Experiments

You know how Picasso had his 'Blue Period'? Well I am entering my 'Retro Period' hehehe. Well at least I hope I am. I recently found some images from an old calender that Bob's mum had kept for whatever reason. They were all of retro rooms and the main feature was the (ugly) wallpaper. Well that just set off my imagination. The last few months I have been playing around (in my head) with the idea of retro paintings featuring the (ugly) wallpaper. I've had work to finish for competitions and then travelling to Melbourne so I've not had time to physically do anything towards my 'retro period'. I have had a lot of time to think. I do a lot of thinking before any painting actually begins. When I was in art school we had to put all our ideas down in a journal. I always had trouble with that. I prefer to think and as the ideas develop I do little experiments like a mad scientist mwa-ha-ha. Yesterday was experiment day. And very tiring using my brain that much hehehe. I need to create a 'wallpaper' pattern without actually recreating it (if that makes sense). No point actually recreating it. If that was the case I might as well just paint on wallpaper. I wanted to hint at a pattern and create a certain mood rather than reproducing the wallpaper exactly. I thought for a long time that stamping would be the way to go and I thought those foam craft sheets for kids might make good stamps.

These all fit inside each other so each hippie circle can be a different colour. A little bit of tape for a handle so I don't get paint everywhere. The next thing is I wanted to extend my use of text. Text is an important part of my work as you know and its where most of my work starts. Years ago on my old computer I played around with layering text on Photoshop. I used the manual and followed the tutorial step by step. I don't remember how its done but I thought I could give it a try again. Trouble is my manual is for Photoshop 6 and my version now is CS4. I did give it a try but its changed too much for a computer illiterate like me to cope with, sigh. Brain started ticking over. I will just have to do it another way. I use the gel medium image transfer method quite a bit. Why can't I do different fonts, sizes and tones to create the text layering? I printed out some smaller text in black and then some larger in mid grey all in reverse so the text comes out the right way when you do the transfer. Bob was going to the hardware shop so I got him to do some photocopies while he was out (ink jet prints don't work).
Now remember this is a quick experiment and I didn't wait for the gel medium to dry properly so its a bit rough and all the paper bloom wasn't removed properly etc. What it revealed is the smaller black text shows through the larger mid grey text which was transferred on top woohoo!!! Dance of joy!!!
This is my stamping experiment using the new foam stamps I made. It gives the shape without it being a perfect application. I have a lot more fears and worries to work through. The catch word being 'resolve resolve resolve'. Fingers crossed I can get this all to work for a new body of work. What do you think of the colours??? Aren't they just deliciously ugly??? hehehe

Self Portrait

With all your lovely comments I thought I'd better report on my progress of 'the selfy'. Been playing grandma all weekend so I didn't have any studio time till today. As portraiture is relatively new to me its very slow going. I still want to use text and I still want to do all my layering and of course it has to be BIG. I want to put text and stamping etc in the shapes made by shadows etc and this will be like my underpainting (if that makes sense) and then I will paint a more realistic (ha hopefully) portrait on top. Well today I played around with the shapes that fit together and make me look like me. Still not entirely happy with what I've got but its getting there. I haven't started on the canvas yet. Still experimenting and playing around. I will share more with you when I have something to share. Anyway I have made a start and its so exciting and fun and scary all at once. I just love making art **insert big cheesy grin here**

Late One Night

Sunday Arts, one of my favourite programs on tv, had a segment about an artist (Bill Luke) who goes on nocturnal explorations through the streets of Melbourne collecting swathes of advertising posters from the city's walls. In his studio Bill strips back layers from the posters to reveal scraps of pictures and text. With careful composition they become new works of art. As most of the backgrounds in my work are inspired by old bill boards I was totally in awe of this and had to have some old advertising posters too. I enlisted the help of my nocturnal daughter, Julia. We have been on two heists now and below are some of the treasures.

I want to use scraps of text, images and textures with layers of paint and gesso, some stamping and other mark making and see where that leads me. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. Maybe its the naughty nocturnal jaunts that I'm excited about hehehe hahaha hehehe.

The Tablecloth Saga

The tablecloth and the peg painting is going well. I should really call it a construction not a painting. Not much painting going on but lots and lots of tedious cutting and gluing. Very tedious cutting and gluing. Did I mention it was tedious ugh! The results however are quite pleasing to my artist's heart so it keeps me going.

I prepared some altered and stained newspapers before I started as these were to form the checks of the tablecloth. So I needed two types of red and a white.

I started with a bit of text stamping but I lost most of it as I continued to paint in the background. This still needs to be resolved with more text I think but I will worry about it later.

I started cutting and gluing the checks of the tablecloth. Each 'square' is such a different shape and I have to pay careful attention to this to get the movement of the tablecloth right. The wind was moving it ever so slightly as I took the photo and I want to capture that. The colours are a little richer in real life as I took these photos inside with a flash. I looks a little like a patchwork quilt rather than a tablecloth but I don't mind that. Like I've said before, the canvas is on the large side 101.6x76.2cm (40"x30") with the peg measuring 35cm (14"). Still a bit to go and I still need to resolve that background so I'd better get to it.

Been Working Hard

The dinner and movie the other night was fun. Its good to get out with the family and escape the real world by watching a children's movie. Zoe seemed to enjoy it as she laughed out loud quite a bit. In fact we all did. I loved it when it rained gum balls and the ground just became a sea of coloured balls.

Yesterday I got to spend 6 hours doing my artwork (happy, happy, joy, joy). Today I also spent more time on my artwork but it was interrupted by a shopping trip with Mum and Julia. Couldn't miss out on a shopping trip with two of may favourite girls :). Its after dinner now and I will go and do some more painting and stamping and gluing as soon as I finish this post. That's the beauty of summer time - not only is there longer daylight but there are no good programs on tv to lure you. I'm struggling a bit with the series of 3 I'm working on. I'm trying something new and not sure the direction it will take. The time just flies by so I know I'm enjoying myself.

Got mail today from overseas. I love getting mail that's not bills. I now have a lovely collection of cards that my internet friends have sent me over the last year. Mostly the cards are of their own artwork and I treasure them. I am still amazed how close you can get to people you have never physically met. Ok that's enough rambling. Back to work for a little while longer so I have some new work to show you soon. With Christmas etc. it feels like such a long time since I finished a new piece.