Fibermania

Two-fer Saturday
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Friday Afternoon

15 x17"

Acrylic, Prismacolor and inks, with collage

I am without internet access again. Grrr. Since I had already been to Panera once on Friday, another trip to blog was just too much trouble. So I made two paintings and waited til today to post them. The titles are lame, and I just don't care. I have to call them something, and untitled has been used, so whatever I call them, it doesn't mean that they have to stay named that name.

Rice paper collaged elements on gessoed Rives printmaking paper.

I flowed on the paint and let it dry in puddles and had a big mess. That's how they all begin, a big mess that has to be corraled into something. What is that something? A design. That's it. Or a learning experience. Mostly.

So I emphasize some things and paint over other and amplify some edges until it looks like it is something. This eliminates that dread of 'What shall I paint?" which crippled me for 24 years.

In the meantime, I quilted.

I decided to use a squeeze bottle with a fine tip that I found at Hobby Lobby to draw paint lines with. It really made the white line stronger. The finer lines are a white gel pen.

The grid comes from a plastic mesh bag that held Gala apples. I lay it down in the wet paint and the grid leaves a print. It is a mechanical element that balances out all the organic shapes.

Thursday

10x15"

Acrylic, prismacolor pencils, inks, paint pens

I used the same mesh bag on this one first and liked the results. The heavier watercolor paper (Cotman) was not gessoed this time and I forgot to notice if there was any difference, other than the colored pencil lines weren't as evident.

Dave was confused a bit about what I was doing with this stuff. I think I got him to understand that the real creativity comes from finding the composition within the puddles and lines that I haphazardly apply. I know I could draw something and paint it to be recognizable, but the challenge is not the same. I want to paint something that is unseen, even in my own mind's eye.

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As I looked at the computer versions of these and the previous day's efforts, the detail shots are so much better than the full views, which are confusing and hard to read. The books I am learning from are full of very busy compositions, which at first I found attractive, and now are beginning to appear flawed to me.

My aim will be to clarify and simplify. O yes, the same thing I say about my quilts.

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I do think that some of these ideas would be just a good made in fabric, but for now and until the end of the year, I am planning to concentrate on making paintings...or drawing in pastel, or colored pencils or mixed media. I have a pile of finished quilts, so I feel I have earned the time away.