Week 3 of 30 days of painting the same canvas

The third week is here and it is hard to believe.  I have actually been painting on the same canvas since Oct. 14th.  The 30 days will actually end on Oct. 13th my brother's 65th birthday.  He died of congestive heart failure 10 years ago and I think of hime often.  So it seems so perfect to honor his day in this manner.

As I work through week three I have had some profound thoughts, at least for me anyway.  I often observe the techniques of other painters, the softness of colors; the ability to make portraits so lifelike and want to be like them.  It can really be frustrating to try and achieve the effect of another.  It occurred to me that what I need to do is perfect my own style, embrace my palette and enjoy my process.  That takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders.  

I am learning a lot during this 30 day process, not just about painting but about myself.

Day 15
Gesso and Dylusions spray inks

Day 16
Golden Acrylics, Stencilgirl club stencil, black and blue stabilo pencils

Day 17
Golden Acrylics, white and turquoise craft acrylic and black acrylic paint in fine liner

Day 18
Acrylic, gold acrylic

Day 21 More subtle changes

Day 20
Flowers changed, book page added, rubber stamp dragon fly,  acrylic glaze

Day 22
Patti Tolley Parish Stencil added to top, love this stencil

23 and 24
White grease pen added for depth, Hurricane stencil from  Art Anthology

The end of week 3, the number of days is a bit off due to technical error but hey, it is all about being human.  Anyhoo, I thoroughly enjoyed the work this week and know it will be hard to cover it up, but cover it up I must as I continue this quest.

Observations for this week:

• trial and error can be really fun.
• There are times when I need to just play and see where it goes
• I am finally getting really comfortable with not having a solid plan
• a canvas can hold up to a lot of abuse and changes
• this has affected my view on life

Week 4 is the last week for this current challenge,

Week 2 of 30 day Painting on the Same Canvas

My thoughts for this week:

Entering the second week of the challenge with a complete paint over.  I love Black gesso and it occurred to me that I could paint over everything from week 1 with Black gesso and then see what happened during the following seven days.  This could be brilliant or a disaster, but it is only paint and can be covered over.  I am trying to embrace abstract painting and it is a challenge.  I was thinking about it this morning and abstract painting reminds me of algebra (which gave me loads of problems).  I am an accounting type of person, so my natural inclination is to paint something concrete; flowers, trees, birds, etc.

Day 8
Black Gesso, Golden Interference Paint, Gold Paint and Golden Fluid Acrylic for drips

Day 9
Acrylic paint, Patti Tolley-Parrish Pod Stencil, Stencil 101 border stencil

Day 10
Added Alcohol Ink splatters to the painting, knocked back with light wash of white
Gesso.

Day 11
Gesso, Acrylic Paints, fine liners

Day 12
Addition of color blocks using Silks Acrylic Glazes

Day 13
Mark Making with black stabilo pencil and black grease pencil,
Stencil girl club flourish stencli

Day 14
More mark making and subtle changes with white gesso

Observations for the week:  This week started out with painting black gesso over the entire canvas.  The colors of last week disappeared but the delicious texture remained.  While the black was start, the introduction of color during the remaining days brought out stunning changes (if I say so myself).

I place the canvas where I can live with it all day, I find that I really enjoy looking at the changes each day, but I am not married to it meaning that I am eager to make changes an see what will happen.

I am still a little tentative in my approach.  I hope that by then end of this challenge I will be less tentative and more go for the gusto.

Week 1 of 30 days of Painting on the Same Canvas

I cannot take credit for this concept.  A wonderful Artist, Judy Wise, introduced this process I believe it was in August of this year (2015).  She worked on a large canvas for 30 days painting on it.  Some days changing the entire canvas and some days just making changes to various portions of it.

I loved the idea and decided to try it.  My plan is to paint on the same canvas for 30 days from October 14th to Nov. 14th which is my birthday.  I am posting a picture everyday on Facebook.  However, I will be posting a blog post weekly.  I have not decided if it will be a different post or an update to the same post showing the next week's work.  I will have to give that some thought.

Day 1 Oct. 14
Gesso, collage and acrylic paint applied with room key.  Love the effect

Day 2 Oct. 15
Acrylic paint applied by hand, no brushes were used.
Fluid Acrylic was applied in a line and sprayed with water to get drips
I love drips  

Day Oct 16
Covered with layer of Clear Gesso to keep colors true
Used neocolor II water soluble crayons to get deeper colors
Orange acrylic paint with stencil
Seth Apter stencil for work timeless
Sprayed watercolor to get drips and used circle stencil to wipea away color on the blue

Thinking about the artwork that I am doing.  It is not related to a class or the example of someone else, it is all me and that to me is amazing.  It is really intuitive because I do not know what I am going to do when I sit down to work on the canvas.

