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Posts tagged ‘acrylic’

Dec 13

By Your Side at Christmastime

By Your Side, acrylic on canvas, 24 x24. Available at Portland Art Gallery, Middle Street, Portland, Maine.

As I prepare for Christmas, I always feel so grateful for the special people I have come to know as friends and family. As a young person and as an adult, I had no idea that an individual person could enrich my life as much as they have. From helping me find my way in art, to showing me how to have fun with whipped cream fights in the kitchen, to demonstrating how to let things fall as they may and be ok with the unpredictable outcome. Each one of you has helped me in a small or large way making it possible for me to feel that you have been a gift of Christmas past, present and future. Hope you feel the love of being or giving a gift this Christmas.

Lesson learned: Share your gift.

2023 Calendar now on sale at Kennedy Gallery in Portsmouth NH. Click link for info.

Sep 13

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Side by side or side by each

Each photo is a detail of a much larger painting. It was selected to demonstrate the various ways I paint similar situations I have created in my work. They each speak to togetherness, friendship, and the simplicity of just being together with someone you love.

I can speak for many of us when I say we all have a special someone in our life. Someone who sees us for who we really are yet gives us space to grow and mature. It is that person who is represented in these doorway images I frequently incorporate in my work. It is intentionally not a portrait but a symbol/gist/likeness of what it may look like to be part of another person – note where I have merged color to connect people together. To love being close and feeling their warmth. Sharing life’s lights and darks, it’s rough and smooth edges, its absolute joys and sorrows. Some of my fans and collectors find all this imbued in my work and let me know through heartfelt notes and emails. When I began making these images I was not aware of how deeply someone else would feel about them. After over 10 years of painting fulltime, I now know that what I create can hit home in ways I never imagined. Thank you for allowing my work to touch your soul and in some cases, heal it.

Lesson learned: Do it anyway.

See note at right. Choose from these four options, or choose to be surprised!

Please follow me on Instagram anntrainordomingue, or on Facebook at anntrainordomingueart.

If you would please confirm your interest in following my blog please let me know via email at atdomingue@gmail.com. If you’d like to stay or be added to my snail mail list, please email your snail mail address and I will ship you two blank art greeting cards as a thank you.

See more of my work online at anntrainordomingue.com

Aug 24

Fish Moon Light Days Reflections

Fish Moon Days, 24×48 on canvas, 2021. Available at Portland Art Gallery, Portland, Maine

The moon has a pull that I don’t understand in its entirety, but I still find it a fascinating detail to place in my work. Even adding another where it doesn’t make sense. Am I to use my creativity to reiterate and repeat reality? Or is it to reinvent/rework/recreate/renew a common image by imbuing it with fresh ways of looking, bringing another point of view for others to ponder? As in life, encouraging new ideas and new ways of looking at things can make all the difference. Hopefully shedding light and new joy.

Lesson learned: Keep making images that bring joy and hope.

Jul 22

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Village in the Pursuit of Happiness

“… home was not just a cabin in a deep woods that overlooked a placid cove. Home was a state of mind, the peace that came from being who you were and living an honest life.” ― Kristin Hannah, The Great Alone

Detail of ‘Village in the Pursuit of Happiness 2’, acrylic on canvas

We all have such different ideas of what home is. The quote above was one I found while doing a bit of searching for a quote by an author that resonated with me and reflected the small family vignette of one of my large paintings I have selected for this post.

This image is part of a 40″x60″ acrylic painting titled ‘Village in the Pursuit of Happiness’. In this ‘village’ series I have incorporated several different visual ideas of what living in a village feels like for me. I am careful to not be too precious with shapes and color and detail rather letting all the vignettes live together peacefully as a painting. View a full image of ‘Village in the Pursuit of Happiness’ with this link.https://anntrainordomingue.com/Art/Detail.php?artid=1211296

Lesson Learned: Home is not only the shelter we live in, but also how we create a life together in the shelter of home.

Oct 29

Peaceful Transitions Matter

In this new painting, ‘Village Under the Sun’, the imagery is filled with all kinds of transitions— from line to gradient, warm to cool colors, curves to angles, light to dark values, textured to smooth surface, not to mention the imagined overlapping and off-kilter architecture. And the changing unreal scale of buildings and people. Yet if handled well, all these juxtapostions can live peacefully together. Creating a kind of balance that despite its quirkiness and unusual views, still does create a recognizable world where we live well in the peacefulness of a place we call home. Contact Kennedy Gallery in Portsmouth NH for more information. Visit Ann Trainor Domingue website for more info.

Lesson learned: Living together in peace despite differences matters most. Let’s hope the upcoming election results in a peaceful transition or continuation for America’s sake.

Jun 26

Art Opening ‘Shining Through’ by Ann Trainor Domingue, York, Maine

opening postcard web 5x5 GMSG

I am very happy to invite you to join me at the opening night of ‘Shining Through’ by Ann Trainor Domingue— my new series of work inspired by my longstanding curiosity and attraction of waterfront life and how I connect visually and spiritually with this beautiful space at the edge of the land and sea.

The opening reception will be held at the beautiful George Marshall Store Gallery located at 10 Lindsay Road, York, Maine on Saturday, July 14th, 5-7, exhibition runs through August 19th.

The gallery building is part of Old York Historical Society that works to preserve and promote the rich history of York. The Gallery is located on the York River with a working dock and shack right behind the gallery on the wharf– a beautiful location in any season.

I hope you will join me as I exhibit many of my newest works all tied to my fascination with waterfront spirit. Please share my invite with those you know who love the all things coastal. Thank you and hope you’ll stop by to say hello–it means a lot to me to have your support.

 

Jan 8

Time to Play

Testing a process

Working with hard molding paste, drawing into it, letting it dry overnight, then beginning a teal-colored underpainting. 8×8’s on cradled panels.

