Even the Dead

This is another of the four ‘en plein air’ sketches I completed during my stay at the Retreat Centre this summer. There are lots of trails upon which to wander. I discovered this bit of lace amongst the deeper greens of the surrounding forest. It is the negative space that fascinates me, those holes that surround the white, interlocking branches, lacy interludes encompassing the deeply emerald. The beauty caused me to pause and reflect that in the forest even the dead are included. They have a purpose. Either the beauty is enhanced with the contacts of light against dark or the fallen augment the soil in which the new seed sprouts. Even before they disintegrate the old trunks become home to a myriad of transient residents. Nothing is useless in the forest. Everything has a purpose. It is the way it should be.

Chaos reigns

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to get things done. I am thankful my studio is still functional, well, now it is. As you can see something of a tornado hit it recently. It has been quite an upheaval. We were just in the process of moving our son to Manitoba when we rented the house with a deadline of ten days.  Since we were gone for three of those days it left us one week to pack and move. Again, thankfully not everything had to be moved. We stored most of the furniture in two unused bedrooms downstairs, threw everything that was not necessary in the garage (my studio) and moved the rest into a condo in the city. Yes, we are sharing our daughter’s accommodation and I am commuting to work… well, once things are under control again. I have actually spent two days in my studio since the move, things are put away and projects are started. Small projects. I just cannot seem to focus lately. Could have something to do with exhaustion. Maybe. I will begin to focus shortly as I have five shows coming up before January. The first two are almost taken care of, just about. I will turn my attention to the invitations now. See you later!

Almost Done

It is fortunate that I completed this mural in a timely fashion. I could not have predicted the changes in my world one week could make. Yes. The mural is done; I am not sure when it will be installed, but it is done. The very same day I completed it (Monday) our son announced that had had landed a job in northern Manitoba, a mere thousand kilometers away. He was due to start the following Monday. The day we left for The Pas we made a verbal agreement to rent our house to a young family; we were to be out of the house by the following Friday. So, where does that leave me? Looking for a studio. Again. We have a place to live in Edmonton. We will store our furniture as the condo is too small to accommodate what we have. In the interim we hope to sell and buy a home closer to our centers of interest. It has been in the works for some time. Life is such an adventure. We cannot always predict the twists and turns. Well, I have things to organize. It is a blessing that I am good at it!

Undercoat

To begin with I had committed to a monochrome layout for all the four sections of the mural behind the logos. It bothered me that it appeared so dull. The colour just was not lively enough; the darkest darks were not dark enough. What to do? I decided to use a complementary colour for the undercoat. Burnt orange is my latest favorite. When mixed with cobalt blue it makes the most luscious grays, but did I want gray? Not exactly. I wanted the burnt orange to show through after I applied the cobalt on top. In order to get gray the applications would both need to be about the same amount, the more opaque the application the darker it would be right down to black. So the next question is where are my darkest darks? I took the jar of pure burnt orange and proceeded to fill in the areas where I know I would later add the purest blue. For a less intense dark, I took out my bowls of prepared pigment mixed with gel medium. There are two different consistencies: one paler than the other, one sparkling with iridescence and one not. I like my paintings to glow. Brushstrokes became important again. I chose a random, vigorous stroke for the trees and bushes, a vertical one for the grass, another one for the flesh tones and I liked the peach colour I produced. I decided to leave more of the burnt orange showing than I had previously anticipated. I wonder what my customer will think of it. We’ll see.

Halfway

Following one more critical assessment it is time to separate the sheets that I have painted and remove the first panel so the last one may be set in place and the drawing completed. Having had the experience of ripping pieces by accident in previous undertakings I move more cautiously carefully easing the edges apart. The acrylic paint makes a good glue. I had used a little sticky putty to hold the pieces together. Some of these had received a coat of paint too. Eventually I laid the first panel on the table and went about removing the residue before rolling it up. Stored until the installation day. It takes considerable patience to move and realign the drawing on each panel. I added more clips just to be sure my new arrangement would not move. As I attempted to install the last panel I saw that the grid did not allow for enough overlap, the eight inches are about right to accommodate the irregular edge once it has been cut. I took the panel down and laid it on the table with the intention of redrawing the grid. Once on the table I noticed that I had been lining the other panel up against the wrong marks. I had to laugh. Back up the ladder and the job was done. I stepped back to admire my work. Then it occurred to me. Another occasion for laughter. I had been so proud of my overlap solution. I had even thought of a way to avoid the underlay straight edge which will inevitably show up once the pieces are glued to the wall of the building. There was only one thing I had forgotten….there are horizontal cuts as well. There is no overlap on those…. I am sure there is a solution… there always is.

Slippage

This would not happen using four by eight foot sheets of plywood. I still prefer the fabric. The mural I am working on presently is too large for my support structure so I am doing it in sections. This takes a little planning. I have four of the five panels hanging at the moment. I have finished the gridding and established the center of the piece. I completed the logos and drew the separations from the center to the corners on the left side of the mural. I so did not accurately calculate the time it would take to draw. I had not considered the precision required to copy logos, establish correct proportions and perspective on buildings and the chain link fence. Oh yes, there is only so much leeway that one can get away with on these items. And I forgot about the lettering on the signs posted on the fence….. Sigh. I tried to get away with more than I could on the chain links. In the end dissatisfaction drove me to do better and I now have something with which I am pleased. Integrity is time consuming too. The moment had arrived: I was to cut the adjoining edges. I had decided to do an experiment. The sheets of fabric overlap for about eight inches. This gives me plenty of room to remove the straight line edge following the drawing in order to hide the join. I began to cut the first panel and realized that I had been very fortunate in that the two panels had remained in place during the drawing phase. I was careful to line up the next two panels before cutting while I still had an edge to line up. That is when I noticed the slippage. How am I going to fix this? Well, that remains to be seen. I know one thing: I am not redrawing the logo! Once I have the two and half panels painted I will remove the first panel, move everything over and add the last panel, beginning with the drawing again. I think I will add more clips this time….

Less Traveled

I am back at it again. Lacey patterns created with negative space in between the stems and leaves of the grasses. The hayfever got to me. I chose to sound a retreat and set up my painting station on a small desk in the  corner of my room at the retreat centre. It was sparce, the furnishings, but adequate. I had a bed, a desk and a sink with the window sill wide enough for storing small items like toothbrushes and cleaned paint brushes. I took another antihistamine and sat down. The hours passed quickly as I danced through each space dropping in various colours to create the variety so necessary in landscapes. Yet each negative space relates to another so they appear cohesive. I used a base colour of cobalt blue for the shadow areas and dropped in vermilion orange or burnt sienna, or cadmium yellow or yellow ochre and sometimes red. In the areas of sunlight I used a base of yellow ochre and reversed the process. It is fun watching the watercolour create the magic on the paper. With the en plein air paintings I do in watercolour I now use watercolour pencil to draw. Usually I select a colour complementary to the overall end result and since the forest is predominantly green my favorite drawing colour is red orange. It is in the drawing where I spend most of my time, that is, if I avoid the lacey. Lacey is time consuming and totally engaging. Once the drawing is complete I float base colours in a carefully painted area and drop in others on top watching the patterns form. Lots of fun.