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.

Mount Bennett

 Almost exactly two years ago I wrote a short paragraph about this painting that I had started in the fall before and then put away because I wasn't happy with it and didn't know how to proceed. By then I had found it again and realized that it looks like Mount Bennett that I can see from my bedroom window. It is also rather typical what many areas in Sonoma County look like. Mount Bennett sits at the heart of Annadel State Park where I often hike.

This is an image of Mount Bennett that I took in February 2023, seen from one of the streets in my neighborhood. It is very rare that we see snow on it.

So last year I finally worked on the painting again and was eventually able to finish it in a way that I actually liked it. I added a few things that represent the county I call home.

Here are a few details.

Sonoma County is home to about 75 mountain lions and I often see their scat when I hike in Annadel. Of course I had to include one in this painting. The quails in the lower right corner are on a wine bottle foil. California Quails are our state bird and of course Sonoma County is in Wine Country. The texture I achieved by glueing down tissue paper and then going over it with a copper oil pastel.

Another wine bottle foil and some lichen I found on one of my hikes. Almost all our older trees have some lichen on their branches. The white area is supposed to be our low morning coastal fog. The orange dots you can see represent California poppies.

This wine bottle foil represents our native oaks. California has several native oaks including the majestic Coast Live Oak which is evergreen, Blue Oak and Valley Oak. And of course I had to include birds. Maybe they're Turkey Vultures, our clean up crew.

After this I started a big canvas with a similar theme, representing Sonoma County, but this time I'm adding photos and more items from nature. I'm still working on that "elephant", but if I ever finish it, you will get to see it. Today it's only the smaller version.

I'm sharing with Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room.

Imaginary Landscapes

 

Almost two years ago I took a "Mini Abstracts" class with Laly Mille. I'm not really "into" abstracts as an art form that I create, but I was looking for something new and thought, why not? One part of the class was called "Imaginary Landscapes". I worked in a series, using the same supplies in each of the four pieces. The landscapes are created on 5 x 5 inches watercolor paper. I used old book pages, paper I had created with the gelli plate, mulberry paper, pieces of corrugated cardboard, tissue paper and gauze plus watercolors and white gesso.

This is how far I got in June 2024:

To be honest, they didn't feel finished. Sure, they were abstract, so the goal of the class was achieved. However, for me a landscape, abstract or not, needs a bit more - maybe a couple trees, a sun or moon and definitely some birds. There need to be birds!

Almost another year went by until I pulled these pieces out again and finally added a sun to each landscape, different trees to three of them and birds in the sky. Now the pieces felt finished.

I wonder whether some of you like to create abstract art. 

I'm sharing with Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room. Come and visit to see what other artists are up to.

Snail Shells

 

The other things I find in my garden beside bird feathers are empty snail shells. I usually pick them up and bring inside, hoping to one day use them in an artpiece.

The time had come when I was thinking about what to do with the second burlap cnavas. Just like with the bird feathers, I worked in a series and used very similar techniques. I first layed out a rough design.

I worked on 4" x 4" pieces of watercolor that I had painted with a soft shade of burnt sienna. After I had glued down all the papers and added some parchment colored acrylic paint I thought that it needed something else. So I picked one of my favorite stencils from Stencils Girls, mixed a shade of green that I liked and stenciled these plants onto the papers. Already it looked much better.

The pieces I wanted to used as background for the snail shell are paper towels that I accidentally colored a while back (I can't remember how that happened, only that it was unintentionally and I liked the outcome). However, when I glued down the papertowel, it almost completely disappeared. I wanted to bring out the texture, so I used some India ink pen (Faber Castell) in raw umber on the edges and "smeared" the color to the center. Much better. Some more gesso through stencils and I also added a small piece of burlap to each piece. Then I adhered them to the burlap canvas - I had to that first because I put some super strong tape on the back of the watercolor paper, but I had to do that before gluing the snail shells down, because otherwise I would not have been able to lay the paper flat for adhering the tape (I hope this explanation isn't too complicated).

Only after everything was fastened to the burlap canvas did I glue down the snail shells, using Aleene's mixed media adhesive which has a very strong hold. It had to dry 24 hours and then I added final touches, like the white framing of the papertowel using a white gel pen (Debra, thank you for writing about them in your last SITAR post) and some white gesso on the burlap. Done.

Here is each of them.

With these snail shells I'm joining Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room.

Bird Feathers

 

My garden attracts many birds and so it doesn't come as a big surprise that I often find feathers on the ground. Some of them I pick up with the intention to use them in a mixed media project. A short class by French artist Laly Mille inspired me to create these three small pieces.

The top photo shows my first laying out the papers and feathers on watercolor paper that I had cut to 3⅜" by 5⅜" pieces each. I did stick to this first layout, but added more to it in the process.

Here is how the individual pieces turned out.

