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

Tuesday Auction Preview

I’m going to try my best to keep these updates going all week, apologies in advance if that doesn’t happen! At least this one is happening! 🙂  SO, in addition to the 24 week-long art auction items up for bid Tuesday will feature these special, one day only, items:

Class for TWO – Painted Stones. Value $60 © Lynne Medsker Art & Photography, LLC

(Click smaller images below to see full size and details!)

Digital art printed on aluminum panel. “Texture Art #15″ 8×8” $95 value

Digital art printed on aluminum panel. “Texture Art #8″ 8×8” $95 value

Digital art printed on aluminum panel. “Texture Art #13″ 8×8” $95 value

Digital art printed on aluminum panel. “Rock My World #9″ 8×8” $95 value

Digital art printed on aluminum panel. “Texture Art #9″ 8×8” $95 value

Digital art printed on aluminum panel. “Momma’s Flowers/Poppa’s Rocks” 8×8″ $95 value

Digital art printed on aluminum panel. “Texture Art #5″ 8×8” $95 value

As a reminder, the auction website is: www.myminiauction.com/lmap – I appreciate the bids that are coming in…it makes my heart happy to know that the Myers family will have a bit more help getting through this tough time. As always I am asking you to please, pretty please, share the auction site or this blog post, send emails or shout out a tweet to help spread the word. You all are awesome!

Hugs & Love,

Lynne

TINY sculptures

Each year around Christmas the Indianapolis Arts Council hosts a show titled “TINY” and each year I think I’ll enter something, then don’t get it done. This year I was in the midst of creating the WOOD|STONE|METAL artwork when the call came out so I actually created some pieces to submit!

All these use some combination of natural stones, painted stones, driftwood, balsa wood, metal, paint & ink. Basically the exact same materials I was creating larger pieces from. I don’t really have any step–by-step images of their creation so I’ll share with you images of each individual piece so you can get a better idea of the details.

“Invoke” Painted stone, copper, hammered wire, painted wood $65

“Spirit Wanders” driftwood, copper wire, nature & painted stone $55 (c) Lynne Medsker

“Unfold” painted wood, copper, beach stones, small stones, $35 (c) Lynne Medsker

“Origin” painted wood, natural & painted stone $55 (c) Lynne Medsker

“Terrain” painted wood, flat copper wire, painted stone $55 (c) Lynne Medsker

Each of them are currently available to purchase online in my “Giftables” shop, along with a selection of other small artistic pieces.

Of the above five pieces one was selected for the show, Origins. Which piece (or pieces) would you have selected?

Lynne 

Sticks & Stones

“Sticks & Stones” Mixed media (stones, driftwood) on 24×8″ wood panel $375 © Lynne Medsker

Going back to more of the artwork from last November, this is also one of the first pieces that I developed using the stash of painted rocks that I made. One of the first parts of the process was preparing the sticks to look more like driftwood. I may a foray into our woods and selected a bag full of different sizes/types of sticks that were lying on the ground and then brought them back to the house to prepare. The first order of business was a two-day soak in a soap solution to loosen the bark and clean them. As you can tell the longer/larger sticks didn’t fit entirely in the tub so they were roatated frequently…although a few still never got their “middles” finished. The water jugs helped to keep the smaller sticks submerged while they soaked.The next step was the most labor intensive…peeling off all the bark. Depending on the type of wood some was easy to work with and others just wanted to stick tight, no matter how long you soaked them! Most of them eventually peeled, the ones that were just too stubborn became kindling for our next bonfire. 🙂 Once they were all peeled they went back to the tub, this time to soak in a bleach solution. They bleached out quite nicely! The final step was several days of drying out in the sunshine and fresh air. 

Here’s one of the early versions of the art piece as I was still moving the pieces around. Although the selection of stones changed positions and I added more sticks it still turned out much like my vision. Sometimes it just takes a little time to get there! The sticks ended up in many of the new creations I’ll be sharing with…as well as my Christmas greeting for 2014.  Altough you won’t see them in my next blog post, be on the lookout for them soon!

Lynne

The Beginning: Serendipity

 

“Serendipity” mixed media sculpture (wood, stones, driftwood, copper, hammered wire) 6x6x5″ $250 © Lynne Medsker

One of the first pieces I created in my newest series “Wood|Stone|Metal”, this is “Serendipity”. The entire series could have been named that, it just came together in a delightful way! For many years I’ve collect bits of driftwood, sticks, stones and other items as I’ve traveled through life knowing that “someday” I would do something with them. With that stash of fun things around I was posed the question “what did you really enjoy doing as a child?” and immediately my love for collecting rocks in a shoebox popped into my mind. Even if they were just small pieces of gravel from our driveway adorned with paint, I spent many happy hours with rocks, as well as playing in nature with whatever I could find. But how to incorporate all that into works of art? That was when the exploring began. Sorting, stacking, painting, and arranging I began to gather/create items that might work together in a natural way. With the plasma cutter I started a collection of steel and copper shapes to use.

From my newly gathered stash of scrap balsa wood pieces I began to shape organic, rock-like pieces.

Rocks were pulled from jars, boxes and storage spots…as well as the landscape!

