Folk Art Mary

Crows with Seated Guys - Greys and Yellows

I like these brown/grays and yellows. All the crows (except one) are pointing their beaks towards the big mommy or daddy  crow in the middle.

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Crows with Seated Guys

Crows with Seated Guys - here unpainted - is one of the latest of my carved and painted crow pictures.

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Guest Artist - Kiki Blumenkraft Roosli

Guest artist  Kiki Roosli, also known as Vicious Cow Art, has this to say about her bold homage to cow paintings:

"I love cows…..it is as simple as that. I think they are very special creatures and I feel so lucky to be able to take walks in the Irish countryside and observe their behaviour in the fields….so zen and yet so curious. I think they each have a unique personality and the message I strive to get across in my paintings is just that; these cows are saying to you, 'We are more than meat!' Beautiful beasts you just have to love. I like to see the humourous side of things so the expression in their faces and the exaggeration I inject is vital to my style."

Cocoricow - "This cow was created with a local French Festival in mind. I wanted to make a big friendly and proud French Friesian who would send out the message loud and clear that she is not just a big lump of beef. She is, in fact, the national representative and her pride knows no boundaries; hence the title, my reference to ‘Cocorico’, the call of the French cockerel, the national icon. This title embodies the ‘fierté’ of the French people. To compound this notion of pride she just had to feature with the French flag as a backdrop and the digits representing both ‘Bastille Day’ (French Independence) and the tagging system used for cows. Above all she is a beautiful, curious and friendly animal and proud of it!"

 

Empty Cow. "This painting started exactly like this: I was craving some red in my life and I love the contrast of the friesian colouring. Colour and shapes are what attract me in painting. I wanted to move away from ‘by heart’ shapes so I exaggerated the lines on this one to make her look like she was almost pieced together like building blocks or indeed slabs of meat, laid one on top of the other. Again a reference to food – her nostrils remind me of the pink and black licorice allsorts sweets. Her expression is bewildered…..she if looking at you saying, 'I’m drained!'. This notion of being drained then prompted me to include the curved, floaty tube behind her. It represents the milking parlour…her daily routine of having tubes plugged in and being emptied of her fresh milk. Other than that she is just made for somebody to enjoy."

 

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Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza - DONE!

A number of paint layers later, Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza is DONE! As you can see, I continued to work on the piece since the last version shown. I  improved the blues, made them softer, like you could just dive in. The front lighter blue wind swirls hug the big boat as well as the small ones. I used copper to make the sun.

Many other times I've tried to capture the joy of sailing, and Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza pretty much does it for me.

Below is a picture of me hard at work on Cayuga Lake, doing hands on research for my next sailing picture...

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Swirls Extravaganza - Reds in Boats

Time to work on the sail boats and sailors. I start with some reds, to make them stand out.

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Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza - Muddier

Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza looks a bit muddier here, but it's on its way to looking good. I'm leaving the sailboat in the center (and the other small sailboats) until last. When the waves and wind swirls around them look good, then I'm ready to paint those boats.

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Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza - Water and Sky

I'm getting my bearings on how Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza wants to be painted. To simplify things, I've painted the water separate from the sky. The big boat in the center, is still to be tackled.

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Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza, First Coat of Paint

Sailing with Swirls Extravaganza is a piece of art that I recently completed. I carved it last summer and finished painting it this winter. Here is a picture of it with its first coat of paint. This one goes heavy on trying to show the wind and wave action I love so much as a sailor.

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Guest Artist - Brian Brogan

Here's what guest artist Brian Brogan has to say about his work:

"It has become a souless world in a veil of amnesia of what it is to be human. Lost wandering, and ghostly clever souls consuming the planet, and all its rich diversity of spiritual light. Objectified material base consciousness stripping the living mother earth, and awakened consciousness along with it. But all souls are not lost, with our need to keep reseeding ourselves in the ritual fire within, reuniting with our unique integral flame - is co-creative and inter-dependent with all life. Let our courageous fire bring light to the world and burn off the mind numbing dross that those in power are serving us."

Brian writes that he works in a variety of mediums including paste, stucco, polymer, pumice and acrylics. Check out Brian's video, Tribal Connection, a Painted Story .

Celebrating with the Ancestors.

 

Soul Vision, Seeing Your Soul

 

Where I identify with Brian's work is in the theme I am working, people in nature.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands- Done!

Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands is done! Birthed at last. Success.

I can stop with this final version of the art work. Thanks for bearing with me as I went step by step through the gestation of Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands. I thought of not posting on this piece since I struggled so much with making it, but then I thought perhaps people might be interested in seeing the difficulties I had and the solutions I came up with. Perhaps I'm too much of a perfectionist, but I just can't stop working until my gut and my emotions say that a particular picture is finished.

I feel most comfortable describing myself as a self taught folk artist, and I certainly learned a lot through the making of this piece.

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Canoing in the Adirondacks - Carving Rock Through the Frame

 In my earlier painted trial to see if it worked to pierce a rock through the frame, I liked how it looked (see below)...

So the next step is to carve the rock and take away the frame, a step that cannot be undone.

 

Looking good... Changing the frame color also helps this one to sing.

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Camping in the Adirondacks - Starting to Cook

Ok, the blue in the frame and the shapes of the rocks at the bottom are working, so I've committed further to the idea by painting still more layers of paint. I decided I needed an extension into the inner frame of the island at the top left. I've made other painting changes, but too many to describe. This piece is starting to cook.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - More Painting in the Frame

I've committed to the idea of adding weight to the bottom and bottom left and right parts of the picture. I decided I need to continue the blue water line into the inner left and right frames. So far I have done no extra carving as I am still trying to feel out whether this new idea works.

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Canoing in the Adirondacks - Gold Leaf Doesn't Help

I thought maybe putting on the gold leaf would make the Canoeing in the Adirondacks art work sing for me. But I'm still bothered by the empty space at the bottom, and now I'm even beginning to be bothered by the empty space to the left of the canoe.

 Usually a piece comes together at the end for me, but not so this time. What am I going to do? I've got to think about this for a few days.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - Discouraged

I've painted more but this just isn't working. I'm still bothered by the bottom of the piece -  too much empty space there, it distracts me from looking at the canoe which is where I want to look first.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - Dark Outlines

In this next version, as I look at it, something is starting to not work for me. I've made a number of small color changes including dark outlines around all the major shapes, but I'm starting to get bothered by the large expanse of water that lies between the boat and the bottom of the inner frame. My plan is to keep working with paint to make this piece sing.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - Rusts and Yellows

Adding the rusts and yellow plus some dark grays really helps the Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands piece to take on life. This is starting to become a night time scene. When I first started to paint it I wasn't sure if it would be a day or night time scene.

 

 

 

Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - Blues and Tans

Adding the blues and tans helps me to start seeing the shapes.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - First Coat of Paint

Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands sits on my workbench with its first coat of ochre paint.

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - Carving Complete

Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands - now it's completely carved...

Two close up pictures of the carved details....

 

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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands

The Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands sketch was horizontal. It showed geese migrating one way (the direction of their migration changed in later sketches) and two canoes. However, by the time I began to carve this piece it had become a vertical format with the geese heading in the opposite direction and only one canoe. Don't ask me how those decisions were made, they just seemed right at the time. I carved this art piece in June 2011, but it wasn't until this winter (2012) that I began to paint it.

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Canoeing and Camping theme Continues - New Sketch

Canoing in the Adirondacks with Islands is a sketch I drew about a year ago, again it is inspired by my people in nature theme.

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Adirondack Camping Memories

Earlier in this blog I talked about the theme of people in nature  that has been increasingly cropping up in my work.

When my kids were young we took a number of summer vacations to the St Regis Wilderness Canoe Area in the Adirondacks. Here's a picture I carved and painted in 2010 called Adirondack Camping Memories. The feeling of those vacations is forever crystalized in condensed form for me to remember. Like jam in a jar all you need to do is take a bite and you are back in summertime, back in nature.

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Guest Artist - Linda Lou Horn

 

Guest artist Linda Lou Horn makes playful art using recycled materials. Here's what she has to say about her work: 

"I am inspired by non-art materials, old found objects that have had a previous life and not intended for the purpose I am giving them. I am inspired by the human condition, emotions, pain, fear, joy and whimsy. 

 I look to rediscover the spirited liveliness as the materials come together to form the figure. I want to show the possibilities and the best in what may have been broken, lost or abandoned.

 PS . . .I just like making stuff that makes me smile . . ."

 

Thelma Flies Again, 20" x 13" x 14 (found objects and clay)

 

 

A Trojan Hay Ride, 42" x 5" x 12" (found objects and clay)

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Sheep Icon #16 - DONE!

