Abstract Geometric Quilt

I worked on this last night and this morning. It's made from several of my photographs and previous art pieces layered together in numerous ways in Photoshop. It's VERY fun and engaging to do because surprises happen and sometimes that's the best part! All of the pieces in this are botanical subject matter. It feels to me like the workings of the cosmos.

Prints and prints on canvas and various other materials are available on Fine Art America.

Bird Abstract Botanical

 

This is the same series as the last two posts. I used the same images I used in the first two but layered them in different ways, and then put a bird on it just for fun.

Prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Abstract Botanical

 

Because I use so many images layered multiple times with different layering effects, the number of potential choices I could make at times seems infinite. Often it boils down to what mood I'm in. Do I want to see something almost realistic? Something more abstract expressionist like this one? Or something in between? This piece uses the same images as the last one I posted on this blog. But in this one I was attracted to the almost chaotic but quite deliberate effects that occur when the same images are used multiple times. Deliberate in terms of making specific choices based on hunches and wanting to shift what doesn't work for me, but also with the desire to be surprised and delighted. And that's when I call it "good."

This is all done digitally but prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Wipe Out

 

I've had a half-finished painting of this guitar on my easel for two years and another half-finished one in a different style on my table. I hit a point when I couldn't finish them because I didn't like something that I couldn't figure out how to fix. And then I became frustrated because they just looked too boring to bother fixing! But I had worked so long on these that I wouldn't give myself permission to move on to something else before I finished one.

Well, THAT was a mistake! Talk about putting a spoke in the wheel of creativity! I finally decided to play with it in Photoshop and it's not boring anymore! And I'm done. I won't be painting it so my studio is finally free again. Whew!!!

I call this "Wipe Out" because that song got stuck in my head as I was working on it. In fact, I added an ocean wave because of that in the very area that didn't work for me before. I'm good with it now. Thanks for looking!

Prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America. I pretty partial to how it looks on acrylic.

California Landscape

 

This is a digital painting derived from layered photographs and a variety of layering effects. I'm pretty sure that the photographs I used were taken, for the most part, at Upper Park in Chico, California.

Prints and prints on canvas and other surfaces are available at Fine Art America.

Ravens in a Cafe with Plants, Digital Art

 

Well, I finally got sick of doing art based on what most people call weeds, at least for now. But then I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to do! I do have a thing for ravens and crows, however, so I have been playing around with ideas based on that. But I haven't wanted to follow through. Finally, last night I decided to composite several of my less exotic ideas together and I did like that. So here's an introduction to what might become a series of art pieces featuring more than just weeds! (Who knows?)

Prints and prints on canvas, metal, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Mid-Summer Botanical Abstract

 

I'm exploring a theme in my work that has headed into strange territory lately. I've been breaking the "rule" of simplifying my work and instead add more complexity. I would say that my subject matter is complexity—the multiplicity of life experience and the complexity inherent in the natural world. Nothing exists separately from anything else. Everything in the natural world lives in relationship. And we don't experience the world like a camera that freezes whatever we point it at and leaves out the rest. We take in multiple impressions at a single time, especially as we move through an environment, sometimes combined with the thoughts in our head which may be focussed on something entirely different than what is actually there. 

I add multiple images together—sometimes different angles of the same scene, sometimes unrelated images that I imagine might belong together. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I reject more ideas than not. It's an experience of discovery—trying unusual things I was certainly never taught to do in three different photo-editing programs and seeing what develops. That's what I like about the process—I wind up seeing things in my work I didn't know where there before. Or the process itself creates something new I would not have expected. It adds an element of surprise and wonder that was otherwise absent, for me, in most of the art I have tended to do before.

In this piece I'm using multiple layered photographs of flowers and other garden plants (all my original work) with multiple digital effects to create an abstract landscape. Prints, framed prints, and prints on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. are available.

The Mysterious Meadow Forest

 

Imagine that you're walking in a deep dark forest. Now imagine that you are a mouse and the forest is actually a meadow of plants. That's what this is. It's made of multiple layered photos, combined with multiple effects. Prints, framed prints, prints on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. are available.

Pastel Meadow Abstract

 

This very experimental piece is composed of 3-4 original photos of the same open meadow that used to exist across the street from where I live. It's all filled in with houses now but the photos still exist. In this piece I was trying to show both the movement of the plants in the wind and the details of the plants when the wind momentarily stops. Prints, framed prints, and prints on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. are available.

