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New video about lustre painting and magazine articleThe other week I posted a video explaining the techniques and… »
Porcelain painting and other arts in ThailandThe second post in a series about my trip to Thailand last year.… »
My porcelain feature in Swiss magazine Art and PorcelaineI'm sharing another magazine feature of my award winning porcelain… »
My porcelain feature in DECOR-magasinet from NorwayLast month I was interviewed by Editor Margrete Tennfjord for a four… »
Floating in my freedom, Abstract expressionism on porcelainFinally finished this new painting on porcelain this week, "Floating… »
Expressionist landscapes on canvas and updatesI've been really productive over the past few weeks, I've been… »
We are Soldiers of Love, Ingrid Lee, 2013 porcelain vaseI started this porcelain painting We are Soldiers of Love, late last… »
Challenge of abstract expressionist lustre on porcelainThe challenge of abstract expressionist lustre on porcelain is where… »
Finishing and starting new projects on porcelainIt's been busy few weeks, so I haven't had much chance to paint… »
Demo via skype in St PetersburgIt was 4.30 am in Melbourne and I presented a ribbon embroidery… »
Abstract expressionism on porcelain
Progress of lustre painting on porcelain
What’s on my mind
Commissioned painting on porcelain
I’ll discuss very briefly how I go about creating a design, based on one of my current client’s commissions on porcelain. This week I visited a client who has commissioned a porcelain painting of a small urn or box, she is still undecided about exactly which porcelain object she’d like until the final theme of the design is confirmed.
The porcelain design needs to reflect things which her mother enjoyed and loved during her life time, as her mother had since passed away and she wanted something to signify the memory of her Mum. So these interests included roses, the colour emerald green or greens, Impressionist painters, something about the Netherlands because her Mum was Dutch; and nothing with windmills or the blue cobalt designs typical of Delft ware 
.
It is important to research and plan my design. If you are a regular reader of my blog, that you will have seen the processes of research I used for my current exhibition of paintings to Russia; and other paintings which I create. Here are the samples of paintings that will inspire this design.
These images will help to stimulate a design, and be presented along side my sketch to present to my client. I looked at old Dutch master paintings of roses:
This is a painting by Dutch Master Jans Frans Vandael of Roses, Peonies and flowers on a ledge still life, 1826. This is a very traditional style of painting, and I need to keep in mind that this commission work not only needs to evoke or reflect memories for my client, but also suit her contemporary styled home.
I think the next painting by Van Gogh will be most suitable to inspire a design. It is an Impressionist painting by Van Gogh called The Rose which links in the dutch, rose and impressionism and green elements.
Now to choose the shape of the porcelain piece, the tallest urn is 30cm high. The round footed jar is 19cm high. The oval box is 16cm x 10.5cm. The round box is 13cm diameter.
Once the porcelain shape is agreed to, off I go on with the design……
So….what happened? Well, my client, after reading this post remembered that her Mum loved van Gogh’s Starry Night and Don McLean’s song Vincent. This is the process which is important in commissioning art work, because the initial part is finding what the client feels connected to with the art work, especially when it is for personal piece like this. So, we are still on a dutch theme, Impressionism 
If you are interested in commissioning me to paint on porcelain or canvas, please contact me
Who represents my art in St Petersburg?
How exciting )
Art Agency ConSferArt became the sole representative in Russia of the Australian artist Ingrid Lee.
Contact for communication: +7-904-517-26-47, info@consferart.ru.
See where else Ingrid Lee is featured in the media
Why paint about Destiny and Love?
Why Destiny and Love?
This blog post is a continuation on exploring my next series of art works around the themes of Destiny and Love. The initial idea for these works stemmed from my last trip to St Petersburg, where (apart from my own exhibition of works which are still there- being taken to another gallery soon ) I was asked to paint about my inspiration or reflections about Dostoevsky’s writings, as I had already done a painting reflecting Gogol’s “The Portrait” for my exhibition in SPb…thanks Valeri Ivanov . I did not have a lot of time to paint my impressions during my stay, but I decided upon an artwork which was inspired by Dostoevsky’s short story “White Nights.”
