Rainy on Vets

On a recent rainy night I shot these photos. I wanted to point out out the kind of light imagery that influences my dot artwork.

Hard Rain

For several days in a row it has rained. One of the nights,
when I heard raindrops beating against my house, I stuck camera out the front door and captured these shots using my camera's flash.

me

The New Orleans Mac Users Group (NOMUG) goes out to eat following each monthly meeting. Over the years members have frequented various restaurants in the area. A couple of years ago, while dining at a restaurant, I noticed the tiles on the table where we sat. There were a handful of patterns that were all mixed together. Seeing the tiles made me want to create a piece that would remind me of these after-meeting-gatherings.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5

First I picked my palette from the colors used in the place. I then pieced together a simplified and altered composite of patterns thereby assembling my own image. While painting it, I was worried about the palette I chose. Would I like the result? As it turns out, this my favorite painting in this grouping.

le

The first Art in April Festival was held in St. Bernard in 1996. It celebrates the culture of St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana. The area flooded during Hurricane Katrina. In the spring of 2007, I decided to visit the festival and take some photos. The festival uses a sunflower as a symbol.




acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5

So that is where my process began. Although the sunflower was a motif for the festival, I had no photos of real sunflowers. So, I searched sunflower photos online. After scrutinizing the images of real sunflowers, I rendered the painting below. Above it is a photo from Art in April Festival.

ke

One afternoon during a rainstorm I happened to take some photos from inside my car. I let the rain on the windows and windshield distort my images. The results were unusual. Later on I used the images as backgrounds photos for various profile pages. I posted the group of photos on my blog pic folio.




acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Going back to my rain photos, I picked one as a starting point for a painting. I’ve posted it below. Beginning with dark greens, I then added pale blue dots to finish. Along the way I abstracted my photo while maintaining the look of this series.

je

Next up is a painting that celebrates an art supply store on Magazine Street in Uptown New Orleans. It is called National Art and Hobby. What’s unique about this particular art store is that it features murals on an outside wall facing a side street. Some murals from a couple of years ago were my inspiration for this painting. Recently they were painted over making way for a new mural.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

After much contemplation, I came up with this design. Again, I incorporated a grid into my painting. The name of the store is visible if the piece is turned sideways. I set the painting aside for a few days before I finally finished it.

ie

In the spring of 2007, I attended a screening of the Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts for 2006 presented by the New Orleans Film Society. One of the shorts that amused me was “The Danish Poet.” I had the title on my list of events I wanted to remember, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

In the last year I have revisited an interest in maps in my art sketches. I’ve played with imaginary layouts of city blocks, but kept them abstract. In the “a” series Next I mentioned that I had seen a show of mosaics. That experience also fed my process. So what does that have to do with this piece?

When I was stuck for an image, I watched the cartoon online to aid my creativity. Then it hit me. The beginning and end of the short include maps of a small city. In fact they were similar to the drawings I’ve been making. Early on I had picked colors from the short for my background. But now I had my idea for a design. From there I played with the layout of my dots and create my own pattern.

Nueve

Finally here is the third painting in this grouping. I started out with aqua and then added colors I used on the other two paintings. At some point I’ll work on the other six I have in progress. So, that’s the latest on the “Numeros” series.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Ocho

This one began with a red background. I used many of the same colors that I used on the first one in this trio. While one painting dried I worked on another one. There is nothing worse than smearing the dots.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Siete

For months I have been stewing about how to complete my next three paintings from a series I call "Numeros." The canvases for these paintings are all 20” x 20”. Although I had a certain process for the previous ones, I didn’t want to repeat what I had done before. During the summer I thought about using some colors I had seen in the Japanese animé cartoon, “Ponyo.” Beyond that, I had to think about what I could do to make these next three pieces different.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

A couple of weeks back I began by choosing specific background colors inspired by “Ponyo.” I then started creating meandering lines similar to ones I used in previous paintings in this series. While I was rotating my canvases, an idea hit me. Why not have the lines run horizontally rather than run vertically? I looked at my meandering lines and thought of all the line graphs that have been used to talk about the economic news over the last year. Anyway, this is the first of the three new paintings.

he

A couple of springs back, I saw an installation by Ammar Eloueini at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.
The structure made of lit triangular shapes intrigued me. So I included the experience on my dot-art-idea list. The question became how to best depict what I had seen and make it
my own.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Fortunately I was able to purchase a book about his work. Recently I skimmed through the book looking for the basic elements of his designs. Triangles and lighting were the two most dominant features. Already I had chosen two dark blue shades for my background. So then I painted lighter blue dots in the shape of triangles on top it. I used varying tints of blue to create intensities. To make the image mine, I loosened the grid in places so that it wasn’t quite so rigid and accurate.

dot art Turns Four!

