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.

Desert Bunch Grass Abstract

I decided to reach back into the archives of photos I took in the Arizona high desert, probably 15-16 years ago.  There wasn't a lot of vegetation where we lived besides Juniper trees and  little bunches of grass that waved wildly in the wind. Layered over a colorful background, Nature's work creates an interesting abstract painting effect, but this is a photographic piece with a couple of digital effects. Prints 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.

Carnival in Green, Orange, Red and Purple, Surface Design

Carnival in Green, Orange, Red and Purple, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

This started out as a monoprint but after scanning it into my computer and applying some Photoshop tricks it became a fun repeating pattern. I like it in every color combination and every product I've tried it on. It reminds me of a carnival. Red Bubble has the best selection of clothing, scarves, device and laptop cases plus some nice home decor options.

Portrait of Paul, Mixed Media Painting

Paul, © 2012 Sheryl Karas

I've been experimenting with combining digital photography and more conventional painting in one piece. In this painting I have worked with a photograph I took of my partner Paul in Photoshop and then cut out and collaged the print into a painting. The background and the shirt is painted. I also painted what I hoped might read as reflections of the color in the background onto his face, hair and beard. There are both positives and negatives for me in this approach as an artist. It freed me to be as wild as I wanted to be with the background and to experiment with a variety of techniques using my photograph as an underpainting. On the downside, cutting the face out and collaging it into the painting created technical dilemmas I did not anticipate. It required multiple attempts to get something I was ultimately satisfied with.

This piece is not for sale.

Looking at the Possibilities, Acrylic Painting

"Looking at the Possibilities", © 2014 Sheryl Karas

The subject matter for this painting is the "City of Trees," the slogan for Chico, CA where we currently live. When my partner Paul and I first moved here we didn't actually intend to stay. Long story, but we didn't choose this place, fate did. At the time I painted this, the two of us tended to stand together (two trees) but apart from our surrounding landscape and community, constantly exploring the options we had: stay, flee, or who knows what. We're still here. It's been five years now and we really do love the landscape.

The original is acrylic on canvas, 24" by 18".