I Paint With Pigments that look like Crayons

October 3rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment

NeocolorsII by Caren D’ache

choppedpicofcrayon3 

pic of crayons

pic of crayons

I begin painting by choosing a bright white sheet of Archival Paper that is Hot Press which is smooth to the eye and touch unlike cold press which has bumps or texture on the surface.

treepainting 004

The 140 pound paper weight provides enough thickness for the needed layers to begin the basic structure of the piece.

If the paper is too thin, it simply won’t absorb the pigments correctly.  

Playing with the foreground and surface color adds dimension and saturation to the surface which means that the colors that come forward are a different hue then the ones that recede

 cropped1stlayertree

I often use black and white as a sort of yin and yang struggle in my work seeking to balance the play between dark and light. 

treepaintingcropped

Each swirl and arc is a process of painstaking baby steps.

treepaintingframed

To understand that it has been and that it has arrived is the very nature of the creating artist.

 

  treepainting 004cropped1stlayertree

treepaintingcroppedtreepaintingframed

It is not a stagnant moment from one completed piece to the next. It is

blackunicorn 003 a continuous conversation.

New Work: New Couch ….. purring kitten

September 7th, 2011 § Leave a Comment

News From The Couch …. GOLD

December 8th, 2010 § Leave a Comment

images (12)

A little bit of Egypt today and the reminder of the deep impact this culture has on our world.  The symbols, people and art work are always a good way to explore ideas again and again.

sm001jpeg

002

The use of gold in a painting really dramatically changes the impact of color on the total piece and like the one above, I am really enjoying the process of learning and having fun with it’s added dimension to my world.

How’s Your Day Going?

News From The Couch … Just One

November 9th, 2010 § Leave a Comment

tinypix003

 

finished

 

A bit of lighthearted artwork completed at the end of the summer in preparation for the fall series.   This work is inspired by a bit of egypt and what else ….. FUN.  Enjoy you day!

You can contact me at agapistudios@hotmail.com to purchase, this work measures 14 x 17 and is done on archival paper.  The cost is $400.00

Fall A season to feel the fresh breeze

October 4th, 2010 § Leave a Comment

New Work From My Studio … One view at a time

IMG_0677

News From The Couch ….. New Work

September 27th, 2010 § 1 Comment

tinypix001 tinypix002 tinypix003

tinypix004 tinypix005 tinypix008

IMG_0684 tinypix011 tinypix0012

 

IMG_0686

 

tinypix013 tinypix014 tinypix015

 

IMG_0689

 

tinypix018 tinypix019 tinypix020

tinypix021 tinypix022 tinypix023

 

IMG_0695

Please contact agapistudos@hotmail.com for more information on NEW Work for fall.   All work shown is 14 x 17 done on hot press archival paper. 

tinypix009 Ahhh a little kitten sneak too

Friday’s Famous Artist is …. Jackson Pollock

September 24th, 2010 § 1 Comment

Imagine if you will a world filled with post renaissance work, Madonna and child, an eloquent Victorian lady in a scene  perhaps the illuminating painting of Monet or Van Gogh to seize upon.

100pixels 100pixels2 monetpixesl100

Fresh out of the war and into a new idea of American Importance comes Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell to name a few.    Flash forward here we are in American in the 1940’s fresh out of the depression to end all depressions and World War 2.    Enter Peggy Guggenheim.

jacksonpollock3

This is New York in 1942  where Peggy Guggenheim established the Museum of Modern Art named after her Uncle.  With a thrill for the unusual and a absolute passion for abstract art, New York became the entreated hub for the New form of work called Abstract Impressionism.

Jackson Pollock

They worked large and they worked messily, recklessly. Pollock “broke the ice,” de Kooning would say.”

convergencepollock

In fact Pollack was given supreme prestige for his work, a position garnered without the intense presence or nod from “the old school.”  America/Pollack, were creating their own identity and staking a claim on art that no other place in the world could. For This Pollock earned a supreme and undeniable place in history.

number-31-1950-by-jackson-pollock

The great mystery of unlocking a door no person had ever unlocked in the art world … that honor went not only to his friends but also to Pollack who seized the essence of this unique form of expression and laid it down on the canvas.  In this process his friends and colleagues also imparted their own vision in the wake of knowledge unknown to artists before.

pollock44

Notorious for his drinking problem and his struggle with alcoholism, Pollock crashed his car August 11, 1956 and died near his New York home.

“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn’t have any beginning or any end. He didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it was.” Jackson Pollock

Fridays Famous Artist Is …..

September 17th, 2010 § 1 Comment

Robert Motherwell …..

rmotherwellphoto robmerthwellimage

robertmotherwellpaintingjpeg rmotherwellpaiintingjpeg2 robertmotherwelljpeg3

Robert Motherwell born Jan 1915 and living until July of 1991 was an American abstract expressionist painter and printmaker.  He was one of the youngest of the New York School which included Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning and Phillip Guston.

Robert’s gift for rhetoric and easy comfortable feeling around people is credited with placing him on the map.  Though others in his group who later became as famous, might not have been had Motherwell not been so engaging with groups.

His writing and three published books:

  • The Dada Painters and Poets, R. Motherwell, New York, 1951.
  • Robert Motherwell, The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell, University of California Press, 1999.
  • Robert Motherwell translated to English Paul Signac‘s book, D’Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionisme, 1938.

are all considered a credit to his ability to engage the average reader and not just the art critic.

To me his gift as a printmaker served him very well as a painter and he was able to glean techniques and improvise on the canvas creating almost cinamographic images with his paint.  His work is beautifully fluid and yet eloquently simple and moving at the same time.

News From The Couch … Kitten Sneak …

September 14th, 2010 § 1 Comment

smoo1 sm003 sm006

sm006 sm008 sm009

sm0011 sm013 sm014oops

So here I am in my studio, working on a a piece that is unlike anything I’ve done before and along comes my amazing kitten … climbing on top of the cupboards and then into the cabinets all by his little self.  I couldn’t believe it.  He opened every cupboard with his paws and worked his way through 4 cupboards and kept going even after I grabbed the camera.  Guess he doesn’t mind the attention.

That’s the News from the Couch … How’s your day going.

[New post] News From The Couch: A photo Album

September 12th, 2010 § Leave a Comment

News From The Couch: A photo Album

agapistudios | September 11, 2010 at 6:02 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pQHbO-83

I was spending some time actually working with different ideas I had for presenting my work online.  Here is one of them.  Does the layout make you curious to see more … or is it just annoying?  Leave me a comment and let me know.
That’s the news from the Couch … how’s your day going?

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.