rock, paper, brushes

Daily Paintings #27-30

Yesterday I mixed linseed oil and mineral spirit with ashes and chunks of charred wood from our outdoor fire pit.  I used a rock to grind the sooty ash into the oil and spirit mixture, in a small dish.  Then I dipped in my brush and made some paintings.

The "paint" I made was quite crude.  Someday I'd like to try making a proper batch of paint, using the right tools and processes to get really a really fine result.  If I did I'd probably follow Dave Corcoran's process for mulling paint.
In the meantime though, the rough mixture I made was fun to work with.  

A day later it's already fairly dry, and the charcoal seems fairly bound with the oily medium to the paper and canvas I worked on.  

What started this whole business of mixing ashes with medium?  A bit I read in Victoria Findlay's book about colour, the brown & black chapter in which she describes some of the dirts that artists use to make beautiful paintings.

Daily Paintings #18-19-20

Well, I've made 20 paintings in 10 days since I started this "daily painting" thing.  Obviously something is working, I'm getting back into making art on a regular basis.  This makes me feel so happy.

A lot of the daily paintings have been studies for a series of larger works, but yesterday I was at the art-supply store and in between customers I did a couple of quick portraits of my co-workers.  How lovely to work in a shop that affords time for such pursuits!  We are all practicing artists who staff the store - that's part of the appeal.

oil on matboard, 9x12 inches approx. 

oil on matboard, 8x10 inches approx.

This morning I went over to the seniors' residence to play scrabble with my friend, but first I painted his portrait:

oil on wood panel, 10x10 inches

This afternoon I will prime a few more pieces of canvas and maybe stretch a couple of canvases too, since I've been thinking some of the studies could be done on stretched canvas as well as non-stretched pieces, as I have been doing so far.

And the garden is wanting some attention, and my bike needs a major tune-up, and a few other errands to keep life going... and that will make a good day.

Until next time,

:)

V

Daily Paintings #5,6,7,8

Painting #5: May 20, 2016

conte on gesso'd paper, 9x12 inches

Conte applied dry and also with brush & water, which makes this a painting :)

Paintings #6,7,8: May 21, 2016

Today's daily painting multiplied itself!

Three little paintings, studies for an idea that may translate into larger works... or may not.  Plus a piece of primed paper upon which I jettisoned the leftover paint but do not consider a finished piece (far right).

Mineral violet, chromeoxide green and yellow ochre, plus white.  Mixed in varying proportions, these will create a good range of colour.

Not-so-daily paintings

So much for the concept of "daily paintings" - I did not make a painting yesterday.  Falling off the wagon only 2 days into it!  My excuse: between working at the store and in the garden, I ran out of time and energy.  Boooo.  But yesterday I did notice my neighbour's garbage & recycling bins and thought, "There's my next painting subject!"

Painting #3: May 19, 2016, morning

Despite heavy overcast this morning, out I went.  Set up my gear under the spruce tree and worked for almost an hour before it began to drizzle.  Once the rain started I finished up in a hurry.

the view

the palette

the painting

finished on (wet) location
photographed in (dry) studio

Loving the palette of this one; the composition, not so much.  I placed the bins closer together on purpose, but then I missed some vital bits of alignment between them and wound up with an amateurish painting.  C'est la vie; next one better.

Painting #4: May 19, 2016, evening

Two paintings today, to make up for yesterday.  The studio is very cozy when it's raining out!  A quick self-portrait with leftover paint from this morning.

underpainting made with just one 1" brush

finished portrait

Boy, that underpainting sure had a lot of life in it!  I really like the expression, sort of curious and open.  The finished self-portrait is good too, but I wonder... which one could be said to be more accurate?

Daily Paintings #1 and #2

I just spent about 3 months doing quite a bit of teaching and not much studio work.  Now the teaching is more-or-less finished, and I've decided to kick-start the summer by doing a month of daily paintings.  Here are the first two, simple views from the back yard.

Daily Painting #1 - May 16, 2016

The view:

 The palette:

Placing the compositional elements as minimally as possible:

The painting in several steps: 

That lovely dappled light is from the tree I sit under, it's unfortunately not part of the painting: 

Finished work on the studio wall: 

Daily Painting #2 - May 17, 2016

And finished: 

Projection

Last night I was projecting an image on the wall, and I noticed this:

Now I'm wondering if I can somehow incorporate light images into the work...

Intelligence, Courage and Love

I believe I've landed a dream job: teaching visual arts at the Arts Commons through Campus Calgary Open Minds and the One-Day Arts School program.  

The students teach me a lot.  Mostly they teach me about being really open-minded as they are generally not bound by pre-conceived ideas of structure and meaning in their projects.  It's very refreshing.

This month I taught two mask-making workshops with grade 4-5 students, with a concept based on this poem.  My idea for the project was to think about identity in terms of intelligence, courage and love.  If we have these three things - and most of us do, if we look deeply enough - then we are rich, no?  Intelligence, courage and love are things that no one can take away from us, because they come from inside ourselves - and we can use them to overcome life's pain and celebrate beauty.

First I will show you some prototypes I made, and then the students' work.

Mask prototypes: papier-mache and shaped cardboard

For every new art process, I make prototypes in my studio.  Doing this ensures the feasibility of the project within the time frame and - perhaps more important - creates a kind of mental space for me to think about how the project integrates with the students' curriculum, how I can introduce the concept, et cetera.  I do my best thinking with my hands.

The first workshop was through Campus Calgary and we had two days, which meant we could do papier mache!  Below are my prototypes for complex and simple mask designs:

The second workshop was through One-Day Arts School, so we used templates to make shaped cardboard masks.  Starting with a simple template, these masks can become more complex by extending the shapes.

Shaped cardboard templates and masks

So those were my own studio prototypes.  Below are some masks the students made, and they did some pretty sophisticated work.  Both classes were super creative and came up with whole new concepts of how one can make a mask.  I learned a lot from them!

Papier-mache masks:

Half & half face, 3D bird beak and wings, wild pink feathers,
abstract triangular appendage - so much imagination!

Shaped cardboard masks:

See the yellow mask at the left?  That's hockey net on top!
There were so many excellent variations on my simple template.

Some of the students' comments and descriptions of their masks:

The different colours symbolize different aspects of my personality, such as my helpfulness (love), my sense of humour (intelligence), and my patience (courage).

The silver colour and Viking shape of my mask is for courage, the red gem in the middle is for love and the amber gems are my intelligence.

I used paint splatters which look like MRI images of areas of the brain which light up when engaged.  Also, the blue-green colour is like a peacock, which is a very intelligent bird.

My mask is overall red and has sparkly gems all over it, because intelligence, courage and love are inseparable.

I feel grateful to be able to engage in this level of creative thinking, to contribute to the creative learning of future generations.  It seems a very worthwhile use of my talents.  A quote from the Arts Commons website:

"Uncovering curriculum through the lens of the arts has the potential of engaging our youth, equipping them with the skills and knowledge that will help them respond to the complexities of our world today and in the future."

Yes indeed.