It's not easy!

 

 

Because the monthly subject 'Not your normal flower' was ready, I took two unused canvases to last week's painting session

 

My mood was restless, I had not been willing to look extensively for a new subject nor did I want to spend too much time thinking how to start...

 

I set up my easel and just flung some colors down on both canvases. Spreading it out with a palette knife and working in rectangles and squares (I really don't know why) 

 

 

Only recently have I started to use just red, yellow; blue, plus black and white of course. In my box there are the most beautiful colors that are ready to use, but I want to learn!

The above result is horrible in my opinion, I especially hated the color green and the yellow on the right top corner

 



so after watching some Youtube lessons of Jane Davies, I followed her instructions of mixing your own Celadon color

 

I put this on the places I did not like...

 



 

on the second canvas the same green, though it did not disturb me in the same way as the bigger painting 

 

 

These are the results today. And like so often I do not know how to proceed. So I guess I leave them sitting in my studio and have a look at it every now and then until an 'Aha' brilliant idea comes up.

 

Painting is not easy, indeed...

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

Regina

Flowerish

Good morning!

 

 

It was not supposed to be a simple, customary flower

but more flower-like, making you think of flowers

So I came up with this... 

 

 

First I painted the background

 

 

and then drew some lines with my Sharpie

 

 

 

and like so often I tend to like the details more

 than the whole painting

 

This soft pastel like colorscheme is very unlike me, but I want to learn, I am learning

 

It will stay like this for a while...

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Regina

New painting and collage

Humor

was the painting subject that was chosen this time

 

Humor, mostly spoken words;

 but how to paint it in acrylic? that was the question

 

we discussed and discussed and in the end it was deducted to:

 

if it makes one smile a little

 

 

I found an illustrator whose work made me smile,

her name is Sara-Jane Szikora

 

and I made my own version of 'Self raising flower'

I now consider it finished!

 

 

One of my goals is to be able to paint without an example;

there is still a long way to go!

 

 This probably made me compose the digital collage above.

 The picture of the acrylic painting was layered 4 times over itself, in each layer adjusting the filters and highlighting another part of the first picture

 

Two versions of  'self raising flower'

by me

 

Thanks for visiting,

 

Regina



CAD

 

 

Hi folks,

 

Before the holidays began, I promised myself to continue painting, no matter what...

 

So I cleaned and gessoed a long and 'skinny' canvas that a friend had salvaged from the garbage for me (you know I love recycling, don't you?) and then the question came: what to do with it?

 

I opened a similar format canvas in Photoshop, put a few pics of my collages over it and then the layering and filtering fun started!

 

This is design no. 2.

 I plan to continue designing until one emerges that really speaks to me, the one I really would like to translate into paint.

 

It is not an easy way to paint, but the painting is yours and yours alone, so you may do with it whatever comes up and will always be original...

 

This will be my way of working for the next weeks

 

See you!

 

************

 

Regina



Art cards

 

Last week I've been making cards

this is just a small selection

 

 

At the end of my painting sessions,I like to clean the brushes and wipe off the leftover paint on clean white, cheap paper

 

This results in lots of collage papers, that can further be

decorated

 



 

Texture may be obtained,  like with the above one, by pressing a piece of  painted canvas down on the paper

 

 

bold marks simple added by a wide-tipped marker

 

 

the blue circles were printed with cork, these were cut of protecting cork pieces of the glass curtains on our naya (covered porch)

 

I cut the cards myself, find an interesting rectangle or square with a viewfinder and just glue it down, then brayer the whole and put it under a very heavy big book et

 

voila!!!

 

Made with love by me,

 

Regina

Backgrounds

 

 

 

 

 

Hi!

 

Not much happening in my corner of Spain.

 

Though we do have the Moors and Christian

 festival currently,with its closing part tonight,

I once again did not go to watch it.

 

Somehow celebrating these fights of ages ago by way of a reenactment does not appeal to me.

Especially in this time where history seems to repeat itself throughout our Western world, I prefer not to celebrate it, how beautiful and wonderful this spectacle may be...

