Tuesday, January 11, 2011

New Work - Caramel and Co.

Caramel, 12x16, collage of hand-painted papers on cradled panel

Over the holidays I worked on four 12x16 dog collages and Caramel is my favorite. Do you think it's any coincidence that it's the last one I did? Do you think that once you get yourself into a good groove with your art that you really do your best work?


Yorkie, 12x16, collage of hand-painted papers on cradled panel

Chi Hua Hua, 12x16, collage of hand-painted papers on cradled panel

Shih Tzu, 16x12, collage of hand-painted papers on cradled pane

Now that I've I just entered the "good dog" groove, I'm moving on from dogs to another big peacock (you can see the sketch on my Facebook fan page) because I have a short attention span and I'm all dogged out. Do any of you experience short attention span with your art? do you feel the need to jump around just to keep yourself from going crazy? I sure do. But short attention span also means that I never sit still, or if I am sitting still, I'm not idol (Yorkie was created while I was a passenger in the car on our holiday road trip. Shih Tzu was created in the hotel room on the same trip). I just have to be doing something at all times, the key is to learn how to make your shortcomings work for you and not against you. I use my restlessness as motivation toward being a prolific artist.

So I've moved on to peacocks again, another favorite subject of mine. This time I'm working on a 20x40 piece, a very extreme horizontal format.

7 comments:

  1. Elizabeth, you may not be able to sit still but that must be a wonder trait! I absolutely love your 4 dogs. Have you joined Art's Tips and Tricks on FaceBook? It can be found at: triedandtested@groups.facebook.com · Open Group

    There is an artist named Barbara Harmer that does Japanese art form of "Chigirie" (Chee-gee-ree-ay) and I think you'd enjoy her work since it is also a paper technique. I couldn't help but think of you!

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  2. I like the Yorkie best...but they are all wonderful. I am going to try one of my dogs once I get my DVD...excited to try it out.

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  3. No wonder we get along so well, Elizabeth. It's the short attention span. I used to joke (though I was really serious) that my attention span was 6 months long and that after that I was outta here. And it's true. For most things I can stick around for no longer than 6 months. But taking advantage of that is helpful... I just say that for the next ____ period of time I'll work on (painting dogs) and then I'll focus on (peacocks) for awhile... instead of feeling bad because I can't focus on one thing for the rest of my life.
    Lots of artists are like that, even so far as which mediums we work with... and it's okay as long as we build in just a bit of concentration, enough to get the job done.

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  4. Jo, I absolutely love collage and I don't mind sticking with that, but I do have to move around subject wise for sure. Lately I've been working on cradled panel and collaging around the edges too, another change in how my work has been presented.

    Guess What? I sold "Caramel" already! I knew that one would go fast, my favorite.

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  5. A running joke with Joyce and I is our short attention spans, artistically. Nice to know we're not the only ones. Somehow we all seem to make it work, no? Love the doggies!

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  6. happy to say that Yorkie has now also been adopted to a good home!

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thank you for taking the time to read and comment! :)