Saturday, November 27, 2021

13 Ways of Looking at Flowers: A Paint Experiment

Vase Study #1

As part of the course I am in, we were to paint flowers in a vase. This is my interpretation of that assignment. I am posting here earlier paintings and revised paintings.  Weeks again, I used a wide brush to apply ink, and using that ink as an inspiration, then used a narrow brush, crumpled up paper towels, acrylic paints, charcoal, and a bit more ink. 


Branches in Bloom

Vase Study #2

Vase Study #3

Blooming

Leaves

Flowers in Snow

Vase Study #4

Delicate

Aunt Margaret’s Flowers

Early Painting

Sweep

Fall Flowers

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Recent Art

Lakeside 


During the last 6-weeks, I have been painting, drawing, collaging, mark making, scraping, scratching, circling, and writing in a concertina journal. This has been prompted by a fabulous course I took with Karen Stamper from the UK.  Here are some found images from my journal. 

Media I used in the journal included: masking tape, ink, gesso, posca marker, pencil, stabilo pencil, acrylic paint, torn magazine pages altered with CitraSolv, newspaper, painted tissue paper, acrylic paint, artgraf, oil pastels, matte medium, charcoal. 

Dreaming of Iceland


Thinking it Over


Composing 

Late Night In the Kitchen


The End of Fall


Goldfish

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

PoetryBreak: Goldfish

Goldfish

The goldfish in my bowl
turns into a carp each night.
Swimming in circles in the day,
regal, admired by emperors,
but each night, while I sleep,
it turns into silver, a dagger
cold and sharp, couched at one spot,
enough to frighten cats.
 
The rest of the furniture
squats in the cold and dark,
complains of being a lone man’s
furnishings, and plots a revolt.
I can hear myself snore, but not
their infidelity. Sometimes I wake
with a start; silently they move back
into their places.
 
I have been unpopular with myself,
pacing in my small, square room.
But my uncle said, “Even in a palace,
you can but sleep in one room.”
With this I become humble as a simple
preacher, saying, “I have no powers;
they emanate from God.”
With this I sleep soundly,
 
Fish or no fish, dagger or no dagger.
When I wake, my fish is gold,
it pleases me with a trail of bubbles.
My furniture has been loyal all night,
waiting to provide me comfort.
There was no conspiracy against a poor man.
With this I consider myself king.



Goldfish (M.A. Reilly, acrylic, ink, charcoal, collage papers, pencil, gesso, matte medium)


Saturday, November 20, 2021

8 Panels from Concertina Journal



A valuable learning I am hoping to hold on to is the idea of trusting the patience/time needed to see work emerge that can be followed. It has required layering on top of the familiar—the bit of design I first wanted to preserve and being responsive to what is emerging even when what is happening looks like a holy mess. 

Work. Stop. Walk away. Return and add a bit here, a bit on another page, work out of the journal, cover, scrape off and so on.  New panels are posted below. 














Wednesday, November 17, 2021

15 Panels from Concertina Journal







 For the 5 weeks I have been working in a concertina journal during a class I am taking with Karen Stamper. During the course I have been learning about mark making, using acrylic paints, charcoal, collage papers, following and extending patterns, being bold and so on. Below are 15 framed pages and one 5-panel abstract. Some of these pages have papers I made after altering magazine pages with citrasolv. 





















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Monday, November 8, 2021

In the Fall Garden: 7 Made Images

 A few weeks ago I made images in a public garden.  I think the work I have been doing as a painter influenced the quasi-abstract quality of these images. All images were made using a Nikon 3500 camera. I hope you enjoy.


Shadows in Purple Thrill Me (M.A. Reilly, 2021)

Autumn Diptych (M.A. Reilly, 2021)

Late Fall (M.A. Reilly, 2021)

Purple and Brown (M.A. Reilly, 2021)

Waiting for a Vase (M.A. Reilly, 2021)


November (M.A. Reilly, 2021)

Poppies (M.A. Reilly, 2021)