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Largest canvas collage painting to date

"Seascape II"

(Detail)

I started working on a 40 x 30 inch canvas today. I have rough sketches for a seascape image that will incorporate handmade recycled cast paper, coconut fiber and acrylic paints. I did have to purchase bigger brushes for the bigger canvas. The recycled cast paper was manipulated while still wet to create texture and depth.

Felt it might be interesting to get comments on the work at various stages, so I posted updated images on Facebook. If you have are into Facebook you can search for Jay West. I think the photos are available to the public. If not let me know as I'm no pro with FB...yet.

The above image is the finished piece, plus a detail photo. "Seascape II" will be on display and for sale at the group show "Big Island Style" at Wailoa Center during the month of September.

Groups Show in Kamuela this month

I belong to the Hamakua Artisan's Guild, and have served as president for two years. One of the events I organized this year was a group show by some of the members of the guild at the Waimea Arts Council's Firehouse Gallery (see October 1, 2010 posting).

Eight of the members were anxious to exhibit and sell their work through this gallery, I am one of the eight. The reception will be on Saturday, August 13 from 3 - 5 pm. Wine and light pupus are provided by the artists, plus punch will be provided by the arts council. I'm displaying four collage paintings ("Lava Flow" above), two recycled glass trays, and one of my painted coconut leaf fronds.

Sun energy powered my glass kilns

We've been utilizing renewable power from the sun with the solar panels we had installed on our roof last fall. After they were installed and we had trees trimmed back our electric bill was reduced to $20 a month. That's the minimum charge from our local electric company.

When I fired up the glass kilns last month to create glass trays from recycled louver glass I wonder how much the electric bill would be in July. Now I know as I received the bill recently. Only $30 more than what we would normally have to come up with.

We had the PV panels installed in October along with a solar hot water system. The panels were generating a little more than what we were using. Through the net metering system we were basically able to run the meter backwards. Then accumulated energy produced was used when I powered up the glass kilns last month.

Knowing what I know now I would have invested in two additional panels for the roof in order to save power to use when I turn on the glass kilns for fusing and slumping glass.

Request for Green Products

I had a request recently from one of the resorts on our Kohala coast to show them samples of recycle glass trays for the "green" bungalows. If they like what they see they would order a dozen or so. I felt since I hadn't secured a job in the accounting field yet this project was something I needed to pursue.

OK, simple enough. I'd create a plain, as in no color, prototype made from recycled window louver glass. You may also know this as glass from jalousie windows (see photo). Almost every building in Hawaii has these types of windows due to the need to control intermittent breezes to cool a home or business.

I've been given bundles louver glass in varying lengths over the years. It's nice to work with since it is fairly thick and comes in consistent 4-inch wide strips. Almost all of the glass I am given has some amount of cleaning required because it is used, however the louver glass always comes with fine paint specks. The most common method for painting buildings is spraying so the glass come to me with a fine layer of paint that I must scrape with a paint scraper.

One of the many benefits of working with recycled glass, besides it being basically free is that I get exercise for my arms when scraping the paint from glass. I always try to look at the positive side of any situation.

Louver glass comes in a variety of styles and colors. There is the basic style that is clear, then is comes with a tint, kind of a smoky grey, plus textured clear. For this project I used a clear glass that was textured on one side. I fused/slumped two layers with the texture sides facing each other. The finished pale green tray had very small sparkly bubbles that were captured within during the fusing process.

It is so much fun getting back into working with glass after almost two years as an accounting student. And BTW the hotel loved the look of the trays, but decided to pass on the project at this time because they hadn't figured out how they were going to mount these in the shower stalls? So I learned from this project to ask more questions before offering to produce custom samples. Plus get a deposit for production of prototypes.

Since I was on a roll I made more of these trays, adding color and embossed design elements. They are available for sale at the Firehouse Gallery.

Starting a new career - using my left side of my brain

My studies are coming to an end the middle of this month. I've been taking accounting classes for five semesters now, some online and some I drive 120 miles round trip to attend. I'm a better student than I was when I was in my early 20's. Gone are the days of sipping daiquiris instead of attending lecture classes. Going back to school has been fun and fairly easy.

I was fortunate enough that the college transferred 15 hours credits from my BFA toward the accounting degree so I didn't have to take another semester. I'd encourage anyone to attend college classes no matter how old you are. I'm a perfect example that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Learning junkie and painting

I think I'll always be a learning junkie. Since I graduated with my BFA in 1981 I have continued my education attended workshops and classes relating to business, marketing and similar subjects, along with taking creative classes like learning to paint.

As a student I was in the design division of the fine arts department at the University of Kansas, not the fine art department. My concentration was in structural fiber, aka weaving, so I never took any painting classes while in college. Hard to believe that a person with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art was never required to take a painting class. However that's the way it was when I was in college.

My first painting class in the early 90s was a beginning watercolor class taken from well-known Hawaii artist Marcia Ray. I wanted to find out if applying watercolors to paper worked the same way as dyes did on fabric and yarns. I learned there were no similarities to watercolors and dyes. I do remember my final project, a still life painting of a bowl of mangoes, looked pretty flat.

I took more of an interest in painting since I found a close-up appreciation of acrylics while volunteering at our local arts council gallery. So in the mid-2000s I took a beginning acrylic painting class from Mary Hinck who holds a MFA in painting. I had met Mary many years ago and always like her personality and her very large abstract paintings, so I jumped at the change to take a class with her. She showed us the basics and set up still life arrangements in class. I did learn about applying acrylics to canvas and working with mediums, which I was clueless about. After that class I came to the conclusion that realistic painting was not my style. A couple of years later I took an abstract painting class, only to be told I should be teaching the class.

After working with acrylics in my recent collages on canvas (image above: "Seascape", 18 x 14" collage/acrylic painting with handmade recycled cast paper and coconut fiber) I feel that oil paints may suit my purposes better. I like to work with the (acrylic) paints when they are still fluid, so I'm thinking oils. I remember in grade school that smell of turpentine working it's way up from the basement when my mother would host her painting group at our house. I also remember the same smell, which I liked, as a teenager at a friends house where his mother was an artist. However do I really want to invest in new mediums? I'll keep it in the back of my mind and when the timing right I'll pursue oils.