Wool Sheep: March 29, 2008

This is a 6"x8" felted wool "painting". This is a result of the In Good Company group whose technique this month is wool felting.

Fisherman's Dream (Progress): March 29, 2008

Most of the painting is done but some tweaking is needed.

Fisherman's Dream (Progress): March 28, 2008

I'm almost there!

Fisherman's Dream (Progress): March 27, 2008

The cabin is being built from the top down. This is to keep my hand out of the wet paint.

Fisherman's Dream (Progress): March 26, 2008

Stars are in the sky, the fisherman is fishing and more of the foreground has been put in.

Fisherman's Dream Progress: March 25, 2008

The northern lights have been put back in and more of the foreground has been done.

Happy Easter!: March 21, 2008

My son decorated some Easter eggs and, of course, I couldn't resist doing one myself. This one is painted with permanent markers. This is one egg shown from various angles.

Fisherman's Dream Progress: March 21, 2008

The lines between land and water have been adjusted and more of the foreground has been added.

Fisherman's Dream Progress: March 19, 2008

I wasn't happy with the northern lights so I removed them for now. After the sky has dried, I will try them again.

Fisherman's Dream Progress: March 17, 2008

I began painting the sky with its northern lights. I plan to add more color and make the northern lights more translucent. The paint needs to dry a little before I tackle that.

Fisherman's Dream: March 15, 2008

This is the complete drawing for "Fisherman's Dream".

Fisherman's Dream: March 14, 2008

AtticDragon left a comment on my drawing from March 12th about my perspective. He was correct to point out that my 1-point perspective made the drawing seem off. I went back to my reference image and sure enough there is 2-point perspective in it. I have redrawn "Fisherman's Dream" staying true to the reference but changing up the location of the cabin.

Fisherman's Dream: March 12, 2008

This is the beginnings of a drawing for my next painting which will be done in oil on 16"x20 inch stretched canvas.

Gerbera Daisies: March 9, 2008

"Gerbera Daisies" was is a 5"x7" acrylic painting on stretched canvas. It was painted March 9, 2008.

Glasses: March 4, 2008

I have made some more adjustments to "Glasses" - skin tones, chair pattern, background color.

Poppies: March 3, 2008

The poppies are done. I added black around the poppies and added highlights to bring them out more. I also added some more interest above them and added poppy seeds floating up from the seed pods. These paintings are 6" square mixed media - acrylic paint and photo transfer.

Paintings in Progress: March 1, 2008

"Glasses" is in the adjustment phase. The "commission-er" wants me to stay true to the reference photo so I changed the glasses and shirt to the original yellow color. I will be adding a pattern to the chair and I am considering altering the background color a little.

On the poppy paintings, I added some of the background colors onto the black part of the photo transfer to bring out the prominent poppies. I also removed the India ink on the yellow painting. I plan to embellish more.

Image Transfers Continued: February 29, 2008

I removed the paper from the image transfers and this is what is left. On the yellow/orange one, I painted with black India ink around the poppies to get them to pop more.

More Image Transfers: February 28, 2008

My mom needs a cabochon for a beading class that she is taking. She was unable to find the right size or color that she wanted. I made some cabochons for her out of polymer clay and my dad is carving some out of real stone for her. She will have a few to choose from. I made one to look like black onyx, a couple of "blue marble" and two to look like lapiz/malachite. A fifth one was originally made to look like another black onyx one but I chose to paint it in order to do an image transfer of my mom's Siamese cat. The transfer came out very pale. I suppose it was the type of paper I used - not too good. I used the faint outline of the image to paint in the details of her cat using acrylic paint. These were all finished with archival gloss varnish to give them that polished stone look.

To experiment with more image transfers, I began by painting three 6" square stretched canvases using bright acrylic paints. I chose some photos of poppies, converted them to black and white, cut them out and tore some of the edges. I then adhered them face down to the canvases using gel medium. The photos show the painted look kind of cool with the black and white against the vibrant colors. canvases, the photos lying on each canvas and the photos as they are glued down. The photos of the photos face up on the canvases Hopefully, the transfer comes out as interesting.

Glasses: February 26, 2008

I redid the boy's shirt, finished his pants, darkened the chair cushion and made minor adjustments throughout.

Glasses: February 25, 2008

This oil painting is still in progress. I find the stripes on the boy's shirt to be too busy and distracting. I will have to scrape the paint off of there and try something else.

