bad reference photos for good paintings

Early January in Washington state is not a good time to shoot new landscape reference photos. A camera gets really wet.

When looking AGAIN at the photos I have on hand, I chose one from our road trip to northern California last winter. It was taken at about 60 mph from the car. This very bad photo set me free to interpret more loosely. I've included it here along with the composition sketch and the finished piece.

I want to express my appreciation to Katherine Tyrrell, Making a Mark for including me in her 25 Recent Posts from My Regular Reads (right side, scroll down). If you aren't familiar with this blog, check it out when you can spend some time there. Lots of information and inspiration.

that which brought me to now

For the past 8 years, my husband and I have been working on our retirement property in Olympia, WA. Five acres on the the water.

Our plan was to build a house there in 2007. After 6 years of weed-eating and cutting blackberries in the rain we built a "barn" with garage below and studio space above. At that time, retirement was just a year away. The house was already designed, my dreams were all in place.

After 6 (long) weeks of retirement, my husband started his own business. We realized that we wouldn't be building a house there for a long time, if ever, because it is too far from his customers in the Seattle area. I was very sad. I can weed-eat for 7 hours straight toward a dream but when the dream is gone, it is just work.

A year later we began to consider selling. We mentioned it to a friend who knew someone who might be interested. The whole life-changing transaction took only 6 weeks and by the last day of December 2008 the sale was complete. The new owners love it and will be good stewards of all our hard work. We are happy and we are sad.

So, today I painted a remembrance of late afternoon last Fall at the property. The focus is the lower driveway out to the road and our new life. Without the property, the chain saw and weed eater just sit. I'm painting. It will be good, as soon as I get used to it.

mini-scenes

These are mini-scenes from "Banks of the Upper Dean." Something happened with this painting: I saw a glimmer of what might be possible if I keep at this landscapes in oil thing! Click on the title to see the painting on my Recent Work blog.

to have and to hold - or not

The initial sketch of a new painting is so exciting, so full of promise. Is the goal to hold onto the vision I have? Or is it better to let go and allow it to change, evolve and emerge?

celebrate

Here is how yesterday's painting looks today. I'm calling it done. Celebrating my first painting of the New Year.

I'm back

Happy New Year!
I love it when I can start a day early with a cup of mocha by the fire in my Studio. As I write this, it is still dark outside. This morning's reading inspiration was the February 2009 issue of The Pastel Journal. A good article by Margot Schulzke about gesture in painting and as always, good advice from Richard McKinley about color and arrangement of palette. If I was the Queen of Organization for colored pencil, Richard is surely the King of Organization for pastel and oil.

Above is my first painting of 2009, in progress. Oil, 9 x 12 inches. Looking forward to a year of happy painting.

christmas day 2008

Rituals are the glue that hold families together. I wonder where the birds who built this nest in the grape vines are today. Merry Christmas.

start by starting

Our bathroom accumulates a variety of magazines that I never have time to read in the other rooms of the house. The other day I came across some words of wisdom in one of them: "You start by starting." These words are quoted from Meryl Streep who just happens to be my all-time favorite actress. I believe everything she says. This advice is especially meaningful for me now because the last couple months of my year are usually spent taking a break from art. I call it refreshing, recharging - a switch of focus from me to one of spending time with family and friends. It feels much needed but it also creates the problem of getting started again at the beginning of the New Year. And, when I'm not painting, everything seems a little bit wacky.

I guess changing traditions makes me wacky too. This week my emotions have run from the excitement of the holidays to feelings of loss that this year, because of icy roads, my siblings and their families won't be at my house for Christmas Eve. Instead, we'll have our loud and crazy Italian Christmas Eve here on New Year's Day when hopefully, driving conditions improve. I look forward to it but it will be different and that bothers me. I like traditions to stay the same. I also like to plan. I have found that plans for the future based on the wisdom of past experiences have the best chance of working out.

Oh oh. Now that I see this controlled, comfortable way of living in print, it bothers me a lot. I must need to read Art and Fear again. I want to begin my next year of art with a new attitude. I want to forget about expectations.

After much pondering, here's my advice to myself for the New Year to help me get started again and to help me live more in the NOW, both in my art and in my life. If you find yourself in a similar situation, it may be helpful to you too.

1. Give it up. All the stuff I worry about and plan for may not happen.

2. Trust. All the stuff I worry about and plan for may not happen, but something that is even better for me absolutely will. (Take a moment to reflect on the past here. Hasn't every dark cloud had a silver lining and perfect timing?)

