I have become quite fed up with all the grey, to be honest. Time for colour, riotous, juicy, shameless colour. Bring on the spring and it's dewy hues, I'm ready.
| Add Comment  A quiet divide. Always compelled to incorporate some aspects of the grid. The creative flow struggling with logic and symmetry. A pinch of text, symbols populating borders. The big barren cold north, virtually empty. Looks a bit like Canada.  Working with Tri-Art Dry Media Ground on a Gloss acrylic gel surface. The addition of charcoal, graphite works better on this surface than on just a plain matte gel or polymer. The Dry media ground imparts a velvety toothy and oddly absorbent surface. I love the way it accepts colour, and how subtle the blending becomes. It could be called dry & wet media ground, or just velvet grit. Me likey.  New year, new energy, same palette. There are some things that I cannot get away from. One of them is Payne's Grey. WHAT A GREAT COLOUR. There are many versions of this colour out there, in all formats of paint. The one I use, and love, is Tri-Art's Finest Quality Liquid acrylic version. It is a combination of PBk 7 (carbon black), PB 15:3 (Phthalo Blue Green Shade) and PV 23 (Dioxazine Violet). My tendency is to use it in washes and glazes, so that the subtlety of its undertone is showcased. Such a beautiful neutral. In this piece (acrylic skin), it has been washed over a base of Graphite Grey, Liquid Mirror and Interference Turquoise. There is also some dry brushing of Iridescent Bronze, Interference Blue and Zinc white. The base of the painting is gloss gel medium, with blocked in areas of Dry Media Ground. For more information on Payne's Grey: http://painting.about.com/od/artglossaryp/g/defPaynesGrey.htm  I'm waiting, with growing impatience for the snow to arrive. It's not really about a "white Christmas" for me, though that is always lovely, but more about the feeling of the snow, the look of it. I love the thick dampening effect it has on the ambient city soundscape. The way it sparkles under the street lamps on my nightly walks, the softness of the sky, the lightness of the flakes. I am infinitely more inspired by snow and ice than by the greens of warmer seasons. I suppose winter appeals to me because of it's limited palette, which I have taken into my studio and it gives life to my work. Bring on the twinkle. DETAIL: Spectral Colour Hologram Pearl and gloss gel medium on mylar.  It's getting a wee bit frosty round these parts, and we are beginning to bundle up. Winter is one of my favorite visual inspiration times. The limited palette, the crispness, the soft light. Shades of shadow and snow. This is a stencil of coarse Nepheline gel on a reflective silver ground. It feels a lot like winter to me. Crunchy and smooth, shiny and gritty.  Under-painting and glazing. Making colours richer and brighter in two simple ways. I offer you some vibrant tones as we move towards the long dark.  I live in a place we lovingly call the Limestone City, the first capital of Upper Canada, with so many heritage buildings, resplendent in their limestone-iness. It is a pretty place, and there is a lot of the stuff just lying around on our waterfront. I have been lugging smooth limestone rocks around in back packs since I moved here. Collecting rocks is one of the things I inherited from my dad (he's a geochemist), though what I do with them is rather different. I like to look at them, pet them, place them on things and sometimes I like to paint them. They accept paint quite beautifully. In fact, there are whole books out there on that very subject (really, I'm not kidding). As we head towards winter, a meditative mood sets in, and I am drawn to the simplicity and solidity of these rocks. Their smooth edges are taking a bit of the edge off of my own seasonal tension.  This is such an iconic Canadian image, it also represents the change of season to me. The imprint of maple leaves, staining the sidewalk I walk on twice a day on my way to and from my daughter's school. Autumn tattoo, patriot print, I am mesmerized every year by this sepia toned pass of nature's brush.  With one show under my belt, and a small art event coming up, as well as preparing myself for some new work, this is the time to be ruthless with the stuff that just didn't work. Gesso, white, black or whatever, it's the best thing to create a clear-ish slate. The -ish comes in the form of underlying textures. I like these. It's a fun place to play on, stamping on the ruins of the previous painting. Moving forward often is about being able let go of the past, but the past forms and informs our future. Future actions, future goals, future art. I'm excited about what will spring from these ruins. |
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