I have been doing a lot of work in the studio, but little of it has anything to do with artistic expression. It has been mostly sanding, wall and trim painting, dusting, sorting and general organizing of supplies. Over a lifetime an artist collects enough materials to open their own art supply store. For these materials to be usable they each have to be stored a certain way. Some papers should be rolled, some should be stored flat and all must be stored out of direct light. And that's just the papers. There are the exacto razors, scissors, pens, pencils, tapes, glues which need little cubbies and drawers. Then there are the shelves for gesso primer, painting mediums, glazes and paint. Stretched canvases need to be stored on a wrack that we are designing and building to suit my specific needs. Let's just say it's enough to keep me busy for quite a while.
There's busy, and there's productive. As an artist I have not been productive in too long a time. So I challenged myself to enter a juried competition. I looked through a series of listings and decided to enter a small works show. The description is deceiving, because it means big time art in a limited number of square inches. Since I had no current works, I would have to produce the work, ... in ten days- three works in ten days. It took five pieces before I had three that I thought were good enough to enter.
I love these marbles. I love their spherical shape. I love the crazy wonderful colors. I love the highlights and the shadows. I never tire of drawing them. They are equally sophisticated and playful. They pose a number of challenges, but there's excitement about solving the design problems and watching these shapes come to life on a sheet of gray pastel paper. In the past I used pastel to render marble drawings. This time I decided to use colored pencils so I could crispy render my subjects in this small space. I stretched myself as an artist and although it was a lot of pressure, I'm glad I did.
