This Week's Experiments

That Which was Lost

7" x 7"

acrylic on paper

Tribal Bird
7 1/2" x 7"
acrylic on paper

Say It Isn't So

7 1/2" x 7"

acrylic on paper

I played in a spiral watercolor book again, trying out some more quick paintings. Here are two original paintings with their ghost print images:

Crossing Barriers

8" x 7"

acrylic on paper

Ghost print from "Crossing Barriers"

Sight Unseen

8" x 7"

acrylic on paper

ghost image of "Sight Unseen"

Brayer Paintings

Turquoise Dance
10" x 7" on 140 lb. cold-press watercolor paper

The last few weeks I have returned to daily brayer paintings. How much I like them, how much I have missed doing them, and how much I learn from them!

When I first started painting on weekends, I missed it and wondered how I could continue to play with paint during the week. Instead of working on large works on canvas, I began filling 10” x 7” spiral journals of watercolor paper with quick little paintings. But setting up and cleaning brushes afterwards took a lot of time, too, so I searched for tools that would clean up quickly. Soon, palette knives and brayers were employed.

What, you may ask, is brayer painting? Basically, I take a 4” soft rubber brayer, some heavy body acrylic paints, some texture tools and roll out layers upon layers of paint. Then I press, scratch, and stamp different materials onto the paper to create something.

excess acrylic paint rolled on 60 lb. sketch paper

handmade stamps in left corner

Ever since I began my art blog in May, I have fallen out of the habit of doing a quick painting or two a day to play, to see color relationships, and to discover themes. I learn something from doing these fast exercises. While they do not always result in pretty paintings, these brayer paintings often stir ideas and emotions suggesting themes, textures, or color combinations leading to larger works.

Finishing up this California 2008 journal sketchbook, I am back doing mini-paintings several times a week and have some results that amaze, astonish, and engage me. I am more happy and relaxed because I am closer to my paints and more receptive to any kind of results, good or not-so-good.

I’m on the road of discovery and since I love to learn, it's great fun. Working more frequently brings more creative fires to the surface instead of being banking them down, waiting for more time. And I discover more things if I work daily, even for a short time.

excess acrylic paint rolled on 60 lb. sketch paper
handmade stamps in left corner

Here are a few things I’ve discovered recently:

• Make a ghost image on the smooth, 60 lb. sketch paper opposite the 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper page by closing the book while the paint is still wet.



• Clean off the brayer by rolling excess paint onto that sketch paper. Could be the start of an interesting work. The paper doesn’t buckle as much as I thought it would. How would fluid acrylics work instead? There’s another experiment.



• Reuse the protecting freezer or wax paper (used behind the main working pages) by
  a) applying gloss or matte medium to the watercolor paper and rub on the dried paint b) rubbing off dried paint areas onto wet paint paper. The one below was unintentional, but I love the results.

Non-Conformity

10" x 7" on 140 lb. cold-press watercolor paper

Often, I feel more like a print maker than a painter, rolling out paint layers and pressing items into it. Other times, I am astonished at results from mostly random, quick-decision, small-format pieces. Imposing a strict time limit, I can by-pass that pesky critic often lurking within every artist. By not planning each page, by opening myself up to any possibilities, by randomly making textures, I often access the mystic process of creation. Sometimes, images appear that move me deeply, that suggest things unconsciously, that make me feel I have touched another realm.

Life Continues

10" x 7" on 140 lb. cold-press watercolor paper

In the past, I felt that immersion when I was seriously, steadily writing. So focused on developing characters and plot for a novel, I often was an instrument for creative powers of the universe. I feel that much more as a visual artist. When it happens, I get a little psychic thrill/chill. Imagine plugging into a great universal repository of thoughts and feelings and higher powers. Some images, even in a corner, suddenly appear and I am amazed it came from me. This jolt channels through me, energizing and guiding my articulation. Again, others might not see this as it might be a patch in a murky puddle of paint. Although the piece might not be worthy to hang in a gallery, the act of making it releases some force within me, and contrarily, outside of me.

Does this make sense to any of you? Have you, too, felt such feelings?

What a wonder that such an easy painting technique can be so transcendent.

Artifact

10" x 7" on 140 lb. cold-press watercolor paper

Not Beach Reading

Pondering a book to bring on my recent trip, I looked around ones I had just finished (“True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling” by L.K. Ludwig, which deserves a review in itself) or was in the middle of (Ted Sorensen’s “Counselor: A life at the Edge of History”; a great read but too heavy and bulky to tote around) and instead selected a title recently ordered—“The Mist-Filled Path: Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, and Seekers” by Frank MacEowen.

A step-up from other Celtic New Age books, this title is taking me on a profound journey. It is definitely not beach or summer reading. Yet beginning it far from home, away from the daily routine, has added weight to the words. I haven’t even finished it and already it has moved and altered my thinking.

For example, I am an introvert and a Highly Sensitive Person ((HSP); there are several good books and web sites explaining this trait). Thus, I am uncomfortable in crowds and in the midst of noise. I have great difficulty “chatting” with strangers or even initiating a conversation. But, prompted with some of what I’d read in “The Mist-Filled Path,” I said hello to my airplane seat-mate. Almost immediately, I reverted back to my shy ways and was about to move to a vacant seat near the window to engage in solitary pursuits--sleeping, reading, or watching the changing geography below. However, it turned out my companion and I began a conversation that lasted most the flight and brought out all the things we had in common. We both couldn’t believe how much we were talking! We exchanged e-mail and Flickr addresses and hugged after retrieving our baggage, not saying “good-bye” but “until we meet again.” How often does that happen? For me, usually too reserved to even say more than one sentence, it’s very rare.

Although I am just 1/8th Irish, it is that bloodline I feel most strongly drawn to. Growing up away from most relatives, I have a great hunger for my heritage. Recently, I’ve learned more about my maternal great-grandmother, whom I actually resemble from her wedding photo. I visited Ireland twice so far, once in my early twenties and again two years ago. I am fascinated by ancient Irish Neolithic times when my tribal ancestors built stone circles, cairns, monoliths, and other monuments, as well as Irish Celtic times when my tribal ancestors spread their culture into Britain and Europe (perhaps some of my German heritage was Celtic, too). Some ancient sites can still be seen and some ancient ways still reverberate in modern life.

My vacation book will engage me long after my holiday.

Flowing

acrylic on paper

7" x 9"

Celtic Stones

Watercolor crayons on paper

7" x 9"

Spiral Lessons

acrylic on paper

7" x 9"

California Dreamin'

California was good for my creativity. I was enchanted with the hot days and the cool evenings, the coast and the inland, the brown hills and the green fields, the fog and the bright sunshine, the blue skies and the numberless stars. I made two friends, one a friend of my sister’s, one on the plane homebound. And, of course, it was great visiting with my sister and her family.

I worked in a new spiral journal containing both 140 lb. watercolor paper and 60 lb. sketch paper, as well as a block of hot-press w/c paper.

Sycamore Teaching Leaves
7" x 9" acrylics on paper

Ancient Wisdom

9" x 12" acrylics, fabric on paper

A New Day

7" x 9" acrylics on paper