Waxing Gibbous: Painted January 13, 2010

Waxing Gibbous
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 8x10 stretched canvas.
(From package of Titanium
acrylic gesso primed canvases)

I started an 8x10 today. The background started as a solid Ivory Black base. I chose this, over the Mars Black because the Ivory black makes me think of melted dark chocolate. Knowing my intention to create a moon, I wanted that warm sweetness of the Ivory Black that is borderline subliminal.

After waiting for the solid background to dry, I chose the placement of the moon by resting a plastic cover from a tube of potato chips on the canvas. (I was working on a table, not an easel.) Carefully I placed white directly on a toothbrush I use only for painting. Using the pad of one of my fingers, I made certain that the bristles were all covered. Then, I just remembered what I did in elementary school, creating the splatters with the toothbrush. Keeping the cover in place, I was able to avoid any splatter texture from landing where the moon would be later.

Some splatters created lines instead of dots. So I used more Ivory Black and made broad brushstrokes, covering sections of the stars. Once that dried, I repeated the splattering of white. This process of seeking perfection was repeated a few times until I felt the stars looked star-like enough.

When I removed the plastic cover from a tube of potato chips, from the canvas.. it left a dark untouched space. I mixed white and black to get shades of gray and began to color in the void. A hint of Raw Umber was added to a light gray to form the shadow along the one side of the moon.

I wanted a waxing moon. I love looking up in the sky and seeing the brightness of the moon and the hint of the part less illuminated (that is really easier to see during the day, but worth straining the eyes to see it at night)

On a piece of paper I painted a black rectangle. Letting it dry overnight, I will test out the idea of painting** night clouds. If it works out.. then this painting is not done yet. I will add some clouds to accompany the moon.

(**I later tested the clouds and opted to keep the painting as it was, thus calling it completed on January 13, 2010 and returning to mark it as such.)

(Circles/Dots) Spheres: Completed Jan. 12, 2010

(Circles/Dots) Spheres
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 8x10 stretched canvas.
(From package of Titanium
acrylic gesso primed canvases)

This piece was started on January 2, 2010. I had originally thought I would just create a few circles and color them in pretty colors. The painting took on a life of its own, craving something beyond the obvious and easy painting of 2D and aspired to have the appearance of something more three-dimensional.

I signed along the very bottom, within a blue sphere, with blue paint. When it was finally scanned instead of photographed.. the image was 336 MB! So, I had to resize it to post it here. The title was: Circles/Dots. It is now: Spheres. The piece feels more like round sprinkles instead of flat confetti. The steps along the way to completing this painting has taught me a lot. I think it will improve my future creations.


Curious about the progression of this piece?
Read the old Art Diary entries in order:
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010

ACEOx2: Gender I, II: Painted Jan. 12, 2010

ACEOx2: Gender I, II
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
110# Georgia Pacific smooth cardstock
and 125# Springhill Tag folder paper.

I like colors. Each make me think and feel different things. When I see pink and blue near each other, it reminds me of new parents choosing outfits for a baby. I do not know why blue is for baby boys and pink is for baby girls. I think both are cheerful colors.. beyond gender association. And yet.. seeing the two tubes of paint near each other, I thought of babies dressed by their parents to display their gender.

One card has thicker layers of paint overlapping, while the other card shows an experiment of using acrylic like watercolor paint. They were both painted in the same sitting, one right after the other.

Playing with blue, pink and white.. letting the paint dance across cards, I thought of the gender association of these colors. It reached a point in which it did not matter what the colors meant, merely that they each became equal parts: strong and beautiful. It does not matter what gender a color is, or what gender a person is. Each have the potential to be strong and beautiful.

Frame: Painted Jan. 11, 2010

Frame
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
white paper of unknown weight.

Often I have had a cloth or paper under where I was painting to catch any access that goes beyond the boundary of canvas or card. I view the frames created and then reuse the surface later, letting it collect layers upon layers of paint frames.

When I removed the ACEO:Nebulous from the paper underneath, I knew I had to keep the frame that was formed. The paper is folded in half, and there are frames littering the backside.. but this one has stirred ideas that will reveal themselves in future creations.

ACEO: Nebulous: Painted Jan. 11, 2010

ACEO Nebulous
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
110# Georgia Pacific smooth cardstock.

After creating the ACEO: Solar Dream, I saw shown stunning space photography via an internet search. I thought on these images into the next day and found myself wanted to explore ideas of space.

It was not long before I sat with paints and began playing with motion and layering colors. I created a piece that did not look much like the space photos I had viewed, but instead formed a nebulous display of paint interacting with itself. I find that this piece is as interesting to the touch, as it was to paint it.