Gluing down bird feathers is NOT fun and I wouldn't do it again. The mulberry paper under the feathers completely "disappeared" when I adhered it with gel medium which wasn't what I had in mind. In order to achieve a bit more texture I added coffee stained cheesecloth and rubbed some gesso on it.

Years ago for reasons I cannot remember I bought two 9 x 12" burlap canvas that since then had quietly collected dust on top of a shelf (they were wrapped in plastic, so no harm done). I finally found a use for one of them: I adhered the three collage pieces to it, using super strong tape. Voilà, I had a new mixed media art piece.

This is my contribution to Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room.

Hummingbird Woman

 

Melanie Rivers, Dance of the Dragonfly

In 2024 I did a few classes of the Art Soul Gathering. One of them was by Melanie Rivers, an Indigenous mixed media artist from the Squamish First Nation in Vancouver, Canada. Many of you probably know her and her beautiful art. This class was called "Dance of the Dragonfly" where she showed how to create the portrait you can see above.

She used this photo as a reference:

I tried to create a textured background on a wood panel, using some paper package filling and also scribbled in the gesso. Then I traced the woman and painted with acrylic paints. I'm not super happy with it, but also not unhappy. Kind of neutral. Since I didn't have a dragonfly image and I really like hummingbirds, I decided to use the image of a hummingbird that I had found in a magazine. Instead of "Dance of the Dragonfly" I called her "Hummingbird Woman".

This is for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

I apologize for not commenting very much on your blogs at the moment. I got another big order that I hope to wrap up this weekend. Hopefully, after that I will have more time.

Non-Dominant Flowers

 

A couple weeks ago or so I took a free online class by Laly Mille which is the first lesson of her Flower Flow course. I had already taken this class a year ago, but since it was free and I hadn't really done much "artsy" in the recent weeks, I decided to join again. I like Laly Mille's art and her very calm way of teaching lovely art classes.

We started with spreading some gesso on old book pages, music sheets - whatever we had. After it was dry the task was to draw flowers and leaves with our non-dominant hand. That would be my left hand. I had already enjoyed this a year ago, but this time I even enjoyed it more. I did a few with watercolor pencils, but "discovered" that I liked the graphite ones much better (I used the graphite aquarelle pencils by Faber Castell, a 4B and an 8B). Then the flowers and leaves are "smudged" with matte medium or regular gel (I used matte medium) and finally narrowly torn out.

Most (but not all) of the flowers in the photo above are from last year, whereas the ones in the following picture are only new ones.

I didn't make exactly bouquets, but just tried to combine some of the flowers and leaves. I decided to go with a wildflower theme and attached them to four 5x5 watercolor panels that I had prepared with some collage "fodder".

Final steps inlcuded some gauze that I watercolored as well as some parts of the plants and I also added some watercolor sprinkles. It was a lovely project that I thoroughly enjoyed (and of course it took me longer than the four or five days of the class).

Here are my four wildflower collages:

I haven't done any art since then... and I don't think I will do any in the next two weeks because Kaefer will be here!!! At the moment she is in Chicago where she meets up with a high school friend and then the two will attend the wedding of another high school friend that is taking place somewhere in Indiana. On late Sunday afternoon she'll land in Oakland. Both the Geek and I are very excited to spend some time with our favorite girl. I assume that I probably won't be in blogland during those two weeks.

I also have a face for Nicole's Friday Face Off - I got a haircut! My last haircut was five days before the lockdown in 2020 and since then I have cut my hair myself. Thankfully it was a really good haircut and since my hair is curly one couldn't notice that my cuts weren't particularly accurate. But now I felt annoyed by the length of the hair, and when I heard that my neighbor cuts hair nothing could stop me. I just had to walk down a block! She did a fantastic job and I'm so happy about my short hair.

A couple more things.

Thank you for your comments about my D-Day post. Some of you mentioned how very concerning it is where our country is going to now, and I fully agree. One noted that I see it from both perspectives, as a German and as an American, so the two opposing "parties". I want to mention here the visit of the German chancellor Friedrich Merz to the Oval Office on June 5th. He reminded the president  that the following day was June 6th, D-Day, and how important that day was. Mr. Trump's reaction was "that wasn't a very pleasant day for you" and then "that wasn't a great day". Mr. Merz was visibly taken aback and emphasized in very clear words that this was the beginning of the liberation of Europe from the Nazi regime. The chancellor of Germany had to tell this to the president of the USA who didn't seem to have a clue about June 6th. I am not particularly fond of Mr. Merz, but at this moment I was very proud of him.

And - Los Angeles. I assume you know what I am talking about. I am so appalled, I can't even find words for that. But thankfully someone else did that. I am not a big fan of the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, but when he delivered his address to Californians yesterday I felt deep respect for him. He found the right words and he certainly wasn't mincing them. Usually I stay away from declarations like "I'm so proud to be a ... (insert name of country), but today I'm saying "I'm proud to be a Californian".

We will peacefully join the protest on Saturday, and I hope many many people will do so across the country.