Walking in Gloucester May 23, 2012 am: Orange

The foot of a maker of the street runes.

Famous Artist Home: The Stone Jug

The Stone Jug is the former home of Fitz Henry Lane, the famous landscape painter.  The house is on a hill in the Harbor Loop of downtown Gloucester.  Prior to the urban renewal blitz that hit Gloucester in the '60's the stone jug was tucked into the dense little neighborhood where Pew Court used to be.  

Note to self:  Become a famous artist and long after your dead, your name might be spelled wrong for a hundred years, and your misspelled name might appear on a sign perched atop an international amenities placard.  I've never been inside the stone jug. Maybe I will take a summer vacation and visit some of the sites of Gloucester, including this stone jug.

best,

Deb.

Walking in Gloucester May 23, 2012 am

fragrant tree with light lavender trumpets is shedding. 

Wall Street, Gloucester  MA

crushed shells with sage. Parker Street?

Gloucester MA

automatic pretty pictures 

copyright clarke 2012

gloucester ma

Walking in Gloucester: May 19 am

.

'Yellow'

automatic photo

copyright clarke 2012 

gloucester ma

Walking in Gloucester

where the sidewalk meets the pavement. a square composition.

copyright clarke 2012 gloucester ma

Green.

Picasso paraphrase:  'i get so full of green that i must paint green.'

Debbie Clarke: have observed fish for so long that i now see fish in the landscape. 

Green.  is the first in a series of digital photos that i have been taking during my walks, drives around Gloucester.  This green is somewhere along a walk from Main Street to East Main.  There are so many beautiful scenes around Cape Ann, the web is full of the beauty.  some of it breathtakingly beautiful, some manipulated, some 'artsy'.  Viewed collectively I feel as if I have eaten too much cotton candy.  I've decided to let my camera capture my world from another angle.  it's all set on auto, because i don't understand all of the adjustments, nor do i want to.  i have discovered the ease with which i can zoom in on something.  the camera is so smart, it sees the world in compositions that i immediately respond to.

i trust you will too.

best,

deb

Ghost in the Machine

self portrait of hand with artwork

Living room?

Kitchen, art alter

downloaded from the new camera that i don't know how to use.  have no idea how these happened.  i just leave the camera on auto and click away.  i like having a camera with a mind of its own about what is art. 

i'm spending a lot of my online time doing visual research.  have started several boards on Pinterest.  researching orotones and other alternative photo techniques.  is digital an alternative photo technique.  these ideas are adaptable to a verre eglomise treatment with egg tempera as the vehicle for the pigment and gelatin the mirroring agent for various leaf.

thoughts?

best,

deb.

ps:  what do you think of the dynamic blog?  find me Debbie Clarke on Pinterest if you are interested in my visual resource libraries.

The Keys to the Kingdom:  a verre eglomise 

with collaged shadow wall.  a work in progress.

24x36"  two views.  haven't decided which way is up.

This used to be the "Big Spender" a verre eglomise of The Banarettes working the Gloucester City Hall Building Preservation Fundraiser.  It is one of the paintings that I used as a demonstration piece last month at The Cape Ann Museum.  following is a pic of work before I took the razor blade to the glass.  Slowly the dancing women morphed into the keys. 

I know, the Big Spender was working it; but just not cutting it.  the backstory can be found on my companion blog http://www.deborahclarkeawake.com.  

best always,

deb

Walking to Work

                            ,

Captain Solomon Jacobs Park at The Head of the Harbor, Gloucester MA.  This far view towards Ten Pound Island always catches my interest.  So many things to look at from the up close to the far away, to the above, to the below, to the squeeze in-between.  I'm not inclined to paint this, to squeeze all of this into a flat plane; however, all of this informs my art.  Everything here, within, without, is in constant motion.  This is the essence, and yet so easy to forget, so easy to want to fix, but must surrender to:  change is the only constant.  the still point what binds all of this together is the between.

best,

deb

ps:  the top 2 pics are from my walk to work on Thursday morning April 18.  the bottom pic of the long view was taken yesterday morning April 19.  sometimes i sense the ocean breathing.

My Day at The Cape Ann Museum

last Saturday and Sunday I spent the afternoons demonstrating and chatting about art.  my daughter Elizabeth Bollenberg came to the Sunday event and took some great pictures!  the set up was on the third floor of The Cape Ann Museum  where "The Rule of Four" exhibit is on view through May 2012.  I'm working in front of four of the Species paintings that I created for the museum in 1995.  There are Nell Blaine drawings on the wall behind me, and Lynn Swigart's photographs are glimpsed in the corner.

It was fun greeting folk, the old gray matter kept firing, amazing me at the accumulated knowledge that I was eager to share.  The most difficult/exciting part of the demonstrations was introducing folk to concept of change that is inherent in my process and final product.  Many folk wanted to know how I knew when a work is finished, since I have no preconceived idea of what the finished work will look like.  All I could say is, I just know.  There's an inner sense of knowing, all of the dynamics of the drawing work, the tension is just right, and I just know.  Some work happens fast, and other work happens over time.

best,

deb

as always, comments, questions are welcomed.  now, it is time for me to put my studio back together so that the work can continue.  

Rusty Anchor jellyfish (wip)

Here's the orange jellyfish in process.  reverse glass with silver, aluminum, rusty egg tempera, etc.  in process.  if you click the pic you can see the grains of rust.  my friend Paul Frontiero reminds me that "rust never sleeps".  I wonder if this will develop a rust bloom.  very excited about this.  19x20".

best,

Deb

ps: this will be one of the works in progress that i will bring to the Cape Ann Museum for my demonstrations on March 31 and April 1.

Taking in the Beauty and Making Paint

Late Sunday afternoon I took a stroll across the street to check out the beauty of the anchor that greets one at Capt Joe & Sons.  My thoughts were of hope and trust.  I would not trust this anchor to hold one fast; and if used, knowing the condition of the anchor; all one could do is hope that it would hold.  Close inspection revealed the trust that barnacles placed upon this anchor, until it became dry docked.  How was the anchor made?  It clearly has iron in it as evidenced by the rust; but what is the grain?  it looks like wood.  hmmm...questions to be answered another day.

I carefully collected some rust from some of the inner surfaces where the rust dust was fine; along with a few other crumbs. I then ground  the rust into a finer dust with a mortar and pestle then, added some water  to form a stiff paste.  I then turned this into an egg tempera paint by adding an equal amount of egg yolk.  I was hoping for a nice deep orange; no dice.  I ended up with a yellow ocher that I am using in several paintings of keys and jelly fish.   I named the paint "Rusy Anchor"

best, 

Deb.

Back to Work!

we had an engagement party for my elizabeth and her man joshua a few weeks ago.  i had to clear my workspace to make way for the bar.  krash/slide and all survived.  forgot that all of this work was stored behind/beside/beneath.   wonders never cease.  back to work, getting ready for my mini residency at The Cape Ann Museum at the end of this month.  more details to follow.  for now, bringing work to various stages of completion.  will demonstrate process, be available to chat with folk.

below are various attempts to photograph the mirrored drawings.  the reflection kept getting in the way.  i  reflected a white showerboard into the mirror, then took an offset pic.  what appears as a shadow line is the reflection of the sharpie drawing and gold egg tempera.  the box is lined with black velvet and will barely be visible when complete.