Painting color drenched artworks of places and things I love
 |
| Step into my garden.. |
The week has flown by after an event filled weekend. I’ll tell you about it next week when I have the chance. For now just enjoy a peek into my backyard garden. Last spring I painted a watercolor of the inside of the garden gate looking the other way. Will this be the next, with the view peering in?
“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. ” ~Thomas Edison
 |
| A Distraction |
Oh man, I had to get away from that last painting with something that didn’t need to make any sense!
I went out into the backyard garden with the watercolors determined to get away to a far away place. Planted out under the crabapple tree are these late blooming, salmon azaleas among other flowers and potted planters.
Twenty minutes was all I wanted and I did it. Done. I really didn’t care what I came away with as far as a finished product. Back in the saddle people! A little too washy in some spots, but who cares anyway? I mixed up some pleasing colors, threw them down on the paper with no objective other than the process of painting something, anything.
A little secret: on the other half of this paper was the dance party painting. It took all I had not to paint right over it. Would have been some kind of satisfying though.
“I don’t think there’s any artist of any value who doesn’t doubt what he is doing.” ~ Francis Ford Coppola
If you asked me to draw the figure in charcoal, pastel, or pen and ink I can be pretty loose and free with my style. Posed models, stationary people, or bodies doing a repetitive motion is easy enough to get down on the paper while drawing. Even painting a figure that isn’t moving very much is easy enough.
People dancing is another story. In gesture drawing you can get enough lines on the paper to suggest the human form in motion, but more than that, I don’t think so. That’s where photographs come in handy, for some artists, maybe not me.
When I use a photograph things get dicey. I see way too many details. I can’t squint enough to blur the two dimensional scene. With live models my brain decides what to keep and what to eliminate. In the latest watercolor I did of the dancing party I took my reference from that photo and drew the scene with the least amount of detail possible. Then I went in with color. Working like that felt like a coloring book, a cartoon.
 |
| Art Instructor (c)2000 Dora Sislian Themelis Watercolor |
 |
| (c)2000 Dora Sislian Themelis Watercolor |
 |
| We are Artists Too (c)2000 Dora Sislian Themelis Watercolor |
These three paintings are examples of people sitting and standing in pretty much the same position, just enough stillness for me to capture their poses in watercolor paint. I posted about this class, which was my first intro to watercolor painting. It was a horrible class, but I made the best of the situation by painting everyone in it. The instructor didn’t like me one bit. I was not going to paint his painting of someone’s painting. Enough said. Look up the post if you want to read more about that.
 |
| Playing Laouto (c)2000 Dora Sislian Themelis Watercolor |
 |
| Gregory (c)2000 Dora Sislian Themelis Watercolor |
 |
| Dance Party (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis Watercolor |
Having finished the dancers painting for the person interested in illustrations for their book,I emailed the image with fingers wimply crossed. Yes, I said wimp-ly. As in like a wimp. Should I have said sheepishly? Anyway, I was thinking it might not be to their liking with the “whimsy” word being tossed about.
Do I see my painting, or myself, as whimsical? I think not. My kids would say “Who, you? Uh, no.” Those are smart, observant guys, those kids of mine. Yeah.
I think watercolor work is light and airy by nature of the medium. Would I call my handling of the medium melancholy? So I lean toward Prussian blue and alizarin crimson, are they sad, depressing colors? Not in my opinion.
I paint what I see generally. With photos I see too much. From life there’s no time or room to see everything, which is what I like about painting from life. I am not sure it’s even possible to use watercolors to capture a crowd of people dancing unless in abstract forms or quick gestures. Maybe that would have been a better way to go, but I needed a reference, hence the photo.
What can you do? Can you please everyone? No.
I will continue to stay positive, or invite the unwanted advances of Mr. Resistance. I decided the operative word was “Yes”. I went with the flow. I tried my best with what I thought would be okay, and maybe not how I would have liked it to be.
After working from life going back to a photograph for guidance didn’t feel exactly right. Being true to myself and my own objectives may be more important in the long run. Book deal or no book deal.
 |
| Dance Party (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis 8×12 Watercolor on Arches paper |
Well, it’s finished. Or let’s just say I’m finished with this. I had to stop. If I had continued I am not sure what kind of mess I would have gotten myself into. There was nothing else to do at this point.
Shall I tell you what I like, or what I don’t like? How about this: I like the photograph I took of the original scene. The suggestion from you dear readers to add lights or banners was a huge help. I decided to make it look like an outdoor party and the lights strung over head were just what this needed. Not to mention the fact that in Greece they decorate exactly like this.
I’m not so sure what else to say about it. But if you have something to offer go ahead and let me have it. Good, bad, doesn’t matter. Tell me your opinion. I’m an adult. I can take it.
“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” ~Edgar Degas
The flea market was a success and all the people who worked with me and my co-chair really knocked themselves out trying to hawk our wares. Customers would ask us for a price and if they didn’t like it some would just walk away, others would look at me in disbelief (at .50!) and others didn’t mind a fun haggle.
If I had the idea they really wanted a thing, but would jump at a haggle I would say “Make me an offer and if I like your number I could say OK.” Then we would play a back and forth with numbers and when I’d say Yes! we’d all laugh and smile. Then I’d say “Wasn’t that a lot of fun?” Smiles all around!
Believe it or not, we have yearly customers. Some have purchased from us and we had fun in the sale, they return year after year like old friends. Then we have the crazy customers that return year after year. Those people want to take home bags of items for .10. Give me a break already. And they tell us their tales of woe. Hey, we all have a story, just pay the $1.00 and get going!
Late on Sunday we hold a bag sale. Whatever anyone can fit in the paper supermarket bag is $5.00. You’d be amazed at what people put in that bag and are thrilled to pay at the checkout. All manner of item is in that bag and it’s fun to watch the customers swarming with their bags.
I had my fun and now the weekend is over, thank goodness. Now I can get back to painting.
Day 1 of the big, fat Greek festival in the mad-house which is our flea market. People were lined up outside the door, waiting for first dibs on the treasures. Once allowed in they flooded the flea market space like the tsunami you watch on the news, rolling in slow and strong and knocks out everything in it’s path. The flea market is like that.
When it’s over all you’re left with is the devastation, the clean-up, and some breathing space to regroup. It’s going to be a long weekend.