Day 4
Gesso and Acrylic Paint
Kept small portions from Day 3

Day 5
Acrylic paint, charcoal and SprayInk

Thoughts about day 5:  I have the canvass where I can see it all day.  I was looking at it and it occurred to me that I should turn it sideways and get another perspective.  Had thought about using circles today and I wanted give them depth.  Tried my hand at the charcoal and smoothed it with my finger, it gave the coolest shadow.  I have to remind myself that this canvas will change in someway tomorrow so do not get too attached.

Day 6
Acrylic, Pebeo Dyna Flow Acrylic, molding paste and stancil girl stencils

Still working on the side but I wanted to add some texture with Molding paste.  I wanted the circles to stay for a while so I added the texture inside of them.  I liked the effect.

Day 7

Background paint Acrylic, destress stain painted on the molding past images and sprayed with water
circles used as  border distress stain

Week 1 has come to an end.  Some observations:

1. I really like this process
2. I am painting with out a class, the format, color scheme, everything is all mine and I am so happy with that.
3. cannot wait to see what happens in week 2 although I think, I will spend this second week building on the base of day 8.

Seattle 2015 - Who am I really????

I posted these photo's a couple a weeks ago while I tried to decide what I was gong to write about them and the experience with intuitive painting.  My mind really wasn't in it and I could not figure out why.  In fact I really did not feel like doing a lot.  I had a lot of obligations that I had to keep up with and I kind of walked through them on auto-pilot.  What was the problem?

I finally figured it out.  Two days after I returned from my wonderful trip to Seattle, I had to go for my yearly Mammogram.  This mammogram is very important because it helps to tell if any tumors have surfaced since the last one.  I was completing year 4 of my journey through breast cancer.

My appointment with my Surgical Oncologist was scheduled for Oct. 7th.  So I had to wait two weeks to get the results.  Let me tell you that those two weeks are really nerve-wracking.  I felt good, but then I felt good 4 years ago so that is not a really good barometer.  I did not want to portray a lack of faith, so I pretty much waited quietly praying for positive results, and getting myself spiritually and emotionally prepared if the new was not good.

Oct. 7th finally came and the news was good.  "See you next year" my doctor said as she left the room.  I shed some happy tears, another year clear---moving toward year 5 and all of its implications.

Today, I felt drawn to comment on these paintings

Mountains of the Southwest

Do you see me now

First, I have NEVER named my paintings, but felt called to do so.  Mountains of the Southwest is painted on a 24x24 canvas is a depiction of the Mountains I see everyday.  The mountains surrounding Las Vegas do not have vegetation and yet they are majestic and beautiful.  I have never painted a scene like this before, but, I thoroughly enjoyed this process and want to do it again.

Do You See Me Now is one of those "where did that come" from paintings.  I was having so much fun with this canvas, putting on paint, spritzing with water and letting it drip.  Then I saw a face with haunting eyes,  I put gesso on the area to block out the face and body shape.  I decided to spritz some more and the black drip went onto the face.  ARGGGGH and Oops.!!!!  I wiped the black like off the forehead and added more gesso to the face.  I looked at the black drip on the cheek and it look like a tear drop, it touched me and I decided it had to stay. So I added on more black and dark paint to move the body into the background and let the face be the focal point.  As I think about it, this painting is very personal and shows the impact of the past 4 years.  The part of me I never let people see.  Most of my paints are bright and cheerful. However, there are times when I do not feel bright and cheerful, when I feel vulnerable and afraid, when tears roll down my cheeks.

I am finally beginning to understand releasing your feelings in your work.  When you are not thinking  about it, it happens.  I have this yearning, this feeling that things are about to change, that I will begin to see life through a different lens.  I do not know what this all means, but between October 8, 2015 and Oct. 7th 2016 I plan to find out.

Thanks for visiting and watch this space........pilgrim

Random Thoughts: Learning a new Technique

Hello everyone it has been a while since I posted, but I have been working on some arty things.  I am trying to get into the habit of acting everyday.  No one as to see it, I just have to do it.  I have also been watching some youtube videos and learning how to use some of the products I have.

In the last couple of weeks I saw a few videos on Alcohol Inks and Copic Markers. The videos were by Barbara Joggles of Joggles.com and Diana Trout, an amazing artist and teacher.   I have to tell you I am in Love.  The randomness of the effects is just so yummy.  The posts below are of glossy playing cards, Yupo paper painted with Copic Markers and Yupo Paper painted with Adirondack Alcohol inks.  What is Yupo paper you ask?  It is a synthetic watercolor paper.  It is plastic and as a result, the alcohol ink will bloom when dropped or painted on a shiny substrate.  On the Playing cards I used a combination of drippage and putting ink on a makeup sponge and dabbing on the card.  

