Evolving "Stillness"

More than once I have seen a picture of myself like ten years ago and say to myself "wow, I was kinda good back then, not so fat and old as I thought at the time."  Then there is my work for which the opposite chronological order is underway.  For instance, back in 2011, I did this painting entitling it "Stillness."

It was done in the summertime as a diptych when the weather was so still and hot, August I think, and all I could do was paint the heat that I felt.  I was happy with the work and it didn't sell so I donated the smaller one to a fundraiser or our art club.

Time marches on, I decide to work on the remaining part of the piece and hang it at Patris' Midtown Gallery in 2012 and so here is how it changed.

I think I bettered it in that the colors aren't so stark and contrasting, I incorporated other values and gave it a different feel at the ground and gave it some depth with the sky.  I brought it home after a couple months at the gallery, hung it in the house and kept an eye on it.  I'm still thinking this piece is just not telling a good enough story, it's hot but now cool ground, sky goes back but so what??? 

So again, recently I decided to work on it taking away the tacky ground of leaves and rocks and whatever I thought I was doing so artistically last year.

Now I have changed the angle of our view.  We are looking up into the tree.  I like the changes of color from the shaded part to the part of the tree that is in the sun, it's got some really light leaves in front and in the intense sun.  It also has become abstract in that it doesn't have to be a tree to the viewer giving the sense of garden, of end of summer fun, or Fall.  I like it so much more now, somehow it's more me giving the viewer the opportunity to interpret the story of color and texture.  Maybe it's done now?  I haven't signed it yet but I will, I will.  

Alas I Laugh!

So!  I laugh, laugh in my own face about thinking this painting was done and then in the very same minute deciding on more that should be done.  Now, I laugh in my own face because I say Alas, this paintings is done...for now.  I went back in and smudged the ground under the trees to give us some more land that is going backwards, I also added some other values to the background color green.  I may want to come back into the foreground with a little more blue, but Alas I say, this painting is done.  Hahaha!

Breathing just fine today...Helen Reddy singing about invincible women and Tony Bennett going on and on about morning fog chilling the air...ah, life is good.

Critique Group and Kauai Flora

Got together with my Critique Group about a week ago and together we looked at my new paintings.  They are very helpful with questions I have in my mind and with their observances at seeing the art for the first time.  So, first we took on:              Kauai Flora

I felt there was some question about the middle of the painting and just where a leaf begins and where another ends.  They saw it right away and by their questions and suggestions I was able to delineate a little better what is going on.                 

Love my critique group.  They have good knowledge to share from their vantage which every artist needs.                                                                                                                           

Immense and Powerful

So got  away for a couple of nights with Jack.  Somehow the immense and powerful ocean is for me a refresh button.  I can breathe easily and deeply just letting it be...letting life be.

We walked down this path and found a view so spectacular I actually had to scream to let the Universe know that I appreciate her/it/them so much!

After a day to reset after being away, I was able to work on some art this morning.

I think this painting is done.  I settled the trees down on the ground and decided on some indications of shadows on the water.  Okay so now that I see the image, I notice the flat line behind the trees at the ground and so will go back and give the viewer some differences in the distant background.  And that just makes me remember that even when One thinks a painting is finished-- it's not always the case.  I also notice the white that is right in the middle of the tree on the far right doesn't go with the rest of the background behind it and so I need to resolve that.

Decisions, decisions...well, not so earth shattering as long as I remember the wild and wonderful ocean that frees me, and inspires me to... breathe.

Hwy 99 and Trees

Jack and I travel South on Highway 99 a couple times a year to visit kids and friends.  For years we would take I5, the most boring trip EVER!  Now whenever I can get my way we travel down Hwy. 99--oh so much more to see and do.  I catch glimpses of stories, the human condition stories, as we travel.  For instance, a small farm-like home with horses and chickens brings into my head a family holding onto a simpler life from another time.

I feel such a kinship with trees.  This might have started with the Wizard of Oz.  Remember the trees and how they were just grumpy butts?

Anyhoo, on Hwy. 99 there are bunches of trees...lots of eucalyptus, some maples, pines, palms, and these:

And so here's my first layer rendering of highway trees.  I may need to do rocks and/or water in the foreground as the trees seem to be floating right now.  I also will come back with shapes of the bunches of leaves in the trees for a more absolute rendering.  Right now I like the softer edges and the little bit of warm with the abundance of cool.

Ok, so Jack and I are off on an overnight.  No worries we have house-sitters here.  I've got my sketch pad, my ipad and my camera.  Woohoo!!!!  AND I'll be breathing at the ocean, yay!

Kitty Kat, Wimpy Emotions, and Simplicity

Originally this canvas was an abstract painting which included a cat, various washes and textures created by affixing a 30x22" acrylic painting to the host canvas.  I liked my original work however I couldn't get it to be beyond a wimpy illustration of some wimpy emotion I had felt, so last week decided to create another version of an original composition I created last year.   This is a wrap-around canvas, 30x40".

