Acrylic and collage on paper, 11″X7″
I just got back from a 3 day workshop with Donna Watson and an exploration of finding a personally expressive style (and then trying to be consistent with it). Needless to say if you’ve been visiting here on a regular basis, consistency is not my forte. However I am newly armed with determination to stick to a series of paintings with unity of subject and design elements. (This does not include my everyday sketchbooking or soul sketching or even figure drawing, so there will continue to be an overly rich diet here of diverse images!)
This painting was a really fun exercise we did where we took a slide frame and moved it around magazine pages to find a composition. Can you believe, this design came from part of a picture of different kinds of onions? From onions to Fantascape! THe words, which you can’t read, say “throwing a line and hook” and “as fast as they can possibly”, which is what it felt like creating this painting, and just being in this workshop which was stretching my comprehension to new dimensions.
So now, be my guest in this fantasy-scape and tell me what you see?
And visit Miki’s latest Fantascape #17 Fire and Ice.
I’m very much drawn to this image, which suggests much but is not literal in any way. I also hear you about wanting to develop a consistent style. I seem to try too much, master too little. Anyway, thank you for posting your experiences and this collage.
I see a landscape with a huge falaise (valley?) or, even, a detail of a nude with the venus mountain (very decent, otherwise) … nice curves…
By the way, susan, I do not remeber exactly who was the painter who said this…to a disciple who admired the “consistency” (almost the same thing as consecvence in French, I reckon…) of another maitre… Corot?or Delacroix? or peut etre Courbet… said that “only oxes are “consecvents” (consistent?)… I prefer myself the diversity and the experiment in which you are so good at… I know that art merchant prefer consistency… but if this one doesn’t come naturally and you have to strive so hard for it… I don’t know…
This is a wonderful fantascape, Susan!
I love the very unusual composition (kind of distortion , extreme perspective), the unusual colours (extraordinary juxtaposition of the dark red/brown and the clear yellow/greens) and the texture of course is great.
I see like Danu a huge falaise with some houses at the top, a canyon, the ghost of an owl on the ghost of a tree branch, and some parachutes above the canyon , or perhaps are these flying onions?
Well, with the consistency, I am not sure that I agree, but I don’t want to confuse you. I think that you have a very personal and very expressive style. But this is for sure, to have some consistent series, this can be only good for you, and for us. The fantascapes were by the way were partly meant as much, if you remember well… and I think you are doing pretty well at them and at consistency!
No one has mentioned yet the ice cream cone which I see in the middle. Thank goodness!
Danu- not to worry – even if I were a great deal more like an ox, I would still find a new way to pull the cart.
Miki – the parachutes above the canyon are a great image – we have hot air balloons over the vineyards here on most sunny days.
As for consistency in my previous fantascapes – well the idea after all, was to let our imaginations take flight, without any concern for consistency, and that I have at least accomplished!
Looking forward to lots more -scapes!
Well, I DO see the vanilla ice cream cone, smack dab in the middle! (or you were hoping we didn’t see that?)
Actually, the first thing I saw was a map of Africa, sort of as though the continent was holding on tight while the world spun ever faster…
I see a woman looking down from the upper left corner: she has long reddish hair, a crocked nose, a smile, and a green scarf. She is watching over the plains underneath. Absolutely NO onions ! I love the browns and the reds !
The colors in this are wonderful.
I can definitely see Africa in the spinning map, but maybe the icecream is in the way, because you’ll have to point out the woman to me Isabelle!
I see her profile: the red mountain on the most upper left side, is her long hair, the tip of the mountain being the top of her head. The white beneath is her face, with a large nose and a toothless smile, her chin. Beneath, the green band is a scarf around her neck. She is much smaller than the ice-cream cone.