The Stories They’d Tell – Daily Painting
“The Stories They’d Tell” – 5 1/8″ x 7″ – oil on canvas mounted on masonite.
Among the homeliest objects in our home are this old pair of scissors and a wooden “Clarks” spool. Both are probably from the 40s or 50s, judging from the look of them. Occasionally we’ll go to estate sales in our area, and inevitably there is a sewing basket with old scissors, spools and papers of pins. I like to think about their years of service and all the jobs they’ve done – a hem raised or lowered to suit the fashion of the time … a collar taken off and reversed to save buying a new shirt during the Great Depression … a Halloween costume made. Perhaps this thread and scissors patched up a hole in Santa’s jacket before it was packed away for another year.
What stories would your scissors tell, years from now?
Salt Marshes
Salt Marsh 5.5″ x 8″ – oil on canvas, mounted on hardboard
Oh my, it’s 11:30 pm and although I’ve spent part of today finishing up homework for my watercolor class, I didn’t get a complete painting finished yet, so I went to Wet Canvas.com and selected one of the images presented for the weekend all-media event. In this case, a photo of a salt marsh in New Brunswick. This was painted very quickly, which is probably good practice for being decisive about color, value and shape and not to tarry too much, nor fiddle around with a lot of small marks. Do you feel that way about art? Or about something else you enjoy practicing?
I’ve been talking with different people about the daily painting practice and whether or not it’s a burden, an obligation that is kept whether or not we want to. For me, it’s been a joyful experience. I can imagine that it’s the way long-time dedicated runners feel about their sport – you feel incomplete if you DON’T paint.
Two Sweets – Daily Painting
“Two sweets” 5 1/8″ x 7 1/8″
Oil on canvas mounted on hardboard. Available.
While I finish up my larger painting, here’s a little one for today – two chocolates from Trader Joes. They were presented as pralines, but they are actually milk chocolate. The red ones have an amaretto flavor, the silver ones are tiramisu and chocolate. Very very delicious.
Today, on the way back from lunch, I spent some time looking at liquidambar trees. We have an assignment in our watercolor class to study trees very carefully this week, no doubt in preparation for some tree painting on Saturday. I like drawing trees and painting them as well. I guess you just can’t study something too much, can you? I thought I might be bored by the tree drawing assignment because I paint trees so often, but I’m finding, as I expected, that nothing dealing with art is boring to me. At least not now. Well, washing brushes is sort of boring, and gessoing canvases, but the creating part is endlessly enjoyable.
Chapparal Road – Daily Painting
Chapparal Road – 2.5 in x 3.5 in – ACEO – oil on gessoed matboard
This miniature oil painting was inspired by our recent trip up to Idyllwild. Along the way we passed through an area of chaparral, at the edge of the pine forest. Within a few hundred feet this sagebrush and scrub began to give way to tall pines such as those I painted earlier in Idylllwild Slope.
One thing that I’ve discovered by painting oils this small (the size of a sports trading card) is that it prevents me from getting too fussy with tiny details. I suppose it would be the equivalent of painting with large brushes on a 9 x 12 canvas. It’s all a matter of scale. Painting this small forces me to make decisions about broad shapes and values, and not to paint every leaf on the tree. (Well, some of them, but not all.) It would make a swell over the sofa painting if you had a very small sofa!
Here it is approximately actual size. Fortunately I am very nearsighted, which makes it easier to paint closeup than far away.
Squeaky Clean – Daily Painting
“Squeaky Clean” – 5″ x 7″ – oil on canvasboard
Fresh off the easel … this is our upstairs bathroom soapdish, lathered up to give it a little more interest. I think it’s Irish Spring but I couldn’t be sure. The words had worn off.
I thought the bubbles were going to be the most difficult part to paint, but it didn’t turn out that way. The biggest challenge was the dish itself, which is probably a hand built and hand painted, with strange dips and turns and curves along the fluted edge.
But, you know, I like a challenge, so it was actually kind of fun.
Idyllwild Slope – Daily Painting
Idyllwild Slope – 9 x 12 – oil on canvasboard
This past weekend we had the opportunity to go to the Palm Springs International Film Festival for a work-related project, and we stayed for the weekend, enjoying the desert as well as the nearby mountain village of Idyllwild. They had a little snowfall a few weeks ago which left about six inches on the ground. I really hoped to see drifts of snow, but I’m happy with any snow that I can get – it’s been very warm in So. Cal, and there’s been little rainfall. All that may change soon as I hear we’re in an El Nino year. But for the moment we’re long on wind and sand and short on snow.
I haven’t painted rocks or snow recently, so this gave me an opportunity to try something out of the usual. I had a pretty good time gauging the color of snow in sun vs. in shade, as well as experimenting with the shapes and colors of the rocky outcropping.
Looking Down the Road (Ojai) – 2006
“Looking Down the Road (near Ojai) – 5 x 7 study – oil on canvasboard
The end of a year is a time for taking a look at the road one has traveled, as well as the road ahead.
Today, a look back.
At the beginning of this year, I posted A list of resolutions which included a resolve to paint daily, to paint larger, to participate in activities of our local art association and to take a figure drawing class. The local studio that features figure drawing lost its lease, so that goal will be pushed into 2007.
