My latest work has been an new style for me, but and old subject. Power has honestly always scared me and I feel the need in my life to again explore it again. I went to some classic sources in my life. A book named The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, the Norse myths, which shaped my imagination from the time that I heard about them, and in a classic fashion the Thesaurus. Words have power, with out doubt. Then of course the Fluer-de-lis. It  has represented royal power and persists as a symbol in a powerful way even though it is shrouded in controversy of origin, representation and initial usage. I also included the Reiki symbol for power because of special feeling for the idea of the positive energy it represents adn the inclusion of the swirl.

The style was heavily influenced by a book called Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed-Media Artists by Ann Baldwin. I bought other books and cut pieces out, I printed out things from the web, I translated things for aesthetics before using them and found ways to incorporate them into this piece. I  also originally intended there to be a representation of  money as well, but it didn’t feel right by the time came to lay it down. I learned quite a bit during this project, but more importantly than that was the expansion in both my belief in my own abilities and in my imagination. The piece went through a progression that looked a lot like this:

Layout

48 Laws of Power in Yiddish, Reiki power symbol, Odin’s Horns  and paint

Power from a Thesaurus in yellow and fleur de lis

Edge covering in textured teal

Runes, Aleph, Tav, tissue, some interference blue and gloss gel glazing. Then I had to repaint the Fleur to get it out front again.

Viola!
Power.

A 24″x 24″ mixed-media piece on gallery wrapped canvas. That process took days, but other than Night Bridge it’s my favorite piece so far.  I love being able to use symbols and words with the textures to achieve a many faceted expression of a single idea. Having physical layers and depth has been great. I’m thinking about moving to some small pieces for a little bit, but I’m excited to come back to something like this again soon.

We need Power, but Power is no friend. It has its own agenda and if you do not win against it, though you have all the power in the world, in the end Power will instead have you. 

Wide awake, with fear, respect and absolute assurance,

~B~

I had a chance to help Lady out on a project she’s doing for us and was able to get pictures taken of some old work of mine that were previously not on here.  Here is what I have had in backlog:

This I called a satellite abstract.  A picture from above of a place on the coast.  It feels like a retreat to me, but at the same time the fact that it is being looked at from above plays with the idea of privacy and our lack of it in today’s world.

The Copper Road

This is an archaeological painting to me.  Something lost and old, but now found, but found with it’s secrets in tact.  There is a mystery here and yet it is not hidden any more.

An ancient wall that holds secrets

First I painted this then I realized it was from here:

“Sleep baby sleep
Now that the night is over
And the sun comes like a god
Into our room
All perfect light and promises”

…

Dream baby dream
Of all that’s come and going
And you will find out, in the end
There really is
There really is no difference”

  ~ A New Sensation, INXS.

Morning fully broken above the sea: A Dream

The reason I paint is that I feel the thing with in me, like a secret that my mind may not know, that needs to be expressed; I know not how, so I start…

May your hearts dreams be seen before your eyes in time for them to be fully savored,

~B~

The Kitchen!

I made a sign for Lady, my Italian lover of the kitchen. I initially hoped that the addition of gel would help the lettering and accents stand out enough to not have to outline it, but it turned out quite well with the white post production outline. It looks a bit like a blackboard with the dark stained wood… that idea is in the idea vault for later…

La Cucina

Lady wants me to make these available for order in my Etsy store.

Just plugging along with the home creation.  I’m hoping to do a field trip on my newly well foot tomorrow to see about some potential places to sell art or at least get some exposure:)

There is a way, because you have the will,

~B~

The next painting

Lady had mentioned a while ago using glues as part of an texture palette and I always liked the idea, but not for the monochromes I so often saw it done with; but when I combined it with part of another idea that she mentioned I loved it.  I created a panels with the glue and texture with a number of other pastes and gels.  I used an array of colors, paint brushes and other instruments for texture and painting to create this almost complete piece.

9 Panel – The Paths

9 Panel – The Paths: and further exploration of texture, color and a tribute to the options in life.

Gallery Wrapped

This is on a 24″x 24″gallery wrapped canvas and thus us an edge as well. After much consideration I’m going with a paint only burnt sienna edge, like the majority of the center panel. I fell in love with this color when I first started painting because of what happens when it is drying and you continue to paint on it. Here is a perhaps over edited pic that includes the edge.

9 Panel – The Paths from the side

Here you can see the edge a bit.

