Anahida Creations

2012-01-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

Contemplation-2

©Anahid 2012 - Acrylics, graphite and inks on wood panel with wooden frame.

This piece is a variation on the first Contemplation collage I posted in November 2011. This is how this image of feminine contemplation/meditation evolved first from a sketch inspired by a sculpture, to a mixed-media collage and now a simple and understated drawing/painting on wood. This is not a painting though in the usual sense, the acrylics are used like watercolors, very thin and watery so as not to overwhelm the drawing element. I am usually very fond of intense and saturated colors layered on top of each other, but here I enjoy the simple line drawing as an expression of her serenity. We all need some serenity in this crazy world.

I don't know yet if I'll continue this particular series or not, we'll see what the muses bring....

Contemplation

2011-11-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

©Anahid 2011- 'Contemplation'

mixed-media with collage and drawing on textured paper,
mounted and framed, 30"X16

This piece evolved from a drawing I made in my sketchbook based on a statue of a woman Buddha or (Buddhita as I call them) in the Asian Art Museum. This drawing changed quite a bit when I drew it again on a larger scale as you can see. The process of artmaking is fascinating to me, how images evolve, how they appear in the first place, sometimes as a faint vision which won't quit until you make it visible. It's almost like they have a life of their own, they do.

@Anahid 2011

Here's the first drawing I did inspired by the statue, which by the way looked very different from this sketch.

I am now doing another version of this image on a wooden surface with a great wooden frame. I will post it soon, it's a work in progress.

Wood and Water...

2011-10-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

©Anahid -2010 'Waves and Patterns'

acrylics and prismacolor pencils on wood panel, 12"X18"

©Anahid 2010 - Wood and Waves'

acrylics and mixed media on wood panel, 11"x16"

You might wonder where the wood comes in...it's interesting to note that the patterns in wood are the same as patterns in water. I discovered this when I followed the patterns of the wood pretty faithfully and it turned into waves. So many of the patterns in nature are similar this way....

She Who Watches - the evolution of a painting

2011-08-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

©Anahid-2011 - 'She Who Watches' -mixed media on wood with shells 28"X24"

(click on image for a larger view)

This piece started with a pencil drawing I had done a few years back of a woman pushing back her covers like she was getting out of bed. One day I was looking through my sketchbook and thought it would be nice to use that drawing in a painting. I had a large piece of found plywood that lends itself to collage and assemblage of all kinds.

So I traced the drawing onto the wood that had been gessoed white on the top right hand corner; the rest was gessoed with clear gesso so as as to retain the natural wood grain which inspired some of the painting, and the rest of the elements just kind of fell into place one by one.

I enjoy doing collage or assemblage paintings in a spontaneous manner, just letting them slowly over weeks kind of "feel right" and grow gradually and a theme emerges. I also like painting a lot (I love painting!) and so the water which is one of my most favorite things to paint was asserting itself. I feel that once an artist learns to let go and let the painting tell her what it needs then it flows really well, albeit sometimes slowly, (partly because I like to savor the process). I am not a fast painter, it takes me weeks to finish one piece, but I've learned to work on two or three different pieces at once, (my small studio allowing...) so if I don't know what to do on one, I can turn to the other and by the time I come back, the first one is ready to tell me what it wants. It's a magical and surprising process.

There are some three dimensional elements in the painting, like pieces of wood, dried seaweed, and the shells which were added later.

Two Summer Landscapes

2011-08-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Another water scene from our many hikes........

this was a process shot of the earliest phase of the this painting so you can see the development of the painting.

Quan Yin with flowers from the garden

2011-08-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

We have a tiny statue of Quan Yin on our kitchen table and it seems to want some flowers around it. There are plenty of flowers blooming this summer. Altars are amazing, they just fall together, they seem to want to form around a centerpiece. I usually prefer the tranquil image of a Goddess as a centerpiece for reverent contemplation.

Altar/Installation

2011-08-18T17:36:00.000-07:00


This is a close-up view of an altar/installation I am exhibiting at Goodman2 Galleries as part of a show running from July 23 through September 25, 2011, entitled "Compost Cemetery Concept" Two more views of the same installation with mask, branches, bones, Goddess images, flowers etc. Altars have a way of falling together out of natural found objects like twigs, bones and images or statues. I've also used live plants and two of my garden mosaic stepping stones.