The Inspirational Stretch

January 27, 2015 / skyevans / 2 Comments

Where does inspiration come from? One can never tell, really. I like to think of it as weather… a storm that blows in strong and unexpected or a misty rain that slowly seeps into everything. Sometimes you see it coming and can shape it to bond and meld with your own will. Sometimes however, there are bolts of lightning that make the hair stand up on your head and scare the bejeezus out of you. I like those moments of inspiration, they are electrifying, thrilling and exciting. But I also love the slow seep, where an idea builds and builds and before you know it, you’ve created something magical out of nothing.

$Inspiration is where you find it. this frozen puddle makes a cool fractal!$

Inspiration is where you find it. This frozen puddle makes a cool fractal!

But lately, I’ve been all over the weather map. It’s been raining, sunny, stormy, foggy. And since our Western Oregon weather pattern has been matching my inspirational mood, I’ve been spending a great deal of time outside. I’ve been hiking and testing equipment and getting ready for a return to backpacking.

That’s me in the corner… getting in touch with my hiker self.

Maybe it’s all the hiking… or all the thinking and research I’ve been doing, but my muse has kinda skipped out on me. It seems as if I didn’t have a single idea. Well, that’s not exactly right… I have ideas but what I want is lightning bolts.

So, when in doubt, clean. I straightened the studio, scraped off the old paint on my palette and checked my inventory. That’s when it hit me… I was out of canvas! How did that happen?!

Ok, so I know how it happened. I’ve been painting. Duh. I thought about getting on line and ordering a new batch but I came across some stretcher bars I bought on sale and decided to do something I hadn’t done in quite some time. Stretch my own canvas.

What’s that you say? Stretch… canvas?? Well, well, children, gather round. Way back when granny was poor as… well, a starving artist, she learned how to stretch her own canvas so she could paint. Nowadays, she usually buys pre-stretched but she still knows how! All you need is canvas, a wood frame and a staple gun. I used to grip my canvas like a mad demon, but then I discovered canvas pliers which made all the difference in the world.

Tools of the trade… so to speak.

You can use regular duck canvas you buy at a fabric store (if you can find a heavy enough weight for the job) or you can order specialty artists canvas. They even make pre-gessoed canvas. Gesso is the sizing that is painted on a raw canvas to prime the surface for paint. More about that later.

First things first, the frame. You can build your own, or buy the premade and ready to put together “in whatever size configuration you like” kind. These slip together at the ends with some clever tongue in groove joints… a couple of taps with the hammer and you are good to go. Cut the canvas to size, (larger than you need, obviously) then, starting in the middle, staple to the frame.

Canvas pliers doing their job.

Canvas pliers have a nice wide mouth and a foot to pry along the edge of a frame or stretcher bar. They grip the canvas, you roll them over the edge of the bar and pulling tight, staple the snot out of it! I couldn’t hold the camera, the canvas and the staple gun all at the same time, so you’ll have to use your imagination. I staple each middle section, turning the canvas as I go, then work the corners in turn. To get an even stretch, you need to put in a few staples, turn the canvas, do a few more and so on. Rotation is the key to an even stretch.

All finished stapling and trimming the excess canvas. I like to wrap my canvas around the edge of the frame and then paint the edges of my work. Eliminates the need for frames.

Probably the trickiest part besides the stretch is how to fold the corners. How? Trial and error, my friend, trial and error. Just do the same thing on each corner, and make your folds as even as possible. If you are not handy enough to make a neat corner fold, then canvas stretching may not be for you. No worries though… it is kinda a pain in the ass to stretch canvas. There is a reason why I don’t usually do this anymore!

Next step, Gesso!

Gesso… two types. Cheap and the not so cheap.

Gesso is just fancy primer. You can use regular wall primer but it is usually very thin unless you buy a top of the line product like Benjamin Moore which has some nice primers. Artist quality gesso is made with high quality materials such as titanium, plaster, clay, gypsum and marble dust suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion. They will be thicker, cover better, and have the ability to be tinted. But several coats of the cheaper stuff will most likely do the job.

