Premonition Pink

When I attended an art educator convention in Boston during the spring of 2005, an ad using pink with orange flames got may attention. So, I used the color combination in this final mixed media piece.


mixed media on paper, 17.5" x 24"

Premonition Green

In this charcoal dust and watercolor mixed media piece, I repeated the process. This time my colors were inspired by the film "House of Flying Daggers."


mixed media on paper, 17.5" x 24"

Premonition Orange

Some years back I'd seen a technique demonstrated involving charcoal dust. Water is applied with a brush to areas that are to remain whitest. Charcoal dust is then sprinkled across the page. Then a bucket of water is splashed across the page. The dust sticks to the areas that were dry. This process is best done outside because of the mess involved.

Afterwards I used spray fixative to keep the dust on the paper. On top of the dust I painted watercolors. I was pleased with the result.

This is the first one I did for my students to show them what was possible. Folks have told me it looks like a map. I simply painted complementary colors.


mixed media on paper, 17.5" x 24"

120 Colors

During the spring testing of 2005 I drew this piece beginning with a grid. Using Prismacolor Sticks, I drew expressive lines across my grid. Then I added circles inside each box. I proceeded to blindly pick six colors at random as I filled in each box and the circles within. Filling out testing forms had inspired this part of my piece.


colored pencil on paper, 21" x 26.5"

After I rendering with the six colors, I again chose six random colors. When I reached the last of the 120 colors, I put the rest back in the box and picked at random again. This went on until I completed the piece.

From the outset I was determined to use all 120 colors that came in the Prismacolor box. So often artists are advised to only use a limited palette. Anyway it took a while to finish this drawing.

Sea Floor Rock

This piece was inspired by sites in Denver, Colorado.


acylic and molding paste on canvas, 20" x 20"

Petrified Rock

This piece was inspired by sites in Denver, Colorado.


acylic and molding paste on canvas, 20" x 20"

Red Rock

At a workshop I played around with molding paste on canvas. This is one of three pieces that I painted following the workshop. It was inspired by sites in Denver, Colorado. I wanted my students to see an example of using molding paste on canvas.


acylic and molding paste on canvas, 20" x 20"

Artroom

In college when I took the course Freehand II, there was a project we did that involved charcoal rubbings on tracing paper collaged with colored inks. Later on when I was teaching, I thought I’d experiment with the same method. I already had those supplies and I wanted to convince my students to work with mixed media. So I created this piece as a sample. Usually if the students saw me enjoy making a piece first it was an easier sales job to convince them.


mixed media, 11" x 15"

This time I used rice paper to make charcoal rubbings from objects and surfaces around the artroom. I then painted matte acrylic polymer to adhere the rubbings to watercolor paper. After the rubbings were dry, I spray fixed them. I then painted layers of color inks on top of them.

While digging through some boxes I found this piece. I think I will try to do some more works using these materials. It’s a direction that I really had not pursued.

Curls Gone Wild

My reason for creating this drawing was to show my students a finished color pencil piece. I wanted them to see what was possible when layering different colors of color pencil.


colored pencil on paper, 20.5" x 28"

Abloom

watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"

Afire

This was my first attempt at a watercolor canvas painting. Although I didn't have my students working on this type of canvas, I had them see what is how different it is.


watercolor on canvas, 12" x 12"