Well, I have distracted myself with grisaille enamel painting and SEO and this blog and starting a new business and production work and everything else I can think of - even housecleaning - but the reality is that one of these days I have to sit down and realise those cloisonne panels of the Armless Maiden story that I came up with OVER A YEAR AGO! That is how well I can procrastinate.

Though I have to say that in this case, it's not procrastination of the lazy kind, but of the fear kind. Cloisonne is not a technique that I have a lot of experience with - and you may remember that I did a series of cloisonne designs based on images from nature in order to practice. Well - that was so long ago I have practically forgotten all that I learned. Or maybe I have just been internalising and processing all of that experience...

Anyway I picked up this project - which I left unfinished three years ago - and decided that I could complete it now. That wasn't a fear thing - that was a making a living thing. Sometimes it makes me sad and sometimes it makes me angry - but the reality is that I can only spend a certain amount of time on things that are going to be hard to sell. When I started this piece - it was even before the Armless Maiden panels were a thought in the back of my mind. I just wanted to explore cloisonne. But I stopped in the middle of this piece - because it was clear from the labour involved that it would be in the $300-$400 range - and that is higher than I can usually afford to sell ...

I have mixed feelings about having to think about money while I make my art - sometimes it prevents me from doing my best work - and sometimes it forces me to be creative in ways that I wouldn't expect.

I like to think that when someone buys something from me - it's not so much an exchange of money for merchandise - but an expression of the fact that they support my endeavours as an artist - they give me the money to support me while I work - and I give them a gift ...

Anyway - thanks to all of those who have supported me over the years - as I am going to spend some time making a probably totally unsaleable series of cloisonne panels based on a folklore tale! And I am going to do it NOW.

When I first started enamelling - I thought I would never want to do any technique except champleve. This viking horse (just finished this morning!) is typical of the designs I have developed for it. I had a special relationship with this technique - as I found out that it was an invention of the Iron Age Celts, who had captured my heart in historical studies. It was later that enamelling in and of itself really got under my skin.

In the beginning I taught myself how to enamel, and champleve was quite enough to have on my plate! There was a fairly steep learning curve just to get the metalworking (etching) techniques under control. The real understanding of enamel and how it can function to bring depth and light to a piece as well as colour didn't come til later.

I have never lost my love for champleve - and am back at it, as I see my show season looming ahead! Wiscon is just a month away!

My latest experiment in grisaille has involved translating some illuminated manuscript illustrations into the painted enamel technique. I love the stylised form and composition of these old illuminations. The Codex Manesse is one of the most beautifully illustrated - go and have a look at all the full colour renderings. You will notice that the poets all look remarkably alike! This is not becasue they are all related ;-) The Codex is a compilation of biographies of famous German romantic poets of the period, and the illustrations are idealised portraits of the poets engaged in 'poetic' activities, probably never meant to be actual likenesses.This one is based on the biography of Der Kanzler (folio 423v) who was apparently a german poet of the mid 13th c of fairly low social status who versified on knightly and moral topics.







This one is based on Herr Konrad von Altstetten (folio 249v) who stood in the service of the Abbot of Gallen, who was himself on of the 'knightly' abbots.

Here are the next steps in my adventures in grisaille enamel.

The last few weeks have been crazy busy as I try to put together an on-line enamel supply store. I have taken workshops in E-Commerc e and had meetings with accountants - which is not something that usually happens in my world ;-)

The only thing that keeps me sane through it all is doing some work in the studio.


detail


detail



St Sebastian fell afoul of the emperor Diocletian by converting so many prominent people to Christianity. Diocletian decreed that he be killed with arrows, but when his body was retrieved, he was found to be still alive. He went on to perform several miracles (including giving sight to the blind) before he was again killed by Diocletian and his body thrown into a privy. However, he appeared to his follwers in a vision, telling them where his body could be found for proper burial.

This piece was inspired by a medieval stained glass window design.

As I explore the possibilities of grisaille enamel - I thought I would investigate the possibilities of pre-Raphaelite style. I found this image of a Dante Rossetti painting in a book about the Saints.I've been away from blogging for a couple of weeks as I try to get my head around opening my on-line enamel supply business. Been taking E-commerce workshops and talking to IT specialists - which you wouldn't think would be very conducive to creativity - but in fact, once I get into the studio I find myself pretty energized. Here's the latest project:












It's amazing how pervasive this image of the warrior woman is. It has always been particularly inspiring to me, much more so than 'mother and child'.I am SO enjoying painting. It's very satisfying. I can also complete a grisaille in a day, while champleve takes me six days before I see the results. I have some more cloisonne projects ready to go, so I will be posting them soon.

Here are some of the other grisaille spirit animals I am working on with painted enamel.I took these images from photographs. As I try to explore this new technique I want to try a lot of different approaches. But, being who I am, I wanted it to be related to mythology in some way. In Celtic lore - the otherwolrdly animal was always a white animal - and their were certain animals more likely than others to have supernatural associations..Selkie: The seal was associated with stories of mermaids, or half seal women - who became beautiful women when they shed their seal skin.






