Textures, A New Gallery, Poetry News!
A new piece of mine - “Mushroom Utopia” available at Village Gallery of the Arts, 1060 NW Saltzman Road, Portland, Oregon.
Lots of good texture emerged on this one. In this case, rock salt was the answer. I added it to the watercolor layer before using any white paint over the top. The watercolor and gouache painting was then applied to a birch round, which I cut around the edges after drying. The final layer: cold wax as a sealant. I’ve been loving this technique for years now to give watercolors clearer presentation (rather than hiding the surface behind glass), and to give the piece a more modern, contemporary look.
I’m happy to be a new member of the Village Gallery of the Arts (VGA). Their gallery has been a neighborhood staple since 1963, so if you’re local to the Portland area, stop on by! There’s a holiday sale going on starting November 20 with some of my cards, as well as lots of stunning artwork large and small.
I’ve been experimenting with adding texture to acrylic painted canvases. If you splash a little rubbing alcohol (90%) on a thin layer of wet paint, you can get some interesting results. As you can see here, the darker paint wore away in rings to expose the blue paint layer underneath. I’ve been trying different color combos, and they don’t all work perfectly or beautifully every time…. I like the shapes though.
What do you think? Maybe I need to film myself doing this. It’s pretty cool watching the drips form.
There’s something freeing about grabbing a canvas, light and ready to go, and just painting on it. Plus, with canvases - you can really supersize those! Painting huge is an adventure that I miss, in a way. I still remember working on this 4 x 4 painting…..watercolor on watercolor medium-primed canvas, isolation layer, then paint pens and acrylics overtop. Heck, I may need to try this sort of thing again….
This is me and “Yesterday’s California” in progress about….15 years ago?!? You can see the isolation layer with blurry paint beneath the black outlines.
NEW WEBSITE SECTION! I’ve added a new section on my website just for Yarn Art. If you were one of the many who purchased one of my yarn paintings, thank you. I’ve been asked about them again, so I may be revisiting yarn as a medium. Maybe I’m like a person who knows multiple languages - I figure, if you can speak in all these different ways, why not express yourself!
Speaking of expressing myself…..
I have had three of my poems accepted for publication at MasticadoresUSA in these upcoming editions:
“extinct in the wild” Tuesday, Nov 22
“shifted” Wednesday, Dec 7
“how not two” Wednesday, Dec 28
ABOUT MASTICADORESUSA
In 2019, Juan Re Crivello established Gobblers/ Masticadores. In 2021, he founded Masticadores USA. Gabriela Marie Milton became the first editor of the English edition based in the United States. Other editions of Masticadores are in Spanish, Italian, Romanian, French, English and Portuguese. Masticadores now has 16 publishers and 200 writers in 10 countries. In 2022, there were already 250,000 views. In November 2022, Barbara Leonhard became editor of Masticadores USA.
Please give MasticadoresUSA your clicks and enjoy my poetry and many others. Stormy indoor days are perfect for reading.
I hope everyone is having a fantastic fall and loving these brisk temperatures! Winter is definitely on the way…..