Some highlights of my year …
I started with a period of intense sketchbook painting at Descanso Gardens. I must have returned to the Japanese gardens dozens of times to observe it in different seasons and lights.
Although I continued to draw, I pushed painting to the forefront, painted daily and read every book I could get my hands on – books by Frank Webb, Edgar Whitney, Kate Johnson, Charles Reid, Jan Kunz and others. I immersed myself in watercolors by JS Sargent, Homer, Turner, Constable and Delacroix.
I went on numerous sketchcrawls and discovered the fun of trying to do a painting – albeit a sketchbook painting – quickly and loosely. The experience helped me learn to look at color and value in the environment.
About that time I started doing some digital oil paintings in Corel Painter and Photoshop. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was starting to entertain the idea of painting in ‘real’ oils again – something I hadn’t done since I was a newlywed – a very long time ago. Probably I was toying with the notion before investing in the supplies!
Around June, I got out of my Aquabee sketchbook and started using 140 # watercolor paper, as I had some 20 years ago, and began to think more about composition. I was invited to join a plein air painting group, whose company I’ve enjoyed on a weekly basis.
In the second half of the year, I experimented with a variety of media: watercolor, pastel, acrylic and finally, in September, oil.
In watercolor I began painting on larger sheets, and although I haven’t tackled a 22 x 15 inch sheet yet, I’m feeling just fine with 11 x 15 and smaller. The experience of trying out these different media was liberating. In a way it was like being in college again, with the whole course catalog to choose from. I’m still very much in that experimental phase, and perhaps I always will be. I find it tremendously exciting to look at a subject and then to think about which medium I want to use to express it. Sometimes, this past year, I’ve done the same subject in different media, just to learn from the experience.
And I guess I’d have to say that’s the theme of the year for me: intensive learning.
Around October I decided to enter a juried competition with our local art association, and was pleased to have three things juried into the show, and to get a prize. Fortified by this happy experience, I entered another peer reviewed contest and was rewarded again.
With the constant encouragement of friends and family, I also decided to offer a few artworks for sale – and that has also been a very pleasant experience. (Thank you, everyone!)
In November-December I attended watercolor demo workshops every weekend, put on by Watercolor West and the National Watercolor Society. Seeing outstanding watercolorists at work is both inspiring and energizing. I can hardly wait until next year’s demo series.
In November I joined the cadre of Daily Painters at dailypainters.com and made the commitment to do a watercolor, oil or pastel painting daily (well, mostly, except for some of the holidays.) I plan to continue that indefinitely.
This year has brought new friends, new experiences, new challenges and new opportunities – almost all through the shared love of art. I couldn’t ask for more but to continue learning and growing as much as I can for as long as I can.
I thank my artistic boon companions – every single one of you – for accompanying me on this Creative Journey for this, and previous years. Especially , I’d like to thank my dear husband for his constant support of this rediscovered passion of mine. He shares my journey to new places to sketch or paint – a trail in the mountains, or a scroungy junkyard. He takes me to museums and brings his cameraman’s eye for composition and lighting, which enhances my experience through our lively conversation. And he’s the first one to suggest and implement ingenious solutions – whether it’s turning a paintbox and a tripod into a portable easel or rigging excellent lighting from pro movie lights for painting indoors. I am a very blessed woman, and I know it!
This is getting pretty long, so I’m going to break this into a few parts. Tomorrow I’ll probably post some of my favorite paintings of the year and what they represented to my Creative Journey at the time. And the day after that, I’ll talk about where I want to go from here. Subject to change without notice, of course!
The Water Long Gone – Daily Painting
The Water Long Gone – 8 x 10 – oil on canvas panel. SOLD
As December draws to a close, the dry season comes to an end, rough rocky creeks like this will soon be replaced by swiftly moving streams. Flash floods will occur throughout the mountains and deserts, restoring the native plants. This location is near Ojai, a little creek that passes under a bridge. I hope to return there in a few months after the waters start to flow.
Power at Sunset – Daily Painting
“Power at Sunset” – 8 x 10 inches – oil on canvasboard
Last weekend we drove out to Palmdale on business and I rode along because I couldn’t resist the skies full of incredible clouds. On the way home, after the sun had already set, I saw a glowing building and asked my husband to pull over so I could investigate. I gathered from all the high voltage signs that this was some sort of power distribution center, and of course I took a bunch of photos – the strong contrasts of colors inside the building and the dramatic sky were just too tempting. One of these days I’m probably going to get busted for suspicious behavior. But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Two Old Pomegranates – Daily Painting
“Two Old Poms” 5 x 7 oil painting on canvasboard – SOLD
When we were up in the Ojai area a week and a half ago, we drove by a cluster of bright yellow bushes, probably eight feet tall, that had bright red fruit on them. We overshot this sight, so we turned around and made a second pass, pulling over onto the rough shoulder of the road. I jumped out of the car with my camera to take a batch of paintings of ripe pomegranates, hanging on the tree. I wasn’t about to pinch any of the fruit off the bushes, but I did pick up two of the poms that had recently fallen into the ditch, and which had not broken open upon falling. No doubt they had recently come off the tree in the heavy winds.
So they’ve been sitting around the kitchen and today I decided to paint them by the light of my office window.
