Sunday, November 15, 2009

tied to the threads

colored pencils in moleskin sketchbook

the funny thing about last week was that it felt like i didn't do much art...

i spent a good part of the week catching up in this workshop, which i started a couple of days late. it was worth it though... patricia ariel is a gifted artist, a wise woman, and a knowledgeable astrologer.

colored pencils, oil pastels, watercolor and acrylic paint on muslin, 12" x 12"

this is the mandala that i made for the workshop (creative astrology)... our instructions were to meditate first and ask to be shown the image in the center of the mandala. what i saw was this animal, and since i have no idea how to draw animals accurately, i just forged ahead with my left hand... i don't think i'll leave it hanging in my art room - it's too intense. but i do relate to it deeply in a way that i can't access on a conscious level.

the main thing that i learned in the workshop is that i can be my own astrologer...

when i finished it midweek, i started on other things...


i did a few lotuses in oil pastels and china marker...



image transfer, colored pencils, acrylic paint, and alcohol inks in moleskin sketchbook

and i worked a whole bunch in my new moleskin sketchbook! i am so in love with that book!

this is an image transfer of the 8" x 10" piece that i did...( i forgot to reverse the image so it's backwards) i was impressed with how well the sketchbook paper held up to the image transfer process.


the rest of the pages are done with colored pencils and oil pastels. i got some new oil pastels and colored pencils and have only just begun to check them out. i got some faber-castell colored pencils and i think i like them more than prismacolor pencils. they sharpen perfectly (with no broken leads) and the colors are beautiful.


one of my favorite colors (of the faber-castell pencils) is terra cotta. it's on just about all of these eyelids! it's a great color for shading faces... and paynes gray! i got a paynes gray colored pencil and oil pastel stick! woo! her eyebrows are paynes gray...


her cheeks have some caran d'ache neo-pastel (oil pastel) 'salmon' in them. one of the great things about caran d'ache is that they have many colors available in all of their product lines . if you have colors that you like in the neo-color II crayons, there's a good chance they're available as a colored pencil and oil pastel.


some of these faces are on only a small part of the page - i've written on the rest of it and cropped it out of these pics... the words are conversations between my dominant and non-dominant hands - the 'child me' and the 'adult me'. this is proving very insightful. in the pic at the top of the post you can see that 'child me' is telling me that i worry too much. shocking!


inspired by the words of outsider artist michel nedjar - 'i am tied to the threads of the world'...

. . .

Many of the objects in this exhibition are the works of patients. The mechanisms of artistic creativity are exactly the same in their hands as they are for all other reputedly normal people. Besides, this distinction between normal and abnormal seems quite untenable; who after all, is normal? Where is he, your normal man? Show him to us! Can the artistic act, with the extreme tension that it implies and the high fever that accompanies it, ever be deemed normal? From our point of view, the artistic function is identical in all cases, and there is no more an art of the insane than there is an art of the dyspeptics or of those with knee problems.

Jean Dubuffet in the Catalogue of the first large public exhibition of Art Brut, Rene Drouin Gallery, Paris, 1949



XO

32 comments:

  1. I so love seeing how you work and what you use. Have you tried 'Aquacolor'? Sometimes I find it easier to blend than the Caran D'Ache. And I would dearly like to know what you use for image transfers (though you may have said in a previous post). I use Epson 'Cool Peel'.

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  2. Just realised I suggested Aquacolor - it should have been AQUAtone, by Derwent. They are fabulous. Sorry!

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  3. That workshop would of been right up my alley!! Love the mandala!!!!!
    So much to look at! BeauTiful!! I have to keep going back.
    New products? Yay! I think I need some to stuff myself...lol. Maybe not .... I just want some new stuff.
    Terrific pieces Lynne!

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  4. Again, love it, everything you've posted! I forgot about using alcohol inks! Thanks for reminding me I have some I have to dig out! I agree Patricia Ariel is a fantastic artist and I kick myself for missing that class! Now, I have to go look for my inks....

    Have a wonderful week!

