The growing wall in my studio of small oil painting on paper and canvas. Sort of sketches for larger pieces, mostly color and composition studies.

Stage 6: Lightning Phase

Really liking the lines in the previous stage, I decided to focus on that section. Boy, was that torturous. I didn't have the right motivation to even be in the studio and my head just wasn't working but I kept painting and rubbed the oil sticks all over that damn canvas.

After much frustration, I'm okay with where it's going, just not totally where it's at.

I do love the colors in the top left section and hope to bring some more of that to the upper portion as well as more contrast and drawing. It's not anywhere near what I was thinking it would be but I have to remember to stop thinking and just work.

Onward...

4th studio session of new painting

Sometimes it's hard to get into the studio. I don't mean like "I have too much to do" or "There's no inspiration" or "There's a truck in the way and it's on fire." But there are often other obstacles that I am not in control of.

If I have too much to do, I make time. It's important to let yourself have the time to do what you love, even if it's just a few minutes.

If there's no inspiration, that's the perfect time to paint! Your most creative moments may come out of working through it and not being tied to an idea-- YOU'RE FREE!! ENJOY IT! See what happens!

If there's a truck on fire, well, get an extinguisher and call the fire department. I mean, yeah, that's going to put a damper in the day but hopefully the fumes won't be too bad.  Ok, this one will sting a little but you'll bounce back.

5th studio session of new painting where I really attacked it

The thing that's always getting in the way for me is my health. I'm often dizzy, have a migraine, in pain somewhere in my body. Most of my days I just work through it, set a goal of keeping up appearances, and relish the moment I get to sit on the couch with my pup and a warm blanket. But I've got to get in the studio-- again, it's making time to do what I love. And the frustration/anxiety/pain/bliss-getting-through-it is what feeds those pieces. This week, I've dealt with power outages that made the studio way too cold to work in and dizziness/migraines/sciatica that just seemed like that truck on fire, barricading me from the studio.  But I still got in there. It did take some time. It took energy to push myself to do something I did not feel like doing. But I kept thinking of that moment when it gets better. When the pile transforms from something I don't like and want to end, to something I'm happy living with. Then there's the painting. ;)

in progress

another in progress

Working in the studio again and the weather has been so nice that I'm able to open the windows and bust out the oil paint! This is making me immensely happy! I haven't used my oil paint for quite some time and have really been feeling the need to use them again. I've been using casein and some acrylic for the better part of 2 years now. I really love working with casein but wanted the luminosity and thickness of oil for the ideas I'm trying to work through. But I'm not abandoning casein, by any means. In fact, both of these painting have a casein underpainting. Technically, the green one has a casein underpainting and the gray one is an oil painting over a half finished casein painting that wasn't quite making the grade. But I used it as an underpainting of sorts.

new toys: old Grumbacher oil paint, giant tubes of Sennelier, and Shiva Paintstiks

The mark/drawing are made using Shiva Paintstiks, which are pigment compacted into a stick form with a minimal amount of linseed oil and wax.

I had been taking a break from the studio after a long productive time working on the CSA project. I needed to redirect my mind and figure out what's next. When I go through this process, I usually think back to things I know and how I studied art ... figure drawings, self portraits, still lives ... but I didn't necessarily want to take that route. So, instead, I thought OIL! Digging through my oil supplies, I found some really old tubes of Grumbacher paint that were given to me; the colors are not my typical color palette (there were mostly Thalo greens and blues) so I thought it would be the perfect way to open up and try something new. As you can see in the green painting above, I had fun using them and think I'll definitely add them into the normal rotation.

Kim's painting of the WH sign

Kim and I had planned on going back to the farm on June 23rd to help them build their pizza oven...but nature had other plans! Heavy rain was in the forecast so the farm rescheduled for the following week.  But we figured we would get a few hours in before the droplets started so we packed the car and headed to a shady spot in the grass.   It turned out to be very hot before the rain started but we stuck it out for a couple hours to paint.

Kim wanted to paint the Wholesome Holmstead sign that sits at the opening to the driveway at the farm stand.  This is the first piece she made- mixed media on paper, 9x12"

Just Like Home,  Acrylic & Casein, 10" x 10"

I'm still fascinated with all the structures on the land.  This time I focused on the silhouette of the house.  The structure and layout of this building is really similar to my house, which used to be a farm back in the day.  I think that's why I'm so drawn to it.  This is a smaller painting (10x10") that I had started in the studio for a different purpose but it just wasn't jiving.  So I decided to take it along and paint on top of it.  This piece ties in my painting with the monotype imagery I've been working on.

