Color Field With Form.

The Addition Of Form.

Detail of painting in progress.

Color Field painting does not have form, so I have deviated big time by adding the faces, the cactus, and now these triangular shaped elements which represent a floral design. Why these shapes?  Delores Patencio, the face in the painting,  lived and worked in the Southern California Desert where these cactus grow, and she used shapes like these on many of her baskets.  This painting is all about Delores Patencio.

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Color Field Inspiration And More.

This Is Where It Goes.

The other day a person who follows this blog asked me about the Indian Women series of paintings which I started over a year ago, wondering where I was with this project. The answer:  on hold.  Late last spring I stopped working on the portraits due to frustration with the most recent.  Do you remember the portraits?  

So just exactly what does this have to do with using Color Field painting as an inspiration?  The verbal comment and recent work with Color Field has helped me break through my frustration with the women.  I had a canvas that was partially painted, partially over-painted, and then left to simmer last Spring.  

I put this project aside after painting several faces on paper, very quickly, using a limited palette to get myself to loosen up, working towards a more contemporary look.  The canvas and these paper pieces were just sitting in my studio, bothering me.  I had thought about using all of these faces together on one canvas but had not quite worked out how I wanted to accomplish this.  But since I have been working with Color Field I could now see what I should do.  

More layers of paint, cutting and ripping the paper, adding three of the paper faces, and additional detail has brought me to this point.  

I am painting every day, so this is coming together fairly quickly.  The woman is Delores Patencio who was a well known Cahuilla Indian Woman from the Coachella Valley, and when the painting is complete I will give more information about her and her work, so check back.  Isn't it crazy to see where a simple project, such as exploring Color Field painting can go?

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Color Field Continued.

Another Deviation.

An artist's mind is a playful and crazy place.  It's always moving, in every direction, so it is not always easy to stay the course.  Something seen, a comment heard, a fleeting thought can take an artist to a new place.  Such it is with me and this Color Field painting series.  

Detail

Beginning of a Color Field inspired painting.

Wait until you see what is happening now, and with this particular canvas you see pictured here.  I'll get to it in my next post.  It's all inspiration.

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Color Field Painting with Found Objects

Can Found Objects Be A Part Of This?

Work in Process

See Where You Are.  That's the title of my book and in it I advocate not only looking around but taking the time to actually see what surrounds you. Look, see, observe, engage.  This thought has permeated my life and work. Because of this, I observe and see objects when I am walking, biking, hiking, rowing, in my kayak....you get it. Little things that have fallen or been dropped, washed up on a shore, litter even (well, it doesn't look like litter to me).   I am constantly picking up objects that appeal to me, knowing that they will some day be worked into a painting or become part of a sculpture.  The studio fills with all this wonderful and interesting stuff and it reminds me of that particular walk or ride and place.   

Found Objects

So here I am working, experimenting, with Color Field as an inspiration.  Remember that Color Field painting was a major step forward in abstract work, the first style to avoid a form or mass standing out against the background of the painting. The canvas was covered with pigment, conceived as one field, but adding found objects would be adding a form.  

All The Poppies In The Moat

After recent completion of the painting,  All The Poppies In The Moat, a shadow box canvas went onto my easel. Application of several pigments and scoring through the wet paint with a palette knife gave the canvas a color field appearance, but the inset box was calling for something three dimensional.  Would this still be considered a Color Field painting if I added actual objects? 

The beginning of the Color Field inspired painting on a shadow box canvas.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a container that held a few items picked up off a beach several years ago.  At one time these little items had been glued together to make a tiny little found object sculpture that sat on a shelf to remind me of a stroll along a white sand beach.... hmmmmm....  now looking at them in reference to this shadow box canvas sparked the idea of adding them to this painting.

Objects found on a beach.

Intuition had me reaching for a tube of Prussian Blue to emulate the color of the ocean, then a glaze of Quinacridone Gold to bring more life and energy to the canvas, and finally a high gloss varnish was applied to the entire surface.

