paint failure

the acrlic layer failed. i was able to peel it off to the canvas. it tore the silver leaf. why? i sealed the drawing with egg yolk. egg yolk layers will accept thin oil layers, as well as, additional egg yolk layers. for up to 6 months. acrylic must be kept below the egg yolk layers: fat over lean.

either it's time for me to mix up some egg tempera or pull out the oils. either way it is time to paint. and the failure of these paint layers have a lot of potential.

best,

deb.

Red Chair, a palimpsest progression

 June 12

June 19

June 20, 2011

Progress report.  This little red chair always gives me a workout; sharing some growing pains. Perspective is a challenge as most of the planes are fairly close to, but not quite parallel to my eye level.  why do i put myself through the struggle of understanding?   to make sure my skills are intact, to go someplace i have not been before, to feel the unfulfilled desire of the visual potential, submersion/merging with  the object of desire,  and then?  eventually an inner sounding of 'it is!' happens.  then i will stop and the work will 'be' of itself.

best,

deb

ps:  no oil paint: chalk, gesso, egg, water, aluminum gild.  

Summer Studio: a beginning

Here's the set-up, palimpsest on gessoed canvas 26x26" .  that's Capt Joe's in the background.  again the geometry confounds me.  thought to give it a try, but...

the light was shining through the canvas.  turned the canvas and did this instead.  says it all. now what do i do?  go find some more stretchers.

have a stretch of good hot summer weather setting in.  better go to the art supply and get some stretchers.

best,
deb.

ps:  there's an intimation of Heasley's house on the upper left.  and how could i ignore that big tree?  easy...i just didn't see it until the end.

variation on a curtain

western window.  cripple cove, glosta ma.  copyright deb clarke 2011 digital print.

Transferring the Hokkusai

Hokkusai "The Great Wave"  from the 36 views of Mount Fuji.  This image was on my shower curtain.  A few weeks ago I started to 'see things' in the shower curtain.  What I was seeing was the slow dissolution of the vinyl print dripping down the plastic curtain.  It was not The Virgin Mary.  It was not the face of Jesus.  I replaced the shower curtain with a light green leaf printed affair.  the price was right $4 from Bananas.  long/short on the way to becoming a drop cloth I experiemented with lifting the print with clear packing tape.  yes, success.  below is an image of the work table with the transfer in process.  i will use it up, print, plastic, tape and all.  8x8" on stretchers.

best to all,
deb

Easter doings, and Building the Empire Show sneek peek 5

 white eggs dyed orange by putting onion skins and vinegar in the water bath

 this face emerged in the palette knife scraping

 packing tape with paper transfer

 epson print transfer with palette knife scraping 

 palimpsest with aluminum leaf, chalk transfer and kodak laminate

the palimpsest described above with brighter light

highlights from the work last week.  the palimpsest completed yesterday morning.  boiled the eggs yesterday, recipe courtesy of my good friend June, with a nod to her childhood memories. started cooking yesterday am, didn't stop until 6 or so.  hightlights of the efforts:  2 quiche lorraine, 2 sweet potato pies, one roast beef, scalloped potatoes, asparagus and...

Hey EB!  I have your D&G Sunglasses! 

best,

deb.

Building the Empire Show: sneak peek 4

putting in my time.  have lost count of work.  wanted to share the work with you under the moment-to-moment light changes.  very plastic.  very bright.  panels to live with and dream into.  the work table is manageable, still can't find the new deck of charcoal.  running out of aluminum leaf.  running out of stretchers.  2 books of genuine silver leaf.  lots of combination leaf, but want to stay away from gold for a bit.  palmisest in process on the shelf.

what do you see when you peek into these works?

best,

deb

ps:  just found 2 fresh rolls of packing tape: 3,871.8".  maybe i'll build some work without stretchers.

