Monday, January 12, 2015

30/30 Challenge: Days 11 and 12






I suppose this is turning into the 15/30 challenge at the rate I am going! It's OK, it's not like anyone is checking up on me and at least I have a clean floor (sort of) and time well spent with my husband instead!

The above sketches were done today and over the weekend. If I had to guess I would suspect that most people would say that abstract art is easy to do. These sketches just look like shapes right? How hard is that anyway-a 4th grader could do it! To that I would say that a 4th grader isn't encumbered by a bunch of hangups! It's a real challenge to look at a scene or a group of scenes/objects and extract something interesting (to you). The 4th shot above shows the series of thumbnail sketches that I did in response to looking at several photos. It's difficult to simplify and to also create a somewhat dynamic balance of elements at the same time. My tendency is to be very literal when really, I want to just reference something rather than realistically portray it. Anyway, you get what I mean hopefully.

As a side note, I completed a painting on Saturday and posted it. I am  learning a little bit about paint handling each time I do one of these pieces. I had assumed that textured brush marks just meant that the painter used more paint. I am finding that to not be the case, at least for me. It's a lot like frosting a cake actually. The combination of paint viscosity and brush is really important. And going back over strokes as they begin to dry isn't always a good idea so you have to be pretty confidant when you lay down those strokes. 

Lastly, I went to the first River Reflections reception on Saturday. Boy, was it crowded! So much so that I really couldn't get any photos. I was very happy that I had redone my piece. It fit in very well with all of the other pieces (skill level and style). There were probably about a dozen people there that I knew. My friend Cate and her friend Linda were there and so we escaped the crush of people in the gallery and went to the bar for a drink. The Sutter Hotel over in Sutter Creek is a really nice venue. I hadn't ever been inside before. We have a few of these hotels in our area left over from the gold rush era I believe. This one looks to be well kept up.

OK, this is a slightly less busy week coming up. Hopefully painting will go well. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Libby

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Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it! I reply back in an email if you are signed in and I can see your address. Otherwise I will post the reply here under your comment. I tend to cut and paste my emails too so that others can experience the back and forth which I think is integral to blogging.
Libby