 4 pieces of artwork each week. They said that my artwork had promise, but I needed more seasoning. Exactly what that means I don't know. In this case, to me, it said my work wasn't exactly what they wanted. They told me to try again sometime. Since I am not going to school & have been painting for about three years, I don't know when I will be more seasoned. I guess it will have to be more years down the road with more inspiration in my artwork. I guess as an aspiring artist, rejections are part of the process. There will be other chances down the road & I will "keep on trying" as the Poco song says.

And So I Begin

This is my third attempt at having a blog. I have such a hard time posting every day because I really don't know what to say. My blog will primarily be a place to display my work and possibly find a following for my type of abstract art.

The majority of my paintings are on paper and are not large, 9" X 12" or 11" x 14", but I occasionally try something larger. It is much easier to scan smaller paintings though. I just don't have the right light or the right digital camera set up to take good quality pictures of larger paintings. A friend of mine did take some pictures for me, but he is a professional wedding photographer & while the quality of the pictures is excellent, he didn't have the right set up or lighting for paintings. So, I go with the scanning.

So, my blogs might not be too wordy. I will try to describe my process and we will see where this adventure will lead. Posting everyday will probably not happen, but I will try to keep the artwork coming.