Category: Art

Decorating Old With New

Sometimes I jump start my creativity by cleaning up my art space.  The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, suggested re-arranging a room to spark ideas.  Doing something methodical like vacuuming a carpet, or mopping the kitchen floor can release pent up energy and while doing the repetitive motions the brain can trail off and daydream.  Why not?  Works for me!

As you can see by my photo I’ve been very busy redecorating.  It’s kind of freeing in a way, my brain can get away of thinking about the art process, how/what/where/ to paint, or not, and the guilt with not.

So maybe after it’s all said and done I’ll feel like getting back to that painting I’ve left behind for the moment?  Not sure.  But looking at fabric, colors, shapes that are pleasing to me has had it’s wanted effect.

This was such an enjoyable project!  Where and what is this?  Well!  I have set up my sons’ crib, which I kept, in his old bedroom.  On a shopping trip to the baby store with Gorgeous we picked out this bumpers and sheets set that blends nicely with the existing furniture in that room.  And, it’s not Pepto Bismol pink!  Comfortable colors and shapes on this set make it a cozy haven.  I know my granddaughter won’t have a clue, but it’s comfy to me!

I’m ready to receive my precious one.  And I had better get organized or I’ll find myself scrambling!

I Need a Sunny Day

What do you do when the weather outside is not perfect?  I get Artist A.D.D when it’s rainy.  Yeah, I’ll just call this “Artist” A.D.D. because I don’t want to say how really blah and unfocused I feel in weather that’s not my opinion of good.

Last week I was somewhere and was asked what do you need to feel good?  The thought that immediately popped into my mind was that I need a sunny day.  Is that dumb or what?  No one can change the weather.  You get what you’re going to get in that department.  Sun, rain, snow, it’s out of my hands.  But I can imagine it, right?  So that’s what I try to do.  When things get crazy I try to remember to go to the beach on a hot sunny day, in my mind.  Sometimes it works.

Today is a cloudy, rainy, but warm day.  Not my favorite, but I can live with warm.  I’d rather have hot and humid.  People don’t understand it.  I don’t care, I need it.  I could get myself down for the day if I think about how the winter is creeping up on us, but don’t tell me to move because that’s not happening.  No matter that I live in the New York suburbs on Long Island, I need to be in close proximity of the city of Manhattan. I may not be going there often, but nearby is good enough.  I know it’s weird, don’t ask questions!

Last week was great hot and sunny weather for September.  You bet I took myself to the beach for some R&R.  Yup.  I packed the essentials, (food and iced coffee) and drove out there.  In fifteen minutes I was sitting in my chair in the hot sand with very few people on the beach.  I remembered my watercolor set and found some broken shell pieces for when I was ready to paint.  But first I breathed a nice long sign of relief that I had arrived!  Yes!

I fished around in my bag for my camera so I could take a couple of pictures.  It wasn’t in one pocket, not the other, not in the bottom of the bag.  Well, OK, I’ll get the phone out and shoot a few pics, I thought.  I couldn’t find that either.  So I was without a camera or any device of communication.  Let me tell you that was kind of scary!  What did we do before cell phones?  We were free.  But in the 21st century, being free is not an option.  After a little bit of panic and anxiety I decided I better get it together, paint and go home.

Thank goodness I found those bits of shells otherwise I didn’t have a good subject.  This beach is so long there’s just ocean and sky, no little bay or curve of dune to be interesting.  I hadn’t eaten the apple I brought so I arranged it with the shells in the sand at my feet.  There’s just something magical about painting things in the bright sunlight with the reflection off the sand.  The shadows are sharp and the bright light evens out mid tones so there’s no need to squint.

It’s a good feeling to work with color and form, to be able to forget where and who I am.  Some people have the ability to be out of their body at will, their mind off in another world.  For me, it’s this moment that I’m gone.  Nothing exists but the brush moving against the paper.  I don’t have to speak.  I have no thoughts in my head, no worries, no concerns, nothing but an empty brain.  I might not even be me.  I almost don’t exist.  It’s great.

I sketched out the apple and shell bits in watercolor paint only.  Blending in straight color, making the shapes take form and moving quickly enough to get it done, I finished and was able to lay back in my chair to let it dry.  Breathe in and breathe out, and sigh.  I was there, I painted and I was done.

Broken Shells (c)2010 DST 5×7 Watercolor

Taking a Hop, Skip and a Jump

While I tried to get the Mr. to take a trip to somewhere this summer, the only idea he liked was to stay local.  Forget Greece, Las Vegas, Bahamas, or Florida.  A short road trip it is, with no housework in sight!

