Thinking Outside the Box

Unfinished Acrylic Circus

Just finished an acrylic painting workshop given by Sherry Wolf at Old Town Gallery in Cimarron, New Mexico. Sherry achieves some wondrous effects with acrylic. I rather hate the stuff. And she is great at abstracts. Everything becomes to realistic under my paint brush. Two good reasons to take the workshop.

It always helps to get outside the box you have painted yourself into. I took a metal embossing workshop from Sherry for the same reason this spring. And just yesterday I ordered more metal to do more pieces. I doubt it will ever occupy a space at my gallery but It is a wonderful TV project. Something to do with idle hands as I sit "relaxing" in the evening. But then painting began that way as a break from my business of mask making.


Unfinished embossed metal piece

A writers workshop I took when I was writing for money called it tithing. Or writing something you had no hope of selling. Writing poetry started that way. At the time I could sit down at the computer and turn out a 1000 word article or column without even counting the words. Poetry did not fit into that comfortable space. It taxed my mind. Now I am considering self-publishing a book of poetry illustrated with my paintings and my photographs.

I bought the embossing metal because I imagine a set of tiles for the back splash in my kitchen. Or ornaments for the holidays. I am not there are the acrylic painting. But I did rummage through my old mask making supplies and did out some of my favorite acrylic paints. And I can look at the experiment and image other things to do with it to bring it further along.


Experiments in texture

And on this little 6 x 6 inch panel I experimented with adding textures. Watercolor is only visual texture but acrylic allows for real texture like in the embossed metal. I have some oil paints I have been playing with on my watercolor/mixed media paintings. Maybe I will add some of that to these two acrylic pieces. Chance to learn more about oil at same time.

I often say I learned more about painting in the two years I didn't paint than any two years when I did. I photographed in those two years. I learned a huge amount about composition and light. And when I went back to painting I brought that with me.

Anything which adds to your experience will help in your creative search toward your goal even if it seems off the path at the time.

Comments

  1. The Blog of BeeAugust 22, 2014 at 6:51 PM

    I have said it before and fearing you may get tired of me saying it again, I am in awe of your talents and creativity. But I don't care if you are tired of hearing it - it's the truth. Apart from your art and photography, I never cease to be amazed by your interests, curiosity and experiments.

    I too was actually thinking of a book of self published poetry but don't think I could do it because I was thinking of using some of the Mags and don't know if I can do that because of the copyrighted prompts.

    You may want to have a look at "Everything becomes to realistic under my paint brush. " And extra 'o' perhaps to be added onto 'to'??

    I love your work Jacqui be it art, photography,poetry or writings. Don't ever stop. Your mother was wrong!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JBinford-BellAugust 23, 2014 at 3:40 AM

    Book Fuel is who I was considering this time around. I get in spurts about doing this. They have a FB page and a website - www.BookFuel.com.

    And just use the prompts in public domain like long dead artists or change the picture enough with photoshop they are not recognizable. Or don't use the prompt if the poem is strong enough.

    Thanks for the compliments. Don't stop.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Blog of BeeAugust 23, 2014 at 5:49 PM

      I know about the spurts. Will explore the lnks. Not sure the poems are strong enough although I do know some are okay

      I won't stop - as long as you don't stop what you're doing!

      Delete

Post a Comment

I write for me but I care what my readers think. Please be polite and no scamming.

Popular posts from this blog

Swimming

Image
For much of my college career my fitness workout was swimming on the B squad of the swim team. I remember it as the days before heated pools and women coaches. I also remember being so exhausted and cold I could only lean against the shower wall and throw up. Not exactly warm fuzzy images but I was in awesome shape. Needless to say it did not leave me with a overpowering desire to swim laps. Point of fact for years my swimming became really informal: Swimming to shore after the canoe tipped over, challenging my sister once a summer to across the lake and back, seeing how long I could back float without moving a muscle, and a scuba course. I also played around with other ways of staying fit: aerobics, bicycling, jogging, skiing and dance classes. All of which seem to be bad for the knees, back or feet. After my ski accident my physical therapist steered me back to the pool. Damn if I was going to swim laps! However, aqua fit was just getting rather seriously taken so I took it. It r
Read more

The Pruning the Crown of Thorns

Image
Crown of Thorns Before I am a lover of Euphorbias . They are from the deserts of Southern Africa and Madagascar. They have evolved physical characteristics and forms similar to cacti of North and South America and are often incorrectly referred to as cacti. My big Crown of Thorns was one of my first of a growing collection of these succulents from the spurge family of Euphorbiaceae. I picked it up as a 6 inch plant in a New Iberia nursery when my sister and I were touring the northern gulf coast. I believe that was 15 years ago. I made an attempt at limiting its height a few years back to allow it to devote more energy to the new branches and make it a denser plant. That failed. And the height of the plant continued to challenge the window space and soon the long branches were leaning over and leaning against the window. I googled and found the proper way to prune this treasured plant. Still it was very difficult to cut off the four longer branches. Even with a plan. The f
Read more

Eagle Nest Dam

Image
Tour of Eagle Nest Dam Eagle Nest Dam is the largest privately built dam in the United States. It was begun by the Springer family in 1917 and completed in 1920. It and the reservoir beyond it one was privately owned by the CS Ranch which recently sold it to the state of New Mexico. Eagle Nest Lake is now a state park, but the dam and the waters in the lake are another matter all together. Water is well regulated in New Mexico especially during a drought. The lake is now at 25% of its normal capacity, and the water in the lake are water right lease holds of Raton, Cimarron, and historic ranches in the area like the UU Bar and the CS Ranch. Game and Fish department also get involved because the Cimarron River is an active fishery of the state. Our guide was a state engineer and the Gateway Museum secured permission of the land owners below the dam for us to gain access to the area. Some 100 locals and tourists attended this rare event. I have lived here almost twenty years and th
Read more