Category: artist date

No Beach, but Artist’s Date at Clark Botanical Garden

Isn’t it amazing how time actually does fly by? My brain is still at the beach.

Inside my head it’s a beautiful sunny day at the ocean and I’m looking out at the horizon. My bare feet are pushing around the warm sand in front of me, iced coffee is on my left and my painting equipment is on my right. There’s a slight breeze and the air has a slightly salty signature.

Sigh. I don’t even have to close my eyes to imagine the scene.

Reality check: it’s well past beach season at this point in October. Let’s be real here, as much as my head says “beach” it isn’t very likely to be good enough weather to go there wearing a light jacket and enjoy some quiet time.

However, I did take a quick ride to a nearby botanical garden on a comfortable day last week with the Princess (my granddaughter).

One of the ponds at the Garden

Artist’s Dates have been lacking lately, and there won’t be beach visits now, but this garden trip was a good alternative. Clark Botanical Garden in Albertson, NY is a ten minute local drive from my house and the day was warm enough to be outside for a while. I grabbed some lunch and my ‘munchkin’ and we were off!

What a beautiful place it was, too. I’d never been there, always wanted to go, and now that I have I know I will be back with painting supplies. This 12 acre garden had so much to look at and enjoy with sunny open areas, colorful seasonal flowers, a child’s size privet hedge maze, woodlands, shady areas, woodlands, ponds, rocky brooks. They were preparing for a Halloween spooky walk which was fun to see.

The Princes with spooky stuff hanging in the trees

Mindful of my charge, I didn’t take too many photos as I would have had I been all alone. We walked along paths that lead in and out of the different gardens. As we walked through the woodland pond area with tall trees we could smell evergreen pines and tried to breathe it in deep.

A restful spot overlooking a pond

Walking out of the woods, we found a sunny pond area bench where we had lunch. Both of us were happy to enjoy the lovely, late fall day outside in this beautiful, quiet place.

So it isn’t the beach. I’ll be painting here one day soon.

Artist Date with Louis Comfort Tiffany

Finally, I took a real Artist’s Date. Between holidays I found myself with a free day and I had been waiting to visit the Tiffany exhibition of oil and watercolor paintings at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, New York.

Not many people are aware that Louis Comfort Tiffany painted besides designing stained glass windows and lamps. It seems he traveled to the Middle East and Egypt and painted during his visits. His watercolors were my favorites.

The museum allowed photographs without flash so I took a few of the works I liked best.

I was especially struck by the way he painted highlights, paying special attention to the play of sunlight on objects. Some darker works popped with the dappled highlights, really giving his paintings life.

This watercolor painting was special to me for the beautiful color of the endless sky against the sandy foreground with the small figures as an afterthought. How evenly he applied the color to the sky area. I was impressed.

This is one of the pieces of glass work in the exhibit. The colors and design are reminiscent of Tiffany’s travels from his paintings. The museum had large glass panels and paintings Tiffany did with the Hudson school of artists, which were nice, but I liked his paintings of the Orient much better.

It was inspirational, to say the least.

Art Speak and All

Rainy Day #3 is well underway, yet again. No time to paint today either. I am shooting for some sort of Artist Date tomorrow and I hope it’s not as soggy as today.

I have been cleaning up my bio and artist statement, so all is not for naught. I had an interesting offer the other day and, you know what I say, the operative word is Yes. So Yes, yet again. Now I need to submit my bio and artist statement, and a link to some samples of my work.

I already had an artist statement and a bio, but I think it needed to be clearer. I am very good at artist speak and that could make someone walk away and say “What did she just say?” yes, I am good at that kind of art language.

Once, a while ago, someone asked me why I hadn’t stretched my huge oil painting on stretcher bars after it was finished. I painted the 5×8 foot work on my basement floor and needed to get it out of the house, so no stretcher bars. Well, in answer to his question I started by saying, “Esthetically…” and this guy flipped out. “Oh don’t start with the art speak on me now” he said. So yeah, I can do that well.

I better get back to it and finish up. I could add some whacky thing and mess it up with that art language. It has to be clear, English words anyone can understand. Wish me luck.

Free Thursday on Friday

Being free to do other things this Thursday doesn’t mean I got much done. It just means I’m kind of free. Kind of. There’s always things to do. How do regular people do it all? There’s just no way to have everything done the way it should be. Houses always need some kind of cleaning, picking up, straightening. If you want to eat healthy you have to cook food at home, every day, couple of times a day. What’s with all the eating? And how about the food shopping? My refrigerator is always missing something someone here wants. I can’t keep up!

So a free day means cleaning, food shopping and the other errands that are my job here. My day with the Princess is exactly that: my day with my granddaughter. There’s no stuffing her in a car and running here and there. Not yet. I’ll wait to drag her around with me for when she gets a little bit older. Right now I’m enjoying my days watching her grow, smile, laugh, and try to stand. It’s fun and I’m not missing a thing! A few days on and a couple days off. It’s great.

