Way to go, Prince George
2 Likes
ooh! Maybe it’s my weird eyesight but to me it looks like an underwater scene of the ocean floor. Very cool!
I’m still working, but at a snails pace. Half of my meager stamina being spent on clearing up the Studio, and half on painting, but not necessarily on the same day. And also on resting and playing.
The two abstracts I’ve been working on I have spent a lot of time just staring at to see if there needs to be anything more done to them. But I know I’m not really seeing them fully, because when I view the process photos they look very different when I zoom in.
The holiday was lovely this year. But required some recovery. And now I’m playing Genshin Impact which feels like a game that was made for me, so I need to manage my time to include it. And I have almost reached the Adventure Rank that allows other players of higher rank to be invited to play in my game world. Since my three favorite people in the real world are playing Gensin and are much higher rank than me, they can help me with the big boss fights.
There are some aspects of the game I have trouble with due to my visual problems, like catching lizards, squirrels, and other tiny animals, but there are alternative ways to acquire those resources. The games is so engaging in so many ways and it is easier to sit at the computer than to stand and paint at the easel, but I will keep at it. At both really. 
Creating India ink armatures continues in the evenings and during my rest periods. I have an overwhelming number of them now that need to be scanned. And I have re-discovered a technique that I had modified from a video I bought from the space artist Donato. He has his sketches printed out on a large format blueprint machine and then glues that down to his substrate to form the sketch layer of the painting.
I have made archival prints on acid-free, lignin-free tissue paper that work extremely well for that purpose. It is the best way I have found for transferring a scaled up image to a larger substrate.
The framed image was painted over the tissue glued down with medium. I added two coats of clear gesso over the tissue. And then painted over that. The other 10x10" piece is still in process. I created these about three years ago and then squirreled off to explore something else. – oh! that’s right. That was during the time we started building the Studio. So it must have been even longer ago.
So that’s my news for now. I’ve been meaning to post, but have been very busy not accomplishing much. 
(I am both ambitious and impatient. Not the best combination of traits. – lol)
6 Likes
I love those! 
and some of my favorite colors too. You sound very busy. Hope you can get it all done!
I looked again at the photo I posted and it does look underwater. 
Maybe like it is in a fish tank. Actually, though, it is frost on some kind of tiny moss that looks like tiny trees. It was in my yard when I took my morning walk. The sun was just starting to reach the yard and I loved the way it looked.
1 Like
Those plants might make a lovely addition to a small terrarium. Do you think so? You could place some of your pieces made from glass beads as tiny sculptures in with them.
1 Like
I am feeling exhausted and drained lately. Hope things are progressing well for @TravelEcho
2 Likes
You’ve been through a lot lately. Did your power/heat ever come back on?
Reasonably well, thank you. I have finished and framed the two in the Dystrophics series and “Thorns”, the first of the “Armature” pieces, and am reminded that frames are bloody expensive.
I like to frame them as a check to make sure I think they are finished, so I still have to sign them, give them an couple of isolation coats, and either acrylic varnish or cold wax finish.
I have also doing something rather stupid considering how blind I am. James took me to see their latest creation at the studio of his partner, glass artist Eric Hilton. I have always loved glass art. I got all fired up again by their piece, and by all the gorgeous other glass pieces on display.
A couple of months ago I put away all my supplies for experimenting with glass-like acrylics because I already had begun work simultaneously painting two different abstract series. I thought putting away those materials out of sight would keep the longings in check. Out of sight; out of mind, etc.
But the day after I got back from Eric’s studio, I pulled it all out again, and started experimenting to see if I could make some Faux Glass pieces, using Golden’s GAC200. And so far the experiments are going well --except for the fact that I am so blind I can barely see the glass substrate I am working on. Good thing for me that the polymer I am using comes out of the nozzle a white colour and dries clear as glass and hard as a rock. I need to find a way to position the substrate so that the template is properly centered beneath it and neither of them will move while I’m working.