I hadn’t read this short story before, but I am thankful for my meeting in SPb with the brilliant photographer Nikolay Krusser (his Fan Page on facebook) for this suggestion, and our chat about destiny and this piece of literature. After I had read the novel and analysed my notes about the concepts, I wrote a short interpretation of what inspired my thinking around the major concepts Dostoevsky explores to then allow the images to form in my mind over the next day.
“Dostoevsky- White Nights” 2012, Ingrid Lee Acrylics
One fleeting chance with love in a city so familiar, yet so lonely- is it destiny? Dostoevsky explores the notion of love, loneliness and destiny, in the short story ‘White Nights.’ In this painting, the ‘yellow’ city of St Petersburg surrounds us with warmth and familiarity, but the endless dreaming and feelings of isolation from both the city and the possibility of finding love for the narrator in this story, eventually leads him to loneliness.
While he dreams of finding love in a city which is becoming alien to him, these dreams appear to come true. So the depths of his passion envelopes his soul, and when he finally reaches out to his one love, it is questionable as to whether this relationship will fulfil his destiny and end his loneliness. Sadly this love is unrequited, and there emerges the darkness of loneliness, in a fleeting moment of finding love. Ingrid Lee May, 2012.
Here is a small part of the art work I painted for the White Nights piece, originally it was to be a diptych, but I ran out of time to complete the second painting…but now I will repaint a new version of this where I have time to think about the clarity of my expression; and perhaps the ideas are better expressed over a few paintings.
I liked the initial raw response to the concepts I explored…how ever now I have had time to think more cohesively about a bigger picture and story, rather than one isolated impression.
My painting of “The Air That I Breathe” as discussed in a previous post, and “White Nights” stem from understandings about love, self love and what is destined on that journey; it is these understandings which will draw a common thread through all of the art works in this series. To read more about my inspirations of Love, please read a series of blog posts I wrote for my other website Ingrid Creates
Creating Romance Through the Secret Language of Love
Please let me know what you think about my work or creative processes in the comments, I’d love to hear from you
Steps of an Artist’s creative process
In this post, I’ll explain the Steps of an Artist’s creative process by exploring the background to this painting, as well as explain how and why this new series of art works has been inspired. The style of this painting is abstract impressionism, and I think that this post will give some insight to you, about this approach to painting- it’s more than just random splodges of colour! Hopefully if you enjoy my art works, which I assume you do or you wouldn’t be sharing my art world with me, some of you might be interested in a small insight to my creative processes (if not, I hope you enjoy the pictures all the same LOL).
“The Air That I Breathe” Ingrid Lee, 2012. 102cm x 76cm Acrylic on canvas.
Painting : “The Air That I Breathe”
Here is the completed painting of “The Air that I Breathe.” I have added a few close up images to show the detail and more accurate colourings. There will be a few more works in this series, and they are relating the the notion of Destiny and Love. The concepts will be explored as new art works develop, revealing my understandings and impressions as I go on this new journey.
As I briefly explained in a previous post, “The Air That I breathe” was inspired by k.d Lang’s cover of this song. I have been listening to a wide range of music which is supporting this theme of destiny and love, which I am exploring throughout this series of works. Note, that each art work in this abstract impressionist style is created differently; this is only one process, but what is similar across of my art work, is that this process moves dynamically.
For this painting in particular, if was k.d’s vocal interpretation and arrangement of the song which initially stimulated the feel and colours, the ambiance of the works. The phrasing and tempo is what I interpret for the initial conceptualisation of the work (and again when completing the top layers of work). So, I sing with k.d (yes I can sing and used to perform as an amateur many years ago ) and interpret the music first, just as I would reading the words for lexical and literary device of a novel or poem for interpretation. After I have a concept in my mind of this initial interpretation, I explore the lyrics, and which ones are most poignant to me to start understanding the forms and shapes I will use- this is largely for a rough idea.
This is the underpainting, which is also transparent through the middle sections of the final artwork, but lays the foundations to the main concepts. These background colours represent the deep desires, wishes dreams for love, but at some stage there is a place where love is found within ourselves, making the true love we are to give and receive and grow from a self love and place of peace.