Thinking I have all of Thursday to myself, I tried to plan what to do once the errands were done. I hadn’t really given myself an Artist Date in a long while and I thought I might try to do that.

There are so many things I wanted to do, but once I headed out I couldn’t decide. It’s cold here after all. That means I have to be indoors if I want to be comfortable. I thought I might go to a garden nursery place, one that has a big greenhouse with indoor plants. Bright and warm with lovely greenery that I could look at and maybe photograph for a painting. Sounded good when I thought of it. Then I thought I could take myself to lunch at a quaint bistro nearby in a cute town. Maybe I would make believe I was in another country on vacation. I also threw around the idea of bundling up and going to the beach to walk on the boardwalk and look at the ocean. Nahhh, I nixed that idea.

What did I do? None of those things. I did my food shopping and went home. Once I was back I decided I had to paint something. It’s not an Artist Date, but I was too lazy to go anywhere special. I thought of all the things to do and didn’t do them, so back to the dining room table I went.

From the grocery bags I grabbed an apple from the ones I just purchased and set it up with the usual suspects: shell and pebbles. Yay! A new subject! Yes, very exciting. Anyway, I got to painting in my usual fashion of sketching with the watercolors.

Now, remember, I have all day to myself, and I thought I would take my time with this piece. Instead of work for only twenty minutes, as has been my recent habit, I would slow it down. Why not? Take my time, day dream while I paint, do a good job. I don’t think it worked out like that. I was not impressed.

I worked on this until I realized I added paint where I didn’t want it. Where are the highlights on this apple? Okay, the shell I know, the pebble I’ve painted before, we’re well acquainted. I’ve painted apples plenty of times, but the striping on this one got me as well as the bright, white highlights. And I was taking too long on it. So I left it alone and waited for the paint to dry. I was well past the twenty minute mark and not at all thrilled. I signed it with the idea that I was done. Finished. Over.

I propped it up to look at it. I thought I could have done better with this apple and went back to rub out some of the color. After going in with a wet brush to lift some paint, I still wasn’t happy with this. I love the shell and the rock. The shadow is fine. The apple looks sad. I think I should have left it alone and be done at twenty minutes. Or thirty minutes, tops.

I know. I got all sassy with myself, thinking I had all day free for me. What did I do? I messed with the twenty minute rule. That’ll show me!

Progress, Process and the Beach

Monday scene

All of the angst over the computer issues has worn me down so I’ve been at the beach.  Let me say how much that beach helped my brain relax.  Sun and ocean does wonders for the psyche, my psyche anyway.

Sunday was a beautiful day at Pt. Lookout Beach.  My sister, my mom and I went and met up with Son #1 and Gorgeous DIL (daughter-in-law).  The sun was out, there was a nice breeze, we talked, laughed, and generally had a nice day.  Monday, Labor Day, I visited the beach again with just my sister.  People must have been on vacation or away for the day because it was pretty empty beach for a holiday.  We chose a nice spot with good space all around us and plopped ourselves down.

Have you seen the stuff people have been bringing to the beach lately?  I want to know where they stash all of that during the winter?  And what’s with those carts?  Gorgeous pointed them out to me and we were counting them.  I don’t know about you, but I used to take my kids to the beach with an umbrella and a bag with my stuff.  My kids held their beach toy or a pail and shovel.  Done!  There must have  been a sale at Costco and everyone bought that Wheelie cart thing.

After sitting in our choice spot on the beach for a little while, a couple of people show up in front of us and assess the space.  My sister and I looked at each other thinking the same thing:  Of all the space on the beach, are these people really going to sit right here in front of us practically touching our toes?  Very nice.  They don’t even look at us.  After the first two people came a band of ten people! All thinking this is a very nice spot to park themselves, two inches from our feet!  I said we need to move.  My sister said let them sit on our feet and she’ll show them who’s boss!  Look, I’m not interested in trouble, I just want to spend a nice day at the beach.  At my urging she grudgingly got up and we move away from that crowd of annoying, no conscience people.  I thought about it too late, but I should have taken their picture for my post!  Rats!

Okay, we settled down again and try to relax.  I just can’t help but ogle all manner of tattoos and belly rings on people.  Sorry, but I can’t stop looking if it’s all out there.

Then a swoop of seagulls came and dive bombed all the people in our new spot.  Some guy had thrown his kid’s french fries on the beach, full of ketchup, so the gulls could eat them.  Not a nice move mister.  People were annoyed, kids were crying.  My sister heard the guy tell his kid, “Now we made the seagulls very happy”.  Well what about the human people?  Nobody around this guy was very happy that the seagulls were happy!  Give me a break.

