Back in the Studio

Haven't been on the blog for quite some time. I really have to think how I divide my energy. So blogging is not the highest priority.

In about 2 weeks, I am off to Ireland, Ballycastle County Mayo to be more specific. First ever one-on-one workshop with Jerry McLaughin,  master of oils and cold wax!

These past months have been very difficult, haven't really been able to focus much. I decided my series will be about my feelings of the demonstrations, loss of control, tension, uncertainty. It will mainly build my palette of saturated colors, neutrals, organic shapes and maybe some symbolism. I had started another series bases on dead sea relationships of salt ,sand and sea but got really blocked. Starting this new series has helped me get some of the stress I feel. 

These pieces have at least 6 layers on paper 14x14" Click to enlarge images

Just a few images of the protest Tel Aviv 2023

Real Estate & Sleep

 A new gadget 

Always looking

How many steps

How much sleep

Heart beat

Obsession! 

"In healthy adults, about 13 to 23 percent of your sleep is deep sleep. So if you sleep for 8 hours a night, that’s roughly 62 to 110 minutesTrusted Source of your sleep is deep sleep. So if you sleep for 8 hours a night, that’s roughly 62 to 110 minutes." Healthline.

What has that got to do with real estate? Nothing! Just been on my mind lately!

Also been thinking about real estate. Not the kind you buy, but the space you create on. Your substrate size. I would call myself a medium size painter. 5"x7" would probably be the smallest I would go. If I want smaller, say for cards, I have my trusty cutter. 

Last fall did an exercise on a full sheet of paper, roughly 27"x39" of a repetitive pattern with various pencils, graphite, charcoal, crayons, etc on newsprint. I chose the circle as my motif, loosely! Had it on my wall, mainly for inspiration, loved various sections. Masking tape isn't a good adhesive, and it kept falling off. Didn't want to chop it off, but I needed smaller real estate.

Then I viewed Helen Wells' video on one page sketchbook! 

Voila! 8 pages of smaller real estate, around 6.5"x10", that I can experiment with, fold in squares up, etc. In the photos you can see extra creases.

Full Sheet

Front

2-3

4-5

6-7

Back

Paper has tape stains, tears, etc, but I love it. Hope to start a new series of circle motifs . Click to enlarge files!

Trusted Source

 

Collage with Oils & Cold Wax

 Jen Jovan's last post really brought me back to my senses. Brought me back to my small world and into my studio. Worked with some starts that have been waiting for some time for my attention. Did an exercise recently for the Cold Wax Academy and one thing that I learned was one of the ways that I paint is very intuitive and sometimes aggressive and even destructive. In this painting I started with some collage pieces, which would give me a compositional start. Not quite complete, I may add some wax crayon marking. 

WIP

20 x14.3"

Collage Oils and Cold Wax on paper

Layer 2

Layer 1

Collage over staining with some

mark-making