 

On a different note:

the storyboard above has been composed of details of some recent work by me. They are backgrounds at this stage,

I just started painting without any objective in mind, simply enjoying 'what if?'

 

We are supposed to paint clouds this time,

 but despite the fact that I love to look at skies, I feel no need to paint them.

 But that may come later,

this time just background details

 

***

Enjoy your Sunday, thanks for reading

 

Regina

 

Painting summer

 

 

No need to say more...

 

Regina

On being inspired

 

Hi!

 

 

Restless Mind

digital collage

 

This is not a time for making art... Not for me, now all things 'summer' are needing my attention.

 

The yard is in full bloom, with our Jacaranda tree in a leading role with its purple-blueish flowers, so lovely!

Reminds me to take pictures today, because very soon it will be over again. Furthermore we have two old rose plants, one in a old fashioned pink color (which I absolutely do not like), the other one bright red. Both plants have been trimmed heavily by me and that seems to do the trick: fully in bloom for the first time since we live here.

 

The garden is a big mess on the backside of our house. We are making new terrasses and a summer house there, where we can have dinners in a comfy setting. It could also be a place for painting, when the weather is too hot inside. But first the mess, inevitable.

 

Our son has been visiting and of course that means quality time with him. Not a time to sit in my studio all alone like a hermit (which I normally love...)

 

But like always there is Inspiration galore!

I found two very inspiring paintings when I was preparing our painting theme of Nothing. The first one was with asemic writing and the second one I was attracted to by its colorscheme.

 

So yesterday, in a lost moment, I managed to combine these pics and compose the above digitial collage.

 

I have called it Restless Mind

for that is somewhat how I feel these days...

 

Thanks for reading, enjoy your day,

 

Regina

 



Nothing...

...is our painting theme for this month.

Just trying to let the brushes and the paint work together,

 to discover the way in which colors interact and influence each other on the canvas

 

 

though I did not think any good of the theme, I decided to give it a go,

for I had nothing to lose

 

 

I overpainted one of the abstracts I did a few years ago

 

 

and am happy with the results...

 

 

though the theme was Nothing...

 

Bye for now,

 

Regina

Half man...

Hi!

 

 

 

This time we were supposed to paint a male nude...

 Looking for inspiration on the web resulted in finding a drawing of a half man. Many of the other pictures of men were in the sex/porno field, so were off limits for me, but this one I liked!

 

I had a canvas laying around that fitted the man perfectly, so the decision was made.

 

Out came the paint and brushes and here it is. The canvas man is hanging at our club's expo since Thirsday last.

 

No real 'tool' visible, but yet it's a man: biceps, abs and all other kind of muscles...

 

 

Enjoy the weekend,

 

Regina

Spanish fiber art...

Soon after moving from the Antilles to Spain, I noticed that once again we had chosen to live in an area with little textile art.

 

So I was very happy to find an open air exhibition of textiles in the neighboring village of 'Gata de Gorgos' and got a chance to visit on the very last day. We talk about some years ago now...

 

 

 

The expo was held in one of the village's narrow streets.

The works were simply hanging from the Spanish balconies,

out in the open during the hot month of August (I think it was August, but it definitely was a whole month in summer)

The weather effect was clearly visible on many entries and I remember that I was very disappointed and upset about the way these textiles were being dealt with.

I think that was the moment for me to start exploring a different medium...

 

 

This week I browsed through the images of this event and maybe you can imagine my resentment if you take a closer look at the first picture...

 

 

for look at this painting (it seems to have been painted on a bed sheet)!

I really wonder why the artist has been willing to make so much

 effort while working on a 'throw away'

base 

 

Btw: the images seem to depict some Moorish scenes. The second one also is probably Moroccan or North African, but could as well be Caribbean, the women look very similar

 

Coming from a culture of 'quilt angels' on exhibitions and a long fight for recognition, I realise that there is a long way to go for this in Spain. I won't take part in this fight, just want to enjoy life and make art, so I am painting now.

 

Happy Easter!

 

Regina



From paper to digital

Hi!

 

(click)

 

A quiet day in the studio. This week I finished three paintings!

