Tough Cat

Toughie, 8 x 8, acrylic and collage

Elizabeth W. Seaver

You can tell by the earring.

Because It's Almost Spring

 Drawing Inside Cat, 22 x 8, Elizabeth W. Seaver

First Stage of painting--notice the editing I did. When I realized I wanted to use a very detailed looking paper, I took out the mouse balanced on the cat's tail

Finished. It looks a little wonky because my photo is not the final one. Parallax will get you every time!

So, this one is named Inside Cat, it is acrylic and collage. It is a bit of a companion piece to Come Here Often?

Need Title Help Here

Pink Cat with Flowers, 6 x 6, acrylic on wood panel,

Elizabeth W. Seaver
sold

Anybody got any ideas for naming this piece? 

An Important Date Flew By

Forever in Tandem, commissioned work, acrylic on cradled board

Elizabeth W. Seaver

Sold

 Five years ago, November 17th, I began this blog with the following words: As a person who is lucky enough to be able to create art every day, I thought it would be fun to get to share it with more people.

When I forwarded my blog link to my husband that day, he turned to his business partner and said, "Hell has frozen over."

I thought I'd list ten ways my life and my art have changed in the last five years (in no particular order.) Though as I wrote them, I found I could have gone on and on.

#1 Overcoming my resistance to involvement in the social part of the internet was huge.

#2 I found a vast and varied group of on line art friends who've been an enormous support.

#3 I've learned to let it all hang out: the good, the bad, the ugly. I'm talking artwork, here.

#4 I rediscovered my love of writing.

#5 I embraced the silly painter inside.

#6 The writer and the silly painter chatted and came up with silly stories to go with paintings.

#7 I learned to appreciate this forum for the discussion of art topics: theft, commissions, and art doldrums, among others.

#8 Today, my life is more my own to do with what I wish since children have grown up and away. I grew up a little too (always painful) but celebrate the joy of this new place.

#9 My father died since I began this blog, and his last words to me, "Write that book," have stayed with me even as I continue to mourn the loss of daddy, teacher and friend.

#10 You can write yourself into the life you want, making a record of triumphs, failures, joys and pain to look back on--a shared journal with pictures and conversations.

Thanks to all of you for your contributions to my life's journal.

Come into My Parlor...

Come into My Parlor Said the Spider to the Fly,

acrylic on Masonite, 12 x 12, Elizabeth W. Seaver

sold

A lovely person bought this before it was even finished.

Our conversation went like this: She says, "So.....what are you going to do with that painting?"

"I might put it in the show at LibertyTown next month," says I. "Or I might put it up here at Water Street."

"So......what are you going to charge for it?"

I tell her.

She asks, "So.....what's the title?"

I think for a moment and say, "Well, it looks a little 'Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly.'"

"Sold!" she says.

And that's the way it was. Don't let anyone tell you titles aren't important.

Party Underground

Party Underground, acrylic, 24 x 24

Elizabeth W. Seaver

I never blogged about this piece. I created it for the show I had in the spring--all underground veggies.

Now, THIS vegetable is very rare. I have not ever actually seen it in its natural setting.

If you know where it grows, please let me know.

Present 25/30

Present, collage/acrylic, 6 x 6, Elizabeth W. Seaver
Sold

Finally, on the third morning of shopping for it, Isadora found the perfect present for her friend Pilar for her birthday. It wasn't just an ordinary birthday present, one that would be played with a little while and then break or sit high on a shelf, forgotten. It was special. Isadora wanted it to say to Pilar what Isadora could not say out loud. She wanted the present to say thank you for hugging her when her kitty died and what fun they had when Pilar threw the surprise party for her and for the worm bisque Pilar made when Isadora got sick that time. It was hard to find a small token which expressed all those things and fit into a box, but she did! She wrapped it in paper and ribbon as beautiful as Pilar.

Crumbs were all that remained of the corn meal cake, and Pilar opened her gifts. The stack of gifts dwindled until one lovely pink box was left. Isadora sat breathlessly on her chair, hoping that when Pilar opened her gift, she would know all the warm feelings in Isadora's heart.

