studio update

hosta leaves work in progress, coloured pencil on Colourfix paper, 6.5" x 23"
copyright Teresa Mallen

Here is the Humpback Hosta Leaves piece as it looks now. There is much to be done but I am pleased so far. I am letting it sit with me for awhile so my subconscious can work out where I want it to go next. Also, I am unable to continue with the background as I am out of the pencils that I want to use. I haven't been to the art supply store in ages so I guess this is to be expected. Time to draw up a shopping list!

While allowing time for the above piece to percolate in my noggin, I moved on to a different project, one of my first art loves actually, pen and ink. I love to draw and I love working in ink. I get lost in a happy place when I am crosshatching shapes and values! :-) I am working on a series of simple little illustrations, done in pen and ink, coloured with cps of course which shall be offered up for sale as matted originals. (sorry for the dark picture, I fiddled with it but this is as good as it is getting)

Pen/ink/coloured pencil originals, copyright Teresa Mallen

They are conveniently sized in a 4 x 6 inch format and with a mat will fit nicely into a store bought 8 x 10 inch frame (the customer buys the frame of their choice).Very affordable and would make a great Christmas gift! Yes, I am preparing for a pre-Christmas open studio sale and a November studio tour. I am even thinking of images for holiday cards. I don't mind thinking of Christmas while in July. I really like winter and I have not let big business ruin my experience of the Christmas season. Might even put on some Christmas music while I work on them - I can hear your groans! LOL

Well it is early afternoon and a perfect summer day so I am leaving the studio. I am going to scoot the vacuum round the place and after that I intend to head to the meadow to pick some daisies, brown eyed Susans and Queen Anne's lace to arrange in vases. After that I am going to weed my huge front flower bed. Somewhere in there I shall squeeze in time to brush the goats (they love being brushed) and time to sit on the veranda with a glass of wine while cloud watching. I love watching clouds...

Have a great weekend everyone!

reminded me of something

Stuck in a rut, predictable? I like to think of it as style - my fondness for the horizontal format. This is what I am working on now, the paper is Colourfix (sanded pastel paper), and the image is 6 1/2" high and 23" long. I think of this piece as a cousin to Neptune's Leaves (NL can be seen in my right sidebar and a segment of it is in my header). The main similarity is that the background is going to be a gradation combo of aquamarine and teal-ish colours. Also, the subject matter is based on leaves which shall be funked up according to my imagination.

The inspiration comes from pictures I took of one of my hosta plants. The shape of the leaves and the graceful curving lines were what got me. As I looked at my small preliminary sketch of these two leaf shapes, I kept having the thought that the lines in the leaves reminded me of something. Once I worked my drawing up to the 23 inch long version, I saw it - the lines remind me of the curved ridges on the throat of a humpback whale! Humpback Hostas, how is that for an obtuse title? :-) 

As you probably can tell, I am letting the tooth of the paper show so that I can benefit from the glow of the red paper. By the time I have all my layers on, the tooth shall be more covered more but the red shall still be influencing the look of the piece. No burnishing here. My favourite medium of art work to look at is pastel so when working on sanded papers, I like my work to have a sense of pastel about them.

Summer is whizzing by, it shall be August in a few days. I was sorting some garden pics last night. When I saw the lilac pictures, I was struck by how having all the lilac bushes in bloom seemed such a long time ago...I would like to hit some sort of summer pause button!