3. Try Something New. In these slow economic times, when my work is not "selling like hotcakes" remember to paint for myself, instead of to satisfy a gallery persona or a tradition of past work that has sold. A new medium, a new subject, and a new approach: experience the NOW, the process. Forget about the end result.

4. Clean and organize the Studio. Find those tucked away mediums and forgotten painting surfaces. Use them.

Actually, I have been doing this cleaning and organizing for the past few weeks and it has brought me to another problem. I have a lot of frames I didn't know I had. Finally, they are organized by material (metal or wood) and inventoried by size and description. My last bit of advice is to "start by starting." Go to the easel. Paint with abandon. Experience the NOW with fresh eyes and materials, but paint in a size that will fit one of those frames!

our critique group

I've been busy with family and friends and realize it has been a whole month since I've posted. This week I'm deep-cleaning my studio of 20 years. A lot can accumulate on shelves, and in nooks and crannies, in that amount of time. It's dusty and chaotic now but I look forward to starting 2009 refreshed, organized and ready to paint.

Earlier this week I attended the annual December luncheon of our Artist's Critique Group. We started our group 13 years ago with a half dozen women and added a few every couple years. And, over those years we've also lost a few due to relocation and busy schedules. When women remain friends for so long, the time also comes when we lose someone to death. That happened this year with the passing of our dear friend and wonderful artist, Sharon Tietjen.

Our Critique Group meets every other month. We rotate the meeting location among members' Studios which gives us a chance to see what's going on there. We are supportive and kind to one another but also full of advice! The perseverance of each artist is admirable. Each has continued to create; to grow in skill and depth as an artist while fulfilling the roles of mother, grandmother, wife, friend, art organization volunteer and more. Each has been a part of my life for so long that I sometimes take their friendship and amazing talent for granted. Today, I'm posting a Thank You to all in the group for their support of my work and their patience in listening to me when I've needed to ramble. Below is a painting example (as well as one of my own) from those able to respond to my hasty email request for images. Click on the image to enlarge.

painting for myself

These are bits and pieces from today's painting. Looser than most, it is just for me. I posted the completed painting on my New Work blog.

It's the time of year that I paint for myself. From now through the end of 2008 I'll be experimenting, playing, taking myself less seriously (I find that to be easier each year as I get older). Stuff that used to be top priorities is shifting. Family, home, food are taking the place of producing, competing and planning for opportunities that I may no longer want when they finally appear.

When I was growing up, my father took three months off each year to go steelhead fishing. They were winter months - slow for a carpenter. I tried fishing with him once. Cold and boring. My father wasn't the kind to entertain a child. I walked up and down the riverbank for hours while he stood perfectly still. Waiting, thinking, being quiet. Refueling his spirit for the coming year of work and responsibility.

I'm using the rest of this year for the same purpose.

first oil painting

My first landscape in oil is done. "A Far Country" isn't what I intended but it is a big improvement over my last posting of it. I'll add it to my New Work blog. 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas.

some color added

Moving along on this painting, I added some color and it is starting to look like a traditional landscape painting. But, I'm thinking of taking it in a more abstract direction. I should have Saturday and Sunday in the studio to play with it. Happy Halloween.

happy birthday book

I had a birthday recently and my sister Bettina's birthday is coming up. Ten years ago, she sent me the little book "Because You're My Sister" written by Jan Miller Girando and illustrated by Mary Engelbreit. Every birthday since then, we have added photos and notes to the book and sent it back and forth to each other by US Mail.

It is challenging fun to find an old forgotten photo and to write a memory of that year. The book chronicles our house hunting, remodeling, health challenges, our family's annual Women's Weekends, notes from our Sister Whine Line phone calls and history of our family. Some years the entry is little more than Happy Birthday. Other years produce elaborate photo fold-outs. Someday this book will pass on to our children and their children.

This year, my sister included a photo of me at almost three years old. I remember the dress, the chair, the feeling of being a "real girl" all dressed up.

value added

For more than a decade, when my primary medium was colored pencil, I usually used a tonal foundation. This technique is referred to as grisaille. It allowed me to establish value, form and volume independently of color decisions. When I began experimenting with oil paint I didn't use a grisaille, preferring to jump right into color for the little still lifes. Now focusing on landscapes, the grisaille appeals to me again. Today I added value to the foundation sketch of yesterday. You can see examples of my earlier work using grisaille by clicking here.

foundation

After painting about 50 little oil still lifes, I thought I would go on to paint many little oil landscapes but I feel the need to paint larger. This is still an oil experiment but on a larger scale. Here it is at the foundation stage - just getting an idea of the composition. Next will come the value, then color. 16 x 20 oil on canvas.

painting daily

This article was published recently in the Women Painters of Washington newsletter - a brief summary of my daily painting to date. Click on the image to enlarge.

