Friday, December 30, 2011

Making the Most of Art Supplies

Making the most of supplies is crucial, considering the cost, but it can also be a step to furthering creative exploration. When I have paint left on the pallet after finishing a painting I use it. I keep stacks of small sheets of thicker than usual (110# acid free) paper on hand to create "waste pages". This paper will warp if too wet so with acrylics it's best to move quickly with big strokes to cover the sheet for future background use. If there's still paint left over I grab another sheet and have at it. It's freeing to feel so wasteful, using up sheet after sheet in a careless way. It's also a great way to unwind after working on a serious project that maybe required concentration; it takes painting back to a fun place. This can be continued until the watered down paint is only a wrinkling stain on the page if desired. Then, the real bonus comes in the treasure trove of potential art that can be discovered in those waste pages; backgrounds for smaller paintings, ACEO, book markers, collage and scrapbooking material, postcards, paper mosaic, etc. I've even had that pallet mud brown -- you know the color when all colors are muddied together -- turn out to make a terrific wood grain when torn into strips for a collage painting.

Image 1
 Here is an example of one of my waste pages in action. I'd finished working with Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics. I brush scribbled a general abstract pattern onto the paper using the colors I had leftover, (see image 1).


Quite some time later I wanted to paint the antique tea roses that grow outside my studio and found this waste page to be an amazing match for a composition that was already sitting in a vase on the dining table! The resulting painting, titled Tea Roses in Little Vase, has a greater depth and spontaneity than it would have been able to achieve if I'd started with blank white paper. I really enjoyed the ease of having a background already prepared too.
Image 2


Buckled pages can be smoothed later by flipping over onto a smooth table top and wetting. Use a 1" to 2" wet brush and start from the center. Don't stroke back and forth too much or the paper will stretch out of shape. Just wet it evenly until the paper lays smooth and flat onto the table. Place one or two sheets of an inexpensive thinner paper like a 30% post-consumer recycled copier paper on top and weight it all down with heavy books for a day or two. Once the paper is dry it should lay flat for use as a painting or drawing background, sitting flat inside a frame later.


Image 3

Another bonus to using up extra supplies comes in the challenge of only using the leftover colors at hand. In this little self portrait (see image 3) I had a lot of blues left on the pallet and a half dried chunk of white not wanting to be wasted. Glancing in the studio mirror I quickly grabbed some lines with the loaded brush.
 Because the main goal is to use up the paint my brush was allowed more freedom than usual. The resulting image was a good deal more moody than I felt at the time, and more stylised than I'd perhaps have expected, but that's what adds to the fun.


So hold on to your pencil nubs and scrape the pallet clean for creative ways to gets the most out of your art supplies and get the most from them!







*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Rainforest Inspired

This month has featured numerous days of rain in my area. My houseplants are loving the soft light and the art studio is nicely cooled. So far, no hot Indian Summer like I'd expected, but enough rainy days in a row to make me think back to when I lived in Washington state. Here are two bits of art, a painting and a poem, that were inspired by the misty Pacific Northwest rainforest.


~ My Eye Will Not Forget ~

Blurred vision of a distant horizon --
Cedar rhythms dance my eye --
American rainforest a-drip with neon green.
Rivers run my pulse.
Sunset explosion of fiery, bright orange --
Solid color fills the sky,
As if upon another world!
The trees come down to kiss the shore
Where Pacific waves have their way.
Red forest trails --
My eye is filled with wonder!
Water hovers in the air.
Faces look from shapes in trees;
Primordial magic!
Moss beds and alder swamps,
Blue mountains hold a burning secret.
My eye will not forget.

©Tree Pruitt
Artwork shown, "The Road to Aberdeen", oil on canvas painting by Tree.
*See a previous post about this piece, here.







 
 


*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Finished Nature Goddess Sculpture

 In each of the places I've lived in North America I've encountered nature spirits. Inside the mysterious trees and brush one thing can often look like another at first glance. Have you ever walked in the woods and mistaken a log for an animal or caught unexplained movement out the corner of your eye? Some say that the cautious creatures of magic in the woods disguise themselves to avoid capture. Who can say if they are really there or not? I wanted this recent sculpture to have that ephemeral feeling of both natural and supernatural that makes one take a second look in curiosity. If it has a meaning greater than that then we'll ponder on it together.
close-up of "Hamadryad" by Tree Pruitt
In a previous blog entry I shared an assemblage statue I'd begun titled at the time as, Nature Goddess Sculpture, well she's finished now and enjoying a spot on a curio shelf. From the base of the marble stone to the painted tip of the highest feather she stands thirteen inches tall. Click the link to see pictures in the old post of how this piece began. She has become a North American hamadryad, with her head-dress of native bird feathers; red cardinal, yellow finch, and black raven are represented in her crown.