This is just the beginning.....I feel like a mad scientist as I will be trying more ways of painting over the next few weeks.  Watch this space.....

Playing Cards

Yupo and Copic alcohol markers

Yupo, alcohol inks and doodle

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep a smile on your face and love in your heart,,pilgrim

Random Thoughts: I Forgive You

My Tears flow like a River

Dear Reader, I rarely if ever write about anything political or religious on my blog or any other social media.  The reason for that is everyone is allowed his or her opinion and I try not to put my thoughts/opinions on anyone and I do not want them to put theirs on me.

However, today I am going to write about being humbled by the happenings of Wednesday, June 17th in Charleston, South Carolina.  Nine African Americans were killed senselessly by a young man who was eaten up by hatred that he probably did not really understand.  You see his statement as he committed murder shows that he did not have a good understanding, "You have raped our women, we want our country back....."(paraphrased).  He was repeating something he had heard said by others.

We have not taken anyone's country, we are not predators roaming the country raising havoc and rapes, we are Americans who have worked just as hard as anyone else to achieve the American Dream.

There are people of all races and ethnicities who have done things (thefts, murders, a myriad of crimes) that no one is proud of.  There are people of all races and ethnicities who struggle to make ends meet,  There are people of all races and ethnicities that are billionaires and there are people of all races and ethnicities who are crying because of this tragedy, trying to make sense of it all.

Last Friday, June 19th during the arraignment of the killer, family members were allowed to make a statement.  There were a couple who did not want to make a statement and that was understandable.  I do not know if I would have been able to say anything; however, the majority stated "I forgive you."  One by one they said "I forgive you and may God give you peace to your soul."  What?????? What did they say???? Forgive, they were willing to forgive?  I immediately thought of Jesus on the Cross when he said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

Yes they were uttering words of forgiveness, and realistically those words started the process of bringing solace to their spirits.  Because if we cannot forgive, we will be eaten alive by anger.  Now does this mean that everything was hunky dory?  No, you see they will have to say "I forgive you" many times for it to permeate their spirit and give them peace; but at least they have started the process and that is most important.

Saying "I forgive you", will not eliminate anger, it will not erase the pain, it will not remove the shock and at times despair.  No, that takes a lot of time.  Saying "I forgive you", starts the process for the family members, the Church, the City and the Country to heal.  Saying "I forgive you", begins to negate the evil done, it pulls people together and it makes all of us think about who it is we need to forgive.

As I said, I do not normally express these types of opinions in social media; but this is my blog and this is something I need to say.  Hopefully, we as a country will begin to heal from all of the evils that plague us and learn that it is time for all of us to work together to make life better for all.

Until next week.....pilgrim.  Who know where my thoughts will lead, the flood gates have been opened.

Random Thoughts: first two weeks of June

Hello!!!!!  This post is going to be about the first two weeks of June.  For the past three years I have participated in a wonderful art project - Index Card A Day.  The fun begins on June 1 and continues through July 31, 2015.

Sooooooo here are the first two weeks of cards

Day 2 Chevron

Day 2 Carnival

Day 3 Map

Day 4 Message in a bottle

Day 5 Owl

Day 6  My kind of Taxi

Day 7 Periodic Table

Day 8 Grapefruit and Cherry

Day 11 Mango and Lime

Day 13 Blue Berry and Plum

Day 14  Black and White

It is a lot of fun working on these cards, looking at the prompt and coming up with ideas.

train station in black and white

chance to step off train for some air

beautiful scene from the train

The pictures above were taken as I traveled home from Michigan.  I love the train and this year I took the Southwest Chief which winds through the midwest before making a right turn into northern New Mexico and rolls through Northern Arizona.  In order to get to Las Vegas area, I detrained in Kingman Arizona, and took the shuttle to Las Vegas.  

Random Thoughts: Prom and Graduation - where did the time go?

Hello, hello dear reader, it has been a while since I wrote a post.  I have been on vacation.  I went to Michigan to spend time with my daughter and her family and attend the graduation of my grandson Kellen Michael Harris.  Kellen graduated from Dwight D. Eisenhower High in Shelby Township.  It was a really great time.

Kellen getting ready for the Prom

Kellen and Mom fixing pocket square

Kellen and baby sister Lauren

Kellen and the grandma's (Glenda and Mary)

Memories of the Prom

After graduation by his sign

Getting ready to leave for graduation

Kellen and Lauren

Time flies by so quickly.  I remember when he was born and now look at him, getting ready go to college in the fall.  He will be attending Michigan State University and plans to major in Secondary Education specializing in French.

We had great conversations about life and goals.  Cooking lessons on the best way to make chicken noodle soup and just laughed at silly things.  Lauren and I cooked pork chops.  The times were very special and I will cherish them always.

That is all for now dear friends more later.