Abstract acrylic painting workshop

Excuses, excuses. I’ve been laid low with an awful cold since last weekend and have slothed around for a few days trying to get better. The Talisman e-Book is almost ready for test driving, and I’ll be asking three SHARDS readers to do that for me as a favor and give feed back. Hopefully, that will happen in the next day or so.

Meanwhile, a bright spot in the last few days was the Abstract Acrylic Painting workshop on Saturday. Here’s the outline of some of the techniques we explored:

When you have just three hours to get into a process, it’s best to limit yourself by size, structure, and color palette. We did a warmup painting on 9×12 watercolor paper, then moved to a 12×12″ stretched canvas.

Some of the painters reflected the same style with both pieces and some branched out. We had one of the best discussion on composition and color than I can remember having lately. It was a great group. Some had never painted before and others had much experience. That diversity is so helpful in designing effective workshops.

We started with layers of scribbling and stenciling just to “get the door open” and went from there – fun.

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Abstract Acrylic Workshop from Lyn Belisle on Vimeo.

 Excuse any typos in the video – I’m overdosed on cough medicine!

Boston spring break retreat and finding answers to all of life’s artistic questions (sorta)

snow

This was the view out my window on a snowy spring day this week in Boston. I’m home now after my short getaway – I took an evening printmaking class at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and did a bit of shopping on Charles Street at Black Ink, a very cool store. Retreats like this are s’posed to help you figure out the answers to the Big Questions. I didn’t come up with many of my own Big Questions about art and life, but did have fun painting some answers. This is an acrylic-on-canvas triptych I did while there. They can be hung in any order depending on your desired outcome:

triptych_edited-1

Today I’d start with the one that says “Yes” –  glad to be back working at the Studio and yes, also, to being very grateful for the time away to recharge and visit with family. (And “no” to living all winter in the snow!)

 

Discovery: The Blue Stuff

I am passing on to you a tip about something which, until this morning, I had never tried and is pretty amazing – it’s blue (and white) stuff. I ordered it from a place called Cool Tools, which specializes in supplies for metal clay artists. This is a mold-making compound – technically it’s called Mega-Mold Silicone RTV Molding Compound and it uses a process called RTV, which means room temperature vulcanizing. Vulcanizing is a chemical process that converts polymer into durable material. Who knew??

So, you squish the blue part with the white part and push it against something you want to make a mold of. I swear, five minutes later it’s ready to go! Jan Longfellow told me that she has used it to make molds for her silver clay jewelry. it’s pretty amazing – here are some photos – I don’t know quite where I’m going with it, but it is sooooo much fun to play with! You could make a mold of your big toe, or your car key or a favorite brooch – the possibilities are positively goofy!

The Kit - one blue, one white - squish together equal amounts

The Kit – one blue, one white – squish together equal amounts

 

The mold after five minutes, the original object, and the clay copy

The mold after five minutes, the original object, and the clay copy

The mold setting up on a sculpture's hand

The mold setting up on a sculpture’s hand

Taking off the mold

Taking off the mold

A molded wing off the same sculpture

A molded wing off the same sculpture

More molded clay objects - the mold makes the clay oily - weird

More molded clay objects – the mold makes the clay oily – weird

 

 

 

 

30 Shades – up and ready for prime time

I went to La Vida Gallery today to meet Steve Bennett, the art/culture columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, to talk about my series of paintings. I’d never seen all thirty of them at once – yay! They work really well as a series!

Steve was so easy to talk to – I love reading his stories about art and artists. He’s a good journalist with a finger on the pulse of the San Antonio community. The newspaper editor and the readers are very lucky to have him. The interview should be out sometime next week, but in the meantime, I just can’t wait to share how the paintings look on the gallery wall – thanks to Matt Weissler for hanging so many paintings so straight! Please come to the opening on Friday, December 7th – besides these paintings, you’ll get to see and meet Oaxacan Master Carvers and Painters Jacobo and Maria Angeles, and Chef Susana Trilling.