Sap Buckets on Calendar Hill

I just completed a painting which you can see below in an early stage. Here,  the landscape has been brushed in quickly.

As I continued, I brightened the sky and added details to the under painting.  I decided to balance the composition by adding a limb so that the tree would seem to "pose" for her portrait.  This is the finished painting, now exhibited at ArtisTree Gallery in their annual "Mud Season" show....

"Sap Buckets on Calendar Hill"

acrylic on canvas - 14" x 18"

Below is the photograph I used for the painting.  As you can see, the background differs substantially from the photo.  Instead of the gray winter skies of my "Posted" series I cropped out the background and changed the mood with a blue sky.

There is a great advantage to working from photos--when it is too cold to paint outdoors, I can work in the studio.  As always, the landscape is open to interpretation.  I look forward to getting out to paint en plein aire soon as spring really arrives and the weather warms up.

Summer Blossom

And now for something completely different.

 Rather than using oil paints on stretched canvas, why not acrylics on a cotton onesie?

You don't have to be able to walk to have a stylish buzz.  

Carol

New Medium

It's easy to forget that creating art should be fun.

I uploaded a sketchbook app to my Kindle Fire and wanted to share some images that were fun to create.

Nothing else, no expectations, no pressure, just fun.

Enjoy the day.

Sidewalk Mural

On Saturday while the Woodstock Arts Festival on the green was going on, three Artwise Women, Barbara, Anne and Kathy,  took up chalk and created a flower and butterfly sidewalk mural in our assigned spot in front of the Woodstock Pharmacy.  The event was sponsored by the Change the World Kids.  Here are a few photos of the work we did that morning....

Barbara is working on her first block here.  Sidewalk art is a bit hard on the knees and the back so knee pads were the order of the day.

We checked out some books from the Norman Williams Library and used them as reference for our butterflies.

Anne's beautiful monarch butterfly.

And this is the butterfly that flew to the middle of the sidewalk....

An interested spectator, who asked if he could take a picture, came back after we finished and took this panoramic photo which he emailed to Barbara.  Though it's a bit hard to see, the caption reads:  "with love from Artwise Women"....

Making a Kirigami Mandala

I've made a new papercutting and I thought you would like to see the process.  This is a combination cut (multi-fold forms the outer edge and a bifold in the center.)

To begin, I first took a large square of lightweight paper, folded it diagonally, then diagonally again, and then once more.  Thus I was cutting through eight pieces of paper. (That is why you can't use tiny, delicate scissors for this kind of kirigami. You need tools substantial enough to cut through several layers.)

First I determined the dimensions of the edge design and made some cuts to guide me.

Next, I began cutting out a floral design.  If the client wanted particular motifs in the papercut, I might add them at this stage. This is how it looks as I am cutting:



And here it is partially opened:



Next, I created the center to make it a "combination cut." That means that the outer edge exhibits radial symmetry, each motif repeating four times, while the inner part is a bifold.   So, instead of folding it back up all the way, I will leave it folded only once so that the design in the center will be a bifold, or mirror image.

Since this is a papercut for a gardener, I wanted to have leaves, flowers, and fruit trees in it.  First, I cut the basic shapes out, leaving connections to the outer edge.



I cut the details out of the tree . . .



And then began cutting a basic human shape.  I always make the woman first, as she is depicted with more flesh and hair.



Then I opened the whole piece up and cut off some hair on one of the figures to make the male.  With an x-acto knife I cut details to distinguish their outfits and... Voila!

New Images

It's been a long dry spell....

Perhaps that's beginning to change.

I pulled out my wonderful box of oil pastels and tried to capture some of the color around me.

Art of Blogging

I was invited to do a guest post about my paintings and how I use them on my food blog by Alisha of The Ardent Epicure. Here's what I said:

I like to make food that tastes good and the way things look is as important as how they taste. Perhaps that because I am a painter who cooks and I am a cook who blogs…

I use my watercolor paintings to illustrate my blog. Sometimes an image has a direct connection to a recipe I post as in my post Buttermilk is Cool,

and sometimes it's a whimsical choice. as in my post for Linguini with Fresh Tomato Sauce.

Recently I found a cookbook published in Vermont in 1954. It's filled with recipes and hints that reflect what was happening in kitchens in the 1950s. I have been combining selections from this cookbook with my paintings to create posts. Here’s one for a Peanut and Bacon Sandwich.

I also design bookmarks, labels and notecards that can be downloaded and printed for free. I call these PIN’s and PIN means Print It Now. When you visit my blog you'll see PIN - Print It Now in the column on the left under the basket of blueberries. I hope you find something there you like.

The words that are in bold are all links that will take you to my food blog and the the post that is referenced.