The lyrics about “Sometimes all I need is the air that I breathe” can be seen in the final build up of transparent layers surrounding the core, with small embers of the heart burning contently as a new type of understanding of loves brings calm and peace. The use of gold with the white paint in the middle ground, creates a sense of warmth. This is a technique I used a lot in my exhibition work for SPb, and I have used it to create the ambiance and atmosphere of lightness and peace.
If you’d like to know more about what inspired the focus of Destiny and Love for this series of art works, please read my next blog post- it all started in St Petersburg
New painting in progress- The Air that I Breathe
Here is my latest canvas painting I’m working on, based on the song “The Air That I Breathe” I’ll go into more about the artwork and meanings in a later post once it has been completed. I’ve been busy writing articles for magazines, organising art projects and planning new art work for my next exhibition in Thailand in November- that one is for porcelain, so I haven’t been blogging much 
I have been listening to the k.d. Lang version of The Air That I Breathe; here are a few pics…I’m half way through the painting, the song is at the end of the pics, with the lyrics I focused on too
The yellow bits are metallic gold…
“Peace came upon me and it leaves me weak
So sleep, silent angel, go to sleep
Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breathe
And to love you
All I need is the air that I breathe
Yes to love you
All I need is the air that I breathe ”
Thanks for reading my blog posts here, if you’d like to see more of what I do, please join my facebook fan page Ingrid Lee Artist or follow my facebook company page Ingrid Lee Enterprises Pty Ltd for more up dates about my work in exhibitions, collaborative projects, media publications and so on
Tutorial: Painting a background for ribbon embroidery violet flowers
I was so inspired by the violets which are flowering in my rose bed….it’s about the only flowering apart from some Italian Lavender. But I simply adore violets, and have painted them in different art forms, see my links to my Ingridcreates.com blog and here.
Paint the background on muslin with acrylic paints, and embroider the violets on top. Here are the videos on my youtube channel explaining a detailed tutorial on how to handpaint these. In this post I’ve included a pictorial step by step, of how to hand paint on fabric for your ribbon embroidery.
Painted violets on fabric for embroidery
Here is the
. This is the PDF file for the drawing used for this painting.
Video 1: How to hand paint violets on fabric Part 1
Video 2: How to hand paint violets on fabric Part 2
Video 3: How to hand paint violets on fabric Part 3
Video 4: How to hand paint violets on fabric Part 4
Here are some other pictures of violets
I hope you have enjoyed this series of tutorials. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments 
Don’t forget to like and share with friends you think will enjoy this post!
More Lustre Roses on Porcelain
If you remember about a month or so ago I was experimenting with some new lustres and techniques for roses on porcelain.
Here are a few of the techniques I enjoyed from this experiment:
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So, I designed a series of plates with the roses (drawing click here), the roses are all studies from my garden, I was going to exhibit these, but I changed my idea mid way again! So I didn’t…but here are the results of the firings:
The result after the first firing. The roses were completed in Pink and Ruby, the white rose and leaves are in Yellow.
A close up of one of the plates, this is all one firing:
I’ve added background foliage in light blue lustre.
Still with the masking laqueur, whole view of the background layer of foliage
After the 2nd Firing, I love the blue, and I wish the yellow stayed that glorious colour…but, oh well!
3rd Firing: Layer of White and Turquoise lustre on background, and leaves have been detailed with dark green and green. The roses had a wash of rose or white or carmine, depending on the actual flower.
I like the effects in the leaves
I have one more, (maybe!) firing left to do, which is to add the detail to the leaves and roses, deepen parts of the background. I’m happy with some of the effects….I’ll share the final firing shortly. I want to try a more watercolour effect next time, using the lustres; this will be a challenge as there is nothing to absorb the paint while it merges, and some lustres will fire out another or not do anything. So I have a few techniques up my sleeve which I’m going to try out. Then I want to combine style lustre work with the gold paste work and pen work from a previous porcelain painting….I think then my idea will be ready for exhibition
What do you think about this idea?
