Category Archives: Inspiration

In retrospect . . .

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Delaware artist Rebecca Raubacher at her retrospective exhibit, Rehoboth Art League

What is a “retrospective”? In art-speak, it’s an exhibition showing the development of the work of a particular artist over a period of time. I met Rebecca Raubacher last Friday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, at an event honoring her and her retrospective show at the Rehoboth Art League. Here’s one of her early drawings.

Debby, Rebecca Raubacher, 1976

Talking with her got me thinking about how our paths as artists change and build over the years. Rebecca has always been a consummate draftsman, and her current paintings have a lot of mixed media drawing techniques with oil sticks and metallic inks. Her themes of faces and figures has continued throughout her career.

Rebecca Raubacher, 2015, Watercolor, graphite, sepia ink, and metallic and opaque markers on paper 11 in x 14

So here’s the question for you – have you gone back recently and looked at your earlier work? (This is not a “have-you-gotten-better” question – who even knows what “better” is anyway.) And it doesn’t matter if you’ve been making art for one year or fifty. All of us choose what to keep and what to leave behind. That choosing and abandoning gives us our “style.”

Thanks to a house fire in ’83 (arg), I don’t have much of my earliest undergrad work back in the 60’s. I did take a photo of this piece called “Datachip” which I did in 1979. It’s hard to get a good photo of a drawing behind glass, but you get the idea.

Lyn Belisle, Datachip, graphite and PrismaColor, 24×30″, 1979

Shortly after that, I abandoned drawing for a while and started making a series of large-scale origami kimonos and other large collages which sold well in the ’80s and ’90s.

And like a lot of other artists, I was doing commercial art along the way, like these covers for the NEISD Community Education program – they were mostly collages, too:

And my love for clay has always followed me around – here’s a bowl I did in the 80’s – faces and clay!

So the things I’ve kept are clay, collage, images of faces, and earth colors. I’m still experimenting within those areas. And, overall, the idea of “shards” – constructing new things from small found objects, images and clues from the past, connects the dots for me.

Go back and look at your own work. What colors and themes and images predominate? I read a lot of those advice-for-artist blogs that say, “Get out of your comfort zone! If you like neutrals, go wild with color! If you like watercolor, try oils!” I don’t necessarily agree. Our style develops from our intuition about what we do best.

Our personal retrospective journey is just that, a journey. We take what we discover along the way and build on it. More likely than not, the work of other artists influences us but it doesn’t define us as we keep what resonates and forgo the rest.

So your homework is to find the oldest piece of personal artmaking that you have, and give it a good look. Post it on Facebook if you like! See what changes you’ve made. Think a bit about your personal retrospective. It’s fun and enlightening.

Georgia O’Keeffe, drawing of hand, age 14

 

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Critters for Marta

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Marta Stafford

One of the nicest surprises of the summer came from the amazing Marta Stafford, who invited me to be a part of her hugely popular gallery, Marta Stafford Fine Art, in Marble Falls.

This is a dream come true – I loved Marta’s gallery from the first moment I saw it six or seven years ago.She has the absolute best in mixed media, sculpture, contemporary and traditional painting, and more. Marta will represent me and my work (woohoo), and I’ll be featured in the exhibit that opens Friday, October 6th.

I need to create some nifty new work for this show, especially imaginative assemblages, so I started digging around for earthenware body parts! Heh, heh.

It’s so much fun putting my clay shards together with found objects and watching new critters emerge. Here’s the progress so far – some are not finished, as you can see – perhaps you can see where they are going? One never knows, do one?

This is a details of a piece I really like

There is actually another face underneath the one you see. Her arm moves in a sweet, spooky way – she’s about 12″ tall.

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The one below is just started, but I like the simple elegance so far.

When finished, this piece will be about 18-20″ tall

Shades of spirit dolls! This construction, below, has some hand-dyed and rusted mulberry paper.

And while I was looking for clay body parts, I found this cat head! It’s now a new Cat Shaman.

Finally, here’s one I started a couple of weeks ago and it’s finally starting to come together. It looks like some sort of ancient goddess staff.

So far, every piece is different from every other one – interesting.

I plan to have a number of these assemblages as well as some paintings and collages for Marta’s opening on Friday, October 6th at the Marta Stafford Fine Arts in Marble Falls.

Thanks, Marta, for the invitation – prepare for a critter invasion! ♥

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Hurricane worries

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Yesterday, I was working on a blog post about a new project, and, as all of us here in South Texas, was distracted by worsening news about the hurricane looming off our coast. That blog post is on hold until the storm is over – too hard to think about anything else.

