Back to Art Work: New Artist Trading Cards

Colorado Flora Artist Trading Cards
Phillip Hoyle 2016

Due to a terrible combination of a cold, seasonal allergies, and who knows what all, I did not make my trip to Missouri last week. I haven’t been walking around prairies and forests of Mid-MO to draw plants. Since I promised something, though, I did make four ATC cards of Colorado wildflowers. Actually they represent the only artwork I have accomplished in the past four weeks—the longest stretch of not doing the work (the work of art) I have had in years and years.

I went to work and made some rather interesting cards with rather interesting results. At least I think so!

I am quite a bit better and am making a modest comeback into the world of flora art working on mono-print backgrounds with an assortment of pens and Prismacolor pencils. I have many other plans for projects and hope I continue my recovery. Who knows what will happen.

Then, before long, I’ll have to take up family responsibilities and see what’s happening in Missouri.

I hope you have a good week. Do something artful or at least artsy.

Colorado wildflowers
Artist Trading Cards Phillip Hoyle 2016

Denver 2016

Springtime in My Studio

Missouri Springtime by Phillip Hoyle,  5 x 7 1/2"

Springtime has come before fall has fallen in mixed media art pieces of spring flowers. To create these I have been working from drawings I made in Mid-Missouri in May this year. I left the sketches alone for several months in the hope that I could do something not exactly like the real flowers, somehow change them into lines and colors, dots and scribbles that my son Michael would still be able to identify as the flowers I drew sitting in his prairie, garden, and pastures.

With fall just underway, I am pleased to begin showing these works. I'll let them surround me during the winter with their promise of warmth to keep me comfortable when the snow flies. Well, it's a nice sentiment!

The piece above was started as a print on a GELLI pad made with Golden OPEN acrylics. I added lines, dots, and a few paintbrush strokes. I'm already starting to think of spring even though the sun is shining brightly and warmly here each day. 

Denver 2015

Cactus Print Finale

Claret Cup Cacti Monoprint by Phillip Hoyle 2015

Finally I got back to the monoprint I've been looking at for several weeks, maybe quite a few weeks. I'm happy that I did after looking at many pictures of the plant. Some of the buds opened into flowers, others are waiting their turn. At least that's how I imagine it. 

Oh, the collage of monoprints I titled Bear Clan did make it into the WOW show at CORE New Art Space and is hanging there for another week. You can see it if you get there soon. The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday. In case you can't make it there I'll give you a glance at one little part of the show. 

Top left framed work 'Bear Clan' by Phillip Hoyle

A Touch of Pink

The summer hailstorms pretty much devastated our front yard. Trees and bushes were stripped of many of their leaves. Hostas were shredded like lettuce even though they were ready to bloom. Some English ivy plants were pounded so severely they had no deep green leaves left. Some plants died. There was a lot of cleaning up to do, but as we did it my partner and I noticed new growth. The magnolia bush on the parking not only got new leaves but also two new, out-of-season blossoms. That seemed very nice. The ornamental grasses began to recover. Before long we saw beautifully shaped leaves on the Eastern Redbud tree.

The cone flowers recovered quickly--they always seem to do so no matter what happens. I noticed some delicate flowers I didn't recall seeing before: some pink and some light blue blossoms. Jim mentioned one weedy-looking new growth wondering if it might be a cosmos. He'd never had any but hoped this plant might grow. His guess was right. We now have a pink cosmos. I suspect next year we'll have several. 

This past week I worked several times in the yard and have enjoyed looking at the process of recovery underway there. I like the clusters of color, especially the new pink flowers. I suspect I'll have get out there with my pad and pencils and begin drawing. The leaves and stems have great shapes and the flowers are actually very simple. Then I'll have to make new paintings and prints of the things that once again abound in the garden.

Denver, 2015