Carol Egbert

Cynthia's new Painting - phase 3 and 4

Phase 3: I've begun to give depth to the leaves and berries in the painting. (If you scroll down to last week's post you can see my beginnings.) I can see that creating distinct shades of green will be more difficult than I thought. In order to show depth, the various types of vegetation need to look distinct from one another.


Phase 4: Here I've begun to work on the flowers in the painting. First I blocked them out with about four layers of color, with only a hint of depth. Next I will give them more dimension and shading and tone down the brightness a bit. Stay tuned for that.


As you see at the bottom, I'm experimenting with layering two colors of gold on top of each other for the ribbon.

I'm going to have to work on my photography setup. What I have works fine for kirigami, which is just black and white, but paintings aren't showing up well. This painting is much more beautiful in person but glare and color distortion won't show it. I guess I will have to get better lighting and camera. (Sigh) Help! Barbara!

Cynthia's new Painting - phase 2

Phase two of my new small painting looks like this.

Phase one was basically blocking out all the areas with a base color so I could see what I was doing. I began with darker colors because I decided to work dark to light on this one. Since the background is dark, it was somewhat difficult to photograph, so I skipped it.

Phase two was a process of filling each area with the basic colors I want them to eventually be. With the exception of the two flowers, which I am still deliberating about, this has been completed.
I will continue to refine this process in phase three. Stay tuned.

Summer Bird

I rediscovered this image when I was searching through digital files.

This began as a drawing down with a quill pen. I scanned it and used Photoshop to make a 'digital sandwich' with about twelve layers of color. I cut through layers, digitally, in a manner similar to that used to make molas in the San Blas Islands, to create this image. So there you have my complex explanation for a simple image.

Sketching on an Acrylic Background

Yesterday, while lounging blissfully in the sun on my little deck by the stream, winking sunlight overhead, birds calling, bees buzzing... I sketched a design onto one of the background canvases I've recently painted. Almost immediately, I realized that it would be too small. I am supposed to be practicing for the large 4'x5' canvas and this is a weenie 11x14" canvas. Why? Because I have the feeling my first ones won't be very successful and I'm a coward. Fortunately, I'm beginning to see this propensity for staying in my comfort zone as unproductive. I promise to to move up in size as I go along.

Technique: This sketch was done with a white charcoal pencil on the very dark surface of the acrylic. In places I wanted to erase, I took a cotton swab, dipped in water and then squeezed out, and lightly stroked it over the pencil marks.

Bright Colors - Asian Design

A bold look from my studio.

I needed an image for a post about an adventure in China on my food blog www.CarolEgbert.com. Creating art that works with posts is fun and sometimes a challenge.

it all comes together

I had no idea that a blog would change my life. It has changed what I do, where I do it and who sees it all.

In less than a year I have gone from being a nearly full-time painter to being a nearly full-time writer. I have learned to deal with a camera and use my paintings and photographs to illustrate what I write in newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites.

My writing has brought me to Siracusa in Sicily where I cook and have a table that overlooks the Mediterranean where I paint. The fava beans in the photo were the featured in a recent post on my food blog, CarolEgbert.com.

--Carol Egbert

Upside down world

The other day in the studio, I found myself looking at a photo of a salt marsh I took in New Brunswick last September and wondering how to make a painting out of it. Because working from photos has never been my forte. I get tied up in the static details recorded by the camera. I feel distanced from the actual landscape as an experience. I tighten up. It becomes NOT fun. My memory of this landscape was of spaciousness, light, warmth, aliveness and freedom, and that's what I wanted to experience and to capture.

Then I had a bit of an inspiration taken from the days when I was teaching drawing. What if I turned both the photo and the canvas upside down? Upside down drawing helps to simplify the experience when one is having a hard time separating descriptive line from, for example, the labels "nose" or "eye".

Well, what can I say? It worked! Suddenly the photo became shapes and colors, lines and values. No sky, no water, no grasses, no clouds. Loosened up by this detachment from "reality" I was able to paint more freely and create a painting that worked.

"Salt Marsh, New Brunswick"

This is a small painting for me--only 8" x 10"--it has become a study for a larger work I started this week. I like this new way of working...

Painting Eggplant

My recipe for painting eggplant is pretty simple. Begin with Arches 140# hot press paper. Draw simple out line of vegetable. Paint eggplant with water, being mindful of contours. It is a good thing if the eggplant has some dry areas. Then, using a variety of blues and purples, drop in color without fussing. Put down the colors and walk away. I use a combination of ultramarine, cerulean, cobalt and Windsor blue along with mineral violet and another purple who's name I've forgotten.

Paint the leaves after the eggplant is completely dry.

Carol Egbert