Category Archives: Abstract

International Soul Art Day 2018

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Growth, Soul Art 2018, cropped. 12 x 16 in. mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Body map. 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Body map detail #1

Body map detail #2

Body map detail #3

May 23rd was a recovery day for me. After days of constant busy and little rest. I missed the live Soul Art group events, but was so thankful to watch them late in the day. I completed the worksheets, glanced at the Facebook group postings, and started my Soul Art journey.

I began with the body map. Watercolor and pencil. The largest sheet of paper I had, 12 x 16. Scribbled Neocolors, activated with water. Working quickly. Listening to songs and stories of the event leaders. I buried the body map with soft ivory acrylic. While it was wet, I scratched and scribbled into the paint. The texture remains visible in the final piece.

I poured colors into a butchers tray, started to cover the white with patches of blues, and desert earth tones. Clay and sand. When I added the green, instead of abstract patches, leaves began to form. Laura Hollick is the host of this annual event. This year, over 12,000 creatives took part.

Every garden presents innumerable fascinating problems.
Winston Churchill

It was not in my mind to create a scene. The questions and answers prompted by the worksheets are, not surprisingly, clear to me here. Focus on growth. My artistic growth.

A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious
with a feeling of serenity and joy.
Luis Barragan

Every grain of experience
is food for the greedy
growing soul of the artist.
Anthony Burgess

Growth, Soul Art 2018. 12 x 16 in. mixed media on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Look at the earth crowded with growth, new and old
bursting from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground, each seed according to its own kind… each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth…
So, artist, you too from the deeps of your soul…
let your roots creep forth, gaining strength.
Emily Carr

Click the images below or links for more.

Soul Art 2013. Acrylic on paper. Sheila Delgado

Soul Art 2013

Soul Art 2015. 9 x 12 watercolor on paper. © Sheila Delgado 2015

Soul Art 2015

Soul Art 2016, watercolor, oil pastel on Yupo.

Soul Art 2016

Soul Art 2017

#The100DayProject – #28, #29 And #30

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Mingus Day #28. 4 x 6 in. Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Back home after four days away. Four days without my laptop, or art supplies. I planned for only two days. Two hectic days. So, catching up again. Maybe that should be my official theme for the project. HA!

Mingus Day #29. 4 x 6 in. Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Keeping it simple to accelerate the process. I missed painting! I missed my brushes and colors and work. I missed being in the creative frame of mind. I missed Mingus.

Mingus Day #30. 4 x 6 in. Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

For the next few pieces, I am going to just let the paint flow. Let it do the work. Or most of it. I am not going to pre-plan or labor for long on an individual painting. I will be heading back to Phoenix for a few more days and I am hoping to get ahead. And stay at least, right on schedule. It’s OK if you are laughing. I am too.

L.Y.A. Side Swaps

I came home to a nice surprise. A LYA postcard. Might be the last. Before I left, I received Deanie Houghtaling’s wonderful card. A warm sepia photograph of a street lamp in Paris. I LOVE the shadows, and the cracks in the wall.

Deanie Houghtaling, Phoenix, AZ.

You can see more of Deanie’s fabulous photos on her Instagram feed. As well as her furry, funny, feline friends. I love Deanie’s work, for the moods she can invoke. Deanie also features Phoenix , and gives interesting tidbits about the area. And if you are a science geek, or just a geek in general, you will find thelabscientist strangely appealing. If you need a laugh, check it out.

PJ Lawrence, Glasgow, KY

PJ’s colorful card caught my eye for obvious reasons. Her painting was created in Oaxaca Mexico during a FEARLESS MEXICO retreat in November. It is part of a triptych. I LOVE the colors, the warmth, the forms. The texture! Beautiful! You can find more of PJ’s terrific work on Instagram.

I have been fortunate to swap with both talented artists for several years now. Thank you Deanie and PJ for sharing your awesome work with me! Such a joy! I can’t wait until next year’s LYA, and hope to swap with you again. Until then, be seeing you on Instagram.

Until tomorrow, and more Mingus,

Blessings and
Best Wishes!

#The100DayProject – #23, #24, #25

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Mingus Day #23. 3.25 x 5.25 in. Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Four small WIP’s on the table. Might catch up by tonight. Hoping that tomorrow I can get a head. Or at least get a few started. For these three, I was working from memory. Not referencing a photo, or looking at the mountain. I was working late last night. I found some photos, to show the colors I had in mind.

Today everything is a bright shade of grey. Partly sunny, mostly cloudy. Hazy. Not sure if that is from fire smoke drifting our way, or just the dust in the air. Very windy.

A day when there was green…

Mingus blues. SMD

So often the front range and Mingus are a pair in contrast. One dark and one light. When the light is right, it still surprises me, and forces me to stop and take notice.

Mingus Day #24. 4.5 x 5.25 in. Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed paper. © 2018 Sheila Delgado.

Pale gold. SMD

Sunsets change everything. The are magical. I tell myself, the colors can’t be real. Yet there they are. A few minutes, and then they are gone. So again, I stop and take notice.

When I am driving in the car. Coming out of a store. Sitting at a traffic light. Mingus is visible. And the chance to steal a peek is never missed.