Fire In the Sky

"Fire In the Sky"

11" x 14"

Alcohol Ink on Yupo

This is another painting that began as a simple, single-layered piece... meaning that all the color was dropped on the wet alcohol on the first pass.  It was "nice" but it wasn't fab. 

I disrupted the niceness of the first layer by adding multiple layers on top. If you recall from an earlier blog I mentioned that when wet ink pushes away dry ink it forms "fences."  Well, the dark parts of any of these images are made by stacked up transparent colors. There is no black or so-called dark inks. They are all highly transparent, beautiful colors — just bunched up on top of one another to form dark.

 

Dance-Ink

"Dance-Ink"
14" x 11"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo
This was one of my first attempts at controlling the uncontrollable medium of alcohol ink. What is it, you ask?  Alcohol ink is the ink you apply to rubber stamp pads.  The craft of stamping has given us a new medium to play with. Ttransparent ink dripped on a sheet of Yupo (PVC plastic in sheet form) coated in alcohol is quite the wrestling match to watch. On this piece, I used a yellow, blue and red to create what you see here. It didn't begin ANYTHING like this, but when it stopped moving (dried) this is how it ended.  

Tomorrow I'll show you how AI looks when you TRY to control it.  I put on my cowgirl boots and grabbed a lasso...  well, you'll see.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
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Evening's Promise

"Evening's Promise"
6"x6"
Oil on hardboard
The sky glowed the promise of something better, and I believed it as evening closed in around me. I could use some… better in my life. 

I've been sick for a few weeks. Pretty darn sick. I've never gone for three weeks without painting, until now. Influenza and its companion complications had flattened me since Thanksgiving. But I'm back in my studio for the first time, today and happy to be able to lift a brush, squeeze paint and smear it around in the shape of something recognizable.

Thank you to those of you who have noticed my absence, for the emails and the prayers for my complete recovery.  I appreciate all of your good thoughts.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
Carolkeene.com
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Celestial Synapses III

"Celestial Synapses III"
12" x 36"
Oil on museum wrapped canvas
After a weekend of joyful celebrating, gallery visits and art museum tours in Chicago I was happy to be back in my own studio today. Another snow storm stamped its approval on my decision to stay in. 

I've decided my brain is weary of looking at the same 35,000 photos I use for references and that's why I've gravitated toward this style of painting… for now. It's coming from within and I seldom allow myself to draw exclusively on what's going on inside me.  

Carol



Julie's Strokes

"Julie's Strokes"
6" x 6"
Pastel on black panel
I painted with a group of people the other day.  I had finished one piece and was moving on to another when the woman to my left stepped back from her large canvas. Primary colors, I noted. She stepped up to her canvas and smeared a swath of red orange vertically. I took a red orange pastel and applied a similar stroke. When she used yellow, so did I. She crossed, I crossed, but not in the same place. Within thirty minutes I had completed a painting using Julie's strokes, but with my composition. 

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
Dailypainters.com
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Primarily Sky

"Primarily Sky"
6" x 6"
Oil on panel
Time of day doesn't matter when the sky looks like this. It's going to be different in a few minutes, anyway. Nothing will be the same.  It'll either be lighter or darker, breakfast or dinner, coffee or wine.  Sky like this signals transition. 

 I painted this sky as a demo. There are several things about it that seem to be unique to me.  I'll be teaching sky in Virginia late in the Spring. One like this is a possibility.

Carol

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Primarily Primary

"Primarily Primary"
Watercolor on paper
30" x 22"
The green cup and leafy saucer were on loan from Sondra Freckleton, but the rest had already auditioned for this setup.  There's a story behind every item in this painting; including the only Rolls Royce I'll ever own.  I loved laboring on every detail of this one.


I spent years painting intimate detail with tiny brushes on large paper. It's what I enjoyed at the time.  As I look back on this and note my palette in other mediums in a different decade altogether, I see I still prefer the primary colors. Some things never change.

This painting is not for sale, but please enjoy the works that are for sale on Dailypaintworks.com

Thank you for visiting,
Carol