All in a Day's Work: February 23, 2008

Continuing with the image transfer experiment: I applied Golden Light Molding Paste to disguise the straight edges of the first image transfer and to add more texture. After this dried, I painted using Golden acrylics. I'm starting to sound like an ad for Golden products! I then painted some small pieces of wood and attached them with the gel medium to add dimension to the fence. "Riding the Fence" is an 11"x14" mixed media painting.

My other project is the commissioned painting of these kids enjoying their new doctor's glasses. This is being painted in oils (not Golden paints). This is still in progress.

Introspection: February 16-22, 2008

I have been doing a lot of introspection this week. As a result, I haven't wanted to spend much time on the computer.

I began reading Barney Davey's book How to Profit from the Art Print Market. It has given me much to think about as far as what I paint and where I want to go with my artwork.

My mom and I have joined a textile art group that meets once a month. It is put on by In Good Company in Hamilton, Montana. During the 2-hour session, everyone shows what they created since the previous meeting. Also, kits are handed out with instruction on how to use the products in the kits. Last month, they painted on and shrunk TyVek. It is very inspiring to see the variety and creativity put into each project using the same material. This month, the kit included materials with which to produce image transfers. In Good Company put more information about image transfers on their blog. My mom's image transfer artwork is on her blog.

My first attempt was to put tiny images on small flat rocks found here in Montana. I plan to drill holes in them and use them for some future project. I printed the images out as a contact sheet on soft gloss photo paper. I cut each image out, applied Golden gel medium and pressed them face down onto the rocks, rubbing hard with the back of my fingernails. After letting them dry overnight, I removed the paper by rubbing with a small amount of water until the image could be seen clearly. I noticed that as they were drying, they had a foggy cloud working its way onto the images. They were clear when wet but slightly foggy when dry. I sprayed them with Golden Archival Varnish (gloss) and the images showed through better. After they have dried, some of the white cloud is still visible, but they are kind of cool. I'll have to try some more and maybe work on getting that cloud totally off of there before spraying them.

My next attempt with the image transfers is still in the experimental phase. I printed out a photo onto glossy photo paper and adhered it using the gel medium to an 11"x14" stretched canvas. After drying overnight, I began by putting some water on the back of the paper but the water just beaded up. I was able to peel away a couple of layers of the paper to the point that the water began to soak in, however, I was not able to keep the image from fogging up! I sprayed it with my matte archival varnish but after drying, the cloud seeped in again. I used isopropyl alcohol to see if that would remove the fog, but no such luck.

I gessoed over the first image transfer, printed another photo onto matte photo paper, and adhered this to the canvas. The next morning (this morning) I tried to remove the paper and after getting down to the image, it started to get foggy, too. I was beginning to think that I needed to go get a color photocopy of the picture since I had read on some websites that photocopies that use toner worked pretty well for image transfers.

So I began scraping off as much of these two failed transfers with my fingernails and then with a blade. I was able to scrape down to the first image which was on glossy paper and I think that is definitely permanently stuck to that canvas. I'll have to destroy the canvas in order to remove it. However, in removing the top image along with the layer of gesso, I started getting some really interesting textures on the canvas. Also, the gesso or scraper totally removed that fog that was on that first image. So what you see is the first image on gloss paper with bits of the second image around the edges with some of the white gesso. I'm going to continue working on this painting to see what develops.

I have also been working on the design of a commissioned painting. This is a painting of two young siblings who got these great glasses in a doctor kit for Christmas one year in the early 1970's. Their mom always thought this reminded her of a Norman Rockwell painting. The young girl in the photo, now a woman, wants this painted for her mom for Mother's Day. I have been tossing around a couple of ideas and want to get it pictured in my mind first before proceeding. I want it to be reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting but it seems that most of his images show the entire figure from head to toe. Since the lower part of these kids are not shown in the reference photo, I will have to improvise.

Tapestry 5 - Lucky: February 15, 2008

"Tapestry 5 - Lucky" is a 4"x6" acrylic painting on handmade watercolor paper. Click here to purchase this painting.

Backcountry Portal (Progress): February 14, 2008

Am I finished?! Not really. I'm going to live with this painting for awhile to determine what needs tweaking. I know that I will adjust the background some but it is at a point that I can move on to my next painting.
"Backcountry Portal" is a 30"x40" oil painting on stretched canvas. The image on the right is a photo of the entire painting. The image on the left is the detail of the last part that I painted.