I Would Like A Medal

This morning, I shoveled plow wash in the front, which wasn’t much, and in the alley, which was a lot, for 45 minutes.  In the alley, I have to push the snow with the big shovel half way up a path next to the garage, so I can scoop it up with the small shovel and throw in the middle of my yard on the garden beds.  When the piles get too high, I take a garden rake and push the snow towards the middle of the yard.  Even with all of that, the mound of snow is getting closer to shoulder height than waist height.

As a side note, I do have a kind and helpful partner, but I have been shoveling almost all of the snow this winter and all of the snow this past week.  The kind and helpful partner is having too much hip pain to help at the moment.

This morning about 10 minutes in, I found myself thinking thoughts along these lines. “It’s not too bad.  Since the snow wasn’t wet, it’s not as heavy and awful as it could be and the plow wash isn’t sticking together as much as it usually does. It could be so much worse”.

This can be summed up as thinking like a Minnesotan.  While I am not a native, I believe I have earned my advanced non-native Minnesotan certification and I would like a medal.  I would like it to have a snowflake motif.

Getting back to painting, here's the latest.

#299 - Texas Cat - 5" x 7" - paper

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Somewhere in this morning’s newspaper, it mentioned that we’ve gotten 22 inches of snow so far in February. Let me repeat/rephrase that......Before counting today’s snowstorm, it’s snowed 22 inches of snow in February and it’s only the 20th of February.  Early in the month, I kept imagining a giant kitchen sink in the sky.  One faucet in the sink was to turn on extreme cold or and the other was for  for lots of snow and one of the faucets had to be turned on at all times.  It isn’t as cold now, but someone seems to have left the snow faucet turned all the way up.

That brings me to this morning.  I shoveled around 3 inches of snow before heading off to work at a client.  The drive was one of the worst I’ve encountered for awhile, mostly, because visibility was terrible.  I am in the middle of the city.  I can’t imagine what it was like outside of the city.  Driving home in the early afternoon was much better.  However when I got home, 6 more inches of snow was waiting for me.  

While I still absolutely love the snow and can’t help but smile when it’s snowing, it’s getting hard to shovel.  The piles are so high and I’m running out of places to put the snow.  Also, I really, really wish we would have gotten some of this in December and early January, since it was brown and ugly for most of that time.  

My partner-in-crime and snow-shoveling has been away at a conference in Phoenix the last week, so I have been a solo-shoveler.  He returns tomorrow. 

Earlier in the month, I was painting snow scenes.  I decided to take a break from that.  This is an acquarium scene from the Minnesota Zoo.  The source picture is from several years ago. 

#298 - A Painting With No Snow - 8" x 10" - paper

I rather like how the pink coral/mushroom-looking things turned out.

Constant Vigilance

This morning, I caught a glimpse of the painting I started last night out of the corner of my eye and I realized that I was back to painting the object in my picture, not what I actually see.  My most recent painting is not finished.  It's a fish in an aquarium at the Minnesota Zoo.  The painting before that is #297 (the rabbit) shown below.  I don't know why I drift back to painting the object versus what I see again and again and again.  I guess for my brain, what I think I know wants to push aside what I actually see. 

When my eyes win and I can paint what I see (in terms of shapes and values) without regard for the actual subject matter, it just goes better.  When I don't, it feels like I'm fighting with myself when I'm painting and I'm not fond of the process or the end result.  One symptom is that my paint strokes are clunky and generally awful.

I worked a little on the fish painting today and got back to painting what I see and enjoyed my time so much more.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll finish the fish painting.

In the meantime, here are some other paintings from the week. I did paint each day!

#295 - Winter Cardinal - 5" x 7" - paper

While I like the picture, I didn't like my executive, so I got it another try.

#296 - Winter Cardinal The Sequel - 5" x 7" - paper

It's still not what I want it to be, but it's better.

This is the rabbit painting.  Overall, I am not happy with it.  Rather than listing the reasons, I'll end on a positive note.  I do like some of the colors I mixed.

#297 - Rabbit In Raspberry Canes

Winter Rabbit

I tried to stay with big paint strokes, but that didn't translate well for a 5" x 7" painting.  Also, I was not sure how to approach two problems, both dealing with the background:

• How to "ground" the rabbit.
• How to get the snow to have the right feeling.  I took this picture last year in my back yard.  It was very cold and I wanted how cold it felt to come through. The white of my snow looks too warm to me. 

This was a fun composition to work on and I might try several more versions, but as 8" x 10" paintings. I didn't think about it until I was done, but you could almost approach this like a negative space tree, since there are so many nooks and crannies as a result of the raspberry canes.  

#294 - Winter Rabbit in Raspberry Canes - 5" x 7" - paper

This is the source photo. I cropped it differently for the painting. 

I must try to get my values more accurate the next time. 

Painting Practice - Day 2 and 3

So far, my (hopefully, mostly) daily habit is on day 3. Day 2, I drew out take 2 from the same picture of Hammett.  This is not a great picture, but the background is a light purple.

I got home from work early today.  First, I did the dishes and fed the cats.  I felt so virtuous afterwards, I went down to paint.  I am feeling really good about painting and most everything else, these days.  While I wasn't even trying for much of a likeness, this looks more like Hammett than take 1. 

#293 - Hammett the Dashing! - 8" x 8" - paper

Dapper, Dashing Cat

The camera loves Hammett.  He takes very good pictures.  I think of him as both dapper and dashing.  I'm not trying to make a bad joke (well maybe I am), but it means his name fits him quite well.  He was named for one of my favorite authors, Dashiell Hammett and it's not too far of a stretch from Dashiell to dashing.

#292 - Dashing Mr. Hammett - 8" x 8" - paper

Can't you just picture him in a fedora?+

It's Time To Start Again!

I've been drawing off and on the past several weeks, mostly working on cross hatching, but I can't remember the last time I picked up a paint brush until today.  Today, it became something I just wanted to do.  Surprisingly, it didn't feel self conscious or awkward at all. 

It started out great and I drew out and got a good start on a painting.  I was just going for big, bold paint strokes.  I lost that by over-working.  The painting is not done and it's too late to take a picture with any natural light, so there's nothing to show, yet.  Tomorrow, I plan to finish it.

The start of this painting felt so good that I think I want to focus on painting big bold strokes, trying to capture the broader essence, and not being focused on the end result.  All of which feels exciting and a good way to get back into the habit of painting!