30 paintings in 30 days challenge

Leslie Saeta is hosting another" 30 paintings in 30 days challenge" starting January 1st, 2017.  I signed up for it. Gulp!
It takes some guts to do this kind of thing. I am not very good at painting every day. And, I don't like showing anybody my work.
 However, I happened to meet an artist the other day while looking around our new home-to-be city, Littleton, Colorado. He had a small studio in a strip mall advertising classes. There was an old dog sitting at the back of the shop and I just had to go in and say, "hi". I love dogs.
The artist had a lot of brillian fall colors landscapes with big brush strokes and lots of energy. I commented on their beauty and he said he did most in the 30 days challenge.
"It's fun" he said. "Paint flies everywhere and you just get lost in it."
I guess his enthusiasm rubbed off on me 'cause today I got the e-mail invitation to join in the "fun".
go to:

https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30.html

Sign up.
Drive yourself a little crazy for a month.
I'm looking forward to it.

10252016-Pinks n Pastel

This is a 12 x 12 inch canvas I used to play with my new Holbein acrylic paints. This is a combo of Hansa Yellow Light and Quinacridone Red, mixed with lots of water and some alcohol drips.

This artist grade paint is really easy to use. It's very creamy and has a lot of pigment in the mix. It's my new favorite! 

I used a dry white soft pastel to draw out the flowers and vase, and then painted using some Liquitex Basics white acyrlic paint to do some negative shape painting around the drawing.

After that I get to play with the table. This time I glued some tissue paper I had made that has a nice pattern painted using a stencil and more Basics white paint. The creaminess of that paint is what makes me buy it over and over again. It just glides off my brush and that is exactly why I really like these new to me Holbein paints. Creamy! Soft! Intense Color! Artist grade promise of longevity! What's not to like? 

I really like using tissue paper because when it's glued down with some matt medium, it is translucent, allowing the gorgeous colors of the base painting to show through.

I liked this base coat of colors so much, I just couldn't pick up any tubes of paint to cover over the flowers. So, here I collaged some tissue paper that I had painted with a bright gold metallic paint. Ripping those pieces and gluing them down to highlight the centers was a lot of fun. And, I could see ahead of time what it would look like before I made the committment to a color change.  Not something I can do when I have a paint brush in my hand!

I did the same thing with these stems. Green and gold painted tissue paper collaged with matt medium. I had a video playing while cutting, ripping and gluing and the time went by really fast. I never get tired of the 1996 movie, "Michael" with John Travolta, Andy MacDowell and William Hurt. One of many movies I play over and over while in my studio. 

I REALLY did not want to paint out those flowers, so I did what I usually do: outline with oil pastel.  I wish I could tell you what is so satisfying about using these pastels, but that eludes me. All I can say is that the feel of the big fat crayon in my hand is fun, fun, fun! 

I mean, look at this! It's slick, but has texture. It's shiny. It skips on the surface of the canvas and it looks like a 4th grader had a lot of fun in art class. Who could possibly ask for more of a day in paint?

For this final photo I positioned this canvas on some painted tissue paper, and now I'm thinkin' maybe it should be framed in that splash of rosy color... 

It has a name now: What's underneath is important"

$75.00 plus shipping in the U.S. 

If you are interested in buying this, email me at adriankronbergarts@aol.com.

"My vase is compose rose"

OK, so it's been awhile since I even looked at this neglected blog. Retirement gets crazy is all I've got to say. This is a painting done in January 2016.  I totally enjoyed playing around with the idea of "not realistic" vases of flowers. I did some simple water colors at first and had so much fun, I decided to go for an acrylic version.The final canvas is 20 inches by 20 inches and was a pleasure to work on. Here are a few photos of the progression. 
My favorite part of all is the oil pastel outline  I add at the end. It takes me back to fourth grade when everything I drew started with an outline.  The title is based on the name of one of the acrylic paints I used made by the Holbein paint company.
Amazingly, this painting is now on display with about 14 others I did in this series at a recreation center in Lone Tree Colorado.  How did it get there?  We moved! From Florida. In May. This is the crazy part I alluded to at the beginning of this post.

Retirement? What does it look like?

