This is Queen of the Trees.   She has  an important message for all of us. The trees in their own right are important to the environment as they give off oxygen, shield us from the sun, and provide a home for the birds.  Moreover, they are symbolic for the relationship between us and our source. God is the tree with roots deeply embedded in the earth, and we are the branches. This means that we are all connected. The Course in Miracles might express this as the "atonement" or "at one- ment."    If we fail to see this , our world will sink deeper into a society  without roots and  become one of fear and separation.

The making of this piece of art was very intuitive. Once the face was drawn and painted I assembled the pieces like a puzzle using hand made papers, painted Oriental paper, and photo transfer. The under painting is watercolor and on top of that is acrylic and paper.    Even after it is finished you want to add a bit here and there.

Acrylic Collage

I have been exploring acrylics and collage. This is the 3rd  figurative piece I have done. It is so much fun to create, but extremely time consuming.  In order to make the paper I have to create my own stamps and find stencils I like.  Making the paper is the first step.   This is a full day of work and very messy. The face has to be rendered in pencil first.   The face is then glazed with color and this becomes the shadows. The final step is to add the highlights on the face with white paint.

The danger in designing this piece can be  over use of  busy textures. In this painting I kept the color simple and tried to repeat textures more than once.  Sometimes this type of collage becomes too busy. It is still a learning process for me but  know I will be doing more. Maybe next time I'll send in the Queen of hearts!

Hibiscus in Acrylics

 I really enjoyed painting this flower today.  The surface is a clay panel manufactured by Ampersand. I wet the surface with water and applied  a number of of colors and then wiped some of the color off with cheese cloth. This leaves a  wonderful  and unusual texture to the surface.  I then negatively painted around the foliage.  The process is very intuitive because it is very difficult to draw on a clay surface. Therefore,  looking at a visual aid of the flower, I drew it directly in paint.   It took many layers to get to this final image.  The surface will be sealed with a varnish before framing.

Intuitive Negative painting Class

This is a mini painting completed almost  entirely with the fingers. There is still a few spaces remaining in my class Saturday, November 3 at Maryland Hall For The Arts. The class is advanced negative painting and you will learn  the incredible results you can get with the fingers rather than a brush.  Sign up at http://www.marylandhallforthearts.org.

Walk Slowly and Have Enough Time

 

 

 

 The title of this painting is a good lesson for everyone especially myself.  In this society there is always too much to do and not enough time.

The nest is collage. The apple blossoms and bird are painted with watercolors. Ther dragon fly is a photo transfer.  There is some negative painting but not as much as I usually use.   It is difficult to see but there is quite a bit of gold paint in this piece and it adds a sparkle when you see it up close.

For those of you who know me-- I just want to point out to you that I included the bird this time!!!!

Acrylic landscape on Clay Board

This painting was fun, fun , fun! . It has been quite a few years since I worked with acrylics.  I never was excited about  canvas supports. I always preferred paper. Although I have worked on a clayboard ( or aquaboard surface) using watercolor, I have not tried it with acrylics. It is a fabulous surface and allows for many layers.  The surface dries very quickly so working fast is important. On the first two layers I used a few little tricks to achieve the textures.  You can see some of the texture above the pink flowers on the right.  I painted in the negative to keep the areas I liked. The design was planned with a diagonal thrust.
I loved going backwards ( light over dark) which is something you can't do easily with watercolor.

A wonderful week with Linda Kemp

I took a workshop at Cheap Joes,  in Boone, NC with Linda Kemp last week.   Linda is an outstanding instructor-- one of best!!   Linda  is the author of the book "Painting Outside the Lines, " which is all about negative painting in the medium of watercolor.
Many of you know negative painting is my passion. Linda helped me to take a fresh look at my work.


She has a new book coming out in a few months.

We worked with acrylics which was a new medium for me.    Here are some of Linda's demonstration paintings. You can find her at LindaKemp.com