The photo above is the current view of Hurricane Harvey as I write this. It’s a menacing spiral, not the nice kind of spirals we use in design, but spirals come from nature, and this is definitely a natural but blessedly rare example. We have friends and family in the Corpus Christi area, and some have already evacuated here to San Antonio.

What do artists do when they have to wait and worry? Well, one way they cope is to use the event for inspiration and try some creative distractions. It helps with the waiting.

Here’s the first creative distraction – spirals. I found this tutorial on drawing them.

How to draw an Archimedean Spiral

This is an easier method than trying to draw the “Golden Spiral” that you see in ammonites (and hurricanes).

And while I was thinking about tidal surges and monsoon rains, I remembered another project that I used to love (and still do). It’s called “Monsoon Paper,” and it was invented by art and business coach Quinn McDonald.

Quinn McDonald’s “monsoon paper”

It involves literally allowing rain to create natural pattern on paper that has been prepared with water media. Here’s a link to the instructions.

Quinn McDonald Monsoon Paper Tutorial

Now it’s back to watching the Weather Channel and waiting for updates from loved ones – be safe, everyone! Like all storms, this one will eventually pass.

 

A visit with Gwen Fox in Taos

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Gwen Fox is an extraordinary woman whose abstract paintings glow with inner light and compelling composition. I first fell in love with her work about ten years ago in a gallery in Colorado Springs and knew I had to meet her. So I signed up several years later for Gwen’s week-long painting workshop in Taos and loved every moment. Here’s a post from that 2012 workshop.

Gwen and I and have kept in touch since then, sharing ideas and conversations online. Yesterday, while I was in Taos, NM for the day, I got to visit her in person again.

Lyn and Gwen Fox in her Taos studio in front of a current painting that Gwen has done in oils on canvas.

I was so excited to see the new studio that she built herself – it’s completely inspiring and spiritually satisfying – a perfect space in a perfect place. It’s adjacent to her adobe house.

Everything on the inside and the outside has its place.

The view from her serene bedroom window is as layered as her paintings.

The bathroom sink in the studio is made from a rectangular piece of agate that glows with a translucent abstract landscape when you’re there and, er, sitting down.

And against the walls, Gwen’s painting glow with a resonant energy —

She has a video setup in her studio that I covet.

And here is the most exciting news that I learned from Gwen – she is filming and producing an extensive online class about painting and creativity that sounds amazing.It should be ready this fall and it is the first time her techniques and teaching/coaching expertise will be available online.

Be sure and get on her mailing list to hear more about it and gt updates – I honestly can’t wait for it.

I could go on and on about how much Gwen has influenced my work and my outlook, but I’ll let the video of her home and studio, below, reflect her amazing spirit.

Look for all the little touches she pulls together like grace notes in this home and studio space – like an antique Chinese chest in the pantry because she wants to look at something beautiful when she’s in the kitchen.

Lyn Belisle visits Gwen Fox in her Taos home and studio from Lyn Belisle on Vimeo.

I’m headed back to Texas tomorrow but I always feel inspired when I spend time with Gwen. Do subscribe to her list and follow her wise advice for every artist.

There’s something else that inspired me while I was here – fly fishing! I‘ll tell you about that in an upcoming post. It was a total surprise.

Studio visit – James Wyatt Hendricks, SAAL&M 2017 Artist of the Year

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James Wyatt Hendricks has been named the 2017 Artist of the Year for the San Antonio Art League & Museum. Lucky us!

And lucky me to get to visit his Alamo Street studio yesterday. Wow! I encourage you to mark your calendar right now for the opening of his exhibition at SAAL&M on Sunday, September 10th, 3-5 pm. It’s going to be a blockbuster!

James’s sculpture in progress for Laurel Ridge Hospital – huge sheet of metal balanced by incredibly detailed birds

James’s works ranges from mammoth steel sculptures to incredibly delicate Prisamacolor drawings. With 30 years of experience as an artist and craftsman his art is expansive and eclectic.

Frida lamp by James Wyatt Hendricks – I’m in line for the next one!

In a recent interview, James said,

“I work at my studio on a wide range of mediums that include oil painting, stone carving, forged steel, cast bronze, printmaking and traditional welding. I am considered a master craftsman, and I take my work very seriously.”

We talked about the fact that both of us share a background in commercial design – and that both of us worked as illustrators for the Express-News. James has an amazing ability to switch from teeny tine detail design on his Mac to welding huge sheets of steel.

It’s impressive to see him at work in his studio. Here’s a short video of some of the cool things I saw yesterday during our visit.

