Merry Christmas Again

I created this Christmas video a few years ago.I felt it was time to show it again to wish all of my friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays !

Digital Oils and Guilt

  I am still trying to improve my technique painting digitally in Photoshop CS6. This recent painting was from a picture I took with my cheap cell phone. No, my cell phone isn't an iPhone, which is luxury I can't afford. The quality of the cell phone picture really isn't that important.  I am not always interested in too much detail and try to create a more painterly look. The downside is it is getting harder for me to pull out my actual brushes and paint. I have become addicted to turning on my computer, with a cup of coffee in hand, still in my pajamas, and start painting.

 All of this is because of the Wacom Intuos5 tablet I bought earlier this year. I feel the need to justify the cost by using it as much as possible. Guilt is a constant trip I go on since I retired. Every penny I spend that isn't a necessity give me as much guilt as it does pleasure. Gone are the days when every art related thing I bought was an investment that paid off in my art business and was also a tax deduction. I keep telling myself I will created something I feel happy enough with to market. I know it's the same song a lot of other artists, photographers, writers, etc. are singing. I often wish I was like the people who put everything they do on the market no matter how poor it is. Of course what I post on my blog doesn't count! LOL

Thankful

                                                                          Thankful

The Gut Art class has ended and for the last challenge I made an art doll. This time I didn't use a bottle for my armature. I had no idea where I would go after I started with the head. I finished her head with paint, etc. and it stayed mounted on skewer for a week before I took the next step. I doubt if anyone would be so naive as to make something like this without a plan, one body part at a time. I used a cornstarch dough recipe I found online because it dries to a hard strong finish. Like all air dry clays, shrinking and cracking is problem, but it is easy to fill them later.

I decided to title my doll, "Thankful" and will make her part of my Thanksgiving Day center piece. I hope your Thanksgiving Day is blessed and filled with gratitude.

Comfort Zones

Learning Photoshop digital painting since CS6 came out with new brushes has consumed me. I took a break from my computer and returned to the studio. It was a treat to play with a limited palette of real paint and collage. Although the resulting art, shown above, may look a little chaotic, I can assure you I was in my comfort zone. I am also taking part in a Gut Art class, which inspired this piece and I am eager to create more. So much fun, I pray for more good years to enjoy it

I decided to try out one of Blogger's new template. Please let me know how you like it or should I return to my old template comfort zone?

Ode to Kandinsky

Recently Loving Mixed Media,  a Ning group that I belong to, Danielle Evans started a Kandinsky challenge. We were asked to" dust off all of the cobwebs and get the creative juices flowing again". I read what interested me about Kandinsky to get some understanding about his art. Kandinsky went through many evolutions in style, but my favorite was during his more graphic period from 1922 to 1933,

  “Yellow-Red-Blue” 1925 *

                                                                  ”On White” 1923*

Some biographers said Kandinsky wrote a text “On the Spiritual in Art” giving colors a heavenly connection. Large portions of his works reflect this since they were rendered predominately in the basic primary colors, plus back and white. Inspired by this I created the piece below for the challenge.

                                                  "Ode to Kandinsky" 2012 Eva Macie

I photographed things I found in my garden shed.  I used Photoshop to manipulate and build my composition. Since red, yellow and blue are the “mother” of all colors I can see a possible connection to Kandinsky’s heavenly theory. This is why I put the three tiles of these colors in my composition. I deliberately desaturated some areas for the blacks, whites and grays so dominate in Kandinsky's works. 

It was a fun challenge and it opens a completely new door for my own creativity.

*Both of Kandinsky’s works shown here are from the Paris,Musee National Art Modererne, Centre Georges Pompidou.    You learn more about Kandinsky and see more of his creations at this Kandinsky site