Tuesday At The Hackley Library

 What an amazing building!  There was so much to see and so little time to sit and sketch.  We're going back next week.  

There was so much carving on this fireplace and so little time I opted to just do a portion of it.  Next week I may do the entire fireplace -- or maybe the second fireplace in another room.

 

Or perhaps some of the wonderful old hardware.... these are just a few.

                     

I love old so this place was heaven for me.  The only thing better would have been an old boat yard but that would be outside and it's a bit nippy out.  

We have snow today, not enough yet but a start.  Winter is another love.  My husband says it's because I don't have to shovel it. That's true but I loved it even when I did have to do the shoveling.  The only problem I have with winter is the cold and my Renaud's Syndrome.  I use handwarmers.  My doctor suggested I put heated gloves on my Christmas list.  I didn't know there was such a thing but I put them on the list I gave my husband.  I may even help with the shoveling if he gets them for me.

If I don't get time to post next week I wish you a

  Very Merry Christmas 

and I'll be back before the start of 2023

Tuesdays and Christmas

 Another coffee shop with my Tuesday group.  This time Jumpin' Java because it was closing its doors at the end of the week.  We'll miss it but all is not lost, there are two more coffee shops in our downtown.

I'm still working on the 5 minute pieces but the most recent have been Christmas Ornaments. I started some awhile back intending to take them to the Gallery for the holiday exhibit. I didn't get enough done so I took Christmas Trees instead. The trees are similar to these that are around Ed's Sinterklass. I made him several years back for my Dutch husband. The ornaments will go to the Gallery next year.

 

 

Planning for next year has also been a priority but first a review of this year, the good and the bad.  Do you review your year?  I've been recording my thoughts on it in an art journal I recently made trying to improve my coptic stitch bookmaking. I still need to work on the stitching part.

 

My plan is to put a light coat of gesso over the journaling and use the journal this month to do some journaling about what I want to accomplish next year, another coat of gesso and start the new year with the journal actually serving as an art journal.  

Do you set goals and accomplish them?  I set them but don't always accomplish them. Intention matters to the artist—but so is play. The act of creation by nature is intentional. While art can be serendipitous, overall it is not accidental, we go into the studio with the intension to make art! I need to work on avoiding thinking, evaluating, judging or pre-conceiving when I start. I believe spontaneity and playing is an important part of the art process but I tend to miss that part.  Not always but often. 

Tuesday Painters and A New Sketchbook

 This Tuesday there were just two of us at the Aldea Coffee Shop.

We have our granddog here this week so studio time has been limited.  But that didn't mean I didn't do any art making.  While I'm not a bookmaker I do make books every once in awhile and that seemed the perfect thing to do at the kitchen table while the granddog lay between my spouse and me.

Awhile back I had seen Laly Mille's youtube instructions on how to make a coptic stitch art journal without a a cover (it would be added later) and with all stitching on the outside rather than the inside.  Perfect time to try it so I got out paper and began making folios, then the signatures and finally stitching.  And when my spouse took the granddog for a walk I went into the studio to dig for paper to cover the book boards.  

 

This is a paper I made by layering the string between two pieces of tissue paper and applying gel medium.  Once dry I added the color.  Perfect size for what I needed.  So I covered the boards, glued them to the first and last pages of the journal and a leftover piece was perfect to cover the stitches on the spine.  Iset a bunch of books on top to be sure it all dried flat and happily opened it up the next morning.

I've decided to use this small one to review my year and hopefully figure out what I want to concentrate on next year.  Granddog is still here so I've started folding and stitching a larger one.

 

Tuesday Painters and Starting A Review

 This week my Tuesday Group went to the Spring Lake Library.  Libraries are favorites in winter months,winter is starting and we have 3 libraries to choose from.  We also do coffee shops and that's on the docket for next week.  This is what I did this week along with my morning 5 minutes.

And here are a couple of my 5 minutes in the morning pieces.

I'll continue doing the 5 minutes, at least until the end of the year.  And my Tuesday Group will continue and maybe I'll get out even more since some of us have joined Urban Sketchers West Michigan.

