by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Process |
Or…This is How I Do It
Holy creative FREEEEAK-OUT, Batman! A BLANK canvas!!! Oh noooooooooooooo!
I am blinded by the whiteness. Blinded. I need to scuff it up like a new pair of sneakers. But first…
MUSIC! I need MUSIC!!! Loud and rockin’. Something to take my mind off the ARTIC artistic purity before me. Because it’s too precious. Paralyzingly so.
Must. Be…heh heh heh (rub hands together here) … defiled.
With paint! Caran d’ache! Mindless SCRIBBLES!!! Rockin’ to da Boss, dancing the colors. Making marks.
Eventually I’ve got layers. And a bare wall because I get a little…rambunctious while painting. But I think I wrote about that before.
And more layers. This is where it sits for a few weeks because it’s NOT talking to me. Not telling me where it wants to go.
Until the day it says Tone. Me. Down. So I do, with more layers and collage. And then it starts talking. I see a tree in the upper left.
So I work it. Go with the tree theme.
And then I see a bear, lower left.
This is where it’s at now. Not quite finished but almost there. Definitely influenced by where I live. The river is just a few miles down the road, the forest wraps itself around our house. And bears? Chit, I’ve written about ’em.
By the way, this puppy is 40 x 40 inches, gallery wrapped canvas.
Now all I have to do is come up with a name. Any suggestions?
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Process |
Remember this? My first attempt at a concrete orb. The one that b.r.o.k.e.
Well, that was THEN.
This is NOW. A bowl of succulent goodness.
A learning curve, so I tried again.
THEN: Second attempt. Clean hands. Clean clothes. Great manicure, NOT.
More THEN.
Ahhhh, but NOW: My very own double orb planter. The first of what will be many. Someday…. Many thanks to Deborah Bridges for sharing her knowledge.
Remember these layers? Well that was then, maybe a week or two ago.
This is NOW. Is it finished? I dunno. But it’s different. Calmer.
And THEN, there’s Studio Grande. Two weeks ago.
NOW, like today. Holy crap, pinch me! Am I dreaming? Guess I’ll find out for sure tomorrow when I wake up.
But I’m pretty sure it’s real. Heart emoticons here. Lots of ’em.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Process |
This week, in between stacking wood, hauling brush, clearing studio patio land…in between bouts of sweaty mountain womanliness, I MADE ART!!!
‘sperimentin’ kind o’art.
Because I wasn’t allowed to lose myself in the studio. Wasn’t allowed to break out the paints and disappear into the zone where five minutes becomes five hours. Or ten hours. Not with Open Studios Tour coming up in three weeks and all sorts of loose ends to tie up.
But in between nipping down little trees with my bare teeth and wiping sweat from my brow, I dashed into the studio and had my way with Nation Geographic magazines and Citrasolve.
I’d heard you could get some interesting results. Internet arty rumors. They made it sound so easy.
Umm, no…it wasn’t.
Because there’s a lot of conflicting info out there. Like, the magazines must be pre- 1970s.
Well, this is what that looked like. The Citrasolve did nothing to dissolve the ink but my impatience did much to dissolve the paper.
I did some more research. One article said you had to use the non-spray version of Citrasolve. Well, maybe that was my problem. So I went out and bought a bottle of the concentrate. I brushed it on a page from a later National Geographic, maybe mid 80s. This time I tried some direct manipulation. Ugly but progress.
So I kept playing. Moved up to a 2010 edition. Brushed Citrasolve on lots of pages, squeezed them shut and stuck the magazine under a stack of magazines. Then I walked away.
A few hours later I came back and peeled them apart.
Oh oh oh LOVE!!!
Here’s some of what I ended up with.
Look at all this yummy goodness!!! Can you stand it??? Handsprings! Backflips!
There is soooooo much potential here. For paintings. For backgrounds. For encaustics. For collage. For digital whatevers. But mostly for inspiration!
Now it’s time to scan them into the computer (these are just snapshots). I’ll let the ideas percolate and figure what to do with them later. I’m already feeling the AHA! moments bubbling up.
So give it a try. I have to say though, it’s a crapshoot. You don’t know what you’re going to get or if you’re going to get anything at all. Because not everything I tried worked, even when using the same technique that worked for these. And to recap that technique you need: a fairly recent National Geographic magazine, Citrasolve cleaner, rubber gloves and good ventilation. Brush the Citrasolve on random pages, close the magazine, squeeze it, rub it, bury it under something heavy and walk away for a few hours.
That’s it. Have fun with it and if you give it a try let us know how it turns out!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Process |
Studio Grande in living color. Yummy luscious living C-O-L-O-R!!!
Look at that! Don’t you just want to dive in face first because it’s so EXCITING! Brushes! Paint! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh….
