Foxgloves

"Foxgloves"
8" x 6"
Acrylic on canvas panel

This must be one of those perfect springs for foxgloves. I've been to the Chicago Botanic Gardens twice in the past month and have been treated to a display of beauty I've not witnessed there before.  I have more reference photos of these spiked plants from this year alone, than all the years I've been documenting flower gardens.  

How fortunate for me!  Plants like this are my favorites to paint. AND this style of garden painting is one I will be teaching in my knife workshop in Chippewa Falls in about ten days. If you're in the area and interested, let me know. I may still have room in my class.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
CarolKeene.blogspot.com
Dailypaintworks.com
Dailypainters.com

Flame Froth

"Flame Froth"
6" x 6"
Alcohol Ink on Ceramic Tile 

I picked up a couple of six inch ceramic tiles at my local thrift store. The ink had colored my four inch tile from my workshop so beautifully, I wanted more.

I wiped this piece five times before liking what was happening. Turns out working on tiles is even more quirky than painting on Yupo. And titling this one was difficult, too!

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
Dailypainters.com

Fire In the Sky

"Fire In the Sky"
11" x 14"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo

This is another painting that began as a simple, single-layered piece... meaning that all the color was dropped on the wet alcohol on the first pass.  It was "nice" but it wasn't fab. 

I disrupted the niceness of the first layer by adding multiple layers on top. If you recall from an earlier blog I mentioned that when wet ink pushes away dry ink it forms "fences."  Well, the dark parts of any of these images are made by stacked up transparent colors. There is no black or so-called dark inks. They are all highly transparent, beautiful colors — just bunched up on top of one another to form dark.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
Dailypainters.com

Kablooey!

"Kablooey!"
11" x 14"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo

This was a peaceful, wash of less than dramatic pastel colors when I brought it home from my workshop in Eau Claire. I nearly posted it, but wondered what would happen if...  

I impacted the serenity with the addition of red, more purple and some yellow. Oh, my.

I am teaching a workshop on knife painting with acrylics in Chippewa Falls, WI on June 9 and 10. If anyone is interested please let me know and I'll send you the information. 

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
Dailypainters.com

Froot Baskit

"Froot Baskit"
11" x 14"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo 

I turned this piece every which way as I dropped ink and alcohol onto the Yupo. I also blew the ink around with a very large-bore straw. It moved the ink, but didn't send it splattering. Not until I photographed it and rotated it did I realize there was "subject matter" in the mass/mess of color. But it, like the spelling of the title, is a little awry.  

I have signed none of my ink paintings. Not until they are sold and the purchaser tells me where to sign it, will I commit to the permanence of... Keene.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
Dailypainters.com

Microcosm

"Microcosm"
14" x 11"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo 

It started out as a simple painting, but I had time, time to wait around to see what would happen... IF. There were a lot of "ifs" in this piece. I couldn't even tell you what happened between daiquiris and dinner, or baklava and bedtime. But I don't think I turned it into mud. 

"It is what it is,"says my friend, Mary.

Carol

Brushstrokes@comcast.net
CarolKeene.com
Dailypaintworks.com
Dailypainters.com

Blue By You

"Blue By You"
11" x 14"
Alcohol Ink on Yupo 

I was building a blue painting when I picked up a bottle of "citrus" green instead, and placed a droplet into the blue. Yikes! It pushed the drying blue into a hard dark edge, but looked kind of interesting.  Then I intentionally dropped several drips of "cranberry" onto the blue and formed a little blue island surrounded by red.  

Intentional is not a word I associate with alcohol ink. Nor is deliberate. It's more like happenstance, WTF and whodathunkit.  

Carol 

Brushstrokes@comcast.net

CarolKeene.com

Dailypaintworks.com

Dailypainters.com