Wednesday, December 30, 2015

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
      








Tuesday, December 29, 2015

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. 



Friday, December 4, 2015

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   


Sunday, September 20, 2015

Kaleidoscope

© Carol J. Stevens       22 x 22"      mixed water media

The versatility of acrylics is fascinating.  Recently, I experimented with the ancient art of marbling using this modern water-based medium.  The bursting color and yin yang patterns found their way into a painting that’s history began in 2005.  

Between then and now, I’ve alternately added scraps of old paintings and more paint, thus embedding not only the materials but my thoughts, memories and passing fancies into the layers held together by acrylics adhesiveness.  Ultimately, the need arises to organize it using the principles of art and my intuition until dominance is achieved and only then can I begin to understand its meaning.

Ohio Watercolor Society 
“Watercolor Ohio”
Travel Show Award, 2012

“Acrylic Works 2- The Best of 
Acrylic Painting” Book



Saturday, September 19, 2015

Navigating the Night Skies

© Carol J. Stevens     30 X 22"      Mixed water-media

This painting developed over several difficult years.  Invited to make an altered book with a friend’s class,  I began to prepare for the book ahead of time, 
collecting various things to include.  My feelings and words spilled out into the book, and onto this painting.   

I was navigating through some treacherous waters, relying on strengths gained from previous battles with myself and life in general. The book, painting and I all came into the sunshine.  By the time the class began, my first and only altered book was almost complete.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Tapestry

© Carol J. Stevens            22 X 22"      mixed water-media

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Wish You Were Here

© Carol J. Stevens       18 X 25"      mixed water-media on Yupo

While vacationing in Myrtle Beach,  I discovered these ladies enjoying sunshine and sisterhood, as I had often done with my friends.  Days later, at home again and exploring the qualities of Yupo, these ladies pleasantly popped back into my mind and onto my yupo. So I spent another lovely afternoon again enjoying their camaraderie.

No Wake Zone

© Carol J. Stevens          21 X 23"       watercolor on Yupo

This piece was selected by Mel Stabin  for the OWS  2011 Annual Show.  I'd sent in 2 choices.  He chose this one over "Wish You Were Here"   HUMMMMM

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Spirit Dance

© Carol J. Stevens        22 X 22"        mixed water-media

My Mother would clean her house painting brushes by scrubbing them on the basement wall and announcing "Well, at least the wall is clean!"  I watched, fascinated as the multicolored chaos grew.  Now I too scrub and drip paint 
onto my works in progress and onto scraps of paper for collage thus 
creating that same chaos.

When the drips and scrapes start speaking to me, I listen and scrub until their meaning becomes clear, rather like reading tea leaves.  My Mother lives and dances in me! 

Ohio Watercolor Society  
“Watercolor Ohio 2008” 
Prizm Award 

Cuyahoga



© Carol J. Stevens          16 X 20"       Acrylic on canvas

Swimming and boating in Lake Erie on hot summer day has always been one of my favorite pastimes.  Boating up the Cuyahoga River under the many bridges of Cleveland is a feast for my eyes.  The lines of the crisscrossing iron work, the industrial dirt, grime, rust textures, the shapes created by the juxtaposed  bridges and their mechanisms and amidst all those beautiful grays the pops of color from caution signs and graffiti send my mind into a whirl of images.  The bright blue sky and passing clouds flip the switch of highlight and deep shadow to create even more excitement .2014  

Portals and Passages

© Carol J. Stevens        30 X 30"      Acrylic on canvas

Wanderlust

© Carol J. Stevens        30 X 30 "      acrylic on canvas      

Monday, September 14, 2015

Scarab

© Carol J. Stevens         17 X 23"     mixed water-media on Yupo

Scarab’s history began our first night back in our Florida home after it had been closed up for six months.  The last thing I did before falling asleep, exhausted from cleaning, was to throw a little paint on some Yupo.  During the night I awoke and decided to see how it was drying.  Only then did I discover a huge black Palmetto bug doing the breast stroke across the still damp Yupo.  After I smashed and flushed him, I saw his beautiful marks.  Too late!  He was gone before I could thank him.  His mark was my first layer to build on but can still be found and so this painting is dedicated to all who love water media, be they human or bug. 

Leesburg Art Association 
“Spring Show”
Best of Show, 2013 

National Watercolor Society
“Annual Exhibition”, 2013

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Blue Nude

© Carol J. Stevens      22 X 30"     Acrylic on paper 1997

Friday, September 11, 2015

Star Stuff

© Carol J. Stevens      22 X 22"       Mixed water-media on paper

Volcano

© Carol J. Stevens                                                         1996

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Aunt Clara

© Carol J. Stevens     Watercolor on gessoed paper

During the summer of 2000, my art friends and I decided to meet weekly to draw each other.  Our poses were limited only to as long as we could stand to hold them.  This 
painting, along with Red Glove, is one of a series of paintings depicting strong women, the ones who seem to be more grounded to the earth.

Ohio Watercolor Society 
“Watercolor Ohio” 
Travel Show Award, 2001

Kentucky Watercolor Society 
“Aqueous USA” Travel Show Award, 
2003

Friday, August 14, 2015

Empty Nest

© Carol J. Stevens            Watercolor

© Carol J. Stevens     Watercolor              
"Abigail"


© Carol J. Stevens     Watercolor       
"Jared"

After handing up my paint brushes of collage years (1963) and getting after a "serious" life of art teaching, marriage and family,  I discovered in the 1980's that unfortunately a divorce was necessary.  My two children were truly hurt by this.  My beloved Mother dies in 1989.  I turned to my long lost love, painting and choose watercolor.  I' d learned little in collage and forgotten that.  Self teaching, books and many workshops with a variety of instructors were needed. As I learned the colors and techniques and I found a real comfort in painting the likeness of  my loved ones.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Croton

© Carol J. Stevens     Watercolor

My 1996 trip to Hawaii was for a month with my paints and a bathing suit.  I started in Maui, where I'd slip out each night and steal a colorful croton leaf to add to the growing painting.  The weather was sunny and bright as were the leaves.  We moved on to rainy Kauai which resulted in two rainy paintings.  I couldn't paint on the sunny croton on a rainy day or vice versa.  It was then that I realized how my feelings and surroundings affected my painting and was reflected in it.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Angels in their Painting Dresses


© Carol J. Stevens       30 X 22"     poured inks on paper

"Angels in their Painting Dresses" (above) was entirely poured, not a brush or hand on it.  It resulted from all the experiments in my backyard with Maxine Masterfield's book, inks, the garden hose, and sunshine.  It was fun and messy!  1994

Below- Summer in Myrtle Beach in our painting dresses.

Thelma, Polly and Marilyn