TATU

 One of the guest speakers that inspired me a few weeks ago on our live sessions at Cold Wax Academy, Sara Post. She showed a technique that really caught my attention. She works with collage in a novel concept. Not adding collage to a painting in progress but starting with a substrate where collage pieces were glued and using paint in a reductive way. Cool. After doing one, I started 3 more and decided that this will become a series. 

Collage

Cold Wax layers, oil sticks, 

Mark Making

My new Favani organic paper various colors 350gm

Squeegee, brayer, palette-knife +

Limited Palette

TATU

Mainly art papers I made with acrylic with my Gelli Pad. Some on transparent papers and some using newspaper as a substrate. Made a coat of gloss media between the collage pieces before mark-making and added oils with cold wax. This allows me to go back to the first collage layer. 

The word TATU was part of another word that came from a huge newspaper I got from an exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum about Jerusalem Called Status Quo. It has no real meaning on its own, just a mark or shape. Don't know if this is really finished will put aside awhile.

Basic Collage
14" x 20"
Collage
Oils and Cold Wax

Stage 4
14" x 20"
Collage
Oils and Cold Wax

Stage 6
14" x 20"
Collage
Oils and Cold Wax

TATU (WIP)

14" x 20"
Collage
Oils and Cold Wax

So good to get back into blogging. So good to be back with our weekly workshop, with our mentor Ariel Asseo

Sampler I

 The most important blog post

It is on the most important blog.Yours.

Even if no one but you reads it. The blog you write each day is the blog you need the most. It’s a compass and a mirror, a chance to put a stake in the ground and refine your thoughts.

And the most important post? The one you’ll write tomorrow.   Seth Godin

When I think of the past year, I feel I have to divide it up. Some areas were very fruitful and others with dread, fear, apprehension, loneliness, lethargy, laziness, etc. I could probably come up with more adjectives but not going to waste too much energy. 

One big decision I made this past December was to go back to my oils and cold wax so I will put my acrylics aside for a while.. I really feel that I don't have the basics in this medium and haven't taken advantage of the special qualities that this medium offers. So I jumped into the Cold Wax Academy. A huge learning curve!

Sampler I

20 x 20"

Oils and Cold Wax

Crush Favini Organic Paper 350 gm

(those little black marks are from layer 3)

Beginning Layers with Texture

Topography Layer

Cool Layer

Warm Transparent Layer

Probably 2-3 more layers

Didn't like the Orange Blob

Simplify

Rotated

Have No Idea How I Got There

Maybe it's a good idea to come back to a painting and look at it with a different eye. How did this come about? Not my usual palette although I am trying to implement some brights in my work.

Seems I Am on a Magical Ride

19.5" x 13.5"

Oils Cold Wax Oil Sticks

cut canvas

Watchful Eye

How this painting came about I have no idea! It started out innocently with some bright color marks.
I didn't really want to connect with the mother and child so I turned it 90 degrees, a process I am learning now, and just added more layers till other images, real or imagined started to appear.

WIP

I Will Keep Watch Over You

13.75" x  19.5"

Oils Cold Wax Oils Sticks

Cut Canvas 

Here We Go Round

Always wanted a pony
Then a small camel

Daddy Buy Me That Spotted Pony

Oils ColdWax Oil Sticks

16" x 20.5"

Cut Canvas

Persevere

I have been reading a lot about picking a word for the year, that will help you through the year on any journey life seems to take you. However, picking this word has much to do with my art practice, not my art but the practice. There is a big difference.

How did I get to my word? It was pretty difficult at first, my mind seemed to be blank. I am never really clever with words. The first word that came to mind was PUSH. I really think I have to push myself more. Not curl up in a cacoon, play solitaire, or feel sorry for myself. After listening to a TED talk about struggle more words seemed to pop into my consciousness.

STRUGGLE
PERSEVERANCE
THRIVE
PROCESS
PERSEVERE

I decided on PERSEVERE. It sort of combines perseverance and struggle, and the outcome will be that in that process I will thrive! All comes together in that one word.

