Warm Up

 
 

Like an athlete, I do warm-up (or practice) sheets in the marbling tank, stretching memory muscle and calibrating hand-eye coordination, before diving into "real" tank work.

 
 

I'm also testing my bath and paints to see how they are behaving. Like us, a new day means a new personality for both of them and things that worked well yesterday may not today. Warming up is about getting into the groove.

 
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Many times, these practice pieces turn out to be some of my favorite pieces, partly because I have no expectations of them and partly because I don't think too hard about things and just let my creative instinct (and eight years of marbling experience!) take the lead.

Visual Show of Recent Work

I do a lot of posting over on Instagram (@barbskoog), my favorite social media platform. Here's a little catch up on some recent work ~ sketchbook (a.k.a. practice), works-in-progress, and finished pieces. 

Magnus Colo: Opening Saturday at Dab Art Gallery

 
Rogue Thought, 2015Marbled Wood Panel24" x 24" x 1.5"

Rogue Thought, 2015
Marbled Wood Panel
24" x 24" x 1.5"

 

I am so excited to finally give you a peek into one of my favorite series to have worked on in the past few years. I've been keeping this work under the radar, not sharing it publicly on any social media, but now it is making its great debut at Dab Art Gallery this Saturday as part of the group exhibition Magnus Colo. 

From the press release:

Dab Art is pleased to present MAGNUS COLO. An exhibition featuring the colorful and intriguing works of Franscesa Saveri, Rebecca Woodhouse, Huntz Liu, Janet Milhomme, John Swartout, Lisa Daniels, Kirk McCoy, Barbara Skoog and Perfecto Baloloy Jr. 

Using the strategies of accumulation, saturation, and the repetitive mark, these artists explore their fascination with color saturated space and form. From the delicately controlled hand cut lines of Huntz Liu’s layered paper piece Spilt 1(2016) to the jostling interaction of Perfecto Baloloy’s Food Trip (2016) and Barbara Skoog’s Rogue Thought (2015), where contrast controlled surroundings and fluid lines are layered in between heavy color.
 
Inside Underneath, 2015Marbled Wood Panel20" x 20" x 1.5"

Inside Underneath, 2015
Marbled Wood Panel
20" x 20" x 1.5"

 

I started creating this series last summer, during the two-week residency with my New Ground collaborator Liz Kalloch. There were moments in between working together on our collaborative pieces where I needed to bust out on my own and exercise different creative muscles (partly because of my ADD-like personality and partly because I was stuck or tired or inspiration struck or I was waiting for something to dry before working on it more). What started out as a simple exploration of bold color blocks eventually led to adding overmarbled "windows" that were in response to the interesting shapes that emerged from the color-block background. 

 
Happening, 2015Marbled Wood Panel24" x 24" x 1.5"

Happening, 2015
Marbled Wood Panel
24" x 24" x 1.5"

 

After returning home from the residency, I continued work on the series. both on wood panel and on paper. I'm thrilled that six of the wood panel pieces will be at Dab Art ~ one in the group show and the rest in a second gallery. 

Also part of the show are several pieces from another series I started work on earlier this year. In these pieces, I created distressed marbled backgrounds and then overmarbled both geometric and organic shapes using masks. 

To Be Seen, 2016Marbled Wood Panel8" x 8" x 1.5"

To Be Seen, 2016
Marbled Wood Panel
8" x 8" x 1.5"

Mindset, 2016Marbled Wood Panel8" x 8" x 2"

Mindset, 2016
Marbled Wood Panel
8" x 8" x 2"

Three pieces from this series will be a part of the group exhibition and five will be included in the second gallery as well.

Curator Yessica Torres has pulled together a strong show ~ you can check out some of the featured work here and the list of invited artists here.

I'm so looking forward to seeing the instillation and meeting the other artists at the Opening Reception this Saturday. I invite you to join me and experience the show in person, meet the artists, and share in an evening of color and intrigue.

GROUP EXHIBIT || MAGNUS COLO
Opening Reception || Saturday, April 16, 2016 || 7-10PM || RSVP
Dab Art Gallery || 1793 East Main || Ventura, CA 93001

 

Hand-marbled Papers in the Shop!

 
 

Over the past month, I've been adding an affordable line of select hand-marbled paper to my online shop. These are papers I have a particular liking for...they catch my eye in some way: a perfectly executed traditional pattern, a lovely color palette, a stunning unique design. The inventory is always changing and I'm adding new papers once-a-week.

The best part: hand-marbled papers SHIP FREE (in the US)!

I'm excited to be shipping this one out to a sweet customer (who said kind words about my work) today:

 
 

Continuing to Explore

 
Detail. WIP

Detail. WIP

 

I'm still exploring this particular direction in the tank. It's not always working out ~ and it takes forever to create these images so when I screw up, I feel like I just wasted so much time. It's been a lesson in patience and acceptance ~ and remembering that time is never wasted when you stretch and grow and learn something new (even if it's what NOT to do) along the way.

Stories

 
 

Here is another direction I've been exploring. I'm loving the circles these days. Making them in the tank is such a trip. Patience (and more patience), an understanding of what your paints are doing, the depth of the bath, weather (I've been working in humidity levels as low as 13%...yikes!), and more patience all affect the outcome.

IMG_20151122_123936[1].jpg

These are all on wood panels. I paint a background color, marble over it, sand it a bit, and sometimes marble and sand again. Then I mask off a shape (oh, I'm in love with shapes these days as well!) and marble again. Finally I remove the mask and voila! 

 
 
 
IMG_20151031_074953[1].jpg
 

I think these broken ~ or interrupted ~ circles tell such a story and, when combined with the organic shapes and distressed backgrounds, there is quite a narrative going on.