Go to the Mat!

How many times have we heard about the benefits of cropping and using an L-frame to find compositions? Lots and lots, but do we practice what we know?

This is a "short" weekend for me. I have an annual conference to drive to on Sunday, plus all the preparations of laundry, packing and such. So today is my only "free" day but too short to really begin anything meaningful -- i.e. messy!

Because I have made my plans for an Open Studio in the fall, I decided to begin sifting and sorting through piles of paintings, mostly on paper, to see what I have on hand and what needs to be matted and framed in the coming months. I have watercolors, aqua media, mixed media, collages and monotypes to sort through. But believe me, not all of these are what might be termed winners. Many are 3/4 of the way painted before I lost interest and put aside with the intention of returning . . . good intentions but often forgotten because I'm on to a new project.

So what does one do? Go to the mat! as my son used to say in his wrestling days. Absolutely. Let's see what I did with this one painting that truly was a playful exercise in moving colors around on the paper purely because I wanted to see the flow of colors, the slow crawling across paper, the effect of 2 or 3 colors merging --

Long Climb
5" x 7" acrylic washes on Fabriano watercolor paper

Summer Pond
5" x 7" acrylic washes on Fabriano watercolor paper

Approaching Storm
5" x 7" acrylic washes on Fabriano watercolor paper

The larger piece was about 12 x 16 and, in its entirety, too busy and overpowering. These three are smaller and the mat I used was an 8 x 10 with a 5 x 7 opening. I moved the mat around the surface of the larger work until I found compositions that intrigued me. I then cut them up and will simply leave as matted and ready for framing.

I also have mats, custom ordered from Documounts (wonderful work and great prices), that are 5 x 7 with a 2.5 x 3.25 opening, and these I plan for a series of "mini-works."

Every spring I travel up to the Paradise City ArtFest in Northampton, Massachusetts. Paradise City also travels to the Boston area, Philadelphia and Miami, and is just one step below the Smithsonian Craft Show . The artists and artisans that are featured in P.C. are amazing, and one leaves at the end of the day almost breathless. But I noted that many artists and photographers offer smaller works, often matted only, that are affordable and just as beautiful as their larger works. So that's my plan for the fall -- part of it, anyway.

Again I cannot emphasize how helpful a mat is when contending with artwork that is just not coming out as you originally envisioned. Let it go, come back to it -- but armed with the mat! Similarly, my aim to paint abstractly is often stymied, and I'll return to representational landscapes and such. But if I move a mat over the landscape, suddenly I'm finding smaller, abstract images embedded within. Oh, what joy!

Try it. It's like a kind of artistic Where's Waldo? :-) ))

Hey, if we can't laugh and enjoy our art, well . . . ho, hum.

Experimenting with Pastels

"Last Shadows on the Dunes"
(pastel on Canson paper, 9x12)

There are times when one must navigate away from the familiar, like an old viking (!?), and explore new territories. For me, pastel is that territory.

It's scary because the marks are immediate. You truly cannot erase pastel -- it just gets smudgy.

It's messy and dusty. Here's a hint: never wear white shorts when working with pastels. I learned that yesterday -- duh.

So pastels are one of those areas I've stayed away from. But I love pastels. Every time I walk through the art store, I linger over those thick chunky sticks of pure color. I subscribe to the magazine Pastel Journal. I visit pastel artists' blogs -- two of my favorites are Casey Klahn and Marla Bagetta.

Then what's the problem? Dunno . . .

Yesterday, after spending hours making necklaces for a festival coming up in October, I took a break and pulled some paper over, opened up my box of pastels (yes, I do buy them) and spent about two hours working on this small painting.

This time I moved at a slower pace; I used fixative between layers, trying to build up those big juicy masses of color I so love.

It's a start. Another thing I like about pastels is that it is a very portable type of art-making.

This painting is worked from an inversion of an oil painting of mine -- Twilight on the Marshes. I had digitally altered it to another range of hues/saturations after converting it to a negative format. This helped me "see" it in a different way and gave me a new path for colors, etc.

Will I keep working with pastels? I'm not sure the viking in me is brave enough. I just have to remember not to wear white . . .