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.