Wednesday, August 27, 2014

All I Need...

All I Need
24"x24" 
acrylic on canvas

Hey, it's been a while.  I hope all is well.  Around here, we are busy squeezing the last bit of summer goodness out of this oh so gorgeous season.  The kids here don't go back to school until next Tuesday and so while friends far and wide are settling into the school year groove we are enjoying the gift of an extra week to hang out, eat picnic lunches and play games after dinner.  Since I wrote last we've visited Saugatuck and Evanston, taken another child to camp for a week and brought them home, had a house guest, visited the Chelsea Fair and brought home a new bunny.  I find myself looking longingly at the studio at least once each day but am really working to be present with the kids, the house and these last few unstructured days together.  Soon, I will have quiet days to start implementing the new ideas, dreams and sketches I have been scribbling down in my notebook :) .
 But, for now,  I thought I would share one of the pieces I created in the abstract painting class that I took a few weeks ago.  It started as a much softer lighter piece with a creamy white background  and a pale blue square surrounding the pile of color.  But, in a flurry of last minute painting before sharing my piece with the class I covered the white with black, scraped it back, etched in the text and suddenly the painting said exactly what I wanted it to say.  I knew what I wanted the piece  to say all along it just took me a while to figure out how to show it and have it feel real and true. Does that make sense?  I had a central idea that filled my head with words and phrases and as the image continued to transform itself on the canvas the ideas became clearer until they condensed themselves down to the very essence of the 
idea and it all came together on the canvas. I would like to re-work a larger version of this with oil paint and wax and have a few other ideas that would play nicely with this one....soon, very soon :)





2 comments:

artslice said...

Wow, Beth... you've been busy! But in beautiful ways:)

I can't believe I'm reading 'acrylic on canvas'... cool! Do you like it as much as encaustic? I must say, I adore your encaustic paintings.

More paintings after school starts?

xox
Brenda

tangled sky studio said...

hi brenda-
ni i really did not like working with the acrylics or working on canvas. i tried to embrace it because it makes sense in a 4 night class setting to be able to work quickly but i'm still smitten with wax, oil paint and wood. lots of paintings after school starts!!!