PALM TREES ARE IN THE MIX THIS WEEK

LATE POST FROM JANUARY:

So unfortunately my Mother had an accident at home this week. She broke the femur in one leg & the tibia in the other. Thankfully, surgery went well & she is now in rehab.  To my social media friends, thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and healing vibes.

I made a painting for her, so she can keep it in her rehab room. It was a landscape theme with lush palm trees and water reflecting from a pond. 

Her healing painting inspired me to paint another similar painting that I can share with you. 

I kept the palette limited, once again, keeping with my current trend of a minimal color selection. Mostly black & white with shades of green, and some browns. I'm really enjoying this style of limiting one's color selection. I can't emphasize enough how it's teaching me discipline in painting, as well as another form of a painting technique.

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Happy painting everyone.

C.A.M. 

Your Uncle Alfresco

ANOTHER BLACK & WHITE PIECE, FAREWELL 2016

Greetings & Salutations from the Complicated Art Man. 

So I've been perusing the social media feeds last couple of days & most people are ready to part ways with 2016. The proverbial, "bye bye 2016, had enough of you", or "F YOU, 2016, I'm done with you. Bring on 2017."

I myself have to say that  2016 was a fantastic year. It started off with a breakup, and a concussion from a mountain biking accident at Snowhill Trail in Oviedo, so I guess it was all uphill from their.

I went into a creative frenzy all the way up till June, then took the Summer off from painting.

I tried to get get back into the groove in October, but it was a slow return. I finally found myself back in my creative zone in early November. It's been superb!  

I have been experimenting with black & white values lately & I have to say that I'm loving the limited palette style. Kind of minimalistic.  

I find myself tempted to add color to this creative process, but I have to resist the temptation & wait for the end result. It is quite rewarding. I've mentioned it before and I still compare this type of painting to an "exercise" in discipline. I highly recommend the limited palette technique. Try it sometime. It's also a good way to ease yourself back into painting, if you haven't painted in awhile. 

So, with that said, "Bring on 2017, cuz I'm ready for you!! 

Good luck ya'll & happy painting. 

Happy New Year from your Uncle Alfresco, A.K.A The Complicated Art Man. 

 

 

ENTER THE WATERFALL PHASE

Hi ya'll.  Hope the Holiday season has been kind to you.

Back in May I was in Vegas and took some photos with some friends at the Flamingo. The Flamingo waterfall in the wildlife habitat was the first one I ever painted. 

FLAMINGO WILDLIFE HABITAT WATERFALL

Recently, it seems that I have entered my waterfall phase.  Here's a couple of them.

BLACK AND WHITE LANDSCAPE WATERFALL, WITH HINTS OF COLOR.

BLACK AND WHITE LANDSCAPE WATERFALL, WITH HINTS OF COLOR.

FULL MOON RISING AND WATERFALL

FULL MOON RISING AND WATERFALL

I'm really into this phase at the moment...  This was my first painting with a moon in it... That I can remember. This painting also gave me an idea for a "full moon" painting.  Onto the next...

I used the paint knife for the trees as well as the rock/stone wall.  I really enjoy using the paint knife. It really is incredible what you can do with it. So long everyone.

Merry Christmas from your Uncle Alfresco!

DECEMBER PROJECTS, ART EXERCISES & EXPERIMENTS, & NEW PIECES

Happy Holidays.  Hope everyone out there is having a great Winter.  I'm slowly getting back into my painting groove.  I started by making a couple of frames for some pieces to wet my whistle.

Then, I did some random sketching while out at bars/coffee shops.  I find that sketching gets my desire to paint going again.

Third and most importantly, I did some painting exercises to get my mechanics and techniques back. In my opinion, painting exercises provide a way to "paint" without any expectations. It's great to splatter some paint on a canvas and just let the brushes go nuts.  When you don't set out to paint your greatest masterpiece, how can you go wrong?  

