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.

What do Art, History and Swimming Have in Common?

 

Did you have a favorite teacher in school?  I had three: Miss Dewey for 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grade Art, Mr. Garber for U.S. History my senior year of high school, and Miss Campbell was my high school gym teacher.  The pumpkin is one of my 4^th grade drawings for Halloween.  Seems appropriate to post here today.

I was one of those right-brain learners back when schools thought the only way to teach was the way left brain individuals thought and learned. Miss Dewey understood my right brain way of thinking and it worked well for me.  Unfortunately she was only in my class for an hour one day a week. She always gave me an A and sometimes an A+. I didn’t get another A+ until I was in college.

Art is also the reason Mr. Garber is a favorite. He too understood we aren’t all left-brain learners.  He gave us an option at the end of the semester, a term paper or a project of our choice that depicted something we had studied during that year.  I choose to do an oil painting of a plantation with hard to see slave quarters behind it, visible only if one looked closely. I got an A and he asked to keep the painting.  Of course I let him. Now I’m sorry I didn’t get a photo of it but that was 1957, I was more interested in a grade than keeping track of the painting.

Miss Campbell had nothing to do with art so why was she a favorite?  My other love was water, being in it or on it. It still is but that’s an aside. Swimming was part of gym in high school and Miss Campbell was one of the teachers.  She selected a few of us for Synchronized Swimming.  We were good! We demonstrated at a major university. Unfortunately we got no recognition from our school, girls didn’t do sports.  But it didn’t matter, to me. I was in the water and loving every minute of it.

I wanted to continue swimming in college so I signed up for a class.  After the initial swim where the teacher put us through the paces the instructor told me I couldn’t take the class. Maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought I was, I had to ask anyway.  Her answer, “I can’t teach you anything.”  What a bummer, I guess Miss Campbell was a better teacher than she was given credit for.  However, not being selected to be in the synchronized swim class prompted me to take Senior Life Saving and Water Safety Instruction. They gave me more time in the pool and prepared me for a job as a lifeguard during summer break. Good choices.

And another of my 4th grade drawings....

Painting with Tuesday Painters and Some Inspiration

My studio is getting a major overhaul.  There is constant clutter because of too much stuff so I'm pitching or giving away.  Of course, that also means I'm finding things I had forgotten which can lead to working on it and forgetting the overhaul.  This time I'm avoiding that.

However, I do still make some art.  I spend Tuesday mornings with some art buddies We gather between 9:30 and 10, paint, sketch or draw until 11:30, start packing up and go to lunch were we share for a friendly critique.  In good weather we are outside but rain and winter's cold keep us inside.  There are several indoor spots that welcome us.  Here are a few of my Tuesday sketches....

Another project recently finished.... a mosaic that the Visual Arts Committee at our church did based on this year's Lenten theme.... The Wizard of Oz.  Yes, sounds strange but think about it.  What did Oz tell all of them?  Basically the same thing Piglet told Pooh, "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."  Every week the congregation got something to hold as they prayed after listening to the sermon, then they put it in the offering plate and we added them to our mosaics.  Here are the finished pieces planted by our patio.

And the inspiration, another reason to get the studio overhaul finished.  Our son was able to crew for a friend in the Clipper Cup, a sailboat race across Lake Michigan.  He took some great photos.  It's time to get back to some watercolor painting.

And I have to share a piece our grandson did... 

Getting Ready for Painter/Photographer Exhibit

I worked out drawings a few weeks ago.  This week I finally started to work on the paintings.  The drawings were transferred to the watercolor paper and a wash of color was poured over both pieces that I’m thinking of entering.  These are the two drawings….

I did the transfer drawing so light that after the first pour I couldn’t see it anymore so I spent the morning untangling those buoy lines.  I was finally able to put the first mask on this afternoon.  Now to dry and do another pouting of paint.

Same problem with the second one, tomorrow I will have to find all of those buildings again. 

There is a fine line between having the drawing too dark causing the graphite to mix with the paint making a mess and have the drawing so light that it gets lost when paint is applied.  Time to get back in the groove of doing this type of painting because I do love watching the colors mingle.

More of the Challenge & Some Therapy

I was behind but caught up with my dailies… Here are a few more of them….

 

 

 

The color one was done with pen, ink and watercolor. 

And the therapy… I spent yesterday afternoon making acrylic skins… only because I love watching the colors mingle.  Here are two that are simply black and white, one with a bit of gold.

 

I will probably use these for collage, then again, maybe not.  We shall see

Dailies, a start

I’m participating in a challenge, A Painting A Day For Thirty Days over on  Leslie Saeta’s blog.   However, due to a cold, I haven’t posted every day there.  I have done two of the three days, cheated a little and did two yesterday.  And I still have to do todays but it will be later in the day.  Here are the three done so far….

Day 1, candy

Days 2 and 3 both done on day 3

Kayaks from a photo posted as part of the wetcanvas weekend drawing event

and an abstract from another photo, same drawing event. 

I have several things on my plate today but I will get another small painting done so I can post it on Leslie’s blog.

A Bit of This and That….

Stitching and sketching … and a painting thrown in for good measure.

This is some of the stitching; a couple friends and I did a Trunk Show and these are a few of the bags I had for that.  Here’s a detail on one of them.

I did some similar detail work using reverse applique but haven’t done anything with those pieces yet.

Sketching…. plein air and wetcanvas weekend drawing events.  First the weekend drawing events. These two were done at the end of June. 

I had fund doing the next two this weekend…The fire hydrant was one of this weekend’s images, the boats were from the weekend before.