Pilar slowly untied the ribbon and draped it over her neck. She carefully pulled the tape off and placed the wrapping on a stack of paper to be reused throughout the year. "OH!" Pilar gasped when she finally removed the lid of the box and looked inside.

What was in the box? You tell me.

A Cupcake a Day.....

...keeps the blues away?

These days, all I can do is paint these delicious morsels. They are usually overflowing with frosting since it is so much fun to render, but when I ate them, I prefered very little frosting to get in the way of my cake. I mean, it is called cupCAKE, after all.

This little guy is 5 x 5, acrylic and collage and is framed in the LibertyTown gallery for $85.

I'll have more to share on another day.

Create to your heart's content, everyone!

Lost in New Orleans

Ack! Too much time has gone by since my last post (sounds like I'm in the confessional!)

I have been busy hanging a portrait show at LibertyTown, which is fabulous. Check it out on LibertyTown's Facebook page.

Above is Lost in New Orleans, 6 x 6, collage and acrylic. I finished this earlier this week, so I actually have something productive to show!



I have invested in tons of small canvases and wooden shadow boxes and spent yesterday collaging them with maps. I plan a series of bird portraits in a non-traditional style, if you can believe it of me.

Happy creating, everyone!

Drooling, WIP

I don't eat cupcakes, so I must paint them! Sigh...

Note on yesterday's photo: there was a terrible flash bloom on the big cherry, which is better in today's picture. I forgot to give the warning.

Still no clothes on the figure, but I did resolve the last few squares a bit and added some detail.

Remember, it is still evolving--no telling where it will go from here!

"Cloudy with a Chance of Cupcakes"

...just to quote a great children's book title and a movie that did well on its opening weekend, as I understand. Anyone seen it yet?

It may be too soon to show the world how I have conceived this large painting to reinterpret the cupcake block print I just finished. But I have had fun pursuing this idea, so here it is, ready or not.

This is a 24 x 28 canvas with a painting on it that I had never been entirely happy with--ripe conditions for refurbishment, in my book! The long, narrow format also suited my purposes very well for another onslaught of the sweet treats in my original design.

I began by measuring out 8 inch squares Next, I sketched my ideas of this and that of cupcake-dom in each sector with watercolor pencil. If you look in the lower left corner of the canvas, you can see that I'm not through with the first application of paint in the last three squares, mostly because I'm not really charmed with those last three images.

Right now, the collage is restricted to the huge cherry which takes up 4 squares and the cupcake tower just to its right which takes up 2 squares. But, the matte medium may be coming out again tomorrow.

Will you still recognize this as the same painting that you saw today when next you see it? Will there still be a face in the window? Will it have clothing on? Only the Shadow knows...

WIP, Birds on a Wire

I pushed back the flying leaves in the sky and added a few mountain dwellings that can be seen from the front porch rocker. More about this one later.

Tonight I plunge into a two and a half day set of workshops on gourds led by Marla Helton. It is being held at LibertyTown and is sponsored by the Fredericksburg Area Spinners and Weavers Guild--nicest group of people in the world. My buddy and fellow LT artist, Lynette, grew up with Marla and is hosting her for the weekend. Marla has brought some of her works with gourds with her and we will set up a small showing at LT today to run through Sunday, March 1. If you're in the area, come by for an opening reception tomorrow night 6-8 pm.

Birds on a Wire

Above is the first layer of midnight blue acrylic and prints on 12 x 16 (10 x 16?) canvas.


What I added yesterday--tentatively entitled Birds on a Wire.

Today I hope to make progress on commission work on slate and to add a gumball machine on the "piles" collage piece. Of course, what will happen once I actually get started is anyone's guess!

Why Young Mothers Feel Trapped

I have had such a fun, productive week creating art. This piece is one I have been cogitating on for a while-- waiting for the right time and place. It finally came together this week. I created the back ground by doing an underpainting in midnight blue (a mix of phthalo blue and black) on a piece of canvas cloth that I had coated with gesso.

