Mining for Meanng - #1

Been involved in online class with Jane Davies called Mining for Meaning.  We have been trying to delve deeper into our work by working in series. 

Here a few of my attempts..  The first two developed from Janes work I truly admire,  enjoyed working with colors I usually do not use

 

This one developed from my Kimono Series which I continue to revisit

And of course.. my love of purple surfaces.

 

 

Will continue to post over the next few days ...

WOW it have been along time since I posted to this.........

Just starting a new class with Jane Davies and want to see if I can figure out how to include links in my posting.. so am here to experiment.    Will see if I got it right..  

Just tried it and it works!!!    Another step for me.  yeaaaa.

Hopefully I will begin to post more in order to keep track of my process.

April - Washington Federal Exhibit

In April I had an exhibition at our local Washington Federal Saving where I hung over 20 pieces, but forgot to take photos of the entire exhibit.  Oh well..

Here are a few photos of what I managed to get just before taking the exhibit down.. a few pieces are a bit tipsy.. sorry

                 On these two walls the displayed pieces are explorations of texture and neutral colors.

 That's it for now. Hopefully  I get back to posting more frequently since the purpose of this blog to keep focused on my art and the direction I am exploring.

 

Catching up.

Good Grief..    It's be so long since I posted anything.. Don't know what happened. 

I  completed the  Jane Davis Extreme Composition 2 a few months ago and then decided to take a few months off from posting. I have been playing around with all I have learned over the past year and having fun.   Also had an exhibition at WA Fed in April.. so I guess time just got away from me.

Also wanted to explain the black out of earlier posting which I don't think I explained this before.. so anyhow.  When I began this blog I was really "blog challenged".  I didn't understand that when posting photos I needed to re-size them in order not use up the free memory provided by Google.  So all of a sudden I was out of memory.  I deleted some photos and guess what... many of my earlier posting lost the photos... resulting in blackout.  Have not spent the time re-posting earlier photos.  Prefer to spend time in the studio.  So that's the scoop.

That's it for this posting... Next will be few photos of the WA FED exhibiton.

BJ - playing around

Been playing around with the tiny pieces,, and trying to work toward finishing  a couple of previously posted pieces.

These small pieces 4x 8.. could be used as post cards..  Have fun playing with stamps and colors

7x15

7x15

7x15

11x15

  All of the above pieces were previously posted. as very bright vibrant colors over Gesso swirls.  I think more interest has been developed by pushing back areas around the focal areas.  Whereas before the pieces just screamed color.. color .. color and little chance for the eye to rest.  I am kind of tempted to add lines to these.. but I really like where they are at the moment.    What do you think?

Extreme Compostion with Jane Davies

This is the last lesson from Jane Davies class, Extreme Composition..

It seems I have been working on this lesson for ages.  I keep changing my mind, trying different colors and coming at if from different angles... so thought I would finally post a few of my attempts.

I started with pieces from an earlier lesson for inspiration.  The colors didn't really interest me but I wanted to work with sweeping lines, curves and swirls.

Original Series

I then I began playing with different color and swirls

1a

1b- added textured paper, black India ink lines, white out area. added color

1c - added more colors and lines.

Not really satisfied with the above, I  played around with more lines and different colors.

Modular #2 - a,b,c surrounded by black

  Here I think I am beginning to get a feel for bringing pieces together, but maybe need more purple in # 2a and less black lines..2c kind of dark.

Then I started playing with a new set of colors which I really enjoyed - shades of orange, green and violet. and of course black and white.

#3 a

# 3 b

The above 2 pieces are about 20x 20 on watercolor paper.  

More play.. smaller sizes on same paper... 6x6 and 8x 20.

#4  Lots of fun.. 

The following are various modular compositions from the above

#5 - like the color and movement - right image a bit distorted

#6 -   more fun..but wonder if the. bottom right might be  kind of busy.. maybe that's what the ?? is the upper right.

#7    Whopee.... I really like the black background with these

 All in all I liked the lesson but found it very difficult to hang the pieces together.  I especially like playing around with orange, green and violets......will do more with these colors.

 I probably over worked every piece.... and have a lot more work which I decided not to bore you with.. but hopefully I kind of created modular compositions.  

 

Well on to the next class of Extreme Composition 2... after a brief break for the HOLIDAYS....

At last, a photo of my "Hot Wall" exhibit at our local Artist Coop.

For a number of years I have been selling my work (mosaics, glass, cards, purses, wall hanging etc.).  This past year I added painting to the mix and was invited to exhibit my work for the months of November and December on what is called the Hot Wall. This a wall where artists from the island are invited to exhibit work.    Putting this together was a welcomed challenge.  I was some what fearful to put myself out there and had many moments agony... but now  I am delighted with how it went together and wanted to share this with you.

   The Artworks Gallery
     Orcas Island. WA
















                              Hot Wall Exhibit