Interference Paint Effect

Frontal View

Angled View

The light changed between these shots, so the one on the right is darker (a storm blew in), but you can see the window panes are distinctly different colors, the one on the right glowing, and the serpent is brighter gold in some areas. The Eagle Man, Garuda, is also shinier looking. These are all effects produced by the use of interference pigments. They add a bit of mystery to a painting. This one is very close to being finished now.

Before and After Photos of Paintings Framed

Please forgive my wonky photos. If I used a tripod I would do better!

Sunrise over Bay Area Boulevard framed

Sunrise over Bay Area Boulevard unframed

Canyon of the Yellowstone unframed

Canyon of the Yellowstone framed

Teton Pass unframed

Teton Pass framed

 

Framer on the Premises

Patrick Checking a Frame

My son Patrick brought over a lot of 50-year-old fencing cedar, which he used to make frames for my landscapes. They look marvelous!

Double Checking 

One of the framed paintings

Ascension Getting Somewhere

I worked on "Ascension" today, giving the doves more detail, and using an ultramarine blue glaze on the hillside to the right of the figure, so that entire area is dark.

"Ascension" July 20, 2014

Today's Work on "Ascension"

"Ascension"

I love each painting at every stage. I feel more has to be done on this painting, but I love it as it is now, too. It is about the joyful release of death, when we leave behind a used-up shell of a physical body, and fly out into the great unknown, the mysterious adventure.

Let the Gazing Begin

Stick a Fork in It?

I have to look at this painting for some time to be sure it is finished. I like it a lot, and it is very near completion if it is not competed.

Curiouser and Curiouser ...

Constance in Garudasana

Today I asked for guidance, because I was really unsure how to proceed with this painting. It is a complex image, and a lot is going on in it. I changed the colors of the background, added skin and hair tone, and then I decided to change the window panes from greenish-yellow to light cerulean blue. DEAD! was the result. 

I had all that color mixed so I went over Garuda, making him more solid. I was not sure I should do that. However, we still know he is not in the physical plane, somehow. Then I mixed up a light green with a touch of blue in it, and put that in the pane shapes. I like this painting, but it is very odd. It is completely unlike my older work, yet I feel it is true to my process.

This painting is nearing completion. I find it extremely satisfying to work on. Looking at it feeds my soul.

Spiritual Unfoldment Series

Beginning of the Whirlings

Matrix of Matter

As Above So Below

Leaves and Fire

First Breath

Middle Pillar Meditation

Heart Centering

Homunculus

Activation of The Higher Centers

Thousand-Petalled Lotus

Last Breath

Denial

If I had been able to make these all vertical or all horizontal, I think the series would be more successful. As it was, it seemed important to get the ideas on paper. Perhaps one day I will make "Touching the Shadow" in a vertical format. I don't know.

Facing the Shadow

Touching the Shadow

Acceptance

Shadow Dancing

Ascension in Process (Today's Work)

Summit Lake Ascension March 21, 2014

Unstuckifying ... ?

Photo Idea

Postcard from Betsy

Newest Direction

Old Underpaintings

An underpainting is a preparatory phase of painting. My process involves at least three layers. I cover a gessoed canvas with a color, then I draw the shapes onto the color and paint the shapes in different colors from the finished idea. Then I put in the final colors, letting the underlying layers show through in places. I like the effect a lot. Letting the underlying color show through is called scumbling. 

Sometimes I prefer the underpainting to the finished work. These two are unknown quantities; I may like the finished work more, or maybe less. They are a few years old, and I had forgotten about them. I like them more than I remember. 

Bayou Walk

Yellowstone Pond

Process Drawings

I am not at all sure where I got this process. I think it may be from Drawing on the Artist Within?
It may be hard to read the writing, so here it is in print:
1. problem visualized
2. components separated
3. components recombined: reversed, combined, rearranged, enlarged, reflected
4. negative shapes

Landscape Sketches from my Studio Wall

Pencil Sketch from photo
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

Pencil Sketch from photo
Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River

Pencil Sketch from photo
Rafting on the Snake River

Pencil Sketch from photo
Pond in Yellowstone National Park

These pencil sketches were done in preparation for paintings. I finished a painting of the Snake River, and one of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. I started a painting of the pond in Yellowstone, but have not started a painting of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I like the sketches a lot and wanted to share them.

Alchemy Drawings done in Paper by Fifty-Three

The volatile and the fixed Mercury
After: Lambsprinck,
De Lapide Philosophico, Frankfurt, 1625 

Solidify the volatile and volatilize the solid
After: M. Maier, Atalanta fugiens, 1618

Solve et coagula
After: Lambsprinck,
De Lapide philosophico, Frankfurt, 1625

Sublimate Sulphur and Mercury 
until they are inseparable
After: M. Maier, Atalanta fugiens, 1618

The originals of these drawings appear in The Hermetic Museum:
Alchemy and Mysticism, alchemical art compiled by Alexander Roob.

Copying them by drawing with my finger in Paper by 53, an iPad app, gave me insight into their meanings. Note the seven stars on the body of the Green Lion, which are the Western symbols for the chakras of the Hindus.

The Green Lion is one of the three things 
sufficient for mastery
After: M. Maier, Atalanta fugiens, 1618

The green lion who swallows Sol is Our Mercury
After: D. Stolcius von Stolcenberg, 
Viridarium chymicum, Frankfurt, 1624

"Eater of Serpents" - Today's Work

"Eater of Serpents" painting February 26, 2014

Garuda has his head, the light coming in the window is brighter, and I added highlights to Constance's skin. Not sure if I want her shirt and pants to be a different color.