From the amazing January shop window at ARTpool Gallery comes this fun vignette of a vintage poodle sitting pretty on an etagere with a pair of gloves casually laid on the top shelf. I love the look on this poodles face and also his body posture. The only thing missing is the chain many of these knick knacks from the 50’s had around their necks. A photo like this can bring memories rushing back of our grandmothers or great aunts living rooms or vanity vignettes from back in the day. If that poodle could only talk? Why not look at old items in the thrift store, antique or retro shop and make a note of how many you remember, what houses you remember them from and who owned them. Were they favorites or despised gifts that had to be placed on show? Did they get passed around or passed down sacredly? My grandmother had a keychain bob that I called the purple horse, even though there was very little purple left on the figure and I can’t be sure if it was a horse or a seahorse at this date. But I remember it and several cool brass keys it held! Have a good time relating to these kitschy items and don’t forget your journal entries.
Vintage Vignettes make good journaling prompts
Posted: January 26, 2012 in photographyTags: art journaling, ARTpool Gallery, found images, journaling, photography, shop window
Bird Totem, expressive painting
Posted: January 25, 2012 in expressive paintingTags: mixed media, new art work, painting
Bird totem is a 16×20 stretched canvas onto which I expressively painted with my fingers. The fun of this technique is laying paint down with multi-colors going and mixing them in hand and then seeing what the patterns and shapes turn out to be. This one is an owl or even parrot like bird because of the shortish beak and squat body shape. Charcoal outlining helps define the shapes once I identifiy them, and for random mark making. This technique, which began as a student request in one of my classes this past year, is rapidly becoming one of my favorite ways to work. I love the freedom and the squishy feeling of the paint. If you don’ t like what you did, or don’t see any special pattern or shape, you simply go over it again until you do. Easy peasy. Try it! Paper or canvas works great. Brown paper bags would even be cool.
found shadowlet photo
Posted: January 24, 2012 in photographyTags: found, found images, photography, shadows, stencils
This shadowlet appeared on my working counter in the late afternoon one day. The patch of sun was quite small, just big enough to show through the stencils I was using at the time. I got probably half a dozen shots of different images as the sun moved before the opportunity was gone, likely no longer than 15 minutes or so.
There are times in my home during different seasons that shadows appear from the windows onto far walls. Sometimes the shadows are too faint to be picked up well in the photo. You need a pretty strong light source and the other problem capturing these images, as I said before regarding the found birdy, is that the sun moves so quickly that the prime image lasts only a little minute in some cases. Keep your camera handy and watch the walls for interesting shadows, act quickly and you can capture these illusive, fun shadowlets.
A Bird and the Hand…
Posted: January 23, 2012 in New Mixed Media artTags: bird, folk art, mehndi, mixed media, new art work, painting, stencils
Yes, I know it’s supposed to be “a bird in the hand”. It’s Monday a.m. at Chez Getz and life continues in the new normal. There are many more locks on the door today than Saturday and by this evening a contract will be signed for bells, whistles and buttons and that will be another new normal. But all is well, all is well, all is surely well.
This piece is on a new surface for me, an 8×8 hardwood board. I picked this up at Whim So Doodle in St. Pete recently and wondered what it would be like to use, especially compared to my standby, stretched canvas. There are differences, one obvious one is the hardness and inflexibility of the wood compared to canvas, the other in surface texture. I did like the board for stenciling as there was no “give”, which can be a minor problem on stretched canvas during stenciling. Not enough to keep me from doing it but there was more stencil control and a finer image. This image is from The Crafter’s Workshop from Balzar Designs. I pushed Golden’s Light Modeling Paste through the stencil then used Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio Paints over top of the paste when it dried. The rough paisleys are Americana Writer which is an acrylic dimensional paint. The background is paper painted with Claudine’s Studio paints. I swiped white tempera paint all over the board when everything had dried, then sandpapered a lot of the white off to reveal various surfaces previously worked. Then I painted the folk art bird, which is a cross between an old German fraktur design and a more traditional Indian folk bird. I had trouble with this piece, there are about 6 previously worked designs under this one. I think it was the newness (and preciousness) of the board which is more expensive than my usual 12×12 canvas, but even with all that, I do like the surface and would definitely use this product again.
Bob and I were home invaded yesterday at 5 a.m. The man was armed with a knife and I surprised him by opening my bedroom door to investigate noises I thought was our cats or dog. I was threatened with the knife but called to Bob for help and when Bob appeared the man ran off, threw our new dining chair at us, yelled something undecipherable and exited by the garage door he had broken into. No one was hurt and nothing was taken. We are lucky and very grateful. The situation plays over and over in my mind like a broken film loop and the house now feels unsafe. Looking forward to a new normal…
Digit-al Mehndi hand
Posted: January 20, 2012 in New Mixed Media artTags: crafters workshop, mixed media, new art work, painted canvas, painting, stencils
Get it, digit-al! Wow, is that bad. But this stencil from Crafters Workshop is not, it is detailed and makes a great image. Some of the lustrous quality of this canvas is lost because the scanner can’t pick up metallic well, but it was painted in part with Lumiere metallic paints on a paper background. Pointilism is also in metallic copper-y gold. If I can find something cool in the way of a 3-D object that adds to this piece I will, but for now it is finished.
Dance of Two Angels, expressive painting
Posted: January 19, 2012 in expressive paintingTags: expressive painting, fingerpainting, new art work, painted canvas, painting
This is a 16×20 stretched canvas with a close up of the focal point. The painting was done expressively using only my hand, although the rest of the body does come into play occasionally, like to stand up! After painting, I noticed the figure on the left and outlined it in charcoal. That was yesterday. Then today, I noticed the figure on the right and outlined it in charcoal as well. The rest of the painting has different textures and colors. This type of painting is very freeing and is the direct opposite of the work of the past several weeks, detailed faces which take much more control, and a paintbrush. I like to work this way in series, as once you get paint all over the hand it is a shame to waste it. More to come this week.
Guys don’t make passes at mannaquins wearing glasses
Posted: January 18, 2012 in photographyTags: ARTpool Gallery, mannaquins, photography, shop window, terry lee getz
or do they? She’ll never tell.
BTW, new content on the Pisces-Rising page. Under the photo gallery we now have Cigar Box Purse pix and there is a little DIY on making brown paper tape stickers under Fun Stuff. Enjoy!
Cigar box purse
Posted: January 17, 2012 in New Mixed Media artTags: ARTpool Gallery, bob getz, cigar box purse, mixed media, mixed media purse, new art work, photography
Bob and I attended ARTpool Gallery event I Love St. Pete this past Saturday and Bob took these shots of a fashion show model masquerading as Salvador Dali. I wish you could have seen her body paint that included a lobster on her back and the melted clock on her upper chest. I wanted this purse to look like an old circus broadside photo so I distressed the purse with gesso and sandpaper and the photo with matte medium and sanded it heavily as well. Ranger Old Soot Distress Ink™ was used on the sides of the photo. I love this model’s attitude. At the show, she really worked that cookie duster.
Photos by Bob Getz
Dragonfly whisperer
Posted: January 13, 2012 in New Mixed Media artTags: mixed media, new art work, painted canvas, painting, stencils
Here is a pretty strawberry blonde with a special affinity for dragonflies. She speaks to them softly as they zoom around the pond and the garden. I used a stencil from Balzar Designs by Crafter’s Workshop to rough in the features, acrylic paint, a paper background and charcoal doodles to finish the canvas off. Stenciling is a great way to get your face proportions correct and you can do any kind of eye, nose or mouth you want to use. It removes the need to be good at drawing facial features, the paint does most of the work for you.
Crickyn 