I really thought that January would be a welcomed relief to all the madness that we had last year. The election would be over, the pandemic would be winding down…..Silly me!. Well thank goodness I can escape to my studio. I have been working on several projects. Here are three of them. They are small- 6 x 6 gallery wrapped. I am not sure why at this time of the year I am so drawn to the birds. Maybe because they are here in great numbers at the back yard feeder and in our woods. Their behaviors are so fascinating. I literally can watch them for hours.
The paintings that I have included are the result of some of my impressions. I really had fun doing these. Generally I paint in a single medium. About 3 years ago I worked with some of the parishioners at the local Methodist church. They wanted to paint icons. Some fashioned the icons in the Greek or Russian Orthodox style and some of them created their own style. We worked in acrylics and gold leaf. After we painted those icons, I became really interested in using the gold leaf in my studio work, but I was stymied, because I wanted to work primarily in oil, not acrylics with the gold leaf. Oil has some wonky properties and rules that have to be strictly followed. It is not as forgiving with other mediums as are water-based mediums. It has taken me 2 years, but finally I started experimenting.- of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the influence of Gustav Klimt’s work. I am pleased with these gilded birds and looking forward to further experimentation and expansion of this style. I like the abstracted realism. I also think that I will try casein and gouache with metal leaf. But Casein and Gouache have a flat appearance and in my mind can’t rival the beautiful depth of oil. We will see where this leads to!
Aside from the paintings above and the 6.5 inches of snow that we had Sunday, other news that I have: my web page has been updated. www.tylerstudio.org . So go visit it. Give me some slack because I am in the process of updating the content. I really like the new look. Dana Hewling of b.iD is my web master. She created the web page 6 years ago so it was time for it to get a face lift and be simplified. A lot of my artist friends brag that they do their own web pages…. well I decided after 2 years of trying to create a web page-that was not my forte. Now my big job is to keep painting and posting my work on it.
I wish everyone health and love, until next time. Susan