Meanwhile, it's time to begin a review of my year.  I read a few blogs,  Nicole Warrington is one of them and she had a list of review your year questions on her blog a couple years ago.  I kept the questions but never used them for my year end review.  This year I'm going to, they're good questions.  Here are a few of them in them:

    What did I discover this year about my art or my creative process?

    When during the week/day did I feel most creative?

    Where did I find support or community for my creative soul and my creative practice?

    What elements of 2022 do I want to bring forward in 2023.

There were several other posts on Nicoles blog that got me thinking about some things I may add to my morning routine.

And I did another feather this morning...

Until next time....

At Odd Sides With Urban Sketchers West Michigan

 Missed painting with my Tuesday Group this week but joined some of them to sketch at Odd Sides here in Grand Haven with #uskwestmichigan.  It was fun meeting new sketchers and at a place the Tuesday group often meets in cold weather.

I had recently tried foreshortening sketching a chair and decided I needed to work on that so I choose this long view.  I really do need to work on foreshortening!  At the last minute everyone behind the front counter moved and I spied the coffee grinder.  This is the type of thing I like to sketch so I did a very quick one.  The elipse is off but I don't care, next time we're there I'll do it again more carefully.

And I'm keeping up with my 5 Minute Challenge, now 82 collages done and 2 and 1/2 eco dyed journals used.  This morning I tried something different, I used stitching to add a piece of bark that I picked up on my walk yesterday. 

Another type of fragment.  This may lead to a whole new series.  Time will tell.

Two Challenges In One

 I continue doing my 5 minute challenge and there's a new challenge, #arteveryday2022 for the month of November.  I've done the Art Every Day challenge every year and since I was already doing a daily I hopped on that one too.

Today's 5 minute is quiet.  I'm working on some larger collages but those are a commission and being done in stages. 

I didn't join my Tuesday Painters group this week.  Another funeral; we went across the state for the funeral of our long time friend, Frank Leek.  He was the husband of one of "the girls."  "The girls" are my high school buddies and we've known the husbands almost as long as we've known each other.  We all have husbands that are tops but Frank was the one who went above and beyond.  Whenever we girls got together without husbands Frank sent a special treat.  I recall one gathering, we all turned 40 and decided to get together for dinner, Frank ordered wine for us and sent a note: "Like fine wine, getting better with age." 

I've been going to too many funerals lately, this getting old thing isn't fun when the group of friends you had so much fun with keeps getting smaller.  Oh well, we can't avoid it forever, but I am working on not letting the old lady in.

Last winter I was going to try cross country skiing but conditions were lousy.  This year I may try again or take up snowshoes.  Or get back to downhill skiing, I bet my grandson would go with me.

Back to Lake Michigan and a New Gadget

 This week the Tuesday Group went back to our friend Marna's cottage on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.  It's our go-to spot when the weather turns chilly and the cottage is not yet closed up.

I think I spent more time visiting than sketching but that's part of the enjoyment.  That was Tuesday, I also got a new toy that day but didn't play with it until yesterday.  

A few days ago we had a visitor, she was actually in the yard next door but seemed quite content to stay where she was even while I took the time to put down my coffee cup and pulled my phone out of my pocket.  So what does that have to do with my new toy you ask -- my new toy is Sprocket, a pocket printer that prints 2x3" photos from a phone.  Had to try it.  

I've been doing 5 min something in this little sketchbook, 4x5".  This morning I used it for my 5 minute piece I added the photo.  Part of the fun of these little photos is there is a sticky back if one wants to use it so, of course, I had to try that too.

As long as I'm talking about the 5 minute pieces I'll share a couple of them.  This began as a challenge and I challenged myself to use an eco dyed handmade journal and the scraps that were in a pile on my desk.  It was a 15 day challenge but I had a lot more scraps and a couple more eco dyed handmade journals so I kept going.

I started this challenge in September.  Patting myself on the back for keeping it going.  

Tuesday Group Visited Lake Michigan Today

 It's nice to have friends who have cottages overlooking Lake Michigan.  Our group was blessed this very cold and windy day.  We were up above the lake in one of the wonderful cottages on Peterson's Ridge, thanks to a Peterson daughter.  This was my view --

We'll go back there next week.  There are many views to choose from but this one always seems to be the first one I do every year that we've gone out there.

Is there Meaning In My Paintings?

