Spirit of the Raven's Watch--1-10-16

I am experimenting with doing my Spirit paintings on black paper.  It is a totally different look and also a different way of looking at the concept.  This first piece is "Spirit of the Raven's Watch" and is a mixed media of acrylic, collage, ink and white ink, 9"x12".  Let me know what you think.

Spirit of Christmas #3--and His Light Shone Over All the Earth (2015)

This is the third in the series of my Christmas pieces, started the Christmas after I retired in 2013.  It shows the Christmas Angel/Star guiding us to the baby Jesus in the (cheese cloth) manger at the bottom right of the composition.  The baby is tucked down in the hay with only the top of His head and face showing out of the swaddling.  The word ‘emanuel’ is running vertical on the right side with the title, ‘and His light shone on all the earth’ running vertically in the left side.  The original piece is 8”x10”, mixed media of acrylic, pastel, ink, cheese cloth, and collage on illustration board.  This is the third in the series of my Christmas pieces, started the Christmas after I retired in 2013.  

 In this time of unrest in the world, may we all remember that God’s light will shine through the darkness and can touch all of our hearts with His love and joy and peace.  May you have a most blessed Christmas, enjoying all the miracles that surround your life and may you have MUCH GOODNESS to look forward to in the coming new year.

Spirit of the Night Forrest, fall, 2014

This is a painting I did in the fall of 2014 and for some reason did not get it posted.  It is poured acrylic using liquid acrylics and a metallic gold on stretched canvas, 7"x 14".  It is one of my favorite pieces.

Spirit of the Past, Present and Future, Nov., 2015

This is a new painting, 'Spirit of the Past, Present and Future'.  The concept was thought of by my granddaughter (Seth's daughter) Jacee Marie, 12.  She wanted to do three separate paintings with me, one, 'Spirit of the Past'; one, 'Spirit of the Present'; and one, 'Spirit of the Future'.  She wants us to do them together.  We will do those one day, but until that happens, I could not shake the concept.  So I asked her permission to do one painting of all 3 myself, and she said I could.  I used some of her ideas.  The past is foggy and gray because it is in the past and you can't do anything about what has happened. The present is full of color and joy because all we have is this moment and we can make it wonderful.  The future is unsure, especially when one is young.....there are SO many possibilities, and thinking about those possibilities is fun and exciting.  So I've presented this Spirit piece in a little different form than my usual spirit piece, to hold her concept as I pictured it as she was explaining it to me.  I think it is an amazing concept for a 12 year old.  She has sketches of her own visual for this set of paintings and they will be wonderful when we get together to paint them.  In the mean time, I have this one to remind me of what an amazing granddaughter I have!  Hope you enjoy it!

Mixed media:  acrylic, cut paper, collage, pastel, ink, 12"x24"

Detail of the Past, collaged trees, acrylic and ink.

Detail of Present, collage rock and girl, ink, pastel, acrylic.

Detail of Future, cut paper 'paths' extending out from the canvas.

Here is the new Facebook page for the Art Abandoners:

https://www.facebook.com/ArtAbandonersShowcase  (LINK)

Check it out!  Also look for the link to their website on my blog.  
It is a great organization where artists from around the world 
abandon their art in hospitals, libraries, shops, parks, etc. for 
passersby to take for FREE!  It is a great way to share your
art and it has to be so uplifting for people to find!  Thanks
to Marla for putting up the Facebook site and the website
for all of us!  She is amazing!  :D

Art Abandoners website! Check it out  (LINK)

Fluid Medium--10-14-15

I just tried out the Liquitex Gloss Fluid Medium and it works SO well!!!  I tried it on raw canvas and it allows the raw canvas to accept the acrylic paint like watercolor paper does for watercolors.  It holds the intensity of the colors without fading.  It will be so much fun to experiment with this, trying the wet on wet effect along side the dry brush!  Happy days are here again!!!!  :D

The piece on the left has three rectangular sections that have had the fluid medium applied to the raw canvas.  The rest is dry brush to show how differently the paint reacts in the areas where the fluid medium is.  The small pieces on the right were experiments in applying the paint in different methods, as well as thicker or thinner paint.  

This is a detail of the area that has the fluid medium on the raw canvas and the dry brush beside it.  HUGE difference in how the paint looks with the SAME consistency of paint as well as using the same brush and touch.

 You only need a couple drops of the fluid medium in about a cup of water.  Stir it up well and then apply to areas of the canvas, or the whole raw canvas.  The paint will react just like using the wet on wet technique in watercolor.  You can also apply the medium to the paint and by putting a couple drops of paint into a 1/2-1 cup of water with the medium in it.  I haven't experimented with that technique yet.  So watch for more posts.

ceramics, 10-10-2015

Some new hand built ceramic bowls and a tray for some of the up coming shows.  The large bowls are the thinnest I have made to date.  They are becoming more and more egg shell-like.  They are 12" and 15" across and weigh next to nothing.  Very hard to achieve in ceramics.  Hope you like them.

15" hand built ceramic bowl

12" hand built ceramic bowl

7" hand built ceramic bowl

6" hand built ceramic bowl in red clay with white engobe textured on the outside, no glaze.  

8" leaf tray, stained, no glaze, can be used with dry food.

detail of leaf texture on tray