Reflection

I have not been drawing or painting.  

This weekend, I am at a friend’s cabin, reflecting. 

Even if I am not currently drawing or painting, I am grateful that it has taught me a lot about looking and seeing.  

I also know that I’ll get back to drawing and painting, again. 

Still Here

I am still here, but my painting is back to being a bit spotty. I’m not going to lose my habit completely, but much of the time it’s been every other day.  

On Sunday, I finished a pair of moccasins/booties to wear in the house when I am working and my feet are cold.  In a more normal year, I might not need them at this point, but it’s still cold.  

Since I need some additional mirth in my life, I added a pair of zany socks to the mix. 

Slowly

Slowly, that’s how I paint these days. 

In my basement, working slowly, for a relatively short period of time, I’ve been able to focus and concentrate in a better way. That means it’s taking me 3-4 days to finish one small painting.

In past posts, I’ve mentioned how I tend to focus on paintings with only one object in them or when I’ve tried to branch out and do something slightly more complicated.  It’s taken me a long time to feel like I can try and tackle more complicated scenes, but I’ve been enjoying that lately.  

One thing I’m finding is that it helps to feel a connection to the photo.  I’ve been interested in this photo that I took at Crex Meadows in Wisconsin, but have not felt ready to try it.  That worked a lot better than another one I tried recently.  It was also a photo from the same trip.  For some reason, I thought that I should try to paint that one, since backgrounds are still a mystery and it had an interesting, but blurry background.  I thought it would be easier to tackle, but I was approaching it from the standpoint of something that I “should” do.  It did not go well. 

One other thing……When I’ve finished several recent paintings, I’ve felt that I’ve done the best work that I can currently do and that feels good.  Afterwards, of course, I can see things that I wish I had done differently and areas I’d like to improve.  I also know there are things I can’t even see yet, which also need to be worked on.  However in the moment with a paint brush in my hand, it just feels good to be reaching and stretching. 

I feel a special connection with those paints and that includes the first one that I ever painted of a cat.  It was during the first set of painting classes with Kat.  It was a painting of Ella and by any standards, it is not a good painting.  I was terrified to try and paint a cat, but I did it and when I was done I felt that I had done the best that I could based on what I could do at that point.  

Winter Robin

Welcome to a new month, even though I am always a little sad to say goodbye to March.  March brings some of my favorite snow.  I love the big, wet snowflakes of March.  In addition, it’s always such an unpredictable month.  Usually, there are several teaser days in the high 50s or low 60s and everyone seems to radiate an inner joy that the cold dark days are over or at least approaching the end, because, of course, it’s still March. Those teaser days happened 2 weekends ago and it was glorious to have them fall on a weekend. After that, it’s been back to cold, snow, and one recent morning, where we got freezing rain, rain, sleet, and snow, all within a short period of time.  

March is a little like being on a roller coaster, emotionally and weather-wise. 

With that, welcome to April.  In addition to keeping up my creative habit, it’s time to start gardening.  It’s too early to do anything outside, but it is time to get seeds started in the basement.  By mid-month, I should be able to transplant the violas into pots, since they can handle some cold, and move some of the hardier herbs from the basement to the enclosed front porch.  Some years, I do plant arugula outside, but more towards the end of the month.  

From a painting perspective, I am still working slowly.  I think I worked on this one for 4 days and it’s only a 5” x 7”. 

Barred Owl

I worked on this for several days and took my time.  It is a 5” x 7” for Art for Shelter. Tonight, I added some finishing touches.  I am really pleased with this one.  First, it brings back wonderful memories of a weekend spent up at our friend’s cabin.  It’s the first owl that I had ever seen in the wild at this point in my life and my spouse is the one who spotted it.  Me and another bird-photo, crazy friend grabbed our cameras and took a lot of pictures of this barred owl in a tree.

The other reason I’m really pleased with this is yesterday, when I started to paint the owl, I finally dropped into that wonderful state of flow.  I can’t say that I’ve been fighting with myself since I’ve gotten back to my daily creative practice, but the state of flow has not dropped by to visit until yesterday.  

The colors, especially the greens, are actually a little brighter than this, but I don’t want to wait until I have natural light tomorrow to post this!

