The Sketchbook Project at Brooklyn Art Library (Video)

My sketchbook is part of the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project, Volume 16. The Sketchbook Project at the Brooklyn Art Library is a crowdsourced collection of sketchbooks from around the world. Sketchbooks are issued by the library to anyone who would like one. You fill it up and send it back and it joins the thousands of others in the library. From there, they are shared with the country going out on tour hosting pop-up residencies, drawing events and school visits, all using the core principle of anyone can participate in creativity. I wanted to be a part of that. For the discipline. For prosperity. For the fun. 

I’m sharing my sketchbook I submitted for Vol. 16, 2020. Nothing fancy, just some fun. 

Covid Chronicles 2020

Sheltering-in-place

Viewed best in full screen.

The Sketchbook Project at the Brooklyn Art Library is a crowdsourced collection of sketchbooks from around the world. 

You can do it, too. 

brooklynartlibrary.org

Sketchbooks are a place for learning, experiencing, experimenting and having fun. No pressure. Yet, they impose a kind of discipline. Drawings or works must go down on the paper to fill them up. If there is a theme, you are rarely at a loss for ideas. 

Artworks available in online store!

Art and Artful Discoveries

I am Barbara Sistak Baur, a visual artist who creates and sells original paintings and artworks, and who also offers "artful discoveries" from time to time. To see my online store and what is available there, click the link below.

Many of the works discussed here are in my online store as well as other beautiful and artful items. I hope you discover something that you enjoy! 

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Guava Cheese Tart II -- Sold!

Guava Cheese Tart II, acrylic, 11"x14", framed, $400. © B Sistak Baur

I enjoyed this technique so much that this is the second painting of this item. I changed a couple of things and worked on the shawdows.
-- Barb

UPDATE -- SOLD -- Off to San Fransisco this painting goes.  It is a Thiebaud Style Painting with a Minimalist Cheesecake.

Created in the style of Wayne Thiebaud. 

It has a mid-Century look as minimalist portrait of a single cheesecake.

Swirls are created with flowing, gel-like media. 

Shown sitting on a glass shelf, as if in a bakery case, with classic cast shadow.

Bright and colorful. Acrylic Paint. 

Ready to hang in a contemporary black wood frame. 

www.sistakbaur.com

Pies on Pans -- Sold!

Pies on Pans, 21"x27", acrylic, © B. Sistak Baur

Pies on Pans with its viewpoint of looking right into a pie case is a design study with ellipses.  Ellipses are circles as seen from the side. You see them everywhere throughout your day but we usually just call them circles. 

Ellipses are challenging shapes for anyone painting or drawing. To better understand and perhaps conquer ellipses, I suggest a new column in the NY Times called Line by Line.  This is a delightful series on the pleasures of drawing and one entry is all about ellipses.

--Barb

Update -- this lovely painting has a new home!  It is heading to a Gallery / Frame / Pie Shop in Kansas City, Missouri. This is the perfect setting!  When I get more information on the location, I will post it here. 

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Cupcakes 1, 2, 3

Inspired by cupcakes sitting upon a glass shelf in a bakery. Colorful and lively, this is oil on paper.  It is a monotype artwork. Image is about 9 in x 9 in and can be framed with a mat or free floating style with the paper edges showing.  

Monotype artworks are lovely -- soft edges, painterly and, with the unpredictability of the final result, a joy to create, own and display. This work was created as part of my exploration of textures and techniques in different media.

More about monotypes

A monotype is an original, one-of-a-kind artwork. The original image is painted using oils on a printing plate. The plate is run through a press with heavy paper so that the image is transferred and embedded into the paper. All the paint is transferred so you can do it just one time. That is why it is call a monotype (mono means one).

Looking at the corners and edges, you can see the indentation of the plate into the paper.  That is a sign of an original monotype.

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Cupcake Wave

Cupcake Wave is an artwork that I created during my exploration of multiple dimensions on the painting surface. (You can click on the image to get a larger view. Press esc to return.) This work is comprised of several small paintings on little canvases that have been adhered  to a larger canvas.  In this case, it is a 3-foot long and narrow canvas that serves as the base painting. In addition, the smaller canvases undulate along the larger canvas creating a "wave" sensation. 

Abstract cupcakes in contrasting colors provide the images.  Each little abstract is on it own little canvas.  The base canvas is 36" long and 6" high. Color blocks are painted on it.

On the back of the little canvas, I spread a thick acrylic gel.  

 Each little canvas has its place on the painting. It is placed and pressed down. Then left along overnight. 

 The acrylic gel dries as hard as a rock making a very sturdy adhesive.

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Cupcake Array on Red

Cupcake Array on Red

30"x40"

Acrylic and Acrylic paintings adhered to the canvas create a multi-dimensional surface.

© Barbara Sistak Baur

It is a combination of many canvases pulled together for one painting. There is a large base painting and adhered onto that are several smaller paintings.  Each of the smaller paintings have been painted on different types of the canvases with different depths. If you look closely, you can see the different heights. I was inspired to do this after admiring artworks that are a combination of wooden panels or ceramic tiles. 

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