Driftwood, collected on my travels, was unearthed and more sticks gathered in our woods were stripped, cleaned and bleached to add to the pile.

 

I also began experimenting with paint on stones.

Over the course of several weeks I gathered, created and prepared. Then it was a bit like solving puzzles, choosing which pieces went with which, how they should be arranged and what made me happiest. Here are images of the process for this piece as it evolved:

Although I ended up with more wall art than sculptures, it was fun to express myself in a more dimensional form. Look for both types to be featured over the following weeks!

Lynne

Giftables!

I thought I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind my readers that I have gift-priced artwork available for the holidays! To help you locate & purchase those items I’ve added a storefront to my website. All items are under $100, most under $50 and quite a few are available in the $20 range. Specifically created, smaller pieces that I’ve decided to call “Giftables”. You can view/shop right HERE. I thought I’d share a few images of items that are available too, just to tempt you a bit!

Trees painted on stones © Lynne Medsker

5×7″ dimensional mixed media artwork © Lynne Medsker

Tiny Mandala Art (3×3″) with small easels © Lynne Medsker

“Spirit Wanders” small mixed media sculpture © Lynne Medsker

Tiny Cairn Artwork (2×4″) on easels © Lynne Medsker

Sculpted Wire Tree Ornaments, various embellishments

As an added temptation I’m sharing a coupon code with you that is valid through 12/10/14: ONLINE10 will get you a 10% discount on your order. Hopefully you also receive my newsletter, there will be another (even larger!) discount available in the edition that scheduled to be published in the next day or two.  Click here to sign up!  I’ll be adding too and changing the store inventory as items are sold so be sure to visit often!

Happy shopping!

Lynne

A sneak peek at the new art show!

I’m just going to share a couple “teaser” images with you today, down the line I’ll share each of the new pieces up close & personal. I couldn’t be more delighted with how this show looks! Our artwork blended effortlessly and seems like they were made to show together.

It’s a fun mix with her abstract canvas work and my dimensional art! There are a lot of other art surprises included but this gives you a good feel for the show. Don’t forget that tonight is the private opening and tomorrow is the public opening/gallery walk from 5-9.

Open Studio Class: Nature Inspired Art

Make plans now to join one of the two open studio classes during April and celebrate Earth Day by creating nature inspired art.

"mini art #67" mixed media (c) lynne medsker

We will create mixed media art that includes natural elements (rocks, driftwood, etc.) Feel free to bring your own “treasures” to include in your art, all other supplies are included. Wednesday April 11th (noon to 2:30) and Saturday April 28th (9:30 to noon) are the dates!

"love" mixed media (c) lynne medsker

The cost for class is $30, or if you’d like to pre-pay for three classes you can do so at a discounted rate of $75 for all three. Please email me to reserve your place as class size is limited!

"mini art #25" mixed media (c) lynne medsker

The last few classes before a summer break are:

Wednesday, April 25th – “Recycled Journals” – continuing to celebrate the earth we will create small, decorative journals from recycled materials! Noon – 2:30

Sunday, May 6th – Photo Basics! Just that, the basics on how to take good photos! Composition, lighting and other topics will be discussed, along with some practice time for in-class shooting. 2:30 – 5 pm

Wednesday, May 9th – Mixed media on Illustration Board. Make an abstract design then peel off specific areas and paint them one-by-one. A bit more “controlled” creativity makes this a bit different from our past painting classes! Noon – 2:30

Be sure and join in the fun!

Love & Laugh…

"laugh" mixed media on 8x8" panel, $65 © 2011, Lynne Medsker

Last week I was finally able to get back to the studio and start on some new pieces. This week I’m back again and am getting some of those beginnings finished! Here are the first two I wanted to share with you, along with some shots of their progress along the way. I began these two panels along with a different set of four panels, this is an image of all of them with a thick layer of textured white acrylic on them:

work in progress, image 1 © 2011, Lynne Medsker

After the texture layer dried then I began adding color with acrylic inks. I love playing with the thin inks, a spritz of water and they run, blend and bleed together – what fun! My initial thought was something multi-colored in a rainbow-ish pattern so that’s how I started.

work in progress, image 2 © 2011, Lynne Medsker

Eventually it kind of took on a landscape aspect so I followed that path a bit and even added a sunny spot high in the sky.

work in progress, image 3 © 2011, Lynne Medsker

I wasn’t totally excited about it at this point but I left it like this overnight. The next morning I still wasn’t excited about it so it was time to rework it. This time I went back to a more comfortable abstract pattern. I was almost there but it needed a little something else. Adding the black edges did the trick, it reminded me of the frame that appears around a Polaroid transfer!

work in progress, image 4 © 2011, Lynne Medsker

Once that dried all I had to do was add the rocks that I had selected prior to painting.

"love" mixed media on 8x8" panel, $65 © 2011, Lynne Medsker

Ta dah!  I’ve finished the edges, all that’s left is to add a hanger. These panels are thin and have holes at the top, I’m planning on using some natural hemp-type string for hanging. I also worked on the other four panels and have them nearly complete. I’m back in the studio again today so look for those on the blog in the next day or two!  I’ve got some new ideas whirling around in my mind…I’m anxious to see what pops out next. 🙂

Lynne