I’m not the only artist who struggles with this but it is my struggle

How can I use paint to show that life is about more than what we see? Isn’t the painting suppose to have some meaning and if so, what do mine mean?

I know the meaning of this one, I love boats!  But that’s not what I’m working on now.

What do the non-representational pieces mean.  That’s a question I ask myself often. Questions and struggles have guided and shaped the careers of some of the world’s leading artists.

Monet struggled with light in his landscapes.

Van Gogh struggled with life and acceptance.

Jackson Pollock hurled paint at canvas, originally in frustration, and he turned the art world upside down.

And I find myself most often painting just because I like to do it, not thinking that there will be any special meaning to the piece.  I just hope that as the experimenting moves along something that makes a good painting will evolve.  Experimenting is the key to what I do now, “what will happen if I….” is most often on my mind. 

I suppose my subconscious is saying something because I’m usually alone in my studio when I’m working on these non-representational or abstract pieces. Everything I’ve read says there is a meaning in every stroke.  If that’s true is there a key to knowing what that meaning?  Or is that just something that the experts claim to know? One thing it means to me – as long as I’m painting I can avoid housework. 

Tuesday Painters Visit Oz

 Holland's Centennial Park has a floral sculpture dedicated to The Wizard of Oz.  L. Frank Baum spent summers vacationing at Macatawa Park on the shores of Lake Michigan in Holland.  It's believed that this is the place that inspired the story and that some parts were written there.

It's not as bright as I've sketched here.  The parks department was in the process of removing things that need to be removed for winter.  This floral sculpture will come down and the metal framework will be put in winter storage. In the spring it will go back up again with fresh flowers.

My group decided we definitely need to go back next summer.  The park is lovely, this sculpture will be much more colorful and there are several more statues dedicated to the story on the lawn of the library across the street.  

Next week we're heading up to Whitehall to see the Urban Sketchers of Michigan exhibit at the Nuveen Center.  A couple of us in the Tuesday Painters group have joined Urban Sketchers of West Michigan.  It seemed appropriate given that we do much the same as they do.  Well, the rest of our group does, I usually just zero in on one thing rather than a full scene.  This will be good for me -- trying something a little different when I'm sketching on site.

Another Painting Day

 Once a month my friend Terry and I meet in the middle to paint and catch up on what's going on in our lives.  She lives in Fenton, I'm in Grand Haven, we meet in either Portland or Grand Ledge.  Yesterday it was Portland.

I was intriqued by the different angles the buildings were facing but don't think I captured it.  That's okay, it was a good exercise and not bad for a sketch.  

After painting we go to lunch and then my plan was to head home and write a blog post.  Life got in the way, or loss of life.  While having lunch I learned that my baby sister had died that morning.  She wasn't a baby anymore but still, the youngest of we three siblings.   I knew she wasn't well but it was still a shock.  I had texted her that morning asking if she was okay, she lived on the west coast of Florida.  The rest of my day was spent contacting other family members and a couple of her friends -- and crying.  I hadn't seen her in several years but we did text back and forth.  

I have a sketch done for her and was planning to work on it after I got paintings done for a show I'm to be in -- Art at the Yard if any of you are in town.  The sketch is for a painting she asked me to do.  I don't know if I'll finish it or not.  Probably will as it will be a way to remember many of the positives we shared -- one being the subject of the painting she wanted -- our old rowboat turned over so we kids could use it as a raft.  

But first the Art at the Yard pieces have to be finished.  That show is at Baker Lumber here in Grand Haven on October 15.  The next day a happier occasion, our nephew on the Lystra side of the family is getting married which means a trip to the northern part of our beautiful state and hopefully some color.

Tuesday Painters at Odd Sides today

The forecast was wet and cold so we opted to paint indoors today, Odd Sides was the spot. I had my coffee and a seat looking at the view across the street -- a barricade so the restaurants could put tables outside and one of the many restaurants in this block.  I didn't finish it and probably won't.  Doesn't matter, it was fun sketching.

The barricades started during Covid so restaurants could place tables far enough apart for social distancing.  It has continued.  Not sure I like it but the restaurants do and judging from the number of people using the tables in good weather it's popular.  Given that people seem to like it one would think the complaints about not enough parking would stop.  It hasn't.

