ART CHALLENGE - 2nd of 5 days

I'm re-posting my response to Facebook's Art Challenge here on our blog, so my friends not on FB can see the pictures too. Also so I can add more pictures. Yay! Then, a reconsideration of what I think I'm doing with art-making will have some basis in the work, not just be so theoretical.

These pictures for CHALLENGE DAY 2 are all about what medium to use for what. Colored pencil, pastel, oil, acrylic, watercolor... paper, board, canvas... do I like one better than another? Is one more expressive than the rest? Well, of course, the answer is obvious: they're all fine, and it really depends on 1) what you have to hand, 2) how you feel on the day, 3) how much time you have, and your circumstances.

So each of these pictures illustrates a different medium...

Pastel pencil on colored paper. 19th-century natural-light Galerie d'anatomic comparatif, in the Jardin des plantes, Paris. Standing for hours, with people brshing by, narrow aisles, curious children. This guy is their sample of homo sapiens sapiens. A complete skeleton, but after this much I went on to other creatures, turtles, birds, prehistoric fishes. A great museum!

Here's another pencil sketch, done on the same trip, in the Place des Vosges on a beautiful sunny day. 

First pencil, then pen, then color. I thought how loving this couple was - sitting bent over pushed into each other. Then it turned out they were playing with a cell phone, in the very early days of cell phones. Oh well.

Oil pastel on board. On 8th Street SE in DC, what used to be the offices of the Shakespeare Theater. Burgeoning with energy as I saw it. Now they've moved, but they have the picture.

And here's another oil pastel, based on a woman picking out a fish at the Maine Street SW Fish Market. Oh, it took her forever! I had plenty of time for a sketch of her, for sketching the fish, the whole thing, before she ever moved. The oil pastel is based on the pencil sketch.

Acrylic on canvas. Neptune in his fountain, in front of the Congressional Library in DC. What a great sculpture! Such attitude!

And here are a couple more acrylics, both on canvas, as I experimented with the medium, learning its advantages and limitations:

 A small picture based on a Japanese wood-block print, but brought into the present day with our green plastic lawn chair. I was playing with edges, outlining the forms of the chair and the woman.

Little boats at Daingerfield Island marina in Alexandria, VA. It was winter. It was cold. The boats were empty, waiting for spring. 

Oil painting on canvas, my last. With charcoal. On the left, a little pot that Julianne made years ago, and also two small vases from Judith Henchy. It was fun to do.

Acrylic, on plywood, a DCAAH project led by Anne Marchand for the fire-ravaged windows of The Eastern Market, in 2007. She's leaning forward at the window smiling at the construction workers repairing the building - that's the idea. But the construction workers couldn't stand the lean - they insisted on making her stand up straight, so she looked off into space with that silly smile. Oh well. I discovered I liked working with acrylic.

Watercolor on paper, I think. Or, is it thinned-down acrylic paint used like a watercolor? Does it have elements of colored pencil? It's almost life-size. Just goes to show - it's all good.

A couple more watercolors, as I was learning to handle the medium. The first is small, looking to overlap forms convincingly. The second is quite large, done in a studio session with a model at the Gage Academy in Seattle, right after I came back from Europe and didn't care. I like its loose playfulness.

And the last medium I feel comfortable with, block cuts. This one, below, is a woodcut done in a class at Smithsonian Associates, based on a news photo of dancers.

So, what to make of all these media? is one preferable? The Art Challenge continues!

by Nancy