A Workshop in Sedona

This past weekend I attened a workshop. I did it despite the time contrains and committments I already had. I signed up for it despite the fact that I had to juggle funds to do it. I signed up for it despite the fact that the subject was still lifes and I don't ever paint still lifes. I signed up for it because I admired the work of the instructor and I needed my cage rattled.

I am now officially rattled.

The first observation I made was that I do not draw enough. The second was that I rely on intuition and memory far too much. The third, and in my opinion the most important, is I had become quite complacent in looking.

I do not believe it can ever be overstressed that when you are learning to draw, you are actually being taught to see. Yes, there is an amount of hand eye coordination that is involved, but the looking and seeing the edges and the shapes, the values and how they contrast, that is the trick. And, like all good things the trick takes hours, and hours of rigorously looking to train yourself to see.

I have said it before and I will say it again, if you love something enough you will struggle and strive to get better, and you will love the struggle. Maybe not every minute of it, but most of it.

The timing of this workshop was very bad for me, because now I do not have the luxury of going into my studio and drawing for extended periods of time that require critically looking. I can only hope that in three weeks the dust has not settled too much.

Thank you Scott Conary for kicking the pegs out from under my cage and raising some dust.

Process

Detail of Underpainting

I work in a series of contradictions. I usually start with no idea of where I am really going. However, sometimes I start with a colour., and sometimes that colour changes. I always start a painting on canvas with an underpainting of colour washes.

Detail of Underpainting

The colour washes are applied in thin layers. In places there will be one or two layers, in others there will be several. These washes start to build a landscape, a road map of lights and darks and of movement. They give direction  and are in no way indicative of the colour that will be applies over them.

Once this has been achieved  I spend a great deal of time looking at it from all angles. I place them upside down, sideways, and mix them up. Often times a triptych will become a diptych or a single canvas.

Detail of Underpainting

Triptych

40" x 78" 

I search for the movement that suggests the figure that should be there. Once this has been established I can start painting.

So really, my underpainting a series of underpaintings.

All the Angles

                                  Detail of a Work in Progress


I have consider this painting that I am working on from all the angles. I have considered each hue and value. I have agonized over each colour. The thickness of the lines have undergone scrutiny, not to mention their length, their direction, whether or not the intersected.

It has all been evaluated, not once, or twice, but again and again.

You see each time I add or remove something it affects everything.

Sometimes

Primavera

Oil, Acrylic, and Charcoal 

on Canvas

40" x 60"

7950.00

Sometimes, if you are very lucky you just listen to your heart. You forget all the reasons why you shouldn't do this or you ought to do that, and you just listen to that constant, soft, true voice. The voice that usually gets drowned out by all the shouting in the world.

This painting is one where I just listened and was led down a garden path.

Farming and Painting

Spring Romp

mixed media on paper

Framed 

34" x 42"

4250.00

I have long believed that I have the heart of a farmer. I love the smell of the soil and planting things. I can send hours choosing seeds, and bulb, and trees from catalogues and spend countless more drawing diagrams for where to plant them.

How to amend soil fascinates me. What to add to your compost to make it better for area is intended for is a subject I am enthralled with, and lets not even get started about my love for my earth worms.

Why do I think this gives me the heart of a farmer and not a gardner?

Well it's only those things in part. You see like a farmer I work tirelessly at what I love. I choose colours and canvas with care. I spend hours noticing which paint brand has more transparency than another. What happens when I mix this with that. How do get this effect or that on this surface.

And then there's light. I can become quite delirious when describing light. The mere thought of good light makes me swoon.

A farmer, you must understand is also a gambler. Willing to put all of their hard work into what they do and be at the mercy of external forces. One good hail storm will flatten a wheat field. New mown hay lies there at the peril of rain until it is baled. It's biblical in nature, all the misfortune that call lay waste to good crop.

And then there is the market. You have the most beautiful crop of white peaches that you have ever seen. People, however are buying strawberries. The peach buyers  ask "Do you have any cling free peaches? I am not sure I will like white peaches, even though they are beautiful and fragrant." You smile and know they are missing something, something you possess in spades, you are will to take a risk!

Days, weeks, and months may go by without a sale, and you are nagged by that practical voice in your head regarding why you keep at it. The answer is simple, and clear. I do what I do because it is what my heart desires and when it is good, it is glorious!

I have the heart of a farmer.

Artist Statements??????

Almost every maker of images is at some point to asked to write an Artist Statement. Note the request is always capitalized, I personally believe this is to strike terror into the heart of the writer. It stinks of self-importance, of something you can never retract, of something set in stone! Where as the truth of it is, it couldn't be more elusive and changing if it tried, at least for me.

This is my latest artist statement.........

Artist Statement

I believe that each act of kindness, each act of compassion, each moment of joy enriches the whole of humanity. It is from this belief that I create art. 

