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Working with a limited palette Saturday morning, fun to explore. From top left: Brenna, Will, Maddy and Hannah.   William Deschamps
Wednesday afternoon this week I took the time to whip up a couple of goddesses. Now, I have to call much of what we do here 'studies', which means, don't sweat it! We explore in a couple of hours, and whatever happens happens. The process is the important thing, and the result is, well, it is what it is in a couple of hours. Often students will work on pieces further at home, and so do I. Below are my idea development examples.
The drawings are fairly refined, and I wanted the paintings to be looser, so in the next step, on the actual water colour (140 lb) paper, I used yellow pastel to block in the shapes, then orange pastel to solidify the drawing. These paintings were going to be splashy ones, so I didn't want the under-drawing to be too tight. Also, I decided I wanted the tree goddess to fill the picture frame more.
I sealed the pastel with hairspray, then scudded gloss gel medium across the surface of each painting, being sure to leave some surface untouched. The different surfaces would absorb or resist paint applications differently. One thing I realized as I splashed watered down fluid acrylics on each was that the cool colours used in the water painting fairly disappeared, so bad choice there as I really had to search for my drawing after words. Anyway, the results after splashing, scumbling, reinforcing the drawings repeatedly, are below. Certainly worth further exploration. Maybe a series?
My students, all goddesses themselves, using the same process released these lovely goddesses of their own.  Must be because I just got home from a Brockville Women's Business luncheon...about 60 sharp gals who run their own businesses. When I got home I started thinking about a focus for tomorrow. Sometimes I go on Pinterest to see what twigs me, and there I found Renoir's bathing women:
Now, these were gals who didn't mind a little flesh roll here and there! And obviously didn't have to worry about the UV index! So, maybe the idea of painting nude women bathing is a little passé (and given the mosquito population around here, I totally get it), but celebrating the goddess within never goes out of fashion - and the bathing goddess - always good! I have studied, painted and drawn the nude (male and female) since I was a teenager - a right of passage as a serious artist. Then, a few years ago, I purchased a wonderful book called Paint Happy, by Cristina Acosta. Her playful, fearless approach to creating a painting has informed my process since then. So below, two of my nudes (watercolour and ink) done from life, and my goddess painting, after Cristina.
And for those students for whom the bathing female nude goddess is not a happening thing, how about the bathing nude animal? Like this charming otter (or your dog? a hippo? a cat? well, maybe not a cat....  Otter diptych, Cristina Acosta Hope you can make it!
Cheers, Mary About once a week, Tuesday before my Wednesday class, I set out to let folks know what is coming up Wednesday, and what went on the week before. So, this is my 'week before' post:) Monday and Wednesday of last week we all painted tulips in a jar. I was able to post the Monday groups beautiful work last week, but here is the Wednesday group's lovely offering. One of the concepts I wanted to get across was economy of brush work. This is true in any medium, but acrylics present their own challenges. Chiefly, unlike oils where each brush stroke is 'informed' by that underneath, picking up the wet undercolour, in acrylics every brush stroke tends to stand alone. While 'intention' is important in any medium, in acrylic your intention (creating direction, colour, shape, contour etc) is clearly evident with every brush stroke. So, intention has to be a large part of your decision process. I often scumble while loosely building a painting, eventually my brush work must have intention. Happily, in acrylic, if you screw up a brush stroke, you just add more until you get what you want. Yay! Wow, you guys, awesome work! 
This will be a quick post about the last couple of weeks in the studio. I generally let me mind wander a bit when I am looking for inspiration - and I never have to wander far! I love trying new ideas, refining past processes. All our efforts and approaches demonstrate that there is no single process, technique or approach that will guarantee satisfaction. In addition, understanding the relationships between form and colour, value and composition are reinforced with every new project, no matter the approach. So, in the past 2 weeks adults and kids alike have met the challenges and the results are happy-making!  Night Skies - Wednesday Adult group, acrylic on paper
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AuthorWelcome to my blog, about my classes and activities at Cedar Lane Studio. Feel free to comment (but don't be mean :( Archives
March 2017
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Contact Mary:
613-294-0373 • mary.moore@cedarlanestudio.net Contact Tom: 613-658-2916 • tomlillico@ripnet.com |
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