New England Winter

They say snow doesn't sell but  my heart stays true to New England's subtle beauties and cannot be persuaded by what is popular.

Charcoal from the fireplace:

The result:

Bathroom Makeover

If you haven't noticed I am leaning towards crafts suddenly.  I've never really made more craft oriented art before.  Fine Art has always been my focus.  However, I've had some sort of need to turn away from Fine Art for some time.  Working in the art world I saw so many talented artists get no attention and sell nothing and so many terrible kitchy artists do well.  My awakening to the reality of the gallery world made me feel lost in despair.  Moving out of the city and focusing on school has been a good break for me and I am making plans for a project involving Walden Pond of course.  But in the meantime I am thirsting my creative impulses making aromatherapy products and selling them on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WiseEarth 

My parent's bathroom is also falling victim to this new found craft project craze.  I am painting a mural in the bathroom and also making a shelf/towel hanger.

Here is the rough photoshop collage to illustrate my idea for the mural.  It is inspired by the mural art of Rufus Porter.  Basically it will changing from Winter to Spring to Summer to Fall in this sort of primitive style.   It will start on the short back wall and wrap all the way around back to the door.

As for the shelf.  I cut a piece of wood and some trim and glued the trim to the edges.  

 Here I have used a drill bit to make a hole in each corbel for the dowel rod to sit in and sanded it down with the dremel.

Then I cut a 1/2 inch wooden dowel to size and glued it into the corbels to create a towel rack.

Cork....finally!

Well, I finally did something with all of my corks.  This will be a gift for a lovely old friend of mine.  

The Process:

I painted a wash with raw pigment and watercolor on a canvas that was backed with cork and foam board.  Then I cut the red-wine stained end of my corks.  The non-stained corks and stump corks were then cut in half with a serrated kitchen knife.  

 

The pieces were then arranged and glued down with gorilla glue (big mistake...should have used normal glue...).  I tried to mix the gorilla glue with raw pigment but things got out of control!  Basically the glue started to bind to the pigment.  Needless to say my idea of creating colored gorilla glue did not work.

So then I had to touch up areas where the glue expanded with paint and I also added gold mica flakes. I think I will add a border of corks around the edges of the canvas if I have enough left.

Back Again and Walden Birch

Excuse me for the lack of blogging.  I am currently in school for Massage Therapy and that has taken my focus temporarily away from my art.  I also moved and had three shows this summer.  Additionally, a traumatizing experience hanging and running a weekend long art show in Chelsea, NY left me exhausted and disgusted by the artworld and city life.  Alas, I have moved away from the city and autumn is too inspiring to resist despite my lack of free time.  So, look forward to some new paintings soon.

In the meantime, here is a piece I finished in early September for a show.  I think it was rushed and somehow seems to be lacking but it is still beautiful.

Untitled

Walden

I spent a few hours at Walden on Sunday.  I try to avoid going there on weekends because of the tourists but I just really wanted to go.  I did explore Emerson's Cliff Path which was really nice and quiet.  Then I made my way down to the spot where I intended to paint.  I had painted there two years ago when the water was much high due to the floods so this time found myself sitting on a rock past an unusual, memorable tree that was once submerged in water.

As usual the first few paintings were no good at all.  It always takes some time to warm up.  

Then I thought of Cezanne for some reason and was able to paint this: 

Maybe thinking of Cezanne helped.  It wasn't that I was consciously trying to paint like him but afterwards I thought the colors and some of the foliage reminded me of his work.  Here is an example of a Cezanne painting in the style that I was thinking of:

New Work in Progress

Often I feel really tired and sluggish all day while I do work/chores or anything at all.  Then suddenly at 9pm I feel very energized and awake.  That lasts for a few hours before I fall asleep.  It's during that time that I make my best creative work.  

I thought my latest endeavor seemed disconnected or different from my other work, but whenever I go back and look at my work I realize that it is all very recognizably mine.