painting – Page 2 – Mixy's Art Blog

knowing when

I’ve heard it said the key to painting is knowing when to stop.

Conversely, it’s also important (to my mind) to know when to keep going.

How many abandoned sketches and paintings are there in the world? I would guess a great many more than those that finished (or past that point).

My current art journal is teaching me this more than I already knew.

The nature of dipping in and out of a book means most of the pages are, for a long time, just scraps of whims, streaks of paint, isolated doodles and jottings. And they are quite loud and ugly.

In a book of no intrinsic value, it means nothing to open it up and find a space to wipe off my paint brush, to test out an old pen, to blurt and vent some spleen. A dumping ground for bits of thing laying scattered on my work table. Cut outs and scraps, they all go in.

Nothing to lose. Some would argue (shhh — they don’t understand), nothing to be gained.

We know different, right?

Again I remember, how it’s all a metaphor for life. Keep pushing through, it’s ugly now but keep going, it’s a phase. If you have that strength of belief to carry you through it can come good.

At no point in this process do I have an idea of finished – what it will look like or when it may happen. (or if… tbh there’s always an if)

Then I catch a little corner, in my eye or my camera, and I know it will be ok.

Colour bomb 28/52

This week was full of colour.
Dabs and daubs.
Layer on layer on layer on layer on layer…

Eyes and spirals and circles and more…
Building up over and over and over and more and deeper and lusher and more.

That’s the sorta week it was.

reflecting ‘so much more’ 27/52

Every week I create something.

Some weeks I create more.

In fact – most days I create loads – but in terms of the tangible, the painty reality, every week of this year I am creating at least one something: One page of One book of One year

I’m over half way in now, and I’m detecting more and more patterns all the time, every one a metaphor for the unfolding times in which they’re made:

Some weeks start on the first day and incrementally develop a little at a time.
Some weeks are a flurry of fervour, forced into focus in a short few days: blurting out in totality at the start, or squished up against the finishing hours.

They all reflect some underlying aspects, some current cares and the modality of the moment:
Words and feelings ooze in and out.. You might not hear them, but we both know they are there.

Weaving in the elements: internal and external.

There’s what rests on the surface, and there’s so much more.

The surface reflects to you what you project out.
For everyone it’s something personal and new.

Each page, each week, each is contained within a season of interest with the cast of supporting characters who meander about and around my days. These recent weeks have been populated by some images that I printed more than I needed for a project I’ve since finished. Smiling, familiar faces from within the framework that structures these times. Left over faces smile out of these times.

Here from the perspective of a photo I see all that I’d like to do to ‘finish’ the image. But that week has passed so it’s another that I’ll leave as it is, almost ready, a little soft in the middle and a bit raw in places. It’s all ok.
Time pushes on, I’m over the other side of this one now.

The Gestalt is Revealed 24/52

“To see patterns is to understand.”

Do you know Jason Silva?
He’s media artist, futurist, philosopher,
he’s a ball of frenetic energy and enthusiasm and with a magnificent mastery of descriptive language he spills this energy out into the internet in Shots of Awe.

I like Jason Silva a LOT.

I was listening to him talking with Tim Ferris while I made the most part of this page.

Evolution of a Ideas

I love the dance between the digital and the analog.

Set the pixels in place, print and then set to with the tools of a previous age:

Actual cutting with actual scissors

Actual mess with actual paste.

The combination of these colours and the sheen of the medium have given her heads a pearly purity.

(And all that baldness was bothering me.
It’s getting lost now under layers of cut out swirls.)

Poured paint, deluge of color.
But tonally bland.

Contrast added. A sea of souls.

“The Creative Flow”

Set with the challenge to create two works – any media, any format – with the dual themes of Water and The Creative Process. If you’ve been following the story that started out a few weeks ago, then you’ll know I finally reached the point I’m calling these paintings finished!

I loved the way they evolved. I made it my mission to let go of any fixed idea of final outcome, and let the creative process flow like water. You know me, I love a metaphor! Would I do anything differently if I did this again? sure I would! But that’s why it’s called a practice, right?

Anyhoo… you’ve read enough words, now for the pictures!

Long Time Week (13/52)

One quarter of the year through: meet week 13.

Compared with the last few, this was an uncomplicated page: dragged paint and organic in its making, a lightly tribal vibe. Muted.

But as a collection of 7 days in my life it’s been brimming to overflow (hence less time to spend in this book).

I’ve been reading Caroline Myss. She’s directed some of my thoughts to a place I haven’t visited in a long while, it’s been both refreshing and nostalgic.

It’s a page that crossed months: March over to April, so has the intentions I set for April. This time open ended wishes, based around the tone of climate I’m wanting to head toward next: Contentment, Progress, Stability, Fun, Restfulness. I think that has it covered for the immediate!

Three Colour Challenge

Nuvofelt’s challenge was just what I needed this evening.

After a day of getting on with some long put off jobs about the nest, my reward for myself was an hour or so of de-rusting my painting skills.

The three colours I chose (without a lot of thought) were Magenta, Gold Ochre & Purple. Which for someone who has been in a rut of bluey greens for a loooong time, was probably a well balanced choice.

One at a time, on with the colour!

The artificial light doesn’t do the colour justice. It might be a work in progress or maybe a done thing, I’ll review it in the cold light of morning. Either way it was fun to do, I recommend it as a way to break colour habits!

upside-down-ery

editDSC_2660 — hole-punch holes make for old fashioned typewriter key style letters

I love the way ideas and moods will just flip upside down sometimes.

From a sure and steady point, no warning, suddenly everything is reversed, inside-outed. Its own antithesis.

Yesterday was strong and richly toned, uncoordinated, bloated with opulence and excess.

Today has a muted, balmy calm behind knotty labyrinthine lines.

Tomorrow? we’ll have to wait and see! 😉

out of the sketchbook!

I’m so enjoying the page a day project, and the 12 in 12 (updates on that one soon) but it has meant that not so much art has been going on outside of the sketchbooks.

So I decided to venture out of my papery comfort zone and onto canvas. This is a first for me! It’s still a work in progress, but here’s how it’s starting out…

Being a deep canvas I want to incorporate the edges. With no particular plan I started out with acrylic glazes….