New Acrylic Abstract Texture Painting

Today I began work on another Acrylic Abstract painting.  This one is going to be heavily textured and I used DAP Dry Dex Spackling Compound to provide the texture on my canvas.

The interesting thing about this product is that it goes on pink, and I mean hot pink when it's wet and then dries white.  This way you are in no doubt about when the spackle is ready to paint.  It was less than half price when I picked it up which was the reason I decided to try it.  I used about 200 mL quite generously over a 40 cm x 60 cm canvas.

This gives you an idea of the top and centre portion of the canvas.

The lower third of the canvas had a more stippled texture.

This is a closeup of the top portion of the canvas.

You can see the faint pink in the centre section that indicates that the spackle is still damp.

I am going to let the compound dry thoroughly before giving it a white base coat of acrylic paint.

Sketchbook Project

I sent it off on December 1 and it arrived in Brooklyn at the Art Library at 11:55 on December 4, 2010.  My sketchbook is now officially part of the project and out of my hands.

I have been busy for the past few months working on ideas for my theme, "It must be".   This is the first time that I've worked on anything that I've known anyone other than myself was going to see and I found that it made a big difference.

Rather than being able to just dive in, I found that I was stuck at the beginning.  I couldn't begin at all.  Even though I chose my own theme I couldn't seem to find the right way to approach it and I was convinced there was a RIGHT way.  I racked my brain thinking of ways to end the phrase "it must be..." and while they seemed promising my ideas always fizzled out.

Eventually, I decided that there wasn't ONE right way to go about it and I could use the phrase for anything and everything.  Once I looked at things from that perspective the content of my book was easy.  The next step was the medium.

Tackling a sketchbook was a bit optimistic if not arrogant on my part.  I can't draw or sketch.  I've read the part where everyone can draw, it's just practice.  That may be true -- but I haven't practised and I didn't think I had the time to take lessons.  What I wanted to do, and what I felt the purpose of the sketchbook was, was to express myself.  That I could do in my own way, on paper.  I chose to do it through pen and ink, paint, paper, scissors and glue.

So, in the final analysis, it's not so much a sketchbook (although, I did put in a sketch or two) as a mixed media book. 

My theme:  It must be ...

It must be    what?     Whatever I want it to be.   

Light, dark     Happy, sad    Contemplative, interactive   

Original, quotations    Colourful, sombre 

Hopefully there will be at least one page that strikes a chord with someone.  This is the biggest risk I have ever taken and I'm glad it's out of my hands now.

Here are a few of the spreads.



If you browse the project, check out CAW230

Bind It All

I have to admit that I first got intrigued by the idea of journals when I saw the Bind It All featured on the Quietfire Design site here.  I saw how easy it was to use and since I loved using coil bound journals myself because they always opened flat for writing I thought this would be a great tool to own.  I also liked the idea of being able to bind single pages and thought of the possibilities for altered books since that was one of my main interests at the time.  With the added thickness of embellishments, some of the pages were proving to be unwieldy in regular books.

I purchased a Bind It All before I began to learn about sewn structures.  That doesn't mean that I've given up using coil bindings.  I still think that they are great for certain things.  They just don't have that rich, traditional fell that sewn bindings have.

Here are some samples of my earliest coil bindings.

This journal is covered in handmade paper and you'll notice that the coils don't go all the way from top to bottom.  That makes the journal a little more loose when you open it, but that is good if you intend to embellish the pages.  I haven't decorated the cover of this one yet.

The covers of this journal are made from artist canvas.  I painted the canvas using acrylic paints and then embellished using metallic words.

This journal was covered in torn pieces of mulberry paper and stamped with a word quote "Love where you're at and believe life will lead you to where you want to be" Joanne A Ross  from Quietfire Designs.

Sorry about the glare on the picture.  I was using the overhead light in the workroom and this journal has a protective coat of gloss varnish on it.  I shouldn't have photographed it flat but I didn't see the glare in the lens of the camera.  (I really will have to improve my camera skills).

Distractions

I am so easily distracted.  I sat down over an hour ago to write a quick post and upload a picture.  That was all I was going to do.  While I was making a quick edit on the picture, I thought "I really should post that to the ning group  Lovin Mixed Media (which is a fantastic group by the way.  Gary is incredibly creative and shares wonderful techniques) because I'm new to the group and I haven't shared any work yet.  While I had the picture up on the screen it seemed a reasonable thing to do because I have a terrible memory and who knows when I'd be likely to think of it again?

