monotype

Monotype, 15 x 22

workshop and retreat Day One

diagonal design, 15 x 15, acrylic on paper

I am with the Portland Women in Abstract Media this week at a very special workshop and retreat.

First day off the starting blocks we played with composition. My challenge was to create a painting with a diagonal abstract design. My personal challenge was to keep it from zipping off the edges.

This piece reminds me of the beauty of space and some of the images we've gotten to see because of the Hubble telescope.

designs from Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park covers over 1.5 million acres! Only some of it is accessible by car. We took an airboat tour (remember "Gentle Ben" and "Flipper"?) of some of the mangrove and cypress groves and it was spectacular! Except for the part where the guide warned us of snakes in the trees. Yikes!

On land, I was especially intrigued with the pine groves and their unique ecosystems. From where we camped, I could see a nice group of trees and I studied them for a long time. Studying became sketching. Sketching became designing. Designing became abstraction.

Some of the trees were bent from the devastating 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Of course, many snapped and broke off, but some bent and stayed bent. I appreciated how their trunks created diagonal changes in the mostly vertical portion of the view.

I keep think of Hofmann's admonishment to let the landscape become the launching point for a painting design. As I look at these sketches today, I have more ideas about what to do with those shapes to move them further into abstraction.

On my morning walk around the lake, I was mindful of the ranger's warning about snakes in the ankle-high grass. I definitely didn't want to meet one of those giant Burmese Pythons everyone is worried about in Florida.

And, I was sure to walk in the morning, because, as another friend warned, "At night, there's just alligators and alligator food in the lake." 

Life is good!

keep it abstract

In designing a painting, it's hard to hold onto the abstract structure without making it into something concrete. But, it's so nice when the shapes just hang together, in their abstraction.

'Tis the season for listening to Handel's "Messiah." Here's one of my favorite songs! 

Do you have a favorite?

frame of mind

new life abstraction

20 x 22, gouache and pastel on Arches

I enjoy the idea of responding to a thought or music with color and shape. This piece came from thinking about the wonders of new life. I've been told that I hum and sing when I paint, and this time I wouldn't be surprised if they were all lullabies.

Dawn Emerson Workshop -- Day Three

We started today with several drawing exercises with figures. My final painting today was this development of the sailboat idea. I have several sketches that I want to play with, and that will come soon.

Have you taken a workshop with Dawn Emerson? I have really enjoyed my days with this wonderful pastel artist. Hers has been a workshop that leaves me filled with ideas of new things to try. I know that my drawing will never be the same and I plan to carry this sense of play and exploration with me into the days ahead.

Cat Tails: Making it my own

Cat Tails
12 x 18, pastel on Wallis Museum

Today I felt quiet in the studio as I painted and my subject came from my beloved Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. I sketched and observed the wind on the cat tails for a long time last week. I sketched them, looked at them again, looked at the color, took a photo or two, looked at others. Some side-lit, some back-lit, some in full sun, others in shadow.

Today, a quiet painting. Still applying the design ideas, but making them my own.

I've known for a long time that I will paint cat tails, but Marc Hanson's painting, "Fluff," pushed me from 'will paint' to 'must paint.'