Deviate & Tango

The title sounds like some covert operation, doesn’t it?

“Tango” mixed media (wood, stones, ink) sculpture. 5×12″ $245 © Lynne Medsker

“Deviate” mixed media (wood, stones, ink) sculpture. 5×12″ $245 © Lynne Medsker

Surprise! It’s sculptures instead. 🙂

The wood bases that hold these stones were shaped and carved from balsa wood, making them much lighter than they look.

 

The stones were arranged and more cutting/sculpting done for them to fit snuggly in the center of the wood. (Okay, yes, they were also glued quite well in one of the final steps, I’m not that talented with wood working yet!)

As you can tell, the stones and were rearranged quite a bit before the final steps were taken.

I decided to use stones that had been colored with ink as the accent stone for each of the sculptures, from this selection:

Once the wood pieces were carved they were sanded, sealed and then colored with inks to get their patina. The center of each piece was painted black and then the stones were all glued into place. Here are two more images of the finished pieces from a different angle:

“Deviate” mixed media (wood, stones, ink) sculpture. 5×12″ $245 © Lynne Medsker

“Tango” mixed media (wood, stones, ink) sculpture. 5×12″ $245 © Lynne Medsker

I really enjoyed working with wood again to created these, and discovering the right sizes and pattern for the stones was quite a challenge. I hope you enjoyed the peak at their creation!

Lynne

First ever Upcycled Earring class!

Staying Green

One of the things that I try to do in my studio (and my home for that matter!) is to be aware of the resources that come through and use them as fully, or dispose of them as properly, as possible. One thing that I have a bit of a personal crusade about is packing and packaging materials! Most of them seem to be over-kill and a waste of paper, plastic, space and time (especially trying to get into some of them!!). Lately the companies that I order my supplies from have been using flat brown craft-type paper in long, crunched up rolls to pad the shipments. This I LIKE! A few minutes to smooth out the wrinkles and fold it neatly and it has all kinds of uses in the studio. Whoot! I keep any styrofoam packaging to use in building mixed media sculptures as well as the plastic packaging bags to use for protection of work surfaces, floors and even the finished art. They are great for sorting class supplies in too!

When I purchased the shelving for the studio all the pieces were wrapped in plastic, I’ve got a good stash going now! As for the actual boxes, I break them down into larger flat pieces (again for projects, surface protect, material to create bases for 3D work, etc.) and then the lid flaps I tear up into smaller pieces that I use for stamping texture and designs on work. Look at this tub full of fun!

There still ends up being some things that I can’t use but if I’m lucky they are items that can be recycled. Here’s some of reusable stuff I got from the shelf packaging:

I’ve also been working on some artistic projects that use packing/packaging materials but I’m saving that for a future post! Well, okay, maybe just a little teaser for you: 

Till next time!

Lynne

Concealed

I think with this post I will finally have all the art I created in February on the blog. Gee, that only took three months!

“concealed” mixed media on wood panel, 24 x 36″, $425 © Lynne Medsker

This is another piece that started with a layer of concrete on a wood panel. I really, really (really!) enjoyed applying the concrete layer….it was mixed pretty thin and I had a long time to work with it. Much like finger painting I ran my hands through the fluid concrete, swirling it around and playing like a kindergartner. It was a very good form of therapy!

blank panel, waiting for a layer of concrete (along with some smaller pieces)

Once I finally quit playing with the texture it needed to dry for a day or two before I could proceed. I began by smoothing a layer of black acrylic paint all over the top of the surface, with a heavy amount around the edges.

Concealed – work in progress, black acrylic added © lynne medsker

When that layer had dried then I added some liquid layers of acrylic inks that I blended across the entire piece. Using a purple and green hues seems to create a shade deep turquoise that I always love!

concealed, work in progress © lynne medsker

I continued to add layers of purple & green until I was happy with the depth of color. To highlight the piece I added some metallic paints (silver, gold, copper) on top of the black in certain areas. It was *almost* there!

“concealed” detail image © lynne medsker

It took me a while to figure out what else I needed to add before I could feel like it was finished. What it ended up being was lots and lots of tiny details in black ink. Although the image above was taken before the ink was added basically I put small little circle-type details on top of the larger areas of metallic paint. It ended up look much like the patterns on a wild animal, perhaps a leopard? They aren’t apparent at once and I really like that – it really does feel like there is something a little wild concealed within the image, waiting for you to discover it! Of course if you want to see those details you’ll need to come see it in person – I’d love to show it to you!

Blended Fractals #42 and #43

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared any fractal or digital artwork on this blog so I thought I’d sneak some in today!

blended fractal art #42 © lynne medsker

Most of my newest creations comprised of several different fractal images blended together to make one new colorful, detailed piece. No exception here! These are the “single” fractal images that I used:

fractal #39 © lynne medsker

fractal #40 © lynne medsker

fractal #41 © lynne medsker

This time I had so much fun blending and changing the coloring on the art that I came up with two final pieces. I just couldn’t decided! So you get to see both. 🙂

blended fractal #43 © lynne medsker

So, do you have a favorite between the two? Or like one of the singles best?

