Working in a series...

Working in a series... 

can free you up to create without getting bogged down in the details.

When working on six paintings at one time, you really don't have time to focus on just one.  The focus is on composition, color and adding the same elements in each piece while making each one a little different, yet alike enough that you could hang all or several together.

I started out with a few ideas...vases, fruit, flowers and coffee cups...no surprises there.  From there I grabbed a pad of 11x15 140lb water color papers and covered 12 pieces of paper with dress maker patterns as a base, gluing them down with fluid matte medium.

For my process, I lay out 6 pieces of paper on my art table.  They are already activated with the dress maker pattern paper so I'm ready to lay out pieces of my Gelli papers to find the compositions that works with the large shapes of vases and coffee cups, then fruit and flowers.  Once I find my composition I glue them in place with medium and start to paint around it, looking for interesting marks from the dress maker patterns below.  Once I have it all painted in and around, I add a little detail with my black Stabillo water soluble pencils.

I like the dress maker patterns for several reasons...

1. this thin paper is really easy to glue down on your surface using liquid matte medium

2. the marking instructions on the paper offer up interesting marks to work with

3. you can find old patterns for a bout 50 cents at most thrift stores

I also incorporated a few favorite elements into each series.  

The series above I used papers I printed using my Gelli Plate...

they were perfect for the vases and coffee cups.

The series below included the dress maker patterns and...my new favorite element I learned 

how to make from my student Jolee Pollack...

fabric + joint compound + mediums and raw umber paint.

I'm crazy about the texture and all the cracks in the surface...I cut out pieces and added them into this series as either vases or table surfaces.

I'm happy with how these two series of six turned out.  They were fun and relaxing to work on and nice to create a stock of small painting to have for upcoming shows and markets.

I think I may do a video soon on the joint compound fabric...I love working with it and have added it into a few new pieces.  The piece below...

"If We Were A Bluebird"

has been juried into the Oceanside Museum Of Arts annual show 

In The Moment

Ashton Gallery

Opening reception January 11th

Hope you're enjoying the holiday build up.

If you have some free time...do a fun little series of paintings.

They are great gift ideas or just to get you juiced up for the year to come.