Art Prints Galore

Printed on magazine paper, I played with
aa combination of colors and the use of
a circle of cardboard. Look here next week
to see if I was able to turn this mono-print
into a mixed media bunch of flowers--my goal.

A little over a week ago I spent an afternoon with my artist friend Sue printing in her studio. Both Sue and I print and recently have been working with mono-print techniques. I am a newcomer to the filed; Sue has been at it for quite a few years. She invited me to join her for an exploration of using the relatively new Gel printing plates available from GELLI ARTS. Plates come in several sizes. I had worked with a small one, but that day I was going to explore what I could do on a plate 5 x 7". Works made on these soft plates do not require a press or even a spoon. The artist simply uses a hand. 

Sue really liked this design made with a stencil. She was more moved than
I although I too like it. I'm not quite sure what I will do with this one, but
she suggested I make a work with a group of these pieces showing perhaps
six or nine of the figure in different colors and backgrounds.
The bear is from an old Ute petroglyph in a group of several carvings
along the Gunnison River in western Colorado.

I liked working with the larger plate and used a brayer to spread the paint. I used my hands to transfer the prints, but sometimes I used a baren or another brayer. I used a variety of mark makers as I continued to explore the interactions of colors with one another, of the paints on different kinds of paper, of the effects to be made with stencils and other mark makers. I kept varying my techniques and following suggestions Sue made. And I ended the session with quite a few prints and many more ideas. I plan to make a set of Artist Trading Cards of florals. I'll call them Colorado Wildflowers! Be sure to check next week to see what took place. I believe the work with the bear figure will prove even more challenging. You may have to wait several weeks on that one.

Hope you are having a wonderful artistic summer.

Denver, 2015 

Cosmic Views

Cosmic Wonders
Mixed media by Phillip Hoyle
after a Cherokee petroglyph from Judaculla Rock

After quite a few years of painting designs from Ute Petroglyphs, I took up some very interesting old figures from a site on the Tennessee River in western North Carolina. 

The hundreds of pictures on this ancient soap stone boulder were scratched and dug into the surface of the rock. Some of the pictured characters match old Cherokee tales of creation and life. Cherokee people of the region claim that their ancestors left these signs for them, stories as it were of mythical times in which the gods and heroes interacted directly with the tribe. 

For me the soap stone suggested grays and blues along with red accents. So a few years ago I painted several of these wonderful and challenging designs. Last week I hung another one in my display at Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown. If you're going that way, stop by. It located on 6th street next to the city building and police station, across the street from the historic hotel from the old days of silver mining. It's about 45 minutes west of Denver along Interstate 70. 

There are many other kinds of art in this co-op gallery that shows work of about sixty Colorado artists. It's worth the stop.

The "Cosmic Wonders" hangs next to "Deer on Turquoise" taken after
a Ute Petroglyph from western Colorado.
Both works by Phillp Hoyle.

Denver, 2015

One of my favorite mountains and skyviews.
Photo by Phillip Hoyle

Years ago I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I felt elated there soaking up the contrasting cultures that lived together and influenced one another visually and culturally. I wanted to be influenced by new things in those days. Still do. 

At first my family and I lived in the North East Heights in a beautiful townhouse that presented a beautiful view of Sandia Peak, that mountain that reaches over four thousand feet above the river bottom and displays huge cliffs of brown granite. I loved sitting at the dining room table sipping a cup of coffee looking at that mountain. Sometimes the very top was covered with a thick icing of menacing storm clouds while the rest of the sky was blue and full of sunshine. 

After some months our children left home for their own adventures while my wife and I continued exploring our new home. Eventually we moved downtown into a comfortable apartment complex. I lost sight of the mountain due to our lower elevation and buildings, but I still had a pile of brown granite, a massive one called the Federal Building. I was quite pleased to sit at the same table sipping my morning coffee as in the Heights but now looking at an impressive structure made by people. I found it pleasing although profoundly different than the large mountain I had seen before. 

This beauty stands on 13th Avenue between
Lincoln and Broadway, Denver.
Photo by Phillip Hoyle

Of course I could see that other peak on my way to work. Other mountains as well.