...know when to walk away.

The lyrics from Kenny Rogers' song, "The Gambler" come to me often when I'm painting.

"You gotta know when to hold them. Know when to fold them. Know when to walk away. And know when to run."

For now, I'm going to heed his advice and leave this painting in the foundation stage. It still has a freshness that I may destroy as I play around with this goopy medium - so different from the soft pastel I am more comfortable with. 6 x 8 inches, oil on panel.

afternoon

Yesterday I met with our long-time Critique Group - a dozen women who are always inspiring and supportive. I came away with motivation to finish the little landscape I started while filling tubes with white oil paint a couple days ago. This is a scene from an afternoon boat ride on Anahim Lake. 6 x 8 inches, oil on panel.

monday in the studio

I started to paint this morning but when I opened my quart of Titanium White I just had to stop and take care of a problem. As a novice oil painter, I didn't know about the skin that forms on top of containers of oil paint. For months I've been digging the paint out from underneath; no time or enthusiasm for filling empty tubes. But today was the day. I ended up with a very messy palette knife that I finally wiped off onto a previous painting ("Daisy" July 11, 2008) to become a sky. Tomorrow or the next day it will turn into a landscape.

river path

Another little oil landscape experiment; another Canadian scene - a path to the Upper Dean River. 6 x 6 inches, oil on panel.

good news

As a new member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, I was surprised and happy to receive in today's mail an Award of Merit from the 2008 PSWC Membership Show. The juror was George Rivera. You can see the painting and links for more information by clicking here.

canadian meadow

One of the scenes from late summer in Canada. It is my first experiment painting with a palette knife. Fun! 6 x 6 inches, oil on panel.

There is nothing like new art supplies. My shipment of Williamsburg Handmade Oil Colors arrived this morning!

looking back to move forward

Suddenly it is fall. The foggy mornings are good for focusing on art but it is hard to get started after months of leisure. Yesterday I cleaned house all day, storing away the clutter from a casual summer. The laundry is done, plants are in the garage for the winter, and the house is organized. To the Studio…

I want to check email, pay bills, balance the checkbook, and look at future call-for-entries, as has been my summer routine. Instead, I turn the overhead lights off, light the fire and with mocha in hand, settle into the rocking chair by lamplight. Opening my art journal, I turn to the pages of last year at this time. I see sketches for the studio arrangement at the “barn” we built on our retirement property. Since then, our plans have changed; we want to be closer to our grandchildren in Seattle. There are quotes and revelations from Dan McCaw’s "A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art" and Richard Schmid’s "Alla Prima." Notes and photos from several pastel paintings I was reworking. Thumbnail sketches, value studies, composition possibilities. I am reminded how exciting it was to consider oil painting. Around Valentine’s Day I posted my first oil and wondered if it would ever dry. Many little oil still life paintings followed. Then, summer – ending with a trip to Canada and a four day eat-a-thon cruise.

There is a need in an artist that can only be filled with creating. Now, most mornings I hope to be in my rocking chair reading about art and then to the easel for pastel or oil. Wishing everyone a creative last quarter of 2008.

busy days

The last days of summer and first days of fall have been unusually busy. I have work in two upcoming shows: a two-person show at Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Seattle, WA and the 2008 Pastel Society of the West Coast Annual Member Juried Show, Vacaville, CA. This week I will also be delivering 6 new pieces to Attic Gallery, Portland, OR. I look forward to painting-days in my Studio.

anahim lake, B.C.

We're back from a week at Escott Bay Resort, Anahim Lake, B.C. We had good weather and I had a chance to do some painting. This little plein air piece of the water and grasses near the dock was my painting warm up the first day.

I posted the two larger pieces from the week on my new work blog. "Tuesday Morning, Anahim Lake" includes some of the wonderful, rustic fences of the area. "Upper Dean River, B.C." is an example of the increase in Fall color during the week.

We were with 3 other couples - good people who took reference photos for me and tried to teach me to play poker. I may have taught myself to relax (a little) but I'm glad to be back in my studio. Now, I realize we're slip sliding away toward the holidays!