The new stuff I am trying

I find my mind is always wandering and the urge to try something new wins over the part of me that wants to actually get good at something. I find myself now interested in Aerosol Art, aka Graffiti. Speedee Printers, which is becoming my second home, just got a new display of Aerosol supplies that include thirty or fourty different hues and colours, as well as fifteen different spray nozzles that allow for a multitude of spray thicknesses and shapes. Until I get rich I will have to keep my creativity to my sketch book or "blackbook". If you ever find yourself enjoying the graffiti under bridges or on the sides of rail cars google or youtube blackbook or graffiti.
This last one is in response to a call for submissions from the Two Rivers Art Gallery on the theme of "Pulse". This is the framework of what I would like to enter. I am very frustrated by the socially imposed split between art and science when both are an integral part of each other. What I wanted to create was an bridge between cultures and values with this piece. The letters in the drawing are PQRST which are the names of the points of a heart beat (pulse) on a ekg readout. Overlaying the letters is the image of the read out.

An Ode to Acrylic Paint

Acrylic paint is the best medium ever. It is bright, thick, and forgiving. It dries quickly and you can simply paint over it. I have some paintings that are five or six layers thick as I continually change or tweek images. Acrylic, I believe is the paint of imagination as it allows the greatest amount of freedom.

This is a painting of two barns on my parents property. The one on the left is very old and on the verge of falling into a pile of rubble. It is also the Birdhouse that I wrote the following peom about.

birdhouse
a row of weathered fence posts
lichen encrusted, moss topped
uneven, tired
a line of rusty barbed wire
u-nails leaving red brown streaks
half hidden amongst the sturdy weeds
yellow yarrow, pale purple tufts thistles
cascading bells of lupine
tall grasses, emerald banners in the low wind

an old dilapidated dutch barn
wards off advancements
beaten by decades, valley rainfalls
washed out planks, whistling gaps
windows warped as if melting into the frames
cracked and shattered pieces lay
strune beside wayward rocks
hinges moan and flake
as resistant doors are dragged open
discarded rural lifestyle
layers of fluffy dust has settled
blanketing remnants of machinery
bits of blue salt block
only cat paw prints disturbing the evenness
searching out mice and voles
cobwebs coated
thickened to chains holding the barn together
pen fences hold only memories
scent of cool soft earth
rotting timbers groan
wooden ladder grimy and worn
rhythmic hand
over hand up to the loft
crumbling irrigation hoses lie coiled through wisps of hay
twine limp and fragile weaves
through the heavy perfume of silage
swirling storms have plucked shingles leaving the roof
a ramshackle checkerboard
residing on top of the cupola, a living weathervane
a great blue heron with its wiry legs
and long crooked neck
watches from its perch
the meandering creeks

Charcoal and Pencil

As much as I love colour I have always started any project in pencil and often I find the image to be at its best in its monocrome world. Charcoal and Pencil allow me to concentrate on detail, perspective and tone.

Imagination and Imitation

I find that you can find order and symmetry in both the natural and the manufactured.

Oh what you can do with Oil Pastels

I have a love hate relationship with oil pastels mostly because I do not know how to use them. I do however keep playing with them and these are a few of the things that have become beautiful accidents.

Oil Pastels lend themselves to being both a strong foundation of colour as well as blending and dragging colour out into the page.

I am still unsure how you are supposed to use them but the dragon works in its simplicity.

Cartoon Doodles

Some of you may have seen my doodles in class, but these are ones I took some time on.

Here are to Sunny Days and Cool Nights

With Halloween approaching here are some of my favourite monsters.

Dabbling in Watercolour

I will be showing some of my work and telling you what I like about each piece.

Trying to create a dark scene with watercolour

The clouds are what I was focusing my attention on but it was the

mountains I am happiest with.