As you know I am lucky to be invited as a guest artist to St Petersburg to show my artwork and masterclasses…this journey has been one of soul fulfilment artistically and on many other levels. My journey to St Petersburg, Russia began with my quest to enrich my artistic soul and further explore the concepts of connectedness. So I have decided to formalise the experience
I am writing an online magazine with a product called Issuu.com with more detail about every artwork, and what inspired the works, the processes I went through in more depth. Basically it is a portfolio for me, but with more! In essence the magazine becomes like a masterclass in itself, where you will get insight into my trialling of innovative approaches with the aim of maximising the value of the experience for yourself and clients interested in my portfolio, in a magazine format.
While this blog keeps a record of some things, I haven’t shared all the artworks I am exhibiting about my experiences in St Petersburg last year and journey as an artist, and this magazine will feature all of this plus some free tutorials. The opportunity to be able to promote myself overseas and share my artistic journey is an achievement, and based on your comments and questions about my art etc via email and facebook, I think that this will inspire many of you…and hopefully entertain also.
I will also produce a magazine for my trip to Thailand later this year…I will be a guest there to exhibit a collection of porcelain art work also and maybe more. I’m really looking forward to this exhibition as it is to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s 80th Birthday in Thailand International Porcelain Painting Convention.
Thanks for sharing in my journey, please let me know what you think….the technology for the format of this magazine looks great don’t you think?!
Goldwork and paste roses on porcelain
Finally I’ve finished the paste work for this roses piece, which is part of my exhibition in St Petersburg soon. I tried a variety of approaches on test plates first for the look I wanted to achieve with the paste work. Remembering that I wanted this piece to reflect a contemporary impression of rococo roses from Catherine’s Palace….opulent gold and design. See more of the pen work and progress on this plate here.
Next to dry, then fire, and paint with burnishing gold and embellishments for scroll work to complete for a final firing…..
I’m still finishing my lustred roses set of plates, and I’ll start a new plate about Catherine II in lustres and gold paste work. If I can fit in one more plate that would be ideal Still finishing off my canvas painting of that Meissen cup and other bits too….if you haven’t guessed by now I work best under pressure and with a gazillion things going on at one time, A-type personality or typical artist, I dunno, but it works for me. Planning on going to the beach for a quick dip and play with the kids later, so that my head will clear of these paint fumes LOL and then I can go back to another of my many all night painting sessions! Tony Johansen, I hope you’re painting tonight, thanks for the night tweets which have been getting me through!!!
Oh, the masterclasses for demonstrating my art and process for embroidery in St Petersburg are going to be exciting!! While I’m doing demonstrations there, I will also be offering friends here on facebook to watch and join in on one of these classes as a webinar, so you can see what’s happening too. If you’d like to participate in this please message me on facebook and I can send you the link.
Also, I update a lot of pics on my fan page too, so please LIKE the page and check out more of what I’m doing there.
The Amber room is doing my head in
So, I decided to paint my impression of The Amber room and opulence in Catherine’s Palace- especially the blue room and the blue colour in general really impressed upon me…in abstract expressionism, impressionist style….this painting is doing my head in….It has taken longer to complete than anticipated, and I’ve repainted over areas so many times. I am not usually an indecisive painter, so this in itself is annoying. I think I need to look back over the original colour layouts, at the bottom. I’m only 2/3 of the way finished…I will balance more of the gold leaf work once the cup and other details are finished. It’s a diptych. The porcelain cup is a Meissen cup which was on exhibition at the Palace, and will be hanging by a ribbon- still to be painted around the gold scroll. Amber still needs final washes of highlights etc…the gold scroll work I am considering to ass line work detail onto….not sure…but there will be more gilding overall.
This painting was to not only reflect my immediate feelings to the overwhelm of this room, but to encapsulate an element of connectedness to the art of history, to time and place, to people past and present, to music and feelings and as a result to a greater sense of enlightenment. I think I’m just tired. I will take children to play, have a coffee then come back to painting….
the mirrored areas in the palace, the light…. looking back and forwards in time…..
I was going to paint the palace on the right hand canvas..I did, then changed my mind…MANY TIMES!!!
This is the first underpainting of ideas….
