The Painting "Heaven's Vault" in Progress

Susanne Clark - Heaven's Vault
Acrylic and Gold Leaf on Canvas - $1985.00

I always get the urge to paint big works but don't actually have the space to easily work on them or put them when they are finished, however, the urge got the better of me!  I had the canvas hanging in the studio ready to work on and with the exhibition coming up at Arta Gallery I decided to get started.

I usually love to try out lots of different types of work but this year I am trying to be more disciplined and focus on one form of painting. I find working intuitively on non representational work very interesting and challenging so this is my 2014 focus.

Working intuitively I don't have any pre-planned idea of how the finished painting will look. I try to choose the predominant colour and then just go from there.  It's a scary process but I find it quite mysterious and exciting too.  The work always seems to develop out of many layers and has lots of changes as I try to bring the painting together.

At the Opening of the exhibition several people asked me how I go about creating a work like this.  While doing this painting I actually remembered to take some "in process" photos.  This is pretty amazing as I usually get so caught up in the process myself that I forget all about taking photos.

Here is the first photo, just a lot of black and grey on the white canvas.  You can see where I have scratched into the paint in some areas.

Here you can see I have started to add some colour.

More creams, golds and some calligraphic line work.

Stronger colour and gold line work.

These two are close ups that show the details of the texture and line work.  Unfortunately the gold leaf in the painting doesn't show well in the photos.

This piece is 30 inches high by 54 inches wide.  It's painted in acrylic and mixed media and is on canvas. The mixed media consists of gold leaf and gold pen, Finally here is a photo showing it "In Situ" to give you an idea of the size.  I balanced it on my fireplace mantle to take the photo before taking it to the Gallery so it's not hung a few inches above the mantle as it should be.  

Susanne Clark - Heavens Vault
Acrylic and Gold Leaf on Canvas - 30 x 53 in

Your comments and questions are always welcomed.

Abstract Painting

I feel this piece is finished although after a few more days I will probably find something I want to change. Next week I will be back into printmaking. I have some ideas I am eager to try out.

I have finally set the dates for my two printmaking workshops at the Atlanta Artists Center. The first one, Simple Printmaking Without a Press, will be on Saturday January 17th. In mid March I will do the Collagraph Printmaking Workshop which will be two full days. The dates for this are March 22nd and 23rd. I'm really looking forward to doing both these workshops. Once all the info is up on the AAC web site I will put a link here to it.

Abstract In Process Sailing Along

I have been busy in the studio again today. I had this nice sized canvas just waiting for something to be put on it. It's 30 inches square so a good size to work on. I wanted to work in a more abstract way again and while looking through a magazine I saw some pictures of sail boats. They have lovely swooping lines which really appeal to me. I seem to have a fixation for lines and flowing shapes.

Inspired by the sails I drew out a few shapes and then started adding lines and shapes that flowed organically from one to another until I got a basic design that I liked however I kept extending and deleting lines as I went along. Before I laid out the design on the canvas I made a messy underpainting with lots of colors and drips etc to get me started. I then began to block in the shapes by painting around each shape with color.

I have posted two photos of the process up to where I am now. I have lots of transparent layers ready for the next stage which is to start using more opaque paint You can see a couple of places where I have started this already. It's always exciting to see where the process leads and if it is successful or not.