Today's Work

Today, I started from the above working in acrylic. And how got you there, you ask?? I began by toning an 11 x 14 canvas board with quinacridone red, then printed over with small hand cut block prints. I painted negatively with a mixture of phthalo turquoise, permanent green light and white to create the tree. Then I went back in to paint on the branches with more red.

Today, I added fruit and leaves cut from catalogue pages from around the turn of the last century, fixing them to the board with matte medium. I printed a funny little bird--one of my own blocks--and began to add color to the fruit and bird--hansa medium, phthalo blue and black were added to the rest of the palette. I went in with a black micron pen to create dark edges around elements in the painting.

There's a lot going on, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Oh, and I forgot--along the way the sky turned from turquoise to blue--sometimes, life is like that!

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!

If A Red Hand

Not too long ago one of my artist friends shared some very old pages of a Sears and Roebuck catalog with me. Having used some pages from a magazine from the early 1960's in a recent work, I figured I would find a way to use these as well. It would need to be soon, however, because the pages were so fragile, just touching them made them break apart. I took several sheets, including some advertisements and what looked to be newspaper articles and stories, and as you can see above, some ads for ladies and children's clothing and undergarments from the turn of the last century. The only date I could see on any of the pages was 1899.

I spent today working with the pages, beginning with a page of ads and articles, one of which began in larger type than the words around it, "If a red hand..." That was just too intriguing! So I took a sheet of printmaking material, 9 x 12 soft block that my husband had given me for Valentine's Day (he knows the way to MY heart!) and traced my hand and wrist on a piece approximately 6 x 9. See the delicate thing below!



I also used some Butterick dress pattern paper along with the very old catalog paper to create the first layer of my piece, using matte medium to coat the back and front of each piece. Birds had to come into the design somewhere, so you see them perching on my thumb and pinkie, and I made a larger bird block which I also printed in red on the collaged papers. Here is what I have done so far. I will let it be for a while and listen to it tell me what's next!



In case you are wondering, "if a red hand" appears on the first page of your newspaper, it is time to renew your subscription!