oil painting

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2017 Ornaments

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This football helmeted tiger was for a high schooler whose team is the Tigers.

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A first Christmas for a new little cousin and another for some cousins who just got married.

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I first started painting these ornaments in the early 1980s. At that time my sister was very young and I copied a favorite artist (Karl Odenweller) for a gift for her. This past year, one of her own kids dropped it, so I recreated it for her, only with a slightly larger image. Second sister had the same thing happen. Hers was a Hallmark bunny that I placed in her little burrow. And no, I do not copy and sell these.

I do not know how I did those original images the size of a dime when I was younger and with no magnifier!

And speaking of magnification, I finally found a magnifying system that works for me now that I am wearing glasses. Getting older presents new challenges.

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Vintage Art

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I found a couple of old sawblades from 1984 when I was first starting out. I would sell a blade at a local consignment art shop and go buy supplies. These have been in the bottom of a box probably since 1988. A lifelong friend saw them and wanted them, so I cleaned them up today, fixing some scratches. It has me longing to paint again.

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Reverse Glass Painting and Ink

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This could have been a “throw back Thursday” post if I had thought of it yesterday. However, it was today when I began searching the internet in an attempt to discover if there are any new types of ink pens that can draw on glass (and have the ink adhere without flaking or rubbing off.)

Amazingly I could find nothing, which I don’t understand. Years ago, before the internet existed, I learned how to create reverse glass paintings and was selling them around the state.

The very first step, when making the fine lines, was to use a Koh-I-Nor Rapidograph Technical Pen, which adhere’s nicely to glass, as well as takes to oil paint being laid over the top of it without smearing or breaking down.

This was a lot of fun, easy to do (as long as you remember to paint everything “backwards” and mirror image”.) So, when I was contemplating laying ink on glass this morning, it seemed like there should be even better technology for this now than there were years ago. The internet came up empty.

The rapidograph pen is pretty thin lined. Maybe I could use a brush to accomplish the same idea for a wider line.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. In fact, has anyone out there tried this? I can’t even remember where I learned how to do it, but I love the combination of the “sketch” look with the richness of the oil paints.

I am very interested in this now that it seems it is such a mystery. (And I am wishing I had taken more photos of those old paintings!)

 

Interesting Reference Material found during my search (which wasn’t much):

The History of Silhouettes – E. Nevill Jackson

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A seed of my creative roots

Have you ever run across  something from your childhood that strikes a long forgotten emotional cord? That is what happened today when I came across these 2 paintings tucked among my stashed art resources such as frames and canvases.

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As I stared at them I felt nostalgia, puzzlement, as well as deep pleasure of a found treasure. At the same time I was thinking, “What in the world did I save paint-by-numbers for?” Then I saw the initials.

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No – that is not e.e.cummings, but these are the initials of my beloved uncle who introduced me to his writings!

Then the memories came flooding back of these hanging on my grandmother’s wall all my growing up years, painted by her son when he was still a young sprite battling polio in the 1950s or early 60s.

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My uncle was one of the major influences in my very early artistic endeavors. What a precious find.

So what if they are paint-by-number; there is such a funky charm, as well as deep connected-ness to sweet memories and tender relationships held within these youthful, exploratory strokes. What a treasure.

I will hang them in my new art studio.

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”
― E.E. Cummings

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Flashback Fun

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In the early 1980s I began painting Christmas ornaments using oil paints and tiny brushes (sometimes my own hair or a cat whisker was used to make the smallest of lines.)

Most of the time I was painting people’s homes or farmsteads, but occasionally I would do a humorous ornament for my family. This was for my brother, Stephen, who really did not like school.

(PS. No, I did not sell trademarked images. This was for fun. I was a huge Garfield fan.)

Here is one that I did for myself simply because I enjoyed the image. I still own this one.

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Illustration Rework

Two days before my final was due, I had an epiphany and figured out why I was struggling with this painting so much. I spent the weekend re-working and adjusting what I had spent the previous 8 weeks creating. There was a lot of sanding off of what I had put on, then repainting. Fortunately, we were having a 80 degree, summer-like weather and I was able to do this work outdoors.

I can not even describe the amount of rework I did, but thankfully the teacher gave me grace. As long as I promised to complete it, which I will be doing in the next weeks, then he was satisfied with what I had accomplished so far.

It seems that my left side perception must be scewed. I spent my time adjusting that side of the painting, making everything just slightly bigger (well, the guitar a lot bigger) except for Ron’s face, which I needed to make smaller or just move things about (like bring his ear down and nose and mouth up… sounds odd, doesn’t it.) It is like that whole side was just slightly off scale or proportion.

It was quite the operation, and while it is definitely not finished, I was elated once I had created the outlines and positions. I now had a roadmap to the finished piece that I was very satisfied with, and for the first time in my life I believed I might be able to do portraiture- something that has been a very scary impossibility in the past.

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Illustration Class Midterm

The focus of this class was centered around spending our time crafting one illustration. It was an amazing experience in practicing patience, as well as pushing through doubt and the anxieties of “I am not good enough to pull this off.”

About halfway through it, I was struggling with the nuances of the painting, yet loving every minute of it. I was also still hanging onto the belief that I could never be a portrait artist. And as I looked at it, I knew the face was not right. It did not look at all like my brother, the face was all wrong, the proportions of the guitar and boots were off. It was driving me nuts.

Notice the white areas around the steps and boots. These are where I took sandpaper and removed most of the paint and started over, more than once. I was also using an exacto knife around edges and to sharpen some areas. I know it is not possible, but I felt like I removed more paint than I put on!

This is the artist’s angst and I was feeling it all. It felt hopeless as far as catching my vision, but I was learning new painting techniques, and for that I was happy. Sort of a ying yang thing going on… loving it and hating it at the same time.

To me it almost looked more like my brother, Stephen, at this point. He has a rounded face, whereas my brother, Ron, has a more oval visage. So I kept seeing Stephen here, (and it was not that I mind seeing him, do not take me wrong, dear family, but it was not my intention to be painting him at this point), so frustration and artistic despair were mounting.

Stay tuned! It changes once again as the quarter progresses…