The Arm Wrestle Ho Down.

That time has come again, the arm wrestle.

That's the time after I've given myself a break from the studio, but before I actually start painting again. I need a little break after a big push for a show. I have to clean the house, because it's usually been completely neglected, work in the yard a bit, catch up on all those errands I put off. I might even put stuff on etsy like I did a week or so ago. ( You can see the etsy shop at : http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSpringGallery?ref=si_shop )

But now it's time to get back to work, it's been time to get back to work for a week or so. But instead, I have started the dance...the Arm Wrestle Ho Down.

Oh sure, I'll get a couple hours of work in a day, this week I've carved two little bird lino blocks, and printed about 50 of the little boogers on pattern paper last night. But really, that is about one day's work stretched into a week.

But, it's been sunny, and beautiful, and my garden has been weedy, and there is bread to bake and dog bellies to scratch. Oh, and a mosaic wall to fiddle with, but somehow that is too close to actually "getting something done" and has only been worked on in fits and starts. And naps to take.

But that annoying bitch in the back of my head is starting to mutter, and moan. She is loudest as I am trying to get to sleep at night. Chastising me for going to bed at a decent hour when I had a nap, and I really didn't get much done today. "You do have another show coming you know, you might want to have, oh I don't know...some inventory? A painting or two perhaps?" She is very sarcastic.

And of course, once I get the motor going, shake off the spring fever, and get immersed in making new work. I find a great rhythm. Scott knows to fend for himself, and I find this great peace. I think I am almost there. Boxes of canvases are coming in a few days, I am scratching down new ideas on scraps of paper everywhere.

But the tomatoes, I need to plant tomatoes.

Studio slice #1

I have come up with a new little exercise for myself, a way of keeping in touch with you, and to hopefully keep this blog fresh and interesting. I'll be post a new little photo, a fragment of life inside my studio, almost every day. And when I paint something worthy of a whole blog, I'll slip that in too. So here we go, Studio Slice #1.

A week of experiments

I have to admit, I've been feeling a little "stuck" lately. New ideas have been slow to come, and I've found myself, more often than not, spinning my wheels and reworking past ideas. I couldn't manage to keep myself in the studio for any length of time. I needed a serious kick start, but wasn't sure how to begin.

So I started a little self analysis, always a dangerous thing.

One of the issues I discovered was that supplies were becoming scarce, tubes were wrung dry, and there were only a couple empty canvases around, big expensive canvases. It is a difficult thing to take a leap of faith and start something fresh when resources are low, what if I mess up one of those big canvases? So this all meant I needed to do a little shopping.

In the art supply store I told myself I was going to get at least one new thing that I hadn't tried before, or at least not in several years. I ended up checking out with a tub of powdered graphite, three inexpensive canvases, and replacements for some of those empty paint tubes. And some really pretty papers, those still haven't been touched!

Then I simply convinced myself that this was a week off, a week of experiments. I wasn't going to try to complete anything, just start mucking around and see what happens. I grabbed some paper and tried different transfer processes, using oil of wintergreen and lacquer thinner. The oil of wintergreen works much better, and is less flammable, a good thing. But being an oily process I wasn't so sure that water based acrylic paints were going to work well on top. So I picked up a canvas and started a different transfer process using acrylic. While that was drying I was in the powdered graphite, and chalk, and pastels, and pencil, simply making marks, with no thought of a finished product.

Papers were collaged, silver leaf was added, I found some stencils, and just kept going. I ended up with a canvas that was simply full, and thanks to the graphite, quite dark. So I started cutting back in with paint, highlighting favorite parts, blocking out the bits that didn't work, by the end of the day I had this...



Now I know some of you aren't going to be thrilled with this direction, but bear with me. I have always loved abstract work, and have dabbled with it from time to time. And this just felt so fresh, and full of life that I decided to keep going. But my next piece was started with a little more deliberation.

A few photo transfers, a little graphite, some mucky brushwork...

Then more photos, silver leaf, and you can see a rough pencil drawing of one of my latest studio finds, an old birdcage. Add to this some color, reworking the cage with a little more precision, map bits, old stamps, more, more more...

I was a little slower, this one took a couple days to complete, a little less experimenting, letting things dry properly before moving on. Learning from the process. I finally decided this one was done. Time to move on to the last canvas, and the week was coming to a close.

So the last one started like the others, with very little idea of where it was going (I am a planner, so this was a breakthrough and a relief in itself.) The nest was transferred to the right hand side. The "nest" on the left was collaged using old patterns. I like drawing parallels between humans and birds and our building abilities. Rubber stamps are repeated in the background, and the gauzy thin glove attached on top, I love how transparent it is, allowing the viewer to see what is going on underneath. The bird was painted, the three little eggs are stitched with little glass beads.

What I am enjoying about this process is how it started being so random, yet became more and more symmetrical. But still keeps the visual richness. And I know this week is going to influence my new work. I am looking forward to seeing where I go from here!

All three of these pieces are 20" square, I still have to fuss over them for a while to decide if I will bring them to shows. But I am happy to be on the other side of that case of "painters block" and looking forward to my next canvas!