Stages

So I thought today I’d share a couple recent pieces that I finished and show a bit of the stages it went through along the way. Both these pieces are currently hanging in the gallery at the Blackford County Art Center in Hartford City, Indiana in my show titled “”Cairns & Other Repurposed Treasures” – along with another 26 pieces that are part of my “Wood | Stone | Metal” series. The beginning inspirations were a set of rocks that I painted last month:

In addition to those larger, detailed pieces I also had painted several batches of smaller, colorful, messy, drippy, watercolored stones:

 

Deciding on the composition is a trial and error process for me, first one layout, then another, tweeking the arrangement and inclusion of stones and material as I progress. This shows an early layout vs. the final version for each of the two pieces.

Potential Layout for “Celebration”

Final Design of “Celebration” mixed media art, 5×12″ in wood cradle

 

 

Early design idea for “Simpatico”

Final design of “Simpatico” mixed media art on 12×5″ panel

The third rock in the set is still in the studio, waiting for inspiration to lead me to it’s final destination, who knows where it will end up!

Lynne

 

Upcoming Open Studio Play Day!

This year I am doing something a little different! Instead of scheduling formal classes I am going to open my studio for a “play date” every  few months (sessions will normally be on the third Thursday of the month, followed by a session the next Saturday for those that need a weekend option). Topics will change each month and all will be fun & easy and each only $10 per person to cover the material and supplies.

5×7″ dimensional mixed media artwork © Lynne Medsker

For September the studio is open for play on Thursday, September 8th from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. as well as Saturday, September 10th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. I’ll be working on preparing some new pieces for the show that opens later that month so materials will be out to paint rocks, create pieces on wood or sticks or just paint – whatever sounds like fun to you! Please reserve your 2-3 hour times slot as your schedule allows, I’ve got room for 3 or 4 people to work comfortably at the same time. The cost is $10. Visit the Online Reservation Form to sign up.

Your entire $10 fee will be donated to the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) to promote education about, and research for, Huntington’s Disease. Many describe the symptoms of HD as having ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s – simultaneously. There is no cure. We have two family members currently battling this deadly disease. I will be participating in walks in Indiana this September (for our son) and Knoxville, Tennessee in October (for our grandson).

I hope you are able to come out and play on one of these dates and help me raise money for HD at the same time!

Lynne

Flamingo, Seafoam and Citrus

Flamingo, Seaform & Citrus, mixed media wall sculptures, 18×10″ each © Lynne Medsker

Another post from September that was languishing in the “draft” folder! In my last post I mentioned that I enjoyed creating that piece with balsa wood, these three pieces were made with leftover balsa from that project. Very geometric and bright, they were fun to design and are amazingly lightweight wall sculpture pieces. You know what’s next right? Yup…work in progress images:

Here they are individually for your viewing pleasure:

“Flamingo” © Lynne Medsker

“Seafoam” © Lynne Medsker

“Citrus” © Lynne Medsker

Now, I’m caught up through September by the end of 2014. Next year I’ll begin sharing all the new work I created for the show in November!

Commissioned Art: Diversify

“Diversify” Mixed media ceiling sculpture © Lynne Medsker

Wow…didn’t realize this never got posted! It’s been hanging around in the “drafts” folder since September! Ooops!

The second of two commissioned art pieces I created this summer, Diversify hangs above a children’s exam table in a medical facility. Bold colored paint over lightweight balsa wood, wires and glass balls (repurposed and supplied by the client) were all brought together to make this fun ceiling sculpture. Here are some of work-in-progress images:

And a few different views of the installed piece:

I really enjoyed designing and creating this piece…as you’ll see in future post I continued to work with balsa for several more months!

Rocks on my brain

It seems like the prep and creativity for the new show in November centered around rocks! I’ve had a blast exploring on the different ways they can be painted, colored and incorporated into artwork. Here are a few images of my explorations, I’ve left a pencil in the photo of several to give you a gauge of the sizes.

How I’m incorporating these into my artwork? Aaaah, well, you’ll just have to wait and see. 🙂  In the meantime I can tell you that, after some requests, I’ll be scheduling a couple of workshop in the next month or two so YOU can create your own art on stones. Look for those to be posted soon!

