Want to make me happy? Let me shop in the Art shop!
So, in need of a little retail therapy and aware that shoplifting is illegal, I went and bought myself some rubber paint-shapers. I limited myself to a pack of three wedges, but the other available shapes are groovy and I intend to revisit that corner and find out what the other interesting shapes do and how I can convince my wallet to disgorge some money to fund the newest acquisition.
Now, the reason I wanted the shapers is to loosen my style of painting a bit and add some different marks to the paint surface. As much as I love loose painting, I sometimes find myself standing an inch from the canvas, nose almost touching, with the paintbrush gripped vice like in my claw,just short of it's ferrule. Not loose at all. If loose is an orang-utan, then I am a tortoise. So, I have to have some props to remind me to loosen up. I can't paint drunk( tried ,and it did not work) , so this is part of my arsenal to help me. Funnily enough, I have enjoyed painting en plein air because the need for speed makes me loosen up a lot. No dawdling in the rain/wind/sun/heat (please add whatever weather conditions are unpleasant in here..............) and I am not overly keen on being without a cup of tea for more than an hour or two at any time.
So, these are the paintings done with the aid of the paint-shapers, but using brushes too. Let me know what you think.
oil on paper
oil on paper
Great minds think alike.........from a fellow tortoise.......just watched Julie Ford Oliver's art byte at DailyPaintworks on "fracturing". She paints with a homemade squeegee tool in hand, and a palette knife. I went out seeking the scraper she modifies, and finally found a weird long-handled one in an auto parts store. Art store-hardware store-auto parts store--all great retail therapy. Auto parts store had great flexible scrapers by 3M cheap! Liking what you did, especially the cow scene.
ReplyDeleteI went and had a look...true! Julie put into words what I have been trying to achieve and it was good to see what she did with her still life. Anything to loosen up!
DeleteHow are you coping with all the dreadfull weather you have been having?
I like.
ReplyDelete(I tried using those little wedges on my face, but they didn't help.
Maybe I should loosen up!)
So good to have you back! I thought you were giving me the cold shoulder...!
DeleteLovely!
ReplyDeleteHow are you liking the paint shapers? I have been looking online to see if anyone uses them for anything other than a bit of accent. I would like to try them plein air painting, perhaps along with some knives...
Have you tried this?
have and I find them useful to push paint around and shape(Of Course!) but they tend to scrape right back to the surface, which is often not the look I want unless I have a toned ground. I use palette knives a lot in all my painting and they are fabulous, especially plein air. I still find the wedge, flattish paint-shapers the best shape but they come third in my arsenal of tools after brushes and knives. I also use my credit card, fingers...I am very messy indeed. Happy experimenting with them!
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