Sheila Bergman

Taking the backroads at 35 mph

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Tom’s Kitchen Table – a work in progress

September 17, 2015 By sheilab Leave a Comment

9/17/2015

Tom's Table - finished?

The window landscape and the glass of milk bring this piece closer to completion.

As I was blocking in a very different landscape, an unintended shape formed that to me looked like a road that drew the viewer’s eye into the painting and beyond the horizon. Then a new  landscape quickly fell into place. After having cogitated on this for months, the landscape virtually painted itself in 10 minutes. I just had to show up. All that remains now is to break up the mass of the grassy area in the foreground and make it recede. I also need to think about unifying the interior and exterior spaces.

As I mention in earlier entries, I am painting this piece with my brother in mind. Tom is a playwright and he teaches theater in Nashville. Over the years, he has been an actor and a singer song writer.  His lines of work have meant frequent moves. I imagine that he struggles to balance his need to feel settled and his need to follow his creative path. Mountains are his respite. When he comes home to visit, he bakes us wonderful artisan bread in a dutch oven. Growing up,  I remember him as a teenager drinking large glasses of milk at our family table.

12/23/2014

 

Tom's fridge art piece almost done

Not finished in time to deliver it to Tom this week on our trip to Tennessee for the holidays. Its kind of funny that what will be a window with an outdoor scene looks like a window with the blind drawn down.

Also to be done is the glass that you can see faintly outlined in white. I am going to try making it a clear glass which is why the background is not blocked out.

The red top on the dutch oven will be muted a bit too.

The piece is about 27″ x 67″.

 

7/7/2014

My brother Tom moved into a new place. His fridge is black and its side is what you see from his kitchen table. He asked me if I would come up with something to cover it. I brought Annette into the project. We had just been to the Matisse show at the Minneapolis Art Institute so we  cropped a few  images of his work and showed them to Tom. It turns out he is not keen on Mattise’s color schemes.

Back to the drawing board. We did a number of small thumbnail sketches in search of a theme and I became engrossed in the project. After sharing my streams of ideas with her, Annette gave me her blessing to run with the project. My ideas went from the musical instruments Tom plays to geometric patterns of silverware and then it hit me,  a life-size kitchen table for his kitchen. I want scene to be open and airy, not easy to do with the tall vertical canvas. A window in the back wall does the trick.

For my canvas, I am going to use an old slatted window blind and transparent oil paint. During testing, I found that by allowing the first layer to set overnight, I could apply and wipe off a second contrasting layer the next day to produce a wonderful patina effect. Stay tuned

Click Thumbnails for larger images

Toms fridge, matisse idea
Not Mattisse…
Not trees....
Not trees….
Toms fridg, music theme
Brain storming…
Toms fridg, silverware theme
More brainstorming…

Toms fridge, kitchen theme
A kitchen scene for a kitchen!
Tom's fridg color study
Composite of a few color studies
Testing transparent oils on the wooden window blind
Tom's fridge art piece almost done
Problem, I no longer know what to put in the major point of interest – the window.

Tom's Table - finished?
Maybe its done, but possibly a few tweaks to the window scene’s foreground.

Filed Under: Art

Boreal Escarpment

March 15, 2014 By sheilab Leave a Comment

Boreal Cliff

Boreal Cliff

I began my journey into art with water-based media. This piece was done with water color and ink. I started it in a class. What is now the hillside was supposed to be an ocean wave but I mixed the paint too thick. I liked what happened but I set the piece aside for 6 months before deciding that it was a hillside like you would find in a gravel pit in northern Minnesota. That’s when I added the trees and the background to the top of the image.

Filed Under: Art Tagged With: water media

Drawing from Life

March 15, 2014 By sheilab Leave a Comment

 

Primative Beauty

Natural Beauty

This piece combines my figure drawing and working with natural materials. It was drawn with charcoal and with pastels that Teri Power and I made from clay.  The drawing was done during a drawing session with a model. Some of the clay we collected locally some was potters clay. We spent a fun day testing different binders with types of clay but we have not made charcoal yet. Hey Teri what do you think?

I started drawing from the figure in 2007 in a drawing coop lead by Karla Faith. Karla has become a close friend and mentor. I am slowly learning to see  and draw things in a spacial way. One reason I keep drawing is that it is such a challenge. I will never be through learning to draw. The other thing about drawing are the surprises that come with reviewing the things you have drawn. You become aware of what’s on subconsciously your mind. You learn something about how your mind processes things. You learn what it is that you pay attention to.

Click image to enlarge

Primative Beauty
Natural Beauty
Dispair 1
Dispair 1
Dispair 2
Dispair 2
Grazing
Grazing

Filed Under: Art Tagged With: figure drawing

Natural Materials

March 15, 2014 By sheilab Leave a Comment

 

Connections driftwood and sand Interactive piece

“Connections” driftwood and sand interactive piece on display at The Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI

My experience of art broadens as time goes on. I put this interactive piece together for a group show with the theme  “Connections”.  It was  satisfying to watch visitors become engrossed in the form and texture of the driftwood while arranging and rearranging them in the sand. The piece represents connections for me on a few levels. For one, it connects my work with sand and my work with driftwood. More importantly though, I was able to connect people to the calm and creative way of being that I experience when collecting and working with these materials. I would like to see this piece and other pieces like it in a hospital waiting room or a nursing home.

Click on an image to make it larger:

beach combing at the Porkies
beach combing at the Porkies
Lake Superior Driftwood from The Porkies
Prized driftwood treasures
My pallet of sand
The colors of sifted sand that I pooled for the sandbox
Connections driftwood and sand Interactive piece
Connections driftwood and sand interactive piece

Filed Under: Art

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