Grit, concrete, rainy days inspire new vision

Black iron, copper, gray, titanium white and sand

12×16 Abstract 1267

Rainy days make the city feel more like concrete: gray sky, gray buildings, gray sidewalk. The graffiti painted over haphazardly with an off white. Lines beneath are ghost writing – visible in spite of the cover. Layers of patches and paint leave a gritty surface.

Etching stars into a gritty surface

The 12×16 Abstract 1267 has layers of black and silver with black lava, black and iridescent pearl underneath the top surface of unbleached titanium, gray and black. The shapes of stars were cut into the thick wet top coat to resemble the effect of cutting wet concrete or peeling paint.

Infinite love

Working with black iron metallic paint underneath gray and titanium white, the coarse, wet metallic bleeds through. I used a rust activator to bring the rust to edges. I used a copper metallic paint through the top part of the work and a blue patina aging solution brings out a bit of blue. This painting was inspired by the colors this past

14×18 Infinite Love

week on some cloudy days. The cliffs of Santa Monica appear to rust in the rain and water takes on a sandy gray color to blend with the beach. The sky boils with charcoal, gray, and small holes where I can see a hidden blue sky of a sunny summer day. This part of the year is full of weather transitions, turning winter to spring with brief reminders of how summer feels.

Valentine’s day

The painting also expresses a concept of unconditional love. I hope you have a good Valentine’s Day. Although the day is a contrived event designed to benefit businesses selling flowers and candy, I hope it can also be a time where people express love. On a dark and stormy day, the deep interior can still be warm.

New travel plans: New Zealand and Australia

This time of year is the best time to take a trip. I am hoping to find some summer weather or maybe an early autumn. I am heading to Auckland, New Zealand March 22nd to spend a few days seeing the area. This will be my first visit to New Zealand. I will fly from New Zealand to Sydney, Australia. This will also be my first visit to Australia. I picked Sydney because I have heard there is a big art community in Sydney. My visit to Portugal inspired my new work. I hope New Zealand and Australia will also be a source of inspiration. If you have any suggestions for what to see, let me know

Thanks for stopping by…

I appreciate your feedback and have been inspired by blogs kept by everyone who has stopped by. Travel pictures and experiences shared by you inspired me to choose New Zealand and Australia for my next trip.

Copyright

All work is copyrighted by me and is for sale. If you are interested in purchasing work, you can contact me at trishfalin@gmail.com. I am still researching how to sell work online. If you have a suggestion of a site or method that is working for you, let me know.

Other works inspired by Portugal… these are cell phone photos. I didn’t get a chance to photograph these five before they were went to their new home.

20×16 Abstracts hanging in their new home

20×16 Abstracts in their new home

Framing a bit of serenity

Finding some peace

The first work after returning from the funeral came out looking like spring after a hard winter. I took this painting to be framed before I took a picture of it, so I leaned it up against my car and took this shot with my phone. I chose a floating black frame … one I like to use on my work.

Painting a bit of hope

I hope that my Mom found some peace after all the suffering. I think that painting is a form of expression of what’s inside that can’t find words. I started with a light green on the canvas and then let the colors fall through the layers of blues, greens, browns and purples. Although it has been foggy often lately, I have been painting a bit of spring color on my canvases. This one is 18×24, which is large enough to create complexity.

Thanks for stopping by …

I love the feedback on WordPress and I also like visiting other sites. I have been checking out a lot of travel blogs as I thought about where to go. I booked a flight to Lisbon in December. After reading so much about it on other blogs, I thought it would be a good place to go right now. If you know of any great art galleries there, please let me know. I know there will be plenty of good food and melancholy music. I’m sure it will inspire new work.

Copyright

All work is copyrighted by me and is for sale. Please ask permission before using images posted here of my work. If you are interested in purchasing work, you can contact me at trishfalin@gmail.com.

A Study in Color at The Art Center in Carpinteria

48 x 24 inches

A Study in Color

This painting, which will be part of The Art Center’s new show opening November 17th, seems to have every color I could find layered throughout. Photographing it was especially challenging, to capture the impact of a two foot by four foot piece and view it on a screen is not even close to seeing it in person. If you have a chance to see The Art Center’s show “A Study in Color,” then you will understand. The Art Center is located at 855 Linden Ave., Carpinteria, California. The opening reception will be November 17th from 2 to 4 pm … The show runs until January 6th.

