Day 4 at LES Center

I left the studio earlier than usual today... a storm is brewing and I thought I'd get back to my cabin before it hits.  A quick storm came through yesterday in late afternoon and caused the trees to swirl!  This ridge is a prime spot for feeling the force of the weather, it seems.  Residents are warned not to leave their computers plugged up because of sudden thunderstorms that happen in the summer.

Here was the view of Robert's studio as I arrived this morning.  It's a short walk through the mountain laurel to the building and I always enjoy seeing it as I round the bend in the woods.

My shadow walked ahead of me on the way back to the studio after lunch.  It's been bright and sunny all day... up until now as the clouds build up.

 I worked on the two paintings from yesterday's session today and I think they are finished or as finished as I'll make them.    Here they are earlier in the day just after I'd painted around the leaves in both with white thinned with matt medium and water so that the background color would show through a bit.  I like the way the thinned paint doesn't cover evenly and I use the largest brush I can as I paint. 

Here they are by the end of the day.... shadows painted on both.  I wanted the leaves to seem to exist in a space.  Granted, a space of their own that doesn't necessarily adhere to the logic of "real" space and lighting.

Could I weave these?  Possibly.  Will I?  Maybe.  I'd like to weave them at least as large as the paintings and use very thick warp and lots of combined weft in bundles.  I think a sett of 6 epi would reflect a bit of the boldness of the images that I'm trying to show.  Will these become my winter companions?  Will I spend months weaving what's taken me a day and a half to do with canvas and acrylic paint?

Day 3-Lillian Smith Center

On my morning walk I saw many things that caught my eye.  These mushrooms were one of those:

Others were some of the leaves that are beginning to show the colors of fall.  I collected some of the leaves that were on the ground and began working with those today:

I pinned the leaves up beside the canvas I was working on and drew with charcoal, looking at several leaves as I drew.  I painted over the drawing, then drew again, several times like I'd done yesterday on the other canvas and later today began to add color to the leaves.  The canvas went through many changes throughout the day, with paint added over all, then scraped away, the whole thing spritzed with water, scraped away again, more drawing done... over and over, I manipulate the surface to give interesting texture and to "find" images that may be there.

I worked on the painting started yesterday for a couple of times today, too.  I usually like to have at least a couple of canvases up at the same time when I'm working so I can use up the paints I may be mixing for one that I don't entirely finish... here's my palette at one point today:

I think this may be the butcher's tray I had when I was in undergraduate school for my paint palette then... I'm not sure.  I've wound up with three over the years... and treasure every one of them.  I usually use styrofoam plates as palettes when at a retreat but decided to bring this old standby with me this time around.

Before I left today I added some of the left over paints to three smaller stretched canvases I'd brought with me... each of these smaller ones is painting over what was there before.

Lots more work to do on all of these.  

LES Center-day 2

At the end of this morning's walk I had to take a photo of the red door--beautiful in the morning light with the shadows on it: 

After the red door photo, I sat on a new bench that's placed near the chimney ruin and Ms. Smith's grave site.  I had to take a selfie with the chimney in the background:

Some of the stones at the back of the chimney were the ones in my tapestry, "Because of Memory."  The title of the tapestry comes from Ms. Smith's grave marker that's beside the chimney:

I worked all day at Robert's studio to develop the paintings I'd started yesterday and to begin a new one.  Here's where yesterday's wound up... more work on them, perhaps, in the future but for now they are down and the next canvas is up.

As the afternoon progressed, so did this painting--stages shown as it went along--this is 60" wide by about 45" high:

I drew with charcoal

Then covered up parts of the drawing...

and drew again...

then another cover up and redrawing...

and I ended the day by adding color over the whole thing.

Lillian Smith Center residency-day 1

Unbelievable!  I slept until nearly 9 a.m. this morning!  Unheard of in my world... I usually wake up between 5 and 6 a.m.  Maybe it was the open windows letting in air from the real world.  Maybe it was exhaustion from getting here, unloading things, arranging things, wondering what I was going to do while here...whatever it was, I was quite surprised to wake up and find the sun up and the birds already on their daily tasks of making a living in the woods.

I walked the loop of road and along the way I spotted this fellow:

Next, I witnessed an almost murder as the stick insect tried to capture a large fly that had unfortunately landed on an adjacent leaf.  Here's a still from the video I took of that... it all happened in slow motion--until the stick guy leaped and the fly did what his name implies... flew (away quickly)!

It was a sunny day here and the road to Robert Fichter's studio where I'm working was dappled with shadows:

Here I am, about to walk down through those shadows to the smaller path through the woods to Robert's studio:

Thank you, Robert, for the use of your studio!  I love being able to staple up large canvas and paint with abandon.

So today I began with that abandon, starting with a couple of canvases that were from past painting sessions with Steve Aimone.  I stapled both up to the drop cloth I'd put on the wall and started.

Here's the before... and soon these changed.

On the way into the studio I picked up some oak leaves and decided to use this one as an inspiration for working.  Here are stages of what I'm doing with this.  The canvas is about 60" square and so the leaf is enlarged a great deal.  Inspired by Alex Katz, perhaps?

stage 1

stage 2

stage 3 (where I left it today... more with this tomorrow)

My work table in the studio is full of assorted acrylic paints, brushes and mixing trays:

And I also have a table for painting in my cottage:

Challenging and rewarding days to come, I hope!