Traveling Artist

With the beautiful weather of summer and the great opportunities to travel, it is sometimes a challenge to figure out how to keep on creating. Years ago I mastered traveling with my painting supplies, but it becomes a lot more challenging when working with mixed media materials. There are so many more supplies. Not only do I want to take paint, paper, and brushes, but t my stash of found papers, handmade papers, magazines, newspapers, and all the other sources of texture and design. Stencils, stamps, brayers. The list goes on. For a few years I just accepted that my creative opportunities were more limited when I was on the road or when flying somewhere. This conundrum is what prompted me to begin exploring digital art. I'm a traditionalist, so it wasn't a direction I pursued eagerly. At first I began by learning how to use some easy digital tools. Then some more complicated techniques. I'm still learning and always pocketing new ideas, but I think I'll always be a traditionalist at heart. Now, when I'm on the road, creating with digital tools satisfies my need to keep on making art.

Below are a couple of my most recent endeavors. They were both created entirely with digital tools. I've been intrigued with the idea of using vintage papers for collage work, but it was hard to find suitaby aged papers. I've stained papers with paint, tea, and coffee to provide an aged look, but didn't really like the results. Actual vintage papers are very limited and hard to find; I fear a sign of our digital times. But, recently,with a stint of time away from my studio, I  decided to create some collages entirely with vintage papers found online in the public domain. I like the fact that the colors are very limited and it requires me to focus on composition.  I learned how to create a digital tear on papers that weren't actually torn. Note the ticket on my piece, Random Thoughts.  It was actually a complete ticket. The tear is digital.

What I like about digital art is that I can still satisfy my need to create, but not lug along a couple of suitcases full of supplies when I'm traveling. I just need a laptop, which I always take with me any way. Some of digital works I've created in the past when forced to travel light are here.

Below are two collages I created this past week.

Random Thoughts, Digital Art, August 2016

Marpole, Digital Art, August 2016

It is nice to be back at home and have full access to my studio and supplies. My goal is to continue painting at least one larger format landscape per week with traditional painting techniques. They are available at Ugallery . I also continue to put my small format oil paintings in my Etsy Shop. Creating daily is my objective. I hope you like what I do. Prints of many of my works are available here.

Bicycle Art

This past week I had some fun combining traditional and digital art. The background for this piece is a design created with acrylic paints on paper. I like the combination of red orange and turquoise, but it really didn't have a focus as a finished piece of art, so I decided to use it as a background. I added a digital silhouette of a bicycle and liked the results. I did a series of images that combined original work and digital overlay. Since my family and I are big bicycle fans, the designs were cheered by all. Prints of the composition can be purchased here on either paper, canvas, or acrylic. You can also view the other designs in the bicycle art series at this link. And if you want it on a pillow or a phone case, those are options, too.

Creating Digital Art

Usually my media of choice is paint on canvas, but recently I've started to do a little bit of digital collage.  This image has quite a few layers, can't remember how many anymore, but it is a nice mix of some of my original painted work, some Photoshop brushes and Photoshop effects.  The background layer was developed from one of my original paintings as was the tree image.  I added more layers, filters, created some new brushes, arranged, and rearranged until I found a pleasing composition.  It was nice to be able to create art when I was traveling and paint wasn't an option.  I am offering fine art reproductions, posters, and greeting cards of this image.  Visit here for more information on purchasing and availability.  My paints will probably remain my favorite tool for creating art, but it was nice to take a little vacation and experiment with digital imagery.