The Battle Between Grass and Fence Crystalized

 

Perfect for this hot not-even-summer day. Same series, same photos, composed in a different way. Prints, framed prints, and prints on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. 

Storm Drain with Autumn Leaves and Shadows, New Oil Pastel Painting

Storm Drain with Autumn Leaves and Shadows, © 2018 Sheryl Karas

My latest oil pastel. I'm exploring the abstract in "real" life . . . except this isn't real. I combined 2-3 photographs, all done in the same photoshoot, to come up with a starting place for this piece. This is a progression of the pieces I did to break out of artist's block by looking for things to paint in my own boring apartment complex. I loved this rusty storm drain with bits of dead leaves stuck in it but I wanted it much more colorful. I also like another storm drain that I used in an earlier painting and thought I'd combine them. I guess it appeals to the graphic artist in me. It was also a challenge and great fun to draw and paint, despite using the composite photo as an underlayer. I eliminated and added things as I painted, tried to see inside the original photograph on my computer to emphasize what I saw there. Fun, fun, fun!

Update: I just got this piece into the National All-Media Juried Show at the Chico Art Center! It starts September 7th and runs through the end of the month.

SOLD !!!  Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Sharing My Process for Fall Into Winter, Pine Branches and Maple Leaves in Oil Pastel

Fall Into Winter, © Copyright 2018 by Sheryl Karas

I've having lots of fun exploring oil pastel as a serious medium for my work. This piece was done in phases.

First Step: taking lots of photographs of leaves and branches over the years so I have quite a nice file of images to use in my work.

Second Step: combining the images in a variety of ways in several layers in Photoshop using a variety of layering techniques. This piece used three photographs and I don't know how many layers because that file is long gone. 7-8, maybe?

Third Step: trying a number of ideas in three different software applications to explore various color combinations and looks. This led to many more layers being merged with the original photographic piece.

Fourth Step: At this point I had to pause. Should I use this new image as a "reference" photo to draw from or as an underlayer—a digital underpainting—and add pastel on top? I go back and forth on this decision quite a lot as I work both ways and have lots of art class / art critic demons who have way too many opinions in my head!

Fifth Step: I say "NO" to the critics. Am I really supposed to throw hours and hours of work away just because it was done with unconventional techniques? I print the piece dark to use as an underlayer.

Sixth Step: Using gel medium as glue, I applied the print to a cradled panel I previously prepared with 3-4 coats of PVA size. The sizing keeps acids in the wood from leaching out and discoloring my final work but, despite what the advice is online, the gel medium ought to do that, too. I think. I don't know so I prepared several panels awhile ago.

Seventh Step: I added a a light coat of clear gesso to the top of the print. I usually use two coats of gesso but this time I only added one. This created a texture I usually try to avoid but because this image is so multi-dimensional I wanted to see what it would do. I liked it! You can't see the texture well online but it is kind of cool in the final piece!

Eighth Step: I scumbled oil pastel over the underlayer. Sometimes I smeared and blended colors together using eye shadow applicators and a Staedler Mars retractable stick eraser that we sell mostly for engineers to use at the art supply store I work at. I don't use the eraser stick as an eraser. It just happens to be cheap, easily cleaned, and firm enough with enough give to be great as an oil pastel blending tool! At this point I made a number of significant changes to improve the composition and get rid of distracting elements. The final result is entirely covered with oil pastel except for tiny bits where the original photographically-derived image shows through as a darker textured color layer.

Ninth Step: I photographed my work so I can use it for reproduction and social media. This gives me a chance to look at it through different eyes. I almost always catch something I want to improve when I post a work in progress online. I'll photograph it again at this point if I do but I didn't have to do that this time.

Tenth Step: I covered the final piece with a couple of light coats of Holbein Hard Gel Medium to the tops and sides. This is experimental as acrylic isn't supposed to work on top of oily media! But it DOES seem to work. My original experiments using Liquitex Self-Leveling gel have held up for years. I've also used Liquitex Acrylic Gloss Medium/Varnish, Matte Medium, and Glossy Gel Mediums. They all work but have different effects. What I like about the Hard Gel Medium is that it is hard enough to draw on top of easily, it adds a light sheen without being super shiny, and it preserves the textures of the work underneath. But you have to apply it lightly without diluting it. (Don't use water!)  I also make sure to brush it on in the same direction as my handwork.

