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

 

New in the Studio this week

I’ve had the pleasure of being able to spend a few days in the studio this week! As of yesterday I completed five “in progress” batik pieces that I have been working on for the last few weeks and also completed painting 12 stones that will be incorporated into new mixed media art pieces for an upcoming show. Here is an image of one series of stones as they progressed throughout the day:

A different set:

If you are interested in creating some painted rocks, or just playing in the paints I’ll be having open studio play dates next week! The cost is only $10 for a 2-3 hour session and this month all the fees are going to be donated to HDSA. You can read the details in THIS POST.

Here is one of the batik pieces, almost finished:

I tried my first stop-action film while working on the finishing details on this piece but it turned out slightly blurry and a bit too fast. It was a good learning experience none the less. My second attempt was in focus but my camera battery died mid-recording. Now I’m out of works in progress to film! I’ll get it done eventually though, it’s one of those things I’ve wanted to do/learn. There are so many!

Now I’m off for a few more hours in the studio…I wonder what will be created today!

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

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

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

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

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