After addition of Prussian Blue and Quinacridone Gold.

The edges of the canvas were painted with the blue and when turning the canvas to cover all edges with the pigment I realized the canvas appealed more to me turned sideways.

Canvas now turned sideways.

The found objects were added, a doll leg, a root section of kelp, sea shell, and a rusty smashed bottle cap.

Beach Walk

16 x 16

When I started this series of work I knew it might become something more than Color Field painting but had no idea what might happen.  This is only the second work in the series and already there is a deviation.  Though Color Field work was the beginning inspiration, the addition of found objects has made it something else all together.  Does it work?  I think so.

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Color Field Painting

The First Color Field Inspired Painting Is Complete.

It started with a bit of an 'Oh My' moment when I opened the drawers that hold my pigments to find very few. Oops....it was late at night and I wanted to paint.  Impossible to obtain additional paints at this hour. The drawers held only three colors:  Chromium Green Oxide, Duochrome Oceanic, and Red oxide.  I brushed on the green and then layered over a heavy application of the duochrome.  I left the room.

The next day I realized I wanted to add more light to the painting, it was early morning, so running out to the art supply store was not an option yet.  I remembered the left over wall paint in the garage which quickly made it's way into my studio and onto the canvas.

This was becoming an interesting challenge, the opportunity to create with what was at hand.  Slashing the Red Oxide across the canvas was a serendipitous movement, one that paid off with color tension and interesting movement.

 More layering of the wall paint brought definition to the  composition.

Wanting to retain minimal composition and allow the color field inspiration to continue led me to believe this painting was nearing completion, it just needed something more, a little something more.

Following intuition and color instinct, I knew the canvas was asking for another warm tone....all this cool green. Quinacridone Gold is one of my favorite pigments to use for glazing, so as soon as I could get my hands on a jar of this I brushed and rubbed it on some of the edges of the canvas. And that is it.  First Color Field inspired painting is complete. Now to begin another.

All The Poppies In The Moat

30 x 24

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New Studio Space

New Spaces And New Paintings.

Moving into new spaces has been eating up my time the last couple weeks.  It is a bit daunting and a lot exhausting to move, hence no studio time and no blog posts.  The very empty room that is to be the studio was just that, very empty.  All of sudden, however, it is filling...rapidly....and now that my big easel is in, I will return to painting.

As you can see, the space is not organized yet (what a mess!) some shelving is still in boxes, books and canvases litter the floor, but it is time to paint.  Inspired by the color field painters I plan to experiment with large areas of layered pigments. My work is layered already, but typically filled with stylized, subject matter, like the painting sitting on the easel in the photo above and the one shown below.  My initial thought is to work without subject matter, but that may change.  It will be interesting to see where this goes. 

Balance

48 x 30

Pamela Hunt Lee

In the words of Mark Rothko, " A painting is not a picture of an experience, it is an experience." Much like the daily drawings of October, time will be spent each day working with pigments, getting lost in the process, enjoying the experience.  A new space calls for new paintings.  Here we go...check back to see what happens.

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Be Creative

 A Result Of The Drawing Challenge.

Several, out of the ordinary, things happened during and after the month of daily drawings.  New friends, insightful comments, artist's discussing new topics, and a book to read.  After following all the posts about the challenge a friend gifted a book to me, one with which I was not familiar. It's all about how to develop drawing skills, overcome creative blocks, acknowledging while you draw you enter a meditative state in order to find creative connections and confidence.  

It's The Confident Creative written by Cat Bennett. Already my copy has high-lighted passages and turned down corners... look:

The book is filled with interesting thoughts, different ways to draw, simple methods, loads of encouragement.  It's not just for the successful artist or aspiring artist, this book is meant for everyone as a guide to help you tap into your creativity, reclaim your creativity and have fun doing it.   I highly recommend you follow the link to the Amazon page, by clicking on the title of the book, and get yourself a copy.

The Confident Creative

by Cat Bennett

When you read this book have paper and drawing materials of some sort close at hand.  You will want to start making marks right away!  Have fun..I know you will.

