Folk Art Mary

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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Canoeing in the Adirondacks with Islands- More Rocks

After trying to visualize it, here is the solution I came up with - adding more rocks to the bottom of the picture. I don't want to commit to more carving before I try it out in paint first. Painting can be painted over. But once I carve wood away I can't put it back.

So first I paint a few rock outlines on the bottom part of the frame...

 

I think the above looks good so I paint some more, including running the water into the left and right parts of the inner frame...

 

Here's what the picture looks like from a distance once I've made these changes.

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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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Guest Artist Mile Davidovic.

Guest artist Mile Davidovic, self described "citizen of the world", lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia (former Yugoslavia). Mile makes colorful oil on canvas and oil on glass paintings. It being winter, I thought the art below would be good for representing his work.

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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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Guard Dog and Guy in Nature #25 - DONE!

Many layers of paint after the last version I showed you, Guard Dog and Guy in Nature #25 is DONE! This piece is a part of my people in nature series - people in relation to the natural world, the struggle between nature and people, the choice of conflict or coexisting with our natural environment.

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Guard Dog and Guy in Nature #25 - Dark Outlines

Guard Dog and Guy in Nature #25 is a little further along. The dark outlines help the picture, but still it's mushy. At least now you can see the smaller details - the ax, the firewood and the tent.

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Guard Dog and Guy in Nature #25 - Mushy Colors

I'm early in the painting of Guard Dog Guy in Nature #25, and the colors are still mushy. I like to keep moving fast through this (not looking good) stage of the piece to not get bogged down by doubts about how it will turn out.

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Guard Dog and Guy in Nature #25

This is a compact carving, only 9.5 inches wide, made entirely out of one board, frame included. It's in the guard dog series. I call it Guard Dog and Guy in Nature, #25. The late afternoon light outside my studio really sets off the carved wooden details in this one!

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Guest Artist - Lisa Cain

Here is what southern self-taught folk artist Lisa Cain has to say about her work:

"I am a native of Canton, MS. My art is from my spirit and I enjoy painting about growing up in rural Mississippi. I am a self-taught artist. Through my art I tell my story of growing up in the South. I also tell the story of those who surrounded me in my community.  I tell the story of voices that may never be heard or of faces that may never be seen in the magazines or on television.  I am happy to remind people of the  culture and the traditions of the South. I am happy to pay tribute to people who were strong, united and who loved each other and who loved God."

Amazingly enough I discovered, upon going to Lisa Cain's website, that she also has painted a picture of a juke joint.

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Cow Icon #4, DONE!

A picture is worth a thousand words. These cows are trying to be patient, in fact some of them have even gone to sleep,  but they're still waiting. What sort of emotion does this picture bring up for you?

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Cow Icon #4, Further Along

This cow artwork is looking good to me. How about all of you out there reading this, does it look finished to you?

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Cow Icon #4, Whites and Tans

I"ve added whites and tans to the small Cow Icon #4 piece. The base is still unpainted.

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