A Brand New Studio and some finished work!

On Monday my amazing husband got to work converting our garage to a studio for me to paint and draw and print in! My art 'things' had ever-so-subtly encroached on the living and dining space...and our bedroom...and anywhere else that had a little bit of spare space. We decided it was time to make me a more practical space. So my aforementioned amazing husband set about setting up shelves, installing rubber flooring, putting up blinds, putting in insulation. And then he vacuumed and put stuff away...I tried to help but ended up trapping both my index fingers in the ladder...so was banished from using yet another household tool! (After breaking my thumb in two places using a hammer just before Christmas - obviously I am now not allowed to use the hammer, hehe!) Then he put in one of the most important aspects - an iPod dock to play tunes while I work (and so he can sit on the couch in there and talk to me while I create!)

So after all that was done, I had a lovely new studio just awaiting me to actually do some work in it! After missing a fair amount of school last term, I have got a lot of catching up to do, so today I got started on some of that.

I'm sure you remember my reduction linocut from a few blog posts ago. Well it has lain three quarters done for the past 2 months, and today I FINALLY finished it! All that was left to do after cutting away the last layer was to apply the final layer of colour - black - and use the awesome registration 'gizmo' that the wonderful teacher Teresa let me borrow, and voila! Eleven completed prints, all drying right now in a space that doesn't need to be packed up to allow for children to eat dinner or silly things like that!!!

I must say, it really was rather exciting to be working in my own studio...as I was making a lovely black ink mess on my table, it felt great to know that it is MY space. Space for paintings to be done and stored....as well as space for drawing and printing and cutting and making and creating in general. I love it, and today was definitely the first of many many exciting projects to come from my new work space.

Prints laid out to dry

Ghost print, only blue and black

                                                                

                                

Final product = white, blue, red and black reduction linocut print. 

A3 size on cartridge paper.

    

Finding your artistic style

I did a painting yesterday. A complete painting, it took me less than half a day, and I LOVE it!

Tsunami - Mixed Media on canvas

I have played around a little with this style of painting, and each time I've been really happy with it. And I love doing it. So it got me thinking about artists finding their own unique style. It's something that most successful artists have. If you think about Jackson Pollock for instance (yes, I just watched Pollock last week and really enjoyed it!), but if you think about his trademark paint splashes on canvas, you understand that was his undeniable own style. David Bromley, who I also happen to love, has his own distinctive style of painting. His nudes are amazing, yet they are distinctly different and his own. Picasso was unique, as was Van Gogh, and even our own Ken Done has his own distinctive style and branding.
In the case of Jackson Pollock, he stumbled across his style while working in his studio, by spilling a little paint on the floor and liking the way it looked, which caused him to try it on canvas. The rest, as they say, is history.
I've been feeling lately a little...emotional to say the least, and while I love most of my paintings, this one I did yesterday, feels different to me. It feels almost like a bit of an epiphany in itself. That might not make a lot of sense to you, or it might make complete sense, but to me if definitely feels like I found my style. Like this was how I was meant to paint.
I think it's something about the absolute creativity of it, rather than painting a landscape, which, while yes is creative, is less so than letting the image form as you paint. Not sure if that makes sense, but basically, instead of having the picture in your mind and then painting it to look like a copy of it's real life version, this way of painting is about putting the paint on the canvas and letting it dictate what the resultant picture will be.
I've used acrylic, watercolour, gouache, and ink, and mixed in Atelier Interactive medium, along with Matisse Spreader medium and plain old water. And I let the picture form as I was painting it. A curve this way or that was accentuated, some more medium sprayed over here or there when you could see something forming. And the end result is awesome, yes, even if I do say so myself!!
I titled it Tsunami at first because of the wave I could see forming in the picture, but the more I look at the picture, and the more I love it, I think it's also fitting in another sense. The last year and a half has been like a tsunami of sorts in my life. I've had so many major life events happen in such a short span of time, that at times it feels like a tsunami flooding everything. Which for the most part has been cathartic and refreshing and a much needed cleanse and change if you will, but occasionally the wave subsides to reveal something pretty raw. It's very gratifying to be able to paint and put that emotion into pictures sometimes.