Panda & Old Beggar - Week 3

Panda - this is the final version this week.  His body still is not what I'm looking for, so I will be painting him again.  I will post pictures of new paintings of the panda as they improve.  But he will be one I will work on matting and framing properly, this is a whole art form in and of itself.

Here are two other panda's one of which was painted on the wrong side of the paper.

This guy just needs help, but the look in his eyes is rather endearing in a pathetic way.  The ink was too light on him, and the body was shaped strange, but the ink flowed pretty nicely.

This is what happens when you paint on the wrong side of the rice paper.  There was a lot of bleeding in the paper. Another lesson to remember regarding water, keep paper towels by your side so you can dab off excess water.  The runny ink is not pretty. 

There are those who think that Chinese brush painting is easy, this is not true.  There is a reason that the masters spend life times working on capturing bamboo, and other subjects.  When painting in this medium it is very important to use good quality brushes.  The ink is permanent, paint in old clothes and have lots of sheets of paper to keep painting even when you do not get the image right the first time.  There is no correcting mistakes, no lifting the ink, no changing the lines once the ink is on the paper.  The simplicity is deceiving, there is a careful balance of ink and water, very deliberate strokes and then just knowing how move the brush with your arm instead of your wrist.  If you hesitate in the middle of a brush stroke, the ink shows it.  I love to paint like this when I get to wrapped up in the details on other pieces of work.  I can just paint, and start over again if it turns out awful.  These will not be posted on Fine Art America until I feel like they are better.

This weekend I finished another piece for a friend, The Old Beggar.

I'm not sure who took the photo, so I will not be posting this on Fine Art America either, but he is complete.

Drawing's still get me twisted in knots, trying to make it perfect.  He is not perfect, but he is complete.

So, the lessons for the week: use heavy duty drop cloths, paint in old clothes, use good quality brushes, and keep painting until you like it.  Simple beauty does not always mean it was simple to create.

Three White Flowers - Week 2

"Three White Flowers" Pastel on Fabriano paper

Here I am at week two, and I've completed a project I had begun a while ago.  Some of the before photos will be included in this post, so you can see the evolution of this piece.
I have not been a lengthy writer on this blog since the main purpose is the art, but this week I felt like saying more.  Art is judged by a variety of things, composition, color, use of the medium etc.  This piece was created in a rather unorthodox manner, and the pastels are layers onto water color paper primed with a purple gesso paint.  I've been experimenting with many mediums and different ways to utilize the mediums, this particular piece will only be one of two.  I will be using other paper to pair with pastels, something that allows me to layer better.  The "Lacey" effect is on purpose, I wanted more interest in the flowers than just painting a lifelike piece.  I hope it moves you, or captures your attention for a while.

Flowering Cactus

Flowering Cactus 

Water Color 10" X 7"

Here is the first piece complete on my missing to complete one piece or art each week this year.  The actual flower was mainly white with just a stripe of pink on the petals, so this piece enhanced the color without making a brilliantly colored flower.
To view this piece without the watermark you can go to Fine art America and check it out there.  I'm sure that I will repaint this piece at another time, just to see what else I can pull from it.   I will be working more in water color to see how much I can improve this year in this medium, I tend to paint very light in color. 


Available for sale @ http://fineartamerica.com/featured/flowering-cactus-dawn-marie-black.html?newartwork=true

Goals for the new year, and a viewing of pieces in private collections

I am not generally a writer when it comes to my art, I feel it is much more important for people to view the pieces and let them speak for themselves.  Today though it seems a good time to start with goals for the up coming year, not resolutions as those are too easily broken.
I have only begun to paint and create again, so I have not done to many new pieces and have not developed a clear direction up to this point.  This decision will not work any longer, I must have a clear objective.  From my readings on the expectations of galleries it seems that many artists produce at the very least 2 - 3 pieces of work a week.  My goal this year is to increase my productivity to 1 - 2 pieces a week.  This goal may be small in comparison, but it is larger than I have accomplished in previous years.
I have four pieces of art that are laying in my make shift studio, waiting to be finished.  I do plan to complete two of them this weekend, and of course I will capture them in photographs and post them here.
I have three different collections that I would like to build this year.  One of these would be my abstracts with nature objects and bright colors, I enjoy these pieces very much.  The second group will be my adventure series which will include an Ice Climber, Mountain biker, and White water rafter, etc.  The third group will be the desert flowers and cactus, these do not share any one medium but only the subject matter.  I'm open to other portfolio ideas if anyone chooses to leave a comment.  For now I will leave you with some pieces that are in private collections, have a great new year.

Breakfast 

 Carousel Horse

Wild Flowers

Emmet Kelly Jr

Dreams

Elk in Moon

 French Clown

Grey Girl

Sadness

Safe Harbor

Promenade

Plumeria

The Climber

  The Hiker

To see other pieces that are available please check out my account at Fine Art America 

There are others which have yet to be posted there, you can leave me a comment regarding them and I will gladly assist you in any way I can.

To view a slide show of other pieces I have created: IDrawandpaint

Silhouette Cactus

Silhouette Cactus (9" x 12")

Acrylic Airbrush on Canvas Panel

I planned to create this as a Christmas present, but it took more time than first anticipated.  I used multiple acrylic paints on this piece, including Galleria and Lascaux.  My preference are the Lascaux paints, but a deeper red was needed than what was available in my selection of Lascaux paints.I only have a small starter set, in order to determine if I like them, which I found that I do.

The back ground texture was added into this piece to reflect the needles on the cactus.  The bright highlights were the last detail that were not originally planned on, but were needed to make it complete.