Building Layers toward Warm
This week I have been immersed in rich warm orange-red colors, and a piece that will use them as a layer. (This an application of the tree ideas I posted about last week)
This work is a good example of working from back-to-front in building up layers of color and pattern. I started with the very background – a piece of natural canvas, ripped to size for a natural edge and primed for paint and collage
Next, I monotype-printed some yardage of a neutral color in a subtle but warm gold. It’s printed on sheer polyester. When it’s collaged onto the canvas it disappears as a separate layer and looks like part of the canvas. It will create a parchment-like background.
I created this nest section by sponge-painting cotton muslin with acrylics. (I worked a little bit of stenciling into the background so it’s not just solid orange. You can see some squares and faint honeycomb shapes.) On top of that I screen printed a series of trees in a darker orange tone. (cadmium red + raw umber.)
So far, it’s pretty stark and disconnected. I look at this and see a big orange square on a blank space.
What comes next will be the process of adding different colors (I’m leaning towards greens) in the bottom third of the piece. I haven’t gotten to that part yet.
But I did get as far as working a bit more interest into the orange section so it’s not so monolithic. I like the addition of these paper honeycomb sections .
More to come on this piece.
Meanwhile, I did complete another work on canvas that I’ve been depicting in posts for a few weeks now. This is Remembering The Way.
If you would like to learn more about it and see the whole artwork, you can find it on my website HERE
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Finally… just sharing something that’s very important to me. Here in Florida, and in many states across the US, there is a growing animosity towards teachers and public schools. (Not me. I am teachers’ biggest fan!)
It is taking the form of a political movement to ban books, under the guise of parental rights. I think this is a very wrong-headed. However this is playing out where you live, I ask you to pay attention.
And, if you think as I do on the subject, please do whatever you can in your area to make your voice heard. Letters to the editor are good. How you vote counts. How we talk to our friends and neighbors counts. I posted the picture and text below on my Instagram and Facebook feeds hoping that my little drop in the ocean of discourse might be productive. Feel free to copy it and share it in whatever way you share ideas. Thanks.
Thought for the weekend . . . Really! Do we even have to say this? Apparently so. I’ve just been reading articles about literacy projects around the world changing lives as students finally receive long-sought-after books. And, here, where books are plentiful and school is free, people actually want to BAN books? This is a truly bad idea. We should tell our elected representatives we think so. If a book offends your family’s core values, I respect that. Feel free not to read it, and ask your child not to read it. Done. Let the rest of the world learn.
For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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