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Drawing Challenge. Final Days.

It's The Last Day, To Be Exact.

Catrina

Day 31 Drawing

Pencil

The last day of the Drawing Challenge agreed to by two painters has arrived. Blaine and I made a commitment to create a drawing each day in October, which we did.  These drawings have been posted in our blogs and on our Facebook pages. Like I say in my book, See Where You Are, we looked at our surroundings and we saw what was there.  We were inspired.

Day 24

Watercolor Pencil and Ink

Day 25

Watercolor Pencil and Ink

Surrounded by Fall, we were inspired by foliage and fruit, then found color inching its way into our drawings.

Day 26

Pencil

Day 27

Pencil

Day 28

Ink

Day 29

Ink

Day 30

Watercolor

Now here it is, last day of the month, October 31.  It's Halloween, Nevada Day, All Saints Day.  Tomorrow is Dia de los Muertos .  To celebrate the end of the month, the end of the challenge and the beginning of November, my final drawing is Catrina, one of the most popular figures of Dia de los Muertos.  

Day 31

Catrina

Pencil

It's been fun to have this challenge.  It's led to new paintings and a great dialogue between artists.  I hope you have enjoyed, but now as with every great situation, it comes to an end.

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Drawing Challenge. Day 23.

Rocks and More Rocks.

Rocks, Stones, Boulders, Pebbles....all are fascinating to me.  They represent power and permanence.  The geology of rocks varies depending on whether they are igneous, metamorphic or sedementary.  We are surrounded by rocks. 

I wear rocks.

I collect rocks.

I paint rocks.

Therefore it is no surprise that today's drawing is a rock cairn.  Those colorful leaves picked up off the ground yesterday are still on my work table so they worked their way into the drawing.  Still cannot get away from Fall color.

Day 23 Drawing

Graphite and Watercolor Pencil

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Drawing Challenge. Day 22.

Cannot Get Away From Fall Color

Drawing 22

Wax Crayon

Try as I might, I just cannot get away from the Fall Color.  It surrounds.  So even though I was out on the lake in my rowing shell today, with various blues above and below, the color on shore was dramatically apparent.  The leaves are falling in crazy abundance, scattering themselves across the ground to become what I call, Nature's Confetti.  

Day 22 Drawing with Aspen Leaves

These aspen leaves, next to the drawing, were plucked up off the ground and brought into the studio.  Can you see why it is difficult to ignore the color?

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Blaine is the other participant in this challenge.  Click on her name to visit her blog.

Drawing Challenge

DAY 21

One of the most wonderful outcomes of this challenge has been a growing collection of small drawings in one sketch book, and all are different.

Drawing 21

Watercolor Pencil

It has been an interesting situation to create a small drawing every day that has no function, no other reason to be created than answering the challenge.  It's not a sketch for a painting or a sketch to present for a commission.That means each drawing is a stand alone little work of art, though some of them have been inspired by the same subject or created in the same palette.  

This means I can draw ANYTHING!!!  It doesn't matter what I draw.  You have seen Fall, Lake, Boulders, Gears, Palms, Cactus, Clouds.  When I sit down in front of the sketch book I haven't known what I was going to draw, until today.

I am so curious to know what you think of this little drawing, which was posted on my Artist's Facebook page yesterday without telling the thought behind it, because sometimes knowing can lead your mind.  And once you know what inspired this drawing you may see something you would not have seen without that knowledge.

But here it is:  Today when I was meeting with my eye doc for an annual exam and he showed me the photograph of the inside of my eye I decided to create a little drawing inspired by that photo.  Just curious, what did you think of the drawing before you knew the idea behind it?  Do you like it more or less now that you know?

By the way, my eyes are healthy healthy healthy.  I am increasing my magnifiers, but that just means I get to add to my EYEBOB collection!  A new and different pair or two which I will use to peruse my growing collection of different little drawings.

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Take a look at Blaine's drawings