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  5. wonderful post! your workshop sounds fascinating. the mandala you created is awesome and very intense. looks like your left hand knows what animals look like! it is so nice to know we dont need formal training to do what we do! your moleskin drawings are wonderful with all the different head gear oh... and your lotus! they are bodacious! xo

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  6. I like coming over here, Lynne - your work is great and I feel like I'm in an art class, a good thing! I know so little about the "tools of the trade."

    I love your mandala - it's really you merged with yet peeking out from behind the tree.

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  7. I love your faces here... to me it is as if they are mesmarized by art... (the little paintings at the top of the page... or are they windows...) I love your lotuses too and the mandala... so dramatic and story-telling... have a wonderful day... roxanne

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  8. I love your faces here... to me it is as if they are mesmarized by art... (the little paintings at the top of the page... or are they windows...) I love your lotuses too and the mandala... so dramatic and story-telling... have a wonderful day... roxanne

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  9. What a great workshop and I love what came to you and you created.
    :)Bea

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  10. Lynne the mandala is brilliant.

    Love Renee xoxo

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  11. I love the intensity of that mandala - it's color is so beautiful. It is funny that you felt like you didn't do much art!!
    I love the new faces, the roughness in the lotus pieces, your transfer... color, life, and wonder.
    xox K

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  12. I feel as artist we all worry too much and this is totally a waste of energies. I love that you are playing once again and hearing your shared experiences helps me when I go to buy new drawing materials when they are on sale at the local Hobby Lobby...smile. I have to look for the Aquacolors...I have not had the pleasure to play with them. You inspire me to get back to my drawing journals. Imagine and Live in Peaceful brilliant colors! Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

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  13. Your post feels very peaceful this week. i love your lotus's. i'm going to try drawing with my right hand :)

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  14. Oh the mandala is lovely and the tribe with terracotta eyelids .... enchanting! I really battle trying to stay with my left hand. Without thinking I switch back to my right.

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  15. Me! Me! I'm normal!

    (Said with ticking bug eye and lolling tongue.)

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  16. Your Mandala is captivating! Wow!

    I love your faces with the antlers or branches. I was going to comment ealier but I got all inspired by your work and ran into my art studio to play.

    The paynes grey and other new colours are yummy. :)

    Must go make art . . .

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  17. thank you Lynne.. love the mandala, i agree with you, it is very intense. and powerful. your faces are sublime. they speak to me :) i see you are still going thru your book.. i have been working with it too, isn't the conversation which takes place between our own hands fascinating?

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  18. What great and inspiring pieces these all are!! And the mandala is really wonderful!

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  19. hi, hi girlio! i am so happy to see all these people you are creating. and the lotus. but that mandala! whoa! the symbolism is gorgeous, the colors sublime. yumm-o! thanks for sharing your week where "you didn't make much art". i can't imagine a week where you feel you've done too much. :0)

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  20. well, you already know I think that Mandala is Power0full. Really amazed to look it in the eye.
    .
    I think ms. Faye herself would be envious of these faces, there is a soft sort of "attitude" set into them... inward something, intelligence.

    i totally agree about being tied to the world... and to the souls on in of it and Spirit...we are all tied to each other too, and we best get on with dealing with that... respecting our common bond; not tearing it up, judging and hating...

    ok.
    and yes, (though i am over PMS) i am a half step behind you regarding introspection/must be built into "time".

    Astonish,ment!

    thank you.

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  21. ann, i always enjoy your comments so much... thank you... for image transfers i'm just printing the image on printer paper, then putting it on a surface that's been covered with matte gel medium. i get pretty good results with this - sometimes not great, but generally pretty good. i've never heard of 'cool peel' - will look into it. also i'll investigate AQUAtone pencils - thank you!!

    manon, keep your eyes open because i'm pretty sure she's going to be offering more. this one was a dry run to work out the bugs before she makes them official. definitely worth it. and yeah, well of course you need some new stuff!!! ; )

    hey janine! write to ariel and ask her when she's going to do the workshop next - you'd love it!! yeah, those alcohol inks are GOOD!

