My little helper

Ha! Bless his heart. 

Both boys want to help with this one, but the younger (age 2) didn't bother to ask for permission. I had trouble reprimanding him, because I was so impressed with his brushwork. And he handled the palette knife and my brushes very well, with way more respect than most children give a tool of that sort. I think it is time to upgrade his painting supplies from watercolor to something more opaque, buttery and all out luscious! Well, close to that. I'll start him on oils when I move into the new studio space. 

Here is the clean-up so far. I really like these roots and can see why so many artists choose to stop at this stage. I will not be stopping, though. 

I've made some progress this week, but can't help but feel I am a little behind schedule. I have a 3.4'x6' canvas waiting to be primed and started. It sits behind me and stares, waiting, waiting for its turn at transformation. 

I find myself falling in love with this painting regardless of its incomplete imperfections. There are a billion and one brush strokes in this piece and and at least that much more to finish it. Learning to slow down and find joy in the process. A lesson that is never fully learned, I think. 

Varney' Chemist Laden - WIP

"I do wonderful work in a wonderful way, my wonderful work feels like wonderful play, I give a wonderful service for wonderful pay."

We have the greatest jobs in the world folks! I had so much fun tonight. I felt so free and excited running up and down Main Street looking for the perfect painting spot tonight. It is rainy and cold out there, but man oh man, I had fun. The shop that currently resides in this building is called something like Granny's attic, but it will always be Varney's to me. My mom saw the painting and said "Oh! It's the Domino Parlor!" I remember that name too, but when it was Varney's Chemist Laden it was crammed with the cutest, softest stuffed animals, barrels of funky smelling stuff in the middle of the room just as you walked in, and one very special wall that seemed lined floor to ceiling with jars of old fashioned candies. I would go there with my best friend one summer and we would get Swizzle Stix- colored, crystallized sugar in wooden sticks with a varnished wooden ball on the handle- i loved the look f them just as much as the glory of pure sugar on the tongue. They also had this pale gray and white cat that looked so perfect he would take people by surprise when he moved among all the stuffed critters in the shop. He would sit at the window in the evening, after the store had closed, and watched the people walk by. He was so so soft. Mmm... good memories! Every time I walk past that place, I feel like a teeny bopper again.

I am looking forward to going out again tomorrow! What a wonderful painting experience.

San Antonio Riverwalk at night WIP

I am liking the start of this one. Usually a good sign. Mark, set, go!!!!
The reference photo turned out very well, so I have good material to work from. Yay!

Bare bones, folks. When the bones are laid out in the right way, one can sing the flesh onto the body of the painting with ease. Honestly, I might need to make some changes to the arch of the bridge or reflection... Not quite sure just yet.

Studio space and a new painting- WIP

Ok, so I am having some trouble with blogger right now and it is not letting me upload any more photos. This is Soren playing at the window in the fabulous studio space so graciously given by my loving Auntie Vick and Uncle Jeff! It is wonderful! Loads of light, a window that I can open to let in the fresh air, and its ok if I poke holes in the walls to hang stuff from because someone else has already done it.

The space came with a welcoming committee- a tiny stripey-tailed gecko. He was so cute- I took a picture of him and would live to share it with you, but I can't... as I mentioned earlier.

Oh! Another wonderful thing about this space is that my cousin's business and my Aunt and Uncle's business are all in the same building so I get to see people I like more often! How wonderful is that?

This is what I am working on right now. I have to admit, I have been struggling with it. Panic. I've been feeling panic. I've been working from that odd place of "will they like this." That doesn't work. I keep second guessing myself with every brushstroke, and I know- I KNOW that if I would just relax and do it the way I would like it, the piece would paint itself. No stress. No fussing. No questioning myself. I feel like I have moved a little too far away from my intuition and need to ground myself again.

I took a break this afternoon and did a headstand to try to see the piece from a different angle... and just to see if I could still do it. It felt great (just in case any of you get into a similar situation and are looking for an outlet, or a fresh view point). Oddly enough, I think it helped a little with the grounding situation... Maybe it was all the blood rushing to my head.

I have been thoroughly distracted lately. Pleasantly so, but it leaves my head spinning and sometimes I wonder if I will ever find a routine again. This past week has been a bitter sweet return to some familiar daily activities, but with any luck, Saturday will bring back the tummy twisting excitement of my oh-so-enjoyable distraction.

Back to business, I made a lot of progress on this painting today and aim to post another pic tomorrow. I hope to finish it very soon... we shall see.

Another Skyscape - WIP

16" x 20"

Its been a while, but here is the start of another cloud painting.

Enchanted Rock Project- WIP

This was my first attempt at painting Enchanted Rock. The colors are way off and the dome looks like a giant potato. I am going to rework it using Enchanted Rock Shadows and some reference photos I took as a guide.

