Wishing Everyone A Joyfilled Season

 

I wish you all a happy winter, a joyous holiday and a super 2024.

And I have to get back to my sorting and purging as the end of 2023 is fast approaching.  I have surfaces clear, not I need to tackle shelves and the floor.

I'm also working on goals and my word for 2024.  As I look at goals for this year I did okay, not outstanding but okay.  I'll tweek those a bit before I'm firm on them and, as in years past, I adjust quarterly.  The word is a different story.  That stays with me all year.  In 2024 I have highlighted two of the many on the list of possibles.  The two are FOCUS and BELIEVE.  Focus is a biggy, I am so easily distracted it's a wonder I get anything accomplished.  Believe is another one -- I need to learn to kick the critic out of the studio and believe in my own instincts.  When the critic gets in everything stops -- I have a hard time moving forward.  Does anyone else have that issue?

I think I'll put the words in big letters in an easy to see spot on my two work surfaces. I have manged to get more stones done and will be putting some in the Gallery Uptown January exhibit.  And I've really had fun with the poinsettias.  Here's another one...

Now it's time to get back to work, I'll be back next year.

The Best Layed Plans...

 I started December with a plan to do a small painting and clear a section of clutter every day.  Well, it's day 9 and I have 2 done and one partially done.

The problem was the clutter clearing.  I had a pile of art journals and writing journals and, of course, I had to go through them to see what I had done.  Among the written ones I was reminded of something I had done with a Jane LaFazio class and I immediately had to look to see if I still had that class on my computer.  I did so I decided I had to make another one -- a Christmas one.  This is one that I put on the back of a denim vest.

They're fun to make and I have lots of red and green fabric.  Since I didn't make a new table runner this year I'm making one of these for the center of our kitchen table.  The process is addictive so I may make a few of them.  Perhaps they'll become another table runner, the first one I made many years ago has seen better days. I've since made them in a variety of styles and sized. I enjoy putting the parts together and then in the evening while watching TV I add embroidery and other embellishments.  

So sewing a patch every day has replaced the daily painting but the clutter clearing continues.  As long as something else I find doesn't distract me.

The Jam Jar That Started It All

 

Recently I've been doing a quick morning sketch of some of the many items I have in various places around the house, things that are memories.  Some used often, some out where I can see them and some in other places, not always visable but always there.  I came across this one as I was looking for something to sketch.

This little china jam jar is what started me on this journey as an artist.  It was a gift from my mother one Christmas when I was a young bride.  My mother was a very talented designer and fashion was her passion.  I knew she could also draw but it definitely wasn't her strong suit.  When I asked her where she found this adorable little jam jar she said "I painted it."  She had been taking lessons and this was one of her first pieces.  My mother was always supportive of any craft I wanted to do but she did not support the idea of me as an artist.  I always felt I didn't have real talent because of the many ways she discouraged me.  I know now the reasons but that's another story.  For now -- the Jam Jar.

In my mind I immediately thought -- if you can do this I can do this and I set about finding someone in the area where I lived who taught china painting.  I found Joan Potere.  Joan has since died; however, she is the teacher who really started this whole wonderful adventure in art.  We became fast friends and often talked of wanting to learn oil painting because we wanted real art on our walls and budgets were tight.  While she wasn't a young bride, she did have a big family so money was tight for both of us.  This is one of the dinner plates from the set of six different floral place settings I did with Joan.

Another of her students was taking classes from a wonderful oil painting artist and teacher, Marion Zooner.  That student, Margaret, brought in a couple of the paintings she had done in Marion's class.  After she left Joan said to me, "if she can do that, we can do that."  We tried to get into Marion's class but it was full.  We talked Margaret into teaching us.

We studied with Margaret for a couple of years.  I still have some of the paintings I did in her class.  Joan had a son going off to college and her own health wasn't good so she stopped.  I had moved back to Flint to go back to school and the drive got old so I quit.  But neither of us quit painting.  Hard to believe that was over 60 years ago.  Some days it feels like I still have no clue what I'm doing when I come into the studio.  Other days it seems I've gone back to the beginning.  This poinsettia is one I recently did and I am reminded of china painting with Joan.

