Adventures with Claybord

Emerge

24" x 24" acrylic on claybord

So, here is my LARGE work. Let me just tell you that it did not turn out at all like I thought it would. Here's a run down of my last week and my battle with this denizen of Hades known as claybord.

Monday, December 27 : I stare at the claybord and the drawing I've just made and fight the urge to run and flee when I run my hand over the completely smooth surface. We're talking smooth as glass. Insanely smooth. How in the world am I supposed to paint with watercolors on that???

I lay the first wash down and watch it get completely absorbed into the clay surface.

There's no time to pull it into place, or diffuse it for a soft edge. It. Just. Sinks. And stays like that. Forever. Wonky brushwork and all.

Huh. That's not what I expected.

Tuesday, December 28 : I keep hoping that with more layers of color I'll figure out the trick to master this bleeping claybord. But so far, no success. 

It's hideous. And I don't throw that word around lightly. 

I seriously begin to contemplate washing it all off and starting over. But I'm working under a deadline and I'm worried of running out of time. So I suck it up and go back in for round two.

Wednesday, December 29 : By now I'm starting to panic. This isn't working, I can't do this. I am a no-talent-lame-o and this is the worst piece of art ever created. Ever.

I go spray it off and think of what I can possibly do to make this work.

Thursday, December 30 : I give up on watercolors with this board. It just isn't happening. I go to the art supply store and check out the prices for acrylic paints and come home with a bag full of new paints and brushes.

I'm so excited with this clever answer I've come up with, and my bag full of artsy treats, that I have to resist the urge to skip my way out the store and to the car.

Though I confess I may have swagered a little bit. Just a little.

Friday, December 31 : Two attempts at an acrylic portrait later and I'm about ready to throw my shiny new art supplies out the window. They dry SO fast and I'm SO not used to this, and I'm starting to think that I may have developed an ulcer in the last five days.

That's not possible is it?

I go eat some antacids and try not to cry.

Saturday, January 1 : Who knew that you needed so much white paint when you use a medium other than watercolor? I mean what happened to all that pretty white paper I'd gotten so used to saving and protecting? I miss that pretty white paper.

I go to the art supply store and buy more white paint. This time I feel no urge to skip, I don't even swager. Not even a little bit.

Sunday, January 2 : Typically I don't paint on Sundays, but I make an exception today.

This is it, the last day.

This has to work.

I pray. Hard.

I wake up all of a sudden at 5:00 AM with a very clear idea of what I should do to make this work.

I run downstairs and spend the day working on my brilliant plan.

Eureka!

It works. :) All is well.

I take a break, but only for a little while.

Because you see, I'm DYING to get started on a watercolor portrait. I need to feel at home again. I've missed you, my little aquatic friends.

This is my piece for the International Women Celebrate exhibition. The deadline is today, and I finished with hardly a minute to spare.

Now I think I'll go take a nap. Or play the Wii with my boys. Or eat some chocolate. Or possibly all three. 

A sketch and some thoughts

colored pencil study

      I typically don't do preliminary sketches before I do a finished painting. I find that if I spend too much time on preparations (not planning, that I do lots of) I lose that spark that drew me to the subject in the first place. And you know how much I strive for freshness and emotion in my paintings. I'm also a firm believer that if you don't feel it then nobody else will :)

      This sketch is part of a larger painting I'm working on. My sketchbook has lots of these studies (although I did this on larger drawing paper) of hands, eyes, mouths all those things that help make a convincing portrait. I consider them to be my training. I love realism. But I love impressionistic, loose works too. I think all art has value and I can appreciate it for it's own particular beauty even though it's different from how I paint. I'm not trying to make a painting that looks like a photograph, there are lots of talented photographers out there for that. I'm painting my feelings, my reaction to something.

      And also the reception for "Timeless Remedy" was last night, and I received two awards. :) Made me smile. Here's the painting in case you missed it, and I'm lame at linking on here so I'm just posting it again.

"Timeless Remedy" 

"Art comes from a deep inner sense of direction.  It starts with a re-evaluation of your own life, from a search for the source of the impulses and the mystery of it all.  I think of myself as an emotional realist.  Emotion is what I want to portray.  Realism is just my way of doing it."
Steve Hanks

     All art is beautiful, all art requires talent and work, realism is just my way of doing it.