Digital Painting

Inspired by the digital artwork of Israeli artist, Ish Gordon, I had to try my own hand at digital painting. Of course, as all my artist friends know, I experiment, always, by using a pear as my subject. And here is, Pear Number 1, a digital painting.

Pear Number 1, available at Society 6

The image below is my inspiration, 

Tangled Romantic, by Ish Gordon

Obviously, I have a long way to go! :D

Tangy Zoodle #104

Tangy Zoodle #104

My sister TAGG members all know that when I start making "pear" art, that I'm transitioning. 

Experimentation

I was playing around a bit in the studio today. I have  this idea of making art from common items. For one thing, I have a new studio with far fewer supplies than I've had in the past. So I experimented today with newspaper, cheesecloth, sample indoor house paints from Lowes, wallpaper and crayons. I had hours of fun seeing what I could come up with.

The image I've posted here was something I created in my sketchbook. The background started out with the house paints (they are daubs from where I cleaned my brushes). Then I applied a layer of cheesecloth on top of that. Next I used a piece of Japanese kinwashi (I know, I know... not exactly prosaic) and I used a quilting iron to melt crayons and a small paint brush to apply the melted wax to the kinwashi to create the image of a pear; thus creating my own style of encaustic painting. 

And true to my signature style, I splattered the entire image with a coppery metallic paint.

I rather like the end result and I can imagine that you'll see me using a similar process with similar materials in the future.

Retrospective Part 4

Florals

"Ceramic Birds & Morning Glory Vase" - Pastel - 11x14 - 1998

Ultimately, flowers became my favorite subject matter. My mother has always been an avid gardener and I grew up following her around the yard asking the names of all the flowers and learning the difference between annuals and perennials. I learned to love flowers, but somehow, not gardening. :\  Don't get me wrong. I love to plant flowers, but whether they live or die is up to them.

Anyway, creating images of flowers, in all mediums, is a huge source of joy. Interestingly enough, the flowers in this first image were from my yard (obviously something survived my rather crude gardening methods). I had just made a breakthrough in my handling of pastels and was having a great time with them. What I love most about this painting, though, are the ceramic birds and vase. They had been made by my grandmother almost 40 years earlier. I realize that when she made these she must have been around the same age I am now.

"Nasturtiums II" - Pastel - 16x17 - 1999

The nasturtiums in this second image also came from my yard. Hmmm... maybe I'm a little more into gardening than I realize. I absolutely adore nasturtiums and enjoy representing them in collage, too.

"Blue Vase - Pastel - 11x14 - 2002

This final piece of pansies (also grown by me) was painted as a homework assignment for a pastel workshop I was taking. Fact of the matter is, I never went back after the first session. The instructor was such a flake. Work was never really accomplished in the classroom unless the "energy was right." Most of the time he just talked about painting. I must have gotten something out of it though. This image was made in response to his encouragement to think about composition a little differently and I rather like the way it turned out.