Art and Illumination

I stumbled upon Windsor & Newton’s Ink Competition through their FB Page. They created a FB App for promoting and for the application process, which was amazingly successful when you look at the number and diversity of entries. Mostly I wanted to interact and connect with other artists through the competition, as I do through social media in general.  Competitions, group/themed exhibits, and all aspects of the internet help pull us seclusive creatures out of the woodwork.

Working in pen and ink can be intimidating when you choose to stick to just black and white. Somehow Stippling frees the constraints of that for me. It is very time consuming but easy to do while watching tv. I didn’t have time to create something fresh and new, so I submitted my Zebra Colt stippling from my Illustration I class from my second year at Kendall College of Art and Design.

 
Getting feedback from other artists is also deeply gratifying for me. I get to know what I’m communicating and how people feel when they see my work. What I like best is seeing people connect with my subject, all art aside.

While the zebra stippling was not selected for the ink competition, it was one of the most popular images. I was very humbled by all the wonderful comments I received. I have one more use in mind for the digital image of the zebra, aside from the painting the actual physical piece “African Sunrise”. I encourage you to take a peek at the winning images, they are fun and very diverse! My favorite is the colorful “Inky Octopus” by Hayley Chan!

Every Autumn I select a new dry texture to challenge me in my painting and art work. Last fall it was this dry crumpled Ginko leaf. For me such exercises serve as creative artistic play. They can be very challenging but supply much opportunity for growth both in the medium and in creative problem solving.

I want loads of intimate detail, but know I also want to avoid photorealism. I absolutely adore the mechanics and devotion to micro-details in the work of some photorealists, whether they work in watercolor or in oil. However, what I aim for is to capture a kind of inner nature of the subject in addition to its physical nature.

Techniques

• Use several layers of veining, because of the leaf’s dry texture, and because the tone and color change often in the ripples of the leaf.
• The color of light shining through the leaf calls for the merging of cold and warm tones in a shadow. Neutral tint is a must here.
• Indigo lends a subtle purple tone to the shadow, which brightens the yellow through the use of chromatic contrasting.
• Use Lamp Black on the edge of the leaf with 000 sable brush to punch it out.

Supplies

• Paper: Strathmore 140lb coldpress
• Paint: Winsor and Newton Artists’ Water Colour: Naples Yellow, Indigo, Neutral Tint, Lamp Black, Chinese White, Burnt Ochre, Cadmium Yellow, Quinacridone Red
• Brushes: Round Sable 000, 00, 1; Round Camel Hair 1 (for lifting, as needed)
• Other: Arabic Gum (liquid), H2 pencil, Q-tips

Photo © Bradley Wright

Winter’s Wake

The howl of a hound
echoes and races up,
like the shadow
of an omen, half revealed
half withheld, shrouded
by the smokey mists gathering.
It’s lingering resonance
discordantly crawls
through nerve,
sense, and breath
unwilling
to be denied.

The evening sky
draped and blurred
concedes.
Masked stars
in chocked susurrant
choruses grow faint
and obscured
until hollowed
into stillness.

Silence presses
unceasing
into the deep hours.
The frailty of form,
punctuated sharply
by the intangible fog,
seems to shiver in and
out of being.

Swollen beams of morning
break and fade.
Leaves in dozens hang
limp on the ginko branches,
dark dull bodies
twisting lifeless;
now cold, impotent
corpses in winter’s wake.

© Brenda D. Baker

My poetry is published only here.I ask that if you choose to share my poetry on the internet you always link back to this page, and only do so for personal use.

This dragonfly painting (darner), is from a photo taken in my garden in Florida. The plant it rests on is commonly called horse tail, which is indeed a favorite perch of dragonflies. I took a much needed hiatus this summer and in that time frame made a trip to visit friends and family in Florida. One of my favorite resting places was the faded green bench on the back porch of my best friends home. It faces a view of a lovely garden. To the right of my view lies a trellis covered with twining jasmine- the perch of the dragonfly.

I sat there often watching the dragonfly dance. Off he would circle while doing rounds through the well groomed and loved garden. Back he would come and rest. For whatever reason, it was made clear that my job was to sit and watch. Any time I got up to take pictures he would disappear, maybe he didn’t recognize my face. My friends however had no trouble getting many great close ups of him. This allowed me to do start this painting. Per my own artistic tastes, and the good tastes of KC, I swapped out the trellis for horse tail.

So here I am thinking about perspective, times of work and rest, and how balance feeds the appetite for a creative life. I am calling it the Dragonfly Dance, which I will name this collection I am working on. I love all the ascribed meanings and attributes of dragonflies: dream keeper, stripper of illusion, remover of obstacles in vision and so on.

I have spent the last few months de-cluttering my workspace in every possible way. Largely to take out obstacles for what is usually my most productive time of year. I need a regular “active rest” period. A consistently used time to serve the purpose of reflecting, learning, and circling through the garden of the goals I have set.

Here is the rose I have been working on. The first close up of a bloom I have done in a long time. It is my favorite rose and I have been craving it’s scent. With any luck I will be able to track down this antique variety and add it to my garden this summer. I especially love quarter blossoming roses and this one is very low maintenance. I will be missing toiling in soil until the weather is warm again, till then I guess I can paint the flowers.

I tried painting on a new surface, a paper that was not made for watercolor and very smooth. I am going to have to play with the paper some more and see if it handles layers of translucent pigment as well as the opaqueness of white gauche. The only draw back to the gauche with such layering is it did not dissolve and reshape with later layers as well as I would like.

Artist Notes

• Damp on damp altering colors to create papery texture
• Use light and dark lines to create veining texture
• Authentic vermillion pigment as key warm red hue

This lovely little twig dropped out of the tree after a stormy night. It was perfect and I decided to paint it- when I had the time. I set it on the microwave to be painted where it sat a couple of days. Then it got thrown away, and I rescued it from the trash, it lost a leaf and only had three left. But no, I spent a tad bit of time trying to glue the leaf back on- while ignoring the minor damage to the coloring from the coffee grounds. Then the acorn fell out it’s hat. Sigh

So I glued it back in. Being such a busy week I wanted to photograph it and work from the photograph. But no, the camera battery was dead. Got a new battery to find out the camera is dead. So I used my cell phone- does not work well for close ups.

Gods, what choice did I have but to sketch it out right away by hand. I painted it yesterday, and polished it out with details today. The specimen is now about fully dry and brown, so I may paint it again all shriveled and darkened.

The moral of the story- Don’t procrastinate! LOL Ultimately though, it was demonstration of will.

As always I feel partially like it is still not finished. However, I know not to risk venturing over into overdone. The final painting is about 6 X 7 ” .

Finished the first phase of the African sunrise in the background and the details in the foreground. Artist board requires thicker layering than I am used to but it is a good exercise in adapting techniques. Naples yellow is becoming a very versatile and favorite yellow pigment of mine.

I am getting addicted to working on larger scale. OH MY! With my love of detail it will really lengthen my finish times on some projects. Particularly the wildlife scene I am working on with the wood frogs. I am putting a few buggy things in the scene, and probably will place a snake peeking out somewhere. This will emphasize the circle of life and the diversity of the wetlands which I love so much!

In a week or two we should start finding Dragonfly nymphs climbing out and shedding to reveal their amazing wings! It is an awesome thing to watch if you haven’t before- get out and find a natural pond somewhere, the event will not disappoint.