Friday at ArtFest: Abstraction

Friday, I took a class from Mary Beth Shaw in creating abstract images on Claybord. She's the one wearing the green apron in the photo above. She had cowboy boots, a great sense of humor, and a marvelous musical soundtrack for the class!

It's been a while since I've worked in pure color and form, and it was glorious and liberating. Usually, I'm really focused on representational images, though abstract color and form is always a part of the underlying structure.

Here's the start of the boards . . . dividing the space, collaging the surface,
scratching into it, coloring.

And here they are after layers and layers of color . . .

And here's another series of three that I started working on during the class. I don't know where it's going, but it's an interesting journey.

Whidbey Doodles . . .

Here's two little paintings that I did while I was on Whidbey Island, working on the Artmaking as Playful Prayer book . . .



This one is of an amarylis that was blooming from a forced bulb in a glass vase. The color was incredible. I don't normally paint flowers, but I really wanted to try this one. I did the sketch in ball point pen, then filled it in with gouache.


And this one is a self-portrait - again, ball point pen with gouache, my go-to travel paint. When I don't know what to paint, I usually do some kind of self-portrait. I don't know if they ever really look like me, but there's something so satisfying about drawing a person from life. Even if you don't capture a likeness, you capture a moment.