Playing with Acrylics and Stencils and Gelli Plates and Rice Paper and... and... and...!

One of the joys of being a teacher is that I get to learn so much from my students...

For the last couple of years I've been working with a group of five women who asked me to teach them how to do Zentangles.  We worked with Zentangles extensively for about a year then I began to feel I might have reached the limit of what I could teach them about Zentangles and started trying to bring in some other concepts and exercises.  They got right on board and began bringing me things they wanted to learn.  In this way, we have ranged all over the place from book making to drawing to paint pouring, etc.  We have traveled to the beach for a week and Wintergreen for the weekend, becoming dear friends along the way. I feel utterly blessed to have them in my life. We are a goofy group of very unique women who somehow manage to get along - probably because we accept each others' eccentricities with an indulgent smile, knowing they will accept ours too without judgment.  It's quite extraordinary!

But I digress...

A few months ago at Wintergreen, Barbara told us about an artist named Elizabeth St. Hilaire whose work Barbara is bananas about. We talked about having Elizabeth come up here to teach a workshop and I contacted her to see how difficult that would be to arrange. Elizabeth was lovely, but the cost was going to be a bit high and the logistics more than I wanted to take on. Barbara showed us a video she'd bought and a book Elizabeth wrote. After watching the video and reading the book, I decided that perhaps I could offer the group enough instruction that they might get what they're looking for without the effort of bringing Elizabeth here.  Fast forward to warm weather...

We set up 8 tables in my wavy back yard - one per person plus two for supplies: fluid acrylics, stencils, sponges, mark makers, rice paper, tiles - anything and everything you could imagine to get marks onto paper.  The idea is to create interesting textures and colors on paper. Then we will tear up that paper and collage it onto a board to create an image - our goal is to create a beautiful apple!  I am hoping we will create other images as well since we have thus far spent about 6 weeks on this project, but we'll see how that goes!

For four weeks, and counting, we set up in the backyard and painted and splashed and splattered and made very interesting paper.  Last week we stayed in the studio creating our own stencils and printing plates out of foam core and other interesting objects to use to create more textures on the paper. We even made our own Gelli Plates out of gelatin and glycerin - I sure hope they work!  This week we will finish that up then go back outside to create more paper the next two weeks.

Then, finally, after 8 weeks of prep!, we will return to the studio where we will create a collaged apple out of torn paper.  I sure hope we have the right color papers!

After our last class, I found myself making some more stencils in my studio after class, then I wanted to play with them, so I got out a canvas and began creating a painting using the stencils and fluid acrylics.  I'd been wanting to paint the image for a while and woke up knowing this was the right way to do it.  I wasn't collaging the paper onto the canvas. Instead, I used the paint through the stencils directly on the canvas.  Here's the result:

It is so utterly different from anything I've ever done before! I really like how it turned out.  I'd gotten up at 6 AM to have time in the studio before I had to start my day and ended up feeling totally energized by 9 when I had to start the rest of my day.

The next day I finished the first piece all the way then began on a second.  It was going to be another representational piece, but I ended up having so much fun with the patterns and stencils, I left it as is. 

The hosed-down version.

I then began a third piece which isn't finished yet.  It's based on a photograph I took in Iceland of a rusty old door (piece of a boat??) beside the lake in Laugarvatn.  I piled on the paint, then realized it was way too heavy so I took it outside and hosed it down before it dried all the way. 

The Rusty Wheel
Acrylic on canvas
24"x 18"

 For the more final version, I left most of the stenciled part washed away, but glazed it with bright color.  I couldn't manage to get the wheel the color I wanted so I collaged paper on it - after all, I'd made reams of paper for just that purpose!  It was fun figuring out how to apply it and make that work.  For the left hand side, I created a few templates with irregular circles on it and used those to create the stones.  This piece is almost, but not quite finished.  Looking at it again today after a week of not seeing it helps me see some places I'd like to work on.

When I left for the workshop Friday, I was so excited about what I was doing with these canvases, I couldn't quite imagine focusing on pastels again. Now that I'm all excited about pastels, it's hard to know what to do with all the acrylics and canvases I just bought!

Am I fickle or what??!  So much fun to be had in the world!  I am one lucky woman!

#97 - #102!!! I did it! I reached my goal of 100 pieces in 100 Days!