 

Two of them are of someone's grandchildren and

 the third is our painting club's topic: a nude

 

I was not too eager to paint in a naturalistic way, but in the end I am happy with the results. I will show a pic in a near future post, promised.

 

Meanwhile I played a little with my huge collection of pictures and chose three of my paper collages to work with. Mixing these in Photoshop resulted in the above digital collage. Please let me know in a comment if you are interested to see the source images...

 

Now out and about for lunch in one of the many fish-restaurants in our lovely neighborhood.

 

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

Regina

Passion

 

 

Hi!

 

 This week I started a new painting. As I have written before, we try to follow a theme.

 This has its downside, but on the other hand: we can just neglect the theme and paint as we wish. However, I have noticed that following this theme can bring up surprising things !

 

That was the case with me and this month's theme: Passion

 

During about two decades I have been very passionate about fabrics, making art quilts, dying and stamping, you name it. Should one have asked what my passion was in those years this would definitely have been the answer.

 

After our  move to Spain I have hardly worked with fabrics and

I really don't know where and when my passion went...

So I did some serious soul-searching about this phenomenon

 and in the end succeeded to come up with this:

 

I am passionate about traveling, preferably with our motorhome;

about colours, not the pastel and timid ones, but mostly colourful though occasionaly

 toned down by working a short period in just neutrals; I am passionate about taking pictures and working these into digital collages... this week I explained this to a woman and afterwards she said: so it is just digital, not physical? No, it is nothing in fact, strange come to think of it...

So I don't know whether digital collaging fits in this 'passion thing'.
And finally: I am passionate about making things, beautiful things (I know,... the eye of the beholder...)

 

The picture above is a detail of my new painting. It is an attempt to paint one of my digital collages, the one you can see here

It is difficult to get the effect. At this stage I am not happy at all with the results, but that may change, it happened before.
At least it is a combination what I am passsionate about now

Happy painting, beautifying!

Regina

New abstract

Hi!

 

This week I finished an abstract painting.

 

One of our more talented painters taught us

a way of designing, that could end up in a more or less Kandinsky style painting.

Though at first I gave it a try, I did not get any further than said design state and did not like that at all.

I jumped to the conclusion that I need more freedom, how difficult that blank canvas may be at first

 

 

So I went back to the collage method that I described in this post. Other examples can be found here here.

Again I found it quite hard; the complete canvas has been painted over in different colours several times. Then someone told me how she had liked the original design... At that time I already had made the two glittery bows with modeling paste. In a final attempt I did what she advised me: I went back to the original design. The various colours now shimmer just a little through the top layer, and strangely each seems to play a role in the overall effect. The text is part of a zinc billboard that says Noirmoutier, which is an island on the French Atlantic coast. I'm still not sure what to think of this painting, but it is finished. We'll see what the public thinks of it, as of December 15...

Studying the possibilities

Hi!

 

After having made the viewfinder this morning, I decided to take the upper left

part of yesterday's picture. First I cropped it in my favorite photo editing program

to 'get away' from the other 3 designs

 

 

This already looks more interesting to me...

Then I rotated the picture 90 degrees and layered it on top of the above picture,

after which the real fun started!

 

 

I then cropped it somewhat, used various blending styles and a palet style filter,

 and this all ended up

like this picture

 

 

Finally a gradient color layer was added on top of the above design and then rotated once again 90 degrees CCW

 

I am not sure yet if this will be my definitive design, it looks like it is possible to translate it into acrylics. But maybe I first make a second design by strictly using black and white.

Ahhh, endless options

 

Enjoy the weekend!

 

Regina



Abstract painting design struggle

Hello all,

 

Yesterday I learned a technique for designing an abstract painting. Normally I like to do my own thing, but I realized that by trying to exercise in this way, I could possibly widen my horizon.

Not that my horizon really wanted it...

 I tried, and tried, but did not like the outcome at all! So it will stay at that point, that is a design and I have no intention to translate it into a painting.

After that attempt I looked up all my design books about painting and art quilts, I even looked back at old posts on this blog for that matter. And guess what?

