Throwback Thursday: Fox Torn Paper Collage
This is one of my first (if not The first) torn paper collage pieces. I’ve certainly learned a lot since I made it over twenty years ago! I also now use more archival materials, like higher quality paper and acid-free glue. Still, I’m actually kind of impressed that it’s held up so well over time. It spent most of its ‘life’ hanging in an office, near a window, so there’s quite a bit of fading from the light but it’s still recognizably a fox. At some point, I’ll have to do a post on storage and display conditions and how to prolong the lifespan of your artwork.
It’s interesting to look back at some of my early pieces and see how far I’ve come, how much I’ve grown, both personally and professionally. If you create artwork, do you ever go back and look at any of your early pieces? How do they compare to what you create now?
Inspiring Your Art: Winter
With December popping up seemingly from out of nowhere and winter on its way, I decided that a little wintery inspiration was in order!
Too often I get focused on the hassles and inconveniences of winter. This photo reminds me of the beauty that can be found in this season. It reminds me of snow coated trees and frost patterns on windows. The red berries remind me of the cardinals I sometimes see at my bird feeder.
What does this photo remind you of? Is there something that says ‘winter’ to you?
The Search for the Perfect Palette
In a painting class I took in college we had these wooden carts with glass tops for storing our supplies. The glass top acted as your palette, so you could sit or stand and work and didn’t have to hold your palette in your hand. I’ve never personally been a fan of hand-held palettes. Partially because so many of them are cut to hold in your left hand, so the angle is wrong for a lefty like me to use it with your right hand but also because I tend to get pretty… involved in my painting. At times, I even forgo brushes and use my fingers to get just the right effect (I guess I never quite grew out of the whole childhood finger painting thing?). So I find it awkward and difficult to use a handheld palette. I Loved those glass-topped carts. They were old and ratty from years of abuse by art students, but the glass still worked great.
Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels
Once I was out “in the real world” I realized just how poorly the typical artist’s palettes worked for me. They were the wrong size or the wrong shape. They never had quite enough room. They were impossible to clean. I needed something better. I missed those carts with their glass tops.
Aha! A quest! After a great deal of searching, I discovered the perfect solution: Amaco Classic Glass Palettes. It’s a rectangular glass palette, just like the tops of those carts, but I could put it anywhere I wanted. No bulky cabinet attached! It comes in two sizes of rectangular palette as well as a more traditional oval hand held style. I got the smaller size, since at the time I was living in an apartment without a dedicated studio space. My kitchen breakfast nook served multiple roles: kitchen table, computer desk, art workspace. I needed something that wouldn’t overhang the edges of the tabletop and was small enough to stash somewhere else after a painting session. Recently, I’ve been considering getting the larger size, since I now have a dedicated studio space. It never hurts to have more room for mixing colors!
Anyway, this thing is great. It has a nice, smooth surface that’s perfect for mixing paints. It’s not absorbent so it doesn’t stain or discolor and cleans up easily. I use it solely with oils, though acrylics are supposed to peel off easily. Wet oil paint just wipes off and dried paint can be scraped off with a razor blade. On the downside, it Is glass, so it’s heavy and fragile. Since I paint indoors in my studio, that’s not really an issue for me, though caution is warranted. It’s best to keep it out of reach of pets, small children, or clumsy roommates!
What about you–have you found Your perfect palette?
Musings of the Artist, V.1.0
Otherwise known as “Let’s give this blogging thing a try!”
So, I thought I’d introduce a blog to my website. I have a whole slew of ideas and hopefully life won’t intervene too much. There are times I’ll likely be busier than others; sometimes Really busy. I’m actually a full-time PhD student at the moment, so coursework and research can sometimes take over at certain times of the year.
Work-life balance is always an issue with any job. But sometimes it seems that being a student, especially a graduate student, is expected to be the sole purpose and activity of your life. Now, when I was younger that may have been more acceptable to me but not these days! I think I do a reasonable job of making time for my art, despite my class and research schedule, but there are definitely days (or weeks!) when I let it slide.
So why am I adding an additional responsibility to the mix? Well, I’m hoping it will actually help keep me more focused on my art amidst the distraction of research and coursework. Not only making time to work on art, but keeping me accountable for regularly producing something artistic, something not engineering-related. Because art is important to me. Critical, even. And if it’s just for me, it’s too easy to let it get pushed to the side when there are too many other demands on my time.
It’s all about the journey. Enjoy the ride!