Wednesday, May 26, 2010

can't fall in love.

I had bought a couple canvas panels with the intention of painting 2 large mandalas to decorate my booth at the Louisville Psychic and Paranormal Gathering, on July (have I told you I'll be there?) My experience with canvas is limited to a little experiment I've done several years ago, using oils. I didn't really get excited with the little painting, and never touched oils or canvas again. I'm not going to revisit oils so soon -- I am the type of person who wants all-at-the-same-time-now and not very patient to wait ages until a piece gets dry --, but moving my hands over canvas again has been, if not a fully satisfactory, at least a fun experience.


My first mandala is inspired on peacocks and I wanted a big one right on the center. Didn't take long to perceive how the graphite pencils I use feel awful on canvas. But I liked the first lines done with acrylics (Payne's grey, one of my favorite colors and always very handy for shading and outlining). It also felt good to work big! These panels are 24 x 36 inches, which is the largest area I ever worked on.


I just wanted to get adventurous. It feels good to think that you can make mistakes and fix them as much as you can. This is a good thing about working on canvas. When you are dealing with paper, you don't have a lot of room for mistakes due to the fragility of the support, everything has to be carefully planned beforehand. Even illustration board, sturdy as it is, has its limits. And feeling pressured to do "right" definitely is not a good thing. Score to the canvas.


Of course I couldn't wait until the peacock was done to start experimenting with my traditional stuff. I found out that colored pencils work way better on the toothed surface than regular pencils and started to sketch a self-portrait, on ocre + alizarin crimson washes.



First glazes with acrylics. White layers on the skin. I love this ghostly looks.


Ebony graphite pencil to reinforce the outlines and try some kind of shading. White pastel for the highlights. At this point I am a little frustrated because I will never achieve the type of precision I do when working on a smoother surface. But on the other hand, the loose lines are a pleasure to do, along with the more gestural, expressive strokes.


I am running away from the feel of traditional painting like the devil from the cross. I kind of like the direction the work is taking now, looks more like my type of stuff. However, I am not really in love with the canvas. It's still hard to tell where I am going; some parts of the painting really please me, some not. I am now seriously thinking about trying gessoed masonite, but don't know how my pencil will come out. Anybody here did have tried it yet?

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Solstice Giveaway is back!

Last December, due to the volume of work I was facing and other little complications, I was unable to do my Solstice Giveaway the way I had planned. For the ones who are new to this blog, the Solstice Giveaways are a way I created to show my appreciation to my followers and friends. Twice a year, on Summer and Winter, I will be giving away an original piece, print, or other item. Last year I had the idea of asking for a little donation to each participant, so together we could help an institution or person in need of help. So the giveaway would become more like a raffle.

This time I will be giving away an original piece of artwork, at your choice:

"I am half sick of shadows"
"I am half-sick of shadows"
Watercolor and graphite on paperboard,
9 x 12

OR

Waterlily
Waterlily
Watercolor and graphite on paperboard,
9 x 15

To participate, you just have to purchase one or more e-tickets. Each e-ticket has the symbolic cost of $3.00 USD. The more tickets you purchase, the better are your chances to win. Names will be drawn on June 22nd. Out of the tickets money (after Paypal fees), I'll take the cost of shipping and the rest will go for a "love destination", which is very likely to be already defined.

When I was preparing this post, I received an email from Florida artist Helene Ruiz:

Not sure if you guys are familiar with this story...but i cut and pasted below for u..
if you would like to donate any art supplies for this cause, tomorrow will be a perfect time when u come for the event as Gallery 101 will be;

Gallery 101 will be one of many dropoff locations.We as an art community have the opportunity to give an aspiring young artist the chance to express herself again,while you are at the art store pick up an extra brush,canvas,pad of paper,tube of paint....you get the picture,lets show this wonderful girl that we care and want to see her and help her bloom into a great artist.thanks in advance for your donations..

Gallery 101 felt compelled to help a local girl who was nearly killed by a school bully. Josie cannot speak cannot walk and has limited function in her right arm, right hand and right fingers and will require extensive and long-term rehabilitative care, including physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. The Gallery is helping the family by volunteering as a drop off point for donations.


