Friday, May 09, 2008

Fooling around

Hmm, I wish I meant the other kind of "fooling around," but all I mean is with paint and tissue paper. Inspired by Kim's work with rice paper and paint and work with similar materials by Elis Cooke I got out my tissue paper and one piece of rice paper and set to.

Both of these will need more work or layers after they dry. I used a roller and a paint brush to apply the paint. I attatched a piece of paper from a sewing pattern, great stuff, and set a plastic lid on the paper to create the circle a la Elis Cooke.

Paintings done on tissue dry fast. Of course tissue is delicate so you too must be delicate in the application of paint. I used acrylic and PearlEx powder metalics mixed with water and/or matte medium.

This one I did on the rice paper. I used a roller to apply the first layer of paint. A brush. I also used some spiral and rectangular stencils I had made out of Bristol board. I glued on strips of colored rice paper. This rice paper doesn't crinkle. It doesn't have little threads of fiber in it like some. I had gotten it to do some Chinese Brush Painting in a class so maybe that's why it is a bit heavier. As I worked a theme began to arise. a sort of door into the temple kinda thing so I will work more on this today.

Paper from a little Latin dictionary.

I laid a piece of purple tulle over one section to see if I liked the effect. That would be on the left.

Here is the oil painting that I "ruined." I added those trees on the right. They don't work as they are although I like the way they break up the mostly horizontal shapes of the previous version. I am not good at trees. So we'll see what happens with this once it dries enough for me to paint the trees out and try again.

12 comments:

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

Love what your doing with the papers..the colors and ideas. Intersting how atheme comes as you are working on them. Looks like you get results right away. Which is sometimes more fun they oil painting.

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

PS. No you didnt ruin your painting. You just tried out another idea. The beauty part about oil paints is that they are forgiving. You can go over them.
Heres a tip I learned years ago.
You paint with oils.. Thin to Thick and DARK to LIGHT. so you put darks on first so you can get your lights and high lights later.
Thin paint..such as a wash to slowly building up thicker paint strokes. You use high lights to pop it out your subject matter in the end. You cant do the details till you get the darker background areas in. So your painting isnt ruined. Just delayed. :)

Andrea and Kim said...

Wow Suki! These are really wonderful. I love all of the layers you are creating with the paper...and the colors are very exciting, too! You have been very, very busy, Suki!

Tissue is a fun material. And I make the wrinkles in the rice paper I use...ball it up and wet it, then open it back up as much as I want.

I have never worked with oils, so I can't give you any advice there. It looks like Cris has some good advice, though. I like the oil painting...it may not be what you had in mind, but it reminds me of a little grove of leaf-less aspens or leaf-less poplars. I know you had some other ideas in your head, though!

It is always so exciting to visit you, Suki!

Thanks so much!

human being said...

wow wow Suki,
these talk to me very much... i love the way forms and colors merge...and yes... i see that door to the temple... a beautiful theme...
all of them are great for textile designs... i just imagined them to be on textile.... and loved them...
wish Andrea could come and see... she's an expert on this...

ans Suki, to tell you the truth, the thing i love best in your oil painting is 'the trees'... don't get why they have ruined it...

looking at all these artwork made me energetic... believe me! i was tired and now i feel recharged...
:)
love to you for sharing these with us...

sukipoet said...

Hi Cris. Thanks for reflecting on my oil painting. I do think the newly added middle and foreground trees are in a different style than the rest of the painting. Thanks for the tips, I keep forgetting about thin and dark first. I usually want to get the paint on there so quickly that I do it too thick. Thanks for saying the painting isnt ruined. Ok. Onward.

Kim, oh you purposely wrinkle the paper. I see. I'll try that tomorrow. I did a whole bunch more of these things today. thanks for the reflections on my trees. I had been looking at Wolf Kahn's trees and said, well I'll give it a try. I think I'll give it another try...

Thanks HB. I think that if my artworks can energize someone, well, what more could I ask? Probably there is nothing wrong with the trees, it's just they didn't turn out the way I pictured in my head. Oh well. Take care.

Katiejane said...

Oh Suki, I really like the last painting, with the Latin pages. Very nice work. This one speaks to me.

Mary Richmond said...

very nice work! and love the farm naming idea.

Lynn Cohen said...

Well, I happen to like those trees. I agree it makes a nice balance...and the freedom with which you sketched them in looks right to me.
Just my opinion.

Lynn Cohen said...

I like the swirls on the upper pieces, the colors on tissue paper, the words...the whole peice comes together well.
Another Suki success!

soulbrush said...

all i can say is 'respect to you' and 'amazing. love the vibrancy of it all.

marianne said...

I don't think you ruined it!
I still like it a lot, I love the blue mountain and the trees!

sukipoet said...

thanks Katie Jane. I love that Latin dictionary. I should post what I did with it if I could find the pictures. It became an altered book.

Thanks Mary.

Lynn, you are right. I did paint those trees with freedom, more freedom than the rest of the painting shows. That was post looking at Wolf Kahn's trees.

fy thanks. Maybe that's why I was so tired that week. I did a lot of stuff. For an introvert, you can get too much vibrancy. Then you have to go inward a bit.

Marianne. I do like the mountain a lot myself. That ended up pretty mountain-like. Thanks.