#96

This is another piece from when I was playing with aboriginal motifs. I really enjoy drawing with dots to create fluid movement or form or volume. It's surprising what they can do. The only problem with it is that drawing the dots or the small lines causes my hands to hurt more than I can tolerate. My massage therapist felt my hand after creating my pregnant nude (a 3-4 day process) and was stunned at how large and hard my hand felt.  And it HURT!  I went to bed in pain. Darn it! I don't know if there's a better way to do the dots and lines or not. I watched an aboriginal woman paint (leaves, not dots) and her lines were incredibly fluid and easeful.  I have a lot to learn before I can do that!

#97

In my Intermediate Drawing class the other day, I brought in some dogwood flowers and asked the students to draw them in as many different ways they could imagine, using lots of different materials.  I decided to take my own challenge.  #97 and #98 were my results. I find it helpful to challenge myself to draw the same thing many times - it kicks me out of my ingrained habits and ways of doing things and helps force me to have new ideas. The pencil drawing is my typical way of drawing a flower. It's what I know best (other than pastel) and gives me the most control.  The small black square-ish is done with a Sharpie marker and pencil. It was very different working smaller an trying to fit the flower into the small box. I faced the flower a different way as well, so it probably isn't as legible as a dogwood blossom. For that reason, it makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I also find it an interesting graphic. Overall, I like it more than I don't.

#98

#98. First I drew the flower in ink, lying face down on the table. I used the method of Modified Blind Contour Drawing, so mostly I wasn't looking at the paper as I drew, just at the flower (though I peeked enough to get it mostly accurate). Then I drew charcoal all over the paper and used my eraser to draw the larger flower in, right over top of the smaller flower. I used to never layer things. I wouldn't have put two different drawings on the same page. Now I don't really care. I didn't pay attention to the first flower when I drew the second. They end up interacting with each other. If I'd been more intentional about it, I would have changed the composition, but this one makes me think and work with it and try to decide if I like it or not, or what I could/should have done better. It's good to try new stuff. I never know if I'll end up liking something or not.

#99

Wysteria Vine from the Discomfort
Workshop

Yesterday I was beginning to panic a little bit because April 15 was rapidly approaching, and I didn't have any idea of how many pieces I had done and whether I was close to 100 or not.  To that end, I began playing in my visual journal, combining elements I'd been saving for a while. This picture has images from a flower catalog, a quote, and some paper I made Thursday morning.  That's another story...

I teach a group of women who've been working with me for about two and a half years now.  We began by having me teach them Zentangles. After a while, I got tired of Zentangles and wanted to expand what we did, so I began teaching them some elements of design and about color. Since that time, we have explored so much! We've researched artists and created artwork a la Artists XYZ. We will soon be starting on a series of women artists and their contributions over the centuries and today.

One of the women in the group is the one who loves to buy art supplies and brought me the Brusho to try out. She also provided a book by Elizabeth St. Hilaire who creates colorful papers using acrylics on rice paper, then tears up the paper to create collages. This students, Barbara, wanted to learn how to do it, and was thinking about going to Florida to take a workshop with the woman, but I told her, after looking at the book, that I thought I could figure out most of it.  So Thursday, we created part one of 8 of my version of St. Helaire's workshop!

We hauled 7 folding tables into my yard, covered them with plastic, then pulled out paints, water, cups, things with which to make textures, paintbrushes, stencils, and about 30 other fun things with which to paint/mark/scrape/etc. and for 4 hours proceeded to cover rice paper with as much paint and as many textures as we could muster.  It was a great deal of fun, and we came up with some really interesting papers.  Though we are meant to hold on to them to use for collaging, I have used a couple in my Visual Journal already today. In #100, the white paper is one of the sheets I made that day.  I used paint on corrugated cardboard along with some bubble wrap to create the textures you can see.  The green is simply brush strokes. I think it'll be fun to see what other papers we come up with and what we end up doing with it.  It's an interesting process to learn an to go wild with!

#100

#101

#101 is a collage out of many disparate elements. The card is an advertisement for a book of poetry published here in Richmond by a woman named Hope Whitby. 

#102

#102 is more flower catalog images along with a blind contour drawing.

AND - I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!! With this blog post I am finished with my 100 Creations in 100 Days! Warts and all!  And 2 days early. Wow.  Tomorrow I will take some time to reflect on how this feels and what I've learned from the whole process, but for now I need to go to bed. It's after 1 AM and I gotta get some sleep!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I'm deeply honored that you have spent your time with me. If you feel like leaving comments, I always welcome them (as long as they're nice!)

Good night!