Dipping my Toe into Surrealism, or was it a Frog Foot

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Happy September, Im not going to say FALL because 80-90's are not FALL. It isn't pumpkin time at all, my pumpkins are far from orange....and WALLY WORLD is putting out Christmas....Jiminy! 

We did have three lovely 70's days...and got a ton of neglected yard work done, but this is NOT FALL, other than dead flowers, we are as green as we can keep the sprinklers going. After a long, hot, wet summer everything demands water to stay green. The payment for gush-gush growth and greenery.

I'm taking another Mather art class, it's called Creative Mindfulness, an hour online one class a week. They are free and many open to outside of Illinois now.

 Mather Institute for Aging programs

This month of September we xwill be emphasizing Surrealism type art projects.  The Surrealists movement was created by a core of artists in the early 20th century all through the 70-80's. They let their imaginations go and also touched on their own or projected subconscious thoughts. One of the most recognizable Surrealist was Salvador Dali. 

Persistence of Memory Slavador Dali from Steemit

Much of the Surrealist Art is still under copyright, so I'm  not going to continue with anymore examples. 

You can follow the link with this painting and view all his introspective work, which is haunting and beautiful in a wonderfully weird way.

For right now, I find the classes I'm taking as adding an asset to my creative skillset and very relaxing and meditative to begin with. This class always with starts breathing, and then with a prompt and some art history for a quick project in your choice of media. 

Since right now, for health reasons I'm taking it very easy, it's fun to play in a meditative way. 

September Week 1-The Exquisite Corpse the name of this project. 
(First, CLEAR your mind of anything in particular) and we started with a fresh piece of any kind of drawing/craft paper.  Fold in half horizontally, then in half again the same way.  From the folds, make them into an accordion fold, then I taped the edges on the sides down and just view and work on the very top fold. 

Fold one: will be a Head or Top of the drawing,
Fold two: will be the Torso or Middle of the drawing.
Fold three: will be the lower Body or the lower section of the drawing.
Fold four: will be the Feet or Base of the the drawing.

The plan...

I had just viewed the pond that morning, so a goldfish came to mind---as we have had them, but then they are basically there to feed the raccoons, so now we don't. 

But I still think of it as a fish/frog pond.

The point was to do all sections into a complete drawing in 30 minutes or so, so 7-8 minutes a section. You work on each section separate without the other bits showing---using some reference points only when you flip to the next section.

The top section was my pond's goldfish, and I'm a also a Pisces, and a Fishmonger's daughter.

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Ok...Fish have scales, so the second section became arms holding scales????

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I know when you empty your mind and follow unconscious thoughts, it may be a trip down a rabbit hole. We were prompted when to move on...so you don't have much time to ponder. What would a Goldfish weigh?----an enemy bird ? and  a friendly fish---totally???? 

So thinking of Greek scales and LIBRA, weighing the worth of it all. I continued,  the armbands had a St. George cross, I'm Danish so I thought one was a Dannebrog (Danish Flag) the other the Red Cross which ......

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...which made me think of wars?

The third section I had started with a skirt for back to school, and Doc Martin boot tops, (my grand's favorite style) but the news from the morning---and they were talking about Gaza. (I erased a swath clean across the skirt) and suddenly it was a Greek or Roman (I know they have nothing to do with Gaza) so a men's skirt and a huge sword, and of course laced sandals and hairy knees.

 Following my erratic thoughts, I dashed off some buildings on the right and a scribble of palm trees on the left.

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Already time to move on to the fourth fold. A bit rattled, I was thinking of History---and if we don't know History, (history is wars) we will be doomed to repeat it. 

History to me, means books. But, keeping with the pond and water... again frogs came to mind..(we had two all summer, and now they are in the foliage), so one leg ended with a frog 'foot' on top of floating books. But, the other 'foot' became a boat and on lots of choppy water. 

BOOKS are important...so the whole 'corpse' is standing on history books, but with another foot in a boat ready to float away, no wonder she looks puzzled.

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My mind, when it gets going---really gets going. 

I wasn't sure what the circles in the boat might be. Class was almost over----so, we shared our drawings and thought processes and were encouraged to make them as complete as we wanted to. I had a new set of alcohol markers (I love they are square and so easy to hold), so I colored it all in, another 30 minutes or so...this is a process project not a finished product project. So I just went at it.

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She's such a harmless goldfish....definitely a she (me?)

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The bird on the right is hard to see now, but the fishy(left) is sleeping or is lunch, not sure. For some reason the toga became an unraveling shawl, and the armbands Denmark and the Red Cross? If she is Female---maybe the weighing of enemies/friends.  The arms are one a frogs and one a pink gloved hand with a rock on its finger, then I thought maybe not female? 

YIKES.

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Now the skirt wasn't plaid, but the palm trees and buildings show up with sand. The sword is a copy of my swords from the Thief of Bagdad project...in my doll blog---search Thief of Bagdad, to the right

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History books, water, boat and for some reason all the circles in the boat are now small froggies? Refugees...going weird again,  Red banners mean they aren't going to war...phew...I don't want to start WWIII. 

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Here is is all together, so now I imagine you are confused, but so am I. 

Fun project, could be a great game--finish a section and then pass to the next person. Start as many as you have people...and an egg timer...ha!

From a Crazy Antiquer, gardener, doll collector,  disturbing ARTisT?.. who just

totally dropped off the E

                                                   D  G

                                                                     E....

