Just Do IT!

Acrylic on paper 20 x 16 inches "The Climb"

    Most of you know I try to paint or draw everyday.  When I suggest that to students and friends the first comment I get is, “I just don’t have enough time to do that”.  But, the truth is we really do, who can’t find 5 or ten minutes to put something on paper?  That is really all the time it takes sometimes. 

    The problem is what to do in that five or ten minutes.  We probably spend more time than that just thinking about what to do.  Well then don’t think, just pick up a pen or brush and start making some marks…really!  My favorite media for quick work is a small goat hair brush, some ink, and plain old printer paper.  A few brush strokes with ink will trigger ideas, or at the least some interesting designs.

    The pics here are from yesterdays 10 minute play with ink time.  I started with some random marks, then realizing I was sitting on the edge of a stool about ready to tip over.  I decided to try and capture that movement with the brush (see ideas come from strange places sometimes).  Today I picked one of the ink drawings and decided to work it up in acrylic, and plan to do more of these in the next few days. 

  Hope you enjoy the examples.

Mary Schiros

Yep this is me about to fall of my painting stool :)

The Process

Oil 16 x 12 inches

Ink 7 x5 inches

    Art is always on my mind.  And the only way to deal with an obsession like that is to learn to live with it.  When the TV is on, I am doodling, when I go out there is always a small sketch pad with me.  Even when I get ready to sleep there is a sketch pad near the bed, for those times a picture pops in my brain just as my eyes are closing.

     Because I have learned to grab ideas when ever they happen, I always have a source to work from when real time allows.

   Thought I would share the start of one of these ideas.  The sketch is on a small 5 x 7 drawing pad, one of many I did while pretending to watch TV with my husband.  When I had the time to get some oil paint out, instead of sitting and trying to think of something to paint, I accessed the nearest sketch pad and picked the first one that caught my interest.

   The Painting is on watercolor paper 140 lb that was gessoed with orange colored gesso.  I keep a small pile of prepped paper handy.  This is a working idea now.  The small painting is complete, but also may lead to a larger work.  

   Mary Schiros

Beyond the demonstration

   I did some acrylic painting workshops last year and had a few demo paintings left over.

In the workshop we sectioned off a 20 x 16 canvas and did a different technique in each area.  

the students in the class got the concept of the techniques very well, the hard part was getting them to use consistent colors for each section, so it would all tie together as a piece as a whole.  But, face it we as painters are all like a kid in a candy store when it come to having a range of paint colors to pick from. 

   I decided instead of just painting gesso over them I would see where I could expand the work.  

Thought I would share the process of two of these paintings.

The first one was near done so there was not a lot to do to it...

Finishing it off with some extra mark making.

 

 

 

The second sections were complete, but it still had the tape on it.

I added some over all color to get rid of the white.

Next I added some overlapping shapes and lines.

Finished it off with more lines and shapes.

 The pair done

This is a third one that started out the the same from a demo that I took further.

 

Changes

this is a practice in abstraction

Sometimes I play.....



Other times I become more serious and do some work that is deep in thought and meditation.

"A Moment in Time"

What I mean by that is; the act of painting a simple feeling.  I keep a thought or mood in my mind and let it happen on the canvas.

   The way I approach this sometimes is by working over a previously painted canvas.  Both painting shown here are on the same canvas, the still-life is the latest and final version.  Working on a canvas that already has structure and color, adds freedom to explore, and experiment.  And there are touches of each work still present.  Keeping a small section peeking out from the old to the new.  And texture, lots of texture, each work builds into the next.
   Just wanted to share another look into how I paint.

the final work in complete and now on my website.

Sharing a Memory

"Memories"

Set up outside starting painting, raw canvas clipped over a 2 x 4 foot wood board.

The last few good flowers 

 

   I am sharing a personal story today.  About a week ago my wonderful greyhound Maggie passed away.  She was a retired racing greyhound we adopted when she was finished racing.  Maggie was a sweet and wonderful pet.  We lost her to a stroke.

The day she passed away I had to work third shift at the hospital, and needless to say it was a long sad night for me.  In the morning when I was headed home I was in tears because I knew it would be the first day in a long time that I would not be greeted at the door with a happy dog waiting.  When I got home I opened the door and on a table waiting for me was a jar full of carnations and chocolates, my husband had set it up so I would still come home to a welcome feeling, he is a very thoughtful man and I really appreciated it.

   Today the week flowers were wilting, a few blooms still hanging in there.  I separated the good ones and set up my canvas and paints outside.  Spent the day painting what I call

“Memories”.  Thought I would share the out come, a 4 foot by 2 foot still life. 

Art Series

the 3 completed, lined up out on the patio 

  

I made a resolution this year to paint in series of three.

Some times I end up with 3 paintings that are wonderful and go well together.

Other times it takes 3 tries to get what I want.  So far I am learning a great deal from painting this way and plan to keep working with this practice.

   With my last series of three, I ended up two that are perfect together and one that got painted over.  But even with the one that didn’t work out, it started me in another direction. 

  The two I like I call more sky writing, the idea that everything about the world is there before our eyes, only in a language we can not read yet.  The one that I painted over fell away from that direction and frankly reminded me of a bad Bob Ross painting.  But after painting over about 2 thirds of it I saw an ocean pattern developing and decided to start writing by waves.

    

Mary's websites:

Artavia       Fine Art  

   Artmajeur

 Zazzle

the 2 keepers

 

last look before saying good bye

painting over what I did not like

the remake in process