It’s now been four years since I created this blog about
my dot artwork. My journey began in AOL’s blogging area.
I was exploring a top ten list when I was suddenly confronted by Blogger’s friendly question asking me if I wanted to create
a blog. I was startled at first and clicked away from that page.
A little while later I went back to the page, and set up
several blogs.

Having returned from my Katrina evacuation to Memphis, I was relieved that my adult art had survived the post Katrina flood. Unfortunately I had stored my kid art on the first floor of an aunt’s home – that flooded after the storm. Some of the art, placed high enough off the floor, survived. The rest of my art, which sat in water, had to be pitched.

Over the last four years I’ve posted images of dot artwork as I created new ones. I’ve explained their inspiration and talked about my process. Many of you have given me your interpretations of what you see. Thank you to my readers who continue to visit this blog. Thank you to those readers who comment regularly. I really appreciate your feedback.

Today I am working on some 20” x 20” ‘s for a show that will be hung next week. Don’t worry. There’s plenty more to come. Some of my “e” series paintings are in the dot stage now. I’ll be posting them very soon.

ge

In the spring of 2007, Le Petit Art Guild held a luncheon at Don’s Seafood on Veterans Boulevard. After the meal, artist Myrle Van created a happy accident watercolor painting. Her wet ‘n’ wet colors inspired my palette for this dot painting.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Beginning with background colors yellow, blue and magenta, I added dots of green and darker dots of my background colors. I varied the green in some areas of the piece. The combination of colors adds a vibration to my image.

fe

On Easter Sunday of 2007 I saw a display of Easter eggs and stuffed rabbits. Inside one large egg was a waterfall scene with little houses, pine trees and flowers. The display is where this idea began.



acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

After creating a background from the palette of colors used in the display, I made an egg shape out of dots. I kept the egg shape light and the background dark.

ee

Continuing on my reaction tangent, I was again moved to make a painting that was provoked by the work of another artist, Yvette Creel. She showed us how she paints her watercolor paintings during a presentation. SO, then the question became what image I doand how to turn it into dots?


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

One image I settled on was a severe cropping of a spiral shell design. I took the lines and colors and made a simplified dot pattern. Also, I kept the design off center.

de

A few springs ago, I attended a collage presentation by artist Emmy Murawski at a meeting of Le Petit Art Guild. Her daughter’s interest in scrapping encouraged Emmy to experiment with collage. Her collage work involved the mixing of objects with collage and painting media. It was her presentation that was the inspiration for this painting.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

To begin my painting, I chose colors from her palette. I then used dots to imply torn pieces of paper arranged like a frame. When I finished I felt that I had taken a step away from a mandala pattern. This series is a reaction to the Alpha Series.

ce

Since I was young I’ve always enjoyed puzzles. One day at Barnes and Noble I found some puzzle books that intrigued me. That’s where this painting began. One book I purchased had pages filled with pastel colored puzzles. The colors used were my inspiration for this dot painting.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

But then I needed design logic for my dots. Thus, I took colors I used on background triangles and repeated them in the form of dots on the opposite side of the painting. There’s an energy about this one.

be

Two years ago I attended a Luau Party hosted by ARTinA (Art in Algiers). Attendees arrived in floral print shirts. After the party I decided I wanted to remember this event. Tropical themed napkins were used. The colors used on the napkin inspired me to make this painting


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Purple and pink were the main background colors. Next, I painted dots over the background. Like the last dot painting, I was trying to get away from the a mandala design. Unfortunately, I haven’t sucedeed - at least not yet

ae

Going back to mid 2007, I ran into a color combination of blue, green and white. In two instances the colors were used on web pages: one on a blog and another on a social profile page. When I received an issue of House & Garden (no longer in print), there were pages filled with furniture covered in fabrics also using those colors. Thus the color combination became an item on
my list.


acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Having just finished the Alpha Series, I figured this was a good place to begin with a limited palette. The next question was how to arrange the dots. I already had a blue background with a green diamond shape. So, I went back to the fabric designs I mentioned. Then it hit me that I should try something floral.