ACEO: Solar Dream: Painted Jan. 10, 2010

Solar Dream
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
125# Springhill Tag folder paper.

I have been having fun with silhouettes lately. However, I like abstract art pieces in which it is not as obvious at first glance what it might be representing (if anything.)

So today I had a thought in my mind and let it develop until the paint was dry. I thought of dreams, of falling asleep and of trying to recall dreams upon waking up.

Then I randomly thought of the sun. I began to wonder, If the sun could dream, what would it be like? Would the sun dream in color? Would it dream of sounds? The sun is the brightest object near itself. Does it dream of what it might be like to find another source of light or does it narcissistically admire itself as the local bright object?

I began to paint. Yellow at first, filling the entire card. Then red mixed in. Motion displayed through curves, blurred edges, melting and merging and caught in the stillness of paint when it dries.

If the sun dreams, I imagine it dreams of speed.. light-speed.. of the constant motion of the universe and perhaps the sun dares to ask, "What would happen if motion became stillness?" And that.. is the thought, captured from an imaginary dream and marked on paper with acrylic paint and my paintbrush.

Circles/Dots: More Progress. Jan 2nd - ?

Circles/Dots
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 8x10 stretched canvas.
(From package of Titanium
acrylic gesso primed canvases)

I did not paint yesterday, so I sat with this piece twice today to make up for lost time. I chose the green circles first and watered down the paint a bit, added touches of white.. which I then painted over again.. and just kept repeating until I thought the green circles looked like spheres.

Later, I chose the yellow circles. Due to how light the color already is, it was more difficult to work with. Every mistake made with the the white or brown showed through. I had to make more corrections with white, then repaint and repeat much more than I did with the green sections.

I will work with the blues sections tomorrow and leave pink for last. There is only one circle that is not cropped by other circles and I am hoping that is there.. that I will have the best shading. I corrected it slightly today, but decided to not think on it much until I am worki8ng with the pinks.

Depending on how much time I have to play with, this painting should be done tomorrow or the day after. Well.. that is the theory anyway.

Circles/Dots: Continued Progress. Jan 2nd - ?

Circles/Dots
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 8x10 stretched canvas.
(From package of Titanium
acrylic gesso primed canvases)

Today I added a layer of white to my circles. I started noticing that some circles look like spheres and others look like they were dented. However, I am hoping that as I pick a color a day and start painting lightly.. I will end up creating spheres instead of circles. Maybe in the end, the name will change.

Taking photos of the progression of this piece has taught me something I have already heard of before, but have not practiced: The need to stand back and look again. When I paint, I am lost in the details. I see one piece of canvas or even one brushstroke at a time. Taking a photo and then looking, helps me to see the full image in a whole new way. I might never have learned this if I did not start an Art Diary!

ACEOx2: Pine Silhouette I, II: Painted Jan. 8, 2010

ACEOx2: Pine Silhouette I, II
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
125# Springhill Tag folder paper.

Today I was given a stack of paper cut into 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 pieces. I was so excited, I -had- to try it out immediately. So I went online and looked up the product information. It is not exactly cardstock, it seems.. but is considered highly durable and used to make folders, menus, time cards and tons more. I am calling it 'folder paper.'

Since my Mint Winter trees did not go according to plan, I went back to the comfort of silhouettes. I painted both skies at the same time, but blended the two colors a little differently. Today was all about experimenting in small ways. I tried the pine tree look again, and I think I was a little more successful. I still need practice, but I see potential.

I chose to sign my name with the black instead of a blue.. because I imagined the letters of my name acting like wild plants along the ground.

The new paper curls a little more when painting on it, but once I got used to that aspect, I felt it was sometimes easier to work with that my usual choice. I can definitely see myself working through the entire stack of paper in the future. Small worlds are waiting to be painted.

ACEOx2: Mint Winter Trees I, II: Painted Jan. 8, 2010

ACEOx2: Mint Winter Trees I, II
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
110# Georgia Pacific smooth cardstock.

I grew up watching broadcast television. I loved the shows where painters created intricate pieces within an hour.

So.. thinking back, I tried to make little trees like how I had seen created years ago on television. Nothing turned out that way I expected, but I had fun trying.

Since things did not go according to plan, I took the opportunity to play with my signature. Using the minty color (white + green = minty, in this case) of the trees, I practiced sneaking my signature into a tree and also having it very obvious and in the open.

ACEO House and Tree: Painted Jan. 7-8, 2010

ACEO House and Tree
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
110# Georgia Pacific smooth cardstock.