Building the Empire Show: sneak peek 3 (work in progress)

there's a lot of light in the kitchen studio.  walked into the room early last evening and was struck by the light of the windows and the taped panels. the panels give the essence of the ever changing light around here.  it bounces off of everything.    there's a new palimpsest on the shelf.  dragged my bathrobe sleeve through the wet grumbacher white this morning.  didn't notice until the damage was done.  also surprised by how tidy the workspace feels, but when i look at this picture, i wonder at the chaos i can tolerate.  

best, deb

if their mothers only knew

mixed media drawing on canvas

38x42"

copyright 2010 gloucester ma

debbie clarke

i'm drawing, i'm writing, i'm sorting, i'm re-thinking my online activities. i finished this a few weeks ago.  just turned it to the wall and forgot it.  we put it on the living room wall friday night.  i think it works. this drawing started as a painting on the big white canvas on June 19, 2010.  4 months in the works, not counting preparation of the ground and the contemplation of the big white surface.  the intent was to expose young kleptomaniacs, it turned out to be another story about time, place, and intergenerational history.

best and onward

deb.

Sarto Shoes, a drawing

24x24"  mixed media with chalk, sharpie, aluminum leaf on canvas

copyright clarke

2010

gloucester ma

the narrow space will get a touch of pizzazz once the surface is dry. accumulating some work to show. where?  i don't know.  when i have 10 or 20 i will know.

best,

deb.

this drawing reminds me of the grisaille (gray scale)  under painting  popular among the eighteenth/nineteenth century French Academy painters. i have no intention of glazing this canvas.  yesterday i scraped down/washed down the labors of the past few weeks. removed the 'object of my visual affection' from my field of vision.  then 'drew' the whole thing within a few hours, all from memory.  my subconscious brain remembers more than my conscious brain.

i think it is finished.  the work is on my work wall next to the refrigerator and hasn't once told me to anything more to it.  occasionally i feel a slight need to straighten the 'twist' on the left lower profile of the shoe on the left.  this need is only slight, so the 'twist' will probably remain 'as is' with the slightest angst.

Art for Sale: Beacon Marine

Beacon Marine viewed from Rocky Neck.  This is an oil painting of the view from our old apartment on Rocky Neck.  The apartment was smaller than this one, but i sure got a lot of painting done in that space.  My struggle was to get the color, activate the picture plane and make the 'box' of the building.  The box is successful.  It was a real struggle to understand the activity below the doc and putting the boats on the plane of the water.  The painting is oil on canvas 24x30".  $375.  copyright Clarke 2007 

(wow, seems like just yesterday)

best,

deb

inquiries about this painting and others always welcomed.

testing out flickr.

Awesome!  eb purchased an account for me, but i haven't used it very much.  i think i like this.

best,
deb

Sunday Morning Perkins Street 2010

This is the drawing from last Sunday morning's drawing class.  We held class on a third floor deck with a view that swept over Our Lady of Good Voyage toward the western shore.  I will start paintings from some of these sharpie drawings.  there are three tiny shapes in the drawing that are on the ground plane.  these spaces, one near two far interest me very much.  i'm not sure how i will handle the large roof shapes on the left and right, but that is one of the great things about drawing, i can try the ideas out before committing to paint, or not.  I love all of these complicated views with lots of activity.  do you have a crazy landscape that you would like me to draw for you?  

Magnolia MA

This painting was a demonstration for a painting class I held at the Magnolia landing a few summers ago. It is oil on canvas, 32x40".  I turned the canvas over last night and scrawled on the back is my copyright and next to that $850.  I like numbers that add up to 13 and reduce to 4.   

I will be posting work that is available for purchase. what would you like to see?  oils? landscapes? figures? mixed media?  reverse glass?  

work in progress: "Waldorf" new wharf pottery, england

fresh Plaster of Paris with the Green Family shards. 

it is a messy business that i do.

close-up of the shards. surprise, surprise, they stand!

and here's the thematic line-up.
the plaster is mixed with acrylic gesso.
 so, it should be a bit sturdy.
  will coat with gelatin or egg glue.  maybe egg tempera? 

art/not art?  these shards were dug up in the Green family yard.  obviously broken dishes, tossed a bit too far from the water to become beach glass (blue and white pottery shards 'willowware' were my favorite pickings from Pavilion Beach).
is this 'something we keep'?

best,

deb.