Monday, September 27, 2010

buster, trees, and rust

oil pastels, acrylic paint, colored pencils, and watercolors on muslin ~ buster feels that bones really should rise

materials same as above ~ my name is leroy and i know the way

eunice seeks direction



acrylic, oil pastels, colored pencils, and inktense pencils on plaster cloth ~ carlos considers a trip to mexico

lynne walking in the woods... ha! just kidding! on plaster cloth if it's not obvious...

still wandering in the woods, still stitching, still painting! i haven't taken many pics when i'm out; i either forget my camera or the memory card.


i had it this day, though, and snapped the arrow that i made to tell me where i needed to turn on my way home. all i could think was that nothing human-made could match the beauty of this wood and these rocks...


the same day i finally settled here... this juniper is very, very old - in the thousand year range. last week i counted the rings of a dead pine that the forest service had just cut down. i got to 289 before i stopped, and i still had 8" to go. that tree was there in the 1600s. mindblowing... to think that this juniper was here in 1010 AD is even more mindblowing.


this guy was so big and beautiful, and made sure that no nap taking occurred! instead i took about 20 pics of him!


back home... what i'm doing here is soaking mother of pearl buttons in rusty salt water (i just added the salt for the heck of it. it seemed like it'd be helpful). i bought some new buttons from this seller on etsy, and compared to my box of antique ones, they look so, well, new. i decided i'd try to age-i-fy them...


it worked! these soaked for about a day and a half, and they look much 'softer' - some have more color than others, but they all look better. i've got another batch soaking now - i added some walnut ink crystals to the salt water this time. i'm going to leave them in longer and see what happens.


this has nothing to do with rusty buttons, i'm just showing you the back of the piece...


i snapped this the same day that i took the pic of the fly... the main thing that i want to show you is the scissors on my very small swiss army knife. they snip thread better than my fiskar's thread snippers! and they fit in my tiny, portable sewing kit!


i got serious about fixing up my kit when i realized my 'new' sewing scissors would fit in it. : )

i'm going to ashland this weekend to take a class on making nichos with cathy dorris. i'll report back...

* * *

I don’t understand when people says they are “full time artists”. Is there any other way to be an artist?

~ Caio Fern, Mein Welt

XO

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

light comes through

oil pastels, colored pencils & watercolors on muslin

every sunny day i'm out walking, and every cloudy day i'm catching up on the 'chores' i didn't do because i've been walking so much! i feel compelled to spend these sunny but cool days out wandering... but i've been painting too; all of the sudden i feel like painting up a storm.


i've been working on plaster cloth again - here are some pieces drying on glass, which i like because it lets them dry nice and flat, and it's easy to clean. the plaster cloth is just one layer thick, with a few extra bits stuck here and there to add strength and interest. ( there's a post here about adding plaster cloth to muslin - or paper - if you're interested)


even with just one layer, you can dig into it. after i put a layer of gel medium or acrylic paint on it, i squirt it with water to make the 'digging into' easier. after that i let it dry before i do anything else to it. it can only take so much when it's damp before it wants to fall apart.


all of these were done using oil pastels, colored pencils, and watercolors (with acrylic on the background). i feel like the 'creek people' taught me so much.


3" x 5", so i can't do much detail, especially with oil pastels...


when i draw, i'm erasing less. i just want to see what shows up....


this is on muslin, and it's on the back side of


this face.

in other words, all of the color in the 'ghost face', is what bled through the page from this one. the only things i added were the eyes, some light pencil lines, and the dangly earring hanging from her right ear...


i have been happily spending a lot of time at the green shrine tree. there's a smooth rock source nearby, so i visit and draw...


one day...


another...

on my way home i leave the rocks in trees that i pass. you don't have to go far before your afternoon's work is distributed!


near these trees...


the back side...

* * *


this was left after i cut out the words "don't bite the hook" for the piece above. oh my...

XO

Sunday, September 12, 2010

thank you

watercolor, colored pencil, oil pastel in muslin journal

thank you all so much for your responses to the last post. with almost each one, i thought "yes, that's it. that's just it!" as zom wrote, the artists who said they weren't going to paint if their work was selling may just have been having a 'bit of a sulk". probably... as for formal education (or not), the thing seems to be that we paint/create because we have to. selling, education - anything else - is an extra. we're gonna do what we're gonna do...

deb, of vintage moon studio, the three eyed beings have spoken and it is to your place that they're going! it was not an easy decision for them! they've asked me to thank each of you for saying you'd like to have your name in the hat... thank you!


all of these pieces on muslin were done with watercolors, colored pencils, and oil pastels...


she's the back side of the face that i posted a couple of weeks ago. some of the watercolors from that face bled through the muslin and i just added a bit to what was already there. i know, she looks a little freaked out by that butterfly, but i think she's okay. ; )


i've been aiming towards using fewer colors in the faces, which i usually fail at utterly (those colors!). but onward...


i loved this face when it had very little color, but then i felt like i had to see what it looked like with more, and it wasn't good. so i ripped it in half and sewed each half to kraft packing paper for future use as envelopes. deb, your beings will arrive in one of these, ha! but seriously, everything looks better when you put it on a letter or package, don't you think?


i've been out walking! oh! the weather is perfect and it's so nice to visit with old tree friends after a couple of months away. i did this peace sign last fall, but brightened it up as i walked past a few days ago.


went to the green shrine tree where things were in greater disarray than usual, so i straightened everything up again.


added this old bottle neck that i found earlier. what a beautiful new shade of green for the green shrine! the flicker feather was laying inside the tree and i can't remember if i put it there last time or not...


and i drew on a stick - this is 'eugenia' the green shrine tree overseer....


and then, and then (!) yesterday we went somewhere that i've been wanting to go for a long time, glass mountain... words cannot even begin to describe the joy i felt at being there. all of the obsidian that i see when i'm out walking comes from there - it was the obsidian source for native americans in this area, even though it's about 60 miles away as the crow flies.


one thing that i could never fathom was how the variety of obsidian that i find could come from one place, but there it was. within minutes i saw every kind that i've ever seen in my wanders. it was just amazing to see it at the source. my son and dh providing some perspective for size...


and lots of pumice; this piece weighed about as much as a feather....


oh how i do love mahogany obsidian...


sigh...


the view south as we were driving off the mountain towards home. i'm still filled with the joy of being there...

beautiful, creative week to you, and thank you again for your responses to last week's post...

