Derailed!

A week at the beach is supposed to recharge and renew and sort of re- everything.  I usually spend days on the sand with a small block of watercolor paper and a tiny travel paint box and make "Beach Squiggles."  This year that just didn't happen.  So much for making art everyday.  About the most artistic thing I did this trip was to layer yogurt, blueberries, honey and bran buds into a compote and eat it for breakfast.  Talk about lazy!  Most times when we get home, I need 2 days to rest up from the vacation.  This year was different.  I needed to get home and get back to work.  Just too much of doing nothing. Not that I was bored. I just couldn't make myself paint. Oh, I tried. Just couldn't make it work.

We did go a museum and look at a lot of Asian art, and way more Baroque art than I ever thought I would see. We saw lots of different architecture, pastel colored tropical houses with tile roofs, a gazillion boats and  a squirrel chasing a man around a walking path.  Hubs and I went to Tampa where he lived as a very young man and were able to locate the place he lived so many years ago. Nostalgic. We shopped.(And returned)  We slept.(In the afternoon)  We played cards. (I think he let me win) We ate. (Too much) We decided after 5 days we didn't want anymore seafood and went out for pizza.  We laughed that they knew what a red-eye was but you couldn't find a Guinness. 

Sometimes, a time away makes you realize what is holding you back from something you want and how to fix it.  I realized that my new studio arrangement has no good light and that may be the reason I'm having such a hard time getting motivated to paint.  I think I've figured out a solution.  Now all I need to do is unpack, do laundry, make yogurt, change the sheets, reassure my cats that I'm not gonna abandon them again, and try to think of something for dinner.  My daily painting commitment has definitely been temporarily derailed. However, I'll get it back on track. Just as soon as I finish my nap.

Carole

Salt and Snowflakes

I said daily painting was a monumental task and it's only taken one day to prove myself right!  Some days it's almost impossible to find an hour to devote to art.  Some days it takes more time to center myself and decide on a subject than to actually work.  Some days I'm just too busy. Some days I'm just too lazy.

Some days the things I want to try are more than a one-step process.  Yesterday, I decided to experiment with salt and a rubber stamp dipped in acrylic paint.  I found a large rubber stamp with lots of sizes of snowflakes.   At first, I tried painting the acrylic onto the snowflakes with a brush, then stamping them on 1/16th sheet of 140 lb paper.  paper. The picture top left is that one.  I didn't really like the effect, thought the snowflakes were too heavy. Not really crazy about the colors, either, but that is neither here nor there.  I can work out a color scheme I like later.  The one in the center is a quarter sheet and here I put titanium white acrylic into a dish, added a little water and dipped the stamp. I like the more delicate appearance of the snowflakes, but there are just too many of them. This is a quarter sheet of the same paper. 


The right pic, I love the colors.  Here, I like the salt effect but didn't use  enough acrylic.  You can barely see the suggestion of a snowflake in the center right below where the green and blue meet.  I do like this one best. 

These are more time consuming than what I usually like to do.  First the acrylic needs to be stamped and allowed to dry.  Then the paper needs to be wet thoroughly and pigment dropped in, the paper manipulated to allow the colors to blend, then a mixture of fine sea salt and kosher salt sprinkled on, then allowed to dry.  There is a technique I've read about where you make a 50/50 mix of water and Epsom salts and wash the painting with it after it dries.  I'm anxious to try that. That will make this a 3 day project rather than 2 days.

At any rate, it's been a fun project and a learning experience. One day,  the quarter sheet will be cut into 4 pieces and all of them attached to prefolded cardstock and you may receive one next Christmas.  Waste not want not.

Carole

Painting Pears

This is my first ever blog and I don't know that I know what I'm doing.  But, you know, the first time I picked up a needle, I didn't know how to sew, and the first time I held a pair of shears, I didn't know how to cut hair and the first time I held a paintbrush, I didn't know how to paint, but I learned.  I'll learn this.  The purpose of the blog is to share my artwork.  I've been posting paintings to Facebook for a while now, but someone told me an artist needed an online presence other than Facebook.  So here goes. 

I started reading Carol Marine's book, Daily Painting. She says make art every day. Every day! That is a monumental undertaking. It sounds easy, but believe you me, it ain't.!  Her instruction is to work small.  That makes sense. Small works take less time. Well, maybe not. Hmmm.

Since this is a blog to promote myself as an artist, I should start at the beginning of my art journey.

I suppose I first got the bug at around 5 years old.  I discovered one could make the most beautiful pictures by drawing with a crayon on a hot radiator cover.  The smooth metal cover was the perfect ground for the melting crayon.  I still remember the smell.  I also still remember the butt-whipping I got for doing it, too.  Several times. Actually, many times.  When the hot water rose and the pipes crackled and popped, the art demon in me would grab the crayons even though I knew what was coming when my daddy got home.  Just couldn't help myself.  Maybe those experiences arrested my development because I didn't attempt make pictures for another 50 years. 

I took a drawing class and a watercolor class through my local county rec department.  I can't remember the instructors' names.  My first serious watercolor class was with Karen Bowden, a local artist, through the Fine Arts Center.  I studied plein aire oil with Heiner Hertling, an internationally known wildlife artist.  I have had oil classes with Ed Gowen and Ron Boehmer, both local artists.  For several years I have studied watercolor with Purnell Pettyjohn and Solly Blank in Lynchburg, Virginia,  my hometown.  I have taken workshops with Sterling Edwards, Tom Lynch and Karlyn Holman.  In spite of all this, I am still intimidated by a blank canvas. 

That's me.  I'm older than dirt, but I'm not dead yet, so there's still time for me to be an artist.  So today, I started my Daily Painting.  Which, as I said above, doesn't have to be painting.  It just needs to be art, some kind of art, once a day, every day.  The little row of pears at the top of this page are my offering for today.  Far left is palette knife, center is big brush, right is small brush. All are acrylic on canvas board, 8x10, cad red and cad yellow, plus permanent green deep and white for the left, red, yellow and cerulean for the center and right, with white added for the right side.  It was fun.  Took a couple of hours. Learned a few things.  That's the point. Learn something. Share what you learn. That's what life is all about.

Carole