I painted the sky and then walked away to let it dry. But the clock rolled past midnight in Edmonton when I was working on the silhouette. So technically it was worked on in two days.

The sky was a mixture of a light blue paint and white. I wanted it to be a winter sky, but I think I will need to add more white or a touch of gray to really look like winter. Although the sky did not end up exactly as I had intended, a cool autumn day sky is close enough. The sky took about (a little under?) ten minutes. I did not stress about the color too much.

The idea of a house silhouette was with me earlier in the day. However, I first doodled a few houses and tried to steer myself from the classic pentagon shaped houses I drew as a child. My imagination really took hold while I was coming up with shapes and I knew the house was going to have a dormer or something very early on.

The miniature world developed in my mind as I created the silhouette. It felt like a mediation through paint lead by the imagination. I imagined a room with a large window that could see the moon at night and what it would be like to sneak out onto the roof. The fence shape came from a fence that was in my front yard as a child, but the mailbox ended up thrown in when I smudged paint. I giggled as I added the little flag showing the homeowner had mail waiting.

The tree is one of those ancient trees that are old before you are even born. I had trees in my yard growing up that had to be cut down and part of me clings to their memory. This silhouette tree has survived though. Pieces have fallen in storms, and branches have been cut over time. Yet branches still reach upward planning to display leaves in the spring. It is the sort of tree that if I walked by, I would pause to take out my camera.

I signed my name in a light blue, semi-blending into the background. I chose the perfect place to set my name as if it was sitting down for a picnic.

The silhouette took about 45 minutes, maybe a little longer, to paint. But that journey to the miniature world felt like it existed outside of time and waits to be visited again just by viewing the painting.

Circles/Dots: Still in Progress. Jan 2 -?

Circles/Dots
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 8x10 stretched canvas.
(From package of Titanium
acrylic gesso primed canvases)

I had thought of just tracing the edges everywhere, but I did not want it to look like a coloring book. Since I disliked the 'coloring book' idea for this piece, I knew I had to try some shading.

This is the theory:
Watered down acrylic (really.. tons of water in proportion to the amount of paint being used) and make brown paint stain the circles. Then.. tomorrow.. add white to highlight. Day after that.. choose a color and lightly paint those circles so the dark and light show through.

Will it work or will it be a mess? I really have no clue, but I have come too far to look back. So each day, I will choose a step and move forward. For such a simple shape, the circles have me very busy!

Both Boats

Both Boats
Originally uploaded by diannna-art

I realized that the boats when photographed separately actually made the smaller boat look larger. So I took a photo with the card resting on the canvas. Thus giving a comparison of the skies as well as the size of the paintings.

8x10 Sailboat: Painted Jan. 4 & 6, 2010

8x10 Sailboat
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 8x10 stretched canvas.
(From package of Titanium acrylic
gesso primed canvases)

On January 4th I saw I still had paints under plastic wrap, but they were solidifying. Rather than just toss them.. I made a background filling most of the canvas. Purple-like blues melting into turquoise-like greens making what I had hoped would someday be a magical looking sky.

When I completed the ACEO Sailboat.. I immediately wanted to try it a size larger. So out came the canvas that already had the background painted in. I tried to paint along a plastic ruler to get the horizon.. but the paint bled underneath. I tried to use edges of paper, but paint found ways to sneak in everywhere. Any way that I tried to 'cheat' I was thwarted by the paint. I had to correct the line to make it straight by hand.

When I started the boat, I was thinking of how pleased I was with the 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 version. I made the mistake of making the curved sail solid. I was so upset! But I remember my mother one time cleaning a canvas with a paper towel or some cloth.. and immediately rushed to get water on the canvas. Since the background was there for over 24 hours.. it remained almost intact while I cleaned off the black paint.

Almost intact.. I had to create a color by mixing a dark blue into a white and cover where while canvas was peeking through. But, once that was done.. I was able to retry the shape of the boat and paint it as I did the smaller version.

I wanted to make a boat on a bigger surface, so I did. And I had hoped that background would be a magical sky one day. I think it worked out.

I never want to paint multiple versions of my own painting, making reproductions with paint instead of prints. Even when I have the same subject (tree, boat, etc) I want to have different skies (or some other noticeable difference). Although my two boats are very similar, I feel that their skies tell different stores. This one whispers, "Magic." While the other whispered, "Calm." Both are gentle whispers, but the words have different meanings.

ACEO Sailboat: Painted Jan 6, 2010

ACEO Sailboat
Originally uploaded by diannna-art
Acrylic paint on 2 1/2 x 3 1/2,
110# Georgia Pacific smooth cardstock.