Sooooo, I went to Google Reader and opened the site I wanted and was immediately caught be a posting, more like a rant, about abstract art.  What caught my eye was this:

I was happily reading the front page of LMM as I do every day. And I found miss Butlers piece there, having never heard of her I read on while sipping a nice cup of coffee. First thing was boy she has a lot of grants and awards,must be a great artist. Then the pictures invaded my screen..ok I am not going there again. To each it's own,remember the modern art thread I made lol. nope not this time,let that bear rest...for now. No, what made my toes curl the wrong way was this:



"Working larger than I have in recent years, I’m engaged with the slightly off-kilter, the not-quite-right, the un-straight line,discordant color, and awkward alliances. The visual language derives loosely from ideas inspired by everyday objects and imagery, like ships-in-bottles, car dealer flags, construction materials, mind maps, fireworks, floor plans, the number eight, Lily Pulitzer dresses, geometric motifs from my father’s old paintings, vomit, cage-like
crosshatched lines, and, of course, art history"



So.."I’m engaged with the slightly off-kilter, the not-quite-right, the un-straight line,
discordant color, and awkward alliances" uhm..yeah. granted it was early in the morning so my brain was not yet in full gear..I read the same thing again,later that day...yeah no..WHAT are you saying there? So I read on..

"The visual language derives loosely from ideas inspired by everyday objects and imagery, like
ships-in-bottles, car dealer flags, construction materials, mind maps, fireworks, floor plans, the number eight, Lily Pulitzer dresses, geometric motifs from my father’s old paintings, vomit, cage-like crosshatched lines, and, of course, art history""

Well, once I started reading that, I just had to finish and then go to my ning group and see what the follow up discussion was like.  It seems it is a well worn abstract vs realism in art debate with a sidebar on artist statements and philosophies. I had to admit that I couldn't really understand what her description actually meant so I had to go and look up her artwork as well.  And that lead to her her CV because it was there on her site.  It wouldn't be art work that I would choose because I find it jarring rather than interesting but then that is what she seems to be saying. 

By the time I actually posted my picture and wrote a description (and by this time it wasn't feeling anything like art) the hands of the clock had been quite busy in their rotations.

And that was a fairly quick return to task for me.  I just took one side trip.  Well, maybe two if you count the artist's site.  Maybe three if you count her blog as a separate site.  I'm just glad that I didn't really like her art or I might never have gotten back to my real goal.

I find it hard to believe that a few short years ago I was a very on task person.  Now I have the memory span and focus of a goldfish.  Not good.

Back to point.  The picture I am going to post is the result of a mixed media workshop I took at Sarnia Craft Supply, our local craft shop, that involved painting with acrylics.  It was my first time trying to use this medium to create realistic flowers and I still need a lot of work.  

I can't draw or paint - realistically. I know, I know, everyone can draw in some form or another but I have trouble with getting objects to look realistic. What I envision seldom appears on the page. I just can't seem to get my hand to draw what I want. I can trace or copy, however. When it comes to painting I haven't yet grasped the concept of building up layers to create the shading that I want.

This was a large canvas, about 24" x 36". To begin with, we prepared the canvas by adding a small box to the back of the canvas as a recess for the poppy pods and then adding a thin, smooth coat of Frescalina to the entire surface. This is a texture substance that accepts paint like a fresco. We used heat guns to speed up the drying process.

I used a large template and graphite paper to trace the poppies (they were taken from the Altered Art magazine, I think). Thicker layers of texture were added around the poppies towards the outer edges of the canvas. We used sea sponges to dab on our background colours. I was using ochre, and raw umber and raw sienna. I liked the earth toned background.

The instructor walked us through the painting of the poppies. She was doing a canvas as a demonstration so that we could see how she used the colours for shading. Her poppies looked a lot better than mine and I did have to get her help in rescuing a petal on the large poppy. To me it still looks like it is bending out rather than up when I first look at it. We actually sanded the poppies to bring back some of the lighter colours that were underneath and add a distressed texture to the canvas.

I found that the leaves and stem were much easier to shade, though I think I'm most pleased with the bud or poppy pod or whatever the green thing hanging down is. I like the subtle shading on that. I can see the depth and shape of it.

We used large foam stamps (I chose the diamond pattern) to stamp a painted design on the canvas. I also had some finer flourish stamps that I used to embellish the areas around the actual pods and the text. I added more Frescalina to the area around the text and stamped the flourishes into the texture medium. When you look at the canvas you can see the embossing.

The quote was supposed to be painted with a script brush but my hand is just not steady enough for that -- not if you want to read it that is. I ended up using a paint pen.

Finally, to add an extra touch we put sizing on several areas around the poppies and when the sizing was tacky we added gold leaf and burnished it.

So I didn't actually draw the poppies freehand - I used a template. The entire group did. Though maybe others could have drawn their own poppies, it made it easier to coordinate the instructions for shading if our poppies all had petals opened in the same way.

I had a great time at this workshop and Melanie was a very, very patient instructor. She's also a very good painter.