So far I have created three 8x10" clear faux glass pieces using my ink armatures as templates. I hope to create coloured faux stained-glass effects once I get my systems set up. The process is a bit tricky since I’m trying to pour from a bottle with a nozzle, and the substrate is slippery. I learned later that when I tried to “draw” by holding the nozzle against the glass, it dried with a streak wherever it touched. Also, beware air bubbles! (that I can’t see when I’m working on these.) Need a system for dealing with those, too. All in good time. Early days yet.
I did discover with the third one that I did not have the glass substrate centred over the template, but when I realised it I took it back into the studio and added more shapes to centre it.
Depending on how thick the application is it can take from three days to two weeks for the medium to harden properly.
The other problem is photographing the finished pieces as you can see below. That is the next system I need to set up. Background? Lighting? I now understand better the problems Eric and James have photographing and videoing their glass work!
Full piece (pretty sloppy first attempt – lol):
Closeup of upper right corner:
I will post pics of the abstracts as soon as I get them signed and photographed.
Hang in there! I do hope you are going to be feeling a lot better very soon! 
4 Likes
Ok. The glass piece is so awesome! Experimenting with new stuff is so much fun. And yeah, how do you light glass to photograph it? I guess try every angle. See what works best. Try different kinds of light. Take it outside. Something has to work. 
And the price of frames, ridiculous. I have frame making materials. Have not even tried yet but, I really should. Having access to wood is the key. I believe the price of wood and especially trims, is part of the expense. Unless you cut your own trims, it is really pricey. I could cut and router and bevel…just need to clean out the wood shop and set myself up.
Power finally back but what a mess! Water in the basement and cleanup in the yard. 
All taken care of now. My tiny paintings are looking at me. Tiny frames, I can make.
Seems things are going well for you. 
1 Like
No wonder you are exhausted!
Strangely, I found that putting it in the scanner with a grey mat on top helped a bit. The white inside of the lid just washed it all out.
I was thinking of creating a set up between two lamps, one with warm light and one with cool. But my time is a bit truncated since I restarted my daily elliptical exercise, only ten minutes a day and I’m finding that I have to rest even more. Today is only day four, but I’m hoping that it will eventually help increase my stamina level.
Fortunately, I have a new audiobook series I’m really enjoying --seven books in the completed series!, called Star Kingdom. Non stop entertaining wackiness! And characters are pretty interesting and the reader is really good. I started with the Omnibus of the first three books. Three for the price of one!
There is so much excitement going on all the time that I can only listen to it for about half an hour at a time, so using it to distract me while getting some exercise id helpful. Take that, cancer! 
Go for it! Can’t wait to see them! (Also I want a woodworking shop, too!)
Here are the three finished acrylic Abstracts I have been working on (Sorry for the poor quality quick photo – I hope to have much better one ready for the website):
The first two “Dystrophics” series pieces are on the left; the one in the gold frame is “Thorns”, one of the Ink Armature (working title) series.
All the while I have been working on those abstracts and the faux glass pieces, I have been eyeballing the Garden Monument painting based on the photo by @Mad-Hatter. Something has been bothering me a lot about it. This is where I left it for over a month still unfinished, while I tried to figure out what was bothering me:
Previously almost finished painting.
And when I finally figured it out while looking at all my incremental process photos, I must say I shocked myself. It hurt to to take such a drastic step. This is what it looked like the next day:
I have been gnawing on the problem for the last week trying to get a sense of the “monumental”. I’m not sure I have the chops for it anymore until I can get that eye surgery, but I will keep going with it.
This morning I realised that my co-ordination was too messed up to paint that arc properly so I went all over the studio and the rest of the house looking for something I could use as a template. Finally I found an air-filled doughnut chair pillow I had purchased a couple of years ago, and used it as a template. Whodathunkit? 
So here we are starting this painting yet again. Three’s the charm, right? :
A better arc on the third try.
Let’s hope that I can eventually achieve what I set out to do with this painting. It took Leonardo da Vinci thirty years to complete the Mona Lisa. __just sayin’! 
How is everyone else’s creative projects coming along? I’d love to see what you guys are up to.
6 Likes
Lookin’ good!
