NEW ART PROJECTS GOIN ON?

Ben, I couldn't see more than three or four comic-book art figures (maybe I should've waited longer for the download) and wasn't sure which were yours. They are all really good figures, especially the first little face with glasses and a VERY interesting dynamic background. The woman is, of course, of very professional quality.

yeah that one was mine and the green fairy, that's just the main page, there's a link to my gallery along the top, think i have about 50 pieces on there at the mo. most of my stuff is very cartoon influenced and illustrative. thanks for the comments too, the girls face with glasses was black ink on this crazy plastic stuff i found that moves like a lava lamp(ish) and there's some found flyers and cards etc underneath. anyway just above that it says 'general, gallery, scraps' etc etc, that's where you'll find my stuff.

oh yeah amigo, te gold rocks thing made me laugh out loud, that's a brilliant idea! i'd be interested to see people's reactions to that, i love crazy art projects that people do just for the fun of it, like the one's you get up to. reminds me i've not done anythin like that for a while, i'll have to let my imagination go and think of some soon cheers for the inspiration.

Gonna be loading the RV with all sorts of art junk. Last years I didnt take much and wound up buying materials at exhorbitant prices in Bangor . I bought a rolling art case at HD and its a beaut. Ive even made a strap to carry a portable easel.

Today , I had a quick meeting in DC and then ran over to the American Indian Museum to see art work by George Morrison and Arthur Amiote, two Native American artists . Morrison, of Menominee birth died in 2000 and Amiote is still working. Both artists see their worlds in abstract expressionist terms and Morrison is constantly putting his signature high horizon to signify the Lake Supereior vistas that he painted. Amiote,an Oglalla Lakota paints in almost a chiarascuro style of "primitive" colorist style. His work is often starkwith abit of rage. I hope everyone makes it to the MAerican Indian Museum as this is a real treasure , especially if youre a Native Amreican. because the museum is not a "collection of Indian Artifacts" Its a display of the Indian Nations curated for and by the tribes themselves. Artifacts are there, sure, but in the context of the civilizations utilization of them and how they celebrated their relationship to their world.

Farmer, I googled George Morrison and was relieved to see a native american artist do art that is not just the usual romantic kitch for tourists. His work is quite interesting.

Some of his best works involve piecing cross sectional slabs of driftwood into tightly packed works. He also dis silverpoint works of complex line. But all contain his "horizon line"

Our new art project;

Try to make some money.

Ben interesting work.

Farmer, have a great trip

I did get in to the print workshop and did a couple of collagraph plates using carborundum and did a few prints, I need to get back and do some more, also print the larger trees that I'd done before.



this was a first print after inking and I did a second print off as well (these are from different inkings though)

second print without reinking:




these were based on a sketch I did at the coast at the end of a long day painting with friends. The light had nearly gone and it was getting cold.


I've also been out sketching flowers as I am going to work on that series of large flowers/abstracted flowers that I've wanted to do for ages.

vivien, explain carborundum as a material in doing your plates. Also, I notice a large coloring difference between the two prints, are they considered monoprints?

We will be leaving sometime next week. My son is taking a job to transition himself in a new business venture , so hes quitting college . We will be keeping tabs on him. My little baby girl starts grad school , so she's not going, just 2 ole farts and a whole bus full of toys.
Weve decided to stay close to Eastport and Lubec so well not be cruisin the high seas on our little boat. So its either art or I take up drinking again.

By all means, Farmer, stay drunk on art.

Great to hear from Vivien after such a long time. Interesting work, Viv, but I don't understand how it's done. I await your answers to Farmer.

Hi both of you - yes Farmer stick to the buzz of art

Well they are collagraphs - which involves making the printing plate from mount card. Cutting a line in it with a craft knife will print as a thinnish line, for a wider line you make parallel cuts and peel the top layer of the card off in between, Uncut surface will print as a mid-tone, peeled away areas of surface will print dark, carborundum (pumice powder) stuck with wood glue will print very dark and where you want lights, you apply wood glue. You then varnish the plate with shellac to seal it. (must be shellac and not a turps based varnish or it will dissolve)

You then ink it up like an etching but there is more of a monoprinting element to it and no 2 prints will be the same.

Printing is with a press as it's an intaglio process.

I can call them monoprints as they have an underlying consistent element with different inking each time or a varied edition and number them as etchings are. (monotypes are strictly one offs). I think I'll go the varied edition route in titling them as it is more easily understood by people.

I'll try different combinations of colour. These were scarlet and prussian blue, which made all those earth and terracotta's where they mixed.

I've been looking closely at flowers recently in sketchbooks and photos as I want to start a series of large canvasses based on them.

What are you working on JLN?

So the pattern imparted by the carborundum dust is similar to the technique gotten by doing an aquatint on a metal plate.

Ill let JLN speak for hisself but Ive been working on a series of projects in upper Pa and in ARgentina so Ive had teeny bits of time to only do quick sketches mostly of people at work.
Ive got a neat one of a bunch of hardhats at a Ti prospect in NY where theyre all sitting around on a coffee break . Their hard hats lined up in a neat counterpont with an odd numer of hats created by one hat sitting on a stump next to everyone (it was mine) so I was sketching them while we were all sitting around talking

Im looking for small bits of glass to solder,does that count as art?

preparatory work material girl! so yes

Farmer that sounds interesting - I do wish you'd post the sketches so we could see them. Kurt Jackson did some interesting sketches of a mine in Cornwall - the mention of hard hats reminded me of them

re: carborundum - Sort of like aquatint but of course it's more raised and therefore creates a depresson in the paper.

back to vet with convalescent cat today and tired out (trips every day this week plus runs to veterinary hospital - Paddy has a dislocated hip and post op bubbles of air in his neck - he can't do anything straightforwardly!) so no painting this week He's doing well though so hopefully next week ....


I did these sketches of poppies as preliminary work towards some big more abstracted canvasses, Just observational at the moment, trying to understand the poppies.

from life:





from my photos (something I never normally do is work from photos):








I sat sketching outside - my friends bright red poppies had been dashed down by a rainstorm in the night and there were just the pale pink ones left, I took loads of photos and I had some photos of a bright red one that I grew a last year - which didn't survive the winter

I decided to have a go at working from the photos in coloured pencil to loosen them up from the purely photographic and get to understand how they worked so that I can use them for big canvasses,

I really can't work happily from photos but this in-between step will help I think.

Having sketched plein air I worked from the photos with more knowledge so hopefully it will work.

and some quick sketches of the cats that I've been doing

this one is Paddy, who has dislocated his hip and is wearing a sling
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and Rosie moving about in her sleep and wrapping her paw around her nose

Good work, Viv... great colours, nice fur texture, and you got the mood.

Wow, what a talented bunch of people we have on this forum.

this is where the poppy semi abstracts are heading, watercolour/mixed media on paper, approx 8 inches square.



thanks Mame - the bandaging is now off as his hip popped out again even with it on - we now have to think the options through but they can't operate yet anyway because of the airway problems he had last time

my favorite is the pod, its got a nice wet roundness to it and Im partial to muted colors
Neat sketches of the cats. I wish ours 'ld sit still long enough. If I start drawing them, they somehow sense it and walk over and sit on the paper. I cant draw with the tablet up because of my left arm. I have to use a table or a stand.

yes, they've got a second sense to being looked at even if they're asleep haven't they?