This is the painting I did yesterday, it was too dark to photograph in natural light by the time I was done, so I decided just to go ahead & get a head start on today’s painting & photograph & post them both today.
I had some set-backs yesterday, starting with having to wait an hour for roadside assistance – I had a flat tire. It was a very cold day, so I was glad it happened just outside my kids’ school so that I could wait inside. The tow truck guy who did come said that the reason I had to wait so long, and why he would have not taken the call if he knew … was because of the kind of vehicle I drive. It’s a Grand Caravan, and the spare tire is not in the trunk, it’s under the van. A poor design in his opinion because you have to stick a pole thing (not the official name I’m sure) in a spot in between the driver’s seat & the passenger seat to unscrew & release the mechanism that holds it in place. And that gets trickier if you have a console in that spot, or if you have a big fancy radio put in (there is a piece that goes on the top of the pole to help you turn it & it’s a very tight spot. “Scratch that, and it’s $4000” he shook his head). Luckily, I don’t go in for bells and whistles – as long as my vehicle can get my kids and paintings from point A to point B and isn’t always breaking down, I’m happy!
Anyway, my original plans for painting on location were scuttled and it was already afternoon before I settled at my easel to begin this painting. Coconut trees are of course a common sight in St. Lucia – like most tropical locations. And the image that comes to mind when you hear the words “castaway”, “shipwreck” or “island” is of a little island/big rock with one or more coconut trees. I called the painting Nature’s bounty because I was thinking of ways you could use coconuts, or coconut trees to survive if you were shipwrecked on an island … you could drink the water and eat the jelly, use the fronds to build some shelter and the husks for kindling. And there’s more. But first, you’d have to figure out how to climb the trees to get fresh coconuts. Survival of the fittest.
This is the 3rd Hibiscus gem painting out of three.
I have to say my energy is flagging at this point. For those of you doing the 30 in 30 Challenge, how are you feeling now that we are almost 2/3 done? Has this been a good experience for you?
One of the interesting things that has happened to me is that a number of my artist friends have written to say that they are inspired by what I’m doing. Three of them have even started their own individual challenge!
Another positive is that a few people have said they’re glad to learn a little more about me as an artist, through my writing and through the new diversity in my subject matter this month.
One down side was some negativity from a couple of artists – which I realize stems from their own unhappiness & desire to be doing what I’m doing. Don’t be fooled, every artist can think of other artists who they admire for their skill/projects/sales/connections or life circumstances which allow them more time to pursue their art professionally etc. etc.
The key to getting out of this negative spiral is to change your attitude, accept that the other person has their own struggles, may even have had to make sacrifices that you wouldn’t even consider, and they are just on a different path. Life as an artist is a very individual path – it’s only when you make choices that are authentic to you that you are able to advance towards your own definition of success. So when you are having negative thoughts, before you lash out (even in a passive-aggressive way), look instead for the “take-away”, some insight that you can use to create positivity for yourself, and then take action.
Of course the overwhelming response has been positive. I’m hearing from people who I didn’t even realize were following my art career, and several people have commented that the work I’ve done so far with this challenge shows dedication, focus, commitment. The funny thing is that the only reason they’re saying that is because they’re seeing a new, SMALL painting every day. Usually I may take 2 weeks to do a large painting, or a week for a small one. And I put in nearly the SAME amount of time & effort!
Normally I take my time to build up the painting in layers, reworking problem areas as many times as necessary. And instead of blogging, I’d be reading arts business articles, looking at inspiring art on the internet etc. I’m not going to list the myriad of actual tasks that come along with being a professional artist, but let’s just say that this year I want to do less thinking, research & planning (worrying, seeking “expert” opinions & procrastinating), and more following my intuition and creating my own projects, saying no to the ones that are offered to me but don’t advance my goals.
This is the second of 3 hibiscus paintings, they’re three different views of the same flower … oriented to the left, center and right. They could hang as a series, but of course it’s not necessary, they can also each go to a separate collector. The 6″x6″ paintings also look really pretty on a simple picture stand on a table.
I like hibiscus because they’re open, bright and friendly, welcoming somehow. They do remind me of home, and a friend was just saying that they remind her of trips to Hawaii … I suppose they are reminiscent of any tropical location. Usually they bring back great memories for people … of relaxing vacations or exotic places, or just home.
Just in time … here’s my painting for day 17. (I photographed it again in the morning in natural light, this is a more accurate photo than the one I included with the post last night).
I was running late today for several reasons … so I did not start this painting till after dinner tonight. I hope to get back on track tomorrow.
I chose a subject I’m quite familiar with … I’ve painted many a hibiscus before, but they’re all different. There are so many varieties left to do … this is a subject I come back to often. If you take a look at my Available & Portfolio pages you’ll see some of the ones I’ve done already. Most of them were photographed on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, but they’re quite common here in Burlington too as houseplants, or outdoors in the summer.
