faith


'A practical tip if you're an artist here's a quick way to figure out what to do. It has to be two of these three: fun, interesting or lucrative. It can't be just one.'
Laurie Anderson Norton Lectures 6, link click here

I say 'yes' to 2 out of 3, most days, which is why.....




.......after all the earthy tones, blacks greys browns, I decided to add commercial colours to the natural inks I've been making & using. Because all of a sudden I wanted to see how the beasts would cope with colour, and for the time being there are not many fresh ingredients to be found in the wild outdoors. At least not for the brighter colours I'm looking for right now. The six pigments I bought several years ago in The Vikingeskibsmuseet* are: blue green yellow red black & white.

Experimenting with the gum Arabic, the tragacanth mix from a couple of months ago and loosely following the instructions in Jason Logan's 'Make Ink'. I'm brewing the rainbow hues on the wood-burner using rain water, filling jars with dazzling yumminess.
 

Not only am I re-purposing the leather bound books, I am also painting over old work in my old sketchbooks, poring over the old notes and drawings, often cringing at what's there! oh well, best not to be too critical of past selves, forge ahead with paint and brush: breathing in New Life. I'm also re-using some of my mother's notebooks. To begin with, gobbling up her and my old scribblings felt cannibalistic. I was not sure this was the proper way to phrase it, but having googled it's meaning I can see why it kept bubbling up into my consciousness: the transformative powers of cannibalism are exactly how this appropriation feels to me. I guess there's a lot I'm dealing with. Continuing along these lines of thought brings me to Jude's comment in my last post 'you have really found your path' which really got me thinking and I wanted to say a lot more than I did in my reply, hesitated and decided it would have to be written in a new post. An attempt....
My parents weighed heavy on my mind, always.
They cannot be blamed for that, but that is the way it was.
Now that they are no longer here, I feel am lighter in so many ways and free to let my mind&body roam, I can't really explain how this works but know it to be true. The recent paintings are a result of this process



wow, the colours can be really subtle, this happens because I never really clean the brushes

I love the surprise 

I am amazed how the paint has a life of it's own

I relish the stubborn brushstrokes, how they define the beast that is born

I marvel at how old drawings inform new ones




I am sometimes shocked at what the beasts tell me about myself, fearful people will turn away
from me







This Ă­s fun, my Beasts of 2022 calendar


interesting for me, maybe lucrative too?




I had several copies made as a try-out and I'm happy the way they turned out

They are for Sale, at € 15 measurements 16x21cm 
{6,3x8,2in}

if you want to order one, please email me

saskiavanherwaarden@gmail.com









my mock-up, I think it's called:




there is so very much to love about all that Laurie Anderson shares in the Norton Lectures, I could keep on quoting her; I will not, however I just have to share this nugget of wisdom with you, her final words in lecture number 6
'the reason we are here is not to suffer or work but to have a really, really, really good time'


Comments

ravenandsparrow said…
I love these beasts! I have always been drawn to the fluidity of watercolor and these apparently simple (but I know how hard it can be to keep watercolor spontaneous) animal drawings are perfectly imperfect. Way to go Saskia! I must listen to the Norton Lectures, but the sound on my computer is not working. Sigh.
Faith said…
By the time I got to the third photo, my smile was an all out grin. Color adds so much. Your creatures in color radiate joy.
Nancy said…
Saskia~ A total and complete celebration of YOU!!! I love the delight color adds...and the calendar! Oh my goodness :)
Saskia said…
hello Dana! happy to see you here again, yes watercolour has a life of it's own, which I guess is why I love it so much
hope you will get to listen to Laurie, she's exhilarating
Saskia said…
grinning is so underrated!
having a lot of fun with the colours Faith
Saskia said…
seems like there's a lot of celebrating here in the studio Nancy
Mo Crow said…
(((Saskia))) oh I love your experimental nature, will be interesting to see how the pigments react with the natural dyes over time
Saskia said…
absolutely Mo, over time all fades into nothingness, or maybe otherness

I had a lovely phone-call the other day from the scupltor-son of a couple of our parents' artist-friends (all parents dead now) we had gifted him two of his mother's watercolours; as it turned out they were rather damaged by time, however as the son pointed out to me: we have received not just two of our mother's paintings out of the blue, but they have the added patina, which we would not have had if they hadn't been in your parents' house all these years!

tungsten

tungsten

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