Wikipedia informs us that hamadryads, "are Greek mythological beings that live in trees. They are a particular type of dryad, which in turn are a particular type of nymph. Hamadryads are born bonded to a particular tree. Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal dryads are simply the entities, or spirits, of the trees. If the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well. For that reason, dryads and the gods punished any mortals who harmed trees."

"Hamadryad", sculpture by Tree Pruitt

My Hamadryad statue could be understood by some to be an unhealthy tree because of the plethora of bracket tree fungus she wears up her trunk, but I don't think of this fungus as a death symbol. Also known as Artist's Conk, this particular species is Ganoderma lucidum, which is a type of fungus I've personally observed on living trees. This species is a hard textured annual with a shiny red -brown top surface when dormant. The underside of this "Artist's Conk" yields a mat surface like a dusting that darkens when touched or scrapped. Marks will become permanent, allowing artists to express creative images on the surface. I've enjoyed watching this species shape itself to the contours of tree trunks over the years, as if poured into place, until it becomes a very firm part of the tree; attempting to remove them is quite difficult and harmful to a living tree. Overall, it may be harming the ash and locust trees I've observed it growing upon, but they've thrived for well over forty years so far, with the fungus growing only in the low shadows.
 
This sculpture is considered by myself as an "assemblage". An assemblage is simply taking parts already made and putting them together to make something else. It certainly has been an assemblage of inspirations! Here, though the surface is carved and formed similar to a traditional sculpture, the body is made of different parts. A pine wood dowel rod runs upwards, and this isn't just a support structure because I've left a portion visible as torso. The foundation is a base of marble chunk. The clay is attached to this base making it a permanent part of the piece.

I was nearly sad when this assemblage sculpture was finished. I had great fun working on this piece. Paperclay as a medium has proven to be very versatile when mixing into my 3-D artwork. I enjoy the final results of this project, and I hope you've enjoyed it too!


Browse my studio store to see available artwork Visit Tree's ArtFire Studio






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamadryad
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/march99.html
*Original art images ©Tree Pruitt, unless otherwise indicated. Contact the artist prior to ANY use.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Feature of Water Media

I was happy to open an email informing me that one of my paintings, "Aphrodite Was Born", has been selected for a Collection on ArtFire.com, which allows users to get creative by gathering related items under a theme of their choosing. The theme for this particular Collection is the variety of ways in which watercolor paint, or water based medium, may be used in painting;  "Water colors in a variety if uses and art". The Collection Curator, Glenda from Pretty Jewelry Things Store, searched the site to find examples of traditional watercolor and mixed media pieces. I think it's a great idea for a feature, and I personally found some pieces to add to my own favorites! Have a look and see what you think.





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Monday, September 5, 2011

Shells , Scales and Smooth

 Shells , Scales and Smooth is the title of a new ArtFire collection curated by member artisan, CactusCroneCreations, filled with the beauty of amphibians and reptiles. Personally, I love turtles and salamander, I think frogs are great, and snakes are lovely; All of these creatures are lovely in life, but this collection of art and jewelry adds an extra spark to Nature's work! I'm very pleased to have an original ACEO painting taking part in this group too... "Salamander Moon".
 I often pull my inspirations from myths and legends, putting pieces together to make my own puzzle. The salamander is considered to be a Fire Elemental within many cultures, and a Native American name for the August Full Moon is "The Red Moon", so in my world that moon is red because an Elemental has curled upon it for the season, adding heat to the moon's cool night.


Saturday, September 3, 2011

Dragon Feature

Today I'm enjoying having a piece from my ArtFire.com Studio having been selected for a special collection on the site. Curated by member, Vievespolys, these treasures prove that dragons aren't always to be feared! With a lovely assortment of things that decorate, things to wear, and things to carry the graceful side of the favored fantasy creature is featured. My ACEO, Magic Green Dragon Eye, that is in the feature is a quality digital print version of one of my favorite SFA paintings. The original hangs in front of me now, watching over my world with magic, and it thrills me to be able to share my dragon with you all! Take a look below and please do enjoy the Collection!