Huzzah, It’s the Weekend

I felt beyond tired all week, so much so that it was one of those times that I switched to Frnch in my head to describe it to myself.  I used to say “I am fatigued” to myself in French, coming from a less-than-basic knowledge of French.  When I mentioned this to a friend, who understands these types of quirks and who also is fluent, she taught me the word “epuise” (without the appropriate accent marks over the two “e’s” since I don’t know how to do that).  It’s a much better word.  It’s pronounced:

• “A” (say the letter “a”)
• “Pwe” (say the word “we”with a slight “p” sound like from the word “pop” at the beginning”.
• “Say” (just say the word “say”)

I gave myself a break and skipped painting on several days, but I also pushed myself on several days to paint, anyway.  On those days, I went back to doing negative space trees.  

On Thursday, I started something that I want to put into Art 4 Shelter and I finished it last night.

That also gives me an excuse to post the other painting I’ve done for Art 4 Shelter. 

From Trees To Landscapes

I finished out February with doing negative space trees.  This is one of the last ones.  The overall goal was just to paint. Check. The side goal was to explore different paint strokes. That one still needs a lot of work, since all of them turned out remarkably the same. 

I still want to keep things simple.  My follow up project is to work on outdoors scenes from photos.  Since I don’t want to rush, I’m shooting for finishing 10 paintings.

This was the first one and it’s a revisit of a painting I tried awhile ago using a photo that I liked. I like the photo and I also thought it would be a challenge with getting different shades of green for the different parts.

While I can’t say that I like the finished result, I am glad that I finished it. I also focused on getting a clear foreground, middle ground and background. Also from the time I stopped after day 2 to finishing it on day 3, the green part of the tree looks more like it belongs to one tree. Mid-way through, it had this bizarre abstract quality and didn’t read as a single object or as being part of a tree.

Some things to work on are figuring out a way to make the lighter areas of the tree look better and truer to their actual size and getting the peak through color of the sky more distinct from the light colors of the tree. 

Easy Ease or Potato Chip Painting

I was chugging along with my project to paint a simple object from life and it was going well for awhile.  At some point, I found myself dangerously close to the point I was at when the pandemic began where I just did not have enough brain power left at the end of the day to paint.  I lost my habit for a long time when that happened and it was hard to get it back.  This is one of the last of the daily object paintings.  By the way, I like the right side of this one. 

I decided that I wanted to keep my daily habit going, but that I needed to back way off to find what I’m calling easy ease and  potato chip painting. It’s hard to eat just one potato chip.  Well,  it’s also hard to paint just one negative space tree.  I think I’m going to finish out the rest of the month with these.  We will see how I feel when March begins.  

I am using these as an excuse to just play and work on my paint strokes.  When I look at these, I really want to try and start making marks which are more distinct and less like a melted crayon effect.  The second one down is the one I did tonight and it’s trending more in that direction.  For some reason, I still want to fill every nook and cranny.  

 I have also been looking at different tree shapes and playing around with those, a bit, as well.  

The Best Process Change So Far

Currently, I have a sustainable project.  In February, I plan to paint one household object each day.   I started several days early.  Since my time is really limited, I’m doing a simple painting.  There’s no time limit for drawing, although I try to keep a pretty brisk pace for all of it.  When it comes to painting, I give myself 15 - 20 minutes.  I’m also not going for something I’d hang on the wall.  It’s almost like I’m journaling. 

All of this is good, but the single biggest change is that when I am done painting I clean up and walk away without looking at what I just did.  Occasionally, I’ll give take a quick glance.  

The next day is when I finally take a look and write a few comments about things to work on and, at least, one thing that I like or enjoyed about yesterday’s painting.  This is something which got drilled in by Roz. 

This is a game changer.  It gives me energy, rather than taking it away and I feel better about every painting, even the clunkers.  The time and space gives the editor a chance to emerge rather than the bully.  

This is really significant.  If I try and look right after I’m done, I have to get past a place of disappointment.  I’m finding that waiting to look the next day, I start from a place of potential.  When I look at a so-called clunker, the chatter in my head is more along the lines of “well, that went off the rails a bit, why was that, does that give you something to focus on today”.  It’s a much kinder and helpful conversation in my head.  

Here are two paintings of a light bulb.  This bulb did not work in the lamp it was in.  It had the slightest flicker which I could not stand.  I think it will be fine in a different lamp. 

I painted it two days in a row and I can see myself doing that for much of February. This is the second version.  I think two paintings of the same object is generally going to be enough.  In most cases if I try more, it unleashes the perfectionist, which is not good. 

