Why Am I Posting A Photo Of A Shirt Sleeve you may wonder --

Because it no longer has paint on it. Since I don’t always remember to put on an apron or paint shirt when I work in the studio I often have paint on my cloths. Usually that gets covered up with a stencil design or a small painting – or sometimes several stencils. Recently a cool day at my art retreat in Traverse City got me into the only long sleeve shirt I had with me. It was a good one, I didn’t want to get paint on it so I was very careful – I thought. It wasn’t until later in the evening I saw the back of my right arm in a mirror. A long streak of turquois paint on my good navy-blue shirt. Earlier in the week I was on a hunt for Murphy’s Oil Soap which I use to clean brushes and brayers. I will even work on dried paint. When I showed my shirt to my retreat buddy Terry, she suggested soaking it in Murphy’s. “If it works for dried brushes it may work on your shirt.” Hmmm -- why didn't I think of that. When I got home I tried it. It worked! The shirt is as good as new. I wish I had taken a photo of before and after. All I have is after and what you see is it. Not a speck of turquois paint and it went from the cuff up to the first dark shadow. If you don't clean your brushes with Murphy's you should. It's so easy and keeps brushes usable for a very long time. Here's how I do it – after you’ve wiped as much paint off as you can with a paper towel or any paper (collage material,) put a drop of the soap in your palm and rub the brush into it. I rinse and repeat until no more color comes out. For dried brushes and brayers which I always seem to end up with, soak them in Murphy’s for a day. Then I use paper towel to start getting the paint off. Most of it will come off the brayer easily. For the brushes I lay them down on a paper towel and use a stiff brush to pull the paint out. The only way you can tell my brayers aren't new or at least cleaned after every use is by looking at the handle.

I Still Remember that Sinking Feeling

I’m remembering my first poured painting. I’d seen a demonstration and wanted to try it so I started with a very complex drawing of buoys hanging from a ceiling. Once that was done I started the process of masking and pouring. First masking the lightest color, pouring my watercolor paint, letting it dry, repeat until only the darkest or brightest was left and the final pour was done. Then let it dry again before finally taking all the masking off to reveal the finished piece. Disaster! I had a real mess and was ready to give up on the process. I’m sorry I didn’t photograph it but at the time I didn’t want any memory of my failure. But I didn’t throw the piece away. It was a few days later when I looked at the disaster again and thought – what the heck, it’s already ruined, I can’t make it any worse. I got out watercolor crayons, pastel pencils, colored pencils and oil pastels and went to work on my first mixed media piece. The result – satisfaction

And it sold the first time I showed it. That was several years ago and my introduction to mixed media. I've been playing with it off and on since.

My Annual Art Retreat

 

I make little cairns when I swim during the retreat.  

It started when our sons were in junior high.  They’re both in their early 40’s now. The last several years have been at Spider Lake but it began at Oxbow in Saugatuck. 

Terry and her family were visiting; they live on the other side of the state.  We were talking about our sons going to camp and I said I never got to go to do that.  Home growing up was on the shore of an inland lake and I had a rowboat and my own speedboat.  My dad was not willing to send me to camp.  “Do you know what they do at camp?  They do what you do every day here at home.”  So Terry suggested “art camp.”

So we took a painting course at Oxbow. While there we took all the meals with our classmate before driving back to Grand Haven to unwind, review the day – and go through several of my art books before a good sleep. My spouse and my son stayed at his parents so our mood wasn’t broken.    By the end of the week we decided that it had been worthwhile but we could probably get just as much out of it if we just took a week without our families and worked on our art.  I had several art books that we could use to guide us as well as the instructor at Oxbow had.

The next summer a friend of Terry’s let us use her cottage on Case’s Island in the middle of Lake Fenton.  An added benefit of that location – we could swim every day in addition to making art uninterrupted.  We could eat when we got hungry.  When we broke for a meal, we either discussed what we had been working on or looked at the art books I brought along.  After a meal and a swim it was back to work.

After two years on Case’s Island her friend sold the cottage.  While at a family gathering I was moaning about losing our spot for a retreat. My brother said he and my sister-in-law just bought a place on Spider Lake near Traverse City that we could use.  With the exception of one year when they were remodeling, we’ve been going there ever since.  Still the same routine – make art, talk, eat, swim.  This year I spent most of my time coffee dying and gelli printing papers for collage.

 I did a couple warm up exercises but will probably trash them or use them as a base for collage.  The start of two small pieces, part of my “In The Zone” series look promising.  Time to get to work on finishing those.

It's Almost Time For My Annual Retreat

 I am so ready for Spider Lake!  But, before I go -- The Art Tribe is hosting a reception this Sunday at the Gallery Uptown.  I wrote about that exhibit earlier.  Next week is the last chance to see it so the Tribe is gathering to be available to answer questions.  We'll have some cookies and punch and some excellent art so if you are in the area do stop and see us.