You all may know, or not, that I am sort of obsessed with tutorials and online classes. This past year I took part in PHYSAS 2019. What I found was that this is not really for me. There were some really great classes and great teachers and lots of new techniques but I felt sort of overwhelmed and that many times it was too much and instead of moving forward I was sometimes at a standstill. I have to decide where I want to move forward.

So I decided to make a big jump. Since I realize that in the perceivable future I can't take any  1 to1 workshops the next best thing is an online workshop, not a class, but a real workshop. I decided to take Joan Fullerton's online workshop. I have always admired her work and process. She combines abstract, landscapes, some realism, and design. She calls it a class but for ME it will be a year-long workshop. As I said a BIG JUMP! 

Also, since I work in oils and cold wax I signed up for Jeanne Oliver's new course called Underneath
I just couldn't resist! Now the blinders are on! These will keep me very busy!

I have been busy with some pieces but feel they are still in WIP form. Each seems to need something. I have been experimenting in using Topaz Studio 2 and photoshop to tweak and find some solutions. Really great fun.

WIP I

19.5 x 19.5 "

Oil Cold wax  Oils sticks

cut canvas

WIP II

19.5 x 19.5 "

Oil Cold wax  Oils sticks

cut canvas

Tweaked in photoshop  

WIP I

19.5 x 19.5 "

Oil Cold wax  Oils sticks

cut canvas

WIP II

19.5 x 19.5 "

Oil Cold wax  Oils sticks

cut canvas

Tweaked in photoshop 

Haven't done the actual tweaks, appreciate any suggestions and feedback!

You Are In for a Big Surprise

Giving lots of thoughts to Jen's post on extra-ordinary! We all get into the day to day living pattern without much thought, just ordinary stuff. Feed the cats, and Bella the chicken. Make porridge, do the laundry... all done without much thought. Mundane, boring... but the ordinary can be extra.

Friday

An early trip to the bakery for Shabbat Chala, pitots and borakas!
No traffic, lots of parking space, and the smell of fresh baked goods  EXTRA!

Feeding the cats and Bella... Lady begging for some hugs and petting... EXTRA!
The cool air  EXTRA! Even the smell of freshly laundered clothes  EXTRA!

Coming home from Natanya after a condolence visit,(shiva) Waze took us home on a road near the sea.  Glimpses of the sea between the buildings EXTRA.

I am certainly going to try to look for the EXTRA more!

Tuesday  workshop always EXTRA

This painting was done over another rather unsuccessful painting below.  I had added another blue layer which made it worse. At first, I just wanted to sort veil it with light gray tones but it sort of had a will of its own and all sort figures began appearing.

When You Go Into the Forest

Oils and Cold Wax

Cut Canvas

24" x 19"

Practice Practice and More Practice

Doing portraits are difficult mainly because of the likeness factor. Practice is the key! This is the second portrait for Week 12 of PYHAS 2019 taught by  Marina Teding van Berkhout. Its a portrait of my Mom I think from the early 1940s.
It's the second try on this pose, the first was in oil pastels which I didn't like. This was done with oils and cold wax in many layers and textures. There is some likeness.

Longing 

11.5 x 16.5 "

Oils and Cold Wax

Cut Canvas

 The Process

Layer 1

Prussian Blue + Permanent Mauve

Layer 2

Primary Blue + Yellow Green(mix)

Layer 3

Venetian Red + Cadmium Yellow Deep + Raw Sienna

Transferred drawing

(was altered during the painting process)

Painting was done using the colors of layer 3 varying the mixes with white, buff titanium, and raw umber. Lots of painting and scraping in the process!

That's My Last Duchess

I can't remember my English teacher's name. Hoping that it would somehow find its way through all the wiring in my brain. She was very influential and it was through her that I really started reading. Sadly up till then, it was mainly just fairytales!

I was exposed to the classics and poetry. Robert Browning one of my favorites and of course Elizabeth Barrett.

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, 

Looking as if she were alive. I call 

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands 

Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Robert Browning

Week 12 Figures with Oils and Cold Wax with Marina Teding van Berkhout! What a marvelous lesson. 

Four layers of oils and cold wax.  Use of various scratch tools and stencils! Took her a while to emerge, scraped her face twice. This medium is very forgiving. 

