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

Teaser!

“Journey #1-#3″ mixed media on 18×18” wood panels © Lynne Medsker

I’ve got so many “in progress” images of this new triptych that I was commissioned to create that I decided to at least split it into two posts. Today I’ll features the humble beginnings, some close-up details of the texture & color during the process, and (above) the finished product. Hopefully that will leave you wanting more while you wait for the second post. 🙂

These pieces were based on another set that I created a few years ago during a residency. Although the clients loved them they just weren’t large enough to fill the space that they were to be hung in so I got to re-create them in a larger version! I very much appreciate their willingness to let me be creative with the replication and not try to get it precisely the same pattern, colors and textures. They are created on wood panels and the texture is a mixture of concrete and grout, layered on thin & wet so I can play with the design before it gets too dry.

It looks a whole lot different after it’s dry, sealed and I’ve put multiple layers of acrylic on it:

Next post I’ll show how it goes from one stage to the next. Until then!

Lynne

 

Dormant No More

So much meaning to this piece, as well as the title of the post!

“Dormant No More” acrylic on textured canvas, 48 x 36″, $995 © Lynne Medsker

This has to be one of my favorite new pieces. It took it’s sweet time but was worth the wait! Created on another of the canvases that I had textured and painted white, it began much differently than it ended.

work in progress, “Dormant No More” © Lynne Medsker

work in progress, “Dormant No More” © Lynne Medsker

And then it sat. And sat. And sat around the studio.

work in progress, “Dormant No More” © Lynne Medsker

Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer and figured ANY progress had to be better than it just sitting there! So I grabbed a charcoal pencil and just started drawing.

work in progress, “Dormant No More” © Lynne Medsker

work in progress, “Dormant No More” © Lynne Medsker

Lately it seems all my doodles and sketches are swirly vines. I’m sure this is symbolic of something but I’m just going with it. Once I’d gotten that pattern down I went back with a blending stump and softened and worked the design. After sealing that layer the next step had to be some color!

work in progress, “Dormant No More” © Lynne Medsker

That ended up being more than just the next step, there was color, color and more color added, blended and swirled all over that canvas in thin layers that let some of the under-colors peeks through. Here’s a detailed image of a section of the finished work that highlights the colors and texture of the piece.

work in progress, “Dormant No More” © Lynne Medsker

The title means several things to me. I’d not painted in many weeks so that part of my creativity had been lying dormant, it is the middle of winter and all the growth outdoors is dormant as well and, after sitting around the studio for months the art itself is no longer dormant but alive with color and design. Happiness!

I’ve had a period of being semi-dormant, at least as far as my online activities. I wrote and scheduled the blog posts for the last four weeks all at once and set them to auto-post – both here and on my digital blog. I set auto-tweets and Facebook posts and then I hibernated. Not entirely but I purposely allowed myself time away from these digital tasks so that I could have time to work on my goals and schedule for 2013. I knew they were not going to be done for the “New Year” celebration January 1st but as the days passed I was afraid that too much time would slip by and they might not get done at all! Along with working on that project I’ve just taken time to relax, to travel, to nap, to do pretty much whatever I felt like. What a treat! So, the next post you see on here will be post-dormancy. I guess we will both have to wait and see what it’s about. 🙂

Lynne

Aqueous

This project has been underway since warm weather (some of the layers were applied outside on a warm, sunny day) but got it’s finish during a chilly winter day. I flip back and forth thinking it feels like a clear blue sky on a sunny day or an icy blue, cold day.

“Aqueous” acrylic on textured canvas, 48 x 36″, $995 © Lynne Medsker

It was one of the large canvases that I had textures and painted white last fall, waiting for inspiration to take over.

20+ canvases/wood panels, textured, painted white and waiting…

I will say that originally stash of canvases is dwindling, which makes me happy! I knew that I wanted this piece to be shades of blue, specifically to hang in my living room. I hang my art in the living room, along with the pieces I’ve been able to acquire from other artists, but I’ve never really created a piece just for my own home. It really hadn’t occurred to me! So I decided I’d “commission” myself to make a large piece using certain shades of blues. What fun! I started with a layer of blue and went from there:

Work in progress, Aqueous, acrylic on textured canvas © Lynne Medsker

Work in progress, Aqueous, acrylic on textured canvas © Lynne Medsker

Well, THAT wasn’t what I was after! More blue to the rescue! I think it was along in this stage that I moved outdoors and things really began to happen.

Work in progress, Aqueous, acrylic on textured canvas © Lynne Medsker

Work in progress, Aqueous, acrylic on textured canvas © Lynne Medsker

I gave up brushes and went straight to using my (glove covered) fingers and hands, swirling the paints and acrylic inks around, blending the colors and literally “going with the flow” of the paint. Aaaah, yes!!

Here’s where that days work finished.

I loved the circular forms and way the colors transitioned from light to dark but felt like it still needed a bit more contrast. So I turned to some splashes of white.

Ack! Too much, too much! Back to the blues, more swirls, more colors flowing and I finally got the darks and lights that I wanted. This is a close-up from part of the finished canvas:

This really shows the texture that lays under all the color, it’s such a tactile piece you can’t help but run your hands over it!

Inspirations

It seems like I find inspiration in places when I least expect it!

A few weeks ago I visited an old building that’s under construction. The raw walls, peeling paint, exposed bricks and bits of the past kept peeking out at me, I just had to grab my camera and quickly capture some images.

Even the outside of the building was awesome!

I’ve got hundreds of images of things that inspire me…I’m especially drawn to textures! Oh, and clouds. And rocks. And…well, the list is rather long!  I am certain at some point I’ll glue myself down in front of the computer and combine all these images into digital art pieces. In the meantime, my image collection continues to grows!

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!

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

Watercolor Experiments!

student work, abstract watercolor technique class, 1/11/12

We had a great time yesterday playing with watercolors! After some talk about composition and the different types of watercolor papers & surfaces we started to play.

student artwork, watercolor class 1/11/12

Color, texture and fun was going on everywhere!

student artwork, watercolor class 1/11/12

student artwork, watercolor class 1/11/12

As a matter of fact we had so much fun playing there’s a class scheduled for NEXT Wednesday, January 18th from noon to 3 p.m.!  We’ll be switching it up for that class and playing with acrylic paints and texturing materials. I’ve got three openings left, want to join in?  Send me an email!

work in progress, watercolor class 1/11/12