Thursday, January 16, 2014

Working In Layers ...

This is the right half of one of the paintings I started last Thursday. The whole thing was 12x16 and once I realized I was letting the larger size intimidate me, I cut it down to 9x12. I thought I'd share a few of the layers along the way to the finished piece.


I look at this and am shocked that I made it. I'm so used to working from photographs and reproducing what I see. That kind of work takes skill, but I'm not so sure about creativity. I had to use my imagination to get from that first layer of rorschach-like watercolor shapes to this. 

There might not be a lot of planning involved initially, but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking. Whether it was instinct or my design experience, I felt it still needed something. I added the cool blues and thought, "Oh, that makes the greens work better and gives the piece more dimension. A little bit more green on the bottom grounds everything. Now the details.
I still can't get over that it's me painting like this. I probably won't explain it right, but I feel like I'm leaving more of myself on the page. I'm taking risks, experimenting, stepping pretty stinking far out of my artistic comfort zone and it's amazing. It's fun, exciting, exhilarating and scary as hell.
Holy cow ... I think I'm making art!!!

9 comments:

  1. HOLY COW… that's a fine painting, VERY creative and so beautiful. Sounds like you had FUN doing it.

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    1. It was fun. Even in my sketchbook I get hung up on getting things right. This I just seem to go with it ... although I have to admit to being slow to start with. :-)

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  2. I think the colours work really well. I think the image would be great printed on fabric.

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    1. My mom does a lot of quilting and I keep telling her she should try the free-stitching or whatever it is they call it. Maybe I can talk her into expanding her repertoire?

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  3. This is a wonderful new direction and you should be thrilled. Even though you call it layers - it is a far more delicate approach than I associate with mixed-media artists and their layers. Maybe there is a different word that can express this beauty.

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    1. I know what you mean – I've taken some mixed-media classes and have used watercolors, ink, acrylics, pastels and pretty much anything else on hand. You do tend to lose layers when you work like that, but honestly, I think those classes have definitely influenced this latest style. I'm not afraid or put off if a layer doesn't work right. I know the next one, even though it will be more delicate, can change everything. It's pretty freeing to think it's never really past fixing.

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  4. Fabulous! I hope I get to that point eventually.

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  5. This is a beautiful interpretation of my favorite, the coneflower!

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XOXO
Karen