Wednesday, August 21, 2019

May 2019 - new plants and new collages

May was a busy month in Artlandia.  To start with the finish - new collages from May:
Scherzo in Gray – Chimera, linocut, woodcut and polyester lithography prints with added ink, acrylic, colored pencil, pastel on marbled gray paper, 24 x 18,”

Scherzo in Gray – Crow, linocut, woodcut and polyester lithography prints with ink, acrylic, colored pencil on marbled gray paper, 24 x 18”

Etude in Gray - Frog and Dirigible, linocut, woodcut and polyester lithography prints with ink, acrylic, colored pencil, pastel on marbled gray paper, 14 x 11”

Etude in Gray - Song Bird and Excavator, linocut, woodcut and polyester lithography prints with added ink, acrylic, colored pencil, pastel on marbled gray paper, 14 x 11”

Etude in Gray – Two Swallows, linocut, woodcut and polyester lithography prints with ink, acrylic, colored pencil, pastel on marbled gray paper, 14 x 11”
I had some exciting news at the end of April - I was accepted as a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists!  In May, I attended my first meeting, which included a portfolio share. I made the 3 Etude  pieces specifically to bring to the show and tell.  I really enjoyed meeting some of the other member and seeing their work and look forward to being part of SAGA.

The other thing I did in May in preparation for my next visit to use the big press at Zea Mays was carve some new plants.  I have many plant blocks that I love and use frequently, but I was wanting some new ones to add to the mix, so I carved these two. 






























I also did a ton of marbling of large sheets, 30 x 40" and 24 x 36" to print on at Zea Mays.


My favorite human valiantly drove us to NYC, and I am especially happy with the way these well-timed shots turned out. 





I also got some wonderful landscape shots during May. Not one, but two different rainbows.


A very pretty tree

This is one  I  particularly like -  Favorite Human and I were just heading home after walking Honey ,and I saw this and just had to photograph it (more than once, and from more than one angle), nearly making us late, but it was worth it, right? 
More from walks with  Honey and Human.

This is another favorite - the color and light aren't manipulated , it actually looked like this?!
 Another big thing I did in May was planting. I made my annual visit to the nice nursery.

In creature news I got some nice photos of Mo to compare with photos from exactly a year ago - he's grown so much, but still the same sweet and charming kitty.

(*Max does not appear in these photos because one year ago, Max had not yet joined the creature family - but not to worry, he's happy and healthy, too.)


Before


After
Before







After
Honey, enjoys the spring
while her human works in the garden.


Flowers from my favorite human!


Wednesday, August 7, 2019

April 2019 - more large creature landscapes

As you may notice, it is August and I'm just getting around to processing the April photos - it's been a busy few months, but hopefully the new work is worth the wait :)! 

Sonata in Gray - Swallows, Butterflies, and Can, 40 x 30"
In April, I continued working on the 30 x 40" collages, using the backgrounds I printed from multiple polyester lithography plates at Zea Mays Printmaking in February. It was a long process, but two finished pieces that reached completion in April: Sonata in Gray - Swallows, Butterflies, and Can, and Sonata in Gray - Crows and Frog.
Sonata in Gray - Crows and Frog, 30 x 40"
 The swallows and butterfies came first.  I didn't need to carve and new blocks, but I did need to marble lots and lots of paper to re-print the butterflies in a wide variety of colors.







For the crows piece, even though I just carved a crow facing left, I decided I needed a crow facing right for this piece instead, so I printed the block onto a new block and carved the mirror image.

I got to go on some drives and walks with my favorite human and wonderpup and took lots of landscape photos:









 I love how the sky really looked like the sky in the artwork a lot of the time.  

In cute creature news - my creature family continues to be adorable :D 
Here I am resting on "their" bed, covered in kitties -
I love it when all three snuggle up to me. 
Don't worry, Honey gets lots of love too
A victory in the on-going struggle to get good pictures of Max
in which he doesn't look like (a very cute) black, fuzzy blob
Since all three kitties have birthdays in the spring, I got them a new
cat tower. The little guys let Mini try it first, and she seemed to like it once she
realized it allows her to look down on Honey.
Mo loooooooves sitting in the sink.
The first spring flowers!