It really is amazing what a frame does to your artwork.  I bought some 1 1/4" pine trim at Home Depot and stained it with different stain combos.  The one on the right has a purple dye, tint job.  It's actually a concentrated "bordeaux" tint, and the company is called TransTint.  They are out of Cleveland, Ohio. They have many colors of tints.  It's not cheap though.  The upside is you will have some awesome and uniquely colored frames, that practically no one for hundreds of miles will have.

It's a really cool dye to work with, you just add a few drops of water and you are good to go.  

Purple Flower Abstract in custom strained frame.

Tres Palmas Y Tormenta (Hollywood Beach, Florida) in custom strained frame.

An experiment in Black, White, and Red.  This next piece started off as a painting exercise, using a limited palette. When it started to turn into a painting, I listened to that inner voice and kept going.  That's the same voice we have to learn to listen to when it says STOP, or TAKE A BREAK...GO CHANGE YOUR WATER BUCKET & STEP AWAY...

I did paint this piece on a practice canvas.  If you look closely, you can see some green on the right side edge, in the middle.

I used the knife technique for the water lines/edges as well as the rocks.  I really enjoy using the knife.  It gives the painting a 3d layer of texture that almost brings it to "life".  I find that practicing with a limited palette is a great way to put you into a super creative state.  It kind of forces you to find as many different values as you can with the limited color palette.  It's kind of a discipline exercise as well.  You will find yourself wanting to use more colors...Don't do it... stick with the exercise.

An experiment/exercise with different values of ONLY RED, BLACK & WHITE.

My intention with this next sunset piece was to learn how to manipulate acrylic paints to appear more like oil paints.  I used a retarder medium from Liquitex, as well as Bob Ross's Liquid Clear to slow down the drying time.  The Liquid Clear was my missing ingredient.  Liquid Clear slows the drying time significantly and allows for maximum blending opportunities.

***The LQ will have an adverse effect on the acrylic. It will "crack" the acrylic and give your painting a "frescoed" look, very aged look. I didn't expect this, so I had mixed emotions about it at first. I used it to my advantage & went with it. ***

Once you work with it a few times you can start to see how the acrylic paints start to behave more like oil. You only have to use thin coat of the Clear to prime the canvas. The key word is "thin" coat of the Clear.  A little Liquid Clear goes a long way.  All joking aside, it never hurts to peep some of the Bob Ross videos on You Tube.

SIDENOTE: Your painting will take A LOT longer to dry than normal.  I suggest the hair dryer technique or just be patient.  Give it at least 48 hours.  You can always hold your masterpiece at an angle to look for glistening areas that would indicate it is still wet.  I waited five days before I added a coat of clear gloss medium to "finish" this piece.

This next painting is an experiment with a very limited palette.  Black & White ONLY, on a black canvas. The idea is to let this "BASE" painting completely dry, and then come back over it with colors.  It is probably a good idea to let it dry for at least 24 hours.  Then come back over the entire painting with a thin coat of the Liquid Clear, and start adding the colors you want to use. I will give it 48 hours to dry, due to the fact that I used the paint knife technique on most of the trees. There is alot of texture on the trees.  

I am conflicted as to whether or not to add the color scheme.  I may leave the piece as is, and make another piece similar to this one. Adding the colors to the latter piece.  TO BE CONTINUED.

DEEP FORREST AND RIVER. DIFFERENT VALUES AND FLAVORS OF ONLY BLACK AND WHITE.

GOOD LUCK from your Uncle ALFRESCO!!

IT's BEEN A WHILE

So I took the Summer off from painting...Here is a sketch I did today. A tree in Winter Park Florida drew my inspiration... To Be Continued...

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Repairing a Ripped/Torn Canvas Pt. 2

A while ago I posted a blog on how to repair a damaged canvas.  The following images show the results of my repairs.

I added some paint and "vibed" off of what I had already created.  

I learned a couple of things throughout this process:

1 How to save a damaged piece of artwork.

2 Not to freak out when something like this happens.

Peace out ya'll!