Start of a New Trend

In many ways, this painting was the first of a new trend for me. The coloring is different, as well as the texture. Blending so many colors over such a large space takes time and patience. I was lost in the creation of this one for some time. Then, it took two weeks to dry. I actually completed this piece in August but hadn’t posted it yet. I have several pieces yet to post.

Bright Spot in November

The show is a bright spot for me this November. My mom passed away last month after battling cancer for more than a year. She loved art and had a special affinity for texturized acrylic works. She inspired my switch from watercolor to acrylic when she purchased a piece from an artist in El Paso, Texas. She gave me the painting and I still find it very inspiring.

Thanks for stopping by …

I appreciate everyone’s feedback … it is inspiring to hear from others and also to visit your blogs to see and read about your experiences. The best part of having a WordPress site is that you can interact with people. It’s the main reason I decided to use it to display my art. Your notes on my last post helped ease the stress and emotional ups and downs. Unfortunately, cancer strikes many and its damage is devastating to watch and painful to experience. I have a large family and very little experience with death. I don’t really know how to process it other than to paint.

Copyright

All work is copyrighted by me and is for sale. Please ask permission before using images posted here of my work. If you are interested in purchasing work, you can contact me at trishfalin@gmail.com.

Almost summer at the beach

Water 27 on 18×36 canvas

June gloom?

Summer is almost here as the crowds begin showing up at the beach, but this also means the sun light is brighter which creates lighter colors on the water. The layers of color from the summer sky contrast light and dark with shadows from life underneath the water’s surface.

In this painting, I tried working with several colors in each stroke you see on the darker, more texturized lower half. I started with a base color on the canvas, as well as a layer of texture. Three colors used on the base underneath the final painting included a dark purple on the bottom third, a medium shade of blue in the middle, and red on the top third of the canvas. The textured lower half of the final work includes a dozen different colors blended with a tool. In some strokes you can see four to five colors.

The top half of the painting was produced through combining a pouring method with the same texturing used on the lower half. The intent was to mimic a sky that has a swirling colorful cloud cover penetrated by sun. The summer afternoon with its puffy clouds becomes a mix as the sun begins to set and the marine layer moves in.

Some extra features in this painting include an iridescent/pearlescent tinting medium and some metallic mediums to give the water and sky a shimmer found in summer days. The dreamy quality of summer days makes me want to take a towel down the street to the beach for a little break from work. I usually get a little beach time before I begin work on a new painting. Many days what I see ends up influencing my work.

The play of color between water and sky is part of the vision for color here. This painting is also an effort to produce the effect of a wet rainbow on a canvas. Water is a darker shade, the sky is the lighter shade. Huntington Beach usually is locked in fog for most of June, but the first three days this June have been sunny for part of the day. It’s a taste of summer a little early… add a little watermelon and it definitely feels like July.

Thanks for stopping by to look at my work. I’m a little behind on posting pieces I’ve completed this past week or two, but sometimes it takes time to capture the work in a photograph. This one in particular was difficult because of its size and contrasting shades of color. I used natural lighting and a wall in the gallery where the light is less direct. The early evening fog helped to create the perfect lighting to capture the color and not be overwhelmed by the shimmer of mediums used.

Small Work

Working on a small canvas can be interesting. These three acrylic paintings are only 5 x 7.

California Hills

16×20

The hills in California are a source of inspiration for my work lately. This one has the dark shadows that change the colors as the sun sets. I paint in layers with a black textured surface underneath the landscape above. The color underneath gives the painting a certain tone. The texture below combined with the surface texture gives the hillside a rocky jagged surface. When my painting dried, the work underneath bled through to give the surface more dimension.

16×20

This slight hilly landscape focuses on the contrast between hill sides created by the setting sun. The red layer underneath the texturized landscape gives the painting  a different tone than the one above. The mixture of paint on the dark side give it streaks of a metallic shine. The light side is a more muted blend that bleeds into the color of the sky. The hills can take on this muted sandy color at times.