Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 96 (Santa Rosa)--or the case of the purloined sandpaper

For weeks, a scrap of fine sandpaper that my son had been using for something and failed to put away, despite repeated requests, kept staring at me every time I walked by the place it rested, on the edge of a shelf, at the top of the stairs. Today, it finally got cleaned up. I cleaned it up. Though it was, technically speaking, already mine, I stole it. I used it in a collage today. I transformed it from an annoyance into a field of grey that was just the thing needed in the place I put it. I made art today. Untitled Collage No. 96 (Santa Rosa). Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper (sandpaper). Image size 19.8 x 26.3cm.



Click on the images for a larger view. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player). Come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015--at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

Art I'm Making: Two New Collages (March-April 2015)

Here are my two most recent collage pieces. Both were created at the end of March. With this post I'm finally caught up. Untitled Collage No. 94 (Santa Rosa), shown at the top here, uses some new orange and lavender papers I've created along with scraps from last year made using Sennelier's "Blush Tint" and "Neutral Tint" paints. As I've said before, I think the Sennelier acrylics are especially beautiful, although I occasionally use colors made by other manufacturers.

Untitled Collage No. 95 (Santa Rosa) is diminutive. At 5.8 x 6.7cm (about 2 x 3 inches), it's the smallest collage I've made to date. It uses scraps left over from other collages and the last bits of a piece of pastel-covered paper (the rust areas) I got from another artist. I'm now working on a new collage that will use piece of a pastel drawing of my own.

Click on the images for a larger view. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player). Come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015--at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

Art I'm Looking At: Suzanne Jacquot on the Art Wall at Shige Sushi--Opening Reception (April 6, 2015)

We had a successful opening last night at Shige Sushi. One of the guests, a musician, brought along flutes and gave us some unexpected live music. Most of the attendees were themselves artists, which resulted in some lively discussion about the work. Jacquot's abstract paintings are notable for their command of composition and expressive use of color. I especially like the way her work combines gestural detail with diffuse color fields that work on a larger scale. The combination creates a dynamic between close examination of the finer elements and a simultaneous assessment of the surrounding visual field.

The show runs through May 31 on The Art Wall at Shige Sushi. For more information about art at Shige Sushi, including information about upcoming shows, about purchasing art, or about submitting art for consideration for display on The Art Wall, visit http://ctalcroft.wix.com/artwallatshige/.

Wines I'm Making: New Leaves on the Vines (2015)

Bud break was early this year with the lack of rain and unusually warm weather. Our Sangiovese vines already have about a foot or more of new growth on them. The Cabernet vines have shoots of about four to six inches. It's already time to do the first sulfur spraying, but with rain in the forecast yesterday and today, I'll be waiting until the weather clears again. Tiny grape clusters are already visible, the raw material for our 2015 wines. 2015 will be our 12th vintage.

Art I'm Making: New Collage

I finished this piece in the middle of March. It uses test strips made by local photographer Barbara Elliot, who is learning the platinum/palladium printing process. I visited her studio not long ago to talk about showing her work on The Art Wall at Shige Sushi, which I'm now curating. We'll be doing a show of her work later this year. While talking she showed me some of the tests the was doing and I noticed these scraps with penciled lines and numbers on them. She kindly gave them to me when I expressed an interest in them as collage material. This is Untitled Collage No. 93 (Santa Rosa). Acrylic on paper, acrylic monoprint, found paper (platinum/palladium test strips with graphite). Image size: 16 x 21.7cm.

Click on the images for a larger view. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player). Come see my work in person during the Art at the Source open studios event, June 6 & 7 and June 13 & 14, 2015--at Studio 48, in Sebastopol.

Rain: Morning Showers and More to Come (April 5-7, 2015)

Early morning rain on the 5th added 0.20 inches to our total for the year. Not much, but better than nothing. The forecast is for possibly rain today (the 6th) and for thunderstorms tomorrow. Let it rain. As of the morning of April 6, our total for the 2014-2015 rain year stands at 23.10 inches, which is about ten inches below normal.

[Update: Overnight and into the morning of April 7, we got heavy rain, but the predicted thunderstorms didn't materialize. Nevertheless, we got an additional--very welcome--0.90 inches of new precipitation at my location (northeast Santa Rosa). That brings the 2014-2015 total here to 24.00 inches. The weather website I monitor for historical data in Santa Rosa is reporting a total of only 21.80 inches. That station has received 0.6 inches of rain so far in the first seven days of April, for example, while I've recorded 1.1 inches during the same period. The historical average for April 6 is 32.67 inches, according to that site. So, we're still 8.67-10.87 inches below average this year. The forecast is still noting the possibility of thunderstorms (and hail) later in the day.]