We’ll be visiting the east end of Long Island, on the North fork, in farm and winery country.  While I don’t know if we’ll be going to any wine tastings, I am hoping the weather is hot and humid, perfect for sitting on the beach. Weather is not something you can predict with any measure of accuracy and any outside activity depends on the weather.  Being a person who likes the heat, the weather better cooperate.  Earlier it was cloudy, rainy, but hot and humid. Now the sun is showing up.  It better!

Last week the humidity lifted and we were left with temperatures in the low 80’s and high 70’s.  That’s cold to me!  That’s get out the woolies weather!  I never complain when the temps go up into the high 90’s!  Nope, not me!  I am in hog heaven when it’s hot, hot, hot!  I know what New York winters are like and I never complain about a sweltering New York summer.  Yup.

So I will probably..scratch that, definitely be AWOL from the blog.  I don’t have a Blackberry, or a netbook, or an iPad.  You’ll all have to carry on without me.  Rest assured that pics of my days will be forthcoming.  I plan to bring along my travel watercolor set and my ink pen with a drawing pad.  Morning pages will be coming along too, which I will have to sneak because the Mr. always wants to know what I’m writing about.  Will I get to do some art while I’m sitting in a beach chair all day long?  We shall see, won’t we.

From Sketch to Done

The latest watercolor painting is done.  Finished.  I finished something!  I was so happy to remove it from the paper block.  I have so many ideas in my head I just couldn’t work on this any longer.  Once I painted in the details of the butterfly’s wings I was just so done with it.  Here’s a look at the progression from sketch to finished work.

I really have to remember I’m not using oil paints.  The highlights have to stay white or else forget about highlights.  There’s no adding in later.  It’s a process and I’m learning.  And waiting for the work to dry is another thing.  With oils it’s just the opposite.  You can let it dry and then have issues because now it’s dry!  Watercolors need drying time.

The other thing I wonder about is if it’s too big a painting for the size of the surface.  I tend to go large and then find out that my subject pushes the edge of the paper or canvas.  The size of this paper is only 12×16.  I think this looks as if it’s a huge work.  Just another thing to ponder over. 

I can hear my painting professor saying “Great job. Now go bigger!” 

Finishing Something Else

Every day I try to work on this newest painting.  I’ve abandoned the basement studio for the time being to work on this outside, or at my kitchen table, where the light is brighter. 

When not working on it I prop up the painting on a mini easel so I can eyeball it as I walk through the house doing my chores.  Here and there I can stop what I’m doing if I have an idea and throw some paint in an area that I see needs something. 

I usually have my work in progress in my general vicinity when not working on it.  It gives me a different perspective and I’m able to live with the work.  Then again, it’s nice to work in the studio and leave when done working, leave it all behind and go on to life.  But right now this is working for me.  It’s keeping me in the game, so to speak, so Mr. Resistance can keep his distance.

Distraction was never my middle name, but it is now.  Keeping me in the loop is a tough job and I could use all the help I can get.  With a few things working at the same time, all different media, I could be drawn away to any of them and never finish one.  “Finish Something” has been my mantra.

Most evenings I like to knit, if I’m not too exhausted.  This week I finished something!  I was determined to finish this one thing and I did it.  I sewed up edges and hid all the dangling yarn ends. The bad thing about finishing this knit is now I’ve got my eye on different yarn and a new project I’m dying to start.  Bad.

The good thing is that the yarn I’m eyeing has not been available in the local shop I visit.  The longer it’s not available the better, otherwise I’ll never finish anything else.

Back to Work

Well, I started working on this new piece.  I thought I would use the watercolor paint in a heavy fashion, but I decided not to.  I’m trying to go slow.  Keep the highlights clean, work the shadows down.  Although I wanted to abstract it I think I will just go with what I see and don’t try for anything in particular.  Just paint.
Instead of working in the basement studio, dark and away from everything, I brought the work upstairs near a bright window.  What good is a studio if I’m going to be painting in my dining room?  Forget it…I know, I have a space, but it’s not ideal.  Someday, a loft with north facing windows.  I can daydream.  In the meantime, it’s back to work.

The Rush of Something New

It feels so good to have the day all to myself today.  Yesterday is over and today is a new day.  Tuesday is usually an errand day and I hope to get those chores finished early. 

When I removed the garden painting from the block it felt great.  In the book Walking in This World, by Julia Cameron, I read in one of the chapters to ‘Finish something’!
How does it feel to finish something?  I felt relief.  The act of closing the book on a work is very satisfying.  So satisfying that I get a rush of inspiration.  Maybe I felt that way because I was happy to be done with a piece I wasn’t thrilled with?  Whatever the reason, I became excited about the possibilities.

