Theme 2- Week 7: Entering the Mystery, Finding the Shapes and Patterns of our Lives
Rbt Kushner, notice how loosely he holds the brush, with a
plant as his model. See the 2 small white squares….guides for his
flowers.
He’s sitting in a Yoga Position. This seems like his meditation.
Robert Kushner, Opening Doors
Robert Kushner often paints directly on folding screens, sliding
doors, pages of antiques texts, and sliding screens. His work is filled
with gold and silver leaf, harmonious colors, and even glitter. The
background is painted first, with meticulous geometric shapes, blocks of
color, and sheets of finely rolled gold leaf.
Each gold or silver leaf sheet making the grid design is beaten to
.5 microns thick. It comes on tissue paper, making it easier to hold.
The clean surface must be treated with special adhesive. Then lifting
them one sheet at a time, you gently lay it onto the sticky surface and
burnish the tissue so the gold is carefully set in place. I only know of
sheets that are approximately 4″x4″.
Once the background is in place, Robert takes a handful of small
squares with an arrow on each one, climbs a ladder, and tosses them one
at a time onto the large background piece. Each random square shows the
placement of a flower with the arrow pointing in the direction it will
face.
The video shows one way to create a Robert Kushner inspired piece. What are your favorite colors? Do you have anything to represent shiny gold? I once used gold wrapping from a chocolate Easter bunny. Use acrylic medium as glue and add it to your art. Let’s begin with the background. Password: pattern
Let’s let the background dry while we consider flowers for our
painting. You are creating organic shapes, forms, and movement. They can
be anything you want, but flowers are considered serene, a moment in
time, natural beauty, sensual and magical. Here are the images I used,
but you can get a leafy branch or flowers from around your house as a
model.
Flower Images to inspire the loose organic flow of leaves & petals
Cut out 4 or 5- 2″x 2″ squares of stiff paper and draw an arrow on each. Stand back and toss them onto the background. Make this as much about you as possible. The images I chose are meaningful to me. My Dad always planted peonies round the house, and tulips are my first signs of spring. Find some natural shapes in your life. Here’s one way. Password: flowers
Share the Shapes and Patterns of your life on our FB page. Can’t wait to see what you create.
