The Nature of Gemini

My latest work - 24"x24" on birch plywood

WhenI designed this piece I had difficulty choosing which swan should be the white (good) swan and which should be the black (evil) swan.  I couldn't decide if I was creating this with evil conquering good in mind, or that evil was the protector of all things good. 

Seeing that there is enough evil conquering good in the world, I decided to go with the latter thought; my black swan would be a guardian, and my little white swan was submitting to being protected and allowing for someone else to take care of her.  This is something I struggle with personally, letting someone else care for me, letting go of control, relinquising the reigns if you will. 

From this the title "Nature of Gemini" was born.  Gemini is a dual-natured sign, a mix of ying and yang and represented by twins.  Gemini's easily see both sides of an issue and can be restless, much like my swans and me.

i'm uber relaxed!

yeah, right!  well, i'm part of a group called "the uber relaxed page traders".  we're a bunch of artists who have traded japanese moleskines in the past, who have decided we can't deal with strick deadlines, so we are trading pages at our leisure.  each artist has a theme, a page size and some media guidelines (which it seems everyone is uber relaxed about this too!).  this is my kind of group.  we are encouraging, grateful and inspired by each other's work.
so, i've completed my first page.  the theme: crows   the size:5"x7"  the media:anything.

for my media i chose watercolor and ink pen. I recently discovered the work or Roz Stendahl.  I think I must have been living under a rock!  I can't believe I never found roz's work before.  it is just stunning!  her blog is a wealth of information for anyone interested in keeping and/or making sketchbooks, using gouache or watercolor or dip pens.  anyhow, I tried to do a page using some of her techniques.  it's hard for me.  first, i really like saturated color and secondly, i tend to be very stiff! But, I did draw this by looking at negative space! :)

I know I need to still work on 'loosening up', but some habits are just hard to break! this is a little crow squawking about this or that for my uber relaxed art friend helene...i hope she likes it!
and the finished page:

so hard to get into a flow

here in NY we've been hit hard with storm after storm.  we've had 7 storms in as many weeks. the kids have been home, the dogs come in and out of the house and since my studio is in my home, it's been hard to get a flow of work going. 
i did manage to get a submission ready.  the theme is shakespeare's women and i've had so much fun getting these pieces ready.  keep your fingers crossed at least one will get in the show.

viola

queen elizabeth i

cleopatra

shakespeare's women

this week i'm working on some ideas for a submission. the theme of the show is shakespeare's women. i love this theme. so much fun to work with and so hard to pick!  there's cleopatra, juliet, viola, lady macbeth, katherine, ophelia, desdemona...i started off with cleopatra.  i made a study of her and struggled with the skin tones. the colors kept getting muddy and i was getting frustrated, but finally, i got it!

only to be informed by my history buff daughter...cleopatra was NOT egyptian!!!!!  (she was macedonian)
back to the old drawing board!

so my next study is this one. i'm liking her. she needs a few adjustments (smaller eyes, not so doe-eyed, thinner lips, better hair), but like i said this is a study. the final piece will be done in my usual style, woodburned and then painted, stamped, printed, colored etc.

CAN YOU GUESS WHO SHE IS???

and the sketchbook challenge begins....

i am participating in the sketchbook challenge just for fun!  i'm excited to see what other artists come up with for pages given the same theme.  the theme for january is 'highly prized'.  of course, my family is highly prized, so are my dogs and art supplies, but when i REALLY thought about it and dug deeper, i came up with WORDS as being highly prized to me.

text reads: where would we be without words? from our young days we are encouraged to talk, then read, then write and as soon as we think we have our native tongue mastered, a foreign language is tossed in to the mix...words can provide comfort, strength, love, hurt, warmth, humor, fun and most of all they bring knowledge.

i'm published!

Back in june i showed you this tease: http://kathleen-nesi.blogspot.com/2010/06/trade-magazine-submission.html

It was a long journey, but it has happened!  i'm published!  find my piece, 'remembering our military' in the jan/feb 2011 issue of somerset studio.

jan/feb 2011 issue

page 115





true colors of the piece



folk art inspiration

I haven't done any kind of folk art/primitive painting since the mid 80's.  Back then, I did a lot of tole painting and created work in the "country" style.  recently, I took a class with Laurie Meseroll and learned how to create her Mudcakes style paintings. Using her techniques and my love for birds I created this little guy and titled it "unruffled". It contains vintage sheet music, scrapbook paper, fabric, acrylics and mica flakes on a 12"x16" gallery canvas.   

I'll be donating this to the local library fundraiser. thanks Laurie!


unruffled



detail of unruffled