Studio Visit with James Wyatt Hendricks from Lyn Belisle on Vimeo.

James is so engaging and talks about his work with an insight and sensitivity that is totally authentic – you will enjoy meeting him. You can read more about his work in this article from the Express-News.

As I said, this is going to be a blockbuster exhibit at the San Antonio Art League & Museum on September 10th. Invitations will go out later in August. Email me if you’d like to be on the list.

And you are not to late to catch the last two weeks of “Visions of Summer”, the current exhibit  at the Art League – through July 30th!

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Indigo paper kimonos: a tribute to Boro

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A Vintage indigo-dyed Boro fabric kimono from 20th Century Japan, lovingly patched and preserved

I’ve just finished the three pieces that were inspired by the indigo dyed mulberry paper described in my last post. I had wanted to return to a kimono-like construction, and about halfway through the process of piecing the papers together, I realized that this was much like constructing a vintage indigo Boro kimono.

Boro is a Japanese word meaning “tattered rags” and it’s the term frequently used to describe lovingly patched and repaired cotton bedding and clothing, used much longer than the normal expected life cycle. The beauty of boro fabric is the highly sophisticated sewing and weaving techniques used by the women who made and mended it. The beautiful arrangement of patches and mending stitches was born of necessity and happenstance, and was not planned by the maker.

Boro fabric reminiscent of American patchwork quilting

Here’s the first of my three indigo-dyed mulberry paper “Boro” kimonos, below. Each scrap of hand-dyed paper, each beeswax-coated paper bead, played an integral part in the composition.

You can see some of the construction details in this close-up. There are sticks woven through dyed and waxed images and paper beads hanging down from waxed linen string.

The second kimono, below, is a bit more formal in composition, but is still constructed from tattered and torn indigo-dyed mulberry paper. I also used a bit of Korean print rice paper which I sprayed with walnut ink in order to give some color  contrast – very Boro-like.

In the detail, below, you can see how four of the waxed and gilded paper beads have been double-laced together and then tied into the focal ornament.

All of the pieces are displayed in 11×14″ shadow boxes. I took the glass off to photograph the works, but at the exhibit, they will be covered with glass to protect the collage elements. Everything is adhered, but there is still some movement of string and beads behind the glass when the work is tilted, which is fun

In this last detail, you can see a bit of the rust effect that terra cotta walnut ink made on waxed white mulberry paper. I love that!

In fact, I love each of these three pieces because they reflect the philosophy of Boro, which means “too good to waste.” If you are a collagist, you know what I mean. We hang on to the tiniest of paper scraps, knowing that they will find a place –  eventually –  that is just right.

If you’d like to know more about Boro, here is a very user-friendly article from the FurugiStar blog. There are some lovely pictures, as well, and an intriguing description of a bodoko, or “life cloth.”

I am so happy about the connection that my little indigo kimono pieces have to the Boro tradition, and I plan to continue to explore this connection in paper and in fiber. More soon!

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Sous Vide, Scott Bradshaw, and Seven Ravens Bake House

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Scott Bradshaw’s Rum Cake (via Instagram)

The 11th International Encaustic Conference sessions in Provincetown are over, and we have had several free days before I teach my post-conference workshop tomorrow at the Center for the Arts at Castle Hills in Truro. So yesterday, Bill and I took a road trip to Plainville MA to visit his nephew, Scott Bradshaw.

What surprising and delightful experience! I knew that Scott was an expert and innovative baker who lived in a restored 18th century house, but WOW. I’ll show you some photos of his extraordinary house first, then talk about Scott’s culinary creations.

The house is at least two-and-a-half centuries old and has been lovingly restored and remodeled over the years. The previous owner was a chef who taught cooking classes in her kitchen, so the kitchen was ready and waiting for Scott when he bought the house four years ago. Scott has also expanded the herb garden and done some major structural reinforcement.

When Bill and I arrived, Scott was experimenting with caramelizing milk and dark chocolate using the Sous Vide technique that utilizes precise temperature control to deliver consistent, restaurant-quality results.

Bill and Scott discuss the chemistry of cooking – Dingo is Scott’s helper

The Sous Vide setup

Scott’s kitchen – swoon . . .

Scott gave us a sample of some caramelized white chocolate that he had just done, and then we tried some of the ganache that he had made from it. Good heavens! It tasted like the essence of Tres Leches cake – delicious and addictive. I learned so much about the art of baking in our short visit – and you can learn from Scott, too!

He has a fantastic new blog called Seven Ravens Bake House.

