The Empty Chair - Pastel

“The Empty Chair” is another pastel that was created in the slide room. You can read about the details of this creative process in the post Creating Inside and Out. I also have an acrylic version of this painting that I will showcase in the next couple of days.

The Empty Chair - Pastel © Diane Clancy

It is interesting to me to see the difference in images when I put them into different mediums. My teacher, Michael Coblyn, used to talk about how each time one takes an image and translates it to another medium, it is important to see it as a new painting.

He encouraged us to not get caught up in trying to duplicate the image but instead to look at it as a new creation. This thinking has been incredibly helpful to me as I have taken my paintings created in traditional mediums and translated them into digital paintings.

After I created this pastel, I took a good hard look at it - and it was very striking to me. That empty chair in the window is very poignant to me - it feels very lonesome. I was caught in just creating and then stepped back and feel that there is a lot of power in this image.

~ Diane Clancy

Creating Inside and Out

Today has been a day of loose ends. I have been completing several projects and trying to figure out how to put a calendar onto my blog, www.dianeclancy.com/blog, without dominating the blog. But I did get outside and take my walk.

Inside and Out, Pastel © Diane Clancy

I was just going to share the above, but then I realized this is too good an opportunity to miss for talking about the creation of this image. I can tell a whole lot of people at once - if I am lucky!

I painted this while I was in school. Our teacher, Michael Coblyn, had us go into a dark room with our pastels, a slide projector and a model. Michael Coblyn shined a slide on the wall with the model standing in front. In the dark we had 2 - 3 minuters to paint with pastel.

Then he flashed a second slide on the model for 2 - 3 minutes. We went back and forth between the 2 slides many times. We had to pick and choose between the different views we saw with the 2 slides to create one coherent image.

Since then I have been meaning to try the technique using a 3D computer model and figuring out how to shine slides onto the 3D model. But it hasn’t reached the top of the list yet … will it ever?

But, in the meantime, I am delighted to have this image. Thank you for looking at it with me and learimg about my creative process.

- Diane Clancy

Flowers XI

In honor of full summer in New England, eastern U.S, here is a display of flowers for you! I hope you are enjoying your summer or winter, depending on where you are. I feel so much lighter with the sun and warmth. I want my artwork to help others feel uplifted like the weather is helping me.

Flowers XI, Digital © Diane Clancy

I had a lot of fun with this creative process of making this digital painting by choosing flowers in pinks and purples and putting them all together. These colors make me happy!

These are really more spring flowers I think. A friend mentioned to me how spring is a lot about “allowing” - allowing the energy of the season to carry one upward, like the flowers pushing up through the dirt to blossom. I am ready for some allowing and blossoming!

Thanks for stopping by and smelling the flowers!

~ Diane Clancy

Memory

I love working with actual, physical, paint. There is something so satisfying about using physical paints (as opposed to digital paints.) This is another painting from my goddess series with, obviously, the double-face theme. For one of my friends, this is her absolute favorite image of all my artwork.

Memory, Acrylic © Diane Clancy

This creative process has an interesing origin. A long time ago, I stumbled on this image of double eyes and faces from fooling around with early digital equipment.

I found out that if I moved my my head one way while photographing myself with the video equipment, my face became a series of peaks. Moving my face in the other direction, made my face stretch out. I still have the orginal printout that I made into a grid. Sometime I will scan it and show you.

Even though it’s beginning came from a mistake (or divine inspiration), I have found this to be a powerful motif that is worth repeating again and again.

Each person seems to have their own interpretation of this idea. In my experience, people are often sure that their sense of the double faces is what I intended. To me, that seems to indicate that I have tapped into a deep inner connection that speaks loudly for many.

I find myself mesmerized by these double faces. There is a way that I feel “feed” on a soul level. I feel connected to me deep inside.

~ Diane Clancy

Nature Reflections I

I’ve always enjoyed the colors blue and yellow together - ever since I was a child. There is some way my eye goes back and forth, back and forth between a bright blue and a bright yellow. Many people have been drawn to this particular digital painting - from my aunt who was over 90 to young children. The birds, representing nature, are part of what I think draws people into this picture. Also, this image is at the border between realism and abstraction - where I think much interesting transformation happens.

Nature Reflections I, Digital © Diane Clancy

I created this image using Studio Artist, a very unusual art program. I started with a beautiful photograph of several birds and then digitally transformed the picture. I think many people are drawn by the fact that they can see birds - but often they keep looking trying to understand what is going on.

As with much of my own creative process, I can never quite reproduce what happens by accident. I do much better when I am aligned with my muse and allow the flow to happen than when I try too hard to “make” things happen. Of course, technical skills are still crucial - but, for me, the greatest reward comes when I feel in the flow. I wish for us all to be able to live in that flow.

- Diane Clancy

Outer Flow III

Now this image makes my heart sing! I love the bright bursts of aqua floating through the painting and the purples in the background - or is it deep space? My soul is fed very deeply by this image.

Outer Flow III, Digital © Diane Clancy

A few days ago in the post Beginning Life III I said that I would play with the color in that image to make the colors more in harmony with my inner color sense. This is the result of that play. I feel so much more uplifted when I look at this digital painting. I like the other one, but I love this one!

I am open to another name than “Outer Flow.” In the post Inner Flow III, there is a related image. This morning when I was reaching for a name, I thought of the Inner Flow series. You can find many technical details about creating these paintings in that post.

The Beginning Life series feels like the inside of cells …. The Inner Flow series … I think of them as being inside and on the micro-level. So far, I think this Outer Flow series reminds me more of the universe flowing around - the planets and such - the macro-level.

You begin to see my process of naming my paintings. I plan to make videos in transforming the image from Beginning Life III to Outer Flow III. Perhaps it is interesting that all 3 images mentioned in this post are “III” - a mystical number.

~ Diane Clancy

Inner Flow III

I can use some “inner flow” internally at the moment. I have been pushing very hard to get this blog and Susan’s Blog up and running and to establish the habit of posting every day. I am happy that the weather is warmer again. I am in a maintenance mode rather than an inspiration mode. But I do feel inspired when I look at this digital painting. That feeling of being uplifted by my images is one of the highlights of my work!

Inner Flow III, Digital © Diane Clancy

One of the ways that I decide if an image is finished, is by how it makes me feel. If the results of my creative process make me feel more connected to my soul, then it is a painting that works for me. I want to be creating more beauty and bring more light into the world.

This is a painting I created in Photoshop with KPT filters with many transluscent layers. This layering gives this image the depth of field that it has. There are dozens of layers in many of my digital paintings. Thank you for being with me as I have been enjoying “Inner Flow III” and, in the process, strengthening my own inner flow.

- Diane Clancy