Tuesday scene

Tuesday I sneaked off to the beach by myself.  It was the first day of school and NOBODY was there, except a few people scattered around.  Just me, myself, and I.  I brought lunch and my watercolors, my chair and a drink.  What else did I need?  After enough relaxing I felt like painting something, but there were no shells or rocks.  I was too shy to ask some little kids and their mothers if I could borrow the horse-shoe crab they found, so I decided to paint my sandal in the sand instead.  Progress, process, artist’s date, and I’m back in business.

Artist Date at the Farmer’s Market

On Tuesdays in my neighborhood, the farmer’s market comes to town and I love it!  If the weather is as beautiful as today it’s the best.  I like to get there early, before everyone else shows up and buys the gorgeous vegetables.  The market opens at 7 A.M., but I never make it that early.  I try to be there by 9:00 for a good choice of different lettuces and spinach, which sell out fast.  It’s still early in the growing season for many items, but the greens are a big thing and they’re usually plentiful in the cooler weather.
Today I got myself together early and decided this was going to be my artist date for this week.  Just a simple stroll in the comfortable sunny weather to buy my produce and mosey through the stands to sample some cheese here and a slice of artisan bread there.  The vendors stay until 1:00P.M. and by that time it’s crowded and depleated.  Not for me, I like it early and empty!  The birds are still singing, not alot of people or cars whizzing by, a pure pleasure.
I bought the lettuce and the spinach.  The veggie vendor had red, ripe strawberries.  I could smell the sweetness before I saw them,  The fruit guy had fresh picked cherries and blueberries.  All great stuff.  There’s a cheese guy, a wine stand, a fish monger, a cupcake shop, a bread baker, and a plant stand.  Some days there’s a cookie baker and last week I met a woman who made her own spice rubs, marinades and BBQ sauces from Guyana.  I think I saw a booth last week with homemade mustards.  Most of the vendors come from the east end of Long Island and some from upstate New York.
Visiting the farmer’s market on a beautiful day makes me feel great all day long. 

Tasks I Forgot About While NOT Walking in This World

Peonies in the front garden this morning

As I think about the week ahead I’m trying to chose some small thing as an artist’s date.  Yeah, I’m still reading Walking in This World, but for me they should have titled this book Not Walking in The World in One Easy Step: Don’t Bother At All.  Sounds good? 

Before I went on to the next chapter in “Not” Walking, I revisited these suggested tasks to combat the feeling of restlessness.  Sometimes we don’t know what we feel like doing, where to go, how to proceed in our creativity and elsewhere.  Nothing feels right and we need to be alert to experience that change.  It’s like an itch we can’t scratch, but somehow ideas snap up.  Mind you, if we sit in front of the easel and wait to scratch the itch it may never happen.  Art does not exist in a vacuum.  The answer, according to this course, seems to lie in artist’s dates where we can get a breath of fresh air and recharge. 

Here’s the list of tasks I forgot about:

  1. Visit a quiet church and sit in the back for a few minutes.  Sitting tucked in a pew brings calm, humility and a sense of faith.
  2. Visit a large plant store or greenspace which can give a sense of another world where plants can show us their secret life.
  3. Visit a forest or a park to sense a difference rhythm of life.
  4. Seek out a fine Oriental carpet store for a sense of the sacred in the patterns.  This will remind us of the beauty in our own life.
  5. Drop in a travel shop for a sense of adventure.  An imaginary trip could be strangely calming. 

I’m going to add one more to this list which is to visit a large book store or the library, two of my favorite places.  The library is even better if it’s large, quiet and has stacks I can hide in so I can grab a pile of books and flip through them sitting on the floor. 

Chosing one of these tasks is on my agenda this week.  I’ll let you know when it happens…or not.

I Still Hate Computers

Remember when I said I hate computers?  Well I still hate them and especially today!
Something happened and I lost the whole post for today.  I am seething!  I think I gave myself an evil eye or something because I was merrily writing along, happy with my thoughts on whatever when -Wham!- I pressed Save and it wouldn’t Save.  Oh yeah.  Nice.  Ever hear of the blue screen of death?  Yes, I had the blue screen of death come up.  Now, instead of my nice lah-dee-dah post about how I love Mondays, yeah I know no one loves Monday but me, I end up with nothing except this photo of my garden this morning.  Yup.  I’m so thrilled.  No I’m not. 
Ok, so, you know what?  I like Tuesdays even better than Mondays, so there!  I was going to post here how I like Mondays because it’s the quiet after the weekend storm of activity, to plan or not to plan, how I don’t like shopping on Sunday, how stores were never open Sundays even if you needed an onion, and now the whole world is shopping for everything on Sunday!  But now I’m writing that Tuesdays are even better than Monday because Tuesday is all about me!  Hah! 
On Tuesday I get to do whatever I feel like doing because the errands are done from Monday.  I can paint if I want, or I can do an artist date.  I can shop for beads and make some jewelry or I might knit.  Tuesday is mine!  I win! 
Oops, I better keep it quiet or I might not be able to post this either.  Darn computer!