No sooner had I freed the painting from the watercolor block, I looked over the latest photos I’ve taken and chose one to sketch onto the brand spanking new paper. 

I decided to use the butterfly photo I took a couple of weeks ago or when ever that was.  I’d like to work it kind of sloppy, sort of abstract.  I might use the watercolor paint thick and heavy, throwing it on the paper, just to experiment with the medium.  I seem to be daydreaming lately about oil painting again. 
While reading through some of my favorite artists’ blogs I noticed one was doing what I had been thinking to do, which is paint on a small square-shaped canvas.  I was writing some random thoughts in the Morning Pages yesterday, yes I’m still doing that, and in the blink of an eye I was looking up at my surroundings thinking I should paint on a 4×4 canvas!  Just like that!  I thought to myself, ‘You have some weird Artist A.D.D. girl!’  One second I’m writing, the next I’m in LaLaLand and I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing.  I had to squeeze my eye lids shut to block out the blur! 
So anyway, that might be my next thing, and I didn’t even start this work!  I think I have to go back to oils.  Something in my head keeps pointing me there.  I’m going to have to obey the muse.  First I will start and finish this painting.  Let’s see where I go with it.
I’ll get back to you on it.

Quietly Closing the Garden Gate

It’s a very quiet Sunday around here.  Monday I’ll be driving to NYC again to get my sister back to her apartment and her chiropractor appointment.  Since I’ll be running around tomorrow I decided to post today.  I don’t know why it’s so quiet outside.  It seems as if the whole world went on vacation and left me home.  I’m not complaining, I like it quiet, but it just seems unusually low key out there.

I had to visit a few shops, which I rarely do on Sunday since the world is usually out shopping on Sundays.  To venture out near those shopping areas and malls is just not worth it to me.  I can go any day of the week, but this time a coupon I wanted to use had a time limit.  Today was the day.  It’s cloudy and cool so we weren’t visiting the beach, the Mr. was out doing stuff, Son#2 laying low and the coupon was starring at me.  I went out, did my thing and I’m back.  You know what I’m making for dinner?  Reservations! Hahaha! So it’s time to post here.

Remember this garden watercolor?  I had become frustrated with it and just went on to other things.  I couldn’t work on another painting because this was still attached to the block.  It had to be finished for me to go on to the next work.  My heart wasn’t in it anymore because I felt I was getting too detail-y, if that’s a word. I didn’t like how things were going.  I wasn’t pleased with the composition.  I was winging it and feeling that out of body-ness of the process.  Beside, it became a chore.  I ignored it for a while.

Until this week when I decided I had other more interesting things to paint.  Rather than go back out to the scene of this particular crime, I worked on it inside.  It was too hot anyway (my excuse) so it was back to the studio with it.

(c)2010 DST, At The Garden Gate, watercolor

I’m done.  I’m not touching this anymore.  Remind me next time to scale down the action, OK?

Painting From Life

Beach Day, 7×10 watercolor (c)2000
Aegina Island Harbor, 7×10 watercolor (c)2000

Painting from life can be both exciting and nerve wracking, for me anyway.  I seem to go into a trance as the action of painting and the colors of the paints hypnotize me.  I don’t see what I’m doing.  Overdoing the work with watercolors can happen before I can blink and wake up from my stupor. 

These two little paintings are the ones that were sold in my Etsy shop.  Both were painted on site.  I painted Beach Day while at my favorite Long Island beach, Pt. Lookout.  This couple were sitting in their beach chairs enjoying the day.  I guess they were having a good day, for all I know they were annoyed with each other and just sitting there.  Can you tell that I like a good story while I work?

The Greek harbor scene was painted while we were on a short day cruise to three Greek islands, Aegina, Poros, and another one that I can’t remember now.  They were all lovely and had different scenes, but at Aegina we sat at a cafe to have an icy ice cream frappe because it was so hot we couldn’t continue without something cold.  We were at the harbor and I had time to quickly draw the scene out with a bit of color.  I finished it later on, but basically had it sketched with paint right there.

When I started with watercolors I purchased a small travel set that included half pans of basic colors, small brushes, and tiny pad of watercolor paper, and a little bottle for water.  It’s like a fanny pack you can clip around your waist, but I never do that.  I added pencils and some other stuff I need for painting and it’s the perfect bring along set.

The funny thing is the paints that are included are minimal yet I do my best work using just those colors.  The palette at home has so many colors now, but I gravitate towards the ones in the travel set.  I think I should pay attention to that and maybe minimize my choices.  Whatever I do, I know I like painting from life.  I just have to try and stay in the present rather than have those out of body moments.