 I made the decision with my husband early in the year that I would remove myself from the daily work as his office manager. This is something that has been on my mind for quite awhile.
I am a good organizer, but I don't like doing it. I'm just not made to do this kind of work as having to balance books, meet requirements created by institutions such as Medicaid, AHCA, CLIA, and other agencies who oversee medical practices are numerous and ever changing.
 The stress of it all over these past ten years put me into the hospital six times as I have a tendency to keep my energy blocked. It's gotta go somewhere, so it ends up back where it started and I get sick. I need to feel that I have certain freedoms and having to answer to agencies who are constantly changing the rules is exhausting, frustrating and seemingly never ending.
 We started out in 2005 with electronic medical record and practice management systems that are supposed to make record keeping easy, accessible and accurate for patient data. At that time, we were in the "forefront" of running a practice efficiently. Since then the insurance companies we deal with have created sets of rules that make it very difficult to file claims and get paid for work done for patients.
 Now running a medical practice is complicated by increasingly tight rules and actually earning a living as a physician has turned into a nightmare of restrictions. Claims are denied over and over again for things as simple as one numeral or character being printed out over the line into the next box on a claim form. Calling the insurance company to ask why a claim is being denied is a nightmare of waiting for a human to answer. Everything is so automated, there are times when it seems as if I am calling a big computer warehouse whose programming is set for continuous transfers and more wait time. There have been times when I did speak with a representative, but they are "unable to answer my question at this time". In other words, if the claim is printed incorrectly and they are even looking at it on their computer screen, they are not allowed to tell me what is wrong. I am just told to go to the company website for instructions on how to file a claim. !!!!
 And, this past year, many times educational or instructional information is offered as a "webinar". That means sitting in front of my computer while someone puts up a seminar in web form with a pointer moving quickly from one place to another in order to teach you what is now required.
 Sigh. So instead of human interaction and help that was there eight or nine years ago, now technology has robotisized (is this a word?) everything.
 I just can't do it anymore. Thankfully we have a wonderful woman who is very capable and strong who will now do that job. I have been training her for the past two months or so and now I am officially retired.
 The first few weeks of not going in to work were disorienting! Now I have what I wanted, but what am I going to do with it?  I was actually dizzy for about 10 days. No, really dizzy. Like bumping into walls and having to be careful when walking around my house. Driving was totally out of the question. The safest thing to do was to nap frequently. And read easy novels. And, try to keep the demons of worry at bay while this change of life followed its' course. I felt like that cat you see hanging on by its' claws: "Hang On!" says the sign.
 Fortunately, life moves on and visualizing just feeling comfortable helps create a new space to live in and make dreams in and find enthusiasm once more. My youngest son is getting married next month and has asked me to make them a Chuppah. Now that I have started, I feel grounded and focused and fully engaged with creative activity that is fun for me. For this, I am so grateful. I'm back to being me again and WoW, does that ever feel good!

Gut Art 2013 with Mystele

Another long hiatus from my blog, but I'm back with the intent to post my renewed interest and progress in making art with Mystele in Gut Art 2013.

I've jumped the gun, 'cause the class doesn't officially start until tomorrow the 21st of October, by reviewing some of my videos from the 2009 Gut Art class. The technique is to begin a background by writing on slips of paper an art activity, like "splash some paint" or "draw some shapes" and continue drawing slips of paper until you feel like you are done and ready to paint something. It's a way to break down the fear of, "Where do I start?"

Here is my beginning: My first layer - click on "vimeo". I'll figure out how to do this better...
Vimeo

Bullying- a cry to Stop IT by Shane Koyczan

An amazing plea from a guy who lives in his heart and has climbed out of the abyss.

Shane Koyczan "To This Day" 

Abraham Hicks - LOVE

Sometimes something speaks so clearly to me, I just have to share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUL6MTwIvoM

Thank you Esther and Jerry Hicks for bringing Abraham to us now.