I use a wide brush that is dedicated to primers as the thick material is hard to wash out and will ruin my finer brushes.

If I had ironed the canvas before stretching I probably wouldn’t have this fold shadow in my fabric. I thought I could stretch it out, but alas, it is still there. The Gesso process will eliminate it, since as it dries, the sizing (glues and acrylic polymers) will shrink, further tightening the canvas.

I paint several coats in perpendicular strokes. Even though this image shows a diagonal stroke, it was just to lay down the Gesso before smoothing it left to right. You can see how thick it is.

As I was writing this post, I stopped to do a little online research on Gesso and was surprised to find a number of YouTube sites that showed how to make homemade gesso with white glue, titanium paint, plaster and of all things, baby powder. You can save $$ by making your own gesso, but I wouldn’t suggest following unreputable sources. Some of the videographers couldn’t even read the label on the Plaster of Paris box, which threw all credibility out the window for me. However, they are on the right track. Gesso in it’s most simple terms is white stuff and glue… painted on a surface so you can then paint on something white. Done poorly, it will flake off and ruin your work. Done well and it will last hundreds of years. Keep in mind those old masters of yesteryear didn’t have access to the wealth of materials we can find in our local home improvement store. So, really, in all probability you are going to be ok no matter what you use!

Finished canvas ready to rock and roll!

Best part of stretching my own canvas… I can make a non standard shape (this one is about 16″ by 34″ something you cannot find anywhere) as well as the satisfaction of DIY. And I saved about $35. Ten paintings later, that’s $350 so not too bad in the savings department. Oh yeah, and I also found my inspiration for my next piece! That lightning bolt was lurking about waiting for me to stroll by. So stay tuned!

Alone in a field of poppies

January 10, 2015 / skyevans / 5 Comments

Seems like the holidays always throw me for a loop. It’s such a social time of the year and I get wiped out by all the parties and visits and, well, people. I like people, just spaced out and in smaller doses. I’m pretty good at the small talk, it’s not like I’m in the corner with a wild eyed stare, but after a few months of seemingly endless events, I need a break. The American holiday season seems like full bore, pedal to the metal intensity. I like to move at a much slower pace and sometimes find myself white knuckling this time of year. Classic introvert, that’s me.

I finally got a chance to get into the studio and took the opportunity to take a trip down memory lane. I was hunting through my snapshots for something to paint and came across a wonderful photo. I took it last year on the fourth of July.

Since my son was small, on every Independance Day, we would drive to a local field to watch the annual fireworks display. In the beginning, it was just the 3 of us, in the bed of our pick up truck. We’d arrive early and eat a picnic dinner while waiting for the summer sun to set and the show to begin.

A few years back, we invited some friends to join us and it turned into an event. We all park in a row, set out a pot -luck picnic, lawn chairs, a cooler or two of beer and it’s an instant party. The kids set off store bought fireworks on the road while we laugh, eat and have small town good time on the edge of the farmer’s field.

The field in question has been, in turns, planted with mint, grass and last year, of all things, poppies. It was stunningly beautiful and really added a new dimension to our annual 4th of July lawn party. I took this picture of my friend’s daughter, just before the sun began to set. It’s been a favorite of mine ever since.

Here’s the sketch:

Laying in some color:

And the final:

Alone in field of poppies

Hope Pass

November 6, 2014March 27, 2015 / skyevans / 3 Comments

I heard back from my thru hiker. (She’s mine, I claim her!!) The photo she took is of Hope Pass. I love this name, it’s so full of promise and the whole time I’ve been working on the painting, I feel happy and uplifted by the image. So of course I have to rename the painting. A rainy day kept me indoors and I finally got everything right that I thought was wrong with it. Here is the completed work: Hope Pass

