Love You Love You Naught

Love who you are - and who you are not. (Anonymous)

What a mess... a real mishmash!! Started back about a month ago. Was attracted by some images of daisies from a magazine and started playing around on an odd piece of brown paper. I think I started with the collage pieces and started putting on random marks in pencil and oil sticks. Not really knowing what was going to come out. No rest for the poor eye here.

Daisies Start WIP

35 x 39 cm

Brown Paper

Mixed Media

Trying to quiet down some too busy areas using my new oil sticks. Still a little too much. Decided in any case to keep to the flower motif

Daisies 2 

35 x 39 cm

Brown Paper

Mixed Media

Daisies 3

35 x 39 cm

Brown Paper

Mixed Media

Still needing something... seems a bit pareve   back for some tweaks

Doodle Colored I

Every morning is a new garden. (Leza MacDonald)

Old entry. 

Isn't it wonderful when you discover a new flower in your garden! My garden isn't really specially cared for.  We dried our lawn when the water prices got too high. Its mainly wild grass, lavender, perennials, and in this season lots of wild poppies.

Today

I started this blog maybe a week ago. Wow how life manages to change so fast. You get into a routine and everything falls into place that is till you get the jolt. That's what happened to me last evening when I received a surprise call from brother-in -law Tommy.  My baby sister had suddenly passed. She hadn't felt well and didn't sleep well so decided to take a morning nap, and quietly slipped away. They say a sudden heart attack. Right now as I am writing this I feel as if I am "robot" mode, trying hard to digest it all. Debbie was our miracle baby, born 68 years ago at the weight of 1lb 6oz!!! No more short sweets posts, just a hole in my heart, These flowers are for you Debbie!!!

36 x 25

Crayons  Oil Pastels over Doodle I

Brown Paper

Chain Reactions

It would be fascinating to wire up an artist with electrodes to measure exactly how many choices must be made during the process of creation. (Francis Boag)

Isn't it funny how chain reaction works? This morning while reading Dotty's blog that is exactly what happened. She wrote about the study made on gratitude and me, with sometimes my obsessiveness, had to find what study etc.  After about 5 search steps I did find an abstract of a study,  But one of the related options on the page brought me to the subject of laziness, which I get almost daily. From there to a few Youtube videos. From there to this site with lots of videos, Of course, signed up for newsletter getting some interesting videos and MP3 files. One on meditation that I always wanted to try and couldn't get the proper concept. Well to make this long story shorter I tried it out and have started my 30-day challenge of 20 minutes meditation. It was not easy, that I can tell you. I felt it was the longest 20 minutes ever, but I am glad I did it and will continue. What has all this has to do with my latest painting? Well just wanted to share what going through my head.

Spring is here and as usual here a very short season till summer and its heat.  Found some interesting cuts of flowers, bows, pink etc and this is what came out.  I am not sure that these are finished as Heleni says, but I probably will let them rest a while.

Signs of Spring

Collage Oils and Cold Wax

30 x 32 cm

On cut Canvas

Pink Bow

Collage Oils and Cold Wax

29 x 32 cm 

On cut Canvas

Thirty in Thirty Day 25 Last of the Poppies

This is the third and final version of poppies in the yellow field. The  first was day 12 and the second day 15.
All were cutouts from and collage project a few years ago. After cutting the cardboard into 6 x 8 " formats I
saw some had the potential start for new work.

Finished this on with more crayon work and then with oils.

Crayons and oils on collage cutout on cardboard

6 x 8 "

Thirty in Thirty Day 16 Tulip

This may be a WIP. Started this and scraped several times, even cleaning with paper towels and wet wipes. I am going to try to finish and maybe just work on the background and not the flowers with some impasto paint. At this stage, it looks more like a watercolor except for some areas of impasto that I left. This is usually where I make a mess of things. Heleni says I have great beginnings but somehow tend to over work... so is everything to be just a start?

Worked on this in class today... Worked on the background and intensified the tulip... having fun with wet on wet.

Oils on canvas covered cardboard

8 x 6"

Worked with brush and palette knife

Thirty in Thirty Day 15 Fowers in Field II

I am so glad I have the reserves for blog posts. Life seems to creep in and the day has gone before you know it. This is the second of the yellow field and red flowers. The original that was cut up from here.
Used oils and cold wax on the paper and gouache.

Oils and Cold Wax on cutout collage

Thirty in Thirty Day 12 Field Flowers I

A few years ago I did a collage for one of our workshop concept challenges. You can read about it here. This was one of the collages that I cut up 6 x 8 " formats for the new Thirty in Thirty  challenge this January.

The paper was peeling and it's time done!!! After cutting the formats, I noticed that a few had some potential as a starting point.

I didn't do much, strengthened the colors and composition using oils and cold wax which went on the paper and gouache.

Oils and Cold Wax on collage cutout

8 x 6 "

Thirty in Thirty Day 2 Clementis

While I was preparing my formats I used 2 old collage paintings that were on cardboard and cut them up to  paste canvas on. After looking at a few, I thought some had interesting patterns that  I could use as starting off places or background.  This is one of them... Since they were newspaper cuttings  that had been painted over, some peeling, found it difficult to use oils over... So I am not to happy with this entry.  In the end used my Caren d'Ache neo color I wax crayons.