My Last Duchess

12 x 17 "

Cut Canvas

Oils Cold Wax Palette Knife Catalyst Knife

click to enlarge

It's time for play

We all love to play. We are all told that it's OK to play at art. Have fun, play! It's like a mantra. But sometimes I find art hard and sometimes there are difficult choices. At times these choices are so difficult that we don't make them and leave the piece unfinished. This year taking PYHAS 2019 has somehow released the stresses and frustrations, I am not making masterpieces but learning new things, just exercises! It's all in the mind! So now a few play pieces that are on my table.

I have lots of odd pieces of cut canvas, thanks to my artist friend Traudi. She works HUGE and sometimes cuts off side pieces from canvas roll which she gifts me. She doesn't share her work on social media or on a blog or website but this morning she sent me her wolf. It is from Norse Mythology.

The sound of a cat's footfall that binds the wolf Fenrir.

59 x 43.5

© Traudi Bernstein

Maybe I can convince her to post on Instagram!

Most start their lives with leftover paint.

WIP

12 x 8.5 "

Oils and Cold Wax 

Cut Canvas

This started as a mess of paint from cleaning brushes knives and palette

A Journey with Nasa's Galaxies and Stars

8 x 9.5 "

Oils Cold Wax Stencils Oil Sticks

The hills are alive with the sound of music!

The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears

Richard Rogers Oscar Hammerstein II

I am sure this was not the music that my grandson was listening to when he was watching the beautiful mountains in Nepal last April. 

Listening To the Mountain Music

47.5 x 23.625 "

Oils on Wrapped Canvas

Transfer Photo

Painted on an old image with a very light burnt sienna leaving a section for transferring the photo image. Done mainly using oil sticks, about time because I have had them for 2.5 years. The sky was done with regular oils with cold wax, mainly with my silicon spreaders. I loved the looseness that I could get with the sticks but to fill in the sky was a problem. I learned a lot and will definitely use them on a smaller substrate. They are great for getting in the sketch.  

A male portrait exercise Week 9 HYHAS 2019 Instructor Muriel Stegers  Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway! What a title! Whoever thought I would be painting a male portrait without a reference!

WIP

11.6 x 16.5

Acrylic Paper 300 gm

Acrylics

Muriel is an excellent instructor! Lots more to do to this. Acrylics are not my favorite medium but slowly learning to layer and enjoy. This was after video #4!  #5 to watch and tomorrow another lesson!

Have no idea how to make this smaller 

All Artists Did/Do This

We all have paintings that are sort of OK but not really worth keeping. Each painting teaches us something, but it's time to move on.  In 2012 I did a group of three quite large canvases, for me at least. Guess I never blogged them. They were of some childhood memories of a summer spent at a beach town in Rhode Island. I remembered walking through tall cornfields. Well, one is on its way for another memory, this one of my daughters, a recent trip to the Arava.

Dancing in the Fields

47 x 23.5 "

Oils on stretched canvas

Before Sanding

After sanding

Out in the garden on a warm winter's morning, the canvas is ready for a new memory!

First lawyers oils with cold wax medium!

Love the play of the shadows!

Lost and Found and Other News

Lily was lost! Or I should say taken and then dumped! Luckily there are "good" people around. One took her in and had a chip reader come and read her chip. She was quite far from our town on the other side of a very busy main road #461( Road to Tel Aviv) which she would NEVER cross on her own.

Finished the course and awaiting a new one end of August with Pauline. Didn't get much work done that last week. Combining background with the figure is tricky and not in my comfort zone. Have a few more figures in the process and may go back in this one.

WIP

Conte + Neocolor Crayons I

13.75 x 19.75 "

Gessoed Paper

Started this figure on cut canvas for the workshop but this month we are having structured lessons so working at home.  First 3 stages... going slow! Oils and cold wax + palette knife!

WIP I

20 x28 "

Cut Canvas Wrapped on cardboard

II

III

Have to lighten this!

Still Around and Kicking

Can't believe that my last post was at the beginning of the month and here I am the last week! So much happened that kept me away from blogging, although I wrote many in my head.

