Flowers Peeking Through Day 1

Here it is the beginning of September and we are in one of our summers heat waves. Inside and morning, fan running, I am feeling quite comfortable.

Just found out that the September 30 in 30 is on. Usually get a month more notice but this makes the challenge even more exciting. So I will be doing this challenge along with the e-course that I am taking with Pauline Agnew called Feeling the Pose.  I recently took an e-course From the Heart and this new course is a great follow up. Pauline is a great teacher, she manages to bring out the best in all her students with her short videos wonderful philosophy! Also, who can resist the musical Irish lilt?

So this challenge will be going with the flow! First days a few mixed media from my summer workshop and probably lots of figures.

Day 1 Mixed media on watercolor paper. Continuation of the main theme of "jail" from my previous post.

WIP

Flowers Crawling Through the Cracks

13.75 x 13.75

Mixed Media

Acrylics Crayons Transfers Ink Intense Pencils

Summer Sadna the Best

Incredible! These past two months of extended workshop classes were just that, incredible! I learned more in these months than in the 10 months of our regular workshop classes. Conclusion, we need more directional instruction.

July was Oils, for me back to the basics, for others an introduction.  August, mixed media month, using unconventional materials, collage, and assemblage, was a mind opener, even for me as I use collage and various mediums a lot.

I loved the mid time critiques that sometimes overflowed to the end of class! 

Critique Line-Up

This week we were to work in collage. But, before we start we were to write down our intentions or concept. 

 Collage

Homework - write a short text on a free subject that interests you (identity, family, nature, or something more specific like a portrait, car, etc.) that has an idea of duality or more, Then write why it will be the exact subject and right for you to create it in collage

The purpose of writing - to refine and clarify the thought

Remember thoughts are words

When I think of collage I generally think in abstract terms, usually color, shapes, and forms, lines, and textures. Sometimes I start with painting shapes and colors and then adding collage pieces and sometimes I start with pasting collage pieces and then painting. I don't generally start with a specific concept, but had this thought of Jail as maybe a starting idea.
What is a jail?
Physically and mentally? Do we make our own jails?  Can we break out of them?
What color is jail? Black, no light no hope desperate? A feeling of great loneliness!
I often find myself in this place.

"Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant emotional response to isolation. Loneliness typically includes anxious feelings about a lack of connection or communication with other beings, both in the present and extending into the future. As such, loneliness can be felt even when surrounded by other people."

Word associations:
Out of control, prison, jail, confinement, gaol, penitentiary, lockup, dungeon, solitary confinement,
imprison, incarcerate,  put away, immure, prohibit, ban, forbid, arrest, bar, mental block

WIP

19.75 x 13.75 "

Gessoed paper with Sienna layer

For this, I have to put on my "Dotty" hat

The next group I made starts in acrylic paint on watercolor paper to start my collage

Behind the Veil

13.75 x 13.75 "

Acrylic Collage Wax Crayons

Am I Dreaming

13.75 x 13.75 "

Acrylic Collage Wax Crayons

Next week our last session and Brachot* for the New Year! Continuing with our concepts using everything under the sun, mixing mediums like acrylic and oils, paints and crayons or pencil. Anything goes. Best to start to work at home.  I will be continuing with the starts I made


*  Bracha is a blessing or benediction recited at specific times during services and rituals. ... A Bracha can also be said when someone experiences something that makes them feel like uttering a blessing, such as seeing a beautiful mountain range or celebrating the birth of a child.

Tel Aviv A City in White Assemblage Composition

My abstract interpretation of Tel Aviv as The City in White using assemblage as a medium. Materials used were cardboard substrate plus a pressed cardboard form, bubble wrap used with oils and cold wax medium.

City in White

16.75 x 13.75 "

Cardboard Bubble Wrap

Oils + Cold Wax

City in White  Side View

16.75 x 13.75 "

Cardboard Bubble Wrap

Oils + Cold Wax

City in White  Detail

16.75 x 13.75 "

Cardboard Bubble Wrap

Oils + Cold Wax

City in White  Detail

16.75 x 13.75 "

Cardboard Bubble Wrap

Oils + Cold Wax

Don't know if I rose above the kindergarten child making a cardboard construction?

Don't know if I even conveyed a city?

As an abstract I like it.

Would I try this medium again? I'll keep an open mind!

Next week Collage!