Should We Paint To Please?

 

"Paint to express, not to impress." -Flora Bowley

I don't think so.  There is so much wisdom in that simple quote, yet I struggle.  I don’t think I'm alone, we all want to be liked and to have people like what we do.  But …. Does it make us feel good about our work.

For a while it does, in fact it could last a very long time.  I enjoyed my watercolors because I love old boats and old structures which were often the subjects in those paintings.  The structures were either old shacks or interesting buildings.  Sometimes just a bunch of buoys got my attention.  The boats were classic and eventually I zeroed in on old rowboats.

But I became bored with the process.  Still loved the subject but my pouring process took a long time and I needed something more.  I began exploring.  I wanted to make the kind of art I admired – expressive and personal – and I wasn’t doing it.  At least I didn’t feel like I was doing it.

What I didn't realize then is that the praise I was getting for my watercolors was holding me back from exploring anything new.  Very much like my work life, a new job kept me interested for about 5 years, then it was time to make a change.  It’s the learning and exploring new ways of doing that keeps me interested.

As I kept painting, experimenting, sketching and journaling I began to feel more enthusiastic about what I was doing.  Even though I have no idea where all this is going.  It’s the journey so I’ll keep going. I’m reminded of something a friend said to me when she was talking about listening to her angels direct her.  I said no angels talk to me.  Her response was “Oh yes, they talk to you, you just don’t listen.”  I’m trying to listen now.

I know boats and water are still important, representation of them is already showing up in my sketchbook.

And though not everyone will recognize it, there’s a boat in a recently finished painting.

What can I say, I’m a Pisces, water will always be important.  And my dad, another Pisces, taught me to love boats.  They are a great way to be on water when one can’t be in it.  Every now and then I'll probably do another one that you can actually see.  Meanwhile I'm going to keep experimenting and will see how often something nautical shows up.

Tuesday Painters at the Blue House on the River

 My friend Gayle is another water person.  My Tuesdays Painters group went to her place today where we had a lovely view of the river.

I spent more time just sitting and watching the water than painting.  A new brush had to get tested so I did some sweeps of paint the colors that were on the water this morning.  Love the brush!  It holds lots of water but also can come to a fine point.  Back home and I decided I needed to order a second one.  

I keep paints, pens, paper and brushes in my car for Tuesdays and any other time I may want to stop and sketch so this new one will live there.  But I need the same brush in my studio so -- another is on the way.

I know, I'm getting rid of stuff.  But some things just have to be here and good brushes are among them.

I Am Currently "Between Work"

For a painter "between work" means I don't know what I'm going to do next - or I have several ideas going around in my head but can't seem to settle on one.  So I dabble here and there, trying this or that, but not ready to commit.  My dear friend Terry and I call it "dusting."  

It still worries me at times, not always but there are times when I feel certain I’ve lost my way.  But after all these years of making art, I know it’s all part of the process. It just is.

And so I continue playing with nonrepresentational, and at the same time experimenting with seascape and or boatyard abstracts.  Do you see a boat or a vase in the one above. I see a boat. I’m working in sketchbooks, small ones, large ones, some concertinas, along with a few boards. I’m also going through my photo files and taking lots more photographs.

Every morning Ive been doing a 5-minute collage. For those I have a pile of scrap papers on my desk and my challenge is to use them and anything else that is within reach. This is the one I did this morning.  I post them on Instagram pretty regularly.

I trust that one of these days my muse will finally show up and point out something good in the dust and I will and suddenly have a new series is underway.

Until then, I will keep showing up and keep doing the work.

Tuesday Group Went To The Poor Farm

The official name now is Eastmanville Farm County Park but it's still known as the Poor Farm.  Since we've been doing barns this summer it seemed like a logical place to go so we did.

It's now a Memorial Park in honor of the poor farm.  The home is no longer there but the farm, barn, out buildings and cemetery are there and in the process of being restored.  I didn't make it out to the cemetery part of the park, that's for another day.

Barns remind me of a story an instructor once told about painting barns.  She said her professor said: "...don't paint anything trite like a barn."  Then later said: "Paint what you know."  She said to us: "I'm from Ohio, what I know is barns."

