Linderman Law Studio

From the last week of February through mid March the Linderman Law Art Studio got a healthy workout. Judy Dahl and I resurrected tandem paintings that had, for a couple of years, sat in the acrylic underpainting stage. 

February 24th, Judy and I get the first layer of oil down

In order to get back working in the oils while they were still wet, I insisted that we return to the studio the very next day ...

February 25th, Judy defines tree branches

This was when we had a visit from Rob Vogt, reporter, writer, and photographer for the Claresholm Local Press, who kindly saw to it that the following was in the newspaper's March 5th issue ...   

February 27th, young Tess was back for the Van Gogh Lesson. As a reference, we used a painting of mine (from a few years back) to begin a sunflower in acrylic. 

Tess, with her sunflower at the acrylic underpainting stage

It's awfully easy to go into overtime during these painting lessons ...

Helping Tess paint the sides of her canvas while her mom waits!

On March 14th, the paint was really flying around the studio as we covered the acrylic sunflower with a thick layer of luscious, oil paint!

Tess loved working in oil!

Tess was especially happy when it was time to carve out, using a rubber tipped tool, Van Gogh-like swirls, into the blue sky. 

On March 3rd, the Linderman boys took the winter watercolour painting lesson ...

Dan and Tom got right into splattering on the blizzard snow

Tom and Dan with their finished watercolours

March 10th was the day Judy Dahl brought her granddaughter, Jackie, to the studio. With my friend in town it was a given that we'd enjoy an afternoon of mixed media which Meg Nicks is so incredibly adept at it. Generous in sharing her knowledge and materials, you'll always learn something new when Meg is in the room!

Judy with Meg ... a master of mixed media with no fear when it comes to paint, colour and texture!

Judy, Jackie and yours truly. As is often the case, there were a lot of pieces started that afternoon!

Things have been a bit quiet in the studio these past couple of weeks, but it's about to rev up here in a few days!

Myself and anyone who enjoys time at the Linderman Law Studio have art patron Karen Linderman to thank for making it all possible! 

   

Bill's Altered Cigar Box

Bill's attraction to cigar boxes isn't new, but his thought to alter them is. Some ideas arrive with a big bang, while others come gradually. Such was his concept to alter a cigar box as a gift for Denise's recent birthday.

Bill's finished "Denise" cigar box lid

He utilized images of cigar box labels which appealed to him and then added personal touches.  As a master of Photoshop, Bill cleverly replaced the faces of the artist's renderings below with those of our daughter and her husband ... 

It's tedious work, masking out areas of existing images, adjusting suitable photos to fit and then seamlessly blending the edges of both.

Larry is on the inside, cover flap while their daughter, Avery, adorns the inside of lid

Those of you who have met Larry know just how well this character (a pirate as he calls it) suits him!

Avery who is five years old

Bill's gift to Denise was completely unexpected. The sheer joy and delight is easily seen in her facial expressions ...

The gifting was an enormous hit, everyone loved seeing themselves altered!

More joy and downright happy, gut laughter ...

Checking out The Pirate!

What a thrill is was to see Bill's efforts so well rewarded!

Tree of Life

TREE OF LIFE, acrylic mixed media 12" x 12" on a 2" deep, cradled panel 

Last year, our daughter commented on how her five-year-old daughter already has quite the collection of my mixed media paintings. As well, wasn't my gift of The Eye of Ra (for their wedding anniversary) really for her husband? Point taken. For Denise's birthday, I knew what I had to do.

Concepts alluded me until Bill's suggestion of something Celtic ignited a spark. Finding the tree of life (on the Internet) resonated with me. Slowly, gradually, further ideas percolated and other elements came to mind.

I cut, pasted, further drew on and adapted the Internet image on the left until it became the tree on the right

Satisfied with the altered black and white tree, I had a laser photocopy made of it. This was used as a direct transfer by securing the image, face down with Golden gel gloss medium, onto my painted green panel. It had to dry, weighted, overnight. In the morning, using a spray bottle of water, I spritzed the back of the page and began the slow process of carefully scrubbing away the paper so as to leave only the black ink ...

Being too heavy handed with the scrubbie, the ink - as well as the paper - will come away!

Almost done!

My friend, Win, was visiting and she coached me though this tedious procedure ...

From my last post, you may remember this image, of Win and me in The Anne Frank Room

STONEHENGE  1992 watercolour 14" x 21" 

Above is a painting I had the foresight to keep. For this project, I took it out of its frame (pre-digital) to photograph it, reduced it to a miniature size and had it photocopied onto vellum paper. I cut away the sky before securing it to the painting ...

Sometimes, I get the call to start painting even before getting dressed in the morning! 

To balance Stonehenge, I painted on some ivy and brought back a little light to the left side of the tree trunk ...

Here I have laid the earring, where it will go, over the "underground knot"

The underworld in progress

I wanted to show the roots, in the underworld, as alive and pulsating, but at the stage above they looked to be on fire, so worked the area further, toning it down.

Into some heavy plastic, I hand cut a stencil for the Celtic knots in the upper corners and used molding paste so they would be in relief. When they dried, I painted over them using the background colour, a mix of Sap Green and Duochrome Oceania - a Daniel Smith Luminescent acrylic.

Finished TREE OF LIFE

The brass and copper embellishment is one of a pair of earrings I purchased years ago, long before I knew what they represented. (The remaining one will become a pendant.) On a trip to England, in 2004, we visited, Glastonbury. There, I found my earring motif on a postcard announcing it as the lid to the Chalice Well. We sought out and found the little park which houses the well ... but to my dismay the lid was off and away for restoration!

     

Chalice Well, Glastonbury

Gifting the Tree of Life, March 7th

Last weekend, to celebrate Denise's 39th birthday, we joined her, Larry and Avery at their Canmore condo for a couple of days.

I'm especially proud of Bill for creating his superlative gift to Denise. I'm delighted to report that it outshone my own. There it is on the mantle below. It deserves, and will have, a post of it's own ...