Painting color drenched artworks of places and things I love
“It is only too true that artists are mentally ill-it’s a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I’m alright when I completely immerse myself in my work, but I’ll always remain half crazy.” ~ Vincent van Gogh
Made some headway on this watercolor painting yesterday. Slowly added in the darks so I don’t go crazy and ruin it. Taking photographs in between painting sessions helps me see where I’m going with it. It’s as if I’m stepping away from the work and squinting at it to see where to go next. I like it! If I can keep a light hand on it we should be fine. I’d like to avoid disaster if it’s at all possible.
Oh, by the way, here’s a little peek at the finished thing. I can’t say any more about it except that it’s knitted and it’s this color that you see. We’ll discuss at a later date. There’s too much to say and I have to stop now before I shoot my mouth off. The time will come and we’ll dish, but not until I say so.
Yeah, I like suspense, too.
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.
The beauty of living where we do is the proximity to anything and everything. Nassau County is a thirty minute drive from Manhattan, unless of course, there’s parking lot traffic as I mentioned in a previous post. But it’s basically a short car ride away. You want Broadway theater? Easy to do. You want fine dining? You got it- either there in NYC or here, everywhere it’s easy to eat great food. You want to go slumming in Astoria, Queens and have great street meat on a stick? Yeah, twenty minutes (traffic excluded) and you got it! No prob. You want to see the ocean? Grab a fifteen minute drive and you’re there. Drive a little further away and you have farm country.
Notice anything similar in each excursion? Yeah, you gotta drive there. There is mass transit, but who’s taking a bus to any of these places? Nobody. Bus travel on Long Island is dismal. The other choice is the Long Island Railroad. Commuters take it to work. Problem with the L.I.R.R. is that it’s only going east to west, any points on a straight line. Can’t go north or south. No subways on Long Island. Want to drown? No. No subways crisscrossing the island. Manhattan, Queens have subways. Even parts of Queens further out near Nassau County there’s no subway stops anymore. That’s where you have to hop on the railroad. I don’t know anyone who loves the railroad. It just does it’s job and that’s it. So mostly we drive.
This weekend we met up with another couple for dinner in the fishing town of Freeport, N.Y. on the south shore of Long Island. It’s a fifteen minute drive for me. Another five minutes or so and we’re at my favorite beach, Pt. Lookout. Freeport is a really nice night out, especially if the weather is good. People come from all over the area for the freshest seafood and a busy party scene. And you could wait over an hour for a table, unless you’re real early for dinner. Think the Hamptons, but closer. Way closer. All ages mingle together to eat, drink, and party.
We had dinner on the water at Otto’s Sea Grill. The evening was warm, they had a band playing happy music outside. They have a busy raw clam bar. We watched the water for every size boat possible. Some boaters pulled up to the dock to have dinner at the restaurant. Patrons were dressed in shorts and bathing suits or dressier attire. People watching is fun too. While we were eating we watched this couple pull up in their boat, remove their bathing suits and change into t-shirt and shorts, in front of everyone having dinner on the dock! Not a care in the world.
After dinner we took a walk down the strip to the water, passing by other restaurants filled to the brim with people having a great night out. We did too.
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| Cradle of Aviation Museum, Nassau Community College, Garden City, New York |
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| Cruise Night and Car Show |
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| Nunley’s Carousel! |
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“I dream a lot. I do more painting when I’m not painting. It’s in the subconscious.” ~Andrew Wyeth, artist
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! 
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.
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| (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?