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
Dailypainters.com

Other Worlds

"Other Worlds"
15" x 9"
Watercolor on paper
There are worlds where the lowly feather is looked upon with wonder and awe. 

I cut out waxed paper shapes: feathers, circles, crescents, leaves, and arranged them on the saturated watercolor paper, then brushed on deep values of paint.  It didn't go under the waxed paper, which had become saturated and flimpy.  

I immediately covered the whole thing with plastic wrap and squooshed it where I wanted wrinkles.  I put a magazine on top of the plastic wrap to weight it slightly. Don't use anything of value, it could absorb paint. Then put the whole thing on a level shelf in the deep freeze. (remember it's on a cookie sheet) Or outside if you have below zero, not just below freezing, temperatures.

Now go away.  Forget about it for a day or so.  You won't see my next installment until the day after Christmas.  So go eat some fruitcake, drink some egg nog,  or staple mistletoe wherever you plan to spend the next couple of days.


DPW site
My DPW Gallery
brushstrokes@comcast.net

I mean it, don't peek or peel up that plastic wrap.  Santa's watching.  

Carol

Blue Ice

"Blue Ice"
9" x 15" 
Watercolor on paper

Like flotsam along the bank of a steam, nature has a way of tossing her castoffs in an attractive way.  

This series is done on a 90 pound  French, Cold Press paper.  That means, 100 sheets in a given size weighs 90 pounds.  Watercolor paper comes in 140 pound, 300 and 450 pound weight.  The texture of the cold press hand made paper is slightly bumpy.  Hot press is smooth, like it was pressed by a hot iron.  And then there's rough. 

Do this part of the project on a cookie sheet.  It'll hold the amount of liquid you'll need to be successful.  Thin paper worked nicely with this process. The paper absorbed the water and paint. Moisture didn't just sit on the surface, so it froze all the way through it, too.  To be continued...

 DPW site
brushstrokes@comcast.net

Featherly

"Featherly"
40" x 30"
Acrylic/collage on canvas
The background appeared to me in dream-form two mornings in a row.  I could feel my arm wiping on the Golden Brand Indian Yellow with a sponge, adding red to it as I traversed the canvas from top to bottom.  And laughing at the thought of feathers wakened me each time.

I owned the canvas.  I had a mixed bag of feathers and the rest was created while I was fully awake, but only with the right side of my brain.  I painted big squares and small ones, tore scraps of waxpaper I had painted with metallics, glued, painted, layered and rubbed in shadows.  A mere 106 glued and painted feathers later, "Featherly" was finished.  He's one of a kind. There aint no more.

This piece is listed with, and for sale through a Daily Paintworks auction, or by PayPal.

Thank you for stopping by today!
Carol