I do love old boats… so before I move on to sketching here’s a painting I finished.  I’ve titled it Classic because that’s what it is to my mind.  Do you agree?

I’m pleased with the result but as I was working on another painting which I didn’t finish I realized I’m sort of in a painting rut.  I can spend the time it takes to do a painting if it’s an old boat.  Not so with most other subjects…. for those I’d rather do a plein air sketch so that’s the other thing I’ve been doing…. Blue pots at the Grand Haven Garden House

or one of the many little spots that Dale and his crew have made into inviting settings

Or in my back yard where I’ve planted a clay house (a final exam project from a ceramics class I took several years back.)  I added a little path leading up to the house which is tucked up under a hosta and dubbed it a fairy house.

And yesterday I joined some friends at Lloyd’s Bayou, thank you Ruth Kelly for inviting us to use your view.  First I did a quick sketch of the Lotus

Then started a small painting of the view across the way

And now another month is well underway…. where will I put most of my energy?  I’m really needing to focus, can I learn how at this age?  I have to at least try.  Haven’t figured out how but there has to be a way.

Another painting started

It’s been a long dry spell; however, I did get some images in Florida that inspired me.  This is the stern end of an old rowboat that was obviously a working boat.  Those usually get my attention and I have visions of at least 4 paintings based on this boat . For now, just the stern end with the lines laying on the seat.  The initial drawing is done; now to transfer it to watercolor paper and then the slow process of masking and pouring. 

I think I’m going to do this one twice.  First a small piece to add to three other boats that I am thinking of reframing in a different way.  No decisions on that yet as there are several possiblities floating around in my head.

For the moment I’m just happy to have a painting underway.

“In For The Night” and another in the works

I’m back and feeling much better.  Back into the studio feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work.  When we left I left this one hanging.  I didn’t like it when I took the mask off but I know that sometimes when we put them away and get them out a couple weeks later they look better than we thought.  When I first removed the mask and hung in on the wall this is what it looked like to me. 

I adjusted the photo in Photoshop to more accurately show what I first thought I saw.  I was expecting more vivid and didn’t think I got it.  I didn’t do anything more to it, just left it and left town for 10 days so I didn’t even glance at it.  When we returned and I walked into my studio this is what I saw.

So much closer to my vision.  I’m leaving it hang for awhile because while we were away I realized I really need some brightness in my life and my work and may want to add more to this. 

Meanwhile, I’ve started work on another one that I’m thinking will be called “Still Working.”  Here is the start of the initial drawing.  I always do my value study as a careful drawing rather than a rough sketch because I like drawing and I can eventually use the image to transfer to my watercolor paper.  I’ve got a couple more photos of this old boat so there will probably be more than one painting of it eventually.

And just because I haven’t done a WDE (Weekend Drawing Event) in a very long time, last night while watching the Oscar pre-show I did a couple quick watercolor sketches from the images Bonnie posted.

Here’s a link to the WetCanvas All Media Art Events site where the Weekend Drawing Events happen every weekend.  

Finally, A Painting In Process

While art has been happening in the studio, not one full painting has happened in a very long time.  It’s time.  I have a sketch in my sketchbook that I had titled “In For The Night.”  That will be my next painting. 

Normally I use my sketch as the basis for my value study which means a lot of pencil work.  I was watching a video done by my friend Linda Baker.  She uses Pitt Pens for her value studies – much quicker than graphite and I have the set she uses. 

I’ve also thought about doing this in with more of the boats that were there; however, that would require an odd size and I already have an idea for framing the half sheet above.  I think I’ll save the longer version, until I find a suitable frame.  This is the longer version.

I’m still working on my daily mixed media piece.  I haven’t scanned or photographed any of the new ones.  When I do I’ll post them.  Meanwhile, Michigan Watercolor Society Exhibit entries are due soon so I need to get busy with “In For The Night.”

And go over and check out Linda’s website.  She does beautiful work!

A Week of R&R

Every summer for the past 21 years my dear friend Terry and I leave our families for a week to devote all of our time to our art (and catching up on what each of us are doing.)

Last week was the week, we were at a lake just outside Traverse City which is where we have gone for the past 19 years.  Eighteen of the 19 years were at Spider Lake thanks to my brother and sister-in-law.  Here is a view from the dock….

That rowboat will be in future paintings.  Paintings that were done while I was there include these two

They are not the same size – top is 7 x 7, bottom is 14 x 14; however, the camera doesn’t seem to know the difference.  I have a couple others but when I saw the images on my computer I realized they weren’t done. 

Painting isn’t all we do, we swim – at least three times a day.  Swimming in a cool lake feeds my soul.  Somehow a pool isn’t the same, most likely because I grew up swimming in a lake.  And one day during the week we go in to town for lunch at our favorite “Amical” where Sebastian has been our waiter two years in a row and he gives us great service.  We also make a stop at the college bookstore because they have an excellent selection of art supplies and the prices are good.

An aside – while searching for something else I came across a blog entry titled Enjoying the Gallery Experience.  If you hesitate to visit those places read it.  While it’s primarily about visiting galleries and museums in New York, it could be any city.  For that matter, even if you’re not hesitant about visiting, it’s worth reading.

Enough today, I’m working on getting more paintings done as I have to have 2 for ArtWalk, several for an exhibit at The Edge Gallery in Fenton and 2 or 3 pieces for Lemon Creek Winery’s Grand Haven Tasting Room.  All happening in September.  Yikes… I’m off to work!