I did finally stop staring at my sparkly bracelet to stare at more sparkles...wait, don't judge me...at least these were on my artwork for the day! Below is a collage of CEDs #199-200 and my two latest Klimt-inspired pieces, my series within a series. I also included some close ups so you may view the GLITZ!
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Busy evening...finished up CED #198. Found a great face and just went with it....she seemed so serene. I might have to start these earlier, seems like I don't get going til after 8-9pm most nights with the painting portion of my work, and now that I am using a little more paint and the glue I need to account for drying time. But, anyways...here is a collage that shows the progression of my work this evening from start to finish; After I finished up this piece...well, I figured I might as well make something else. I started making Klimt-inspired pieces the other night and well, it's all I can think about. So I made another one. Not going to post that one til tomorrow, but here is a sneak peek of this piece, also drying right now; . ...today was the seven-year anniversary of the day I married my best friend, John. Yep, seven awesome years. John is my best friend, my travelin' partner, my motivator, my art critic, he is my everything and I am so lucky to have him in my life. And I would like to think that I add some sparkle to his life as well :) Here is to many more years to come! My anniversary present..operation let John sleep in. For whatever reason, no matter how late I stay up I wake up around 7am...give or take thirty minutes. I stayed up late last night working on my Klimt-piece...and sure enough, I am up. Blah. (Dear internal clock, please learn to sleep in.) So, I decided I would go to the beach and draw. Only problem? The weather. I saw a few sprinkles on the short drive over to the beach, but I kept going. When I got there...it stopped. I went to my spot under the pier just in case the rain came back, and I would have stayed, but the wind was just too much. CED #197 ...back home, brushed off the sand and what do you know, John is awake. After a nice anniversary lunch I finished up CED #197 and now I am in comfy clothes working on another Klimt-inspired piece...here is a sneak peak of the piece in-progress Late night...decided to start a piece inspired by Klimt. Also thinking of some bee imagery...saw a picture of a lady from a couture jewelry advertisement and started thinking...what if I gave her a bee hive...and then what if their were some bees a'buzzin'...and it just progressed from there.
Feelin' pretty tired...just in case I don't do any more work tonight, here is the update... I decided it was time I came to some resolution on this large painting (left) so I started working on it late this afternoon and stopped around 10pm. I added more black outline...I love black outline...makes me think of stained glass...and I pushed the faces back by adding some brown wash over the surface, they just seemed to stand out too much, I wanted them to flow a little more with the tree, to be a little more hidden. I want to add some addition black line work, and small strokes of color. And some small glints of gold. I was pinning images to my Pinterest Boards earlier, focusing on the 'Inspiration' board. I am still deciding how I will use this tool in my work, for now it seems to be a good way to gather images together in one place, to save physical space and also paper. The images I pinned today were mostly artists who I think are awesome, mostly mixed media artists since that is my focus for this month. This is a whole different world for me, so these visuals really help to give me ideas. And of course I had to pin some of my influences from art history, such as Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha. I found this AMAZING close-up of Klimt's piece entitled, Water Serpents (1904-1907) and fell in love with the gold line work...and the fact that it is actually slightly raised from the surface. Hmmmmmm.... that could be an idea for my large painting I am working on... Have paper will draw! ...other projects for this week;
About fifteen minutes ago I put my pen down. Tree twenty-five, done. I feel like this one went a little faster, I started it around noon, worked for about twenty minutes before going to lunch and such. I guess I ended up putting almost an additional two hours into the drawing. It is not that I am keeping time, just making the observation to myself that since I hit drawing twenty the work is taking a little longer, getting more involved. I referenced tree six for this drawing, sticking basically to the exterior shape of the earlier tree and the horizontal line work in the background. For the most part I kept the same patterns and the same pattern placement, again trying to ‘marry’ the pattern and figurative elements. Another change for this drawing, instead of looking at my magazine ‘picture file’ I actually used some pictures I had taken of my own face a while back from a variety of angles. So if the gal looks familiar (and hopefully she does at least a little) then that means I did okay rendering my own face. Side note, I do like the sharp black edges from the pen work, but I am itching to do some ‘detail drawing’, really explore value and realism…another direction for me to explore. Now I have five more drawings to go if I stick to the ‘new’ goal of thirty. However, I feel like I am just getting warmed up –just a little closer to resolving the drawings now that I am twenty drawings into it. Also, thirty was really an arbitrary number, I chose thirty because there are thirty pages in my 18x24 pad of paper, not because thirty is a special number to me, or because it represents the number that will yield to some greater understanding…that’s just how much paper I had. With this in mind, per the title of this blog, ‘Tree Twenty-five...the end (and beginning) are in sight...’ To me this means that, yes, I could be almost to my goal, but it also means that after getting this close to that goal I think I have more questions than answers, each drawing has spawned other ideas, and I really do think that after I complete that ‘last’ drawing it will be just the beginning. I did go and buy some canvases, so I will be taking a little break from the drawing table in favor of standing at the easel and painting. And I do have intentions of bringing my embellished fiber collage technique to this body of work, so all of these things will really be a continuation of what I started out with; just a gal in awe of Klimt and Mucha trying to push past creating just piece of work as a ‘solution’. ...one change I forgot to make note of…I am still using the Faber Castell pen. The first seventeen drawings were Sharpie fine point, and I guess I switched to the new pen without even thinking about it. (compare one of the first drawings to the last one, on the right) Looking back through the other drawings, I do like the thick Sharpie line; there is something very strong about those heavy black lines, like they don’t mess around. Those lines mean business. The new pen…the line has more feeling, more intuition. This line might cry if you yelled at it. When I look at those lines I can see little wobbles, where I was deciding which way to go, took a breath, little pauses. Another change in the last few drawings…I have started doing some light sketching with pencil before jumping in with the pen. Mostly on the figurative parts, but the last drawing I also gave myself some pre-drawing for the tree. It seems like in the first drawings I was really exploring pattern and motif I love in Klimt’s work, and gradually worked towards adding figurative elements; exploring ‘Le Style Mucha’… his ‘macaroni’ hair and use of the female form . I know that part of this is because I have been drawing so many of these trees, but also probably because I have created them on different days, with different influences inspiring me on any given day. So, back to drawing utensils… I like both, but I think that there might be too big of a difference, so I may consider using both pens. My worry is that the ink won’t match…guess I will just see what happens. Oh, by the way- tree number nineteen is complete (below). Now on to tree twenty! Hooray! The Tree of Life...or the version the kids made anyways, is all done. Feels good. Sent them home with a small version of tree of life (mixed media), a Klimt-style self portrait, modeling clay 'stamps' and an embellished box. Not too shabby for four days, only one hour of contact time per day, eh? As for my own hands drawing a tree...no time today. My 'art' for today will have to be getting everything to fit in my suitcase....which is pretty hard to do. Next post…should be either en route to or from California…and you can bet there is going to be some serious sketching on the plane! …so this week is ‘Masters of Motif’ week at art camp…looks I will focus on Klimt, which is awesome because it is a great warm-up for me each day to come home and work on my tree(s). And I am working half days...so that is great because I have more time, more daylight, to draw. Looks like it will be a good week. I took some pictures today showing the large group project; the kids will be filling in the swirly tree with different patterns and designs and then adding embellishments. I was fortunate to find a REALLY BIG piece of paper to do the drawing on…good find. Will post the final picture later in the week. When I came home today I started working on the next tree, number seventeen. Still working with the ‘macaroni hair’ and figurative elements. Two ladies showed up in this drawing. After looking at it, I see where it could be viewed as two images of the same figure. I keep thinking about how trees and natural forms are so easy to intertwine with the female form. The lines, the shapes…they just go together for me. Not sure if this will be the only tree for today or if I will come back to the table tonight and draw some more… Notes on Image: (Left)) Me, drawing the large-scale tree, (Middle) Kilmt, Tree of Life, (Right) Channeling my inner Rosie(Bottom) Meet tree #17 ...Fifteen trees. I surpassed my original goal of ten and now I am half way to my new goal of fifteen. (see slideshow, above) I photographed what I have so far, I can see where some days I focused my attention on the tree, sometimes on the background…just depending on my mood and perhaps what I was listening to on my IPod. This is just preliminary drawing on all of these; I will go back into each one later and add more details, color, etc. For now, just enjoying making black marks on a brand new piece of paper. It is daunting (and exciting) to see that expanse of white and make that first mark.
Besides completing the fifteenth tree today, I also took some time to open a book on Mucha and just sit and read. To pour over the pictures, to try and expand my knowledge base. Klimt and Mucha are two artists that I admire, but how much do I really know about them? I know a little, I need to know more. So…I just sat and read, looked. I have all of these art books, I get so excited and I buy them. Sometimes I look at them all the way; sometimes I just shelve them, like some treasure waiting for a time to be explored. And I don’t always take the time to do just that. So this summer, this fabulous summer, I am going to read every book that I own related to Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha. When I am done reading them I am going to go through them again and sketch and make notes. I am going to increase my vocabulary and knowledge of these artists and their work, and figure out the connections to my own art. Tomorrow, tree number sixteen awaits. Tree number sixteen, now just a thought, to be put on paper tomorrow, marks to be made. Special thanks to my husband for picking the music for the in-progress slideshow. (Cat Stevens, The Wind) |
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