Not using a brush or a palette knife…

The June challenge in the Abstract and Contemporary Art forum at WetCanvas is (was) to “…create a painting without using a brush or palette knife.” I had decided way back at the beginning of June to try this…I have no idea where the month has disappeared to…but here it is the last day of June!!!

I thought that this challenge was something that I would be fully open to and well equipped for...I have no qualms about using my fingers or any instrument that will get the paint on the canvas the way I want to slather, smoosh, or dab it on…except I always like to do a base coat or 2 of a colour first...I’m not too anal about a lot of things…but I do have a thing about starting a painting on a nicely coloured, smooth canvas…even if I am going to go and put all kinds of texture on it! So it was more of a challenge than I first thought...having to start my painting without the usual smooth base…it is very easy to just reach for a brush without thinking about it!

I applied the first base coat with a credit card-type piece of plastic…hard to get smooth…but I am going to accept uneven into my life - for this painting anyway…














Once the first coat was dry, I put on a second, darker blue base coat, again with the credit card-type thing…it came out looking a lot like denim and I quite liked it and so decided to leave a fair amount of the background showing in the overall piece…


















After the base coats were dry, I applied the modeling gel…again using the credit card-type things, and then using the laptop hard drive metal holder for the honey comb-like texture, the old metal number 3, my plastic triangle painting support and a pen cap for the other textures…then I had to wait for a few days for that to dry!













Here is where I am at now…maybe finished…not sure yet…I used q-tips and my fingers to apply the paints and inks over the modeling gel. I dribbled inks on some bits of cheese cloth that I had set on some waxed paper and let them dry, and then I splattered more inks on them using an old tooth brush. After I stuck the hardened cheese cloth pieces onto the canvas with the modeling gel, I dabbed on some acrylic paints using q-tips.


















This has been a fun challenge and it is funny, but in a way it has made me less fussy about using some of my brushes...I have these beautiful, pristine brushes that I usually use for everything, but I also have these old, abused ones that I never used…now I find myself using these old beat up ones more…on other pieces I am working on…for smushing the paint into the textured parts…for this piece I couldn’t use the brushes, but for these other pieces…boy is it so easy to use my old ones…

Wreck This Journal…

So, as well as joining another WetCanvas project…I also joined another online book group…same person leading as the last one…new book…

The book being done this time is called “Wreck This Journal” by Keri Smith. I am late starting in…it is week 3 already, but that doesn’t really matter…especially for this book project.

When my book arrived last week and I had my first look through it (it takes just a few minutes to go through...just looking...not 'doing'!) my initial response to it was ”WOW...I must be a prude! I can’t do many of the things this book is instructing me to do.” - I hadn't expected that from myself!

You see, this isn’t your average book…it is an exercise in deconstruction…the subtitle of the book is “To Create is to Destroy”. The idea is to make you go against your better judgement, to ignore and quiet your inner critic…to get your messy, dirty, and destructive “who cares about the final product” child to come out and play. It is an exercise in letting go...

When I first read about this online book project on Jamie’s site: The Next Chapter, I thought – hey, I can do that…it should be easy…I am usually pretty good about not ‘playing by the rules’...when it comes to painting and creating, anyway…because I don’t know a lot of the rules…so ignorance is bliss, I figure…but this book wants me to do things I wouldn’t think of doing to a book…rip pages out…put food on it…yuk! How can I do that??? I am ok with writing on the pages…I have always done that with my books, break the spine…I can’t read a book without breaking the spine…fold over corners, sure…but take it in the shower? Rub dirt into it…rip and tear and in other ways destroy it? Here I run into trouble…I guess I do always want a final product…I hate sticky…how can I rip and tear it?

So, after some thought, I have decided to go through and do the things that I have no trouble with…and then I will start doing the harder and harder (for me) things…we’ll just have to see how it goes! The idea is to loosen up on your ingrained taboos...so I will try...

Some of the people in the group are getting right into it…smashing their book to the point that it rips in half, putting peanut butter on it and tossing it to their dogs…spitting and smearing food in it…at this point I can’t see myself doing that…any of that…but I will try…

Each week Jamie puts up a post on her site: The Next Chapter: Wreck This Journal, and then the group members can post a link to their weekly "Wreck This Journal" post...it is fun to see what some people are doing...amazing!

Update...

Here are the 3 8"x8" little textural canvases all together...finished...so far, I think, anyway...they seem to be sitting fine! I haven't felt the need to fuss at them...

Progress pictures...

Not much to say...just wanted to get some progress shots up...

I think this one is finished...I may have to wait until all 3 of the little ones (8"x8") like this are finished...not that they are meant to be a series, but they are all similar in a way...so far I am calling this group of textural paintings 'Daydreaming'...because that is what I am doing when I do them...doodling, playing and letting my mind wander and daydream...


















This is the 3rd one of the small textural ones...3 progress shots...















































This is the big canvas that I am working on using the modeling gel to create texture first and then painting on top of the texture...this is the 24"x36" canvas...I am having great fun trying out all the different bits and pieces that I have squirreled away with creating texture in mind...

Playing…and dogs…

An important part of my creative process – and I believe that this applies to most people who are exploring their creativity…is that I have to let go and play sometimes. I have to try new things, new tools, new materials, new products…and there is always that allowing myself to let go and not worrying about ‘creating bad art’...or 'wasting materials'! Just letting myself get lost in the process, in the feel of the paint...not even thinking that 'I don't know how' to use or do something...getting lost in my thoughts, my feelings...daydreaming...

