Off Looking at Art Elsewhere

I'm heading west, as the crow flies, all the way to Vancouver. I'll be back here in November, though I might send some postcards from time to time. I've left you a "parting shot" in the post below.

Ciao ciao ciao!!!

This is where the painting began.

This is where the painting ended.

This was a very challenging one and I got so caught up in it I neglected to get pictures of the process. However, the changes were rather subtle, and mostly involved a whole lot of wiping off the paint I had just applied, leaving a hint of a wash behind.

This is the last in this particular batch of mixed media pieces in my Calabria Series. There will be more but I have painted all the stitched fabric collages that I made over the course of the past year, very sporadically. I am looking forward to discovering what comes next...but we will have to wait and see...

Calabria. Towns clinging to cliffsides. Tumbling down palazzos. Medieval towns, survivors of earthquakes and wars. Pastiche of new over old. Antiquated charm and contemporary beauty. Decay and regeneration. Poverty and riches. Warmth, suspicion, simplicity, duplicity. A land of stark contrasts and beautiful colours. A magical land.

Big Pink

As easy as 1-2-3

Stage 1: A pleasing fabric collage in itsef

Stage 2: Some atmosphere established

Stage 3: All elements are integrated

Big Pink

(18 x 24", acrylic, fabric, photo transfer on canvas)

Maxim of the Week

Stanley supposed there were worse jobs than dressing in a duck suit and handing out flyers for the store, but right now he just couldn't think of any.

Maxim:

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Read about the latest addition to the "My Calabria" series in the post below.

Palazzo Plants

Here we go...oops! Almost forgot to get a photo before I slapped on the paint (2 brownish toned stripes going to the edges of the canvas).

I got pretty involved and a lot of ground and effects put in before I stopped to sit back and take a good look at what was going on and what needed to be worked on.

One particularly lumpy area was bothering me so I decided to slash into it. The turquoise colour hanging down is the slashed piece of fabric, revealing a silky bluish material beneath.

This is the first final rendition. I'm pretty happy with it, although there's something still a bit undefined about the front door area.

Inspiration! Thinking about the painting before going to bed, I wonder"What if I painted those triangular shapes in front of the door as if they were potted shrubs?" Nah. Too risky. But next morning, I can't shake the idea so I give it a go. And I like the effect!

Palazzo with Potted Plants

(18 x 24"acrylic, fabric, photo transfer on canvas)

Maxim of the Week

Kiki found that being a pregnant celebrity bride was the highlight of her career.

Maxim:

Motherhood is bliss.

Evolution of a Painting

Material glued to canvas, a quick swipe of paint to get going...

Let's get the whole background covered up, using the purple tone from a bit of the fabric...

Now for a bit of heat and movement...

Hmmm, I'm liking this. The colours are pleasing; but it's rather busy.

What if I stick on a bolder central image and flip the canvas sideways, continuing with several applications and removal of washes. Still not quite a cohesive whole, though...

Okay, so now the colours are quietened down, the shapes better defined, more depth added and generally the whole thing flows and feels "right" to me. Basta!

Il Centro Storico, La Notte

(18 x 24" mixed media on canvas)

Into The Mythic

Getting a little off topic here, but Susan over at My2K posted a reference to the connection between Boticelli's painting of The Birth of Venus and linked it to a similar Mayan myth concerning the Birth of the Corn Goddess. This brought to mind my own version:

The Legendary Birth of Rita St-Jacques

aka Rita on the Half-Shell

(acrylic on canvas, framed in a lobster trap rib found on a beach in the Maritimes)

This version features my two working class heroines, Rita and Betty, who were born into the pre-ordained, inescapable life of being seasonal workers at the local lobster plant. Here we see the buxom Rita, clasping a lobster and crab to modestly cover her lovely endowments, accepting the Sacred Mantle of the Lobster Processor (otherwise known as a uniform) from the fair-haired Betty.

Maxim of the Week

Joe was inordinately proud of the fact that he still wore the same size jeans as he did when he was a teenager.

Maxim:

You can have too much of a good thing.

A Picture's Worth...

how many thousand?

(as The Sagittarian would say, "Click to embiggen." )

SEE MEMENTO MORI POST BELOW FOR DETAILS ON MY LATEST MASTERPIECE!

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(Thanks to Anya who posted the link to "PhotoMontager.com" in a comment she left over at Sparkle Mirror's blog.)

Memento Mori

I neglected to get a picture of the "bare bones" fabric collage before I went at it with paint but this is the first "finished" version.

It seemed too stark, though...there was not enough depth to it and something was missing...

On my desk was a photo transfer on muslin that I had intended for another project. The image is of a graveside photo from Tropea. I kept having this urge to include it in the black & white painting I was working on but continued to resist the idea. Finally I thought, "What the heck--if it doesn't work out I can just paint over her."

So I cut out her face and glued it just below the window, sketched in a body shape with black paint and applied other effects to make her blend in with the rest of the composition.

And this is the final result.

-click on the image to see it larger-

(yes, that is a skull in the upper right hand corner! I didn't make it up. It was in a shrine in Pizzo and I have the photo to prove it!)

(16 x 20" mixed media on canvas)

Maxim of the Week

Cynthia tried to look nonchalant as she waited, holding her toy sail boat, for her boyfriend to show up for their rendez-vous in the park.

Maxim:

Good things come to those who wait.

What's in a Painting?

This is how it begins, a stitched fabric composition is glued onto a canvas.

A colour from the fabric is chosen to set the tone, but really just to begin covering up the stark white background as quickly as possible with paint...





Things progress quickly, with much applying and wiping off of paint à la The Karate Kid": "Wax on, wax off." Don't forget to breathe!

And eventually, the piece feels finished. Did you notice how the turquoise door was transformed from its original green? This is the same photo image that was used in the Red Door painting below.

Calabria Series Begins!

Red Door Gerace (18 x 20" mixed media on canvas)

I'm very happy to report that I've finally started my long-intended Calabrian-themed series of mixed media paintings. I made photo-transfers on muslin from pictures I took in southern Italy and incorporated them with fabric compostitions that I had sewn over the course of this past winter. I glued them to canvas, thus establishing the composition and suggesting the hues that I'd be using in the painting. This is a brand new technique for me and it is both terrifying and exhilarating.

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I was so excited to get going on this project that I forgot to take digitals of where it started and how it progressed. I'll post the process of other paintings in this series in future blogs.

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The original photograph started with a green door but I kept wanting to put red in the painting so finally gave in to that impulse and, thus, the whole tone was set.

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