Paint – Ink, Yarn & Beer

New Year Stuff

I am going to hold off on political commentary. Instead, it seems that this New Year has brought about a couple of changes. Two are chosen, one is a necessity.

First of all, I added a new set of colors on my watercolor palette. It’s kind of fun as it mixes things up – you can get too comfortable with colors you use every day. I like to shake things up a bit when I get too cosy, so I added things like verrditer blue and returned a least favorite color, viridian, to my palette. Other colors, too, which I cannot recall right at the moment, but it seems this new palette will get me some brighter colors. Here is a painting I did with these new ones:

Next, I moved my sewing around. I had bought a sewing cabinet several months ago, thinking it would work in the studio. Nope! Too crowded and claustrophobic. I closed it up and moved back out to the dining room. However patient my husband is, the clutter got to me far more than it got to him. As a result, earlier this month I moved a book case from the bedroom into the studio and placed the cabinet where the book case was. And, it works! Yes, I do have to close things down and adjust to having things in different places, but it does the job, and the dining area is not a disaster.

Finally, my computer crapped out on me 2 times this morning. The first time it froze watching a YouTube video. Rebooted. Then, after walking away from my computer for 10 minutes, the monitors were black and nothing would reactivate them except another reboot. Off to Costco to get a prefabricated Windows computer. It works great. Now I have some software installed on the new computer and using it to write this blurb. Meanwhile, I am copying files, which will take hours, from the old computer to an external hard drive so I can put them on the new critter. It will take a bit of time to get all cosy again, but c’est la vie.

So there you are. New Year, new activities.

Toys

Monoprinting Magic

In my dotage, I am working toward art in my life on a regular basis. While I haven’t pulled out my ink brushes and done sumi-e in a while, I have pulled out the watercolor brushes. And the other day, I went to a class on monoprinting, which I knew about in theory, but had never done nor seen. In reading, monoprinting is essentially a painting turned into a print using a variety of techniques. Different surfaces can be used upon which to place the paint, and then different papers or materials can receive it. The way monoprinting can be done is endless. To read more about monoprinting, here is the link to the Wikipedia explanation.

There were two things I needed to buy for this class, which came through a Meetup group near me. I got a gelatin plate from Amazon, and a roller / brayer. Instructions including a mandate to wear old clothes and prepare to get messy. We did! It took a few good scrubbings to clean my hands off . . .

So, plate in hand, and brayer, I showed up. Before each person’s seat was a lovely package, not in brown paper, but it was tied up with string. Inside were stencils and silhouettes of objects, and all sorts of weird things (methought), including Q-tips and wine corks, to name a few. And paper. And a big plastic menu cover, which was later used as a surface to hold the paint for the monoprint, as was the gelatin plate. The hard plastic released the paint less readily than the gelatin plate, and as a result more prints could be made, but the paint transfer was not as rich.

To my mind, which tends to want total control, I was in a land of chaos. I remember wandering between my prints, wondering what the heck to do, and befuddles and confused about the whole thing. I know this is how my mind works. I also know that as I progress in my knowledge and experience in doing things, order is created out of the seeming chaos, and that is when imagination and creativity can begin. Practice leads to understanding of what it is I do, and how to do it, and opens doors along the pathway of experience. The creative process is its own reality.

Monoprinting needs space, supplies, and imagination, and a willingness to let things happen. One layer of the print can lead to another layer. Each layer creates its own universe. While you may have an idea about what you want to do – the final product – it is also a world that creates itself. I enjoyed it, especially the creative potential of it. Did I create works of art? Hell no, but I had fun – and that is a great reinforcement for future playtime with the gel plate and roller.

Practicing

First of all, apologies for the big copyright in the middle of the pictures, but hopefully it will act as a deterrent to theft. Probably not.

Leaves 2

That said, I have been working a lot on just thinking about painting, and how to do it without creating a big mess. Patience and mindfulness and focus are necessary. These are not my virtues.

Nude Study

I’ve been looking at videos, re-reading books, and reviewing palettes and formulae for colors. I have also been working on drawing and brushwork. Sumi-e does help, as the movement of the brush, even with color, still plays an important part in creating a painting.

Astrolomeria

There are other tools for painting as well. I used some watercolor pencils for fine lines, as seen in the onion. I used pencil drawing to lay the foundation of the nude.

Onion

Some progress has been made.