Posts Tagged ‘canvas’
The studio Battle round one (again)!
The prep talk in Artist’s studio at The Secret Gallery
View of art work in progress drying on floor of studio mixed media on canvas by Marianne Slevin 2009
Detail of the Mixed Media on Canvas above
Detail 2 of the Mixed Media on Canvas above
Detail 3 of the painting above
Detail 4 of the drawing above
Detail 5 of the Artwork above
Today, I decided to get back into making some realer art, by “realer” I mean physical, messy art! Getting your hands dirty! This art piece is half way between a painting and a drawing. It turned out to be at least partly to do with the yearly salmon run: where they go back to the same place they were born, to lay their eggs. I think it is amazing! Apparently they can recognise even a couple of drops of water in gallons and gallons of other water, from their home place and they follow that stream all the way back.
Bird
After painting some very small paintings it was really nice to work on a large un-stretched canvas. It is 2 metres wide which is pretty large for me, I have made many large works on paper but not this large on canvas before. I used the Indigo pigment we brought back from Marrakech and the Poppy and the Blue Marjoram just mixed with water. I did not know what I was going to paint until I saw a huge pair of wings in front of me, even bigger than my own arm span! I am not sure where it came from but I felt very connected to it. I poured the dry pigment straight out of the bags then started to use water on it and draw back into it with the lump of indigo The pigment sparkles from certain angles which I like. I plan to frame this behind glass at some stage as it is quite vulnerable.
I bought some more wall paper liner today for some really long drawings! It is 10 metres, not sure yet how long the drawing or drawings will be. James suggested maybe doing a spiral shaped 3 dimensional painting on canvas, I really liked his idea and think it would suit my work a lot; it fits with my folded and scrunched paper objects and my love of light and portable art work. I love the idea of showing paintings on the walls and spiral paintings hanging in the centre of the room which can be viewed from every angle. Long live the muse!
Back from Marrakech with magical pigments!
Detail of artwork in the studio
Indigo, poppy and blue marjoram on canvas
We had a wonderful time in Marrakech! But when we got home we all got sick! Nearly better now though; that is why I have not been writing.
We drank lots of mint tea and went on a scooter into the Atlas mountains, stayed in a beautiful Riad ( a traditional family run guest house) Ours had only 5 bedrooms, they were all individually styled, some with the deepest bathes I ever saw! Everything was thought about even the fan in the bathroom was beautifully designed black metalwork! This lovely place was hidden down a rabbit warren of right and left turns, we only got lost once going back to it and that was when we found a magical lantern lit roof terraced restaurant, which looked scary on the outside turned out to be peaceful and beautiful when we went up the lantern-lit stairs!
As well as being given some Indigo and Poppy pigment by two lovely Irish women staying at the same Riad I got some more Indigo, Poppy and Blue Marjoram, which is a very magical pigment that starts off a red brown colour and turns a dramatic blue when mixed with water. I had a very blue hand after just picking up a dusting with my fingers and then washed them in water, even the soap still has blue speckles! Marrakech was a pure visual feast, even the bins at the airport were pretty!
Hit by my own painting!
I have a swollen lip, I am not sure how the small light-weight canvas did it! I was taking it off the wall when it hit me on the mouth, it is one of the tiniest paintings I ever made but it had a big punch! The painting had been in the gallery then I took it back up to the studio, maybe it thought that it was finished and did not take kindly to breathing in white spirits and being covered in oil paint!
Sometimes it feels like painting is allot to do with timing and knowing when to work into an unfinished painting. Today it felt, for a sort while, like I was able to add the, or a vital missing ingredient to some off the painting that I have on the go, I had thought that they were finished but they never really hummed, that “I’m finished” tune.
For me it is important that my paintings have an element of surprise in them. Whether abstract or recognizably of something ‘real’, both in my paintings and other art work, elements of surprise, play, and the unexpected are always welcome to come into my art! However I was not expecting to be hit by my own painting!
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