Kablooey!

"Kablooey!" 11" x 14" Alcohol Ink on Yupo

This was a peaceful, wash of less than dramatic pastel colors when I brought it home from my workshop in Eau Claire. I nearly posted it, but wondered what would happen if...  

I impacted the serenity with the addition of red, more purple and some yellow. Oh, my.

I am teaching a workshop on knife painting with acrylics in Chippewa Falls, WI on June 9 and 10. If anyone is interested please let me know and I'll send you the information. 

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Froot Baskit

"Froot Baskit" 11" x 14" Alcohol Ink on Yupo

I turned this piece every which way as I dropped ink and alcohol onto the Yupo. I also blew the ink around with a very large-bore straw. It moved the ink, but didn't send it splattering. Not until I photographed it and rotated it did I realize there was "subject matter" in the mass/mess of color. But it, like the spelling of the title, is a little awry.  

I have signed none of my ink paintings. Not until they are sold and the purchaser tells me where to sign it, will I commit to the permanence of... Keene.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Microcosm

"Microcosm" 14" x 11" Alcohol Ink on Yupo

It started out as a simple painting, but I had time, time to wait around to see what would happen... IF. There were a lot of "ifs" in this piece. I couldn't even tell you what happened between daiquiris and dinner, or baklava and bedtime. But I don't think I turned it into mud. 

"It is what it is,"says my friend, Mary.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Hubbub

"Hubbub" 14" x 11" Alcohol Ink on Yupo

As this one progressed, I kept adding more and more color to the already-drying puddles. It's what made so many hard edges. A spritz here and there made the small dots. It seemed to have a landscape quality to it, but land that had been ravished, sort of earthquake-like. 

I really had to relinquish control of my normal style of painting during these three days.  I submitted to a seldom-used part of my brain to make most of these alcohol paintings.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Another View

"Another View" 4" x 6" Watercolor on Yupo

When I rode a horse around Ghost Ranch — yes, I said "ride a horse,"   I was able to get closer to the formations than while on a wheeled vehicle. I loved being in the open air as much as I was on this trip. The silence, the purity of the air, the spiritual cleansing brought me to tears more often than I thought possible.  

This is the painting I gave to the hotel manage as a thank you for taking a chance on letting us paint in the new conference center.  

Carol 

Brushstrokes@comcast.net

CarolKeene.com

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Chimney Rock

"Chimney Rock" 5" x 9" Watercolor on Yupo

I'm back from my trip to New Mexico. I experienced every positive emotion possible as I traveled.  It was as much fun as I anticipated and I met 19 talented women with whom I shared stories, hugs and time. 

I painted this piece while at the Drury Plaza Hotel in Santa Fe and gave it to the Assistant Manager as a thank you for letting twenty women paint in watercolor in a brand new conference room for three days. It was a gift we will never forget.  Thank you, Andreas for trusting us with your beautiful new space.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Hawked

"Hawked" 6" x 6" Watercolor on Yupo

Feathers were fluttering from the pine tree in my courtyard the other day. When I looked up at the source, nondescript bird parts were lodged in the spiny needles overhead. The wind distributed them onto my sidewalk according to weight and size. Now all that's left up in that tree, after a couple of days of gravity and wind are downy tufts.  I've seen a hawk swooping in my neighborhood in suburban Chicago, so I suspect he dropped the unsuitable plumage where he thought it would do the most good — at the feet of an artist.  

Yup, it's on Yupo.  And They were FUN to paint.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Trio

"Trio" 6" x 8" Watercolor and Ink on Yupo

The title "Trio" refers to three colors and three applications. My first application was to slather grayed blue over the Yupo and press a plastic lace into it.  I let it dry and then stenciled the acanthus swirls in analogous, yet the remaining complementary colors. After it was all dry, I used a waterproof pen to squiggle and dot in the shadows. 

I had so many ideas of what to paint on or around the blue pattern, but the swirling acanthus won… this time.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Welcome

"Welcome" 6" x 12" Watercolor on Yupo

The wide, red pathway maundered between an opening in a fence… not quite a gate, but welcoming, nonetheless. Come see what's beyond, it beckoned.  

I shall, once I get there to see it with my own eyes. This is from a photo I found. I'm trying to match colors to see if I'm taking the right palette with me. Space is limited! I will be responsible to carry everything myself… no man will be with me to help. Alas, I'll manage. Giggle.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Hopes and Dreams

"Hopes and Dreams" 6" x 9" Watercolor on Yupo

In preparation for my visit to Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, I'll be doing a series of landscape sketches to capture the essence of the sky, rocks and vegetation. I'm unaccustomed to the shapes and colors of the subject matter, so I need to figure it all out. 

Put it down, let it puddle or play with it. It doesn't seem to matter. I can move paint around for the day if I want to with this "paper." It's fun to play, but I need to think about the economy of strokes and time spent on a … sketch.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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Impression-Scape

"Impression-Scape" 5" x 12" Watercolor on Yupo

The simple landscape was appealing yet intimidating as I taped the "paper" to my drawing board.  No easel here… gravity has her way with this material, more than ever before. 

The purpose of this painting was to see if I could do the natural progression; to paint something else I've done before, just not on this ground. I like the Impressionistic strokes that occur easily. I'll be doing more of these.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net 
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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PlayTime

"PlayTime" 7" x 8.5" Watercolor on Yupo

I'm returning to my roots — my artistic roots. I taught myself to paint watercolors while I was in college to become a chemist. When THAT didn't work out, I became a wife and mother and continued to dabble in watercolor. My dabbles looked like the image at the bottom of today's post, back in the day. And now I'm playing with new products and they make me paint like… this!  

I spent some time this afternoon puddling, stamping, stenciling and playing with traditional transparent watercolors, a brush and a Winsor and Newton watercolor sticks. They look like the hard pastels I use, but these are pure pigment watercolors. They can be drawn on dry paper or wet, squiggled into a puddle on a palette and made into a brush-able mixture.  The pure pigments of the sticks impressed me. The yupo paper (actually plastic) is a lot like painting on a gessoed surface. The paint stays and dries on the impenetrable surface.  If it isn't to your liking, just wipe it with a tissue, Q-Tip or put the entire thing under the faucet and bid it adieu.

More tomorrow.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
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