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REPAIRING A RIPPED/TORN CANVAS: PT 1

THE FOLLOWING BLOG IS ON HOW TO REPAIR A CANVAS AND "SAVE" YOUR PAINTING....

KEEP IN MIND THESE ARE SMALLER RIPS/TEARS-----

***YOU WILL HAVE TO PAINT OVER RIPS/TEARS TO MAKE THE MASTERPIECE (LOL) LOOK NORMAL AGAIN***

USE YOUR CREATIVITY TO BRING YOUR PIECE BACK TO LIFE...  I DON'T RECOMMEND TRYING TO "MATCH COLORS/PATTERNS" TO FIX THE DAMAGED AREAS. THAT MAY DRIVE YOU INSANE.

 IT'S TIME TO GET CREATIVE!!!  THINK OUT OF THE BOX, MODERN ART-ISH.... SPLATTER SOME COLOR AND GO WITH IT.

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Recently I was setting up my artwork prior to a craftshow.  It was a windy afternoon in Orlando.  Some of my pieces fell off my lattice rack.  When I went to pick two of the pieces up, I discovered TWO...not ONE...BUT TWO of my 8 x 10's had been ripped.  A 16 x 20 had fallen on top of them.  

I was disappointed, but I didn't freak out.  I remembered having to repair a brand new canvas a couple of months ago.

This is how I repaired both canvas.

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FIRST: I CUT SOME PIECES OF CANVAS FROM THE BACKSIDE, TO "PATCH UP" THE TEAR FROM THE BACKSIDE.

SECOND: I USED GLUE TO SECURE THE PATCHING PIECES OF CANVAS.

THIRD: I USED PAINTER'S TAPE TO SECURE THE PATCHING PIECES OF CANVAS, UNTIL THE GLUE CURED.

FOURTH: USE A PAINTER'S "MODELING PASTE" TO FILL IN THE GAPS ON THE FRONT SIDE OF CANVAS.  ARTIST'S LOFT MAKES A GOOD ONE. YOU CAN FIND IT AT MICHAEL'S WITH THE ACRYLIC PAINTS. YOU CAN USE A PAINTING KNIFE TO FILL IN THE GAPS WITH THE PASTE.

FIFTH: FIGURE OUT A GAME PLAN ON HOW TO MASK RIP/TEARS THAT WILL GIVE YOUR MASTERPIECE A FINISHED LOOK.

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I think the most important lesson I learned from this experience was, that I DIDN'T FREAK OUT.

I simply, put the damaged pieces to the side, and finished setting up my tent for the show.

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I'm not sure how I will exactly "paint" over the rips...I do have a couple of ideas....

That will be PART 2 of this blog.

PEACE OUT YA'LL

WATERFALL @ THE FLAMINGO IN VEGAS

I recently visited Vegas for a friend's wedding. That's about the fifth time I've been there in my adult life. My first visit was as a child with my family. I was probably five or six, and we stayed at Circus Circus.  

For My recent trip I stayed at the Luxor. That was my second time there. I love the Fact that I can say I have slept inside of a pyramid. I also love symbols and the Luxor is teeming with symbology and an Obelisk to boot. Super pagan.

I met up with my friends at the Flamingo, and we took a stroll through the wildlife habitat. It's truly a paradise in the desert and a hidden jem nestled just off of the noisy and sometimes ab- noxious strip.

I saw this cool waterfall and caught some inspiration in Vegas. Inspiration is everywhere if you just look. 

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When I got back I was excited to paint my interpretation of the "Flamingo Waterfall". 

This was it...  I wanted the waterfall to be more intense. I used the palette knife for the rocks.  They have lots of texture. 

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The Wildlife Sanctuary at the Flamingo is free and even has a bar to boot.  

The highlight at the Sanctuary is a flock of Chilean Flamingos.  Maybe I should add one. Hmmmm.

Peace out ya'll

C.A.M.