I leave for Spider Lake on Wednesday, after my friend Karen's Picnic, I think it's 17th Annual Remission Picnic though we missed 2020.  You all know why.  

Now it's time to start thinking about what I'm going to work on while I'm there.  I've currently reawakened an interest in archeology so I may do a bit of reading and playing with some prehistoric marks.  But I also want to play a bit more with collage and abstract.  Guess I should start a list. Or wait until Tuesday night and just start putting stuff in my bag.

Art Tribe Inspired, a New Exhibit and New Work

Art Tribe – an inspiring and supportive group of artists. The new exhibit in the Gallery Uptown's Walburg Gallery features work by one such tribe. One of its members is a world traveler. When she recently shared a boatload of travel photos with the tribe, the concept of this show came to be. Each of us selected photos that inspired at least one of their works in the show.

These are two that I picked.

The two images inspired paintings that don't look anything like what I was seeing. But that happens often.  There often is a circuitous route to the end result.  The piece below, The Lord Potted Clay & Put Words on it. Sumerian epic poem c1800 BCE  was inspired by the bottom photo above.

and this one, Sarciphagi  was inspired by the top photo.

So how did the two top photos lead me to the two totally different paintings?  It certainly wasn't what I had in mind when I picked them.  I love old walls and old cemeteries.  I also love water and arches which the curve of the brick reminded me of. 

As I began to scribble on the supports I was using I remembered a trip to San Antonio when we visited some of the missions.  Who knows why, it just did. I went digging for some of my photos.  Those I found brought me back to the photo on the top, the arch of the wall and the colors.  Recently I’ve also been studying some ancient marks and symbols that seem to be universal.  Going through my San Antonio photos I found several that included some of those universal marks so I included them in both of the pieces; however, more of them are visible in The Lord Potted... than in Sarciphagi.

 

10 Feet Tall and Bullet Proof

And a clutter free studio so I can get back to work on this piece.

10 Feet tall is the feeling to strive for – when you finally don’t care a wit what others think about your art you feel 10 feet tall and bullet proof, at least I do.  Travis Tritt’s sings about a fellow who achieves that feeling with drink but that isn’t necessary for most artists.

It isn’t easy to achieve the feeling, but it is what I strive for when I’m painting.  My current work is abstract, both paintings and collages. Every now and then I think I shouldn’t be veering off in that direction, I should stick to the realistic watercolor paintings that I know I’ve had success with. That is especially true when someone tells me they don’t like something about a current painting.  Even if that same person really likes some of my new work – just not that one.  But my studio has become so cluttered it was difficult to work.

It was time to do a serious sort and purge.  I began to pull boxes off the shelf and empty them onto my already cluttered worktable.  As I pull boxes out to go through them I realized that much of the stuff that is just taking up space says perhaps my work is actually going in the right direction. 

I have boxes full of papers and paintings that didn’t work. The blue one shown below is part of a watercolor painting, the only part I liked.  The house is a painting that didn’t work but I love the soft colors that just happened on the back.

The paintings were in there upside down because it was usually the back I was saving.  Many had colors blending in unusual patterns, not necessarily good patterns but something I thought I could do something more with.  But I never did.  The papers got put in a box on a shelf and there they stayed – out of sight, out of mind.

Which also made me realize that I need to see things I’ve been keeping or it just isn’t there. Now any boxes that were randomly covered with colorful bits of paper, probably when my 42-year-old son was still in college, have been replaced by plastic bins that I can see into.

Having started this project I decided I had to set myself a deadline and stick to it.  An exhibit opening at the Gallery Uptown in July is one that I’m hosting and participating in.  I need to get some work done!  June 1st was my deadline and as of the morning of May 31 I did it. 

When I started emptying drawers, shelves and boxes every surface in my studio looked like this

 

And you couldn’t open this door; good thing there was another way in.

And now the surfaces are clear, our large recycle bin has been filled twice and three large garbage bags have gone to the curb. I posted a video of the clear space over on Instagram if you're interested, here's a link. It feels so good to go in there, I took a day to just enjoy it.  Now it’s time to make some new art!

The 100 Day Challenge Finished. What Next?

Here is a random selection of my challenge to do an art journal page every day

 

And the final day's entry

I have no idea where April went but here we are into May and I am just posting.  Certainly haven't kept my pledge to post once a week.  However, I did manage to do an art journal page every day so I'm taking that as a positive sign -- I'm going to do better about posting.

So what's next?  Well the rest of this week I'm concentrating on the ongoing reorganization of my studio.  There are so many things in there that I don't need so I am getting rid of.  I have more shelf space since I packed away used up sketchbooks and gave away or sold several art books.  I plan to have some very clear surfaces to work on by the weekend so Monday morning I can start a new challenge.  Not totally sure what it will be yet but I am leaning toward a small painting or collage every day.  I have time to think about it as I move things around or out.