Here you will find all kinds of recipes and techniques that are generally know only to the experts – of which Scott is definitely one!

He’s also a very entertaining writer who will make you laugh out loud with his dry humor. I definitely encourage you to subscribe to his blog for the writing, if nothing else. Although the latest post on making Cola Ganache is pretty interesting – cola ganache??

A special thanks to Dingo for being a fine co-host on this memorable visit – thanks, Scott and Dingo – we’ll be back!!

Woof!

Summer art camp registration is OPEN!

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This summer, I’ll be teaching two workshops in a very special classroom at Artful Gathering, my fifth year there. Several of my friends have already registered – hi, Gaye, hi Joanna, hi Aileen!

Lots of people ask me about Artful Gathering – what exactly is it?? Well,  it’s an annual online art retreat that draws students from all over the world to virtual art studio classrooms where they interact with artists like Leslie Marsh, Debby Anderson, Keith Lo Bue – and me!

This year’s Artful Gathering theme is “Nature,” and I’m teaching two summer sessions this go-round. The first one, from June 6-July 17th is called Natural Expressions: Evocative Portraits using Nature’s Palette with Beeswax. It’s a comprehensive workshop that combines beeswax and rust with mixed media portraits. It also has two tech tutorials that show you where to find copyright-free images and then how to manipulate them with vintage effects – without Photoshop!

Here’s the description:

Session One: June 6 – July 17
Lyn Belisle guides you through the steps for creating mixed media portraits with natural materials, including layered beeswax. You’ll learn how to enhance digital images, tinting, preparing small stretched canvas substrates for layered collage, assembling a wrapped mat around a canvas substrate as well as attaching natural objects to a mat and integrating them into the mixed media composition.

And here’s a video clip that I lifted from the class introduction that shows you some of the things we will play with:

The tuition for this five-week class is $110, kinda like two regular workshops in my studio. If you’ve never participated in a virtual classroom before, it’s really fun. You can work at your own pace, but you can also have conversations with me and the other students at any time in our discussion forum during the five-week session. Here’s a link that will answer all of your questions about registration.

Click on the image below to go to the Directory of all the classes – heck, you might want to take somebody else’s class – my pal Michelle Belto is teaching one this summer, too!

I hope to see you at Artful Gathering – it’s a summer art camp without the mosquitoes.

 

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Leavin’ on a jet plane

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I get to go on vacation!! Ten days of sightseeing on the Rhine River with friends and family. Gosh, I’ll probably come back with all kinds of ideas about castle-and-cuckoo-clock building workshops . . . and it really is going to be nice to get new creative inspiration in a completely different environment.

I’m taking my sketchbook and a little set of watercolors. Wonder if I can still remember how to draw? Wonder how fast we pass those castles? Better draw quick.

Pocket watercolor set – cute – wonder if you use an eyedropper for water?

Project on hold till I get back – the Talisman eBook. It’s finished, but I have asked pals Joanna Powell Colbert and Michelle Belto to review it for me while I’m gone. And since I have to close my Etsy shop while I’m away (and nobody can order talisman faces), it’s a good time to let it rest until I’m back at the end of April and can show it to you guys. You will love it, I’m hoping.

Some of the pages from the new eBook, which also has instructional videos – available May 1

Other projects on hold – summer workshops at little Studio Cinco. I’ll be listing those soon, but am still working on ways to let more more people to be able to sign up before all the spaces are gone. It’s a good, but worrisome, dilemma. Meanwhile, Lesta Frank and Michelle Belto are offering some great workshops – check ’em out.

I just bought a book at The Twig called “How to Pack” because most of the time when I travel, I’m schlepping around art supplies and have room for maybe an extra pair of jeans and t shirt. But this book came to the rescue and gave me all kinds of tips for being a well-dressed tourist:

Tips, pp 38-39

If the equation says I can wear only one pair of shoes at a time, it sure isn’t gonna be that pair at the top left. Can you imagine how your dogs would be barkin’ after a day walking along the cobblestones of Cologne in those?? I kinda like that hat and the sunglasses, though. Do you squash the hat up in your carry-on? Or just put it on your head and wear it on the plane? Hmmmm. . .

My number one travel tip is to look for a nice tall person to help me put the carry-on bag in the overhead bin.

Hopefully, I can send a signal from abroad – but if not, see you when I get back. Have fun at Fiesta, all you fellow San Antonions!

PS.  A shout-out to travel doc Mark Thornton for helping me get over the Dreaded Cough of 2017 and be ready for the trip – whew! That one had me worried.

 

 

 

 

 

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