I find it is important to have time to play with materials and motifs that I have been working with for a while. Despite having done over a hundred paintings of all sizes, I continue to find new ways to use the images that I find so appealing. I have been able to do this because I give myself ‘play time’. Meaning studio hours devoted to working with materials in a different way–either applying it in a new way, scraping or drawing into it in a new way, or mixing materials to see if I can slightly shift the outcome. I’m not looking for wholesale changes just a slight step to the side or forward that feels connected in some way to previous steps. This way I won’t lose my way. Sort of like artistic breadcrumbs.

(Paintings shown are on my website, ‘Through and Through’ and ‘Sharing’, 8×8. 

Lesson learned:  Baby steps count big.

Dec 9

Embracing Family, Embracing Series

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Every Which Way, 24×36, acrylic

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Pattern in Blues, 24×36, acrylic

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Time of Day, 24×24, acrylic.

Its taken me some time to really embrace the idea of working in a series. I understand the concept and can readily see it in other artists’ work, but have consistently had difficulties adopting this idea in developing my own work, until now. The examples above show my recent attempts at exploring elements of my work and producing new works that embody aspects related to one another. Sort of like a family of children who look very similar, but are unique in their own way. Here’s where it has been tough for me. My background as an illustrator has given me broad skills to create just about anything. But that is not necessarily helpful in my career as a painter. Here’s what I’ve learned.

My extended family reaches far into the world as we have welcomed the changes life brings, and all is well. Marriages, divorces, friends, godchildren, distant relatives–not unlike many of you I’m sure. As relationships relate to my artwork though it sometimes appears as though I’ve adopted children from another planet, never mind my own world. So I have found it helpful to model my new found attention to working in a series after my family. Now it makes a bit more sense as I develop new art—as I choose which aspects to retain, and which to remember as an important lesson.

Finding the core element of the New England landscape (my lifelong home area) has been key to creating an armature/home where I can then change details while keeping a foundation in place. I’ll proceed into the New Year 2017 with a blueprint–one where I will still be able to enjoy serendipitous happenings as I evaluate new ideas to keep my family of work warm and cozy.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. And as always, thank you for your continued support.

Ann

(If interested in any of these artworks, consult my website http://www.anntrainordomingue.com or contact me directly.)

 

Jan 10

1 Comment

Lesson 1: Finished Before Starting

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Changing my mind early on before I go too far

Sketchbook work is the foundation for almost all of my paintings. I depend on small scale sketches to discover the design foundation of each piece before I proceed to finish–or at least that is my plan. But sometimes just a few lines on a canvas derails even the most promising sketch. Here is a good example. The black lines–done first just didn’t make as strong a design as I hoped when I scaled up from a thumbnail to this 18×18. I first sketched on the grey gessoed canvas surface with soft charcoal, then added fluid black acrylic to further solidify my design.

Then I sat back in my comfy yellow stuffed swivel chair given to me by a painter friend, the wonderful watercolor painter, Judy S. McLean. These few black lines on the canvas quickly voiced their opinion that I was NOT to proceed any further. Think again they said. Try another sketch today. Don’t you just hate pushy sketchbook voices? So, I  went back to my sketchbook, flipped a page or two and out jumped a much better idea to pursue.

I then flipped the black line painted painting upside down and grabbed my white fluid acrylic paint bottle and drew the white lines right on top. This was a better start and I felt able to continue with the process toward the finish line. You can still see some of the white lines in final piece below.

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Coming Through, 18×18, acrylic on canvas

Lesson learned through this particular painting process was to be decisive when I feel something is amiss. Being honest with yourself as an artist and letting your intuition guide your moves will improve your chances of finishing strong.

How do you solve your painting design issues? I’d love to hear from you.

Aug 20

Delicately Powerful

Our local florist shop, Apotheca Tea Shoppe and Flowers in Goffstown, New Hampshire, allowed me to browse and spend an afternoon sketching and photographing (actually taking snapshots) of their beautiful displays of flowers. Quite a colorful afternoon it was. I was developing a new series paintings using flowers, florists, gardeners as my inspirations.

gerber redspeonies In following with my decidedly unconventional approach to design and color, I was looking to work with the color, forms, patterns and textures in an uncommon way. A way that would have viewers say, hmmm, I’ve never seen that before. I was doing as much thinking as photographing and sketching during this process. I don’t begin a process like this with preconceived notions of what I am going to do with the information. What fun would that be? Of course I realize plenty of artists pre-think and I find myself overthinking frequently. But this time I tried NOT to solve the puzzle ahead of time.

I am a bit demanding of my muse–whenever she shows up–I want to have plenty of input for her to work with. A couple of the florists at the shop wound up being part of my inquiry as well although not my intention of using them in this work. But I never know. Even the worst photo can offer the best idea for a painting. 

The photos shown above are great as a reference for shapes, colors, flower angles, reflections and refractions of stems through glass. Not perfect lighting conditions for copying exactly what is shown but more than enough information for me to use to incorporate into a fresh design.

sketches20150306_125047     20150306_151725

The concept of design is first and foremost in my mind when I approach new work. I enjoy the quick process of sketching possibilities for a larger piece. I feel at during this stage I am efficiently running  through ideas before I ‘waste’ time working large on a weakly designed idea. Again my background in graphic design and advertising concepts fit seamlessly into my process.

The final artwork shown below was inspired by this process along with twenty others for a recent show titled, ‘Sunstrokes’. Less detail, sketchy in its application of paint. Not looking labored over. Fresh. Direct. Friendly.

Can’t wait to get back to the studio.

(‘Redheads’, 12×12, acrylic on panel, available at Sullivan Framing, Bedford, NH.)

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