I've been thinking a lot lately about my recent retirement and all the opportunities I'm now afforded, like spending entire days in my studio ~ painting.  On the surface that seems like fun but being the "driver" I am it has come with a few speed bumps.  I tend to have high expectations and there are two sides to that coin. 

1. On the one hand I'm always striving to be better, to reach higher to achieve the very best.  But by who's standards?  Well for now, my standards.  I get pretty wound up because I have a vision in my mind of how I want the artistic outcome to look, however getting there is another story. It can be crazy making - for me.
2. On the other hand it means I could start over and over and over trying to get it right and never really getting anywhere and that is a great advantage. This is crazy making - for my husband who comes in and whats to to what happened to that great painting I just started.  Which is actually crazy making for me.....I guess unless you've held the brush and stood in front of that blank canvas you can't identify with struggle.  Artists don't necessarily have an endless flow of creativity that just magically appears the moment they pick up the brush. So I try to limit the times I start over, otherwise....well....you know.......(picture puppy chasing her tail) lol

With this particular piece I wanted to collage a couple of the circles on.  Much like I did the circles on the pieces in my previous post.  I am making my own collage papers.  I'm having an issue in that mark making, even with products that say "waterproof" does not apply when the marks have been made on deli paper, even if sprayed with fixative.  Lots of fits and stops and starts trying to come up with something that would work.  I went back and looked at art demos by Anne Bagley because I know she uses deli paper.  I also noticed she uses artist quality tissue paper so I've ordered some of that and will give it a go to see if I get better results.   I guess this could be considered the "mad scientist" part of mixed media art.

Then addressing size.  I have a spare bedroom for studio space, actually a nice big room but not big in the sense of an artist producing BIG work.  So for this series I've gone to 20 x 20 which is the largest sheet size I could find for watercolor paper.  I suspect any gallery will want to see something much larger so I'll be figuring out that issue here very soon as I plan to take my art to the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Sedona market in search of representation sometime in the fall when I have a bigger body of work amassed.  Anyone out have first hand experience with how to approach galleries?  I'd love it if you could share your experiences so I have a better idea of how to prepare and what to expect.  I've read a lot but someone with first hand experience is icing on the cake.

So without further ado......I'm please to present the first in a series of three -

TRANSFORMATION ~ acrylic, handmade stencil/collage paper/stamps, graphite marks on 20 x 20 hot press watercolor paper mounted on 1.5 cradle board.