Colored Pencil Portrait

This time I just used colored pencil on a page from "Gone With The Wind". No gesso at all. Sometimes it's just fun to sketch something while watching/listening to a video on YouTube. Have been obsessed with Abraham-Hicks lately. Now "you create your own reality" from the Seth Material feels a lot more do-able. It sure would be a lot more fun to feel as if I create the reality I want by choice and not by chance or habit. Been working on this since 1985 when I first discovered Jane Roberts' Seth books . I have to learn to feel my way as well as think my way to what I want. And, imagination sure is important for any goal, any desire, any, any, any....

Photo Artista and Watercolor

 I seem to be spending an awful lot of time playing with the photography apps on my i-phone.  Photo Artista - Haiku  is endlessly fascinating to me. I especially like it because I can take any photo stored in the camera and play with it - over and over and over, getting all kinds of effects going.

 I dream of making art like this app does, so lately I've been using the photos as a guide. I print one out on Ink Jet Sticker Project Paper and stick it to the opposite page in my journal. Then I get my number 4 pencil out and do my darndest to get similar lines down. I like having the photo as a reference and will look at it in the future and know what I was working with at the time.

 I used  Inktense Watercolor Pencils thinking I didn't want the water color to run if I splashed layers of color over the drawing. It works well, but this weight paper in the journal is really only for dry media, so I'm not too happy with the watercolor effect. It just does not run down the page when it is wet and it is very hard to blot color up for highlights. Oh well, the drawing part is really what interests me now.

 Next time I'm going to do a very messy background page first, and then draw the image. I'm sure I will like it so much better because it will be a lot less controlled.
Draw and learn. Over and over, draw and learn.

Flower Angel

 I decided to draw a face while watching a movie and had a really neat face drawn in watersoluble pencil. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of that now because as just a face on the watercolor paper, I was really happy. However when I took a small brush with just a little water to the lines, they suddenly got very black. ugh!  I was not happy that I had fooled around with her face. Two days later I added wings and some water color to her eyes and lips. And, still I was not happy. Grrr. It's amazing what changing a line does to a drawing! I should have left it alone! grrr! Feeling like I could rip it out anyway, I just added hair with water color and left her alone till morning.

 Somewhere along the line, maybe while dreaming, I decided to draw some flowers in ink and color them in to add to her hair, TO COVER IT UP. An improvement, but I long for her graphite only face. No hair, no wings, just white space all around her fair face. sigh.

Done. Sprayed with fixative. Destined to live in my watercolor journal. But she is growing on me. A face from my imagination who led me into choices filled with resistance.

More i-phone fun

 Yesterday I got an order from photojojo. Lenses for my i-phone! What fun! These lenses attach to the phone with a magnetic ring that glues around the i-phone camera lens.  Today I took advantage of the sunshine and snapped a bunch of photos using the wide angle lens. At first I couldn't see what the lens does, but on closer inspection of the images, I see how the lines bend on this photo of my front door. OK. Interesting.

 This is the same lens and the Hipstamatic app with the X grizzled film which makes the border ragged, and the Bettie XL lens which is like a leaky plastic camera. It adds warm colored light streaks which show up in a random manner and makes the film look over exposed.

 This is the next shot and is noticeably different than the one above. Cool! No way to know what is going to happen next. I love that!

 This brass plaque is next to our front door and looks very nice in these soft colors.

 However, this is the photo that showed me how that wide angle lens works. This is a "gallery" of left handed drawings I've done that are on the wall at my desk. The line on the left is curved. That is my window and it shows me that this lens is bringing more stuff into view by bending the angle of the view.

This is the same photo without the lens and there is a little less of the wall to see here. Interesting.

paper bag lady

This weekend I found a few heavy duty paper bags from the Whole Foods Market and decided to make a journal. I found really good instructions for a paper bag journal from a November 2, 2007 blog page by Judy Wise .

 I added white gesso to each page. That took a couple of days to dry. I didn't put any kind of cover on this collection of paper. It's nice to have a really undemanding format to work in. These pages are not smooth and pretty and do not scare me one bit!

 This is my attempt at an oriental face. I find the eyes so intriguing! The lid line is so much fun to do because the skin folds over the crease in such an interesting way.