What is Your Joy?

I had a totally different blogpost planned for today.  Last night, before I closed up “shop” (the computer) for the night, I noticed a direct tweet from Mark, a fellow twitter/artist/friend living in Canada, (check out his blog/bio/links).  We were throwing comments back and forth during the evening, along with other twitter people.  The last tweet I saw from Mark was asking to see what I look like in person since my avatar is an Andy Warhol type of abstract, multi-color photo of me and a painting in the background. 

Now, the thing is this: Do people on social networking sites want to be anonymous or right out there in detailed real life?  I’ve got nothing to hide, but still, who are the people out there?  As an artist, I do want to have a network of like-minded artists sharing a virtual art world on the net.  With all the identity theft of late, it could be a scary world out in cyberspace.

Actually I believe artists are pretty benign bunch.  Okay, we have a different sensibility about things.  So I don’t find it odd that Mark, and I’m sure other cyber-friends want to see who we’re communicating with.  Hey, some people don’t add their real name! And it’s a human nature thing, too.  We want to connect with other human beings on a more personal level.  This computer stuff is not the same as eye to eye contact.  

Well, I offered a recent photo of my real self taken last fall when I visited the Nassau County Museum of Art for the Norman Rockwell exhibition.  I didn’t add the photo to my blogpost, but it was a less unflattering photo than some others I had, you know, you want to look semi-decent, not like a hag.  I was so happy on that Artist’s Date, my first.  The weather was beautiful, I had a great time by myself and the art, I found hiking trails on the grounds of the old estate and took a quiet walk.  A wonderful day and I felt happy and light. 

This morning I saw Mark’s tweet: “You have the gaze of a joyfully expectant seeker…. what are you looking for? What is your joy?”

So the big question is:  What is your joy?

I was stunned by such a thought provoking question at the start of my morning.  My twitter answer: “Well, I seek to find the who I was when..free, serene, w/turps as my perfume..” 

As a kid I considered myself an artist.  Of course, as a young person you have no responsibilities except to schoolwork, family, my art.  Once we grow up, marry, have a family, there are some things the person who stays home gives up.  As I’ve said before, I tried to stay in the creative world by doing creative things on the sneak, so to speak.

Snatching little bits of time to draw, pastel, knit, anything art/color related before kids come home from school, time to prepare dinner, in between loads of laundry.  I remembered my favorite college fine art professor who told me that women artists don’t make it because they end up focusing on the family instead of their art. 

Well, the day I took the photograph of myself in the woods was the day I felt I was re-introduced to “myself” of a long time ago.  With less to do since my sons are now adults I’m able to take my inner-artist out to explore, to spend time re-discovering my artist voice and create, play, and just be me. 

Thanks, Mark.

Nothing is Still Doing, Sort of

Beach at Dusk, close-up cropped
@2008 The Artist
I know, I know, where’s the painting?  How is the bagpipe coming along?  When are you going to finish that thing already?  What’s the problem, the hold up?   

Believe me, I ask myself these questions every day in the Artist’s Way morning pages that I write.  The “censor” in the pages beats me up each day that I haven’t been to visit the bagpipe watercolor.  I want to strangle that nasty “censor”!  She’s mean and she keeps talking to me nagging.  Thank goodness for the morning pages or I’d hear her scratchy voice all day long.  I hear here right away when I awake and she doesn’t stop bothering me until I write her words in my morning pages journal.  Then she gets quiet for the day.  Every day that I haven’t played with that painting I hear her shooting off her mouth again.  Blah blah blah. Why this? Why that? How come? What’s your problem? 

I could list all my excuses for avoiding this work, but they’re all lame and you’ve heard it all before.  No one wants to hear someone complain.  Let’s be real.  We can identify that there’s a block, some negative energy floating around I’m allowing to get to me, stopping me from going there.  The trick is to get through the blocks, but when I think about it I get tired.  A couple of days ago, sorting through my stuff was helpful to move through to some creative activity.  That was good.  Being able to identify that there are blocks to begin with is a step in the right direction.  A quick artist date to the book store on Sunday was helpful just to be out in fresh air on a sunny day.  A small distraction away from the “doing”.

But if I’m feeling drained and tired I’m just going to do nothing.  The Artist’s Way says we creatives need time for nothing.  In fact, doing nothing is still doing.  It’s just an active nothing, a spiritual nothing.  Nothing in the form of quiet, down time.  I can do nothing really well.  No knitting, no reading, no doodling, no TV, nothing.  The only something is anything repetitive like vacuuming, walking, mopping, or cooking, baking to relax the body and the mind.

Feel the feelings.  Say “yes” to the feelings and move on without guilt, judgement, or criticism.