Sheep Icon #16- DONE! The sheep around the outside of this bunch are a placid simple lot. But the one in the middle - now that's another story!

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Sheep Icon #16, Unpainted

Sheep Icon #16 is a painted carving that I made towards the end of the 2011 Ithaca Farmers' Market season. Here she is, unpainted.

Here she is unpainted but with a base.

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Guest Artist - John Simpkins

This painting by John Simpkins is special. Here's what he has to say about the piece and the inspiring place in which he lives :

"My inspiration for the Magpie piece is where I am currently living and painting: the Alvord Desert just below the Steens Mountain range. Magpies and coyotes are my companions, and the light here is very dramatic, often "spot-lighting" objects amidst dark shadows. It's a magical place! This piece, "Midnight Magpies" is 18 X 24 inches, acrylic on masonite panel.

The Alvord Desert is in the lower southeast corner of the state of Oregon.  It's about 25 miles from the Nevada border,  130 miles to the nearest town for shopping.  Andrews, where I live, is listed as a ghost town, but once, in the 20's and 30's, it was THE place to be, with a 20 room hotel, grocery, post office, saloon, and stables. Now in Andrews most of the remaining buildings are stone.  All of the wooden buildings have been destroyed by range fires over the years. This is a special place!"

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Spare Set of Hands - Done!

Spare Set of Hands, my joking self portrait, is done. The finishing touch was putting brass tacks on the "spare" hands, as though each one is hanging on its own nail on the shelf in the back of the room. Notice there is one nail without its hand. Does this mean that I have already used up one of my left spares? If so this means that I have to be careful, I only have two left...

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Spare Set of Hands - Further Along

Spare Set of Hands is looking good with its warm earth colors. A little bit too much dark outlining perhaps, but I'll eventually tone that down. I'm still narrowing down on the shapes of this piece. Before I did this blog I never took pictures of my work in progress. Doing so has helped me so much to become a better self-taught artist.

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Spare Set of Hands - Early Painting Stages

Spare Set of Hands now has some paint. This first stage of painting leans strongly towards yellow and tans.

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Spare Set of Hands - Carving Complete

Sometimes life is too busy, and I need a spare set of hands. Summer is when I do a lot of carving at the Farmers' Market. Winter is when I finish off painting and carving work still left undone from last summer and take on commissions.

Last August I showed a sketch of  "Spare Set of Hands" at my blog, saying it would be a while before I had it carved and painted. Now I have completed the piece. Here is a picture of it carved, waiting to be painted.

This piece is what I would call one of my visual jokes. Maybe it's just a little bit disturbing. Last year for the first time I began to have arthritis pain in my thumb joints. I need some protection, where are those guard dogs when I need them? Wouldn't it be nice to just be able to get a spare set of hands? ...

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Guest Artist - Bruce New

Bruce New makes great art!

Here's what Bruce has to say about himself, taken from his website: “My work is an attempt to document my existence - to leave a visual record of my thoughts, ideas, and fantasies. I reside in the wilds of Kentucky, with a bird and our son, on a mountaintop, right next to the sun, where I create my artwork high on butterfly wine.” Go Bruce go!

A Gathering in the Moonlight

What do you think, are the animals in this picture dogs?

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, DONE!

Woman sleeping, dogs, trees, stars, and moon. This painted woodcarving is DONE! I've got my answer, these are dogs and not wolves, although they have a bit of the wild in them - all the better to protect!

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Glowing

I've painted the border preparatory to putting on gold leaf. After many layers of paint this piece has a soft glow that tells me from my gut that it is almost done.

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Carved Border

After painting the Woman Asleep carving a bit more, I realise I forgot to carve the area where I will be putting gold leaf. So here you see the piece almost done, except that I have carved a small border into the frame. Do you find it as disturbing as I do, that the dogs still have no eyes or teeth?

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Red Dress

I keep working and working it until Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs looks better. The red in the dress and the white of the dogs really makes the lower part of the picture the first thing that you see.

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Love that Sky!

 Toning down the whites, adding more yellows. Love that sky!

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Getting too Dark

 

I've added more whites, but the rest of the artwork is getting too dark too fast.

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, First Paint Layer

Here is Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs #26, showing the picture after the first few layers of orange, yellow and green acrylic paint.