Tomorrow Mom, Soren and I are heading to Austin to run some errands, have lunch at Whole Foods, and check out Plein Air Austin's "In the Plein Air Tradition: Art on Location" show. I love Austin! I have been able to see (in person) more incredible art in the past six weeks than I have in the past year.

Progress? Aaarrgh!

It always gets me when I drag my feet.

So here is what happens.... I let a painting sit on my easel for more than two days without hitting it hard. I feel like I am not making any progress... which I am not, because I am not taking the time to paint, and frustration sets in because dog-gonnit, this painting is just not painting itself! What is up with that!?!

I am incredibly intimidated by these greyish shrubs. So I stall. Part of me wishes little elves would come and fix the shrubs on my painting in the night so when I wake up, everything will be perfect and la-la.

Sigh.

Virtual Paint Out, Paris- WIP

Here's the start for my Paris painting. I started it yesterday and the sketch went fast. I had to make a few tiny adjustments, but I like the composition. I wanted to post it yesterday, but couldn't find a charged battery in the house. Isn't that just the way? I realized my dilemma after a frantic attempt to get a photo of an incredible cloud formation that was tearing across the sky just outside of my apartment.

Stepping it up- there are actually people in the picture! Ooooo! I haven't painted people in a very long time. These guys are so indistinguishable, I'm hoping they will still read as people even though I plan to do very little modeling on them. I am trying to keep this painting pretty loose- big brushes!

I am really excited about this painting. Makes me want to learn French and take a painting trip. Someday, I want to go on one of those painting "tours" with a mass of other painters.

Mmm... dream vacations....

The Metisse - WIP, almost there...

The progress photo of the Metisse as promised. Not long now- just the water and reflections and maybe a little tweaking here and there...

I was a nervous about the composition at first because the boat is pretty close to dead center. I like it right now, we'll see if I still like it when the painting is complete.

More Clouds- A Different Start

OK.

So this time I made a few sketches (in my beloved Moleskine) to try to work out some of the design kinks before plopping the paint down. It all goes back to that P.A. (Plan Ahead) thing. I really shoot myself in the foot when I don't take the time to plan a painting.

In the first thumbnail I went all out with the drawing... well, as "all out" as you can get in such a small rectangle. In the second sketch, I broke the picture down into solid chunks of lights, mediums and darks so I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed by all the variation in the clouds. I felt a lot better about the design after doing that. I was looking for some enthusiasm to start this painting off, and this really helped.

I used this second sketch as a reference when drawing the design onto the canvas- I am trying not to rely so heavily on the photo. I am hoping this will help me loosen up a bit. I hatched in the darkest "blocks" to keep some of the confusion down. I got a bit frustrated with that last painting when I realized I had filled in a light spot with dark paint, in three different areas. Prevention is the best... um... preventing thing.

A little color theory fun-- the red font on both pages of the sketchbook is the same color. Ooo!

About that last painting... I wiped it with the intention of starting over. Can't find the photo, now - last time I saw it, it was in the clutches of an 18-month-old. It'll have to wait until my next batch of reference photos comes from Kodak.

Have I ever mentioned how much I like the internet?

Just upload some pictures into my Kodak account and tell them how I want the pictures and a few days later my prints magically appear in my mailbox! Its just brilliant I tell you!

I don't have to drop off film and wait for a week before the prints are ready. Remember the days when you couldn't just print the good pictures?

I love modern technology.

WIP - Clouds - and something of an Epiphany

Ya know how some paintings just seem to come easy? Just fly onto the canvas with little or no effort at all? Well, this isn't one of them. This one is a battlefield. Explosions and wounded all over the place. Bullets wizzing by your ears. There is shrapnel lodged in the doors of my kitchen cabinets.

Today I scraped off several large mounds of paint and am in the process of redefining some shapes... Someday this painting will come together. And someday soon, I hope, painting will come easier again.

I find myself searching for some meaning in in all this struggle. Does it mean I am coming onto a breakthrough of some sort? Does it mean I need to readjust some way of thinking that isn't quite working? Why am I searching for meaning in something that happens all the time? I know it is a cycle, but... sigh.

Reminds me of my toddler. I can usually tell when he is about to conquer some immense developmental milestone because he goes downhill for a little while. Not physically, but emotionally- upset most of the time, doesn't seem to know what he wants, easily frustrated, has trouble sleeping, etc. Its like he is fighting his way up a slimed, muddy hill covered in briars, and no one can help him get to the top. But when he makes his breakthrough everything is just hunky-dorey. Life is good.

That is totally how I feel with my artwork right now... like the last three or four have been really difficult. And I see a very labored look in them. I am so ready for a breakthrough of my own.

Hmmmm.... Ya know...

