Tag Archives: Conceptual Art

Jan15

More Imaginary People I Know

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“Fiona Knew Things” from “Imaginary People I Know”

Oil Pastel, gouache, watercolor on muslin 5 x 7 inches

I can’t seem to move past doing these faces!  I am doing them now in a handmade muslin book that I won in a giveaway a couple of years ago.  I was so afraid I would mess it up that I avoided working in it until I did “He Was His Mother’s Favorite,” (below)  that got me started.

Now I’ve decided to fill the whole book with these imaginary faces and add some mixed media scraps, and titles,  after I’m finished.

I think it will be a nice little book of strange people!

“The Boy Who Talked to Elves,” Imaginary People I Know – oil pastel, gouache on muslin 5 x 7 inches

A younger version of “The Lost Boy,”  who is also in this muslin book.  There is something really satisfying about working on muslin this way.  Lynne Hoppe ( see my blogroll for her website)  made the book and decided her sewing wasn’t right so she gave it away.  Yay! – I won it and have saved it all this time.   The muslin is tea-dyed first ( I think) and then each side of the muslin is gessoed and then lightly sanded so the pages are somewhat stiff.  It’s almost like painting on loosely stretched canvas – but the muslin is a smoother surface, more sensitive to oil pastels.  Sometimes watercolor will seep through the page – but this just makes it more interesting!

This is what the outside, back and front look like.  I plan on painting both covers too.

This is what the inside pages look like before I paint on them.

 

 “She Made Wands from Other People’s Wishes” from “Imaginary People I Know”

Oil pastel, gouache on muslin 5 x 7 inches

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Jan4

2012 Journal – Page 2 – “Going Home”

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 “Going Home” – Journal Page, gouache, oil pastel, graphite, collage

Its always seems so much easier to do journal pages, than doing full-sized paintings.  The mistakes I make on the journal page, are either covered up, or not – and become part of the composition.  I don’t worry about proportion, or exactly looking like the things they are supposed to be – its a concept, right?  But I can’t do this when I’m in a full painting mode, and then I lose the spontaneous thing that makes an interesting painting.  Its frustrating, and keeps me going back to the journal pages to avoid solitary paintings.

If you look closely you can see two small torn pictures of doves in the background –  I tore these from a magazine ages ago, and that’s what I modeled my doves from.

I don’t know how to draw birds, so I am practicing in my journal pages to learn how – I’ve recently bought several books of birds, I wasn’t looking for them, it seemed they just turned up wherever I went!  I bought an Audubon box of 50 bird prints in a thrift store for a few dollars, dated from the 1950’s.  They are quite beautiful – and then I gave them away for a Christmas gift.  I found a newer poster sized book later of the same prints that serves my purpose very well – strangely there were no doves in it – pigeons, but no doves.  That’s why I had to look through my torn magazine pages to find some doves.

Dec7

Air, Fire, Water, Earth – again

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“Air”- Oil pastels, gouache, on vintage book page 4×6

I know I’ve already done this concept – but I wasn’t totally happy with the first series so I did them over.  Are re-do’s okay?  I think they are. The other thing that happened (unexpectedly) was that I sold the first set of this series and I had planned on giving it as a Christmas gift.  Selling art is always a good thing, right?  Don’t know if I will gift this set or not.  Doing them over was an interesting process – and I learned something in the process – I wasn’t bored with doing them over at all.  Its odd how the “air”  and “water” look very similar to the first set.  But “Fire” and  “Earth” look very different.

“Water” – Oil pastel, gouache, on vintage book page 4×6 in

“Fire” – Oil pastel, gouache, on vintage book page 4×6 in

“Earth” – oil pastel, gouache, on vintage book page 4×6 in

This one looks a little wonky – but I like it better than the first one,  I like the long braids.  Looks very much like a goddess of the earth to me.

(The shadows in the corners of all four of these are just the weights I used to hold them flat for photography.)