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Sunday, October 10, 2010

More Black Gesso

Eclipsed ©      8"x10"  primed rag paper

This is the second black gesso painting, which I titled Eclipsed. It was not my intention to do a series of black gesso paintings and this painting did not start with it. However, I was not happy with the direction it was going and decided to paint over it with the gesso, saving only the areas that interested me. I scratched back into the gesso to relieve the opaqueness of the paint, and then added a few more marks and numbers. It works for me now.


Eclipsed is a good description of my HP computer lately. I have been having trouble with some of the programs and the email accounts not working properly. I have several email accounts for various purposes and I use a web mail notifier. Unbeknown to me it started dropping the accounts so some of my emails went unread. Then one of my favorite programs, Evernote, stopped working properly. The only thing I could think of that may have caused this was downloading a freeware program, Open Office. It is a huge program, takes up a lot of space, and since I have Microsoft Office, I decided to remove it with YouUninstall. This program is very through; it clears out all the stuff. I hit the start button and went on to something else. When I returned, it noticed the uninstall program was still running like crazy! It was wiping out my computer! I have no idea what the program or I did wrong. Fortunately, I had an old image of my c drive and a recent restore point. However, it did not have all the updated programs. I spent most of the week reinstalling programs and taking new images of my drives, then verifying them. Now everything seems to be back to normal. My son says I have not been a good steward of my computer and it is a mess. He wants me to clean it out and start all over. Uggh! I will put that off as long as I can and save copies my important stuff on my portable drive.

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16 comments:

  1. This is beautiful and the paragraph about your process I understood.This black gesso is interesting and I like the way you are working with it.
    I got lost on the second paragraph...description of all the losses, saves and more saves on your computer...I'm so far behind, so lacking in basics that I can only hope I understood that you are back and running well? I hope!

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  2. Some times, gesso over an unhappy work turns out magical and this is such a one, very attractive as usual!

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  3. Thank you Mary Ann. Sorry about all the computer rambling. I guess I just had to vent about it.

    Hi Padmaja, yes, I've saved a few paintings with white gesso, but black is a new one for me. Thanks!

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  4. Wow, this works for me, too. Black gesso is definitely on my shopping list.

    Good luck with the computer; we're almost at the point of buying a new one. All my programs are becoming "jittery."

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  5. Hi hwfarber. I think my computer is doing better now. I have a portable one in my studio, but it's old, very slow and doesn't like the internet so I rarely use it. Thanks for your comments.

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  6. I think you should get a mac computer, a macbook laptop. I love mac.

    I also think you are on to something with the black gesso, and incorporating numbers... are they random? are they a message from your subconscious? are they visually pleasing? I sure hope you have a memory stick or some other sort of back up so you can save your art images no matter what your computer does.

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  7. Hi Robin, Thanks for your concern.I understand that Mac is a great computer, but I've always used a PC and my sons are very good at helping me with mine. The problem was not my computer, it was the software I was using and my neglect.Yes,I have a separate drive on my computer for my images and also an external backup drive. I realize that's no guarantee. Things happen.
    The numbers are usually random. I just like the look and the contrast they make with the organic
    composition.

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  8. I really love both this piece posted today and the one you posted October 2. Black can be such a unifying color and brings an air of sophistication when used well. You've used it well! Beautiful work. It matches your beautiful spirit.

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  9. Oh- and I totally related to the computer glitches! YIKES!! Sounds like you have it handled.

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  10. Pamo, you are so kind. Thanks for your comments.
    I guess those of us who use our computers a lot come across a few glitches now and the. My problem is I haven't met a program I didn't want to try and I overloaded my machine!

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  11. It's an interesting piece. Never even knew you could get black gesso - but then I only really know watercolors. You are very creative.
    Jean

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  12. Thank you Jean. I guess black gesso would not be on the list of a watercolor purist. Your paintings are so wonderfully light filled that black of any kind would be a crime.

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  13. Love the dramatic contrast of the black -- it adds surface/texture interest but also gives the eye a place to rest before moving on -- and that's important, I think.

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  14. Thank you Kelly, for your kind word and critique!

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