Saturday 25 August 2007

My latest ATC

It's no good! I am certifiably addicted to these pesky little cards. Just as I thought that I was getting a head of steam up with my abstract exhibition canvasses, I have gotten involved with another card swap. My task was to do another waterfall ATC, for the swap. Not art, but certainly creative and wonderful fun. What do you think?


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This is it.... no more... until I have broken the back of the task of preparing for the exhibition - promise.

Wednesday 22 August 2007

more exhibition canvasses

Went to my art group last night and managed to complete the set of four seasons. For completeness (forgot yesterday) the size of the canvasses is 12X12 inch square. Here are winter and summer.



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Afraid the lighting for the shots is very poor but never mind, its my way of showing that I am making progress to the exhibition date. Note that there are no "metallics" on these two, I had intended there to be but found that I did not want to spoil the patterns with more paint! have to say my colleagues in the group agreed.
Hope to be back real soon....

Tuesday 21 August 2007

Finally made a start on exhibition canvasses

Well, Only four weeks to go and I am in Menorca for one of those. I have to admit to sweating a little on this one. Normally I paint fairly prolifically, but this time last year I discovered ACEO's. I have hardly done a decent sized painting since. What is it about those damn little things that makes them so addictive. You don't get any warnings with them!

Apart from painting ACEO's I have also, as you will have noticed started collaging and getting into 'papercraft' (found a very lively and friendly group on ebay which has only recently started so most members are quite active). I have also got myself into the process of 'swapping', ATC's that is. So my time has gone with a whirl over the last few months.

So... Exhibition canvasses? I have decided that the only way to put together a large enough tranche of paintings is to do a number of abstracts. We are a small group, so need to participate fully at our annual bash. I usually enter several abstracts, just to widen the scope of the display and show the world we are not all 'chocolate box' painters. (with apologies to my colleagues and their wonderful landscapes).

I have purchased my canvasses, all exhibition wrapped so they do not need framing. I have purchased a good quantity of acrylic paints including some metallics for the first time ever. I have spent odd minutes sketching and playing with themes and ideas. So everything is ready and over the weekend I painted my first two from a set of four. Based on the four seasons, may not be terribly original, but for a small, local group......... Here are spring & autumn:-




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I am happier than I though I might have been with these, sketches show the way but sometimes you never quite end up where you think you are going. The gold and copper paints actually look a whole lot better than the silver which looks a murky grey. I may have to add a few highlights to 'spring'.
Will hope fully be back soon....

Thursday 16 August 2007

results of my labours...

well I have been learning the waterfall card technique that I posted about recently, I have now made four of these in an attempt to improve on my first shown in that post. All this scoring / bending / cutting and glueing seems so much more inefficient than simply painting. Here are my efforts so far:-


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As you can see I have been concentrating on a similar theme to get it right. A close-up of the final product of this process is shown here:-


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I am quite pleased with it and hope the recipient of this ATC card will like it. I have already seen her card for me and it puts mine to shame in a number of respects ( technique rather than design). I have already been asked if I would like to do another swop, and have agreed to make another similar ATC for that. So it can't be all that bad, can it?
Three of the four cards above were made in different thicknesses of card as an experiment as I had no idea what I should be using or what the card should look/feel like. All the mechanisms worked OK but the bulk of the card made using the thicker base stock was ridiculous and it was so hard scoring and folding to get the "waterfall" to lie right. I think that is why mine feels so awkward.
Should I be starting with fresh and new fields of endeavour (sounds grand doesn't it) at my age? I don't normally ask myself this question, but certainly won't after reading the latest posting from Cape Art : Painting at 40 . By the way I am over 60!
Well I'm going back to finish off another version of this ATC, hope you'll come back again real soon - John




Tuesday 14 August 2007

more collage....

Well whilst I was at the keyboard I thought that I may as well share this one with you. It is called 'Two Little Boys' an ATC on the theme of friendship (remember the Rolf Harris song), I did this one for a swop for a papercrafting group on ebay. The images have been mounted on to an old ACEO w/c painting.

here it is:-


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Don't quite know what the cat has to offer, but everyone seems to keep saying they are popular; and anyway it carried on the dark slightly offset perpendicular line. The roses were just to cover up a big bush! I had to paint the boys shirts to make them a little more visible.
Sorry for the haze, I had varnished the surface and it seems to have mucked up the flash - or did I just breathe in too soon?
more collages to come in my next post, see you soon


Papercrafting

I always said that I had been addicted to ACEO's since stumbling upon them by accident whilst browsing on ebay.

I decide to research them more fully and started putting together a series Squidoo Lenses, which some of you may have been good enough to visit (in the process earning a few dollars for the Squidoo charity fund). Whilst putting this research together I was taken with the concept of collaging and started to experiment with one or two ideas, which I have mostly posted in this blog. This has in turn led me further away from my starting point into the realms of paper crafting. I am finding that there is much more to this than meets the eye. At one level it is simply about sticking 'bits and pieces' to a folded sheet of card and adding some kind of greeting, but isn't this what collage is about........... anyway to cut a long story short and to get to the point of this post without upsetting anyone, here is my first 'waterfall' ATC. I have become engaged in a swap on a crafting website and learning this technique fast!!!!



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It is unfinished, because I ran into some practical problems.
In case you are not aware of this technique, if you pull on the tag at the bottom of the group of pictures (the waterfall?) you will unfold the tab and open up the images one by one. Simple really when you know how!
As a demo:-




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My biggest issue was scoring the card which is used for the tab without cutting into it. I watched a video on You Tube and the crafter had no problems but obviously had some special tools for the task. I must experiment to achieve the same thing with the household tools at my disposal. A plastic orange peeler was too soft, the tip of a pair of scissors was too sharp; I need a happy medium.
An artist's life is never easy.................

Sunday 12 August 2007

Nothing to do with art

Hi, I have just returned from a short break on Dartmoor, and having got absolutely no art work done recently, I thought that I would regale you with a video that I have just posted on YouTube as a comment on another video that I had promised to do. It is called "Our Pond - Our Frogs" ; 5 minutes of excruciating boredom............... unless that is you happen to like frogs. In any case, please take a look and comment - politely if at all possible.



I am so busy with other holiday plans at present and I have a number of canvasses to prepare for an exhibition which is coming up in late September. So I am in a quandry about wether to blog about nothing or wait until there is something substantial to post. I will try to show some of my exhibition paintings over the next few weeks. They are mostly planned out and sketched - I have just got to get my finger out and stop procrastinating. Always was my biggest single fault