Then I did a layer of small block prints in white and gray on the blue, and went back over it, hand painting in white, grays and red, highlighting or exaggerating shapes I liked.

I wanted to leave branches showing against the sky, so I used negative painting in a warm blue mixed with titanium white and painted the sky around the branches, freehand.

I had found this great article in a Reader's Digest from around 1960 called Why Young Mothers Feel Trapped. I cut out a portion of the picture and the title in the shape of two little birds. I used some more of the very old catalog pages (see previous posts) from an ad which had in bold Boys and Girls and used it to make a nest. Here is the result. It is in the stage where I am watching and waiting to see whether it is done.



Here is a piece I finished today. It is also mixed media using acrylic paint and collage. I started with torn pieces of a reproduction of one of my acrylic paintings called Lights of Home. I cut small bird shapes from vintage papers and printed on the canvas and the birds with my hand-carved, small, shaped printmaking blocks.

Its title is not all I would wish, but will do for now-- Two Little Birds.


There's lots more to show and tell, but I will save it for later!

Change of Scenery

A Change of Scenery is a painting that I really enjoyed working on in September of last year. I started with muslin which I covered with three coats of gesso. Then, able to work flat on my table, I used my hand carved soft blocks, and printed all over to create the fall leaves. I have used this same photo for at least two other paintings because it is so beautiful with its mixture of oranges, reds, golds and greens. The photo has a white birch in the foreground, and I had painted that birch in the other pieces. But, this one, I liked as it was with only the dark tree.

The more I lived with it, though, the less I liked the starkness of the cool yellow I had used so genrously. I wanted to warm the painting up. Finally, during repaint and refurbish season (going on now!), I have gotten it back off of the wall to play with. By now, of course, I have stretched it, so using my blocks on it is not as easy. For the changes, I used brushes instead.

I began to add warm reds and oranges and golds painting over or around the prints and shapes I had made earlier. Then I began to paint in a warm blue mixed with titanium white to create the open places you see through trees to the sky. I paint instinctively when I get going --it's really an exploration. I already don't like what is there, so it frees me to do whatever I think might make it a better painting.

I think I am done with it now--at least for this refurbishment season!

Change of Scenery, acrylic and printmaking, 28 x 29

"Spring Cleaning"

Yeah, I know it's not spring, and I'm, for sure, not cleaning, so let me explain. Every year, about this time, when other people are making resolutions to change their lives, I want to paint over all of my canvases. For the most part, I try to restrain myself and only pick a couple that need refurbishing. The one I picked this year had some nice colors and some interesting shapes, but really was only part of a painting. I have been watching it for some time, trying to decide what its next life will be. I think I have found it.

I have been doing a series of mixed media pieces (printmaking, collage, painting, anything else that doesn't run faster than I do!) with birds as the subject. I showed the first piece I did on the last posting. On Saturday, I rifled through our recycling bins at LibertyTown and found some aluminum cans. I removed the tops and bottoms and cut out fun bird shapes. My friend Sharon has brought me several kinds of adorable buttons with brads on them, so I punched a hole where a birdie eye would be and used the brads. Here are a few of the googly-eyed birds.


Back to the painting getting a makeover...I plan to pair these birds with that painting. I prepared a tree for them to roost in today. The tape sections with sharpie writing tell me which birdies will sit where. I'm still working out how they will attach to the canvas. (By the way, there is more canvas and tree than shows in this photo. I took the photo at an odd angle, so had to crop it in a funky way!)

Funny Rabbit

Funny Rabbit, oil

I present Funny Rabbit for your enjoyment. This is a picture of progress up to yesterday, and today I touched up the butterfly and signed it. I am waiting for an order from Jerry's with the proper sized stretcher strips. I plan on leaving him unframed because the painting will continue around the edges.

Yesterday, my buddy,Elizabeth, asked me to show the piece I had been working on when she stopped by my studio. I have stretched it, finished size 8 x 8, signed it and varnished it. Done! See below.

