Frustrated

I forgot to take pics of the first step. This is the 2nd, with paint added

The ground of neutral grey and yellow has been added

Ground of Bleached Sand, Burnt Sienna, and Titian Buff

The ground was a transparent gold and I think Yellow Ochre

Then put Payne's Grey over this hot mess

This ground is Celadon Blue, I think

So. Feeling like a novice, like the biggest inexperienced painter to ever exist. I want to create paint and paper collages in the style of Jane Davies. And the first attempts are crap.

After a flurry of photos and text messages with Klara (Hi Klara!), I calmed down to realize that I am not alone, and that there are probably quite a few in this class feeling what I am feeling. It ain't easy. No it is not. But having the blog to post our work to, and feedback from Jane is a learning experience that can't be duplicated. At this point I think a goal should be to take an in person class with this artist. It would be expensive, but damn, so worth it.

I am not using the paper that Jane recommended. It's not available locally, but I need to venture out to see if I can get it in the greater metro area. Which is funny to me. In Chicago the greater metro area can take you hours upon hours to travel. Down here in Indy, it's maybe 90 minutes. What is my problem in traveling? That will be my first step. In the interim, I am switching to 10x10 or 8x8 pieces of water color paper, and I will prime them with gesso.  The heavy card stock I am using for some of these is sucking up the paint, and I don't care for the way it looks.

This is what we are doing: making our own masks to use on the gel plate to make wonky shape prints. You then clean up those prints with additional paint, then start a ground, or background, color. It should not be flat, but varied. In some of them she wants us to leave a white space around the shapes to again separate them from the ground. I forgot until I had added the blue on one side, then thought okay, do it anyway.

Next step is to add collage pieces from previous gel prints. I have 5 other pieces started, so will decide which I want to work with. Jane stated on the blog that if we do a bunch, and end up with 1 or 2 we like or at least can tolerate, we are doing exactly what she wants. Work it out, go through the process, and surprise yourself.

More to come.
Linda