 

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Carved

Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs #26 is now completely carved. This piece is reminding me of other dog pictures that I have carved and painted. In some of them my guard dogs look more wolf like and possibly threatening. In others the dogs look cuddly. I really don't feel like I'm in charge, what comes out of the wood is something beyond my command. These dog pictures come out of my gut, from emotions that are hard to put into words.

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Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Sketch

Here is a sketch for another carving with a "people in nature" theme. The woman is asleep, trusting, dreaming, floating in her own world. The dogs are guarding fiercely- or here's another idea, might these be wolves about to attack? They either have teethy grins or teethy snarls depending on whether they are dog or wolf. What do you think of these doggies, are they friend or foe?

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, DONE!

Wood Spirits in Nature #5 - DONE!. People and nature are one, inter-connected.

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, Tree Huggers

It's worth some (a little bit out of focus) close ups of these wood spirits. Tree huggers, I guess I'm just one of them.

 

 

 

As an aside, anyone out there have a close up lens for a Pentax that they're ready to let go of? Help, I need a better lens.

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, Face Details

Besides painting the face details, I've added many more thin coats of paint to make this art work glow.

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, Starting to Work

This version is a little better. I'm always disturbed until I paint the eye and face details, but that's still to come.

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, Darks around Leaves

I'm using darks in the leaves to make the picture more crisp, but so far it's not working. I'll just have to keep plugging away until this picture works.

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, Spirits Stand Out

Adding the flesh tones makes the spirits stand out from the leaves.

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, First Coat of Paint

Putting the same color paint on the entire carved artwork makes the carving detail appear flat.

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Wood Spirits in Nature #5, Continuing with the People in Nature Theme

After my post on Guard Dog and Guy in Nature #25 and the post on Kevin Paulsen, I felt it would fit into the flow to write about my just completed folk art painted woodcarving Wood Spirits in Nature #5.

As people, we exist in nature but it's easy to forget how dependent we are on nature. These wood spirits are fitting in amongst the leaves, almost an organic part of the natural scene. I call them wood spirits or wood nymphs. Our spirits exist in nature, and when nature is well we are well. My wood spirits are neither female nor male, but are representative of the distilled essence of people. They are part spirit, nymph, elf or fairy.  They nestle among the leaves, and like the trees or rocks surrounding them they are mute but patient, feeling, aware and connected.

Here is the Wood Spirits picture carved, sitting on my work bench.

 

A close up from the side...

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Guest Artist Kevin Paulsen

Here's what guest artist Kevin Paulsen has to say about his work, taken from his website:

"History records for us an imagined past in which all civilizations perish... Art history and science describe cultural remnants as fact... This shared sentiment of collective memory we call human history. History makes us feel better but only serves up the proof that all human imaginings are perishable. Mankind repeats one simple narrative in myriad form: Man comes to town, a set of circumstances change the man; man leaves town. Artists and scientists will continue to reinvent this basic narrative structure...and mankind will continue to know himself as unique to the universe. No matter the form...tell again our story, therein lies our purpose. I attempt to make beautiful and timeless paintings that tell this story.
Kevin Paulsen, May 30 2010"

An interview Kevin Paulsen did with Mark Murphy gives still more information. I particularly like what Kevin said about his The Re-Seeding painting (shown below): "I tried to keep politics out of my art until a couple years ago, but in today's climate, I find it almost impossible not to comment on, at least, the social politics. In some way, it shows up on it's own. For example, the painting Re-Seeding (Flood and Thaw series) begun as a painting about the advent of spring, the seeds floating through the air, and the thaw from the snow in the mountains. But as I was working on it, the tsunami hit Japan, which spawned a slightly different idea. I thought about the receding water, and that contributed to the double entendre in the name. They can either be frolicking or drowning depending on the viewer's take, but it's that sort of push/pull—humans being oblivious to the destruction that's right at our door at any moment. It's a comment on the celebration of spring and our inability to see our fragile place in the world. And then it dawned on me that what I thought were mountains in the background was another wave cresting in the distance, ready to hit the shore."

The Re-Seeding (Flood and Thaw series) 5' x 7'. Pigment on plaster).

Moonlit Wildlife,  Kevin Paulsen and Geddes Paulsen)

Kevin very eloquently talks about ideas that I have trouble putting into words but that well express what I am trying to do in some of my own work, in particular my "person in nature" series.

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