Send The Light

“Send The Light”

“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?”  -Psalm 27:1 

Leada Wood copyright 2021

6x9

Watercolor

#leadawoodart #mixedmedia #watercolor

Leada  Wood

 “Live Joyfully”



 

  A perfect end to summer is a trip to South Padre to recharge.  I know when I see the  lighthouse at Port Isabel and cross the bridge I am on Island time. There is something about being at the sea that calms my soul.

Sea Oats on the sand dunes.

Port Isabel Lighthouse from the bridge leaving the island. The inspiration for my watercolor study.

Sunrise to a  bright sunshiny day from our deck.



Leada Wood copyright2021

6x9 watercolor 

I love watching the sea birds especially the Pelicans and Herons. We took a couple of the boys night crabbing with flashlights. What fun it was to see the little critters scuttling sideways by flashlight beam with a full moon rising over the sea. The little boys were so cute trying to get out of the crabs way when they came charging and then chasing after them. A night to remember and a great adventure!

Ipomoea Pes-Caprae Or sweet beach Morning Glories.

A treasure in the sand.

The view from the side of our deck.

Our daughter and her Sweet family.

The Monarchs are here so I know it really is fall! Amazingly short summer  this year but I love the autumn and I am delighted to see it arrive.

Offerings from our Burr Oaks. Fall brings sweeter weather, spectacular displays of foliage and colorful grasses, and harvest celebrations. It marks the start of a glorious season, shorter days and cozy, cooler nights. A season of change in this circle of life.

“Autumn is an artist who uses an oak leaf on which to paint a masterpiece.”

                                                                                                                           -William Allen Ward

Fun In The Studio by Leada Wood

Everyday is a happy day when you can spend time in the studio painting, especially with friends. The arts bring people together, it’s a language anyone can speak, whether young or not so young. We are  all young at heART!

I sure enjoy my special time with my kiddos as well as my friends. I hope this new year brings new and exciting things for you to look forward too. Dare to be creative and learn something new! 

And support the ARTS!

I did catch up a bit on my blog and hopefully next year I will keep up. I enjoy sharing the things I am doing with you and I hope you enjoy seeing a little of what I do in the studio. You can find more of my posts on leada_wood@instagram.  Instagram makes it so easy that I find I am using it more and more but I do enjoy my blog, as it is another way to journal.

Happy New Year!



Collage Play by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

I just love paper and have stacks of it. I delight in printing my own with my Gelli plate or using an old book that is ready to recycle and it is always fun to rip and glue my papers into a new design. Here is part of a series that I have made using a limited palette, collage, and a word that came to mind as I created each one.

"Celebrate"  ©2019 Leada Wood

"Shine"  ©2019 Leada Wood

"Balance" ©2019 Leada Wood

"Look at everything as though you are seeing it for the first time, with the eyes of a child fresh with wonder." -----Joesph Cornell



“Paper Pears” by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

"Paper Pears" ©2019 Leada Wood

It's always fun as an artist figuring out how to push the envelope and bend the rules a little. Being an experimental artist makes it more of a challenge! I belong to the West Texas Watercolor Society and they have their prospectus, that I try as I might to abide by when entering their shows. But it isn't easy...as I paint intuitively and things get stuck on there that are laying around my work area just because it pleases me.  Therefore my work doesn't always comply with the rules and I can't enter...but this time I was mindful and hopefully I have met the criteria.  Any how...there are no found papers, no printed papers, only ones I have painted and that's the way I came up with the name, Paper Pears. 

Pen Pal Swap by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Maybe you have heard giddy squeals of laughter in the air...it's the sound of artists getting art mail.

What fun to have art pen pals! Kelly Hoernig arranged for a group of her students to have an art swap in which we send an envelope full of ephemera to our pen pals each month.

But there is a catch! The swap is intended to inspire you to create art with the new materials and not just hoard them.



I have received lovely papers and I am so excited to try them in some new ways! I have had fun so far just looking at them and arranging them in various fashions and letting my imagination run free. Thank you Kelly for always inspiring me and challenging me to come up with something creative and fun!

