Making Art 3

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In the making of this ACEO art card (2.5"x3.5")I first used a sakura souffle pen that went on the black paper green but then dried white. Than I used my tiny paint brush and did most of the rest in acrylic paint, although a few spots where colored in with a metallic gel pen. Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoy! :)

Making Art 2

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Here is a series of photos I've taken throughout the making of one of my latest ACEO (Art cards, Editions and Originals. An ACEO is 2.5"x3.5" in size just about the size seen in the slideshow. To get a longer view of the finished ACEO made in this slideshow click "no" at the end. =)

Thanks for visiting! =)

Making Art

Created with flickr slideshow.
Here is a series of photos I've taken throughout my process of making my most recent ACEO from start to finish.

*If you click "no" at the end of the slideshow you can get a longer view of the finished ACEO. Hope you enjoy, thanks for visiting! =)

ACEO

If you follow me on facebook you may have already noticed that I've started offering ACEO's in my shop. ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. ACEO's make owning original art easy and affordable. There are no rules for making an ACEO except that you must maintain the art piece in the size of 2.5"x 3.5" but you can make them out of anything, except food maybe? But I love them. They are so much fun to make and they've been selling pretty well too. One thing that really got me excited about ACEO's was the idea of owning my own art collection from artists the world round and the suggestion of displaying them in a giant, awesome coffee table book. ACEO's fit perfectly into the same display sleeves you would see a baseball card collection in. I need to look for some kind of three ringed scrapbook shell, put the display sleeves in it, and fill it with art. I'm not sure the next time I will be painting again ( I do still have a few drying that haven't been listed yet) for now though I am saving money on art supplies by using my oil pastels rather than oil paints so I think I will stick to it until I save up enough money  to fund a trip to Michaels again. :)

 Oh! And so I've been listening to Slaughterhouse Five on CD by Kurt Vonnegut while working on the ACEO's. I think I might still love Breakfast of Champions better but Slaughterhouse Five is pretty awesome.;)

Also, if you want to learn more about ACEO check out the information page I set up on facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/ACEO/152744084798434?sk=info

♥Thanks for visiting my blog!

Doux Forêt

Doux Forêt was hand painted on a 24"x24" canvas. Large canvas intimidates me, I'm not used to it and it scares me, so this painting was at first a daunting task... but then I just started painting and tried to forget about all of that blank freaky canvas and soon the tables were turned... really! By the time I was finished with Doux Forêt I was wishing I had more canvas of this size. Silly huh? I'm starting to paint more and more with a palette knife and kind of wishing I could paint all the time with it, though it takes up so much paint... I am trying to work on a way to make that not an issue.

So as I painted I listened to A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I was critical at first not knowing what to expect from a book of that title and being that I despise reading book reviews that reveal the subject of the book because it most often causes me to assume that I won't be interested (if it doesn't have zombies) I had no idea what I was about to hear. But... BUT! O.k. listen without doing to you what I hate which is revealing what the book is about rather then just confirming on whether or not the writing is legit, I am just going to say that Dave Eggers does that style of writing where he has a stream of consciousness and just lets it go and writes it out, but the whole book is not written in this way but when it was I wanted to stop painting and get a typewriter or something, his work is so inspiring it makes me want to write again. And not only that but I do believe that yes, the book is entitled quite fittingly because a heartbreaking work of staggering genius is exactly what it is, maybe it does sound a bit melodramatic but read or listen to it yourself and you will probably agree... I'm pretty sure it's a masterpiece!

Colour Town

 

 Something about tiny houses, all my favorite colors and simple shapes make me very happy. This painting was so much fun for me I want to do another on a larger canvas soon!

While I was painting Colour Town I listened to Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I am new to Ishiguro's writing but so excited to have found him! My boyfriend was excited that I found him too, apparently Ishiguro's short stories are often published in the New Yorker of which Stacy (my boyfriend) reads often. Never Let Me Go is a surprising tale that I find myself unable to explain without spoiling anything for anyone who hasn't read it yet. All I can say is that Never Let Me Go reminded me slightly of A Brave New World but for reasons other than the plot or story line. If you haven't yet read any of Ishiguro for yourself you might want to give it a try, I know I will definitely be checking out another one of his books soon!

