Snakes, Knives and a Spaceship...

It's Been a while since I've blogged...so here's a little update on the projects I've begun for the new year and a few hold over's from last year...

YEAR OF PRINT EXCHANGE

Year of the Snake inked plate waiting to be printed.

My snake went out a year late.  I had the plate carved for a year but other projects kept popping up and delaying its printing...so I printed it up with my Horses...

PRINTMAKING TOOLS

Back in the November of 2013 I blogged some under-paintings I started while volunteering as a Teaching Assistant for Mick Sheldon's Color Theory Class. Below are the finished acrylic and digital paintings.

 Baran

 Blue Digital Gouge

 Brayer

 Etching Needle

 Green Digital Gouge

 Maru Bake

 Orange Digital Gouge

 Twisted Needle

 Violet Gouge

Vintage Brayer

I'm currently carving plates to make 10x10" woodcut prints of six of the above images.  Once I've printed the editions I'm planning on cancelling the plates by doing encaustic paintings on top of them.

BARENFORUM.ORG PRINT EXCHANGE NO. 60

Here's a sketch for the woodcut print I'm about to start carving for a print exchange with fellow printmaker members of the www.barenforum.org group.

It's inspired by a passage I read in the book Agents of Ki by Anna Erishkigal. The book hasn't been formally published yet but you can purchase the previous books The Chosen One and Prince of Tyre in the Sword of the Gods series at Amazon.  They're available as printed and e-book versions.

Nibblefest Teasers...

I've listed a few digital reproductions today as teasers for the beginning of tomorrow's "NibbleFest Art Contest."  The auction for the teasers start now...

Red Dress

can be bid on at:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230966588286?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

This is a digital reproduction of a small watercolor I did for Nibblefest Art Contest.  “Red Dress” was inspired by a photograph taken by a friend who gave me permission to reproduce it as an artwork.

Sierra Nevada Fall 2011

can be bid on at:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230966589471?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

This is a digital reproduction of a small watercolor I did for Nibblefest Art Contest.  “Sierra Nevada Fall 2011" is inspired by a photograph I took while on a roadtrip with Hubby to see beautiful fall colors in the mountains.

Little Tree Stands Against Forces

Can be bid on at:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/230966587047?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

This is a digital reproduction of a small drawing I did from memory upon returning from an Easter dinner visit with in-laws.  It was a stormy day of driving in the mountains to reach our destination.  During our trip I spied a tiny tree holding its own against a sudden rush of water in a storm drain.  Though it was but a quick glance I was inspired by that little tree's forbearance and was compelled to draw what I could remember.

The watermark "Phare-Camp Fine Art" doesn't actually appear in any of the artworks.  These digital printouts are ACEO sized, about ACEOs Wikipedia says:

“Artist trading cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern trading cards baseball cards, or 2-1⁄2 by 3-1⁄2 inches (64 mm × 89 mm), small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets. The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland. Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc.), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc.), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.) or even metals or cloth. The cards are usually traded or exchanged. When sold, they are usually referred to as art card editions and originals (ACEOs)."

This week, beginning Saturday April 20th, you can see more tree inspired works of art created by me and by other great artists as entries in the Nibblefest Art Contest, a themed art contest beginning on the 20th of each month.  Please be sure to search for NFAC to see many great entries in ebay; each available for auction purchase starting at just $0.99!

NibbleFest Art Contest

Today I listed the following artworks on ebay for a monthly art themed exhibit/contest titled "NibbleFest Art Contest."  (NFAC)

Many artist participate in this online exhibit/auction by listing artworks based on a new theme each month.  All of the works have to be listed using the auction style with an opening bid of 99 cents.  There are no reserve prices or additional fees other than shipping.  I've yet to see any of the participating artists try to make money by padding the shipping.  I've only seen shipping fees that are reasonable for careful packaging and postal costs.  

I find these kinds of art challenges a fun way to step outside of my usual and experiment with materials and subject matter.  The theme for November 2011 is Penguins.  Click the following link to see an EBay search for this month's "NFAC" challenge:  http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=NFAC+Art+&_trksid=p5197.c0.m627

This artwork is a 2.5" x 2.3" mixed media collage ACEO (Artist's Card Edition or Original).  You can learn more about ACEOs at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards

I got the idea for this image by googling "penguin" images.  I saw this pic of two penguins and thought they look like they're snowboarding.  So I created a digital collage on my laptop using that image.  Then I made this miniature paper collage based on the digital collage.  I used fun decorative papers pasted to a scrap of Stonehenge printmaking paper.

This one is an original 9" x 12" charcoal sketch on Canson drawing paper.  I saw this cute screen saver of a photoshopped photo on the computer in the Sierra College classroom where I'm a teaching assistant.  I mentally cropped it then sketched my idea and yesterday I created an open edition woodcut print from my sketch.

This is the open edition miniature woodcut print I created based on the above sketch.  Its a 2.5" x 3.5" ACEO on vellum Bristol board.

Phenomenon: Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere Rabbits...

"It's just a rabbit" 8x8" mixed media collage on canvas panel

"Its Just a Rabbit" sketch for barenforum exchange print

"Its Just a Rabbit" kind of where I'm going with this but I'm not happy with the flourishes. still playing around with the composition. I intend to woodcut print this for an exchange with other artist and then use the keyline plate for my year of the rabbit new years cards. I'll split it into thirds and get three new years cards per pressing...

While cleaning up old files I came across this drawing that I based a woodcut print off of back in the early 1990s. I traced it to start a mixed media collage. Since this drawing is on tracing paper I'm thinking that it would be great to put into an encaustic painting. The transparencies of the paper and wax mediums will work together beautifully. I just have to get over to the art supply store and purchase a clayboard painting panel for my substrate.

"Beep Beep Ritchie!" 12x12" gallery wrapped canvas mixed media collage (in progress)
This is no where near done. This is simply a painted canvas with the cut papers collaged onto the surface. I've yet to got into it with sharpie markers to give it detail and I'm going to put some red hologram paper into the pupils. thinking of layering some more of the orange paper into the hair to give it some dimension and i will be using a dense acrylic medium in the teeth to make them appear to come out of mouth. May also work on the background a little more too.

IF: Superstition and Inspire Thursday: Ghost

La Llorona, The Weeping Woman mourns eternally for in a moment of madness she drowned her poor babies and upon realizing what she had done ran screaming back to the river to join them.

...children, hurry home before dark and kiss your mammas who love you. If you should hear the wailing --"¿donde estan mis hijos?" (where are my children?) -- run, run home quickly for if you tarry under the full moon she may clasp you to her breast and then you will see her empty eyes leaking tears of blood. And then if you don't die from fear then you will die when she takes you with her -- back to her watery grave.