Ode to the Blue Jeans and other stories

From my rag bag came a leg of jeans, the lovely frayed knee catching my attention.  With a few small cuts I could tear up this leg and embed its pieces on a wood square with gesso and then with wax.  With a couple of days paint layering, I now have an ode to these well worn jeans.  Working with fabrics and textures suit my weaver self and color play is always a lift.

detail--a different way of seeing it

This piece is on paper.  I am working with a student who wants to see how I "do things", so I am experimenting.  I thought she might like to paint on a larger surface, but that was scary to her.  I decided I ought to demonstrate...oil on paper, which seeped through a bit so I gessoed over the painting and added more oil paint.  Anna looked at it and said "It's leaning!"  We talked about figurative painting having images for the mind to identify with...well, abstract paintings have images for emotions to identify with....hmmmm...always learning comes with experimentation.  I call this painting "Emotional Lean"--20x30.

This is a beginning using pre gessoed canvas which didn't stretch well enough, so I layered on some silk chiffon and a magazine page, ripped...gessoed onto the surface, oil pastel and thin oil paint.  I was surprised to realize that several of the last paintings were in  a similar color range....my spring thing?  This is far from finished, but dinner is smelling divine...so I guess this post is finished.

Thanks to all you have come to visit me here in this experimental space.