Paper used, 60# mixed media sketchbook paper

Pencils, 2B and 4B. 

white art eraser

Markers: 18 count dual tip by 1616 Holdings, inc and available at Five Below online. (I really like the design of these---they are squarish and comfortable to hold in arthritic hands---giving me more control with less force and with little smell.) 

I would love a huge set, but first I'm going to do another post on the markers. I need to do some experiments with them...but they were very inexpensive and really worked well. There was considerable bleed thru on my 60# paper---but I just worked on cardboard as a base.

Until then, stay cool, forget the pumpkins, they are just going to rot in this weather, Sandi

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Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!

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I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. 

Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog 

without my permission. 

Thank you for your cooperation, 

Sandi

Mather INTRO TO WATERCOLOR: Week Four...trees/bark/techniques/masking resist

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This watercolor basics class seems to be flying by. Mondays come so quickly---last week I didn't get to work on anything, so I forced myself to play after class yesterday.

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Our handouts this week, were trees/bark/grass with paying particular attention to light sources.  Ruth shared her palette box...all cleaned up---I never have a clean palette(S), LOL!

We did work on some interesting techniques. I sectioned off my sketchbook to make little samples of these.

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It's so gray today after stormy weather, these were hard to photograph.

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Blue TOP: I did a wet on wet  Prussian blue stripe under a wet on dry stripe above---they melded and then I sprinkled canning salt. Note to self to buy some Kosher salt, and maybe some Himalayan crystals ??? Very Cool effect, you just leave it on to dry and then brush it off...Might be great for backgrounds for sure.

Green Brown: I did a double color load on a mop brush across the page. (I misunderstood when it said pencil shavings...SO... I sprinkled a bunch of wood shavings across this, but what the instructor meant was to shave watercolor pencil lead into the wet paint..(that's the lime green bits). I'll have to experiment with this more, but I really like the textures from the wood shavings. It was also suggested to sandpaper or emery board the pencil lead onto the paper for speckles. (Interesting idea)

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TOP: Pink/Green  following the pencil shavings, I used some dry and semi-dry flower petals into this wet pink/green stripe. I think you might have to use very dry petals and somehow press them down to dry. This may be worth experimenting with.

Bottom: Cobalt Blue and Prussian blue wet-on-wet and then squish a sheet of cling clear wrap onto the surface, pull up and neat stuff happens. Other suggestions, bubble wrap, synthetic place mat material, fabrics, lace, trims....anything that will absorb some the color and make a pattern.

 

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This one wasn't suggested on the sheets, Wet on Wet brown on the left and Wet on Dry on the right. Then I quickly draped cotton twine on the paper...again, it may need some pressure...a bit of mono-print making basically--one shot and you get what you get.

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I used white color pencils (L-Derwent and  R-Prismacolor) to see if I could keep-white after painting. Results not white, but nicely subtle... We talked about wax resist pencils and crayons---but then you can't paint over the white. Water base resist is really gummy, and I had just enough not hardened in the bottle to play with later.

Our next lesson was about bark/trees/grasses. We talked about light/sources as well as atmospheric shading...

how far away is duller and less detailed while in the foreground you have more detail and brighter/intense colors. Ignore that strip of lime...it got away from me, grins.

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I've been using a good quality sketchbook for lessons and practice bits, so the paper isn't quite as reactive as watercolor paper which becomes expensive for scribbling and playing. I'm more adventurous this way.

This tree study is done from the given photograph the class used. I concentrated on the light source and the bark. I gave the sky background a very light wash...of blue/gray. I'm concentrating on layers in painting, working a bit, then walking away and letting it dry. The tree isn't perfect in shape or proportion, but again this wasn't a finished picture, but a working lesson. All the shadows are made with complementary colors...greens use added reds or blues use the oranges to get my shade colors. I add Payne gray mixed to get even darker shadows with the complements. It's really interesting to play with the shading and to work in layers.

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Our Dahlias are finally blooming on the porch after making mounds of greenery with all our rain. 

Definitely worth trying to paint, the leaves have so much texture to them.

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I have five Mandevilla plants, three which are blooming bonkers...who couldn't resist wanting to paint these.

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I'm planning a painting mixing all these elements and our crazy Baby Tears that are just so lush and textural. What a challenge?

I also wanted to use the last drops of resist to cover the Dahlia points. (I have to get a new bottle...UGH $$$$) I grabbed an old watercolor pad and took a damaged sheet to play on and to do some color studies and see if the resist would work for the white tips on the Dahlias.

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The 50's color scheme reminds me of the first home I remember as a child...the wallpaper my mom chose and fabrics were all in these tones. 

Again, I worked in layers, not trying to duplicate the flowers/greens but make an interesting composition and work all sorts of tones onto the paper.  Yesterday was great bright sunlight, but today is very gray day with artificial light and I couldn't get the colors to photo accurately on the painting. The yellows/greens are a bit brighter in real life.
 

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I'm really liking working in layers...it gets quite moody, Paynes Gray with the greens and complementary reds and a touch of other yellows here and there. 

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The resist peeled off nicely and I was able to layer in the colors of the Dahlia petals. Gosh, I think I used Vermillion, Thalo Red, and Cadmium red light as well as Chromium green (very opaque) and Prussian blue for leaves to be opposite the deep reds.

I'm glad I made this study---I may do one more and add more gold tones, and try to figure out how to add the metal plant stand, or just a simple shelf for the top pot to sit on? 

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My light sketch on real paper has me using elements of all three flower photographs.  I may do a few more studies...before I challenge the whole thing.

WISH ME LUCK!!

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Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!

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I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. 

Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog 

without my permission. 

Thank you for your cooperation, 

Sandi