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

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