Finished Pieces

“My art may be conceived during a hedonistic Bohemian love-in with the muse…

| ssemchuk

July 4, 2016

“My art may be conceived during a hedonistic Bohemian love-in with the muse, but it comes into the world, like any birth, with labour. Always.”
Vertical Tulip, Jul 2, 2016, Oil on Canvas, 24″ X 36″
Vertical Tulip, Jul 2, 2016, Oil on Canvas, 24″ X 36″
Finished! I feel like this painting has taken far longer than it should have. It’s been a busy June. July looks like it may include a little more freedom and so I have taken up a daily challenge this month. For each day in July, I will create one small ink drawing and play a little with watercolour. I have almost zero experience with watercolour, but I do have this great little travel set of paints to use. So far, I am finding it … challenging. Perhaps by the end of it I will have gained some sort of proficiency. … or not. Either way, it’s something new. I’m posting the images to Instagram daily and will add them to my weekly posts here as well.

July 1
July 2
July 3
July 4

“Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary.” – Amédée Ozenfant

| ssemchuk

May 30, 2016

In 2013 I attended Series Summer Art School at Red Deer College and worked under the instruction of Jen Mallinson for a week playing with her plaster technique that combined acrylic paint, plaster and an assortment of other materials to create unique backgrounds. In Jen’s work, she would often complete her pieces with beautiful charcoal figure drawings. I left the week long workshop with a number of panels ready to go. This weekend I finished one of those panels. The results are below.

Series WIP, Aug 1, 2013, Mixed Media on Panel, 20" X 20"
Series WIP, Aug 1, 2013, Mixed Media on Panel, 20″ X 20″

 

Cowering Cups, May 28, 2016, Mixed Media on Panel, 20" X 20"
Cowering Cups, May 28, 2016, Mixed Media on Panel, 20″ X 20″

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is a hallucinating idiot…for he sees what no one else does: things that, to everyone else, are not there.” ― Marshall McLuhan

| ssemchuk

April 11, 2016

Circle Composition One, Apr 10, 2016, Oil on Canvas, 6" X 6"
Circle Composition One, Apr 10, 2016, Oil on Canvas, 6″ X 6″

Something new: I’ve decided to play around with a series of 6″ X 6″ canvases that I have been asking to be made useful. This is the first of a series that will consist of circle patterns and a limited palette. Colours used are Cadmium Red Deep, Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Green and Titanium White.

“Nobody is smarter than you are. And what if they are? What good is their understanding doing you?” ― Terence McKenna

| ssemchuk

April 4, 2016

Stencil One WIP, Mar 20, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 6" X 6"
Stencil One WIP, Mar 20, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 6″ X 6″ – photo taken after step 7.
Stencil One WIP, Apr 3A, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 6″ X 6″
Stencil One WIP, Apr 3A, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 6″ X 6″ – photo taken after step 9.
Stencil One, Apr 3, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 6″ X 6″
Stencil One, Apr 3, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 6″ X 6″ – end result after step 10.

In January I attended a demo of Golden products where I was inspired to pick up a few new items to try out. This isn’t exactly what I had hoped it would be, but I learned some things along the way. Here’s my process:

  1. Black gesso on the edges of a 6″ X 6″ canvas
  2. Golden fibre paste applied with a stencil to create a raised design
  3. Slight sanding of the fibre paste to soften the edges a bit – this wasn’t all that effective due to the spring of the canvas though
  4. Soaked the surface fairly thoroughly by spraying it with water
  5. Applied drops of Golden high flow acrylics: indigo, dioxazine purple, green gold, iridescent pearl
  6. Applied spray inks
  7. Sprayed water here and there, removed water here and there, all rather haphazardly
  8. Repeated steps 5-7 again
  9. Three thick coats of Golden clear tar gel. A slight misting of rubbing alcohol helped to eliminate the bubbles on the surface.
  10. Hand-lettered text added with a Golden marker and high flow acrylic in Indigo

Notes:

  1. As much as I tried, I was unable to get the hi-flow acrylic to bleed like watercolour. I will play with this more and see if I can accomplish it yet.
  2. I really should have taken another photo after I finished adding colour and before the clear tar gel (next time I will)
  3. I’m a little concerned that the very thick layer of clear tar gel may crack as I chose a canvas support for this one. I will try it on masonite next to see what happens there.
  4. I had wanted to build the tar gel up until it created a smooth surface, but at three coats it seemed to becoming the slightest bit cloudy so I stopped there, even though it still has uneven areas.
  5. I like the depth that is created between the background and the paint applied to the surface of the tar gel. It might be interesting to build up an image between layers of tar gel to see what that would do.
  6. Next time I clean the marker, I have to remember to remove the ball-bearings from the marker BEFORE dumping any unused paint down the drain. Sadly, I did NOT do this and my ball-bearings are now somewhere in the drain system rather than in the marker itself.

The text I chose was inspired by:

  • Austin Kleon
  • the last four kilometres of my long run yesterday in preparation for next month’s half-marathon
  • the general malaise and lack of inspiration I’ve been experiencing in my artwork lately.

I’m still working on my second experimental stencil piece and we’ll see how that one turns out.

 

“Writing about art is only useful when it leads to the experience of art.” – Darby Bannard

| ssemchuk

February 8, 2016

Something a little different today. On December 31, my kids and I visited the Art Gallery of Alberta. One of the exhibitions was of the work of Chris Cran – my current favourite Alberta artist. After seeing some of his work with paintings of half-toned images, I thought I’d play a little. This is more of an experiment to see how the technique would work in preparation to play with these ideas more in future pieces.

Pink Stripes WIPA, Feb 7, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 6" X 6"
Pink Stripes WIPA, Feb 7, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 6″ X 6″

I started by painting the surface of a 6″ X 6″ canvas with flourescent pink acrylic paint and the edges with black gesso. Then I taped stripes onto the surface and covered it with a layer of acrylic gloss medium.

Pink Stripes WIPB, Feb 7, 2016, Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 6" X 6"
Pink Stripes WIPB, Feb 7, 2016, Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 6″ X 6″

I proceeded to paint a half-toned image over the tape in oil paint. While the paint was still wet, I removed the tape.

Pink Stripes, Feb 7, 2016, Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 6" X 6"
Pink Stripes, Feb 7, 2016, Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 6″ X 6″

One of the questions that this experiment poses is, how much of an image do we have to have available to us in order to understand what we’re seeing? There is a lot of room for improvement with this. One of the biggest problems here is that my scale is all wrong. But it’s the first one. I will continue to play with this idea for a bit and see what I can come up with.

“There is no must in art because art is free.” – Wassily Kandinsky

| ssemchuk

December 6, 2015

Lone Lemon
Lone Lemon, Dec 5, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 10″ X 10″

Another experiment. I find if I call it an experiment when I set out, I feel less attached to the results. If it isn’t successful, it’s not a failed piece of art, but a learning experience. I’ve been feeling a little caged-in lately and this new experimental approach is my response to that. I was trying to paint quickly here, using more colour in my shadows and more broad areas of colour with less blending and less ‘preciousness’. I’m not thrilled with the lemon, but that’s ok. It is what it is and I will go on from here…