Florence Baptistry - photo reference for in-progress painting

Baptistry - Step 6 - refocusing central element and background

So, do you remember this photo I was turning into a painting? Well, I’ve continued to work on it, and it’s continued to develop. It still has quite a bit of work. I’m going to do something different with the right side of the painting so that the focus is really on that main building. I found that having the background building inserted with the windows caused too much chaos for the eye and made it difficult to focus on that beautiful doorway that I wanted to have as the focal point. And, since I’ve spent so much time on the painting and the details of this building that so inspired me, I’m willing to take a chance on the background and try something new. It will change some of the dynamics of the picture, but I think it’s for the best. I’m taking my artistic license here!

Sedona Photo Reference

Sedona Landscape in progress

And I’m also working on a painting from a photo I took when  Joanne and I went to Sedona. Joanne and I ended up taking the same photo, and both put it on our MacBook desktops. Mine has been that way consistently since. When we were there, I was incredibly inspired by the rock formations, but I didn’t work on anything on canvas. I knew it was time to take this photo and try to render it on canvas. It’s not done yet. I still have some additional work to do on it. But It’s coming along.

Four Abstracts

In the meantime, I’ve been working on a small series of paintings. Each panting is 10″ x 10″ and they all developed together. Each took on a life ot its own, but they’re all related. I will likely put them all on the wall in this order. I have another mini-series of four more in progress.

So there’s the update for a while. I hope I have more to share soon!

Today is Easter Sunday and it’s quiet in our Jewish home. While my husband is preparing to do a talk, I figured I have some time. SO much has happened since I last blogged. I’ll get into much of that at a later time. Let me share with you some art, since that’s what I most wish to share.

Untitled - Abstract Intuitive Painting - Acrylic and Colored Pencil on Canvas Board

A while ago, I sat down and painted some canvas boards. I didn’t have any expectations of where they were going to go, or what I was going to do with them. I went the intuitive route. With all the impressionistic work I’ve been doing based on my travels, this is a good thing for me sometimes – to just get out of my head and let the paint do its thing. I worked on two canvases simultaneously and each came out completely different – different color schemes, different shapes, different composition, different subjects. It is one of the things I love about intuitive work. I start with no expectations and I find little gems in the painted surface that lead me to my next step. I really don’t start with anything in mind.

The Couple - Abstract Intuitive Painting

The most interesting part of working this way is that I tend to see things that come out of me I didn’t know were there. It’s a good way find out what is really going on in my own head, so to speak. These paintings took several weeks. Each one was on its own schedule, really. And I’ve learned that sometimes, a painting needs to sit for a while – weeks or months (sometimes even years!) – before I feel it’s ready to share in any way.

Travel Pack Front before painting - BORING color and not a good color to go with my wardrobe!

In addition to these paintings, I also found some time to do some decoration of a leather travel pack. I bought this leather belt bag for $4 because it was missing the strap to convert it to a cross-shoulder bag. The color is a beige – not my color at all. I tend to wear a lot of pops of color with my wardrobe. It needed something and I knew what I wanted to do! I might add a strap, but I wanted to test the waters of decorating leather by using some fabric paint and then decorating with Sakura’s Permapaque Pens. I just played with shapes and color to add interest to this travel pack.

Travel Pack Front post-painting

I found that I really liked working with the Permapaque pens. I’ve used them in the past, but mostly in my visual journals. I’ve never used them on leather and so this was a risk. But it was one worth taking!

So, I’ve been keeping busy. My hands have been active, my mind has been creative. I’ve also created some journals and I’m working on two more realistic paintings. I always have my journal close-by. I will photograph some art and share some photos from visits with family and friends in the next few days and try to get those to you, too. None  of the art pieces are finished, but they’re either on the easels or sitting and waiting for me to figure out what’s next.

