NEW ART PROJECTS GOIN ON?

Thank you for asking. I appreciate, Vivien, the interest you take in the work of others. Your sense of "artistic community" is very strong.
I am trying to "put right" a number of works that started out well (so I think) but have come, in some cases, to a kind of cul-de-sac. Little touches here and there, and an occasional radical infusion, are moving them all in a better direction. Remember the distinction I make, following Nietzsche, between the passionate, impulsive (devil may care), right-brained Dionysian beginning of a painting (the phase I do best and easiest) and the later methodological, ego-directed, and design conscious Apollonian phase? I'm in the latter stage with these works. That is harder for me. During the last week of the month when I go to our "other place" to begin paintings, I feel so much better about the act of painting. It's pure fun then. Now it's work, but work that I welcome. I'm sure everyone of our A2K art group appreciates my position. It must be universal, the problem of making continual adjustments in order to arrive at aesthetically interesting, harmonious, unified, and perhaps meaingful, images.
The paintings I refer to are all part of my series of abstracts regarding Aztec Gods. My problem in some cases is to justify the identification I make of images with particular gods. I do not want to do that in "cheap" ways, e.g., putting leopard spots on Tezcatlipoca, rain drops on Tlaloc or feathers on Quetzalcoatl. I'm concerned with forms, colors and relationships that will abstractlyl suggest, at least to me, the character of each of the gods.

Im just getting relaxed from a busy couple of weeks

ok jl, I caint let ya go without splaining the other Aztec Gods. I know of Katzenkoatl, (He was a jewish bird god).
Tezcatlipoca-- dont leave me hanging here.


vivien-Lady, you can handle blue really well. I like the images of tree-like dream figures overlaying, what appears to be , a series of globe details. Really cool.

My favorite painting by Frankenthaler is a study in "cumulous" blues abruptly terminating a ground of yellow orange. Like yours, there were a million subtle undercolors that made your eye follow where she wanted you to go.

Farmerman, Tezcatlipoca (Mirror that Smokes) was a sinister and capricious trickster god, virtually an incarnation of chaos. He was particularly worshipped by warriors and magicians. His name refers to the clouding of the black obsidian mirror when used by magicians for looking into the future.
He is best known as the nemesis of the positive god, giver of civilization, Quetzalcoatl, the great lord of the Toltecs. My painting of his is of the charismatic high priest of Quetzalcoatl who was identified with him, Ce Acatl Topiltzin. Have you seen the great mural by Tamayo of the celestial struggle between Tezcatlipoca, in the form of a spotted jaguar, and Queztalcoatl, in the form of a feathered serpent?

NO, CANT SAY THAT i HAVE JL. Sort of a Brahma, Vishnu, shiva triad Aztec style?

My wife once did a series of works based on kipus (maybe thats Inca) and she tried to explain . I was a bit dense and could only tell people that Iknow someone who can do arithmetic in Ancient MesoAmerican. Now, I can call on you for hints on pictographs .

I used to do some very elementary arithmetic with Maya dots and lines. Can't remember how now.

I did a bit of a google search and there sure isn't all that much in imagery online of work by Tamayo. I remember that we talked about him before though and someone did, I think I remember, come up with some online photos.

[/IMG]


I'm currently working on this series - these first 2 are on 10 or `12 inch canvasses (forget which!)

[/IMG]

this one is only 6 inches square

[/IMG]

Vivien, delightful images. One thinks of "action paintings" (which is what these appear to be) as large works requiring sweeping gestures from the shoulder. Because of their small size, I assume yours are generated from the wrist. Did you ENJOY making them? Are they "designed" consciously or are they impulsively expressive

awesome color mixes there vivien.

they sort of evolve! the last one was very loosely based on the format of a digital image I did ages ago.


The red ones were a deliberate challenge to myself to do some 'red' landscapes and make them work - it was great fun working with the expressionist intensity of colours.

I was also enjoying using metallic and pearlescent paints - there is a hint of pearlescence in some of the colours (tube of pearlescent medium mixed in, but not too much) and in the blue painting the coppery coloured part is copper metallic paint.

The formats and composition are loosely based on the hills and fields I pass on the way home from teaching - throughout the winter I pass them at dusk quite a lot and I love the light effects and strangeness that occur - so they are sort of distilled from memory and then played with.

sorry they are at an angle but they were wet and shiny and I got a horrible glare photographing them straight on.

There is a greater range of subtle colours than shows here

I want to do some large large canvasses - that's the next stage after I do some 20 inch ones in the series for an upcoming show.

I sometimes really enjoy working small but a large canvas allows for much more interesting subtle changes etc - subtle seems a strange word to associate with vivid paintings but they still must have some subtler passages that need looking at closely or they are unsatisfying long term.

I suppose they were 'from the wrist' - not sure! Larger work certainly is from the shoulder as you say.

Vivien, thanks for the very edifying responses. They make me enjoy images even more.

farmer have you got the photos of your work yet?

hell, Im still working on doing the final ink and wash sketches . I tried that photobucket and got flumoxed. I tried a test shot of one of my chickens, and it didnt work. I heard of a local host here in Lancaster. Soon's Im done Ill post the sketches and the finished stuff too

when you've registered you just click on BROWSE on their screen and then find the image on your computer through the screen that comes up and upload it - it really isn't hard honest! if it was then believe me I wouldn't cope!

I like ink and wash

as a change from the oil paint I've done a couple of pastels on cork (floor tiles - they make a lovely surface to work on). I let the cork do a lot of the work, they are only quick sketchy pieces about 12 inches square.

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

Vivien, those are absolutely beautiful! I love the blue atmosphere of the first and your use of red in the second. And the shapes of the trees are so musical.

CorK!!!
I am always learning something new from you, Vivien..

Well Osso one of my students brought a cork tile to class last year and I said 'wow, that's original, what a fantastic surface to work on' - she looked surprised as she'd only brought it in to mix her paints on!

Next week she brought me a present of a tile to work on and I've only just got around to using it. I loved it and went out and bought a pack of 9 from a DIY store!

You can buy them varnished or unvarnished - I bought unvarnished as I didn't want them sealed, I wanted the natural matte finish.

I wasn't sure how well pastels would work - but they DO. You couldn't build up loads of layers but they hold the pastel well. I think they'd work well with acrylic too.

I wonder about long term... I bet cork pads have weird glues (only guessing here).

wow. neat pics. Cork panels eh?
I hate those sanpaper surfaced papers but not as much as the Me Tiente pastel papers with patterns. . You say that you get the matte finish , and then apply the color . I like the way the trees pop out. I assume you did the blue sky around the trees and after? I like when pastels pop-out at you