Marks on Abstracts

 

In August of last year I took a class - I can't even remember by whom and what the topic was, it might have been part of Laly Mille's "Layers of Light" - where we were supposed to create a series of small abstracts with neutral colors. As you can see from the gathered papers above, my first "rebellious" act was to add a dash of color with those purple circles.

I worked on 6" x 6" watercolor paper and glued down the papers pretty much without thinking a lot. Then I added some random lines and scrolls with a black Stabilo All pen.

I found it so boring and uninspiring that I put the abstracts to the side for more than six months, until I dug them out again from my unfinished pieces (of which I have quite a bit). I had the idea that some marks might spruce up the abstracts. I used a white gel pen (Uniball Signo) and a black pigment liner (Staedtler) and with the help of a couple stencils (Stencil Girl) I drew some marks on each piece. I also used the gel pen for outlining the flowers on the dark brown paper and make some dots and tiny circles. 

I think it really changed the abstracts in a good way. Now I like them. 

It's interesting how stepping away from a piece and returning to it later can give new ideas and how a few marks can change an entire piece. 

I'm joining Nicole for Sunday in the Art Room.

Abstracts and Clafoutis

 

Yesterday we were without Internet almost the entire day, so I wasn't able to post anything. It was actually a nice change not to be at the computer, but instead I worked in the garden, started knitting a hat for my Etsy shop and finished reading my book.

In July I joined the online Artist Soul Retreat that Laly Mille hosted, one of my favorite artists. It was mainly about abstracts and since Laly likes to work in series, we did that as well. When I had done my first few layers I felt that this wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't know where this would go and this was the moment that I walked away from my four "abstracts".

I came back to them several days later and decided I would go a different direction, leave the idea of "abstract" behind and add some images. I felt much better with that and started to like my little creations. The last touch was, of course, birds.

Even though I didn't create "abstracts", this was an interesting experiment and a good learning process. I was a bit surprised as well since I had seen a video by Laly about abstract landscapes that I loved and created my own landscapes. This one, however, was very different.

On to some sweet stuff for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date! In last week's TADD I showed you the photo of a clafoutis that I had made when my neighbor gave me plums from her garden. Well, she gave me more after that and I was looking for a different recipe for a clafoutis. I found a gluten free one - it is with cherries, but you can use other fruit as well. I think this would also work with apricots, peaches, even strawberries. I altered the recipe a bit, I didn't use brandy and instead of almond flour and almond milk I used regular APF and dairy milk. I did add a teaspoon of almond extract to the batter to get the almond flavor. You can find the recipe here.

You will need:

After you have halved the plums and removed the pits, put them in the bottom of a greased cast iron pan or baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Make the batter and pour it over the plums. Please note that I am still using my faithful Krups hand mixer from Germany. I have been using it for 30 years. I think the 3Mix is one of the most well-known hand mixers in Germany. I'm so glad I brought it with me to the US (I have a step up and down transformer so I can use it here).

Bake the clafoutis for 60-70 minutes until it is no longer jiggly in the center. Let it cool a bit and then enjoy!