    thanks, cat... it IS nice to know we don't need formal training to do what we do. : )

    hi kathy, so nice to see you here! i really feel that one of the best parts of the workshop was 'meeting' you... and i'll tell you, i'm learning as i go about these art supplies - so you could say we're learning together. : )

    roxanne, i've been thinking about this 'mesmerized by art' for two days now, and i think it is TRUE! i love that! those little drawings at the top of the page are just doodlings - and a chance for me to try out some of my new colored pencils... xo

    thanks, bea... : )

    thank you, renee... xo

    k., yeah, it IS funny... i think it was because i spent so much time on the workshop and the mandala... the other thing is that i can do drawings so *quickly* in the moleskin, which makes it seem like i'm not doing as much, ha!! xo

    hi mary helen, thank you for your beautiful words!! yes, it is easy to worry - we are programmed for it from a young age, AND i agree that our focus should be on living in peaceful, brilliant and joy filled colors... xo

    jasmine, if your drawings with your right hand are any better than those done with your left, i believe you will be famous by the end of the month. ; ) (loved getting to know you a little more in the workshop, and thank you again for the heads up about it. xo )

    robyn, oh yes, i know... the right hand wants to take over so badly at times! - here, let me do it... i can do it so much more quickly! the 'terracotta tribe' is very smile making. : )

    HA! loani of COURSE you're normal! the most normal of normal!!

    hee, patti, that's just the way i feel after i read your posts. i MUST go make some art! yeah, this terracotta and paynes grey are *nice*...

    vivian, yes, i am still going through the book and these conversations between hands is fascinating me to no end. i am SO grateful to you for turning me onto this book! joy to you sweet woman!

    hey seth, thank you!

    hee, kelly... i think more than anything, my thinking i didn't do much art last week just goes to show how confused i am. ; ) and my thoughts about the mandala could just about be summed up with 'whoa'! xo

    m.! ya think ms. faye would approve?! i love experimenting with the gaze - making the pupils look this way or that. obviously my favorite look is 'inward'...

    yes, we *best* be getting on with acknowledging our connectedness to one another, the earth, the air... everything...

    i do feel that my introspection time is here... and soon it will be the solstice, the most inward of times...

    exo xo all around...

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  22. Love the work in your new moleskin and thanks so much for sharing the new coloured pencils and the colours you love to use (I always enjoy finding out what colours others have used in their faces/art).
    Your mandala is very powerful and I really LOVE the lotus flower pieces.
    Must go back and check out the links now.


    Jacky xox

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  23. tied to the threads of the world.... each may be so very fragile, but a multitude is fastening.

    Lynn, I love the way you always give it ALL up! Great post! -Jayne

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  24. Kowabunga!

    Blissing out today...
    just to remind you (lol). :)

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  25. Hi Lynn - I haven't been around for a while and just wanted to say how beautiful your work is looking. The mandala is magnificent! and you wild, beautiful animal is amazing. Love the quote and piece at the bottom of your post. Because really....what is normal anyway? I think it's something we are terribly mis-informed about. Love to you in your gorgeous wilderness. xo Fran

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  26. I just love stopping by your blog! There is always so much for the eyes and the mind. Thank you for sharing so much!

    Hugs,
    Angela

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  27. hey jacky, i'm enjoying that moleskin *so much*! the paper is such a delight to work on... thank you about the lotuses... : )

    thanks, jayne... i appreciate what you See... xo

    m.! the bliss wave hit the west coast today! wheeeee!

    hi fran - so happy to see you sweet woman! yes, what on earth is normal? this has always seemed like the goofiest thing/judgment to me... love and peace to you!

    ahhh, angela, thank *you*!

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  28. The book on outsider art is on my wishlist..

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  29. THIS is what you call not doing much art????
    Come over to my house. You'll see what that really looks like. Funk city over here.
    Amazing work Lynne.....and so much of it.

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  30. I love your expressions Lynne.
    Thanks...... I need to remember NOT to WORRY. Your top face really grabbed me. What you do is so unique and so closely tied to what you're feeling. I've never met a more conscious person than you, Lynne. I try take pages out of "your book."

    oxoxoxoxoooxxx
    Anna

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  31. Grey is truly such an underrated color....so very many subtleties to it!

    Much love to you!

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