That was my intention, but the painting came out more like a wheel. Well, anyway, I used the colors. Above is the result.

"e" Series: Reaction

In preparing my 5” x 5” canvases for this group of dot paintings, I decided to change my background design.
In the past, many of my pieces, that size, had a spoked wheel or pinwheel look to them. I still wanted to use triangles in the background. Thus, I arranged the triangles into a diamond shape.

In addition to the diamond, I also altered my application of dots. The last series of 6” x 6” paintings I just completed, provoked a strong reaction. I had enough of making mandalas - not that I will never work that way again. Boxing myself in like that, for a whole series, just agitated me more than usual. Therefore this group is going to be very experimental and eclectic.

The 6” x 6” ‘s, themselves, were also a diversion from what I had been doing. So when I went back to my 5” x 5” idea list, I started editing the items down based on what I thought I could do visually. If I didn’t have a sketch in my head by now, the idea wasn’t worth pursuing. Basically, I modified my
game plan.

Last of the Alpha Series Designs!

Below I’ve posted my fourth and last page of designs for the Alpha Series. Many of them were the premise for my finished works. However, having painted so many similar pieces, I’m now ready to pursue another/new direction for a series I will refer to as my “Beta Series.”

In the meantime, I will post images of a group of paintings I will call the “e” Series. I have yet to officially designate the first half with a sub name. The paintings are still in process, but I will begin posting them here shortly.

The Alpha Series!

It’s been a little over four months and I have finally completed my Alpha Series. The paintings mark a journey back to a process I used on some 6” x 6” dot paintings I call the “Greek Code Series.” Each painting was named after a letter in the Greek Alphabet. Since all the names in the new bunch begin with “Alpha,” I figured I’d name this group the “Alpha Series.” For a while I couldn’t find that size. Once I did, however, I ordered a bunch of them.

As I started posting photos of my new works, a friend mentioned that they looked like mandalas. Well, that was not the intent of these works per se, but I went ahead and continued to pattern them in a similar way. Because of some an upcoming show I will return to the smaller size as I begin the “e” Series. Simultaneously I will be working on some more 6” x 6”‘s and 20” x 20”’s. When I have more information will post it.

Alpha Omega

So, this is the last image in the "Alpha Series." I chose to end it with a blue background and a design I tried out at the midpoint. Only this time I went with non-earth tones. Although I'm not as pleased with the result, I think it makes a good ending to this group of paintings.



acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Psi

Again I painted dots over a purple background. I changed up the design a bit to keep things interesting. I like the way the inner parts of the design glow.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Chi

Going back to a composition I used for Alpha Sigma, I changed shapes to fortune cookie-like outlines on whim. I then added dark colored dots inside the outlines and pastel colored dots to the background. The combination of colors gives a subtle effect.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Phi

By the time I made this painting, I was anxious to explore a new way of generating a pattern. Thus I alternated where the pattern appeared on parts of the painting. I consider this a breakthrough piece. It took me in a direction out of my
design rut.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Upsilon

A pink background was where this dot painting began. From there I painted green dots as I made a transition around the color wheel. I maintained square in the middle with circular shapes at the corners. The dots shifted to red inward and
blue outward.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Tau

Returning to a purple background, I decided to switch up my transition colors. So, this time the objects created by dots shifted in a red direction toward the center of the piece. Beyond that I let my dot process take its course.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Sigma

Recently I went to see the Japanese animé film “Ponyo” which was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was after seeing the movie that I painted my new dot painting. I decided to make my shapes dark and then use pastels on the space around my shapes. My guess is some will tell me the shapes are paisleys.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Rho

Yellow-Orange is the background for my dot painting below. The dots are high key making the design rather subtle. Therefore viewing from across the room might prove more difficult. Still I’m please with my pastel colors.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Pi

