enrichment

When we returned from our vacation, my husband helped to install the recent commissioned piece in the clients' home.  This is the combination they chose:

One Thing Becomes Another
acrylic on stitched canvas
32w, 36w x 29.5h inches

And here is the work in its new environs:

It is always so neat to see my work in a home where it becomes part of a larger aesthetic, beginning a new phase of its journey.  The work takes on a life of its own - very different from in my studio or in a gallery environment.  I am glad to know this piece is now part of a happy and dynamic family, where it may contribute in its own small way some enrichment to their lives.

one thing becomes another

This week I've finished the commissioned painting which I had been working on for awhile.  Finishing paintings is always accompanied by a feeling of elation - a grand outward rush! - regardless of how long it has taken to make them.  Today I am happy with everything.

A brief recap: The client will be able to choose two of the three paintings I made, in whatever combination they decide.  In this way, they take part in the creative process.  :)

Here are the various combinations, some of which I like better than others:

One Thing Becomes Another

mixed media on 3 stitched canvases

widths: 32", 35" and 38" x 29.5" height

You can read about the making of this work here and (near the end of the post) here.

After photographing them in pairs, I began playing around with various combinations of all three together, with and without spaces between the canvases:

I am oh-so-pleased with this work!

The people who commissioned me to make it have given me a lot of creative leeway and virtually no time constraint.  This is how I work best.  The painting is finished within my own estimated time frame, and I feel it is excellent work, better in some ways than I had imagined.

it comes to resemble the shape of the heart

An idea sketch of some time ago is providing inspiration for a new series of paintings.  The first four paintings I made with this idea were part of my "Tintinnabulation" exhibition.  You can see them here, among the other pieces from that exhibition.  They are the ones titled "Little Things", "Shades", "Aerial", and "Then There is That Gap".

Now I want to make a more involved series based on the idea of more abstract shapes and lines, keeping the colour clean and clear, aiming for visual simplicity, elegance and sophistication.

First attempt:

layout begins on the wall

moves to the floor

and back to the wall before stretching

As usual, the work has changed a bit from initial layout to finished stitching.  I stretched this one yesterday.  While I am excited to begin painting, it is necessary to spend some time considering the colour.  Acrylic colour will keep its glow if applied carefully in sheer layers; too many layers and the colour goes dull and flat.  I'm not talking about surface sheen, I'm talking about the life of the colour.

second layout

My intention is to copy this layout as exactly as possible.  To that end I have traced around the shapes on the wall, and will measure their positions as I stitch them into the canvas.  This will be an interesting process for me, less organic in execution than most of my work has been.

Previous to this new series, I completed the stitching for the commissioned work:

And stretched them:

The clients wanted a diptych.  Husband wanted me to make a piece "just for us", wife wanted to be able to choose.  

My solution: make 3 paintings, any two of which will work together, and any one of which can stand alone.  (In a later post sometime I will show the 6 different potential diptych combinations.)

The logic: what I do as an artist is to disassemble my experience of the world and re-assemble it in my studio.  Here then, my clients can be a part of that process when they, in effect, disassemble this work and re-assemble it into a diptych.

Brilliant, no?

In between working on my new "elegant and sophisticated" series, I will keep this commissioned work in the periphery of the studio.  In this way creative ideas and information are circulated.

Here's a poem that sums up a part of the creative process quite nicely.

spindle and float

And here is piece which I began several months ago.  It has been languishing in the painting rack, waiting for further inspiration.  Often the creative process works like a brewer's yeast, bubbling away at the bottom of the cask, creating a chain reaction that gradually moves to the surface.  (haha, I recently read an article on beer-making.)

Now looking at it, I'm thinking it only needs a few small tweaks.  Soon, soon.... !

sustenance

It's raining really hard outside.  I've left a glass on the deck to collect rainwater, which I will drink later. I did this a few days ago and discovered that rainwater tastes kind of metallic.  Perhaps the metallic taste is due to pollution, or perhaps it's due to the lightning and thunder that has lately accompanied rainfall here.

Meanwhile, rather than working in the studio, which had been my plan for today, I am reading and thinking.  Here is a very interesting article on beauty.

About two months ago I agreed to do another commissioned painting.  Commissions can be quite a challenge for me, because usually the starting idea changes a great deal during my process of making work, and the end result is as much a surprise to me as to anyone else.  In this case I am feeling good about doing a commission because this client is willing to trust my process.

After some initial conversations and a studio meeting, I made a visit to their home to get a sense of the space and how my work might fit into it.  We agreed on a size and a price, and since then things have been simmering in the back of my mind.

I had already begun with some preparatory work, using photo references to paint thinly on pieces of canvas which I intend to stitch into the commissioned piece, though still not knowing how it would all come together - and then, last week while I was prepping paper and canvas for landscapes, an idea came to me as to how I might stage this commission, and I think it's a really good idea!

So here I am, feeling good and excited, relaxed in the process and with a direction for the next step.

And look, the rain has slowed and my glass has fresh water in it.
:)