I am in a funk. Have a major home project that must be attended to and will not be cheap. Has taken the wind out of me for the moment but, I saw the first butterfly of the year yesterday and little flowers are popping up all over the yard. 
2 Likes
Blasted Life! It just keeps getting in the way doesn’t it! I’m sorry to hear that frustrating stuff is happening for you, but I feel encouraged by your flowers and butterflies comment, too.
I feel like my own time is getting truncated more these days, mostly from a lack of physical stamina and a persistent mild but tiring backache, a mild one that is keeping me from going into the Studio and working on that painting.
Usually when I can’t get at painting, either for physical, emotional, or simply Life, I can usually keep my hand in by at least doing something in the studio. Even if that something is misting my palette and putting the cover back on. But I seem to mostly need to stay somewhat horizontal for now.
Anyway, my sympathies and also admiration that you are getting things taken care of. Go you! <3 <3
1 Like
All those pics seem nice to me, so perhaps I’m not the best judge. There is a vine growing in that garden with a long heart-shaped dark green leaf, which often hangs over the wheel, breaking up the arch visually. Perhaps pushing the wheel ‘deeper’ into the foliage would help place it.
We recently acquired a new (young family) neighbour who bought the little cottage next to our entry (which is at the end of a country laneway).
For as long as I can recall, this little block of land has been almost swallowed by its oversized gardens & trees, some of which spilled into an archway, framing our driveway entrance. This area merged with the surrounding forested blocks & roadway so that everything seemed sort or timeless & organic & natural.
Due to moisture problems & renovation needs, they have 90% cleared their block; resulting in a crater of bare earth, shattered vegetation, various bits of lost garden rubble & plumbing all the while exposing the mouldy little cottage to sunlight for the first time in decades.
Although, I completely understand their need to do this, I’m strangely displaced as I return home because my entryway has altered so much.
There is just something unsettling & alien about a ‘hole’ in the forest so close to home, that has struck me unexpectedly deep.
To add to this anxiety, the other neighbour on the far side, has threatened violence & generally behaved abhorrently towards this young family because a few branches fell across the fenceless property line. Truely, it is of zero consequence, yet he gave them an awful time. I on the other hand, have congratulated them on their efforts & wished them all the best before returning to my own secluded little pocket far out of sight & hearing.
In this seclusion, I have simply been doing chores & maintenance & not been very artisticly inclined. Poor weather has restricted me from taking my motorcycles out & I recently sold my oldest one, which was also the one I used for lazy contemplative ‘therapy’ rides, leaving me a bit lost in that regard.
I think I need a new hobby-project to keep my mind occupied between chores
I do enjoy peeking in here to see what you guys are up to though.
Hoping you are all in good health & spirits.
3 Likes
Due to the bad next door neighbor, I foresee the people at the entrance to your lane, regrowing anything that will grow just to block the neighbor out. Just wait it out. The greenery will return. 
1 Like
Cognitive Dissonance. And it must be heartbreaking. That’s what I feel as I read this. We know that nature will eventually clean up the eyesore with or without human intervention, but that change has happened and we can only grieve and adapt.
I believe that is against the law in most places. Hopefully he will calm down before things escalate. Sometimes I just don’t understand people.
Having a creative project sounds just like what is needed right now. I fend it helpful for taking some of the sting out of events that are out of our control. Good luck with that and I do hope you will share your process with us once you decide on a project.
May the sun clear up the gloom so you can enjoy you biking again. Thanks for the update. <3
2 Likes
Thank you!
I realised that I forgot to reply to this part of your post earlier. It has been on my mind as to how to respond, but I haven’t had much free time lately.
First thing is that I basically took that painting all the way back, stripping it, and painting over everything that already looked good but did not express what I wanted. It was a daring move to not only do it once, but twice in the same painting. Especially when I was at the final stage where just a few more strokes and I could call it finished and it would have been okay; a pretty picture. 
Though I have done so, I generally have no interest in painting human-made objects like buildings, cars, etc., even figures, for that matter, though I have painted a few reasonable portraits. But this object intrigues me and at first I wasn’t sure why. Now I have a better handle on that which came out of the bold move to scrape it down and start over (twice!). That was scary, but also exciting.