I have been looking at my recent paintings while typing this and I noticed that my brushwork has been getting progressively tighter and more controlled. All the while I have been goggling over other artists whose work is loose and much more impressionistic. No wonder I feel cramped. It could be that I am not feeling satisfied with staring at a photograph for days on end and need to spend more time outdoors painting the real thing.

Writing is good.

I am going ot have myself a little think on this, and I just might wipe this painting and start over... or just scrape off the larger globs of paint and reapply fresh paint with a larger brush and no glasses!

WIP - Clouds...

As promised.... the WIP photo. Having a bit of trouble with that pinky-orange in the upper left, but I think there was a smidge of blue (tucked around the side of my yellow) that was mucking up the purity of my mixed color.

I knew it was there... I didn't think it would have much of an effect. It did. Just enough to be irritating.

Good thing I can paint over paint! I might let a bit of this slightly muddy orange remain and act like some of the deeper parts of the cloud... We'll see how it goes.

WIP - Red barn (ha ha ha!)

Just have to fill in the buildings... I find grasses difficult to render. I don't care for the hyper detail of every individual blade painted, but I like some texture and direction. I've seen some artists make their grasses in a semi-drybrushed blocked-in sort of way, and it works... They have rich, wonderful grasses full of texture and life, all in what looks like a few brush strokes. If I could only figure out how to do it myself...

I have a chance to go paint outside this evening, so I am going to take it. I was really hoping what the weather man said would be true, but surprise, surprise... he was wrong... again. Maybe I will get lucky and the sun will break through all the gloom in the next thirty minutes.

Otherwise, I will be painting in grays!

Oh!!! Here comes the sun! I'm outta here!

WIP - bit by bit

Woohoo! I got a little bit done today. Feels good.

I really had to fight the impulse to make all those grays in the upper left hand corner the same. But things like that make a difference. There are bluish grays, reddish grays, yellowish grays... It would be a shame to ignore all those wonderful little differences.

Its funny, but the more things get filled around the boats, the more excited I get about painting them. Icing.

WIP

A start. I had a minute and decided to go ahead and post what I have so far. It helps me see that some progress is being made. Its like looking at a painting upside down. Gives a different perspective.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the mess before me I fail to see where it is all going. Just have to keep pushing forward, and even if the final piece is not what I wanted it to be, it will at least be finished. More often than not I end up liking it in the end.

I have some more stormy sunset cloud reference photos on the way. I'm looking forward to painting some more clouds.... and more boats.

I just have to work past this block.

WIP - some Seattle boats

Rrrrr!!! The frustration! I screwed up the proportions on the reflections of the boat in the back, and I have been fighting with it for days. I am so ready to just paint!

I get to start tomorrow. Yay!



Looking to the future....

This is what my toddler does when I give him a paintbrush.

Awesome.

WIP - Clouds

More clouds from my super fantastic photo session day in Western Colorado. This one is bigger than the other two. 16"x20".

I was a little intimidated at the thought, but now I don't know why. Painting clouds is basically just blocking in bits of color, and it doesn't seem to matter if the minute structures are off. As long as the basic nature of the cloud is adhered to, the finished product still looks like a cloud.

This is the closest I have come to really abstract painting so far.

WIP- more Port Townsend boats

I was looking at my wall of reference photos last night trying to figure out what to paint next, the pickings are getting slim, when I came across this photo. The composition was boring, so I cropped a section with tape and cut out what I wanted.

So now I'm working from a teeny tiny 3" x 4" photo. Which, as it turns out, is a good thing! I am having to break the smaller bits into chunks of color rather than trying to paint a particular something. I am in trouble when I find myself trying to paint what I think an object is supposed to look like, instead of how it is.

My mantra for the day:
Paint what you see, not what you know.


Oh! I found my learning journal while cleaning up the book shelf. One of my "learning observations" from the other day was that a concise drawing is key to a good painting. My husband calls it "P.A." - Plan Ahead. I think it makes the painting process more enjoyable, because everything is set and ready to go.

I didn't plan very well on my last painting and struggled with it the entire time.

Gotta have P.A.

WIP - Squamish Yacht Club

Adjust, adjust. The boat in the foreground is in a constant state of adjustment.

I am, at least, feeling a little better about this painting. When there are so many changes needed, and so much going on in the painting, it is sometimes difficult to see the end product as worthwhile.

Getting there!

WIP- Squamish Yacht Club

My paint has been drying fast on this painting... either that, or I am painting slow. E-gad! this painting and I have been having it out. I just keep telling myself to keep trudging along.

I find grays to be somewhat difficult to match. Apparently I need more practice...

I am too zoned in on the background right now. It has been irritating me, but I think what I needed to do- and I see it now - is to post the work. I think I am staring to see some of the things that were bugging me about the background.

Moving on... dab, dab, dab.