And now the piece is done! Well, maybe. I might add a more glossy final coat or one final additional Hard Gel Medium coat (I'm undecided). I'm also thinking about how I want to present it. It doesn't need framing under glass—that was the purpose of using acrylic medium. I could just add framing wire and hardware to the back and hang it as is, but I keep imagining it mounted onto a larger wood panel or framed without glass.

I have prints and prints on canvas available on Fine Art America.

Green Sage, Wild Grass Abstract Pastel Landscape

"Green Sage, Wild Grass", © 2017 Sheryl Karas

This was a study I did for a larger piece now hanging in the lobby of the Chico Breast Care Center. I was experimenting with techniques for creating a pastel painting that did not need to be framed under glass and this was the first one that succeeded. I tried out lots of types of marks and types of pastel in this piece, never meaning to present it for sale. Years later, I look at this and love the freedom and spontaneity in it, thinking it really does stand on its own. So I finished it and will eventually frame it (not under glass). In the meantime, prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Arts America.

Okay, this is finished now. It's 12" x 12" on cradled panel. Then I mounted it on a second 16" x 16" cradled panel painted black. It's ready to hang without framing (although I suppose you could add a frame if want to, but no point in adding glass).

Bottlebrush Flower Abstract Pastel Painting

"Bottlebrush Flower Abstract", © 2017 by Sheryl Karas

This piece was so much fun to do! Using a multiple image photograph I did before as a reference, I decided to try out my new art materials to recreate it. The image was an extreme macro (close-up) of a Bottlebrush flower with an overlay of wild grass blowing in the wind.  I liked the juxtaposition of the almost stiff pincushion-like Bottlebrush flower and the softness and movement of the wild grass. The materials were Nupastel and Pan Pastel (pretty much powdered pigment in a compact) that I applied with sponges and eye make-up applicators.

The original is done on cradled panel with multiple layers of fixative and acrylic medium so it does not need to be framed under glass. I am planning to mount and frame it without glass. In the meantime, I have prints and prints on canvas available on Fine Art America.

It's framed now! It's 12" x 12" on cradled panel mounted on a second 16" x 16" cradled panel painted black. It's ready to hang. Interested? Contact me at right.

Cymbidium Carnival in Acrylic and Pastel

Cymbidium Carnival, © 2017 Sheryl Karas

I posted a digital photography version of this before but I decided to recreate it in pastel and acrylic (mostly acrylic at this point) on acid-free matboard mounted on cradled panel painted black. I like it but, wow, was it challenging to do! I call it modern day cubism but I've added experiments in color use and transparency. The original is currently available. It is 18" x 24" including the black border. Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Cymbidium Carnival

Cymbidium Carnival © 2017 Sheryl Karas

My latest. I started a much more mundane painting of Cymbidium Orchids but found myself frustrated and bored. So I took myself back to the computer to try my hand at composing another piece and one thing led to another. This was made by combining multiple photographs and digital painting techniques to evoke the movement of tropical breezes through the flowers and foliage. Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Winter Trees in Bronze and SIlver

Winter Trees in Bronze and Silver © 2016 Sheryl Karas

I just realized I never shared my Winter Trees series here. I've taken multiple photographs of the trees I can see from my bedroom winter and layer them together in a variety of ways. This might be my favorite version but I'll share at least one other in a future post. Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Bottlebrush Abstract

Bottlebrush, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

Another Bottlebrush macro, this time layered with paint splatters to approximate the intention I had when I took the photograph. I was attracted to the blur of white anthers contrasted with the red filaments of the flower and wanted to emphasize that instead of the plant itself.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Bottlebrush and Wild Grass Abstract

Bottlebrush and Wild Grass Abstract, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

I'm continuing with creating art with a lighter, more uplifting palette. This piece started with one of my macro photos of a Bottlebrush flower. Then I overlaid one of my photos of wild grass blowing in the wind to create an abstract photo-painting.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Abstract Expressionist Grass, Abstract Digital Painting

Abstract Expressionist Grass, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

Another in my series of wild high desert grass dancing in the wind! This abstract was created with so many layers of photographs that I lost count. I really love how the series has evolved into something so very expressive—it's more about the wind and the dance than about the form of the grass very much now at all.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.