Oil & Wax Crayons on Cardboard 

collage

8 x 6 inches

Here is the collage that I cut up...

# 66 Poppies Peeking

# 66 Poppies Peeking

Our garden is nothing to speak about but early spring our yards are filled with wild poppies. This photo taken 2012.  We didn't have many in the front this year but on the sides and back were many.  This little group was taken behind some Hollyhock foliage.

Oils & Cold Wax

40 x 35 cm

Gessoed Cardboard

Workshop # 58 Potted Planter

Workshop # 58 Potted Planter

Fourth in the floral series.  May have been the first I started but worked simultaneously.  This was based on a crayon sketch of a potted planter that was done this past January on the 30 in 30 hosted by Leslie Seata.

Diluted oil washes with sketching and sanding for added texture. This is a WIP and I will update.

Early version

25 x 25 cm canvas on cardboard

Painting Flowers with Leslie I

Painting Flowers with Leslie I

This month I decided to jump in and take an "online" course with Leslie Saeta... this month painting flowers. A beautiful bouquet of white flowers on the window sill. I always loved the simplicity of Leslie's paintings and hope to learn more about her pre-mixing and palette knife technique.

These post will be work in progress.... so first the sketch.... On gessoed cardboard... 13 3/4 x 10 1/2 " It's a bit cut off..... panel is slightly larger than my scanner head... but you can get the general idea...

Now to start color mixing!!!

January 30 x 30 Challenge # 5 Potted Flowers

January 30 x 30 Challenge  # 5  Potted Flowers

Lots going on this past year at Hamei Yoav. The management has changed and lots of renovations.

Some I like and some not so much... Too much use of synthetic grass inside and out.... 

At the entrance this pot of lowers caught my eye on a bed of synthetic grass....

20 x 20 cm Heavy brown paper... Pencil and wax pastels   

30 in 30 Day 18

Collage Mishmash

Have seen some awesome mixed media work on the challenge and thought I would try my hand. Not much materials at hand..... will try to collect stuff for the future... lighter papers ... textures and stuff .. all I had were some newsprint and shiny stuff from travel magazines. The pieces were pasted on tracings of my grandson's hands....
I feel collage work would go greatly with my wax/oil crayons...will look for tutorials as well....

Collage on crayon drawing

8 x 8 inch grey cardboard 

30 in 30 Day 11

New Growth

Crayons + Oils on grey pressed cardboard

8" x 8 "

30 in 30 Day 7

Daisy Hand

This is my variation of the tradition of drawing on hands called Henna.

In Israel, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish women sometimes choose to have a hennah party about a week before the wedding. 

 Oil on grey pressed cardboard

8" x 8 "

30 in 30 Day 2

Over the weekend I made several rough starts that I brought to my weekly workshop today... for some critique and finishing. This one, which I thought was just a beginning , turned out to be finished.... since I have a tendency to "overwork" excepted the advise.

Oil on grey pressed cardboard

8" x 8 "

30 in 30 Painting Challenge Day 1

I have joined, for the second time round, Leslie Seata's challenge to do 30 paintings in 30 days.

Its been a long and difficult summer... I feel emotionally spent and empty and find it difficult to get back not only in painting mode but creative mode as well.  I feel that I am really pushing and with the doing  I will overcome and at least find a way to express my emotions.

For the beginning I have chosen the theme hands.. big,small,asking,telling ,seeing,doing hands I will be experimenting with colors, textures and concepts.  

Oil on grey pressed cardboard

8" x 8 "

Daily # 37 Yellow Poppies

Poppies with Gnome

Well not really a daily.... did it in the evening and next morning tweaked the statue... it was much to big..
This is from the WDE at wet canvas this weekend.

Used some leftover paints from the color charts for the backgrounds
Size 25 x 30 cm

 background

Statue not right!!! 

 Statue fixed and colors tweaked

First thought was to use crayons as under-painting.. used medium on the surface but then decided to stop... always a difficult decision... Enjoyed working on the oil background... but may tweak!!! 

Daily Paintings February # 36

Cone flower # 36

Oils on corrugated cardboard

17 x 24 cm

Took part on Wetcanvas all media art event.  This weeks the WDE was hosted by Elaine.  She really  us a challenged us this week... she posted all the references in B&W and since tone is the thing we had full range to add the colors....  17 x 24 cm corrugated cardboard....oils done with palette knife.

Fushia flower from WDE on Wet canvas

Seems its been a long and hot summer.... workshop vacation for two months.... hard to get motivated... no excuses ... with the  beginning of  September and maybe some relief from the heat I am trying to get back into the swing,,, and develop a little more creative discipline... Recently I bought a workshop #24 on pre-mixing grays by Richard Robinson. I love working with grays but my first attempt was really not a success... got too carried away and it was just too muddy and fragmented.... I did do  a wde challenge  hosted by Connie done also using grays.... done on 400 gram cartridge paper ,next time I will coat the paper with either gesso or acrylic paint.... it also was quite dull so did a bit of  oil pastels and blended it with some medium. Size 19 x 19 cm 

Did a tight crop to the Fushia Flower  

 First try  Click to enlarge

 With added oil pastel 

Click to enlarge

Doing another landscape from the references that I got with the workshop.... next post... still disappointed  but not giving in!!!