Lynne

Commissioned Art: Transit

This summer I was commissioned to create two art pieces for a new medical building. The first piece, shown here after installation, is titled “Transit”.

“Transit” Mixed Media installation © Lynne Medsker

Created with a series of six bicycle wheels, paint and wire each piece leads to the next, both with color and motion. Here is some of the process that I used during it’s creation:

Unpainted wheels, lined up and waiting

Tiny wood pieces, used to attach the wires to the wheels

Wire attaching devices, tucked into the wheels

Painting the wheels

Paint on the saw horses…they’re beautiful now!

Freshly painting wheels

Attachments for hanging

Twisting wire to attach to the wheels

After painting and fully assembling each of the six pieces, they were ready for the installation date! As they ended up being installed in a stairwell getting them up on the walls and arranged was quite a challenge. One that I left to someone with more experience and expertise on ladders and scaffolding! The arrangement was changed a few times, the top image is the final result. Five pieces run up the stairwell with a sixth piece hanging at the top on the landing. Here are some more pictures of the finished artwork:

Original configuration

Close up details

Another detail image

Single piece on the landing at the top of the stairwell

Next blog post I’ll share the other commissioned artwork for this facility. Plus some other new artwork created with the same material…once I got into it, I just kept going!

Lynne

Fall Tree Workshop, October 2nd, 2014

Side Roads

A few weeks ago I shared the process of creating new artwork on wood panels, using concrete & grout for texture and detail. Today I’m going to show you a companion piece I made at the same time. As I was unpacking in the new studio I ran across this panel that I had started before the big move.

“Sideroads” mixed media on wood panel, 10×20″ © Lynne Medsker

It seemed only natural to go ahead and finish it while I was working with the same materials. When I unpacked it all that had been done was the texture layer of concrete & mortar – no colors added at all. It followed the same layering sequence as the “Journey” pieces did, building up color along the way. Lots of fun in the details of the process!

These are the rest of the images showing some of the steps along the way:

As you can tell there is a lot of painting on then covering up, then adding back with each of the colors. The last layer was with copper paint. I’m a sucker for turquoise and copper together! What’s your favorite color combination?

Next week I’m going to begin sharing some updates on the progress of the studio build. It is *this* close to being done! I’ll also share details about the Studio Open House on August 1st & 2nd, so be sure to check back then!

Excitement!

Lynne

Carefree

Here’s the third piece of artwork created from a section of an old metal filing cabinet, titled “Carefree” –

“Carefree” mixed media (metal, copper & paint) 22×48″ SOLD

Unlike the pieces I’ve shown previously, the piece of metal wasn’t cut apart but instead I used the plasma cutter to etch & cut the design in the metal, cutting openings within the design. Here’s an image of the metal after cutting and sanding, before anything else was done to it.

The next step was to paint the entire piece black, using spray paint. 

From there it was time to start adding in all the details. I spent a lot of time sprawled out on the floor of my studio with paint pens adding each little mark! I love creating tree art, no matter what the media, so what some might see as a long, tedious task I enjoyed each moment of.

Once all the details were finished I mounted the piece on a large wood panel (also painted black) with pieces of copper sandwiched between the metal and the wood.  I am happy to report that this piece has found a wonderful home and I had the honor of being invited there to see where it had been placed. I couldn’t have been more pleased to see how it seemed like it was just made for it’s location. The light from nearby windows made it dance and change as the sun moved through the sky and the room lighting highlighted it perfectly as well. As an artist you can’t ask for more than that!

Corridor

A while back I told you I’d be sharing more artwork created from an old metal file cabinet. Today I’m continuing with that by sharing this piece, Corridor.

“Corridor” 12×36″ repurposed metal on wood panel with paint & decorative nails, $595 © Lynne Medsker

Much the same process (and created at the same time) as “Conversion” the pieces were laid out, numbered, cut, cleaned, painted and re-assembled. Here are images of the work in progress:

Details and decorative nails were added as part of the finishing process.  You can find this piece, and Conversion, at Artistic Designs Gallery in Brownsburg, Indiana.

I’ve got one more piece created from repurposed metal but it’s not as abstract and geometrical as the two I’ve shown so far. Stayed tuned!