anika mari

I haven’t been too on top of updating this blog during what I figured would be the transition time from this blog to my new one, a is for anika, so I thought I’d offer a little update.

I’ve been testing out Daniel Smith watercolors lately, in preparation for ordering from them–which I did, and I should get my new paints next week!

Here are a few of the images I’ve created and written about lately:

If you are still subscribed to this blog and want to check out what I’ve been up to lately in more detail, stop by my new blog and say hi!

An artist friend of mine commented on the recent stone print I completed and mentioned that she never would have thought of doing it. She then expressed and interest in borrowing my brain for a day. Well, I’m not sure how I’d lend out my brain, but it got me to thinking about what thought processes I went through when creating the stone print, and I realized I glossed over those thoughts in the last post. Consider this a little expansion.

The process that I undertook when creating the stone print embraces the randomness that comes when in the midst of creating art. When I set about to create a new piece, I generally have one of two starting points: either I have a subject I want to depict, or I have a set of steps that I want to take. While the former sometimes incorporates some of the random unfolding of ideas, the main distinction is the spark of the idea. When I start a painting or drawing with process in mind, generally the results tend to be more abstract, and I have no idea what I’ll end up with when I’m finished.

When starting a process focused piece, I might begin with a framework in mind, as I did when creating the black and white drawing below, or the recent tapestry drawing I completed.

in this drawing I started with the v shaped framework and added the details as I drew

The other starting point is a specific kind of mark that I want to make, and the piece unfolds from there. That’s what I did when creating the stone prints–I decided that I wanted to see what would happen if I painted a stone with watercolor and pressed it onto paper.

After the print marks were dry, I added the “cocoons” around some of them, only because they looked a little bare, and not as round as some of the other prints.

I added the lines because there were a few little splattered drops of watercolor that had landed here and there, and I used them as starting points from which I drew lines to connect to nearby stone prints. Can you spy the little green dots from which the swooping lines are drawn?

I filled in the resulting shapes with gray watercolor because the compositions needed a little more weight; something to anchor the piece together.

Hopefully that provides a little more insight into the inner workings of what my brain is doing when I’m making art. It’s not very mysterious; generally I just take it step by step, responding to whatever happened previously, but I must admit, sometimes the results surprise even me!

I just got back from a wonderful week spent in North Carolina with my mom, 2 of my brothers and their families. We rented a house right on the ocean in North Topsail Beach. It couldn’t have been a better vacation. It was beautiful and relaxing and everyone was happy.

One of my favorite things to do, besides swimming in the ocean, was wandering along the shore to collect lovely, ocean rounded pebbles. There were so many pretty ones that I must admit I got a little addicted to collecting them. I went on at least 1 walk a day to search for pebbles. It was slow, painful work (not used to crouching down to pick things up repeatedly), but I couldn’t get enough.

At this point, I probably have way too many stones to know what to do with, but I had a lot of fun gathering them up, and I’m looking forward to sorting through them and thinking of fun things to do with them. My brother wants me to fill a mason jar with a selection of translucent stones. I filled one with random stones as a handy way to transport them, and he liked the way it looked.

Besides that, I’ve already done two artsy things with some of the stones, and I know there are more ideas waiting to be discovered.

One quiet afternoon at the beach house, I sat at the kitchen table and started fiddling with a few stones. Arranging them on some bristol, I traced them. Then I painted a light blue-green background, followed by the gray of the stones. When it was dry I finished by adding the line texture.

I cropped it into a square since the edges were a little uneven. I’m not sure which I prefer. I like how the square format makes it easier to see the detail in the stones, but I also like the uneven painted edges of the original format.

While waiting for the painting to dry, I picked up one of the stones and smooshed some watercolor onto one side, then pressed it onto the surface of a new sheet of paper, making a little “stone print”. I repeated the process and added in some lines and texture details. Finally I added the gray paint to some of the resulting shapes to give the composition a little more heft.

It’s maybe a little odd, but I’m sort of fond of this one. I really love the depth and variation of the green-blue color in each stone print.

I plan to explore the “stone printing” method a bit more.

I also have some more photos of some of the stones I collected that I’ll be sharing in the near future.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been flipping through a bunch of quilting books lately.

The book on Amish quilting in particular caught my interest. Simple is probably the best word to describe an Amish quilt, but that is precisely what makes them so intriguing to me. I find them incredibly striking, and I love the bold colors and geometric patterns. I decided to draw a geometric composition, inspired by the quilts.

I started drawing the triangle pattern from my memory without referencing the book. Once I had the lines drawn in, I realized that it wasn’t quite right, but I went ahead and finished the drawing. I added color with watercolor paints, and then added in some detail and texture with pen. In the end I think the drawing has more of a Native American feel than Amish, but I’m really happy with the result. When I look at it, I’m reminded of Native American woven rugs or tapestries. This drawing is a serious contender to be enlarged. I think it would look great hung on the wall, just like a tapestry.

For the next drawing I referred to one of the quilts in the book, but gave it my own twist.

I purposefully drew it in two sections that were slightly skewed from each other because I didn’t want it to be too perfect. I colored in some of the triangles with watercolor, then added some texture with pen. Initially I intended to add black to the triangles that didn’t have color, but as I was working I liked the contrast that the white triangles added to the overall composition.

The next drawing was a free form composition, but it was a continuation from the geometric triangular forms in the previous two. This time I added some curved lines, and it took on a life of its own.

As I was working, the drawing started to spread apart, away from the grid that I’d tried to stay in. I don’t mind it, and I like the drawing as it is, but I still wanted to fulfill my initial vision.

I drew a one inch grid and then worked within the grid to lay out the pattern.

I really like this pattern. The variation of the watercolor adds a level of depth and interest that I wasn’t expecting, but that I’m very happy with.

I planned to scan in a bunch of art that’s been waiting patiently while I’ve been busy doing lots of other things, but I found out that my scanner bed is only about 8.5×11.75 inches, and I’ve been using 9×12 paper lately. Oh well. Most of what I’ve done can be trimmed down a bit without losing any of the art, so I’ll get to that this weekend. I was able to scan one small piece of art: my drawing for the the next theme in the Creativity Boot Camp, “full bodied”.

I started out with a very different image in mind, but the drawing evolved as I was working on it. I’m not sure how well it fulfills the “full bodied” theme, but it’s what I came up with when working on the theme, so I’m going to say it’s my “full bodied” drawing, even if it is a bit of a stretch.

Aside from not being a perfect fit with the theme, I really like the drawing. A lot of geometric shapes have been showing up in my work lately. I’m pretty sure it’s because my mom decided to start a new quilt this summer, so I’ve been browsing through her quilting library that’s been lying around.

The books on Amish quilting really captured my interest, and it seems some of the shapes and colors have crept into my artwork. More on that when I get the larger drawings scanned, but it would seem that this “full bodied” drawing is an offshoot of the quilting inspired drawings. It also reminds me of Native American art, specifically the geometric design motifs that are used by many Native American cultures. Plus, I can’t help but think of dream catchers every time I look at the swooping lines.

Only three more Creativity Boot Camp themes left to do! Seems like I might finish the whole thing after all.