Hope Pass, Colorado

Golden Dawn

October 30, 2014March 27, 2015 / skyevans / 3 Comments

Sometimes an idea strikes and I have to paint it. Sometimes the image itself is strong and compelling or the idea behind it is the strength. My fractals were all about the idea. I didn’t know where I was going. But lately I have been obsessed with an image. Not an idea or a concept, but a real place… a real image. And the hardest part about painting from the real is trying to do justice to the real. I really like abstract and non objective… it is liberating and freeing! No need to recreate the real… I can paint outside the lines. I can choose colors I never saw, I can paint by feel and gut and it’s somewhat mindless. For me that’s true, not sure about other artists. However, I can’t say I prefer abstract… there is a meditation to painting with your eyes and not your heart. By that, I mean, I spend a lot of time looking at the image of what I am painting and for the first time EVER… that looking was at a computer screen. A modern process I had not embraced before this image.

THIS image… oh, it was so brilliantly beautiful; I wanted to, no, I had to, capture the moment. It’s a photo of a sliver of time… just as the sun peeks out over the edge of a mountain in Colorado. I’m not sure which one… but the photographer will research that for me. She’s a bit busy right now, but she did give permission for me to use her photo so I could try to capture where she was on that early morning last month. My photographer is a young woman by the name of Ashley Lowe (trail name: Iguana) and I met her last spring on the coast of Oregon where she was giving a lecture on her 2011 thru hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.

A “thru hiker” is someone who finishes a long trail. In our country, we have 3 major trails that run North to South, two of which go border to border from Canada to Mexico. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) and the Appalachian Trail (ACT). I’ve done a few bits of the PCT and ACT and am awed by the drive and determination it takes to actually finish one of these endeavors. I loved hearing Ashley’s tale of the trail and she had a wonderful video of the hike as well. You can watch it yourself here:

She graciously allowed us all to friend her on Facebook and watch as she tackles her next big thru hike, the CDT. Remember the part where I said she was busy right now? She is actually getting close to the end right now as I write this post. I’ve been amazed at how she is able to upload photos and keep in touch as she hikes thousands of miles through such rugged and remote trails. It’s been inspiring and has refueled my own interest in returning to backpacking (another story all together). But last month, she took a photo from high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains that rocked me. I had to paint it. I won’t post the photo… it’s not fair to compare the two, but I will say that the colors in her photo were more subtle that what I chose. Artist’s license and all that.

Ashley was kind enough (and even a little excited) to grant me permission to use her brilliant photo. I sketched it out, posted a photo of the outline and got to work. Which is why my blog has been a bit quiet lately. One of her followers made a comment about my “paint by numbers” sketch, but really, that just says how old the guy is. Do they even make paint by numbers anymore?

I’ve spent quite a bit of time on this painting because I am using a glazing technique (sometimes called “Old Masters”) that requires layers of thin washes. Fortunately modern oil painters have fast drying mediums to mix into their paint, so I don’t have to wait months, but still, it is a time consuming process. And because it is, I have decided to post a picture of Golden Dawn in progress. I am getting close to the end, I want to add some shadows and layer in some depth, but for the most part it’s time to share. When I get an exact location from Ashley (other than it was near the Twin Lakes) and I get all the final layers in place I will repost. But for now… enjoy my latest obsession.

Golden Dawn in progress
Oil on Canvas
20″ x 16″

Aerial Home

October 12, 2014 / skyevans / Leave a comment

A Change In Perspective

Ever since moving to this property I have been obsessed with the idea of an aerial image of the place. I managed to wrangle a small plane ride over our place early on in our history, and though I took snapshots, they were grainy and awful. It didn’t matter, I was only going to use the photo to create a map of the land. The snap shots sat on my drawing table for years… mostly gathering dust, never culminating in any sort of accurate representation of what we had been doing. Maybe what I had been obsessed with was documenting our progress as we took 10 undeveloped acres and built a shed, a house, a barn, a studio. Once the record had been made, I relaxed.

