The Promise of Potential

 

Yesterday’s reality – snow!  So I started the potential -- a still life with tulips started in my sketchbook.

This one is an experiment – how can I make the vase look like Uncle John’s crystalline vase.  I’ve seen other crystalline vases recently and the potter has said it’s their discovery.  This one I inherited from my grandmother; she died in 1958.  The one she got was an experiment.  He did perfect his glaze and his formula is at the DIA.

I’ve tried still lifes a few times but never really worked at it.  Time to try; awhile back my spouse decided we needed to get rid of things so our son didn’t have to go through everything.  To me everything is a memory of my life before Ed and our life since.  I had decided to start sketching the things with the thought that I would put them in paintings. The vase was one.   Our son has since told us he didn’t want us to get rid of anything – hooray!  But the still life idea is still percolating.

Another quick sketch today is a potential.  This time I was trying colors thinking of something else to put in a still life with the vase in an actual painting.  And another piece by Uncle John, his sugar bowl. Another from my grandmother and this represents the first time I knew I had an Uncle John.

 

I often stayed a few days with my grandmother and after she closed her shop she would take me to a movie downtown Detroit.  One such evening after the movie we were walking to the streetcar stop and she stopped to look at some pottery in a gallery window.  The gallery owner came out and began to explain to her that the pottery was by John Foster and it is going to be featured at the Worlds Fair in Brussels.  She said she knew, “he’s my brother-in-law.”  That’s the first time I knew that I had an uncle that was an artist. I don’t recall how old I was, not very. I was over the moon to think there was a real artist in the family.

Back to my week, the rest of it – a few more sketches.  I decided my 100 days didn’t need to be consistent, I’m not going to worry about losing a day or doing more than one in a day to make it up which I did this week. Here are a few more that I did get done.

 

I'm happy with some of them but not beating myself about what I don't like, it's all learning.

 

Changing Direction

 I'm still doing the #the100dayproject but I've changed it up a bit.  Since this was to be a learning experience, experimenting with different media and techniques I decided to work in a sketchbook instead of doing a painting every day.  The painting a day meant a lot of good paper wasted.  

It's spring and my daffodils will soon be blossoming so I decided to try some different views working from a photograph.  These are not intended to be a design, just trying out different views of the flower and also thinking of ways to put them together in a design which will also first be tried in the sketchbook.  I don't think the full on view will make the cut but the others have promise.  We shall see when I finish them.

A few others were done before I decided on the sketchbook.  

 

The sketchbook I'm working in is one I made using all watercolor paper for the pages so it works for this project.  It's not the best paper but that simply tells me that if it's decent on this paper it will be better on good watercolor paper.

Already on Day 16 of #thehundreddayproject.

And I’ve been good about doing a small painting every day but --- I’m feeling like I need to change things up a bit.  The small paintings have been more like sketches and they are great fun to do so I’ll be doing more of them.  Here are a couple of them --

 

I’ve also done a couple non-representational pieces – collage and painted --

 

 And yesterday while working on one of the Art Tribe collaborative pieces I played a bit with paper and fabric which lead me to my stash of fabric scraps and today I think I’ll do a stitched collage. I know I want to do more of the florals.  Some turned out well, some not so good.  Practice –

 

But there are other things I want to do as well.  Last week I saw a video Roben-Marie Smith did making a small journal using an old book.  She used the cover, cut it up into three small journals.  I’m a collector of old stuff – I have old books and as I moved from my laptop into the studio there on a shelf was an old book cover ready to do something with.  I did –

I didn’t consider this part of my 100 Day Project but I have a drawer full of similar journals that I’ve made to be used as Art Journals that never got used as such. I'm not a bookmaker but I enjoy making books.  This is one that's been in the drawer for a couple years. 

 

I think I'm going to add Art Journaling to my project.  And stitching.  For a long time I've done a quick graphite sketch every morning, something that took 5 minutes or less. For this project I want to do something everyday, something that takes a little more time and effort that gets my creative juices flowing.  So my theme has changed -- but not too much.