Dreams of Summer, mixed media with acrylic and paper

I'm pretty pleased with the results of my work, and it inspired me to work on collages all day today. I even cut up aluminum cans. But more about that later!

Phase 2 of "Watched Swatch"

To recap: Phase one of the substrate for my painting was a gessoed piece of muslin which had been given a black underpainting and then printed with a variety of my hand cut blocks in grays and white. I had also done some experimental painting in red, but stopped when I realized it was not turning out the way I wanted. If you look closely, you can see some of that red revealed in the image below.


Since all my previous layers had been applied with acrylic paints or medium, I decided to go ahead with a titanium white acrylic paint to cover all but a few windows of the printed black layer underneath. I was pretty sure I wanted to complete my work with oil paint, but at this stage, the acrylic paint would dry faster, letting me get on with the fun part sooner.

I love being able to see the previous layers peeping through in some way in each layer of a painting. I like it in my work, and I LOVE seeing it in other people's work. This is proving to be the most obvious of those layers (foreshadowing, for those of you following along at home!) What I wanted at this stage was to reserve as much of the revealed printed layer as possible.

Next, I scored lines in a fairly random way into the titanium white with the end of a brush, drawing "swooshes", shapes and spirals into the drying paint. intending to help create future form in the finished piece and textural interest in succeeding layers.

Thus begins the part of the painting process that I call the ugly phase. This can last as long as the moment the final stroke of paint is put on the canvas, requiring from the artist a great deal of patience, faith and hope to outlast it.

Shot in the Dark, or A Creative Process?

OK. So I've been working on this piece whose creation has been very organic. I have hesitated to put it up here because it is not finished, and it could turn out to be crap. But if I am going to take one of the creative avenues I like to take in painting, I have to assume the risk that it will turn out to be time ill spent. (So may reading this journal of the experience--a warning to the reader!) Today's entry is the back story.

I began last fall working on the idea of using my small, hand-carved soft blocks as the actual builders of form in my paintings. I knew I didn't want to work on paper; I wanted the finished works to be on canvas. It is very hard to make a good print on a piece of stretched canvas, so I decided to gesso my own cloth (bought as scraps for cheap at fabric stores.) I gessoed three layers on the cloth at least, leaving the fabric to dry between coats. It made a great surface on which to work flat, because I might press with as much firmness as I needed to transfer a print. (Of course, it meant I had to stretch it when I was done, but one must suffer for one's art.)

Below is one of the several paintings using this process that I completed last fall. It sold in November to one of my local collectors.

Under Cover, acrylic

Then I began playing with creating gessoed "cloth" for the making of other items. My friend and longtime printmaking student, Inge, took several pieces of this "cloth" and has been using it to create purses and covers for notebooks. This is an example of our collaboration.

She is an interior designer and has many samples of cloth, buttons, etc. The square in the center is a piece of the gessoed cloth I printed. She made all the other design and constuction choices. I have several of these for sale in my studio.

This is all preface to say that I had been pondering what to do with a sheet of this "cloth" that I had left over from Inge's efforts. I taped it up on the wall of my studio and left it hanging there some weeks while I "watched" it. I will often do this when I don't have a clear idea of the direction a painting should go. I leave it where I may look at it out of the corner of my eye, without pressure, until the solution emerges in my head.

This is the trimmed end of the watched swatch...


More later, for those who dare!

Fredericksburg

More slate painting today and cozy conversations with other artists as I painted. Betsy, Carrol, Megan, Kerry, Lynette, Gabe, Lisa and Stephanie, not to mention Aline and Jeff...supportive, funny, creative, cool folks!

While we chatted, I finished working on a plaque about Fredericksburg, above, using my creative license with its skyline. I love steeples, and Fred has quite a few really wonderful ones. Somehow, in my paintings, they never stay where the builders put them, nor do they usually look as the architects designed them. They are themselves and mine, all at the same time.

I also got my Etsy.com site up today, a real achievement. I am just ten days beyond my goal for getting it online, but it is done! Check it out www.elizabethseaver.etsy.com.