Category Archives: Works In Progress

Oil For Winter

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I wrote this a little while ago and forgot to post it. I have stepped away from this exploration as i discovered something was missing.

While originally intended to chronicle my exploration of Scrye Dye, with winter and the removal of all but the hardiest of Pansies for color, I have turned to oils for a piece I have been pondering for close to a year.

I originally started playing with paints about a year ago. First watercolors, then acrylics and finally oils. As I explore I have seen the myriad possibilities and am enjoying the learning process of how to get there. I had a # of projects in the works when I discovered Scrye Dye and set them all aside.

Now, it is time to get back to that work, wherever it leads, and instead of starting a new site just for it or whatever kind of categorization my mind might like to place it in, I will display it here along my other artwork.

This is the start of a piece that is part of an anti-consumerism series I have been kicking around for about a year. Now, the politics are not where I like to voice myself, simply stated I am still very much a part of the consumerist machine, but I see the cracks, I see the charades, it’s a Hollywood movie come to life, except we all get to be the stars in our own personalized version, be it comedy, drama or an eternal spin in Dante’s Inferno.

When will I stop my ride? Either when I choose to or am forced to and when that day comes I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, here are my thoughts on what we are doing.

The original sketch

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Filling in the black

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Sharpening the outline of the letters.
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Adding the blue of the ocean
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Starting to see something go wrong with the snake as I color it in.20120102-144010.jpg

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I put on a scale pattern to see if I can get it back on track, while continuing to add other color.20120102-144026.jpg

Shortly after this, as I worked on the mouth it went horribly wrong. I haven’t taken pictures of that yet because I am not sure where to go from here. I am thinking about taking some art lessons to learn some of the things I need to know to reach the next level. Since this was a dry run for the canvas it accomplished what I had hoped it would. I know some of the basic design changes I would like to see to make it really work and then I need to figure out exactly how to paint it how I want it.
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And this is where things come together to start becoming something or not.

Looking for red…

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I have been working on one particular piece this week that I am currently calling Purple Spect(ta)re, it is almost finished except I can’t find a good red. There are lots of red flowers in our garden and around, but none of them give a real red color on the canvas, most turn purple or at best some form of burgundy.

I’ve done some research and found a few sites that talk about plant dyes but most of them require processing to get to the color and that isn’t what Scrying is all about for me.

I have turned to berries to try and find the red and found something that kind of works in what Lisa refers to as an Oregon Berry, I don’t know if that is its real name or not, but since I don’t know the names of most flowers I refer to her expertise to tell me what it is that I am messing with most of the time.

The Oregon Berry did give me a bit of a red, but also a brown, it was quite bizarre the way it turned out, but strangely it worked, at least enough for me to be satisfied with it, but now its effects have left me needing a black, which I haven’t come across in anything I have used thus far.

That being said, for those that come here looking for information on plant dyes, I’ll pass along these links that I found that give recommendations on how to get various colors by boiling and other processing methods.

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/crafts/crafts-basics/naturaldyes.html

http://autonopedia.org/crafts_and_technology/Fabric_and_Dyes/List_Of_Plant_Dyes_By_Colour.html

And this book that seemed to be specifically for those of you wanting to die yarns, etc
Colours from Nature, Bobbi A McRae, Storey, 1993

New Project and Palette Book Update

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Two things cooking at the moment. The first is I met with Chris from Just Canvas this week to see his prototype for my canvas sketchbook/palette color book. He had a great start and it was very close to what I had in mind. He is going to retool it and have a new version ready to look at sometime next week. As soon as I get it, I will of course post some pictures. I think the idea will work for many other artists well beyond what my concept is for.

The second thing is I had an image pop into my head that I want to paint, but I suspect it may be more of a challenge than I can manage. One of the biggest challenges with Scyring is the inability thus far to produce purposeful detail. I can do accidental detail and vague detail, but when I want to do something on purpose, at least on a small canvas scale it is near impossible, so I am trying to envision images that can be done with what I know works so far.

