“I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.” Ernst Fischer

April 12, 2015 | ssemchuk

April 12, 2015

And here she is – finished. I think. I will have to take another look later on this week and decide for sure.

“The work of art is a scream of freedom.” – Christo

April 6, 2015 | ssemchuk

April 6, 2015

Francine WIP, Apr 5, 2015, Mixed Media on Canvas, 36″ X 24″

I believe this is almost finished – just a few areas that I feel need more work. The photo isn’t wonderful – there is a lot of reflection off of the sheen of the background – a result of the linseed oil I used on the background to maintain a level of transparency. Now I’m trying to encourage my kids to make me more origami creatures so that I can continue on with this theme. Either that or I am going to have to take up the hobby myself…

“We work in the dark — we do what we can — we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.” -Henry James

March 22, 2015 | ssemchuk

March 22, 2015

Spent a little more time working on this one. I want some of the book paper to show through in the background, so I am working with chromatic black and zinc white for drapery as they are more transparent than the ivory black and titanium white I usually work with – and used for the crane. I combined them with a generous amount of linseed oil to work with them as glazes. It needs a lot of work yet and I have to decide how much I want to show through. Still a work in progress…

“If nothing else is left, one must scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.” – Nadezhda Mandelstam

March 15, 2015March 15, 2015 | ssemchuk

March 15, 2015

Storm, Mar 14, 2015, Oil on Canvas board, 6″ X 6″

So I’ve started working on a commission based on A Crane Called Frank. And I thought I would play with some of the oil mediums to see if they might be something I want to use in this new painting (which I’m calling Francine at the moment). I tried out Galkyd, Neo Megilp and Galkyd Gel. And in the process this small storm ensued.

And here is the beginning of Francine. I’m just building the background now. Chances are very little of this will be visible in the final painting, but we’ll see. I just need to put on a few coats of clear gesso to seal it really well and I will be ready to go.

Lastly, here are a couple of drawings from this week. One from a figure drawing class that I’m doing – no, she did not have an inordinately large head, I just messed up the scale – and a small drawing I did during the week while thinking about folded paper in preparation to begin Francine.