Archive for the 'Canvas' Category

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In the Studio.

Kat Johnston - A work in progress is always fun, isn't it?

I decided that I would throw up a work in progress for you, since I have been throwing up sketches left and right recently. Unfortunately, due to study commitments, the ability to find enough time to go and paint at all has been difficult. Nevertheless, before the work-load got too over the top, I was able to get started on this piece of work.

A while back, I did a series of artworks which involved a lot of experimentation… some of it worked, some of it didn’t. What I did find during that series, however, was a technique I think I will be coming back to again and again since the results were so ideally perfect that I was literally bouncing up and down clapping my hands after I put the final coat of glaze over the piece. Long story short, the technique is just a particular method of building up colour and producing a fine texture across the work.

When I discovered this pre-stretched canvas along with all the rest, I knew it was a perfect opportunity to play with something along those lines again. The canvas has a rather pronounced imperfection which makes it unsuitable for ‘regular’ artworks. There is a huge gouge in the smooth surface of the canvas which just makes it unworkable for me (which can’t even be seen by this far-away shot of the canvas… its there, trust me). When I see something like this, however, I can’t help but feel that it is an opportunity to play with it, to turn this imperfection into something beautiful rather than shunning it for marring a perfectly otherwise-useable canvas. Its a canvas that is going to make me work around it, rather than the other way around. Quirky, but fun, because I think we’re going to be challenging each other a bit along the way.

A Rat Painting in Progress.

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Time to actually do some painting… something that I have somewhat neglected recently, until my loving husband and turned around to give me a bit of a gentle nudge in the ‘I want to see you painting again’ direction. So here starts a new piece… I know that there are many that I should go back and actually finish… some of which I actually -want- to finish… but, they are just going to have to wait for the moment as I re-hone my skills once more on this wonderful little rattie.

Not really all that much to see yet – white pencil on black canvas, at this point… I’ve come to realize that I am rather loving starting to work from a black base, and building up from there… the canvas is actually a fair amount larger than the tiny snippet you see there, but this is the most detailed section sketched out at this point… so you get to see this portion!

More to come when there is more done. That’s all for today!