Coffee And Paint Drips Blog - Page 22 of 79

Thought for Thursday

“I’m here and I’m ready. They’re not. Bring it.” ~Charlie Sheen

Some Kind of Wordless on Wednesday

Dodging Mr. Resistance isn’t easy so I try to hide out, but once in a while he finds me and aims his barbs when I peek over my shoulder.

If I’m not careful motivation is out the window and that’s that with that.

Since reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I am well aware of resistance and learned a few tricks to beat it quickly.

One of those tricks is to keep moving any way I possibly can. Either I can clean up the studio, doodle with my granddaughter’s crayons, dig in the garden, or whip out the camera. Something mindless usually works.

In between paintings, thinking things, and hunting for inspiration, I headed out into the garden.

A garden visitor

Looking for painting subjects in those old photographs allowed a chink for resistance to slip in. Bad move.

Out in the garden to follow the butterflies with my camera helped put a stop to that.

Finished for Friday

The sunflower and veggie photos are exhausted. I was hunting for subjects for the next painting by looking through my photographs of this and that. Since I’m not visiting Greece again this summer I wandered to my pictures of our past trips.

It wasn’t such a good idea.

None of the scenes appealed to me as paintings. The photos I took of my view either had my family or other people in them, or they just work as a photograph.

But then I got involved looking at our family, where we were, what we were doing, family we were visiting with, the youth of my sons and their happy faces, their silliness, and who is gone since then.

Many memories live in the pages of those photo albums and rather than finding inspiration I found a sort of melancholy.

A little book of travel info peeked out of my bookshelf and I found a small photo of a Greek island I’d never been to before. The colors and shapes were pleasing so I went ahead and sketched that scene. It felt good to lose myself in the activity and to shake off the downer.

Kalymnos ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
12×9 Watercolor, Arches 140lb cold press paper

Done in twenty minutes start to finish, it’s a bright, colorful scene with none of the memories.

Thought for Thursday

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.” ― Albert Camus

Finished on Friday Doubled

Finished two paintings for today. Don’t get too excited, things could turn around again any minute.

Today I found the time to finish the painting of the little Greek church and when I was done I quickly turned my attention to my old photos from last summer.

There is something very appealing about the Greek countryside and the sea that I cannot resist. But I find I don’t feel too free when painting from photos I’ve taken there. I never seem to be happy about the compositions. Maybe I just really need to be there in person. This work feels stiff to me.

Inlet Church ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
9×12 Watercolor Arches cold press paper

Then there are the photos I took last spring and summer of the vegetables, sunflowers and my garden then make me feel very comfortable when painting from them. I am not so sure why.

This second work was pushed out soon as I finished the Greece landscape. Feeling the need to paint something different right away, I grabbed this photo, cropped the area I wanted to work with, and headed straight to paint. No pencil drawing, just paint sketching. Maybe a little longer than twenty minutes?

Garden ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
9×12 Watercolor, Arches cold press paper

I worked until I felt that I should stop. Much of this work was wet, but I pushed on, only waiting until it dried just enough to continue. Again, I tried to keep the water to a minimum.

Leaving out extra stuff, ignoring other things, just adding detail where I wanted to point out some things and that was it.

This work doesn’t feel as stiff as the previous painting. Maybe it’s me, but it feels so much better.

Thought for Thursday

“When things go wrong, don’t go with them.” -Elvis Presley

My Mantra: It’s the Process

So here we are, back at the easel, er desk. Yes, I’m painting flat, on my table with the watercolors. Some people use an easel, but not me. I can’t risk applying paints to have them run down the work. I have enough stress.

Landscapes are not usually my “thing.” Working on this latest landscape might give me more reason to ditch the idea. Don’t worry. I will wait until I’m finished with this.

New landscape of Greece

Since I took this photograph, I went back and removed some color from the water area. It’s a nice, little scene. Okay, my mantra is this: Process, process. Try to remember that it’s the process that counts.

Twenty minutes working on this and I have to run away from it.

The good thing? I cleared up enough of my morning to work in the studio before I do the errands for the day. This is a major accomplishment. As it is, I wake early and get moving, so it is possible to work first, run later.

The bad thing? I tire early and lose the afternoon/evening hours.

Remember: Process!

Daydreaming Again

Deciding on the next painting, I settled on daydreaming about traveling. Greece this year is not a possibility, nor is anything else for that matter. But daydream? That I can do.

Some of my paintings of Greek themes had a very good response at that art event I participated in so I thought I would revisit my photos of our trips. I tested out a small sized watercolor block just to see how I felt about the colors I would be using.

Hmmm…

I dropped in color after flooding the paper with water, outlining the major areas that need work. After it dries I’ll go back in and add more color and detail.

Good thing this was too wet to work at because I am notorious for pushing it too far when I shouldn’t, then tossing it as a goner. Not even twenty minutes in and I had to stop.

Will it make the thumbs up pile? We will see.

Finished on Friday

Yeah, finished! The latest watercolor painting of sunflowers is done. This is the last of the photographs from last year’s vegetable share. And, I’ll have you note, this is the largest size watercolor painting I’ve done so far. Big for a watercolor work.

The Arches paper block was on sale. How could I resist? I’ve painted big works in oils, but watercolors big? It was intimidating. I applied the same lessons I used in oils though. Big canvas, bigger brushes. Bigger movements, big brush strokes. It’s all the same.

Also, I a photo of this work with flash by mistake. Then I tried it again without flash, as is my habit. This image is without flash. The image with flash was brighter, but it left out some detail. I will stick to natural light.

Now, on to the next work.

Thought for Thursday

“I like summer. I like warmer weather and long days. I’m one of those silly people who still enjoy lying in the sun – my children are horrified!”~Danielle Steele, author Yeah to that..