So the last pic I posted of it was literally starting anew. Nothing but finally the arc positioned where I want it against a bright patchwork background. So consider that as the new first layer of the painting. The sketch layer.
And also that I am not trying to reproduce a literal copy of your photo, or any of the objects in it. I am painting an idea using the wheel as a focus. Or even a series of ideas. Growth/decay, hidden/revealed, nature-made/human-made, new life/aging. And since all that is in my mind, but not yet on the canvas it is impossible to see by the viewer.
I don’t normally show work in progress because I think it can confuse some people who think visual art should look like the thing that is being painted. An apple should clearly be an apple, not a series of planes, like some of the impressionists painted. But especially since my eyesight is getting so very bad, I find I’, veering more into the realm of abstraction. But what I want is a balance where there is still enough of the “object” in the work that people can still relate to it.
It is a daunting task to try to encapsulate all that in a semi-abstract painting, and for me painting human-made artifacts is a rare enterprise.
I hope all that makes sense.
So thank you for your suggestion about the vine with the heart-shaped leaf. I will keep that in mind when I get to that part again (which could be weeks away building from the background slowly forward if I don’t find the need to obliterate it and start over again. Also having to rest so often 
).
I appreciate suggestions and questions from non-painters because it gives me an opportunity to think more clearly about what I’m doing and why, and to put it all into those inadequate things called “words”. <3
If you are interested I can post process photos as I try to get to grips with this piece.
Here is where it stands now after spending all my painting time yesterday scrounging around the house and studio for a mahl stick:
“Garden Monument”, basically in the compositional sketch stage.
5 Likes
Indeed! And not an easy one to do. See, I just throw things out…I lack the courage I guess. 
That is looking really nice!
1 Like
I’m just happy a thing I strategically placed in the garden over decade ago inspired someone else. If you spend extra time on painting it trying to get it the way you want it, then really thats a bonus because it allows you to develop & rethink while enjoying your talent & hobby.
I could never come close to replicating (or even representing), an image so I’m always amazed at artwork that does this like yours & others on this topic. To me the feeling invoked is far more important than the technical accuracy to the source material.
I often try to photograph ‘relic vs nature’ objects but find it close to impossible to get acurate but I do find the images inspiring.
Maybe that’s why my ‘artiness’ tends to focus on real world objects, where I try to repurpose objects & place them in a way that pleases my eye.
One of my largest garden ‘ornaments’ is an 1930’s car engine, yet it has never seemed quite right. Unlike most pieces I choose, it doesn’t look like a feature but more just like carelessly abandoned junk.
In my head I was thinking of this mysterious mechanical monolith but no matter how I’ve done things over the years so far it still just looks like a forgotten car part.
It has been a frustrating object.
I’ve pruned around it to frame it, I’ve tried various amounts of exposure & overgrowth. I recently added some garden gnomes to try & make it more vague, but it still looks incorrect.
I’m close to the point where I’m going to pull it out altogether and place a white bird bath there instead, simply because I can’t get this idea to work. Sometimes an idea just doesn’t happen.
Always a pleasure dropping in on this topic.
3 Likes
Maybe the gnomes will work it out while you sleep.
3 Likes
Amen!
Oh I can imagine how discouraging that must be! 
If I may be so bold, have you thought off using it as the basis for one of your very cool sculptures?
I have done so and will do so again, but I need to repurpose what hasn’t worked, like the two “Dystrophics” pieces above, which were both landscape paintings that every time i looked at them I felt discouraged. Good art materials are expensive, too so it serves more than one purpose to simply paint over them. I also like the historicity hidden in the paint layers.
I don’t think it takes courage to over paint a piece that you would throw out anyway. It takes courage to wipe out something that is working, but not good enough. But there is fun in doing that, too.
On another slightly different topic, I spent the whole day looking at templates on SquareSpace for my website. There were tons of them, but they all looked like the same layout, so I think I need another chat with my web developer. lol One of these days I’ll get that thing off the ground. >.>
2 Likes