I used a #8 graphite pencil so I could smear some grays and carve out shadows. Once satisfied with the overall look, I took some CarbOthello pastel pencils to add just a bit of color. Because the paper is so textured, I have to accept the imperfections where they arise and I really like that! This photo was taken with my i-phone 3G using the camera that is provided and really does a nice job. The page was lit only by my desk Ottlite and no flash.

This face just begs to be touched. It's like drawing on a granite mountain or tree bark.

Even the crater in her cheek doesn't bother me. When I was adding shadow and color, my eye did not even register it as a problem. All I wanted to do was make her face just a little more colorful. Rosy cheeks denote joy in life, and I felt joy-ful as I watched her emerge.

Now this photo was taken with the Hipstamatic app using the Jane Lense and Kodak X grizzled film. The colors are yellowed and the edge of the photo are ragged. I like that effect.

If you have an i-phone you get to play with an amazing array of tools. I would never have been able to access so many different kinds of lenses and films even if I was a professional photographer. This is so much fun!

i-phone fun

It's raining too heavily to go for my morning walk, so I'll post a few photos taken with my i-phone 3. I have a few photo apps (OK - 37) that are very amusing. In fact, hours can go by without my noticing at all. Now I know why I see people staring a these things. They really are fun toys. Since I never call anybody, I now  think of this as my favorite camera.

 It was 96 degrees and I was sitting on our porch which faces west so I got some good contrast in the photos I took. This effect is from Camera Art Fx, a free app that changes a photo into a drawing or a cartoon.

 The i-phone lets you turn the camera lense face you so you can just snap away. Click. Click. Click.

 I wish I had the patience to draw like this. Look at those lines! The shading. The cross hatching. Wow!

 When I was absolutely too over heated to sit outside in the low slanting rays of the sun, I came inside and sat on the sofa with the verticales closed behind me. A softer light and an interesting background effect.

 Once you have taken a photo and saved it to your camera roll, you can open it up and play some more. This is now a polaroid!  I think I used Lo-Mob, an app that looks like a polaroid on steroids with about 42 different effects.

 Me with the ceiling fan. I got some cool pix of it spinning, too. No, wait. That was an i-phone movie.

OK, a little color and an interesting frame. This photo was taken through three different apps, but I didn't take notes, so I can't remember how I got here. But it is a cool rendition, don't you think?

Playing at faces

 

Sometimes just having a page of text with gesso on it begs to be used. And, a number 6B pencil smudges so nicely, it takes me a long time to decide to add color to a face. I really like drawing a simple line and running my finger over it to sculpt the shadows. This drawing sat around for several weeks, just being itself. Not asking for anything more. Floating from pile to pile until one day I glued it into a journal. Big mistake. I was sorry it stopped floating the minute I saw her surrounded by all that white space. 

A tin of Stabilo chalk pencils arrived last week and this is what happened. OK, so she is more colorful, but is she happy about it?

One more Whimsical Painting

This is the third painting I have fooled around with in the Whimsical Style taught by Mechelle Harrison at Creative Workshops.

I really enjoy using a piece of chalk to make the outlines for the forms. I don't feel as if I am doing anything serious because it's just chalk and can be erased with some spit. Cool!

But often times, when I am nearing the finish, I begin to feel sad because I like, really like, the way the chalk looks.

I mean, look at this moon! The chalk adds so much to the etherial beauty of this shape. Oh! And the texture under the black paint shows up under each stroke of the chalk.

And, here the white contrasts with the red in such a nice way.

It looks all skewudgelly. This is a new term. I just made it up. It's how it feels to be white chalk on black paint, surrounded by red and purple. Say it out loud. Ske...wud...gel..ly. See?  A very feeling term.

This window! Oh, this is the kind of window that needs to be looked out of. It turns an entire landscape into a frosted fairy wonderland and makes everyone smile for the rest of the day.

This is today's moon, it is a waxing cresent of 3% in the sign of Libra . We can't see all of it because the Earth is still somewhat in the way, but it is there alright. I know it because I painted it. If you wait a day or so, you will see it outside your window, too.
Or, if you ask nicely, it will follow you into your dreams tonight to light your way in a rainbow kind of way. You can ask it for a wish. Ask for something dear to your heart. And, if you say, "Thank you" everyday for 30 days, your dream will come true.