Here is my first attempt.  I got quite off in the angle and direction between the drawing and the painting. 

I also wanted to share the third painting I did with the same pepper.  I did this one before the lightbulbs.  The goal was to try and capture the shape and lean of the pepper more accurately than in the second painting, so I did a similar set up.  In this case, I’m glad I used the same model for a third painting.

My Thumb Is Still Green

I have not started violas from seed for several years, so I was reminded of what happens every year when I do.  They always take longer to start than I recall, so after 5-7 days I start to doubt that anything will ever germinated and grow for me again.  My spouse is the one who first pointed out this pattern to me.

After having my usual doubt, I am thrilled to report that there is new life in the basement.  If you look closely, there are violas which have germinated in 3 different cells.  They are so tiny!   

In art-making news, here are two recent paintings.

It's been good to get paint on the brush every day.  I'm working on finding a groove and, honestly, I've also been feeling unfocused.  On Roz's Patreon site, she just posted about goals, expectations, evaluation, and the editing eye and it's got me thinking about setting some simple goals and expectations on a weekly basis.  I'm also thinking about starting a February project that involves painting objects in the house, which also means painting from life, not pictures, but it also stays in line with not adding a bunch of complications.    

Found Another Good Teacher

Back in 2020, I became of aware of Eric Mueller when the Star Tribune wrote about his “The Family Resemblance Project”.  I must have signed up for his newsletter at the time, but only recently received one by email.  It talked mostly about his exhibit at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona MN, which is supposed to be a gem of a museum that I’ve wanted to go to for awhile, plus I do want to go see this exhibit, but it also mentioned that he teaches photography classes using your iPhone.  I have an Android phone and was able to translate to it easily, although I did have my iPad handy, just in case. 

I just got done with his class from today.  It was jammed packed with all types of info.  I learned about camera features on my phone, which I didn’t know I had, along with a ton of other tips.  About half the session focused on composition with specific “rules” (which can always be broken), along with a ton of examples, which really helped, especially since he showed a number of before and after examples.  

I’m glad that I took a lot of notes. I plan to refer back to them and practice, practice, practice.  

Still one area really stood out when I went back to look at some of my photos, immediately after class ended.  I need to start thinking about the direction of sight or action.  This compositional rule says, generally, that it’s better to have a subject facing towards the center of the frame or moving towards the center.  

It explains the mixed feelings I have about this photo.  Itwas one of the first ones that I thought of when class was done.  On the one hand, I really love it.  It was the magical, first time I went to the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area with a friend and this swan was part of the first group of water fowl we saw that day.  On the other hand, I think I also knew that there was something off about it, but I didn’t know enough to know why.  

This photo also came to mind.  I took this with my good, point and shoot from the top of a bridge close to home and I needed almost every bit of the 60x zoom.

Below, I cropped it to follow “the rule” and it works so much better.  It focuses and draws your eye in and through the rest of the photo.  It’s almost like it gives the rest of the photo a reason to be there.  

I am planning to sign up for more of his classes.  

Keeping It Simple

In order to have time to paint, I want to keep it simple.  Right now, the most important thing is to pick up a paint brush on way more days than not.  At the same time, I also want to develop better habits for when I paint.

One new thing is that I've started warming up, by practicing getting different shapes in 1-2 strokes as suggested in one of Patti Mollica's books.  I'm also doing a quick thumbnail value drawing. 

Oof!  There's a lot to getting back in the saddle including, values, color-mixing, brush strokes, not to mention managing the paint on your brush, trying to capture the actual thing you are painting, and breaking in a fresh palette. 

I tend to have a habit of getting the paint too far up into the brush.  So today, I focused on managing the paint on the brush.  

Co-op Citrus #3

Begin Again

One of the many good concepts I’ve picked up from my meditation practice is the concept of “begin again”. Yesterday, I began again.

I set up a fresh palette and did a quick, simple painting.  In the moment, it didn’t feel especially good.  It felt awkward and all of my bad habits are back.  After I was off doing other things last night and into today, when I am aware of any passing thoughts about yesterday’s painting, I feel a little whisper of happiness.  

Today, I came downstairs to gesso enough pages in one of my spiral notebooks to be able to start painting again.  I am going to shoot for getting paint on a brush on a daily basis. 

Here’s my fresh palette, used one time so far.