In Denver I still get a wonderful view of Mount Evans as well as other mountains when I walk to the bus stop. Downtown there are fewer mountain views but many tall buildings. One my favorites is the one picture above that gives me not only a huge structure, but also views of the sky behind me. Many photographers have been fascinated by clouds reflected in windows. It's not the same as watching clouds in conjunction with a favorite mountain, but has its own wonders to reveal.

Denver, 2015

Artist Trading Cards

African Drums Artist Trading Cards prints with mixed media by Phillip Hoyle

I had fun printing and then finishing with collage and various pens a set of thirty Artist Trading Cards. I printed on pieces of cut up paintings--some finished, others just in process when I gave up on them. I started with a simple drum shape and printed several cards. Then I added a turtle design and printed more. Then I made the block into a mask and made another six cards. Finally I kept removing parts of the block until I had only the outline of a drum and its head. I printed these black on a several more cards. Some of them got ornamented with designs, the others simply with lines and a tiny bit of design near the bottom. 

Drum ATCs by Phillip Hoyle

I made these rather elaborate (though tiny, 3 1/2" x 2 1/2") pieces of art to please myself. Of course I'll trade most of them, but my purpose was to make drums that satisfied and entertained me. They were also part of my 68th birthday festivities, the part of those festivities I held in my studio.

Denver, 2015

Note Cards, Greeting Cards, Artist Trading Cards Galore

When I last worked at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery in Georgetown, I looked and looked for my greeting and note cards display but couldn't find them anywhere. Okay, I said to myself, calm down and get logical. I looked more and still didn't see them. 

Later, when I was not looking for them and walked by the display for the umpteenth time, I spotted them, plain as day, right on a jewelry display case. It's sometimes difficult to see things when you know they are not there! Now they're in a great spot, and since locating them I've sold two boxes of note cards. And the rude thing about it is that I've got to get to work on some new ones! 

My plans: I've got these cards--probably a few more prints off older blocks, two big bunches of floral cards which I have begun, and of course, Christmas cards! I'm busy drawing, preparing grounds, purchasing supplies, and getting ready for at least three projects! I hope to take some new note cards to the Gallery in about two weeks when I next work there.

Nothing like a deadline to get this artist moving.

Hope you're having a wonderful summer of art and fun!

Denver, 2015

It's a Whale

Three whale-themed cards of mine that went to design.
Whale ATCs by Phillip Hoyle

Whales was the topic for the Artist Trading Cards swap last Saturday, a two hour event bringing together Denver artists for socializing and trading artwork. Cards were traded one for one by about a dozen artists, most of them showing their latest creations related to whales. 

I was pleased to trade about thirty cards. That means folk got more than my whales and I got more than theirs! The variety of work and the wonderful conversations made the time involved more than worthwhile. These trades are just plain fun! 

Think about joining a trading group near you. Go on line and type in Artist Trading Cards and the name of your town, city, or county. You'll be surprised. And if you join in the fun, you'll be surprised at the variety making cards will bring to your artwork. Working in miniature (cards are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2") can become a great medium for experimenting. And artists don't have to give up larger works in order to share their work with one another.

Denver, 2015

Photo Realism

White is not really a color I need to remember
but sometimes intricate shapes do need
clarifying.

I have little interest in photo realism as a painting approach, but I have learned in my projects related to flowers to use the camera to record the colors of my subjects. While in Missouri last month to draw flowers I also took photographs of many of them to help me recall with some semblance of reality the color of the blossoms and sometimes the shades of green in stems and leaves. 

I had a good time drawing and then photographing flowers in four different locations even though I looked at several others. I wonder now if I didn't have my camera with me then. 

Shades of green often escape my memory.
Now I have this guide.

In a couple of weeks I'll start making the pieces of mixed media art for my Wildflowers of Missouri project working from my drawings. I'm not interested in providing technical, scientific drawings but rather to move toward some kind of abstraction related to the flowers. I'll follow the advice of one of my teachers suggested about plants. "Draw them over and over again until they quit being flowers and become lines." That's my goal and I'll use the photos for color references as I move into this project. Probably you will see some of them in this blog and hopefully soon.

Just this closing note: below you can see photos of my consulting companions during my treks across meadows and into the woods.

Denver, 2015