“Blooming Melody” by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

"Blooming Melody" ©2019 Leada Wood

When friends get together to create, there is an electrical current in the air.  On such a day this painting was conceived while digging through my stash of collage papers. Some were Gelli prints I had painted and others I found in my files. Cutting and gluing them into an arrangement of fantasy flowers was music to my heart. Making an intuitive collage is a joyful experience, you never know what you will create!

"Every possibility begins with the courage to imagine."---Mary Anne Radmacher





Family Fun by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

It's a pleasure to be a part of a family having fun. This group were having a family reunion and asked me to host a paint party for the afternoon. What an honor to share those precious moments with their family.

Grandmothers, Grand-daughter, Sisters, Aunts and cousins came together to create. Some of their family members came from as far away as Chicago IL.

Since a Texas theme was requested by Chris, I gave them a choice of Cacti or Sunflowers. They embraced the white canvas with enthusiasm and created their paintings.

Every good party is a work of heART! I couldn't have done it without the help of my Grand-Daughters! They pitched in and helped me set up and worked all during the festivities. I am so blessed!



“The Many Faces Of Eve” by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

"The Many Faces Of Eve" ©2019 Leada Wood

"Tear off the mask, your face is glorious." ----Rumi

This painting has had many faces. I started it in a figure painting workshop with Liz Hill several years ago but it was tossed in the unfinished painting stack to deal with later, when inspiration arrived. I cropped the finished (is a painting ever finished?) version to give it more mystery.

Inspiration finally did come but in phases, as most paintings do evolve in stages. I thought it might be interesting for you to see the process that Eve has been through.

The original had shorter hair, but I wanted it longer. I also painted over her face and  added crackle paste to give her texture.

This is another version before I decided she needed longer hair and a new face, back in the pile of unfinished paintings she went.

"The Masque" ©2019 Leada Wood


One day I saw a mask that captured my attention and decided to draw it. I really enjoy drawing with graphite and it is very relaxing to me. This one action created a reaction and got me thinking about the "lost girl' painting.  I retrieved Eve and started working on her again.

     

This is a very rough sketch on velum to see if the mask idea would work on the painting. I decided it would so I added a face and the mask to the girl.

“The Many Faces Of Eve”@2019Leada Wood

One idea usually leads to another and I started thinking of Eve and women in general and how we all hide behind masks at times. We wear many hats or masks throughout life. We are daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, nurse, nanny, cook, housekeeper, and soooo much more! Some have careers added onto all of these titles and change from one role to the next at the drop of a hat.

All of this brainstorming was how I came up with the name, "The Many Faces Of Eve".  In life, just like painting, we undergo so many transitions and they take time. We are all the Daughters of Eve, the mother of humanity, all different but related and we all wear masks at times.

"Behind every mask there is a face, and behind that a story" ----Marty Rubin

Fun In The Studio, by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

You never know what the day will bring when creative minds get together. My dear friend Sue and I had a play day planned in my studio. I told her to bring her favorite rusty finds and we would do assemblage on a muffin tin but then we had a better idea, make faces on Matt board. She had done 

these before but I was a total newbie.

This is my first little assemblage. I love his crooked smile! These little guys are so liberating and relaxing to do and they make me giggle with their expressive faces. 

I decided my muffin tin was better suited for holding all my rusty parts. I already had a slight problem with saving old coupons and paper bits for collage, but now I have added a new addiction of saving rusty things. I imagine if you make something out of your found things it's recycling...right?

I recycled pieces of matt board that were too small for most of my paintings and cut them into 5x7 and 6x6 pieces. I used some of my old paper on this one and I like the way it turned out. These are just plain fun and I am using materials that are cast away and recycling them into art pieces. I think it's a wonderful combination! 

Be flexible... be open...be patient. Life has its rhythm and there is nothing you can do but dance with it.





Challenge Yourself by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Life is a challenge, right, I get that, but it’s fun to set up creative challenges for myself. Whether it’s diet, exercise or my art I enjoy the challenge of something new and different. Recently I have started a new way of eating called Keto and believe me it is a challenge! I also completed a 30 paintings in 30 days challenge and was so relieved when I was finished but what a sense of accomplishment to have 30 new paintings that I otherwise would not have done.