 

 

Quite some time ago I designed and made a series of art quilts, based on this technique (see label quilts)

The translation into fabrics was quite challenging, but I made some lovely works that are still decorating my studio

 

After ripping magazine pictures and glueing them down, I filled the empty spaces with undiluted acrylics and added some marks in black.

Though I don't like pastels very much, I now think the resulting designs below are too boldly coloured. They have to be pushed away somewhat. But I can see some possibilities!

 

 

Tomorrow I am going to make me a viewfinder and have a closer look if I can translate one of these into an acrylic abstract work

 

Will  keep you posted, promised.

Good night!

 

Regina

Dark Africa

Hi!

 

Below is my latest painting. We have some topics 'in stock', and this time the group chose for

Africa.

 

Had I not sold my painting of the little elephant recently, it could have immediately fit in...

 

Though I have never been there myself, my mind has created an image of this continent, based on written and photograhic input via various media

 

So, what to chose?

 

I was thinking about Karen Blixen's story that is to be seen in the famous 'Out of Africa'-movie (still admiring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep); or the many safari reports and stories of friends, but more recently also the miserable story of fighting groups and as a result the many, many refugees that hope to get a better life in  Europe these days.

 

Africa therefore remains dark for me and it is this dark and unknown part of the world that I wanted to emphasize in this painting of a Congolese mask

 

 

Dark Africa

acrylic on stretched canvas

50 x 60 cm

 

The border is more cream colored in real, the picture is a little blueish

Initially I wanted to paint cuba cloth details in the border,

but after a first try on paper they took away all emphasis from the mask, so I decided to keep it solid

 

 

It was a challenge to make the painted mask look like wood, but I think this painting technique with scarce paint does help a bit... you can click the images for a better look

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

Regina



Painting again!

After all summer traveling, my life on the Spanish Mediterranean coast has settled down to normal again. That means I have taken up singing in our club choir again, being active as a boardmember of same club, and above all:

 

PAINTING

 

detail, showing used technique

 

 This time our suggested theme was: young animals and I chose not to paint the predictable dog or cat, but an animal that I feel strangely attracted to...

I love the colour of their skin, the wrinkles, their quiet and determined appearance, not showing any intent to hurry or being pushed by whatever

 

 

Initially I wanted to paint an fantasy type elephant, so I started by painting a multicoloured background. But somehow, since I work in a spontaneous way, the upper part of its body pretty much looked like a real one, so I then followed that path and here it is:

 

my young animal!

 

After two days in the club's gallery, there was a lady who wanted it so much and now it is

sold. I feel very lucky!

 

Wishing you a great weekend, wherever you are,

 

Regina



Painting and some more...

 

 

Hi!

 

Besides traveling, I have been doing lots of other stuff like

 

- sewing fabric baskets and little pouches to (hopefully) sell

at the 'kingsmarket' of our club next Wednesday

 

Dutch king Willem Alexander has his birthday then and this is being

 celebrated in Dutch communities all over the world,

 so also in our little corner of the world in Spain 

 

- finishing a series of handmade postcards. I have about one hundred ready at the moment,

 so I really can show something at the above market

 

- last but not least: I have been painting!

 

The theme was 'water' and I chose to paint in an abstract way

After two years of my start with painting, I feel it is time

for me to try painting in a different way. I am not particularly

fond of painting after a picture, but it has been a good

exercise to get to know the material and tools. Not that

I will paint abstract only and 'for ever' now, but it feels good

to change every now and then.

In the picture below is a detail of 'Water'

 

 

I will post the full painting after it has been hung next Thirsday

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

thanks for visiting,

 

Regina



Wabi sabi painting

 

 

After 'Winter' we chose 'Wabi Sabi' as topic for our new painting efforts.

Hardly anybody in our group was familiar with it, so it took some time to explain the meaning of wabi sabi. But now, after a few weeks, most of the members got the hang of it and I have already seen some very lovely ones...

 

Here is mine!

 the paintings will be hung by the end of March, so there is some more time for other experiments I guess

 

Never would have thought that painting after a picture would be my destination and I still swoon over some abstracts, so maybe..?

 

Have a great day,

 

Regina