Wishing you all a Happy Thankgiving 

Thinking Halloween

 My Tuesday Painters group went to the Coffee Factory in Muskegon two weeks in a row.  It has a plethora of Halloween decorations which were fun to do.  This was done this week....

Last week I tried skeletons, they are harder than I thought they would be so I moved on to a real life person.  He was reading his phone so he sat still long enough for me to get a decent sketch.

And now it's time to think about Christmas.  I've been working on poinsettias and snow scenes.  I'll post a couple of those next week.

Some New Directions

 As we get older it's harder to part with things -- not because things are important as "things" but because they represent a life -- mine.  This week I started doing a morning drawing and today I decided to add one of the "things" that I can't part with. The pear was done a couple days ago.

Here is a photo of it in real life sitting on top of our Hoosier Cabinet.  It was dropped and broken by someone, either a child or a cleaning person, but it was put back together and most of the mistakes are on the back.  It was my grandmother's, given to her by Uncle John.  He was experimenting with crystal glazes and this one was a reject.  I think of both of them when I look at it.

He did perfect the glaze and according to a book about him, his recipes are at the DIA.  I've seen current artists who say they developed the glaze and I'm not doubting them.  But it isn't new.  As I said, this was my grandmothers, she died in 1958, that's when I got it.

Recently I've been working on brushstrokes and have been watching Jean Haines videos.  She's the one who got me started on the stones which I can't seem to stop doing but that aside.  Another video showed up that caught my attention, Shirley Trevena.  She does very interesting still lifes.  I'm not thinking mine will look like hers but I think adding some of my "things" may work in one or two.  The brushwork practice has been good so it's time to think about some serious painting.

Meanwhile I still have a few mixed media and collage works in process.  That will be another post.

Still Playing With Stones

And I'm beginning to think about Christmas.  This little guy may become a gift tag.

I've also been thinking about a Christmas card.  I lost several addresses when a not so good technician moved things to my new laptop so some may not get one.  I've found a new technician but that's another story and it's too late for the mailing lists.

Since I'm moving back into watercolors I want to try something different -- perhaps a poinsettia, we'll see.  Meanwhile I'm enjoying playing with washes and rocks.  Yesterday's wash turned out to be a disaster.  However, I saw a couple rocks in the mess so I started playing.  There's still a ways to go and it may end up being okay after all.  What do you think, is there any hope?

Meanwhile I'm beginning to search for poinsettia images.  If you have any would you share?

I'm Liking Watercolors Again

 

August in the time for my annual art retreat in Traverse City and for the past several years I've done acrylics and collage or a combination of both.  This year I decided to downsize my supplies and just take watercolors.  

I took along my ipad because I had seen a demonstration on watercolor abstracts that looked interesting and wanted to have a better look. I didn't find it but did come across an interesting demonstration on healing stones by Jean Haines and decided to give it a try.   

Why?  I'm not sure but as I write this I'm thinking about the first time I swam in Lake Huron. There were so many stones on the shore that we had to walk out on sandbags to get to an area that was just sand.  A childhood memory that always makes me smile. I've seen the shore of  Lake Huron several times since that day in Jeddo and every time the stones were a reminder.  I expected to see the same thing when I moved over to the Lake Michigan side of the state, not a stone in site but the water was still delightful.  Not so good for swimming but great fun to play in the waves.

The painting above was my first try at her technique though I didn't really follow it.  The next one I did watch what and followed direction, or at least tried. I didn't particularly like the result but found doing the stones very meditative so I kept at it.

I like the third piece a bit better...

And I really liked the meditative part so I moved on to 4 and 5...

And by number 6 I began thinking doing a bit every morning would be a good way to start the day before moving on to more serious paintings.  These stone pieces have become a way for me to do some experimenting with more of my watercolor colors and texture techniques. Texture is another love. 

This one is almost done but I keep seeing more stones.  I may end up overworking so I'd best quit while I'm ahead.