Travel Pack Front Inside - post-painting

Times like this remind me that art is really a journey. The destination for me is the exploration of what I can do and what is possible. It’s not always the finished painting. I’ve learned to accept that. I know it’s hard for friends and family who don’t do art to understand that. They often ask me when they’re getting a piece of art from me or hint that it’s their “turn”. Well, really, my art is, at its heart, for me. It’s something I do to feed my soul. If something comes out of it that is worth sharing with the world – whether on my own walls, on this blog, or in my Artfire Shop, that’s a bonus. But so much of my art goes un-shared. When it starts, I never know what I’ll end up doing. I just start, playing with paint, line, and color. I play and art follows. Whereas when I try to plan out a process for a particular piece, I get caught up in the perfectionist mindset. The art loses its magic. It loses its draw for me. It loses its soul. That is the exact opposite of why my art is what it is.

I’ve been a bad blogger. I can’t remember the last time I sat down and typed up a post. Well, I’ve been busy! No excuses here, just busy and not in a mood to share.

But, I have a lot of art to share, so over the next few posts, I will share it. Here we go!

Inspiration Photo

First up: A custom painting!

This summer I donated a custom painting to the Phoenix Chapter of the American Diabetes Association. I was worried, because I’m not usually good about feeling inspired by other people’s photos. Well, I was glad I challenged myself! The woman who purchased the custom 16″ x 20″ painting is an employee of the ADA. She bought it for her mother.

Custom Painting

I got to sit down with her mother and meet her when I picked up the photos. That helped me to get a sense of who the painting was for and why I was doing it. Gerri wanted a painting of her front door. It’s a beautiful front door and she has some lovely ceramic bells and cactus in the corner. The photo she took is to the left. I had to rework some of the elements because the picture was going to have too many focal points if I didn’t. After several weeks of work, I completed the painting on the right. Just the other day, I was able to deliver the painting to Danielle, Gerri’s daughter. She will give it to her on Christmas. I sure hope Gerri likes it!

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Baptistry - Step 4 - adding in some more layers of color

Here are more photos of the Baptistry.

The first was taken after I completed my early-afternoon work on it.

Baptistry - Step 5 - adding back in some of the detail

I waited for the paint to dry and an hour later, I came back in and did more work.

I don’t expect to be able to do any work on it today. We’re going to a Bat Mitzvah and I actually have to get going on my daily exercise and then getting ready to go to Temple.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Nature Inspired - by Tracie L. Huskamp

Nature Inspired: Mixed-Media Techniques for Gathering, Sketching, Painting, Journaling, and Assemblage arrived in my studio late last night from Tracie Lyn Huskamp of the Red Door Studio. I pre-ordered her book because, knowing Tracie, I knew the book would be fantastic. And, I was right! Tracie’s calming, soothing personality comes through in the book – through the photos and the text. I highly recommend this new book to anyone who is interested in mixed-media or painting nature.

Baptistry - Step 3 - adding in some more color

I also, as promised, am posting another picture of the Baptistry. I plan to work on it more today, but I haven’t gotten to it yet – exercising and laundry come first! More to come…

Lantern completed - Mixed-Media on 24" x 36" canvas

A few weeks ago I completed all the detailing on the lantern Ive been painting on the 24 x 36 canvas. And I made some changes to the background to give it a bit more depth. Im happy with it. I added some of the detailing with watercolor crayons and sealed the details and then the whole canvas with matte medium. After adding finishing coat, I brought it to the intended recipients- my in-laws. We immediately hung it in their dining room.

Florence Baptistry - photo reference for next painting

I’ve also started another painting. I have been looking at this photo for a while now, wondering whether I was ready to take the plunge and start painting it.

Well, just before Art Unraveled, I did. I drew in the main parts of the buildings with a watercolor pencil and then I added some water to create sone depth and shadows. This helps me to understand the space each area will take up. Then I started to add in some base color. I know the colors look like a cartoon version of this scene, but it will get there. Its all part of what has become my process. Right now, rather than Florence, Italy, the painting looks like it is of Key West, FL!

Baptistry - Step 1 - Sketching in the main shapes

I’ve done more today on the painting, but it still has a long way to go. All the white areas are now painted in and they have several layers of color. The blue background has been painted over so it doesn’t look like water or sky. I don’t have a photo because the light changed in the studio, but I’ll have more to show as I get further on in the painting.