Earlier in the day I had sent my mother a photo of a daytime beach scene painting I had created just to play with clouds and water. Much of it did not come out the way I planned/wanted. But I liked the clouds. And a tiny sailboat on the horizon amuses me. I received constructive criticism that really helped me to think of how to make things better in my next painting(s).

I was told: No matter how rough the water is, along the horizon is straight. (In the other painting the horizon was a curved mess.. but again.. I liked the clouds)

And so, keeping just the idea of a sailboat on the water, I tested the idea on a blank card. I looked up images online and tried to remember my father's boat. I did not want the boat to be as abstract as before.

I used the brush I have been trying to figure out how to sign my name with (writing in paint is not as easy for me, for some reason) and let the boat come to life. The sky is a mixture of paint colors trying to form a hazy purple twilight. The boat looks so calm, I imagine there are tiny acrylic people gently sleeping within.

Circles/Dots: Work in Progress. Jan 2nd - ?

Dots
Originally uploaded by diannna-art

Picked up a small pack of #2 pencils and decided to create a piece with a simple shape over and over.

I used the plastic cover from a tube of potato chips to help keep the shape the same size (should buy or create a compass..) and a handful of Canadian quarters for reference.

Each day I have chosen a color, painted and let it dry until the next day. It has been a relaxing journey so far.. picking colors and slowly adding them in. Now I have reached a point where the circles are colored in. But.. I still see pencil lines.

I am not sure what will happen tomorrow. Will I outline all the circles and make it look like something out of a coloring book? Or maybe I will spend some time online searching for a tutorial on how to shade already painted sections. How will this painting end up? Only time can tell.

ACEO: Path: Painted January 5, 2010

Path
Originally uploaded by diannna-art

Often I have doodled in the margins of notebooks, vague images of a path stretching toward the horizon. This time I experimented by trying to create something similar with paint.

The air is very dry in Edmonton, causing paint to dry much faster than a humid day on Long Island. Things sometimes blend in different ways as the paint rushes to dry, stubbornly locking itself in place. It has taught me how to layer things in ways I had not tried before.

The path did not turn and twist the way I had originally planned, but the field and sky blended better than I had though would occur. I have to learn more about prospective for pieces when I try to create more realistic aspects.. like a meandering path. It is a fun to experiment and often I find myself learning much before that way, then if I studied a book for the day instead.

ACEO: Homes: Painted January 4, 2010

Homes
Originally uploaded by diannna-art

When I sat down with the blank card, I had considered using a second piece of paper and cutting a skyline stencil. In the end, I decided to make the shapes as I went along.

I am currently in Edmonton, but miss New York. Each has a place I call home, but often when in one.. I think of the other. I wanted something that had both in one place.

How I wish NY and Edmonton were neighboring cities! A short road trip or to be able to hop on the train and visit both would be fantastic. In reality they are far apart. In my painting, I form a mini world consisting of shapes I have seen in both cities.

Maybe someday I will take photos and try to stencil some buildings. But the vague shapes are enough to stir my imagination.. making me feel I am close to both homes.

Flickr

I have used Flickr before to post pictures as I have experimented with self portraits and seeing the world as a series of macros. However, I have now created a new account to be the companion to my art diary.

http://www.flickr.com/diannna-art/

Creation: Art Diary

Tuesday, January 5, 2010. 3AM: Edmonton, Canada.

I have created the beginning of my Art Diary.

Although I have written my own poetry since middle school, doodled little images my entire life and went to school for graphic design.. I never -fully- dived in and expressed myself in art until 2008.

One of my best friends brought me into an art project that was bigger than anything I ever tried before. I was intimidated by the amount of paint that was needed to cover large canvases. It was a wonderful experience.

Then, I returned to leisurely exploring art and then leaving it alone. Only to flirt with it now and then, until the end of November 2009. While staying in Edmonton, I ended up sick enough that I could not leave the house. I had no fever, yet I felt a fiery spark of inspiration light within me.

I had a few available canvases and some primary colored paints. When I was well enough to walk around the house, paint found its way onto canvas. I had thought when I was well again.. the inspiration would leave me. But it has not.

I have continued to paint for the sheer fun of it. I experiment with colors, ideas and images in my mind.. just to see what will happen.

In 2009, I have played with photography and paint. Although some of the photography is documented on Flickr and my own computer.. I never kept a diary. The time flew by so quickly, I wish I took time to write a few things down. When 2011 rolls around, I want to be able to look back and read my own notes. That is why I have created this Art Diary.