* * *

"I have been in love with painting ever since I became conscious of it at the age of six. I drew some pictures I thought fairly good when I was fifty, but really nothing I did before the age of seventy was of any value at all. At seventy-three I have at last caught every aspect of nature - birds, fish, animals, insects, trees, grasses, all. When I am eighty I shall have developed still further, and I will really master the secrets of art at ninety. When I reach a hundred my work will be truly sublime, and my final goal will be attained around the age of one hundred and ten, when every line and dot I draw will be imbued with life."

~ Hokusai, "The Art-Crazy Old Man"

XO

Sunday, September 5, 2010

inner need

'what is this thing?' ~ oil pastel, colored pencil, watercolor on muslin, 4" x 6"

when i was out traveling one thing that i heard a lot was that art sales are down, followed by some kind of statement about how this was discouraging the artist from wanting to make art. so i've been thinking about this connection between art and money. it's not a strong connection for me, but for many artists it seems to almost define their practice. i also spent time in the world of art academia, where my sense was that people think you need to go to school to become a Real Artist.

what is this thing that makes artists feel that they have to sell their work for it to be valid? what is this thing that makes us feel like we have to go to school to become an artist? what is this thing that makes us think about other people's reaction to our work as much as our own feelings? in the midst of my ponderings, i read this post by zen dot studio, which couldn't have been more timely...

'i do my own thing' ~ oil pastel, colored pencil, watercolor on muslin, 3" x 4"

and then all of the sudden i was seized by a knowingness that i'm gonna do what i'm gonna do and that's that! i quickly drew/painted these two pieces and smiled a big smile... and i'd love to send them off to a new home (together - they seem like a couple). if they look like something that you'd like to have come live with you, just mention it in your comment; i'll draw a name before my next post. and, thank you!


they're the first pieces i've done on muslin that was prepared with this paint. i love it; it's zero VOC, zero carcinogens, and very low odor. of course it's not as green as milk (cow or soy) based paint, but i think it's as green as acrylic paint gets. i like the consistency of acrylic paint for priming muslin... a quart was $14.99, and it's gonna go way farther than craft acrylic because it's a lot thicker. and no plastic container!


i cleaned off the back wall in my art room to make space for my new catherine woskow cards. the yellow head painting was in the window at davis and cline gallery in ashland. oh my! talk about love at first sight!! i also made room for gregory grenon beside her... i left this huge so you can see some detail if you click.


i finished the tie from the last post. running stitch is the perfect activity for ponder filled days...


on the inside... silk from recycled saris...

* * *

"My art lies in a very private world. I am deaf to teachers and museums and only listen to my inner needs. It is from that which I paint, that which I confront the art world directly."

~Gregory Grenon


XO

Thursday, September 2, 2010

waving

watercolor and oil pastel in muslin journal

it always seems like a big step to get back into blogging after being gone for a while. here i am... taking the plunge!

i've seen so much in the last couple of weeks. so much art, beautiful scenery, people, great food. i'm full... now i'm gonna stay home for a while and digest it all...


my favorite 'mound', on the way to roxanne's. i've posted pictures of it here a couple of times before. i just love it...


roxanne and i had a great time together. we did a whole lotta talking and laughing, and took a whole bunch of pics. this swan didn't want anyone near his family!


the next few pics were taken in ashland. we went on a snapping frenzy. two people looking for shots can come up with a whole lot of shots. it's interesting to see what each person notices...








roxanne...

i'd like to say a big thank you to our mutual friend, anna, who put us up for the night. we each knew anna before we knew each other; roxanne since high school, and me since the late 90's when anna and i helped start a women's art group here in northeastern california. years passed and anna and i lost touch, only to be reunited again by roxanne, who i met through the blog world! anyway, anna is a crazy talented artist whose work roxanne and i adore... thanks, anna, for everything.


the piece at the top of the post is the last piece i painted before i left. since then i've been stitching, and i don't have any pics of the pieces that i've left behind. this is a piece i just finished yesterday - the words "all you problems are taken care of" are stitched on the back. i like the idea of leaving pieces like this on restaurant tables (or maybe checkout counters)...


a friend gave me this box last week - a bar of soap came in it, and it's a perfect thread and needle container.


i'm working on this now. it'll be the second tie that i've completely covered with stitching. i'm fascinated by how the stitching changes the nature/energy of the fabric. it becomes something very special once it's covered with stitches. this piece also has spots that i burned with the magnifying glass. muslin and silk...


this was laying beside our doorstep a couple of days ago. a pinecone flower... what perfection. i'm enjoying these late summer days so much. i feel like i want to soak it all in....

one thing that i did last week was pass on twelve big boxes of teaching material from my days as a special education teacher. it was time for them to go, and it feels great having empty space where boxes used to be. just before i left to deliver the boxes, one of my first students called me to say "lynne, i've gotta joke for you."


* * *

j: what did the ocean say to the lake?

me: i don't know.

j: nothing, they just waved...

: )

XO