I think this might work, but I also think it may end up looking nothing like I intend it. I did the following rudimentary sketch and have started to sketch an outline on the canvas for painting. It is a spectre of the stars gazing down at something, it might be the flower as depicted in the preliminary sketch, it may be a pool of waters containing stars or it maybe something else entirely.

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Updates

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Been kind of a slow week. Painted yesterday, didn’t love the outcome and the pictures I took were too blurry, later in the evening when trying to spray one of the dogs to get them to quiet down I ended up dowsing both of the current works in progress and ruining them…so, back to the drawing board.

The one I was working on yesterday was a landscape piece, it started out with the purple spot shown on the middle right and I was going to make a Seuss type flower out of it, but instead decided it would become a moon after I used an Orange Pansy to make the mountainy scene below it instead of just ground. Later I added Purple Pansy for the sky over a mix of Orange Marigold and Yellow Pansy. Lastly I put a splash of blue from the Purple Pansies on the land to try and make a water feature…all in all it was probably for the best that it got splashed.

Sorry this picture is a little on the blurry side.

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This is what it looked like after getting splashed.

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And this is what it currently looks like after I stripped away the bottom half and then accidentally sprayed some Gaia’s Gold(a veggie wash/cleaner) that hit the top of it. My intention was to reuse the top half and do this image of a cloaked figure I have in my head, but I think I will be doing that on another piece now and will probably start fresh on this one. I don’t know if it translates in the picture, but here the spots are an almost fluorescent green.

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The other project I have been working on was my attempt to do something other than a mix of blues and purples. I used the Orange Lily, Its Anthers, Orange Marigold and Yellow Pansy for the four corners and then because it was there, Raspberry juice for the center from some berries that Lisa was working with. It made for an interesting, bright and shiny color but really didn’t do anything for the piece.

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Lastly a quick update on my science experiment for color storage. I accidentally…see didn’t pay any attention too, water the Orange Lily I bought and it dried up within a week and most of the leaves fell off along with the majority of the Anther’s drying up and becoming useless, so, I went and checked the samples I had placed in the fridge and the freezer, the Anthers were as perfect as the day I put them in there, the leave seemed to be holding up as well.

At present I can say refrigeration will certainly help prolong the usefulness of Anther’s and possibly of petals as well. More on this as time passes.

Oh and last but not least, I have been discussing having a Canvas Sketchbook made with a local canvas stretcher, it looks like my Canvas Palette Book will soon be a reality.

1,2,3,5 What?

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One might wonder if I am simply bad at math or if something sinister is afoot…I would have to say the latter.

Consider it more a lesson learned in what the sinister effects of leaving a window open with art on the table might be when the sprinkler is set on a timer and you are up on top of some mountain picking Huckleberries and well, here’s the lesson…

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I had been working on the above and the below, two separate pieces, one of 5 tiles and the other of 3. One was for Lisa the other for my mother. Essentially the same concept, letters on canvas squares to spell out Vixen, my nickname for Lisa and of course, Mom.

I was most of the way finished, with the one’s for Lisa, they were made up of Black Hollyhock and the yellow from the Black Lily anther, a coat or two of this makes the most vibrant yellow I have been able to find thus far, plus it’s dry powdery consistency makes it blend with other colors better than moist colors.

The first picture above shows what happened to most of the pieces. I had to essentially wash the canvas off and start over at that point and it was towards the end of the Black Lilies life, by the time I went to pluck their anthers to redo the yellow…well, I was too late, and thus, project #4 is unfinished until either next year or until I find something else to use in its place.

Here is a picture of the mostly reworked E as well as a spot that got hit by it being in the kitchen…

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The moral:

Most important, probably best not to store your artwork in the kitchen…but we live in a small house…so I’ll continue to live dangerously for now.

Second, don’t get an unfinished piece of Scrye work wet, not even a little. Water will instantly damage the integrity and in some cases completely wash away your work. It might add some interesting effects, but unless you are wanting to explore that as an option, keep your work safe until it is completed and you get a chance to coat it.