To take a break from the paint and explore the farm some more, I walked towards the area where the pizza oven was going to be.  Behind it, I found one of the red barns that I love so much and leaning up against it was a beautiful wooden apple ladder.  It appears to be old and I imagine it's been used on the farm for decades...maybe just my imagination but I like to think that!  I had some old Polaroid cameras with me but the experimental film inside of them just wasn't capturing what I was seeing through the lens.  TTV was the next best thing so I made an intricate set up of a milk crate and cameras stacked on top of each other to steady the image.

When I got back to the studio I monkeyed around with the instant film images that were not developed correctly.  Some were too light to be anything or had thick blue lines through them or patches of undeveloped film.  (I've been using Impossible Film and some are breathtaking in the experimentation yet others are frustrating.)  Taking some ink and acrylic to the film, I recaptured the images and, in some cases, re-imagined what was there.

My friend Kim and I were accepted to a very exciting project with the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, ME called CSA - Community Supporting Arts.  We were paired with a local farm, Wholesome Holmstead of Winthrop, ME,  and we are going to create a body of work based on our inspirations from the farmland, the farmers, and their community interaction.  We've visited the farm twice so far and have been having an amazing time.

We went back today, hoping to spend all day on the farm painting and taking photographs, but today's temperature and wind was just too much for us to handle!  We literally only lasted 10 or 15 minutes outside. We couldn't feel our fingers after taking our photo adventure.


So we went to the farm stand to purchase some food to take back to my warm studio and ran into our farmer who taught us about cheese making.

Kim's a great fiber artist and recently taught me how to weave. We first bonded with each other about being photographers so we thought this was a great way to combine our interests and connections. The idea is that we'll take tons of photographs over the seasons, focusing on how the farm and farmers are woven into their community. (all puns intended)   Our first joint effort -- a prototype/work-through sketch of a fiber and photography project we have in mind. These are photo transfers of farm images we have taken so far.  

My new loom

Last month I posted about my new venture: weaving. I've since acquired a Structo Artcraft table loom. The loom is 21" wide so it's perfectly suited to make scarves, placemats, and small rugs or runners. I've started off with scarves and am absolutely loving it!

My 1st scarf - cotton chenille & cotton

2nd scarf - bulky cotton boucle & cotton

I've always been drawn to fiber but didn't quite know how to incorporate it into my art and craft. I have a friend who weaves and she sat me down in front of a floor loom and taught me the ropes, so to speak. A very comprehensive book and many Youtube videos later and I'm throwing that shuttle as fast as I can!

It's a nice break to take from the painting studio and a great thing to do while watching tv. I have my loom set up on the coffee table so that I can be fairly comfortable (if you know of an ergonomic loom, please let my back know!)

The major downfall to weaving is how completely addicting it is! The worst part is all of the beautiful yarn out there!! I've been so enamored with the hand dyed yarn from Yarntopia Treasures-- she will custom dye to your whim or you can choose from her color palettes and/or at hand supply.  I've been using her bulky cotton for my weft (the shorter part of my scarves) and just purchased some thinner yarn to be used in future warps (the long threads that run the length of the scarf.) It's the best and the cotton boucle is so darn soft!!

I'll keep posting my progress-- more very soon!

I'm working on some new ways to work and display my work on paper.  I've mounted some heavy duty Arches cream paper on cradled wood panels.  I used archival glue and a brayer to apply the paper and get all the air out from underneath it.  What a soothing process.  And I love the way that they look.  I almost don't want to paint on them!

I'm working on these smaller ones (6x6" and soon to come 10x10") for the December 2nd ArtWalk Gardiner. The larger ones are 8x10" for the 8x10x80 show at the Harlow Gallery.

Today I'm going to paint on them and see what comes to light.  Working on some utilitarian items, too...next post!  :)

I had a very productive day today! I made three new paintings!  These have tea leaves embedded into them and hatch marks actually hatched in-- more on that soon!  I painted these on thin plywood so I just need to build a support for the back and add hardware.  I know I should do that first but when the idea moves me, I just have to get to painting!  

Studio
3.5' x 2.5' x 3'
Resin, clay bricks, tin
by Adam Junior