Still doctoring my sprained ankle which is much better. Have had a checkup and still have to wear my air-cast till the middle of July but have started going back to the pool. Since the best position was lying down with my ankle up, could do much computer work. Blogger on the tablet is not the same.

My daughter's cat Mishmish was found after being missing for a month. Posted her photo on the community google group. A Miracle! Lots of good people out there!
Yes, I am cat-sitting two cats while my daughter + family are having a grand tour of the far east!

Mishmish

A few days before going missing!

This week was the last lesson of our workshop. That is the workshop that is run through the regular channels of community activities. We were in for 3 whole months of "vacation". Luckily we organized with Reuven, our mentor, that we will be able to continue meeting in a different location during the months of July and August. YAY!!!!So only September we will be on vacation, which has all the holidays. The first month will be devoted to learning from the ground up "oils". Although I work in oils I never really got instructions from the ground up. Learned by doing, which has its place, and tutorials from the web. It will be an introduction to oils for those who work in acrylic. The second month we will delve in on "mixed media".We will also be a smaller group.

Wide Fields of Your Imagination

Matte Board

31.5 x 24 "

Oils + Cold Wax

Was thinking of developing this in color over the monochromatic layer but Reuven said it stands on its own.

Last week I started my e-course with Pauline Agnew, From the Heart - Painting the Face and Figure with Feeling!  I will show some of the first-weeks exercises.  Can't believe it's the end of the second week. Each exercise is a world of its own and should be done many times to really feel the effect. Not only does Pauline show us through her demos, but she also prepares excellent slide shows of various artists and explaining how important it is to learn from the masters.

Exercise I

With eyes closed draw your face while tracing your face with your non-dominant hand! Then taking a colored pencil draw your face with eyes closed by memory! This is a great warmup! As you can see mine is all over the place! Pauline says that's good.

Face Scan

Exercise II

Looking at a portrait sketch by John Singer Sargent make a drawing paying attention to the lines and ways he described his subject. Another great exercise. We are always told to learn by copying, and until you really do it you realize how true this is. I will certainly do more of his sketches as well as others!

My Sargent Sketch

Exercise III

An ink drawing from a photograph! Never did ink before. Was really freaked out! Pauline's critique was that I should have done one more layer of stronger ink.

Ink Sketch

Excercise IV

Remember the face scan, exercise I.  Do a charcoal sketch over that from another of Sargent's work!

Charcoal Sketch I

The critique was to try to define left side of the face in the shadow more

Revised Sketch

Lost some of the vibrance and paper had lost its tooth

Pauline agreed that it faded but we learn by doing

The difference in background color due to one photographed outdoors and one indoors.

Didn't spend time on photo editing!

All for today, off to the pool, I've earned it!

On Top of the World

Thorong Phedi, Nepal, part of the Annapurna Circuit. My grandson Uri at the pass! 

Flying High On Top of the World

27 x 19.5"

Dark Blue Matte Board

Oils and Cold Wax

Collage

Finished piece.First draft. Added collage pieces and lots of scratch marks!  Enlarged the photo of Uri in black and white and sort of blended him in. Had to add a bits of the flags with collage pieces as well. 

Reference

Hidden Blocks and Dolls II

Remember Hidden Blocks and Dolls?  Brought it to class today to tweak. Decided to listen to Reuven and not touch it.

Hiding Among the Blocks

19.5 x 16.5"

Cut Canvas taped to cardboard

Oils  Cold Wax

Collage

One of the best parts of our workshop is toward the end when Reuven walks us through the various works in progress. So much is learned during these sessions. One such lesson was to listen to him when he says to stop. He explained that sometimes we reach a point that we don't recognize or understand, we still feel is not complete. That is when we want to satisfy what WE feel and usually not in the interest of the painting. I am so glad that I didn't tweak my painting and started something new!

Recently I saw Jen Walls new cover image on FB at reminded me of the Annapurna Circuit that my daughter and family did last month. She said she worked from photos "inspired by photos from my brother-in-law's trips there". Decided to use one of my grandson at the same spot as my trigger. The Thorong La Pass, Thanks Jen for the inspiration. 

WIP

27 x 19.5"

Dark Blue Matte Board

Oils and Cold Wax

PS Have already scratched into this and pasted a collage piece!