This is also an important part of the therapy that art is for me...the getting lost, the letting go...that is the healthy part of this whole process, the healing part...if I can 'get lost' for an hour or more in my studio...that is better than any nap I can take or book I can escape into...it is like taking my brain to the spa...I come back to reality feeling refreshed and rested...

There are so many different acrylic products available…from types of paints and inks, to things you can add to your paints, to all the various gels and textural mediums. Add to this the endless methods of applying it all...I am always adding to my collection of 'tools'...from the bent metal tongue depressor-sized and shaped tool that my brother-in-law, Tonio, made for me, and various other things he gave me from his workshop to squish the paint on, to the different lids from broken things, to credit cards, to the laptop hard drive metal frame that made the honey-comb-like shape in the gel...the list goes on...

A lot of my paintings have great gobs of paint on them…the more I can pile on and the more wild the array of colours the better! A while back I had bought a little tub of Tri-Art Semi Gloss Modeling Gel…I had originally thought maybe I could mix it with my paints to make them even more capable of bulking up…but I haven’t tried that yet…I was afraid of thinning out the colour. Also…this stuff isn’t cheap and I would need so much of it…

So the tub sat…until this past week when I decided to try something totally new for me…and I am having a riot! It is a test for my non-existent patience for waiting for paint to dry though…it takes 2-3 days for the gel layer to dry before I can attack it with paints and inks…but this only serves to make me start more and more pieces…trying to keep busy while waiting for pieces to dry…so I guess it is a good thing!

I think I am happiest when I have a few different things on the go and can just bop from one thing to another…working on my latest little card project (the alphabet one), I have prepared a huge (for me…the biggest yet at 28”x36”) canvas to start doing my Georgian Bay series and a whole lot of smaller canvases that I am playing with the textural medium on (including 1 big one - 24”x36”).

The gel goes on white…this is the second canvas I have started…


















It dries clear…this is the first of the canvases I am playing around with...


















And a detail...














Once dry, I started adding colour…this was where I got to last night…and was happy, but after looking at it for a while, decided it wasn’t finished…it needed something more up at the top and some metallic inks…


















I think it is finished…will let it dry and see…mostly I used my fingers to put on the acrylic paints and inks…great messy fun! (I think I have paint on my keyboard and my camera now!!!)…


















And a detail...














Yesterday we had well over 300 lbs worth of dog in the house! We had our 2, Shea and Teddy who weigh in at about 85 lbs and 55 lbs respectively, then, while Oma had dinner with one of her daughters, we babysat her Kenya (95 lbs) and Remi (probably 100 lbs)…Oma is babysitting Remi for a few days…plus we had my younger’s wee puppy, Kaiah who probably doesn’t weigh 5 lbs…that is a lot of dog! It was hilarious…the biggest, Remi, and the smallest, Kaiah, hit it off and played and played…Kaiah ran her little heart out – Remi only had to take a couple steps here and there to keep up and they barked and barked in joy…one huge, deep bark and one wee bark…

Kaiah is not as big as Remi’s head! Here are the 2 of them at the barricade that we made upstairs so they wouldn’t fall down the stair case…


















This picture is so Remi…he is a real gentle soul, ragamuffin 2 year old gallumpous…

A different way of being creative…

I have a thing for magazines…especially cooking and art ones…I love to look through the cooking ones while I am waiting in the line at the grocery store…if I find a recipe that I must have, then I buy it…it was the Vichyssoise recipe that made me buy the latest Fine Cooking magazine…that and the crab cake cook-off article…and the article on searing, braising and glazing on the barbeque…

Vichyssoise has always been one of my favourite summer soups…sipping spoonfuls of this silky smooth cold soup brings memories of my childhood flooding back…I had a wonderful childhood…filled with family fun, friends and adventures with my horse when I took off into the back fields and woods of the farm I grew up on…

When I was young, Mom would buy a frozen version of Vichyssoise...how easy is that?!…if I remember correctly, it came packaged like frozen juice and you added milk or cream to it…I think Campbell’s Soup made it…and it was delicious! We had a huge clump of chives in the garden that we would grab a handful of and cut onto the soup…

Cariño has made this before…but since he has been back at school, his soup-making days are few and far between for now…so I decided to try my hand at it…

Here is my adaptation of the recipe from the magazine…I used 1% instead of whole milk and 10% cream instead of heavy cream, I also reduced the amount of salt and used more leeks…I think the straining it through the sieve (actually you have to really coax it – I used a wooden spoon) is really important for getting the silky texture…

Vichyssoise

• 4-5 medium leeks – use the white part and a bit of the light green, cut in half and wash, then slice 1/8 inch thick – need about 4 cups (generous)
• 4-6 medium yellow-fleshed potatoes, peeled, cut in half and sliced 1/8 inch thick – need about 4 cups (generous)
• 2 cups 1% milk
• 2 cups water
• Salt
• 1 cup 10% cream
• Chives, for garnish

Put the leeks, potatoes and milk and water in a big pot and heat over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer.
Lower the heat to medium-low and add 1 teaspoon salt.
Simmer for about 20 minutes – until the potatoes fall apart when you stick a fork in them.
Remove from the heat and add the cream.
Let sit in the pot for a little while to cool, then, a bit at a time, puree the soup in a blender.
After pureeing, strain the soup through a fine sieve.
Let the soup cool to room temperature, stirring every so often to keep a skin from forming.
Once cooled to room temperature, refrigerate until cold.
Serve with chives cut over top.

Serves about 6 one cup servings

I have been painting a bit too...here are the next 3 for the Alphabet project...like the quilt blocks that I did, I find doing these calming and meditative...