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Carré

Carré is the French word for squared. I've decided that paintings with French names just look better for some reason... I know, I know how pretentious it must be for someone who is not French and who doesn't even speak French to name their paintings with French names but I figure being that I'm an artist that somehow I can get away with it!

Carré was a fun project. I'm a color fiend and was happy to include most every color in the collection of oil paints that I have. I've been trying my hand at new styles of art lately just to get out of the painters block I've been experiencing and have found that I'm really into this blocky style of painting. I'm a self taught painter and honestly have not studied art much outside of my own experimentation but a friend of mine pointed out that this painting was sort of Piet Mondrian-esk so of course I googled him and found that indeed it is... sort of, but like she said in pastels:) I'm working on a couple more blocky paintings right now and am excited to see where I go with them too, we'll see.
   

While painting Carré...

I listened to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and was pleasantly surprised by the fluidity and what I can only describe as poetic style of writing. Frankenstein has made it into my top ten.:)

Palette 1

Palette 1 was my first experience with a palette knife. It was a lot of fun, but harder than I was expecting it to be. Also although I normally paint abstracts this one's a little different as it has no distinguishable form or figure to it. For some reason this kind of unstructured art has been grabbing at me lately so I feel pretty happy that I was able to compose an unstructured abstract piece myself.

Palette 1 took me about 2 weeks to complete including drying time in between layers. While I painted I listened to The Yokota Officers Club by Sarah Bird which if you're into hearing about memories and dreams over and over again I would recommend the book.. But despite her fantastic descriptions and creatively worded phrases I was not so into the content, though I was glad to discover Sarah Bird as a writer.

Hope you enjoy my painting, thanks for visiting my blog! ;)

Roam

Roam started off as an abstract with no object to focus on. There are a lot of layers in this piece and after painting the first layer while waiting for it to dry, I hung it right in front of my work table where it stared me in the face... or I was staring at it, being the typical tortured artist fighting with myself over what direction the image was to go. I kept focusing on what is now the outline of the woman's cloak, but then it was just orange raindrop shapes painted over a collage. I kept envisioning a cloaked figure and could tell right where the face should go. Finally, I remembered the woman's face I had cut out of a magazine, and rifled through the small box of pictures I have for an occasion such as this. I found the face and quickly cut her into shape and decoupaged her into the scene. I then painted the outline of her cloak in red like I'd been imagining. After that I did one more layer of shapes, let it dry, and then a light brush with blue over the whole background.

Counting the dry time Roam took me two weeks to complete, as I was working with oils and in my spare time. All the while I was listening to The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand on CD, which happened to make it into my top ten list of favorite books of all time, and gave me a good reason to smile about naming my littlest Howard.:)

Woolsworth

Woolsworth was a painting I'd been wanting to do for a while before I actually did it. And when I started everything was coming along just fine until I made the realization that the sheep is about 2 inches off center. I wanted to scrap the whole project right there but I kept on painting despite my annoyance. Now I'm actually happy about the off-centered-ness of the picture because I think it adds to the whole composition--it's the art of imperfection. .

This painting cost me two weeks of attention, painting like always in my spare time throughout each day, while listening to Gone with the Wind on audio, which of course was lovely.

Holy Roller

This painting/collage took about a week to complete. I worked on it in my spare time, which was mostly during Howard's naps and at night. I listened to an audiobook, Catch 22, by Joseph Heller while making it, which was totally worth my time (I highly recommend).

I've named this piece Holy Roller because there is something about the woman’s face that seems particularly pious to me, and because the raindrop shapes and circles seem to be moving--rolling. That could be why I can’t stop myself from painting these figures into almost all of my work, I love the effect and catch myself staring at it for inappropriate amounts of time. The other thing I like about this piece is that it seems 3D from across the room, and closer up too, but then again that may be because of the staring.

But yeah. Holy Roller is my second paint/collage piece, and I have to admit that I really like it. But I don’t think it’s the kind of work that everyone can appreciate so tell me what you think!=) And thanks for stopping by.