Golden Spring on My Drawing Table

Oh, the surprise of realizing that the snow had pretty much vanished when I looked outside this morning. Ah, the ever approaching golden spring nears!

But wait, that means art work needs to get finished for shows this summer. I had started a series of art pieces, Sisters of the Earth:  Honoring Michigan Habitats, this past winter when inspiration hit like a bolt of Lori Lightning. In usual fashion, paper flew, paint spattered, knives and scissors flashed liked Edward Scissorhands, and gel mediums spillethed over as various sized rocks and stones held pieces in place to dry. Then they sat. For two months.

Today, after a slew of writing and county projects near completion, I got up the nerve to walk into my studio and ready myself to be reinspired to work on them again. I tried. Really. But something keeps pulling me away. Maybe something was not working in the current stage that they were in so what better thing to do than take photos to see at a distance. That's kinda working on them, right? Well, it did give me something to blog about.

Here they are. Pieces that sit on my studio drawing table. Artwork in progress.


Northern Fen-Promise of New Life 



Northern Fen (detail)

I took the experiences and photos of our Rifle River trip last spring and creating watercolors, I cut and layered them onto Aquaboard that I had previously prepped with Daniel Smith watercolors.



River of Life (work in progress)

 


Detail



This piece was reworked from a previous painting I had done and sold around seven years ago. It was a personal favorite and I have tried redoing it several times--but could never quite be satisfied with them. So I pulled out the image again and changed the theme to the river.

This shot, taken without a flash, shows the layers of watercolor images more clearly. The watercolor cast of river characters were cut and torn and then I altered them with colored pencil and gouache. I found that using the Aquaboard as a substrate was fun and sturdy for my layered process. I can use different
watercolor techniques to get the look I want. It was the first time using this board and I was happy with the results.

Now if I can finish the panels that would be great. Maybe they will get done by the time dragonflies fly and pitcher plants bloom and certainly by the time rose hips drop.