Spirit fox











Blodeuwedd was a woman from Welsh mythology (the Mabinogion) who was made out of flowers by Gwydion for Llew Llaw Gyffes (since he had been cursed by his mother never to have a wife of this world).  Alas, she proved unfaithful - and was turned into an owl as punishment, doomed to wander only at night. Read the full story here

I am continuing to try to develop my skills in grisaille enamel painting. I have taken some shots of the process of developing the piece, so you can get some idea of how it's done. The design is the next in my series of spirit or ghost animals. All white animals in Celtic mythology were otherworldly animals. Most commonly the white deer was associated with Ossian's mother.http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/deer.html
I used a photo of an albino deer as my starting point.
..This was the first firing















Second coat painted




Second coat fired










Third coat painted









Third coat fired










Fourth coat painted










Fourth coat fired

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
(Thanks to my friend Naka Ishi for posting this on her Facebook page)

Growing up in a world where Marshall McLuhan was a hero - I have always been interested in the effect of the computer on the way I think.

My discomfort led me, about a year ago, to severely limit my internet use. For me it wasn't a lack of concentration - but just a feeling of overload - like there were too many windows open in my brain.

Now, I don't have WiFi in my home or studio - 4 days a week I use the express computer at the library on my way to work - it cuts off after 15 minutes, so I have to get everything done in that time. It helps me focus! Two days a week I go to an internet cafe for an hour or two so I can write blogs, update my social networks, keep in touch with friends and generally take care of business.

It has been better! I feel more free to be myself. I feel like my brain is my own again.

And I think that's a good thing!

This one was more challenging as I was working from a photo of a dark coloured horse and had to imagine more ;-) I wanted to challenge myself beyond the simple copying of a painting (as if that was simple ;-) The piece I chronicled in my last post was based on an actual grisaille - so it was easier to see where the layers went, but is was still fairly challenging.

First coat painted


First coat fired

As you can see there is quite a bit of difference between how the piece looks when it's painted, and how it looks after firing. I am sure more expereince will help me to get better at predicting this.I forgot to take a photo of the second coat painted - as I was too involved in getting it done!

This is the second coat fired


Third coat painted


Third coat fired


I might do a fourth coat - I haven't quite decided yet. It's harder to imagine where the highlights should go ...As usual - I am working on two projects at a time, so that when I am waiting for one to dry or cool I can be working on the other.The other is a portrait of my neice - and it is proving much more challenging. The greyscale photo that I am working from has so many subtle shades that I think I will need more than three or four coats ... more later!

It was three years ago I saw my first Grisaille enamel up close and personal at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati. It literally took my breath away. My heart started beating faster. I knew I had to try and do this - but I had a problem. I couldn't draw.

This was the kind of piece I was up against!


I know you will think that I am lying. Since I am a full time artist - you will think "She can draw!" but actually my designs have been very stylized, and I use a lot of templates and guides to make them turn out right. I can 'sort of' draw - or I could years ago - but I was terribly out of practice.

At first I it felt like I would never be able to do it. But, as I often tell my students, being an artist is having the courage to fail. I have a lot of stubbornness in me - and a lot of patience. I find that these two qualities are more than all the talent in the world!

This was my first attempt:


About a year later I had progressed to this


Last night I did this:


Here is the process I went through
First layer of white painted (two coats of Imperial blue on front and back)


First layer of white fired


Second layer of white painted


Second layer of white fired


Third layer of white painted


Third layer of white fired


Fourth layer of white painted


Fourth layer of white fired


The breakthrough came while I was working on the classical series. At first I was using a very opaque white that only needed one coat to cover the dark underlayer. But the white I was using was some that I had had around the studio for years. I was running out, and the company that I had gotten it from was out of business - so I asked another supplier what they had to offer. I got some white paint - but it wasn't nearly as opaque - and I had to do two or three layers before getting the same effect as the other product. At first I was annoyed - more layers and more firing meant that the piece would be more expensive - but suddenly the penny dropped. I had looked out some grisaille enamel pictures on the Internetone of which was this lovely little piece from the Louvre.
 
This was my first attemp - so I can see flaws (I don't have the detail that was achieved in this piece - but after all it was made  by a third generation grisaille enamelist from one of the greatest enamel houses in Europe!) - but I was pretty excited. I could see that I had had a breakthrough on the technique - and that now it was just a question of practice, practice, practice!

I have been wanting to do a post on practice - so here it is! Practice in every sense of the word. Art is my practice - and I have to practice all the time! People know that you have to practice in order to be a good musician - but they think that if you can't pick up a pencil and draw something beautiful right away you 'can't draw'.

No matter how bad you are - if you pick up a pencil and draw every day, at the end of a month you will be better! Of course - this will not make you great - but it will make you competent. I think for me it is a compulsion to make the idea that I have in my head into something concrete that drives me.

I still have a way to go to reach my own personal goals - but I am well on the road now - and can see the end in sight!