Category: bad art

Back In the Studio

Playing in the studio again the other day trying to make it a daily habit.  Eventually, I’ll get in there for a couple hours each day.  Until that habit kicks in I’m thankful for the times I do find myself at my desk instead of in the kitchen.

I’ve been wanting to visit the local art supply store to look over some new watercolor paints.  The old tubes I had were dried up.  The new ones I had didn’t have the range of colors I really wanted.  I don’t want to resort to my travel set because then I’d need to replace those pans, too.

When you buy an introductory set of five tubes they  don’t always offer the colors you want.  Strange colors I would never buy are included.  So I need to supplement the sets with more paints.  Some how I can’t get to the store!  Is it a block?  Am I putting other things in my way so I never get there?  I don’t know, but the great thing is that I painted anyway in spite of the weird colors.

Five large tubes of MamieriBlu and twelve tiny tubes of Holbein paints is what I have.  The MamieriBlu are wonderfully creamy and hold up nice while painting.  The Holbein are also nice to work with.  I had my eyes on a set of Russian Yarka paints. 

However, some wonderful fellow artists on the Etsy shop forums gave me great info on them and I decided to stick with what I have.  I don’t feel like spending good money on inferior quality paint.

Off to the studio to look at the disaster of a painting I did last week.  The Artist Way course says bad paintings point the way to a different style.  Ok, so I did a junky painting.  I felt like thowing paint on the paper in an effort to abstract the marigold work. 

Well, let’s say it looked like a mess of color.  Instead of ditching it, I went back to it and tried adding line, blotching some color out and generally playing with it.  Just a play date in the studio.

Maybe it wasn’t what I had in mind, but a good effort anyway.  I’m not that embarrassed to show it.  Thankfully, things sometimes work out in the end if you try again.

Is Mom Nutty? No, Just an Artist

Plugging along in The Artist’s Way course.  I’ve finally moved myself on to Week 11- Recovering a Sense of Autonomy.  It’s interesting, to say the least.  The author discusses things that I know I do and don’t do.  Cameron talks about calling one’s self an artist and how it feels to say the word. 

Let’s be frank, full time, stay-at-home parent becomes the title, not artist.  First I was a fine artist, then I became a commercial artist and wife, then a mother and homemaker.  Where did the title of fine artist fit in anywhere?  Over the years since graduating college armed with my BFA, I’ve painted and sketched, but not full time, 24/7 artist. 

As a mom the home and family really do come first.  Forget about being first or second on the list, try getting in the top ten!  Not happening.  I remember my professor once told me women don’t stay artists because of family obligations.  Talk about artist blocks from the get-go!

Kids grow up.  What do they really need from me?  Laundry, food?  Oh yeah, money. Some day maybe babysitting?  Right now that’s it, but I’ve been doing this job for so long it’s become my block to art.  I’ve realized this from working in the course.  I know who I am inside my brain.  I might be a little nutty, in a good way, of course!  Okay, a wacky, artist mom, but responsible when I need to be.  Fine.

Finally I have the freedom to leave the laundry and go to the easel.  It’s been my habit to think of all the things I want to do, but can’t.  All the things I want to do, but don’t.  Doing this course helped me to carve out more time to play at being an artist again.  I even said the word a couple days ago when asked my profession!  I used to say homemaker because that’s what I thought I was.  Not any more. 

If what I paint isn’t great, so what?  Making bad art is better than not making any art at all.  Bad art could point the way to a different idea or style I might not have tried had I not played.  Again, it all comes down to the “doing”, the process not the outcome.  Just having the chance to make bad art is a step in the right direction.

So, yes, I’m an artist, however wacky.  Sorry guys!