Sky Pads 40–A mini version of Sky Pads 39

Managed to get this “small-ish” lotus-themed painting drawn, transferred to canvas, and drowning in a lush paint-poured background over the last week. This one is a tidy 30″ x 30″ (approximately 76 cm) and will be only the fourth one I’ve done in this smaller, square size.

Number 40’s base coat is drying rather quickly–I helped it out with a hair dryer, which also helped disperse the turpentine fumes. I am eagerly awaiting an actual spring and summer so I can do all this messy prep stuff outdoors. So far the weather here in Michigan has only done what it always does, which is tease us with a couple of days actually nice enough to enjoy a ride on a frisky horse, before throwing us back into the freezer once again.

In the meantime I’m waiting for news from a few gallery shows I’ve applied to recently.

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Sky Pads 38 was accepted into the South Bend Museum of Art’s revival of an exhibit limited to local artists they hosted a few years back. That one will be delivered to the museum in late April.

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Sky Pads 39 was entered into the Box Factory for the Arts Michiana Annual Art Competition, results to be posted late April.

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A very ancient lotus painting (1990) was entered into the Union Street Gallery “green” exhibit in Chicago Heights, IL. Results should be announced any day now. “Verde Variants” addresses the use of green in all of its possible (or impossible) situations. Echo Park VIII fills the bill but you never know what the judge is really after!

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And a whole bunch of Sky Pads–13, 14, 23, 24, and 25 were entered in an exhibit titled “Water” at Tall Grass Arts Association in Park Forest, IL. When they offer you the opportunity to enter a stack of paintings for a pittance I say, go for it. The only requirement is that the work has to include water. Stay tuned!

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“Conditionally Done”

I theoretically finished Sky Pads 39 last night, but won’t be willing to label it finished until it sits for a few days and I fail to find anything to tweak or change.

Here’s the “conditionally done” photo:

If you would like to compare each step to the “finished” work, below shows the progress of the first through fifth (final) version The first version was the underpainting color wash only. You can enlarge them full screen by clicking on any one of them.

Sky Pads 39–A few more hours of hurry up and wait

A quick look at the past, how many days? I’ll figure that out later. Click on the right arrow to see them in progressive order.

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The flowers are still in their original base color stage. There were a couple of goofs in color here and there, and if you feel like a treasure hunt you can look for the “fix” I haven’t painted over yet. Believe it or not (I’m a great one for “not”) most of this painting will end up a great deal darker but with lots of high contrast. There’s a show coming up I will enter it in if I’m finished by April 7. I can’t imagine it taking that long, but I have no crystal ball.

Slow but sure

I’ve been working on this piece sporadically amid all sorts of “have to do things” that insisted on getting into the way since my last post. Fortunately most of them are either taken care of or under control for now.

So, here’s the latest on Sky Pads 39. It looks like the right side is close to finished but it is not–still a long long way to go. I’ve sort of worked my way around it, first laying on simple transparent colors so I can see what goes where more easily. The right side, except for the flower, has probably 4 layers bringing out the brilliant colors and plentiful saturation. The flower is still sitting there with just its base coat applied. The left side doesn’t have much going on, and the middle has a couple layers to go. The top of the painting and the right side edge are close to finished.

This one is all slow work, painting in layers and waiting for one to dry before adding the next. Working a bit all over the canvas while I wait for something to dry helps get it done somewhat faster. In all, I am liking the way it is developing.

Not much to see here

After a long but eventually fruitful search for turpentine (apparently nobody sells it anymore except Dick Blick Art because California has deemed it toxic…) I finally managed to finagle 2 quarts of the stuff which I hope will last till I give up being an artist. Said turpentine was applied liberally with very little paint yesterday to produce this undercoat for Sky Pads 39. It’s not as brilliant as my usual paint pours are because 0° weather forced me to do it indoors with brushes. If you look closely through the turp/paint layer though you will be able to make out some of the drawing of lotus leaves and, this time, flowers!

Done and Drying

I finished this a day late, on January 1. So the goal was “finish in 2023″…oh well. It’s sitting up looking out into my studio and I’m looking at it every day waiting for it to dry so I can varnish it and then frame it. Which reminds me–a fellow artist has let me know several times that I promised to show her how I frame my paintings and now I must make sure not to forget!

Flashback to the early 20-teens. Two of my Aquabord™ mini paintings, one of wild horses in California and Nevada (top) and the other some “made-up” wild horses based on my horse as a model placed into an imaginary desert scene (bottom), were accepted into the “Small Works/Big Impressions” show at the Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights, Illinois. I love it when galleries offer a show that doesn’t require that your entry has been completed in the last two years (or whatever time frame). These little gems aren’t any less worthy just because they are a few years old. Bonus points because I could send them very economically via United States Post Office instead of having to drive 100 miles to deliver them to the gallery. Each is only 5″ x 7″ and fit neatly in a sturdy envelope. Didn’t even need a box!!

“Push”

“Dust Bowl”

So close!

This is very slow going–the image is the fourth pass on the pads, after 4 passes on the background. I wanted to finish it by the end of the year, which at this point means I have about 6 1/2 hours left. I think I could do it if I started right now…

Getting there

Slowly but surely. About 2/3 (?) of the way there. A bunch of layers in progress in this photo. I’m in awe of the background–it’s working way better than I hoped.

Sky Pads 28

This was too easy

I juiced the color saturation and contrast up in the photo for this post so you could actually see the white lines for the lily pads, but in real life it’s easy to see the lines with the painting sitting in ordinary light. Getting the lines onto the background was way easier this time around–the third time I’ve employed it–than it was the first two times. I expected some difficulties getting the lines to project onto the surface with a strong enough light but when I turned on the projector they showed up in full force. From there it was a quick job to draw them with my favorite white paint pen.

You probably wonder why I have a favorite white paint pen when I do so few drawing transfers of this type. I’ve discovered that it works really great to put my horse’s name on a lot of her stuff–rain sheets, treat cans, halters, hoof picks, tack cart, and on and on. I did not, however, use it for her party hat.

😂

Lotsa layers…

Got a pretty good start on Sky Pads 38. Four layers down, ?? to go. This one is going to be a bit tricky in the same vein as #’s 27 and 29, which is to say, a very rich dark background painted not poured, so dark that when I project the lily pad drawing over it I will have to have flipped the white/black areas so that the lines of the drawing appear white in order to see them over the dark background. You can see the effect here: https://allifarkasartist.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/light-in-the-darkness/ Adding to the difficulty is the fact that the background is not uniformly dark. I may have to use the original drawing with black lines in order to transfer it over the lighter areas. Worst case would be that none of this works. That would be unfortunate considering all of the hours so far invested LOL. Here’s a look at the first four layers. You can click on any one of them to see all in full size.