"Out of Bali" ©2019 Leada Wood

This is the finished version of the jewelry challenge. I don't use metallic paint for silver or gold, as they look so flat and I don't care for them. Painting is an illusion after all, so it's another challenge to paint metal without using metallic paints. I also used Golden's interference paints, which are utterly luminous and that was a learning curve as well.

Recently at a WTAG meeting we were told to bring a black canvas and a piece of jewelry. In this photo the easel is more colorful than my canvas, but this is only the beginning! I'm not sure the other women at the meeting enjoyed the challenge as much as I did. Oh well, sure beats eating cookies and I thought it was fun!

My personal preference for drawing on a dark surface is white charcoal pencil or some light colored chalk. It rubs away easily and takes the fear of drawing straight on the canvas away. I am still laying in color at this point. I did learn that all black gesso are not created equal and that I have been using one brand that I will not be using again. 

I thought I was finished as I signed my name but with fresh eyes this week, I decided it needed more work. I used Golden's interference colors and they are very hard to photograph but give an iridescence glow to the paint that no other paint can give. I wasn't quite happy with this so I added more highlights, as seen in the first photo, to give it more depth.

You can see the piece of jewelry that was made by M Douglas Walton in the upper right corner that gave me my inspiration for this piece. I may do it again, who knows, only use a square canvas and create it even larger.  It was an entertaining experiment with materials that were new to me and I learned somethings along the way. That's what challenges are for...to learn new things. This is 8x10 in acrylics.

Here’s The Thing, by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Being an artist is not all running around the countryside painting idyllic scenery like one might think. Nor living it up with the gang in the studio.  It’s a lot of time spent alone putting in the hours to hone your craft, whether you’re feeling creative or not. Inspiration won’t come knocking if your not working.

One must wear many hats as an artist, taking care of marketing, social media, bookkeeping, shipping, packaging, cleaning the studio, gallery representation, art walks, art shows, doing demos, classes and the list goes on and on. That doesn’t include what I have to do in my other life. So you see it’s a very busy but good life. I am one of the fortunate ones who gets to live this frenzied Artist life that I have
a passion for. It wouldn’t be for everyone but when it chooses you, you are truly blessed.

Just a little bit of the packaging getting ready for an art walk. I matt, wrap and label each painting as well as make labels and signs for them. I also must take good photographs of each drawing, and painting, and catalog them, as well as take all my refrence photos.

Although there is a lot of work besides painting, I really enjoy the work I do. To be able to dream something up and put it on canvas and have it turn out is a wonderful feeing.

I am always thinking of the next painting, how can I do it different, what am I trying to say? What inspires me...everything...the way light hits a flower or the colors of the clouds or shadows. Nature is everywhere and it captures all my senses. I am an observer and curious about every little thing, it's who I am.

I think anyone can be paint if they are willing to put in the time and learn the skills. Most people are creative, maybe they haven’t discovered that about themselves, but when they do, OH what a
journey they are in for!

"I simply do not distinguish between work and play" ----Mary Oliver

"Curiosity about life in all of its aspect, I think, is still the secret of great creative people"
                                                                                                                                   --Leo Burnett

"Creativity is contagious, pass it on" ---Albert Einstein

"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best." ----Henry Van Dyke



Treasures by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Artists are a little different...what others call trash we call treasures! My good friend Penny knew I had been looking for old handwritten letters and documents and ledgers to use in my collage work. She's an artist too so she gets me. When she heard on the radio that our local library was giving away old documents she called me up to see if I would be interested. Silly, silly, silly...of course I was interested! 

I spent the afternoon going through boxes of ancient papers, some went as far back as the 1800s. The librarian was ecstatic that I was interested and even helped me load my suv. It was a win-win for both of us.

This is part of the back room that I went through. There are still a lot of documents that should probably be in our county museum. The librarian said that they had been contacted and nobody came to go through it. Maybe I can preserve a little of the history by using the pages in my collages. The pages are old and yellowed, a nice patina,  just like I like them, but some are becoming brittle. I use archival glues and sealers in my work so maybe they will stay around a little longer, at the very most I have saved them from the dumpster for a while.