Finished Abstract Collages

I had posted these drawings below while they were still works in progress and wanted to follow up with my finished pieces.  They are both oil pastel drawings that I cut out with a swivel blade x-acto knife and collaged onto several layers of assorted papers.  The black line on both horizons is yarn.  I had a lot of fun doing these and am excited to work on more!

"Robotic Insect"    © 2014 Cathy Dailey

"Jester Dog"   © 2014 Cathy Dailey

Abstract Dogs and how my work has evolved over the years

So I'm really getting in to using oil pastels this month!  I'm thoroughly enjoying familiarizing myself with them, so much so, that I have that wonderful feeling we artists love to have, where we can't WAIT to get back to work!  I can hardly wait to get back into my work area and continue playing with the oil pastels!  It's one of my favorite feelings--when work feels like PLAY--and unfortunately I don't always have it.  The exciting part about this oil pastel experience for me is that my work tends to evolve in a big kind of way about once every 5-10 years.  When I first started doing my artwork after college, I painted colorful imaginary people.  A few years later I adopted my first cat.  She inspired me to create images of cats and other animals.  Those early animal images had a slight seriousness to them and it wasn't for another 10 years, after meeting my husband-to-be, (who is a very funny person), that I started adding a touch of humor & irony to my images. Drawing those new images initially had the same effect on me--I couldn't wait to get back to work and see what was coming next!  I still create work in that humorous animal style, and will continue it for a while because it is fun to make and I sell it well in the art circuit.  However, I am very excited to be doing something new and am eager to see where it goes. 

Here is a dog drawing I did last night.  I didn't go in planning to draw dogs, but when I saw it heading in that direction I just went for it.  I'm not quite finished with it and may end up cutting the dogs out and collaging them onto other paper--maybe black.  The one unfortunate thing about oil pastels is that they are a bit messy and the light green paper has a lot of smudges on it...but hey, isn't art supposed to be messy?!

First Artwork of 2014: Abstract

Now that all of the holiday craziness is behind me and I cleaned up my work area, I've been thoroughly enjoying playing with oil pastels and abstract drawing.  Abstracts haven't ever really come that naturally to me in the past, but for some reason, right now I feel like they're flowing freely.  It almost feels like meditation because I'm clearing my mind and just doodling on a large scale.  Not allowing my brain to get in the way, I'll occasionally flip the paper when recognizable images begin to appear.  Although, at times it does feel tempting to allow the objects, creatures, and plants to evolve in a piece, and if that feels right, I'll go with it. 

I finished this one last night and am trying to decide which direction it should go.  I think I prefer the vertical direction, but I keep going back to horizontal.

 The drawing above was my first abstract of 2014.

 The drawings above and below are both unfinished in these shots.  I am in the process of incorporating them into collages with mixed papers. 

Happy 2014!

Wow, I just realized it's been about 2 years since I even looked at my blog.  Sad!  I will simply start back up by posting some photos of my two muses...Sonny & Zuki!  Zuki, my sweet white kitty, is now 16 years old, and Sonny, aka "the Lion", is somewhere around 9 (we adopted him in off the streets of Athens, GA, where we used to live when he was a teen-age kitten, so his age is an estimate). They continue to bring us unconditional love, joy, and daily entertainment!

 

Sonny striking a pose

Little lovers!

Zuki's glamor shot

My newest abstract kitty drawing

I drew this using colored pencils on speckled gray, lightly textured
art paper, and it's 18 X 24". I'm having a lot of fun doing these abstract kitties!

a new painting i'm working on...

I went out to CA to visit family last month and had a great time! I brought my sketch book with me and did a little bit of doodling in my down time. I've started doing these kind of abstract kitties and really liked the way this one in particular came out. I decided to attempt turning it into a painting, which is still a work in progress, but I'm liking the way it's coming along...





I published the above post originally in February of 2011 and ended up putting this painting aside for a few months.  It is now finished and I'm very happy with the final outcome.  Here's a photo of the finished piece...

This piece is on a wooden panel and I used acrylic paint, oil pastel, and a Dremel tool to carve into the wood.  The strip of stripes of the left is attached with glue and screws and adds a bit of dimension to the flat piece.  It's kind of weird, but so am I! : )

My New Ornaments

I've been working on some new ornaments to sell on my etsy site. They're lots of fun to make and I'm doing them in 3 sizes this year. They're also available at Helix in Athens, GA.