distilling, Japanese woodcuts, and changing your thinking

6x6 pastel

Oiso- Hiroshige

The hardest thing to do is to distill the landscape down to the elements that are most important. My movement towards a new interpretation of the landscape constantly challenges my habitual ways of looking and creating. It involves some trust to tear me away from my normal ways of working. The first big change is working in the studio rather than outdoors. I often get stymied and frustrated. Recently I find myself turning to the Japanese masters, especially Hiroshige.
So I will share with you my research and realizations. It's ironic how my road paintings are my vehicle to move in this direction. (heehee)

Kambara-Hiroshige

 During the later part of the 18th century the European artists were heavily influenced by the Japanese woodcuts.
The Japanese introduced a whole different way of looking at composition. Some of their devices were:
*the extreme vertical
*truncation  of major parts
*use of large empty space
*very high or very low viewpoints
 *a many paneled painting (while this was not new -think Giotto, Piero della Francesca or the Ghent altarpiece by the van Eycks)

In my next post I will talk more about these and the whys.  Till then....

wolf kahn and his color monoprints

6x6 pastel

I see my new "on the road" series dipping into printmaking. Here is a wonderful video of Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason at their monotype/monoprint show. In it, WK gives a class on his way of making a print. Enjoy!

snow break

pastel 6x6

On Friday I drove to the airport to pick up my husband, Paul. It was snowing like crazy and the beltway was a parking lot. Great for observation. I had him drive on the return trip so that I could take notes and photograph with my phone. I tried to get the feel of the blurriness that happens with snow. This was the beautiful moment when the skies began to break and the snow was only in the light clouds, not falling down. I am experimenting with the colors I build use to build the toned paper. My pastel is so thick I can scratch and scrape with my nails.

A new quote for you:

Create goals for yourself: 

play, fool yourself and other, be an artist."

Paul Klee, diary 1902

With that said, I think I will return to the press (in addition to painting) to work with monotype/print. I was checking out contemporary monotypes and found Forrest Moses. He makes beautiful monotypes that give me goose bumps. Check out his site.

roads with an edge

My roads series is developing into fun with design and now, with edge. hmmmm

beltway bliss, sky paintings

Another sky painting, beltway bliss.

more about skies

 My fascination with skies is dangerous. When I drive the beltway I become obsessed watching when I should be driving. This is one of the small paintings done from my Monday drive. I will post another tomorrow. Car lights,  road cuts and that zoom feeling add to my fascination.

Things to remember about skies:
1.Use predominately warmer colors on the clouds closest to you and cooler colors when they are farther away.
2.This may change when lit by sun.
3.If the sun is below the clouds, the bottom ridge is colored and affected by the sun and the darker side is the top of the cloud. When the sun is above the cloud the reverse is true.