Old Growth

Some pieces of art come very easily and others you have to wrestle, argue, ignore, cajole and fuss with for months to finally figure out what they want to become. This is one of those pieces!

"old growth" mixed media on wood, 24x24" $495 © lynne medsker

It isn’t just me that struggled with it, my artist friend Doug finally was exasperated enough with it that he gave it to me at a play date with instructions to finish it. 🙂 Now if you clicked that link you’ll know it’s been a LONG time that I’ve had this piece in the studio! I began working on it during the play date buy taking a hammer to it and chipping out some of the background texture and edges, adding more concrete and even adding some color that day. Here are images of it as it transitioned from phase to phase – and I know I missed a lot of the stages!

After this last image I used it to test some spray paint on but didn’t get a photo of that (although you can see some of it on the next image). What it had turned into was a piece I let my young grandson paint on because, honestly, he couldn’t do any worse!

And his creativity is just what got me inspired and going in the direction I needed to! Why I’d not tried my one of my favorite color schemes before is still a mystery to me.

work in progress "old growth" © lynne medsker

Finally it was (or I was?) moving toward a finished image!

work in progress 2 "old growth" © lynne medsker

Once the tree appeared all that was needed was a bit of green, some outlining and highlighting and it was finally complete. Whew. I can’t imagine it looking like anything else now!

This piece is included in the “Mixed Well & Served Fresh” show that has been held over at Artistic Designs Gallery in Brownsburg, Indiana. You need to come see it in person to appreciate all the layers, depth and texture! I’ll be there with it tomorrow during the ArtsGo! event too, I’d love to meet you!

Primitive Gestures (Part 2)

As promised in yesterday’s post, here is the rest of the “Primitive Gestures” series!

"migration" mixed media on wood panel, 8x10" professionally framed $175 © lynne medsker

"spring winds" mixed media on wood panel, 8x10" $85 © lynne medsker

In addition to several of the 8×10 size pieces I created these two larger ones as well:

"three moons" mixed media on wood panel, 16x16 $245 © lynne medsker

"mountain path" mixed media on wood panel, 16x16 $245 © lynne medsker

I hope you enjoyed seeing these new creations! I had so much fun getting my hands into these pieces, there isn’t a texture or color on any of them that I didn’t touch!

"night journey" mixed media on wood panel, 8x10" professionally framed $175 © lynne medsker

Primitive Gestures (Part I)

Today I’ll be sharing a small series of work that I created for the “Mixed Well and Served Fresh” show.

"eclipse" mixed media on wood panel, 8x10" $85 © lynne medsker

My inspiration for these pieces were the primitive cave and rock drawings made by our long-past ancestors. Even then, with their hands and rudimentary tools, people had the urge to create, communicate and share their life through art. Some of the markings I used on these works were taken from books about the rock drawings, a few were combined to create new symbols and some were from my imagination.

work in progress, primitive gestures series © lynne medsker

work in progress, primitive gestures series © lynne medsker

work in progress, primitive gestures series © lynne medsker

Similar to making designs in the muddy earth, each piece in this series originated with concrete being applied by hand to wood panels, with lots of symbols, marks and texture being etched into them. Just as the passage of time concealed many of the original rock drawings, more concrete was drizzled and dropped on top of the original design to give it feeling of age. Once dry it was topped off with multiple layers of color and acrylic glaze. A final coat of white was used to further veil the design.

fire & water, mixed media on wood panel, 8x10" $85 © lynne medsker

"emergence" mixed media on wood panel, 8x10" professionally framed, $175 © lynne medsker

"planting cycles" mixed media on wood panel, 8x10" $85 © lynne medsker

I’ll share the rest of this series with you in my next post!

 

Blended Fractal #38

Switching gears today and sharing some new fractal art with you! This piece was created by layering two other fractals together and blending them.

blended fractal #38, digital art 2012 © lynne medsker

As you can tell by the look of the two original fractal pieces they were twisted, turned and color modified quite a bit to make the new image!

fractal #36, digital art, 2012 © lynne medsker

fractal #37, digital art, 2012 © lynne medsker

I really like this new image (and the two originals) now I just need to find a reason to have some prints made. 🙂

Pachua

I haven’t posted any lately but I really have been busy making new art! I just hadn’t had the time to edit the photos and get them ready to post! Here one recent creation:

Why is it named “Pachua”? Well I’m glad you asked! 🙂 I felt like it had an almost dragon-like appearance but I didn’t want to necessarily use the word dragon in the title so I did some online searching for dragon names. As I was browsing around I found the name Pachua, which is a Hopi Indian name and translates into “green feather snake”. How could I pass that up?!

As far as the creative process this was constructed on a wood panel with layers of concrete, glaze and acrylic paints. I took some images of it during the process for you to see some of the stages it went through. Here they are:

work in progress © lynne medsker

work in progress 2 © lynne medsker

work in progress 3 © lynne medsker

If you’d like to see this piece in person it is currently part of my show “Mixed Well and Served Fresh” at Artistic Designs Gallery in Brownsburg – it will be there until April 14th, just waiting for a visit!

I’m hoping to get more new work posted soon but I’ve also got a lot of news to post too! At least it won’t be quiet on the blog for a while!

Lynne