Years later, a professional aerial photographer took a nice shot and we bought it, hanging it in a spot of honor in our home. This fired up the old desire to somehow draw the land myself. Especially now that I had completed my civil technician program which included mapping software and surveying coursework. For awhile I thought I should use my newly acquired skills to render a plat map of the place. But I couldn’t get fired up about actually measuring and then working on the computer. Finally, I realized it wasn’t what I wanted anyway. What I wanted was the exercise in thinking about what I liked about our home and aesthetically recreating the features. I wasn’t going for letter perfect accuracy… I just wanted to use my own two hands to creatively “map” our property. For fun, for the hell of it, and most importantly, for me.

Aerial Home (North orientation)

Fractals everywhere

October 7, 2014October 7, 2014 / skyevans / Leave a comment

Still finding and exploring fractal geometry. Short post today… here’s the latest fractal painting. Based on a satellite photo of the earth. Looks familiar, right?

Fractal image of earth
Oil on canvas
18 x 16

I Am Here

June 25, 2014 / skyevans / 1 Comment

I love maps. There is just something about them, something about knowing where you are. The possibilities of where you can go. Where you have been. I’ve been collecting maps and even drawing rough maps of my local hiking and riding trails for years. When we go on road trips, I’m the navigator. I like to see where we are heading and plan out the best routes. I’ve even dreamt about maps.

Later in life, I took classes on map making, but they were mostly to learn how to use Geographical Informational software, a very complex program that’s replaced traditional drawn maps. GIS is an amazing piece of nerdvana map geekdom and while fun to use and play with, doesn’t fill my visceral map making needs. I’ve been thinking about incorporating maps into my art for some time now. Planning out how and what to map… what I want to show, what kind of information I am trying to impart. But painting doesn’t really work the same way map making does. I generally try not to think or plan too much when I am painting. Exactly the opposite kind of cerebral activity that happens when one is making a map.

A map is ultimately about visual information used to guide someone other than the map maker. It has to stand alone and be clear and precise. A painting doesn’t always have all the answers… it may have more questions than solutions. The two activities seemed to be at odds with each other. So I was stuck with not knowing where to begin and what I wanted it to look like.

Finally it occurred to me, to try something. Anything. To just have a leap of faith… and see what happens.

Here’s what happened:

I Am Here. A map of my trails.

I started with the roads and trails. They aren’t to scale and they aren’t accurate by any means… instead they originate from my home (the large orange circle) and they sometimes follow features and sometimes correspond to actual roads. I wasn’t trying to make a map for anyone else, this map follows an idea of where I am when I hike or ride. Then I added where I remember the water ways to be… they aren’t accurate either. The swirls are back, I used them to show differences in vegetation as well as elevation. They aren’t specific and static, instead they mean different things in different places. But they mean something to me.

This is a personal map. And perhaps that’s where I need to go when I marry my geeky map nerd to my far out painter muse. Just close my eyes and jump!

Swirls

May 13, 2014 / skyevans / 2 Comments

Now that I am writing about my art, I find that I am thinking about the process of creating art . Not only current artwork, but projects from the past. I’m starting to see trends and themes that I never really saw before. When you have a body of work to pull from, you will invariably have threads of your creative process that show up in more than one place. Thus the title of this post: Swirls.

I had just finished an incredibly realistic painting of a wolf howling, so detailed, you could see his breath and practically every hair. It’s nice, but I think I painted it to prove to myself I could be “tight”… it was an exercise in skill. How good was I? Well,after it was done, I thought, pretty good! Here it is, judge for yourself:

Full Moon Song Oil on canvas board 18"x24"

Full Moon Song
Acrylic on canvas board
18″x24″

It was a painstaking process and after I was done, I felt the need to loosen up. To stretch a little, as it were. I built a large canvas out of unbleached duck (a grade of canvas) and set it up on my easel. Hmmm, now what? For some reason, I didn’t prime the canvas. I don’t remember what possessed me not to apply gesso… maybe I was out. It was a long time ago and we were barely scraping by, living in a run-down (read death trap) trailer and sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

I stood in front of the raw canvas and closed my eyes for a minute. Took a deep breath and hoping something would come to me, did a mini meditation. Nothing. Another deep breath and this time I said, “Ok… Whatever is in me or around me that paints through me, now’s your chance. You can do whatever you like… I’m tapped out of ideas right now, you give it a go.” Or words to that effect, it was (literally) decades ago.