Baptistry - Step 2 - adding in base color

I’m planning to try to blog more often, even if it’s just a single image and a short statement. The way I currently blog takes a long time and that’s why I go weeks without anything for you to see. I hope this will keep me more on track!

Classwork from Experimental Watercolor with Alex Shur

I took 3 classes this year. The first was Experimental Watercolor with Alex Shur. Alex has a very interesting approach to watercolor painting. Whereas most of the time when we’re doing watercolor we decide upon our shapes and our subject, Alex creates backgrounds on quarter-parent sheets of watercolor paper. After they dry, she looks for objects in the backgrounds. It’s a very intuitive way of working. I have to admit that it took a bit for me to be able to get into that mode of searching for shapes in clouds, but once I did, I found quite a few things in the backgrounds. I still have to finish some of them, adding in some details and some white gouache or china white watercolor, but I like where this is going. Some of the images are really small. Others are larger, like 1/8 of the parent sheet of paper. It was a good exercise to get me out of the comfort zone I’ve been in lately with determining my painting subject before starting. I think it will be an exercise I use going forward.

Classwork from The Land of Odds with Katie Kendrick

The second class I took was with Katie Kendrick. Katie is a giving and loving soul. I’ve taken classes with her in the past. I mostly took the class because it was a different subject (not a face-painting class) and I just needed a dose of Katie! We brought to class five or six paintings from an artist who inspires us and used those as jumping off points. For me, it was Chagall’s paintings. In particular, I was drawn to his paintings of couples who appear to be flying or floating. I also like that he has more than one subject in his paintings. He seems to have things that appear unrelated, but are related to each other in the painting. I often paint just one main subject and then go back and finish off the background. So, like Alex’s class, this one was a good stretch for me. It was forcing me to embrace a less-detailed method of painting.

Classwork from The Land of Odds with Katie Kendrick

My third and final class was with the fabulous Judy Wise. Judy has so much expertise to share and there is always something to be learned in her classes. Judy is dynamic and giving as an instructor and a person. Her art has always fascinated me and I have some of her prints up in my studio. She shared with us how to get a multi-layered encaustic (wax) painting while using collage and acrylic painting techniques under the beeswax layer.

Classwork from Captured in Wax with Judy Wise

One distinct thing about Judy’s encaustic work is the black halo that is around the artwork and she was willing to share that technique with us. It was a fun class. I haven’t done collage in a while, so again, this stretched me as I created the main figure for my painting. She is made up of collage elements and paint – a combination to make her all mine. I’m not sure yet if she’s done, but she’s certainly on her way!

After Art Unraveled, Joanne and I went to Sedona for four days. I’ll post about that next!

Venice Doorway - Calle dei Ormesini, Venice

That’s what has been going on here in the ArtsyFran studio! Lots of painting. I completed two more paintings of Italy for my husband’s office. I plan to start another one today, in-between varnishing the completed ones.

Line drawing of door in Venice

To the left there is a painting of a door in Venice. We sat in what would have been the outside “cafe” portion of a restaurant while it was closed on a Sunday and drew. I drew the picture that you’ve already seen (right) and then decided I needed to take it to the next step and paint it in acrylic.

From there, I went and looked at more pictures from our trip and I found the one on the left, also from Venice. I was very taken by all the windows in Italy. There were flower boxes outside of almost every window we saw. It’s clear that people love having areas where they can plant fresh herbs and flowers. Since I don’t garden, living in the desert as I do, I was amazed at how these little spots of life were thriving on this island of buildings. From the photo, I’ve spent the past week painting my version of these windows.

Venice Window - Second floor windows of a building in Venice, italy

Now to look at the photos of Florence to see what will be my next subject. I loved Florence, so it’s time to focus on that beautiful city.

Monday is my treatment – already! But I hope to get quite a bit of painting in for the next few days.

Venice Window - Second floor windows of

More to share soon, I hope!