Carrasco Studio

The Spinach that Ate Seattle

No, I have not abandoned the Art World.  I have not flown up on my own private rapture.

I have been waiting for the planets to align so I can get photos of this year's big mural projects.....about three of them.  However, due to Seattle's extremely wet winter, the stucco has sprung a leak  for the site of my three 5'x 9' canvases. The wine room client has had to have surgery, and the 9'x12' mural in CleElum is installed, but the furniture has to be just right before the client will set up for photos.  Sigh. Life.

So, I have been busy with my other art....gardening.  Note the size of the spinach  on the right hand  side of my raised box and other spinach slithering along at the box base.  I got the seeds from Annie's Annuals and Perennials and the combination of rain and compost  and this special seed has created acromeglic spinach. Huge, and more huge.

  Phil is getting tired of spinach dishes and the whole green thing is getting out of hand.  We've started to go to bed with a machete on the bedstand.

Also, we have put in a living room space in our basement apartment, and it has really amped up it's cuteness factor. (and we can charge more)

Got a new sleeper sofa, found the 50's TV trays at a neighbor's estate sale, and a real little Persian rug at a dry cleaners. Phil worried about the vases tipping over, but I told him that for 99 cents at Goodwill, we could deal with a little tipping.

And, I lowered my standards (and enjoyed it) by painting some Sofa Paintings. Two acrylics...sort of color fieldish with some leaf and water elements, and a gouache ala DeKooning/Carrasco for old times sake. Like when I struggled in Painting 101.

Leaf color field                                                                                    5'x 2' Acrylic on Canvas

Leaf color field                                                                                  3'x 1.5' Acrylic on canvas

Garden Frenzy                                                                 20" x 30" Gouache over watercolor

Hint: I painted the gouache over a big watercolor I screwed up....it was really fun....worked mostly with chip brushes, sharp points to scratch with and pastel pencils. I think I'll do more of these.  After 40 years, I finally got the hang of it.  Besides, I have enough messups in watercolor to keep me busy for a while.

Abstract art is a lot harder, in my opinion, because you don't have the resonance of an image to play against.

And Phil  had real challenges with making the new room watertight. Seattle basements always leak.  I thought Lynne would appreciate this, since she has an artisian well in her basement.  Note also that Phil has installed earthquake plates all around the foundation of our house.  San Francisco is not the only shaker and mover along this ring of fire!

I made the mistake of showing Phil  the levels of finish for sheet rock that Regina featured on Fauxology. Now I warrant that our renter will be the only one living in a level 5 finished apartment!  Painstaking.

Sheet rock knees.  A disease of carpenters.

And also, I've been working on a series of watercolors called, eponymously, "Clear Water"  They are quite large, some of them.....20" by 30", and so far I have about 10 I like.  Here's one.

And then.....I have developed 4 images for a children's nursery that I plan to reproduce.  But I'm keeping those under my hat until their grand opening.......

So, you see.  I haven't been lolling on the couch eating bon bons.

 

West Seattle Blog Ruins Tour and CandP Watercolor classes

Hey people...take a look at the West Seattle Blog article about my work and my classes in the March 21 !  Ellen Cedargreen wrote the article and took the photos during my tour of the Ruins and also put in a plug for my classes.  Thanks Ellen!  Thanks West Seattle Blog!  My infamy increases.

Photo by Robert Pisano            The Ruins Ballroom.  40’ by 30’ by 17’ high.

 

Here I was, ready to install after two years of work.

The Pacific Northwest Primeval cartouche ..15’ by 17’ Part of the Ruins Ballroom.

The Nez Perce Cartouche 17’ by 8’  Part of the Ruins Ball Room

J. Edgar Hoofer.  4’ by 2.5’  (in the entry) Part of a series I painted of 30’s political characters. Mr. Hoofer, here, is a cross-dressing zebra.  John Swartley designed the format for all 6 characters.

BTW, the food at the Ruins is fabulous.

And here’s a shot of my wonderful students in a class  a couple of winters ago.

(Each class unit has a different focus....this next unit (starting tonight at CandP Coffee 5612 California Ave SW Seattle, WA 98136-1515(206) 933-3125) will feature spring, animals, color theory and creation of space with values and aerial perspective.  All levels of skills welcome.

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.

Gather Ye Rosebuds

 

We had a fine time with painting images of flowers at Susan Allemand's studio. There were ten students, from beginners to professionals, and they did great. As I tell students, everyone starts where they are at.

We worked with Golden Liquid Acrylics on Roclon canvas, and we talked about how this combination worked especially well with painting flowers.  Flower petals, for the most part, are transparent, tender forms, and watercolor paintings of flowers, because of this transparency, are especially effective.  The techniques of watercolor....glazes, transparent levels of pigment...are easily transferable to working with acrylics on canvas....especially  Golden Liquid Acrylics mixed with medium or water on Roclon canvas. 

Roclon canvas doesn't need to be stretched before painting, and because of it's unique blend of cotton and polyester and texture, washes and glazes of acrylics go on beautifully.  The artist has a choice to built texture and opaque paint if they wish.

The class tried some single blooms....roses and peonies first.....and some did bouquets later.

And some rugged individuals did palm trees! (It pleases me when I see people pushing in different directions.)  I DO NOT teach splinter skills.  These techniques are effective for many approaches and subjects...from abstract to figurative....flowers petals, water, glass and splashes of color with great marks.  Try them all.

I get depressed and irked when students strive for a perfect copy of my work, take it home and put it on their website as their originals.  First of all, they are not me and their body talks differently from my body. Secondly, it always looks like student work because....well, it does. No ifs ands or buts about it.  Also, it crosses an ethical line.

Your creativity is a precious gift. If you never use it and continue to copy and copy, it will atrophy.  If you use an age old motif, ie. an acanthus leaf border, somehow expand it to make it your own.

I also demonstrated how I created borders with acrylic metallic tube paint (more body) on Roclon. (Roclon doesn't fray) and mounted it with wallpaper paste on a rigid surface.   With the right paste, you can remove the mural if you want after a few years without doing damage to either the mural or the wall.  Another method is to attach grommets and hang the painting like a tapestry.  Lori Wilson of Golden Acrylics showed me how to do that.  Another tapestry look can be achieved by hanging the work over a painted dowel.

Transparency, layers of color, organic forms overlapping in subtle arrangements of color and shape and value.  Sounds like a rose, doesn't it? 

Name this Rose                             ©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/23/42