Beating victim Josie Lou Ratley to leave rehabilitation center
Josie Lou Ratley with her mother in April.

By DIANA MOSKOVITZ
dmoskovitz@MiamiHerald.com
Josie Lou Ratley -- the Deerfield Beach teenager viciously attacked by another teen -- soon will be released from a rehabilitation center, her family's lawyer announced on Tuesday.
The announcement did not give anymore details about when the 15-year-old will be released. Ratley's mother, Hilda Gotay Ratley, is expected to speak at a news conference Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale.
The teenager was attacked March 17 by Wayne Treacy, who knocked her down and kicked her head repeatedly with steel-toe boots in the bus area of Deerfield Beach Middle School.
Ratley was in intensive care at the Chris Evert Children's Hospital at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, at one point in a medically induced coma.
Ratley left the hospital on April 27 and moved to an undisclosed rehabilitation facility.
Since then, Ratley has been relearning such basic skills as how to talk and how to use her arms.
Treacy, 15, remains in Broward County's main jail, charged as an adult with first-degree attempted murder. Another teen, Kayla Manson, 13, is charged as a principal for allegedly helping Treacy find Ratley that day.
The Miami Herald

I am going to contact Gallery 101 to know what the family needs. At least I intend to send her a big pack of art supplies in our name, knowing how useful art making can be in the healing and rehabilitation of people in Josie's condition. If you'd like to participate, you can buy an e-ticket by clicking on the Paypal button on the right column. Thank you!

Gallery 101:  http://www.thegallery101.net/

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Materia: Air

Materia: Air

Mixed Media (Acrylics, Pastel, Pencils and Graphite on paperboard)
14 x 18
2010

Available for sale after 2010

Materia: Fire

Materia: Fire

Mixed Media (Acrylics, Pastel, Pencils and Graphite on paperboard)
14 x 18
2010 

Available for sale after July 2010.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Materia: Water

Materia: Water

Mixed Media (Acrylics, Pastel, Pencils and Graphite on paperboard) 
14 x 18 
2010

Available for sale after July 2010.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

in a rush

things are pretty crazy around here, folks... i'm rushing to complete the Materia series until next Saturday and feel like a painting machine. not fun, but it is my fault. i could have planned something more simple, but, as a good Scorpio (Moon), i am always taking the complicated way. oh, well. now it's too late to start whining. sorry for not responding the last comments, they are all read and very appreciated! eternal thanks for your encouragement.

+

2 beautiful features this week:

- the more than awesome Natures Whispers blog, by Jasmine Hazlehurst, on the fantastic Festival of the Trees. she featured one of the wips of my Tree of Life, (never finished because i am a perfectionist bitch, but time is coming.) visit and delight in the fantastic selection of pictures and words Jasmine selected for the post. 

- works + online exhibit featured on The Pink Panther Magazine, publication of the Pink Panther group on RedBubble, dedicated to promote feminism and the work of women artists.


I also have now a permanent gallery at RedBubble, and I am proud. :)

+

bye-bye Duality:


+

Water in progress:



Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Materia: Earth

Materia: Earth

Mixed Media (Acrylics, Pastel, Pencils and Graphite on paperboard)
14 x 18
2010 

Available for sale after July 2010. 

I am the Universe and the Universe is Me.
We're sound, stars, atoms
Descending, vibrating, in an eternal dance
Chanting, flowing, in circles and spirals of light
From the ether to my veins and nerves and bones
My vessel of light
Screaming I am Immortal.


"Materia" (Latin word for matter) is a series of four paintings that deal with the notion of chemical structure of the human body and its relation with the circular forms of the sacred geometry (mandalas), while attempting to transmit a sense of energetic nurturing through colors and symbolic images related to each one of the four elements - Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. The base for the mandala drawing is the main structure of a molecule of ferritin, a protein that exists in almost all living organisms and that is responsible for the storage and release of iron, an essential element for life.

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