I put some paint on my palette, picked up a fan brush (which I never use, so that was new right there) and began painting these swirls. I scrubbed paint into the dry and porous surface, rubbing in every bit, letting the canvas soak up the pigments and oil. I hardly used any turpentine, just some linseed to help the paint flow in places. I scrubbed and scrubbed and wore the brush down to a nub. By the time I was through, this had emerged:

The muse painting.
Oil on Canvas
2.5’x3′

It was pretty cool and very different from anything else I’d done before. I liked it! But life got in the way after that. I set aside my paints as we moved, got new jobs, had a baby. I poured my creativity into other outlets. I gardened, sewed baby clothes, drew small illustrations, took up basketry and jewelry making. One day I realized it had been almost 10 years since I had painted… how on earth had that happened?! Well, enough time had gone by, so I built an easel, set it up in my laundry room and got back at it. I painted a couple of horses and some small landscapes. And you know what? Those swirls began to pop up where I least expected.

Oregon High Desert
Oil on Canvas
24″x18″

The above painting used to be twice as wide and featured my horse running in the desert. But it wasn’t very good… and to top it off, I had some issues with that particular horse. One day, in a quasi exorcism from him, I cut up the painting and cut him out of my life. The best part of this painting had never been him anyway. It was this half with all the swirls and flow.

We moved again and now I had my studio set up in the one car garage. I worked small but I kept swirling about. An avid backpacker, I began to paint where I’d been.

Mary’s Peak
Oil on Canvas
12″x18″

The Steens Oil on Canvas board 8″x10″

Three Fingered Jack

I even hid things in the swirls. See if you can find the three sisters… they’re not hidden very well.

Three Sisters
Oil on Canvas
22″x28″

It looks like I went through a landscape phase here. The swirls began to get more prominent.

Purple Leaves Oil on Canvas
24″x36″

I even explored some illustrative themes. I rarely paint people. The 3 Sisters were a place, but also something spiritual. With that in mind, I painted this next piece. But it’s somehow too personal… the figure looks sadly troubled. I probably should stay away from people… they never are quite what I expect them to be. This one seems to be ignoring the spiritual wisdom that is being doled out to the fish in the stream. Yes, yes, lots of symbolism here.

Fishes and Wishes
Oil on Canvas
12″x16″

Throughout all this, the bristles on my brushes got smaller and smaller. But I kept working on prepared canvases, ones where the surface is primed. I decided to see if I could recreate the original flavor of that first swirly painting. So I stretched out a couple of huge canvases and decided to return to the original raw/scrubbed in format. By the time I got to this point, my husband and I built my studio. Right on top of the garden. I was actually kicking tomatoes out of the way as we measured off the space. Gardening took a back seat and rightly so.

Orange Swirls
Oil on raw Canvas
36″x48″

Rainbow Swirls
Oil on raw canvas
36″x48″

I was feeling pretty good about these, though they are somewhat overpowering when hung in a small room. Especially the rainbow one. So I toned it down with some smaller paintings.

Blue swirls.
Oil on Canvas
18″x24″

Small Orange
Oil on Canvas board
8″x10″

I did a few more small ones, where I explored purple and green, they weren’t very exciting, so no pictures. Believe me, you aren’t missing much. I think I was running out of steam for pure swirls. I returned to painting horses. The Red Flame horse is a prime example of swirls in my work (you can find it in the horse art gallery). They continue to slip into my paintings, so I know my muse is still with me in spirit. She does not disappoint. Most recently she returned with, well, not a vengeance, but with a will!