Artistic License: Order from Chaos

Artistic License: Order from Chaos: "Flylady (http://www.flylady.com/) says that you can't organize clutter. You have to get rid of it. She's right. And last weekend it was t..."

Order from Chaos

Flylady (http://www.flylady.com/) says that you can't organize clutter.  You have to get rid of it.  She's right.  And last weekend it was time to clear some of the clutter in my studio.  I don't know about you, but there are times I really want to work but the amount of visual noise surrounding me snuffs out any creativity that may be lurking.  Even if the idea is close to the surface the stuff just drowns out any chance to get it out.  So I cleaned and organized and threw out.  I found that I have an amazing assortment of papers that will accept all kinds of mediums, a really excellent group of images, both mine and from others, to study and play with, a lot of information on anatomy in addition to the books on that subject which is already in my library, notes from classes and workshops, old work which looks pretty good, and probably a bit too much furniture.  I'm not ready to move the furniture, but everything else got filed and placed in their places.  And then the most amazing things happened.  Some girlfriends came for a visit and one of them told me about a technique she uses using watercolour and permanent inks.  And because I had cleaned up, I knew exactly where to find paper that would be perfect for that kind of project.  And then someone gave me old canvases that had been painted on but still perfectly good to repaint over and I have the space for that too.  And an old photograph of a potential painting that I had been trying to paint for a couple of years now and I'm probably cabable to do it now.  So here is the message.....While it may seem like it's procrastination and not very creative to clean, it opens up all kinds of possibilities.  So I'm off to explore the possibilites.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.  I'll let you know what I'm working on, thinking about, and, from time to time, show you some of my process in getting a work to completion.  And maybe a recipe or two along the way.

So for this first post I want to show you a painting that I did over the weekend.  It's of pomogranates, which I hope you can tell. 

While in France, a friend of mine showed me a way to layer in colour quickly.  I spend a good amount of time glazing my paintings, especially my still lifes, so they have a luminous quality to them.  I usually use safflower oil to glaze with.  It's non-toxic, doesn't yellow, and is lovely and fluid.  But glazing takes time.  Each layer needs to dry before the next layer can be applied.    For the Pomogranate painting I used Windsor and Newton's Liquin to glaze with.  It dries super fast, keeps the colours pure and rich, and also doesn't yellow with time.  This was also painted on watercolour paper instead of linen or canvas.  I've painted on paper before.  It absorbs the oil from the paint quite fast and can not be fixed quite as easily as on a traditional surface.  But there are many instances where the old masters used paper and it is a convenient way to experiment while staying archival.  This piece is 6" x 12".  

To see more of my still life paintings  click on the link.