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.