The light which we share never leaves us darker.

Peace,

~B~

In what I have found to be my favorite random holiday of the year, my gout has disappeared!!!    I have been able to focus and work in ways that have not been true since before I got my second cold of the past two years (which feels like was three weeks ago).

I watched a video yesterday from Cory Huff from The Abundant Artist about creating a good artists website, which was very good and has me looking for a redesign for this site.

Last weekend I met a photographer, that teaches art, who is a family friend of Lady’s, that I hope to contact to take some pro pics of my paintings.

Lady also went out in the unknown world and found a brick and mortar that may be a place I could work/volunteer at and have my own booth in and a Starbucks that displays local art.  All that combined with my health being back on par has me quite excited.

It’s worth it, it really is :o)

~B~

So it’s been a process, but here is the final product.

Good on its own.

And back to where this started, to see if it accomplishes the task that it was originally intended for.

Night Bridge, in context.

I wish the stars showed up better, please click to see a full sized version of the pic.  I just love it here and Lady likes it too:-)

I’m already working on the next piece inspired by the doodle in a note book back at OU when I was feeling quite lost and trying to imagine my path in life…

The path of life winds and it will find a way to expand, ready or not,

~B~

So more work than pictures this time, but I am so happy with how Night Bridge is going.  I finally figured out where the middle had to go and so I set that up.

More Red, that’s what we were missing!

The next bit of work I did I got ahead of my self and the forgot to take pictures :o|  So my apologies, but I worked a spiral of blue back in to the red which you can see next. This phase happened in my guest bath as I had to protect the place from getting sprayed. There were some test runs on other canvases and then I used a tooth brush with some really watered down (50/50-ish) titanium white to lay down the stars.

Plastic wrap and old sheets save the day and look at that spiral:)

And here we are…

There we go, details left for tomorrow with a fresh eye.

The next parts of this will be detail work,  signing off and see how this looks in place!.

Should be done tomorrow.

In every breath possibilities, in ever beat of the heart another chance,

~B~

I had a nasty gout attack that left me mostly foot in the air for the better part of last week.  Not a lot of blogging or progress in that time.  I’m back on the my feet again and the darned toe is just about better.  That all being said here’s the next pieces of Night Bridge.

Blending fail

So I couldn’t stand how the blending had gone and perhaps it was rash, but I whited it out to start again. It did not go well, again.

Almost found out if it could fly, or burn, yes (!), maybe burn would be good for you!

I did consider destroying the painting while getting to this point. The green is ugly to me, I’ve created a lot of make up work on the mountains and again I wonder why I didn’t start with the colors then lay the mountains and black on top…   I need to press on to a win here so I decide to do the sky and start blending my way to black.

Well I like the new green  just not here.

his green I actually like… not for this painting, but at least I don’t want to destroy it anymore.  I like how the fade to black is going, the right side especially needs some work, but I’m pleased with the progress.  After a conference with Lady I’ve decided this needs a new direction totally in the middle, but that is for another day…

May the joy of the hours you spend in a day greet your pocketbook as well as as your heart.  

~B~

More work on Night Bridge has gotten me to here:

I started working on the colors here.

The blending is not what I was hoping for in the middle, but I wanted to see how they would fade into the purple of the sky next.

The plan is to fade this to purple on both sides then to the black of the night sky.

I’m happy with how that has turned out and now I’m hoping to work on the mountains next, to frame the colors in.  We’ll get to that next time.

May the muses be heard by us all and more than that, may we have the courage to listen to them.

~B~

I’m starting a series that will walk readers through a painting that I am going to be working on. I won’t show every step, but I want to at least give a feeling for what doing a painting is like for me. In this particular case I have a very distinct idea and even have a title for the piece before I begin. The title is Night Bridge and it is a painting that will be able to stand on it’s own, but was inspired by this scene from my bed room at the Eagle’s Nest:

The Two Trees:

This is Lady and I’s trees

The beginning of Night Bridge:

I want to bridge the two trees incorporating the colors and the mountains from the original works.  So first I drew in the mountains with a light pencil, then used a pallet knife and textured the mountains in with a fine pumice gel.

Night Bridge 1: The first step was adding the texture to to the canvas

I’m quite happy with how the texturing has turned out and am excited about the next steps:)

As the process continues I’ll keep posting updates and reflection on the process.

May your creativity be ever at the ready,

~B~