Well, I hadn’t done a green one in a while, so here it goes. I started with four circles and then made them part of an “X.” Between the green and the circles I thought about aliens. Hey, I’m just making a pattern and generic name. I’m not limiting this work to say it is simply an alien. OK, now it’s your turn.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Omicron

So back to a purple background I went. After going round and round deciding which pattern to use, I chose a flower design, of sorts. I wouldn’t want to lock it in specifically, however. Viewers just might find something else in it. Anyway, I was tickled with my color transitions. My painting did become a bit complex.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Xi

In response to recent visits to family friends’ homes, I decided to play with a combination of browns, reds and oranges in a dot painting. I knew I wanted an undulating curve pattern. However, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I finished. Luckily for me, being intuitive worked. This one excited me.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Nu

Again I chose a variation of red for my background. On top I added bright green dots to form a cross with small points jutting out. Blending colors as I worked to the center and then the edges of the canvas, I developed contrasting gradations. The cross was just a shape to use this time around.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Mu

The round shapes I used in Alpha Iota encouraged me to paint more round shapes in this painting. Again, using a yellow background proved to be a tricky. I went with contrasting dark complementary colors in order to tame it. I included fewer round shapes this go-round.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Lambda

On top of a red background I started with a plus sign made up of yellow dots. From there, all I did was add more dots as I created a transition of colors on the color wheel. While working on the painting, I did not concern myself with strict straight rows or consistent dot sizes. I figured it was a more interesting to paint my dots.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

More Alpha Series Designs!

As I finish my dot paintings I continue to play with design ideas. Some sketches work out better than others. You’ll recognize a few I’ve used already. Anyway, here is my third page of thumbnail drawings.

Just Add Circles

Recently I was forced to put aside my current series of acrylic paintings to complete some other works for a show that hangs in August. It took me a while to generate ideas for my new pieces. In general they all have to do with my current experiences online. Since one of them included dots, I thought I would share it here on this blog.


graphite on paper

The title “Just Add Circles” is my reaction to a recent online design trend that includes groupings of concentric circles as a pattern. Anyway, I played with circles inside circles, but I made it my own. Also, I drew vertical lines to break up my shapes as a positive/negative space game – if you will. I rendered the piece with graphite on Reeves BFK paper. It is a rag paper that can take a lot of abuse.

Alpha Kappa

Heading back to a blue background I went a little darker with my dots. I used a lot of reds and oranges. I started with an “x” in the middle and added “y’s” at the four four ends of the “x.”
acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Iota

Pink was the way I began my next painting. Circles of dots dominated my design. Calm is the feeling I get when I look at the painting.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Theta

When I started painting second coats of paint on my canvases, this is the first canvas I did. The dark green I used intimidated me. So I did not add dots to it right away. Finally I gathered the courage to attack the dark green. As you can see, I managed to add some very bright colors to counteract the dark background.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Eta

Although I have been sticking to bright colors, I made one dot painting with a brown background. My challenge was to see what dot colors I could place on top of it to make it interesting. I have my color wheel that enables an artist to find complements of various colors that are light and dark. So I went to the other side of the wheel to make my choices.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Zeta

Yellow has been a difficult background color for me previously, but I liked how this one progressed. It had a similar beginning to Alpha Gamma, but then I added diagonals. I’m very happy the color blends created by the dots.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Epsilon

My process on the previous painting started at the center as I worked outward to the four corners. In this painting, my dot process began with the four corners as I worked towards the center of the piece. I played with an abstract floral shape to start. As for the middle, I’m not sure what it is. It is colorful, however.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Delta

As I paint these, I’m trying not to repeat what I’ve done before. This one evolved very differently from the others. I had the design in my head, but the colors took me elsewhere. Again, I wanted the colors to pop. I just didn’t count on this one being quite so psychedelic. And no, I didn’t consume or smoke anything to influence my artwork. Bright colors come naturally.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Gamma

For my third painting I went green, so to speak. Then I added dots from the red side of the color wheel. I'm experimenting with the sizes of dots more. This one feels mellow to me.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"

Alpha Beta

The second dot painting in this series is a lot louder. I wanted to be sure the colors popped. This time I used a flower-like shape. So now I have all this leftover mixed paint. Hopefully I can use it on some of the other paintings. OK, I’m off to purchase a couple of tube colors I need.


acrylic on canvas, 6" x 6"