LIZARD MOON

Carol J. Stevens  2015         20 x  30"          mixed media collage

" LIZARD"

                                © Carol J. Stevens 2005     20 x 30        water media collage

This painting  "Lizard" was part of a collection created in 2005 for an internet

sales site.  I needed to produce 15 paintings in just a month.

With my usual process, paintings evolve over much time, sometimes years.

So I felt the entire collection was incomplete "Motel Art".  I strive to make my paintings more than decorative.  The site was not what it promised to be and soon failed so these paintings were

left to steep in time on the shelf and I've enjoyed bringing many of them

to completion with time and thought.

Now in 2015, it was "Lizard's" turn to be resolved and unfold to become

LIZARD MOON

      

BOOK PROJECT

It was 1989 before I found time for my art, just as my two kids, Jared and Abby were moving on into adulthood.  They enjoyed my portraits of them, our pets and familiar scenes.  As their lives became more complex, so did my paintings but by then their adult responsibilities left little time to understand my fascination with nonobjective art.  I felt the need to share the joy and knowledge  of art I had gained over those years.  Would these long conversations ever come up in my lifetime?

 Maybe?  So I began thinking of putting it all simply in writing and photos.  It would be lots of scanning and typing to make two copies of all.  But then my wonderful friend Cindy Allman, graphic artist, stepped in and took my typed ramblings, facts and pictures and turned straw into gold. With her great skills as a fine artist and designer the book came to life.  Along with a local printer willing to do a small batch we were able to provide my 2 kids, 5 grandchildren and several close friends with copies. This was a really rewarding project for all who participated to say nothing of the treasures provided for my family to ponder when they do find the time. 

Arctic Sunrise

(c) Carol Stevens      20 x 30"   mixed water media

After a 1993 workshop with Gerald Brommer I continued to be interested in collage

with "rice" papers, staining, tearing, layering them.  Ultimately this

piece became  a 20 x30 example of beautiful colors and textures.  Every square

inch of it was just luscious and so much fun to just layer more and more.

With each new addition of blues, greens, violet papers, I believed it would become

the complete painting I was looking for, but no!  Something was still missing.

So I added more papers.  The colors and textures became more complex, varied

and beautiful all the way to the corners.  Time passed and I kept looking and adding.

The realization came over time that I needed to subtract some of that gorgeous surface. I had created to many beautiful areas of texture and color all over. There are seven art elements and I was using only  two of them, color and texture.  Missing were line, shape, value, direction and size.  These missing elements were needed to make a completed thoughtful painting instead of just that beautifully decorated paper.  I had to, painfully, hide some of those luscious areas with a light tint of opaque paint to create shapes and value.  Lines were added for direction. The negative shapes were varied in size.  Consideration of all the elements is needed to make a unified statement, a painting! 1999