First tonight’s brushes…my special friends. The new favorite, the scrawny guy on the left. The one in blue. Came from a bin of cheapies at the local crafts store. OMG, I LOVE THIS BRUSH! Cost me under two bucks and he (’cause he’s a he) he’s a freakin’ work horse! I painted an entire canvas with him yesterday, a 28X30 inch canvas.
OK, so here it is from yesterday, a work-in-progress. But this is all the work of my new little friend.
Fast forward to tonight. I came home from work and headed down to the studio. I had the painting itch. Thought this girl might like to evolve some more. Figured it would be cool to show pictures of the process.
So I started taking them. The brushes up above.
The water.
The palette. Oh look…a yellow heart! And a while, umm…I dunno.
The process. Yes, yes, I know. I’m using the other brush. Must be cheating on Mr. Best Brush. Go figure.
And then…oh noooooooooo! I dropped the camera! All the way down to the floor. Where it bounced. And beeped. And stopped working.
Damn you, gravity!
IT STOPPED WORKING!!!
My beloved best ever in my pocket or purse all the time. My Canon SX210 STOPPED WORKING!!!
I thought about rushing in to town. Getting another one before the grief set in. Replace my camera with another and pretend the whole thing never happened. I’m an artist. And a blogger. How can I function without a camera???
I HAVE TO HAVE ONE!!!
But a trip to town would cost me the light. And a whole bunch o’money. And I had the painting itch. So I stayed in the studio and painted. Made quite a bit of progress. That I can’t show you. Because I don’t have a camera.
You’ll just have to take my word for it.
And if you can recommend a camera I’d be most obliged.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Cool Apps, Photography, Process |
Friend Christina is cleaning. That means if I’m not careful, if I have my back turned or am otherwise engaged, I will discover all sorts of CRAP on my desk. Just. Like. That.
Some of it I even want. Some of it I can use with my class. But the pirate eye patch? No. No no no no no! Even if Johnny Depp wore it once upon a time. Which he did not.
I took the empty pencil tins. The nice ceramic jar for brushes. And half a dozen little bitty used canvasses that someone will be happy to paint over. But I really scored on the books. Collage anyone? Altered anything?
Disclaimer: I don’t cut up beautiful photography books. I photocopy them and then do the cutting.
Is this a beautiful little booty or what? Yum yum yum, I know there’s something I can do with this.
And I’m always a sucker for mother and child bonding.
Oh look, Mummy…those people are on a floating booty barge!
And now it’s time for some Grungetastic manipulation.
This style is called Worn. Looks like it’s been through the washing machine. It’s an upgrade purchased through the app. Another 99 cents. I really like it, maybe not for this image. Something where the action is lower on the page.
There are hundreds of variations I can do with this image alone. Picking only one is a challenge. I see using any of these as a transfer added to a painting. Or used as an element in a collage. Or whatever else my heart desires.
Oh man, this is such a cool app!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Process, Sisters |
She be here! Marjorie Ellen, chief tormentor of my youth, flew in from Norway yesterday. Today I drove down the hill and picked her up at the train station. The first thing we did, after the hugs and kisses, was hop back in the car and head to In-N-Out for a couple of burgers. I will NOT tell you how many burgers my skinny sister can pack away at one sitting. But I can tell you I am jealous–absolutely lime-green-with-envy-kind-of-JEALOUS of her metabolism.
After dinner we headed home. Home. The last time she was here was April, when Mama died. But the cottage isn’t Mama’s house anymore, it’s my studio again. A place where art happens. Smells like oil paint and beeswax. It’s messy with art supplies and cat hair and things of Mama’s that don’t know where else to be.
She started unpacking her stuff. It was like Christmas…bubble wrap, newsprint and ART! Gorgeous, glorious sister paintings. Etchings. Oh. My….. Photos tomorrow.
Meanwhile here’s a few photos of my own. Things I worked on today. This is new to me, COLD wax mixed with oil paint. I’m not experienced enough with hot wax yet to get where I wanted to go with the large panels, not with a show hanging on Monday. Actually I’ve got my fingers crossed that these will be dry by then.
Everyone, send some good dry mojo this way, okay? Thanks.
So this is what I did today.
Not this. (arrow pointing up) I did this last week, It’s the underpainting for (arrow pointing down).
This is after playtime with cold wax. It’s not the final photo, I straightened out the horizon but forgot to take the picture.
I’m REALLY liking the cold wax. Probably because it’s more in line with the way I paint. So it’s less of a learning curve for me.
Here’s another one. First, the underpainting, It’s 1’x3′ on plastered cradled board. Lots of fun with the texture here.
Starting the process. Just got to jump in and be bold.
And this is how it looks now.
Now it’s time to visit with Ms. Margie. YAY!
