Pond Wednesday: March 20

Happy SPRING EQUINOX!! Look at that sky…I really was expecting the pond to be teaming with water birds. But nope. Far from it. Obviously haven’t visited in a while. We had a record-breaking days-in-a-row of snowfall in February. So I guess the pond will need a few more warm ones like this to bring it out of the deep freeze. I’m not familiar with snowy winters, having grown up in Seattle where maybe once every seven years we’d get a few days with snow enough to build a snowman and an igloo before it melted. They sure got it this year! More records.

What I love about living inland is its four definite seasons. Today is the first day of Spring. I’ll watch the ice melt for now, knowing soon I’ll see ripple-makers all over this pond.Here’s to a week of sweet anticipation.  xo ~ Pierr

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Freehand Friday: Year of the Pig

I finally snail-mailed my annual Lunar New Year card!I sketch an idea on any old scrap paper then start refining it using pencil on tracing paper. When I have a drawing I like I ink over it using a narrow Micron pen. The reason I use tracing paper is you can see through it, and at some point I might want to change the composition by flipping the image… Easy as pie! Don’t even have to redraw it.Here are the pens used for this project. Berol Prismacolor art markers have a wide chisel tip and a narrow tip in one marker. Great for quick strokes of color. The Pigma Graphic, by Sakura, is permanent ink, too. It comes in many different widths. I used it for the Squiggle girl’s hair and facial features.If the final paper is too thick to see the drawing through it to trace via a light table, or up against a window, I use graphite paper instead to transfer the image. First the paper, then the graphite paper – graphite side down – then the drawing on top of that, and ‘trace’ over the lines with a hard sharp pencil (2 H or 4 H):Next I paint over the graphite lines in single brush strokes of gouache (goo-wash, an opaque watercolor), changing the color a bit every stroke or so for fun. My two favorite brands of gouache are Winsor & Newton (England) and Royal Talens (Holland). I have favorite brushes too. Of course the primo brush is Winsor & Newton “Series 7” sable. But they’re very expensive and gouache is particularly hard on fine haired brushes, wearing down their tips pretty quickly. Recently I discovered the “Umbria” series by Princeton Art & Brush Co, made especially for gouache, and gave it a whirl. It’s a new fav! Finally I add my signature “chop” – which says the sound of my first name in two ancient Chinese pictograms side by side – ‘P’ + ‘eer’, carved for me years ago by a Beijing artist, “A National Treasure,” visiting Seattle. My Year of the Monkey post, 2016 – click HERE – gives a different step-by-step of the process. All my New Year cards feature this imaginative “Squiggle Girl,” from the picture book, The Squiggle, by Carole Lexa Schaefer and illustrated by moi – Pierr !Here’s to a creative year! ~ xo Pierr

 

Freehand Friday: “The Chicken And The Egg”

Since the 1st century philosophers puzzling cause and effect have wondered – which came first, the chicken or the egg? Recently, in our 21st century, physicists have shown that in parallel universes of quantum physics, the chicken AND the egg can both come first.

The art I share today is my whimsical glimpse into one such universe and what could be going on there at this very moment.I used gouache (goo-wash) and ink in a resist technique. Thinking backwards, I paint pattern first to stain the paper……then general colors over the pattern, leaving the paper blank where I want a black line.The scene fills in this way with more details and general color over them. I tape the piece to the bottom of an enamelware pan (waterproof) with Artist Tape (blue painter’s tape works as well)……then cover the foreground and borders with black waterproof ink (Higgins “Black Magic” is my fav).Then I let water from the kitchen faucet run over it. Water beating on the piece dissolves the paint which pushes the ink off itself, leaving a stain of color – and ink – where the paper was blank or where gouache wasn’t painted thick enough to resist the ink. This allows for surprise and that ‘happy accident’ which I love. The painting is usually a potato chip after this step, so I blow dry it flat again, then remove the tape.Final touch-ups are easy because gouache is opaque and will cover excess ink, or colors I might decide I want to brighten or change.For that Medieval illuminated manuscript look, metallic watercolor from Daniel Smith Art Supply in Seattle works wonders.Tonight – March 1, 2019 – the group show, Chickens: Birds of a Feather, opens at TAP (The Art Project), a gallery on Bainbridge Island, WA. The show is up through March 31.Thanks for attending my first “Freehand Friday.” My plan is to share something of my art process with you each week, to motivate me to keep on creating more and more new drawings and paintings. Ba-BOK! xo ~ Pierr

Pond Wednesday: The Edge

Walk the edge this week. To peace. To adventure. ~ xo Pierr

Pond Wednesday: Tulips In!

Fresh from the grocery, already grown six inches overnight! Tulips are my favorite. They inspire me to create. Talismans, like this wooden lotus from Thailand, the heavy clay house I made in fifth grade, a poppy pitcher from Droll Designs , a frog box made in Bali, and a frog painting I made for a library summer reading program back in the early ’90’s.

Tulips indoors light my imagination and encourage it to grow every minute as they do. Here’s to a week of being lit by Nature’s brilliance! ~ xo Pierr

Thank You!

For all your follows and all your likes – your Elevated Hearts – THANK YOU!! May you lavish your Self this special day…all year long! ~ xo Pierr

Pond Wednesday: FEB 13

Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows. ~ Native American Proverb