Possible New Works from Quick Sketches

Composite of Quick Sketch Paintings

I'm still straightening up the studio, culling, sorting, storing and whatever one does to put one's space in order.  Today I ran across these several 8 1/2" x 11" quick sketched works that I did months ago.  Four were finished and three still called for paint, so I hauled out the paints and completed the unfinished ones. 

Each of these were created, as follows:

1.  I ripped pages from an old telephone book, tore the pages into smaller pieces and randomly glued the strips onto card stock with gel medium.

2.  After the pages were dry, I quickly sketched flowers and birds over the collaged telephone page strips.  (If you haven't guessed, these are "Linda birds and flowers" for I doubt very seriously that one would ever find anything like them in nature.)

3.  I squirted various colors of acrylic paint onto a palette and took out a variety of brush sizes.

4.  With no color placement or planning, I painted over and around the drawn images.

Here are the individual paintings that are in the composite image above.

After a distance was created by months of being out of sight, I find that I rather like a few of these and may consider making them into art quilts.

The best part of putting the studio in order is finding things that had totally slipped my mind.  The worst part is that with each discovery, I am magnetically pulled away from the housekeeping that needs to be done.  Ahh, if life were only filled with such problems, it would be a constantly joyous experience.

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved

Tribute to Red Circles, Birds and Friendship

I am so touched by Mia Bloom paying tribute to our friendship in her Collage #29 that I must write about this today.  There couldn't be a better way to describe who a person is than to illustrate that person's likes.  Mia certainly did this in her Collage #29.  She wrote that I love red circles and birds and then produced this wonderful collage.

Mia Bloom's "Collage #29"

My appreciation for a solitary red circle harkens back many decades to an evening when my mother and I attended an art exhibit at UCLA.  When we walked into the exhibit, we came face to face with a painting the size of a wall.  It was all white with the exception of a big red circle.  At that time neither my mother nor I could figure out why this was considered art.

Over the years I have learned how very important placement, balance (or lack of it),  and color are in a work of art.  Periodically a circle, sometimes a red circle, will appear in my own art and each time, I smile as I reflect upon that painting we saw many years ago.  I shared that story with Mia some time ago and she remembered it. 

Here is a stark example of my thinking about that same red circle.

"On the Edge"

Now, for the reference to birds...Somehow, birds keep popping up in my art.  Some are in flight, some are not, but but every so often they manage to creep into my work one way or another.  Just the other day I caught a glimpse of a loudly chirping little bird atop a telephone pole.  Because ledges and heights are not among my favorite places to be, I had a fleeting moment of compassion for the little feathered fellow.  Instantly, my mind acknowledged that birds can fly and I figured that if I, too, could fly, heights would not longer be threatening.  Perhaps I have a hidden desire to be able to fly.

All that being said, Mia Bloom tapped into the essence of the things that make me tick and for her to take the time to put her creative thoughts into action to recognize the Linda of Linda is an honor, indeed.  Thank you, Mia Bloom. 

I highly recommend that you check out Mia's collages on her blog.  She describes her 30 collages as a self imposed challenge to create a collage a day, in 30 minutes, for 30 days. 

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2014.  All rights reserved.

Painted, Collaged and Embelished Hen Eggs

The egg form lends itself magnificently to accept paint, collage and embellishment. Just when I've exhausted my creative impulses, another egg and another idea must be rendered.

Painted, Decopaged, and Embelished Hen Eggs

Many years ago I became preoccupied with the egg form as a canvas for painting and embellishment and experienced a significant level of success with such venues as The Egg and The Eye Gallery and Robinson's Department Store. As other artistic applications evolved, the humble egg eventually found its way back to the breakfast table. Recently the egg form beckoned me again and over the past few days I have developed a drying platform that facilitates working on more than one egg at a time and almost 2 dozen collaged and sculpted eggs have been created. You may see just a few in the Roxio link posted here.