Long before I became a visual artist, I was a crafter, showing my wares in a number of local craft shows.  For this year's Roswell Fine Arts Alliance's BIZARRE BAZAAR, I decided to revive those old skills and become one of the 18 vendors in this show.  This is it's third year and each year it gets better and better.  Some of the artisans this year include a potter, a maker of garden glass totems, knitters, painters, handmade soap crafter, etc.  There will also be gourmet food available provided by Chef Wendy's Kitchen "Cafe".  There will also be a beautiful show of two dimensional art in the Gallery.

 Joys of the Season is the name of the show and all of the original pieces are smaller works at very reasonable prices.  What you see here are the myriad of items I've created out of DUCT TAPE!  Yes, you read correctly -- duct tape.  I had no idea when I started how many things I could make -- most of which make great gifts for kids, teachers, pets -- just about anyone on your list.  There are journals, "Buddie Bags" -- for storing legos, little cars, any small pieces that kids collect, wallets and

cell phone holders.  You'll also find pony tail holders with bows plus bracelets and necklaces for your "princesses". There are gifts for you wonderful dog, and your wonderful husband.   I've even got holiday decor! 
Please save the dates -- December 5th and 6th and stop by the Gallery at 9100 Fouts Road, Roswell, GA 30076.  You'll be glad you did.

  Working in a Series
       Often when I'm working in mixed media I work on a series of paintings that all have the same original basis -- sometimes it's a color palette, sometimes a concept, sometimes a particular medium that I want to explore.  In this instance the initial basis was collage.  I attached very dark value pieces in three different compositional formats and then began to paint.  I knew that I would select one color from the palette to emphasize in each piece, and that I intended to work with a variety of media 
including pencil, pen, pastel and acrylic (as well as 

collage with which I began.  Since these were to be entirely non-representational, I worked with temperature and value to create interesting surfaces.  Eventually, I  began to feel as though I was moving toward Armageddon -- a feeling of violent storms, volcanoes, fire.  This feeling led me to title these works Destruction I, Destruction II and Destruction III.  

 When viewing the originals it is possible to see all of the underlying marks and patterns.  This enables the viewer to follow the process from first layer to final surface.

      

Working on Black
     I've been working with pan pastels all summer and finding experimenting with them to be a lot of fun.  So, always asking, "what if I..."  I decided to try applying them to black pastel paper.  When you draw or paint on black, it's necessary to take a different approach than when working on white or a color.  There is nowhere to go if you want to make something darker, so you have to think instead about where to put middle values and highlights. The goal is also to incorporate the color of the paper as an integral part of the painting.  I think parts of this one were executed pretty well, such as the draped cloth at the bottom, while other areas need some additional work -- the black fabric on the chair the model leans on.  I'm exploring painting on black backgrounds as well and will post more as I finish the projects.  Always something new to try!

I'm teaching a workshop entitled Exploring Color at the  Roswell Fine Arts Alliance Gallery, 9100 Fouts Road, Roswell, 30076 on September 25 and 26, 2015.  Unlike many color theory classes, we will not spend the whole time making color charts.  You'll learn color by hands on activities, games, mini-paintings and Power Point illustrations.  Reply to this post with your email and I'll send you all the details.  Deadline to enter the workshop is September 18th.  Maximum of ten students. RFAA is an affiliate of Roswell Recreation and Parks.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

This is an older acrylic painting in which I was experimenting with painting black and white objects.  My goal was to use as many colors as possible and still have the objects "read" as black and white.  I think my skills along these lines are improving so I'm thinking of painting this same subject again -- this time in pastels.  That's one of the wonders of being an artist -- you can revisit a subject or theme over and over but never "step in the same river twice."  Watch for the next rendition in a later post.

Morning on the Dock

The Red Canoes

The Shed

More Plein Air 
   





Thanks to a wonderful partnership between the Roswell Fine Arts Alliance (to which I belong) and the Chattahoochee Nature Center, each week I paint with several other artists at beautiful sites throughout the Center's grounds.  Although painting in solitude is meditative and rewarding, painting with others who share my love of nature is also very enjoyable.
Experimenting with color, shapes, texture and style make each trip out a new adventure.  Returning to the same location and finding a new view insures that each painting is unique.  The biggest challenge this summer has been to find a way to add variety to all that GREEN! 

 New Directions
         Always in search of new ways to combine all the media that I work with, I decided to combine two of my favorites -- collage and printmaking.  The technique is actually an old one called Collography, invented in 1955.   Basically, it is making prints from collages.

<---- this is the collographic plate on which I incised the lines of the figures, then added the pieces of textured collage.  The plate was then inked and the image printed.  Notice the image is reversed in the print.

<---- this is the print that was produced with no additional media added.  As you can see, there are gaps in the drawing that make it seem unfinished.  My next step will involve drawing, painting and perhaps adding pastels to enhance the existing print.  Stay tuned for the next addition.

Sanctuary

 PLEIN AIR PAINTING
        It's been a very long time since I've updated my blog and a lot has happened in that time.  I'm glad to be back and hope to be more faithful to updating in the future.  The paintings at the left were painted "en plein air" (on location) during a recent trip to Florida.  Plein air paintings are not meant to be finished studio works, instead they are immediate, spontaneous responses to wherever the artist happens to be.  I was raised in Florida and love to go back whenever possible.  I'm always drawn to the beaches where it is a challenge to find something to paint in addition to sand, sky and water.

Tracks in the Sand

        Although the piece of driftwood in the top painting is the focal point, what really caught my attention was the bird sanctuary on the sandbar in the background.

        The second painting looks at though it's been a long time since a vehicle traveled this path but in reality, right after I started painting, a "herd" of kayakers brought their boats down to the water on clever two-wheeled carts.  Maybe I'll paint them in another piece.
        View of Don Cesar was actually the first "warm-up" piece that I painted, of a famous old landmark on Pass-a-grille Beach in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The clouds were especially dramatic as there was a very brisk wind blowing that morning. I hope to be painting en plein air all summer and will post as I go.
                                                        

View of Don Cesar