To the left is the original sketch which I did on a small 16x20" canvas during a workshop with Gregory Kondos.  I walked outside of the large classroom at Lake Folsom College and to my left were buildings and this area of 6 trees, just neutrals and greens.

After his teachings, my compositions have become very simple and easy.  No need for crazy Mexican colors and/or too much of everything...simple Bobbie, simple, and breathe.

To the right is my original abstract cat painting on paper which was affixed to the canvas.  This work has probably 20 washes of pigment on it, various stampings and other texture treatments.  However after so much work, the painting just didn't reflect anything beyond some wimpy feeling that somebody maybe had on a random day, in a random world, after a random experience.  So in keeping the GOAT theory, this artist covered the whole enchilada with a gesso wash and kept working.  

Note on the finished painting, I did not cover the whole canvas with opaque pigment.  I left the buildings in the texture that I had created with the cat painting.

Okay, so onto my next project.

Breathing, Smiling and Two Canvases

I read "The Goat" yesterday by Jack White.  Great article on focusing on what you are good at as an artist and going for that and not diluting yourself with trying to do what you cannot.  Being the "greatest of all time" is available to everybody if one can simply focus.

Today, in my studio, I gathered two paintings that have bugged me for a long time.  One, I was settling with because I loved the idea of the message I was painting about even though execution of the items in the painting was not good; the other painting, I have been working on for forever trying to make an exceptional painting out of a bad composition (thinking I am a miracle worker).

I had some left over oil paint on my palette so I simply mixed it up with some white and some copal and totally covered those paintings.  It didn't even hurt me to cover up probably 80 hours of work because I have learned many lessons with those pieces and now I need to use the canvases for something worthy of my quest to be a goat.  Also, I am sick and tired of looking at substandard work which permeates my innards giving me the impression that I am less than...breathe Bobbie, breathe.

Yes, these are the thoughts in my head today.  So I am done in the studio for today, just gained two canvases to paint new compositions upon.  Just got to breathe, smile, and get outta here for now.

Quick and Easy...really???

I took some photos of flora in Kauai:

I love the soft texture of this plant and color, complementary reds and greens.  I deliberately took an up close shot because I love this "in your face" composition.  About a week ago I prepared my canvas with a nice layer of pigment and then did a very minimal sketch to guide where I would go with my paint.

I worked this morning on the painting and I already like it.  I love the colors, the smoothness of the texture, and the composition makes sense to me.

Wow! Who knew it could be so easy.  Of course I may wake up in the morning and hate it but for today, it's good.  The linen was great to paint on, the orange underpainting worked, and I can live with 60% cool, 40% warm.  

Next to my critique group for their comments and recommendations.  We'll see after that how much I like it.  Sometimes just seeing through other's eyes helps me to recognize faults, mistakes and icky stuff!  

New Sounds, Scenes, Emotions

Everyday a new sketch, and here's today's of the candy cane jar on the kitchen table.  Didn't quite get the whole jar on the page, but one gets the idea.

New sounds, smells and new everything at our house lately.  Kids are visiting, so am having fun photographing some scenes for possible future paintings.  I don't know that I'll actually do realistic paintings of grandkids; however their attitudes, smiles, everyday schedules inspire some emotions that possibly I can get down on paper or canvas.  One of my mentors is very good at painting her emotions and though I think I get my emotions out there, I don't believe I have ever done a painting of pure emotion the way that she does.  That's what I love about art though, the fact that no matter how long one does it or how good one gets-- there's always more to learn, feel, see, hear, and taste with art.

Most of all, one can breathe in art and forever there is more to breathe in..breathe, and breathe...

A Lesson in Color

There is a painting hanging in our bedroom, it's been there since Spring of 2010.  I have looked at that painting almost everyday since then and liked it sorta, nothing wrong with it technically, I framed it in a wooden shadow box, BUT I just couldn't "love" the overall piece.  I named it "Complementary Flowers" because the dominant colors were orange and blue.

I have been mulling over this work all this time and recently, I had an aha moment about the colors.  My gut was telling me cool this painting down, and the painterly part of my gut said change the background to a cool leaving small outlines of the orange at a ratio of about 15% warm to 85% cool. 

So I took the canvas out of the frame and went to work on the background colors. 

Now I absolutely love this painting.  The images here don't do the original justice, there's a lot of orange coming through the blues and I left outlines of orange around the flowers and leaves so that the painting is unified in complements all over the place.  I also darkened the bottom of the piece anchoring it a little more than it was when it was predominantly warm.

Yay!  It's back in it's frame and hanging in our room.  Now I absolutely love it.