The Thoughts Behind A Simple Whale- Orca

I have been making quilts- that are really large canvases in some cases. Here's a very busy piece called "Code Talker" - It has an oil painting to go with it, which is not yet finished.

I have some videos up called The Circle of Integrity of Art- in which I take my work through three or four stages until I know I have an image or subject as I want it. Each of my art quilts is part of one of these sets, and leads to two oil paintings, and sometimes smaller drawings.

I'll put a photo of this complete set here when I get it more organized. I plan on giving the quilts and some other aspects of each set away, and I keep the paintings. Each set has a whale painting as the main (resulting) image.

I've done many of the whale paintings already- so the quilt sets are actually backing up the image, as if I have taken apart my thinking as to how I got to such a simple whale painting (with so many thoughts as I paint).

#903 Orca (Killer) Whale in oil on canvas, 6 x 18

Orca seems to go with this busy quilt - the other painting is of a crow, the quilt images are fish, eagle, jeep - and as I said "Code Talker", I can assume that all of my thoughts when painting the Orca were about Code Talking. The crow painting is called "Crow has the Secrets"

Even though I am "backing into" my own thought process, an Orca would see a jeep on land perhaps, would see crows, maybe an eagle - it's all as if I have been seeing my painting through the eyes of the whale. And the crow has the secrets.

Before my epilepsy got as bad as it is now- I never wondered how or why I painted what I painted, I just did it. But having the whale paintings up, and seeing all these thoughts in the painting, has prompted me to define them.

The piece I am working on now is a Fin whale, will have a Civil War quilt, a Cape Cod coloring book, and grey wool socks as "thought" elements. 42 pair of grey wool socks. This is where the abstract thinking comes in- why would a Fin whale know about 42 pairs (6 wks worth) socks?

The Coast Guard-and a boat on a six week trip offshore. A pair of clean socks for each day-so, this leads me to hope maybe a Fin whale followed a Coast Guard boat around for awhile.-My epilepsy leaves me unable to speak English at times,which is probably why I'm defining thoughts on the level of literally "making" them- quilts, two paintings, Christmas items or gifts, aspects of life all behind a whale painting - as if you could peek behind the painting and see how it got there. Simple images do not mean poor painting imagination.

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One of my favorite paintings is an oil I did many years ago.  Originally it was painted on a canvas panel.  For some reason, I felt the canvas would be better off the cardboard panel, so I removed it.  And then got distracted and the canvas was lying flat with some derivative pieces of it for a few months.

Much to my horror, something had been placed on it with weight and there were suddenly two large areas with removal of paint, and a crack where it had become folded.  So much for the idea of flexible oils.  I bought it some stretcher strips and re-mounted it.  It has been a couple of months.  It has flattened out, but the cracks are still visible. I have just repaired the two areas of paint removal.  Lesson learned (that I already knew) paint them and keep them as if its forever to avoid damage.

"The Yellow Flower" No. 368 painted in 1999, Winsor and Newton Artist's Oil Colors
(c) laeom

I haven't decided yet what to do about the cracks - filling them in carefully will still leave a bump. This painting and I have been best friends for many years.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

My father fought in the Korean War, and for the past three years I have been making quilts in his honor for Veterans. I am taking my Dad with me to a new fight regarding North Korea. Peace.

Nuclear War is not a fixable choice. The @POTUS sham summit with North Korea, the slap in the face of Veterans, the treasonous salute to a N.K. General - well, my father respected peace more than war.

Off and on throughout my art career I have drawn / painted pears. Like Vincent and his sunflowers, for me, pears reflect our condition in our environment. With my epilepsy and PTSD being worse right now due to strains inflicted by this administration, I'm going to focus on pears for a while. Oil pastels are almost a perfect medium if you have one subject you want to depict. I have a set of 60 Sennelier Oil pastels - consistent colors for a series of Pears. On 5 x 7 canvas panels.









Number 720 "Orange Pear" (c) laeom

I have been doing so many different projects, I have not had time to blog!. I am working on clay statues of our animals, using Roma Plastilina professional clay.  I have just finished one of my son's dog Bailey, and am finishing one of our cat Ceasar. Photos to follow.

I have also been working with fiber arts, generally knitting spools circles that become paintings. One project that has been waiting is my metalpoint drawings.  I have several, on marbledust and wood, that I have wanted to either tint with water color, paint in oil, or some other method of bringing the metal drawings into the realm of color.  I have decided to do this with oil pastel.  I use all types of oil pastels- Cray Pas, Gallery, Cray Pas Expressionist, Caran D'Ache, and Sennelier.  And, for Mother's Day, my son just bought me a wonderful box of Senneliers.!!!

This is the 50 color wood box set, from Dick Blick.  I can't wait til they get here! Sennelier makes the softest oil pastels, and they are luxurious! I generally use them for a top layer, and use other less expensive (harder) oil pastels for the underneath layers of color.  Below is "The Look" (c) laeom, oil pastel on marbledust and rabbitskin glue on wood, 6" x 6".  This is our cat Moochie aka Munchkin.

This was done mostly in Sennelier oil pastels. Oil pastel is a wonderful way to express! THANKS to my son, a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

I Pledge Allegiance

Knit American

New Look

While beginning to knit socks for my quilts for veterans sets, I realized all of my yarns are foreign although they are sold in America by American companies. Yes I did some screaming at Lion Brand Yarn because I am in shock they do not make but 3 of their yarns.

I am going to be focusing on hand spinning wool and knitting socks using American-made tools. Supporting American industries, whether sheep farmers or cotton growers is very important.

My artwork is currently sculpture of my animals and I will add posts here about those as well.

Saving Edward

One thing that happens with any type of metalpoint drawing is that the drawing fades.  For example, I gave my sister a drawing of a pear done in gold. It has faded out to be almost invisible.  That is because the metal interacts with the atmosphere, giving off particles.  Some metals fade faster than others, some, like aluminum, hardly fade.  I thought this was mainly apparent with gold, and I don't work in gold often.  However, when unpacking and checking some of my artwork, I found that some of my copperpoint drawings are fading.

Originally, metal was used for drawing before a painting was completed, being the original under-drawing of an oil or egg tempera painting. Some artists, but not many, work strictly in metal as a finished piece, and that was my position when I did many of my metal drawings.  But I don't want to lose Edward.  Edward is a character I have drawn a couple of times, and now he is fading.  I am going to paint him in oil over the copperpoint, and will do the same for some of my palest drawings.  Edward, fading, is on marbledust and rabbitskin glue on wood, and the surface the drawing is on can affect the fading effect.  "Chinese white" or Winsor and Newton Designer's Gouache in Zinc White give a surface that has slightly less fading.  Below is Edward, copperpoint:

and below are some other examples of copperpoint and fading:

Wait til you see these in color!

Update: I do love drawings in copperpoint, but I did have to save these from fading.  Below are "Edward" and "Best Face Forward" in their initial oil color layers:

I will be adding a few more layers of color before these are finished.

Update: July 31, 2017  Finished with "Edward" and "Best Face Forward" - copperpoint under oil under crayon, on wood. (c) laeom