I don't think barns are trite, I've seen some wonderful barn paintings.  My friend Carol Cousineau's barns are among the best I've seen, Here's a link if you'd like to see some of her work Carol Cousineau (galleryuptown.net)

Next week we're back to one of my favorite places to be -- the waterfront.  We'll be painting at a friend's who lives of the river.

I’m a beginner again! And I’m loving it..

                                         

I’m moving out of my comfort zone to work in a new way so I'm a beginner again.  It’s a new way for me and it came about because I took one of those free weekend workshops.  I liked how she started because it was a way I hadn’t started in the non-representational (abstract) works I’ve been doing recently. However, I didn’t like the way she moved forward with it so I decided to explore on my own.

I’m working on four at once but I haven’t photographed them all through the process.  I’m quite happy with one I finished at Spider Lake.  I posted that a couple weeks ago.  These three weren’t working for me.  I was liking the first one but it needed something.

Having worked on non-representational for some time trying to learn the genre I began to think “what if I can’t do this after all?”  So far I’ve used unfamiliar media and worked across all sort of substrates.  All these experiments and I still felt stuck – until the free workshop.  I’m still not certain what I’m doing and some just turn out lousy.  But I’m remembering – many times trying a new medium and how long it takes. I ought to write about my first attempt at a poured watercolor sometime.  But I digress.

I thought the first one above had promise. It's a combination of media including collage. This one is something else I don’t usually do – work in a grid format.  I shared with one of my artist friends.  A suggestion, a tiny tweek and it’s done.  Can you tell what I did?

It's Tuesday

 A quick post, it's Tuesday and the Tuesday Painters Group I paint with went to Rendeers old barn.  It's across the street from the U-Pick barns and store in West Olive. 

We go out every Tuesday morning to paint or sketch, then around 11:30 we head somewhere for lunch and show and tell or critique if someone wants one. I decided to try to post what I do every Tuesday, good, bad, or so-so.  Today's is a so-so.  I'm not a careful sketcher, these are mainly just fun and a way to keep my drawing eye and hand working.  

                                  

Even though most of my current work is non-representational one never knows, I may start doing realism again and I want to be able to do the base drawing.

Is it Abstract or Nonrepresentational? What’s the Difference?

I know a lot of you already know this but many people don/t so I thought a little lesson might be in order.

Almost all of both of these are generally referred to as Abstract art but some of it isn’t.  I think it's okay to call it all Abstract, after all Nonrepresentational is a mouthfull; however, we should know the difference.

There is an easy distinction, Abstract is always connected to something visual from the real world.  Flowers, landscapes, even people are often subjects in abstracts.

Nonrepresentational art is exactly that -- it doesn't represent anything.  It actually takes skill to produce and I’m working at developing that skill. It ain’t easy!  

An easy way to tell the difference, if it begins to look like something it's abstract.  Think about these two famous artists; Picasso’s work is Abstract, Jackson Pollock’s is Nonrepresentational.

Here are a couple examples from my own work.  These two paintings are Abstract –

And this one which was intended to be Nonrepresentational but it became an Abstract Seascape —

These two are Nonrepresentational –

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

    

Back From My Annual Art Retreat

 

My annual Artist’s Retreat at Spider Lake is almost always in August.  This year it was the middle of the month and I worked on sketchbooks, some in the zone pieces and a series of what I think will become a series of 4 pieces.  I think this one is finished but not sure.  What do you think?  The others are still in proccess and I'll begin working on them once I'm unpacked,

“Why does being near water set our minds and bodies at ease? That’s a question Wallace J. Nichols asks in Blue Mind. He writes about the benefits of being in, on, under, or simply near water.  Enhanced creativity is one benefit that he mentions.  I know that works for me.

I’m paraphrasing something Nichols wrote as it applies to my life. -- It has been a series of encounters with various bodies of water. Time spent in, on, under or near water mixed with thinking of various ways of getting in, on or near water are vital to my well-being.  Good thing I live near Lake Michigan and can drive by it every day. 

That’s a long way of saying my annual art retreat at Spider Lake is always soothing to my soul.  It’s a time to make art and to be in, on and near water.  This is my view every morning as I sit at a bar made of old waterskies, drink my coffee, write in my journal and do a quick sketch to start my day.

 It’s a soothing way to start the day.