When I was three years old I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to draw pictures and ride horses. This was both a blessing and a curse. What a gift it is to know where you heart lies, and a curse to be told that it is impossible, ridiculous, an infantile fantasy that you will out grow.

I didn’t outgrow it. I am as or more passionate about painting than ever. The colours, the smells, the act of making marks on canvas with a fully loaded brush is intoxicating and meditative. Transforming a blank surface into a painting, it is what I live for.

And as for the horses, as you can plainly see, I still love them too!

It is as honest and as heartfelt as I can make it. Is it perfect? Far from it, and it will change. Hopefully I will grow as a human being and my work will reflect that.

Today however, this is my offering.

Before Day One

Before I started Day One there was the unglamorous work of creating the support.

I assembled the stretcher bars and cut the canvas.

Then I stretched the canvas and stapled it to the frame.

At this point I gessoed it, waited for it to dry and sanded the surface. I do this three time.

Then I started applying thin washes of acrylic colour. I do several times until I achieve a surface that I am ready to paint on.

This all happens before Day One.

Red

I am trying to figure out red. I feel compelled to work with it and want to use it in a much larger painting.

Tomorrow I will be adding more veils of color. Which ones? At the moment I have no idea.

Quite frankly, I have no idea where this is going. I feel as if I'm being led down a garden path, but where I wind up is anyones guess.

What happened to February/

New panels.

So, what happened to February?

I vaguely remember signing up for a Daily Art Challenge, in which I was to make a piece of art a day for 28 days. February is now becoming a distant memory and 28 new artworks are no where to be found! So what happened?

I prepared 7 new surfaces to paint on.

I stretched and gessoed 7 new canvases.

Canvas awaiting drawing.

I toned 7 canvases and finished the intial under painting on 3 canvases.

Several of the collages.

I prepped and started 32 collages.

I also painted on some large still unfinished works. I cleaned a bit and threw out quite a bit of half starts and never gonna finish pieces. I sorted and re-organized several shelves.

and……..I learned.

I am never going to be the painter who starts a piece and finishes it before starting something else. I always have several things going on at the same time. It will sometimes be frustrating when I look for concrete evidence that I am making art as everything is in some stage of becoming, but awe, when they do finally become complete.

Committed

I am always giving myself deadlines. Then I break them, I get distracted and start something else, or forget about them. After all, what am I going to do to myself? Fire me? I tried that, I just kept showing up so I was rehired.

The only deadlines that I adhere to are when outside forces are involved. An upcoming show, a commission, a promise to a friend. These are the deadlines I can stick to.

In light of this I have joined a FaceBook Group, "February Art Daily". The premiss is that you make a piece of art each day in February. That right, a piece of art each day for 28 days. Just do it, no editing, no deep exploration into whether or not it is deep and meaningful, or God Forbid! BAD. Just make a piece and send a photo to the group page.

It is an open group that is also welcoming of people who want to look at art. No selling, no harsh criticism, just open sharing. So, if your interested you may also join the group.

Now that I'm committed, let's see if I can make the deadline.

Showing Up

I remember listening to a student who was complaining about the lack of inspiration that they felt was and that this was the reason they could not complete the assignment. The instructor stood there giving his full focus to the student. Nodding while they went on at length about how they were just not feeling it. When the student had finished their diatribe the instructor took in a long breath and told them in a reverent tone "Well then, you must never leave the studio because you do not want to miss that moment when the Muse is upon you." He then turned and walked quietly away.

Occasionally the spirt does strike without warning, however for quite a few of us we invite it in. I have created several little Muse call rituals myself. I won't bore you with the details, but the biggest one is showing up. I show up in the studio and know, Muse or not I am going to be there for a minimum of one hour. So I may have to sweep, rearrange paints, clean palettes or what ever until it arrives.

There are days when it doesn't arrive. Those are spent stretching canvas. Filing paperwork. Throwing away things that are no longer of use. But more often that not, I pick up a pencil or a brush and make a mark. Then another, and then I find that I have been transported and painted for several hours, and this would have never happened it I hadn't shown up.

Take Flight

Detail 

Oil on Artist Board

Sold

Received an invitation to have artwork in the Raven show at West of the Moon in August. Seems like August is so far away. However, I am going to North Carolina in May, and Montana in July. I am currently working feverishly on "Fresh Horses", the show that's opening in May, and I'm sure I forgetting something!

So I had better get started on my Raven painting, as August will be here before you know it!

Viridian & Rose

Another painting with the same palette.
Mixed Media on Watercolour Paper,11"x15"

Pink and Green

I love pink and green.It is one of my favorite colour combinations and It's composed from my two favorite colours.This is something that many of my friends have a hard time getting there heads around.They just don't think of me as the pink and green type of girl.To be quite honest,I don't know what type that would be.Do you?
So,here is a jumper in pink and green.I really love this painting.
Mixed Media onSaunders Waterford Watercolour paper
11"x15"

Pretty in Pink II

And the companion piece.