Thursday, March 25, 2010
New Work, "A Flash of Blue" - Miniature
At last, a new miniature work finished! The work is done in graphite on Dura-lar Matte film. I used acrylic paint and interference colors for the dragonfly and mushrooms. I also added some color on the back of the film with colored pencils giving the end of the path, a subtle, soft, warm glow. Unfortunately, it doesn't show up very well in the photo. There is a LOT of detail packed in this tiny forest!
This is the first time I've used a dragonfly in any of my images. I wanted something to suggest a bit of magic and the dragonfly and also mushrooms seemed likely images. I thought they would fit well in this landscape. I didn't know until I started my research that the Common Green Darner dragonfly is actually the Washington state insect! The dragonfly I have used here is the Blue Eyed Darner. I liked this particular dragonfly not only because of its wonderful color, but I have seen lots of these beauties once when we were on one of our walks. There was an abundance of beautiful blues zipping by and checking us out. The blue colors would vary as they darted in and out of the sunlight. It was a beautiful sight and I don't think I'd ever seen that many dragonflies at once.
The forest is inspired by Lord Hill Park. There are a lot of water spots and ponds in this park, so lots of dragonflies as well. My first walk in this park was in late February, it was very wet and cold, so we didn't walk very far. The next trip was in the spring and it was a magical experience. I must confess that I usually have magical-like experiences when I get away from the noise of people and all their stuff! When I get my work finished and submitted, I'll be heading to one of these wonderful places to experience that magic again. In the meantime, I love creating these tiny miniature escapes! I hope you enjoy looking at them.
I still need to cut mats and frame the work. They each need to be scanned and put up on my website. Those images will be a much higher quality than the photo shots I show here. When they are all up on my site, they will be complete with title, size and framed. I'll post which work I'll be submitting to each show. When they get accepted, I'll post again with more information on them. I hope if you are near any of the shows that you'll go take a look to see my miniature escapes in person. Thank you for taking the time to look at my work and read this.
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13 comments:
Barbara, this one holds up so beautifully in the enlargement. Lovely! I love your description too of all the blue dragonflies zipping by.
It's lovely. and I love the added touch of color.
I like the way you do the timber .
Thanks Mona. It's always a test to take a look at the work enlarged. You always see the little things you can't see under magnification. I'm amazed sometimes that things turn out as well as they do! Especially when they are really tiny and you can't see what you are doing when you put the pencil mark or paint down! Dragonflies are magical!
Thanks Dors. I love doing forests and trees. I'm sorry you've had some bad experience on your site. I tried to see what it was, but I guess you took it away. Good luck and hope it doesn't happen again! Your work is beautiful. I loved the goat you just finished in graphite!
Your artwork always transports me to somewhere magical Barbara, like Enid Blyton's Enchanted Forest - the graphite with a hint of colour just adds to the magic!!! Beautiful!!! :)
Wow, Barbara! I have to say that this is my all time favorite of all your pieces. I love the little jewels of color (though I had to enlarge to see them, especially the dragonfly! LOL My eyes! My eyes! Where are those danged readers when I need them?) and you are right that they are bits of magic. Every single time I read your blog I come away homesick for WA. I love the path through the forest here too...I wish I was on it!!
Barbara, It really does give the feeling of the enchanted forest in a very small package!
Another great piece--it really brings you into the piece---like Karen said puts you in a magic place---I feel so lucky that I get to see most of these in person and really look forward to that :)---ps I like Lord Hill park too!
Thanks Karen. I wasn't familiar with the author Enid Blyton, so I googled her. Beautiful illustrations in her series.
Thanks Sherry. Ha, if you think they are tiny to look at, imagine trying to paint them! I have my regular glasses and magnification and they are still hard to see! I'm glad you are wanting to be in the forest on the path, it's the response I'm hoping for. Mini escape! We are coming into spring here and everything is blooming and lots more color appearing. My two favorite seasons here are the spring and autumn.
Thanks Gail. That's the feeling I'm hoping the viewer gets.
Hi Janie and thanks. I'm sure you'll get to see it. Hopefully it will be in one of our local shows. Not sure which one I'll submit it to. We stumbled on to Lord Hill Park quite by accident the first time. I love when that happens!
Barbara, I love your trees and forest scenes. You are fabulous with those trees. They almost seem to "speak". Love the dragonflies too!
This is lovely Barbara! I had to magnify the image to see the dragonfly and mushrooms clearly - love all the detail. I'm always confused on when to call a piece mixed media though. Some of the shows I've entered would consider this graphite, because the amt. of paint you used is so miniscule. So many of the award winning colored pencil drawings use acrylics for highlights.
Thanks Carol. They are my favorite things to draw/paint! I liked doing the dragonfly and learned a bit about them. It was so tiny to paint though. Had to hold my breath to put the tiny bits of paint down!
Thanks Deb. Graphite on film this small can be difficult to see on screen. I use photos that I take of the work for my blog. I'm waiting for my husband to do the scanning for my website and forum posting because he uses a high dpi and then resizes them. They are better image quality than what I do, and they have the penny for scale. He's a bit behind, I've got a few for him to do. That's why I've not put anything in my Yahoo album. I would call this graphite definitely, with M/M.
Barbara, can you post your crow series on Facebook Birds in Art? Like the blue dragonfly drawing, it is so special for the subtle natural surroundings you give it, and I know everyone would love to see these.
Hi Mona. Thanks for the invitation! I haven't posted any of my work on FB because I don't like FB's policies. I don't feel comfortable with the way they want you to use the photo page. The only way that might work is to post a message with a link to my blog and have that page show the crow pieces. That might work. But I'm not sure anyone would want to do that since they post their work for all to see. It may not be fair. I guess I'm just paranoid! But I know I'm not the only one. Thanks again for thinking of my work. I love the colors in your birds. : )
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