Today I sent out my first newsletter with Mailchimp. There are a lot of things I’d like to change before next month’s newsletter, but I’ve been promising to do this for a long time, and it was one of my January goals, so yay me!
Also I had a lovely visit with a friend who I haven’t seen in years, but recently connected with on Facebook, when she came to pick up a painting – “Fast food”. It was perfect timing, the studio and surrounds really needed cleaning & I’ve been so focused on this challenge and juggling everything else in my life that I’d been putting it off for too long. I’ve always found that visitors are the best incentive for doing housework. Now I can probably make it through the second half of the challenge!
It’s an incredible feeling to get an e-mail from a gallery to say they’ve sold a painting WHILE you’re at the easel working on a new painting. I’ve been lucky enough to have that happen several times. However, the down side is that you don’t know who has bought the painting … though sometimes they’ll tell me which country it’s going to, or if it’s a couple, or a corporate gift etc. It feels good to know a little something, I’m not hugely sentimental, – as long as I have documentation of the work, I’m thrilled for someone else to take it home and pay for my supplies to work on the next painting – but it does give a little closure.
However, my point was … I love it when I get to meet the collectors myself, it’s usually such a positive experience. And I love studio visits from collectors, other artists, dealers, journalists … ok, ANYONE who will let me talk about my art. I suppose that’s because it’s my passion, but on the other hand, I’m not exactly anti-social. And usually I’m equally as interested in finding out more about the other person. I would not do well as a hermit. That’s why my studio is completely open to my family, steps away from the kitchen or front door. If I need to concentrate, I put on headphones, but they always know where to find me.
I painted this nude from life earlier, but today I added the anthurium flower and reworked the painting to give it a more subtle/soft mood to enhance and play up the feminine subject & the softness of skin. I did however try to keep as much of the original painting as possible.
Several of my artist friends are figurative painters, and sometimes I join them for life drawing sessions organized by 337 Sketch Gallery, upstairs 337 Ottawa St. N, Hamilton, ON. There is no instructor, but Anne is the facilitator – we all contribute towards the model fees and snack. It’s an enjoyable way to spend the evening, and a valuable practice for an artist to maintain, even when it is separate from their regular body of art like it is for me.
Every now and then I do something that l’m proud of, like this sketch of a female model.
However, most of the time I jump in with colour long before I’ve resolved issues with the drawing and try to build the form that way. That may be partly because of the way I paint, and partly because I don’t draw from the figure often enough have an intimate knowledge of the musculature etc. Anyway, since I see this as an exercise, and I don’t plan on doing anything with the finished drawing, I’m more willing to take risks and make bold moves. Which often means I’ll experiment and the piece ends up being mixed media, like the one below.
The great thing about these sessions is that we are painting from a real live model as opposed to a photo, so not only is there more information to take in, but you have to stay in the moment to get as much out of the session as you can.
This is a form of daily painting, like plein air painting, and the best part of it is seeing directly how an artist thinks. Ideally, each stroke tells something about how the work was made, and this directness probably conveys more about the artist’s initial reaction to the subject than if the painting is worked on through several sessions. At its core, there is something spiritual about this practice, something to do with the mind, spirit & body connection.
I’ve wanted to try a monochromatic painting for a long time, and I really had fun with this. Some artists do something similar to this as an underpainting and then glaze on other colours. I sketch in the basic composition with my paintbrush to start off, but I usually can’t resist jumping in with colour soon after. This time I planned to keep the painting somewhat monochromatic, but I added a few extra colours to keep it interesting to me. I used burnt umber, raw sienna, titanium white and dioxazine purple.
I found that working on the 6″x6″ paintings I was using smaller & smaller brushes to get the detail I wanted, so I decided to work on a little bigger canvas so that I can loosen up. It really helped. Although I still painted on two days (last night & this morning), I wasn’t feeling as rushed because I was enjoying myself more.
I have a lot of great reference photos from this photo shoot, I’d like to try a much larger canvas some time. If that sounds interesting to you …e-mail me about a commission! We can work out payment terms to suit your budget. Also, please share this post to let your friends know about my work … maybe they’d like to follow my progress through the challenge as well.
Today’s painting marks the half-way point, two more weeks to go!
I’d like to thank all of you who have been following me during this challenge and giving encouragement. It’s so cool when I hear from someone else who is excited to see what I’ll post next, a growing number of you are waiting for a piece that speaks to you … and I’m amazed at how fast some of the paintings have sold. In a situation like this, not every painting is going to be a home run, but when it is, you just know.
And those paintings have sold within 2 minutes of me posting on Facebook! I’ve been posting all different times though, depending on when I’m done, so if you don’t want to miss out on a painting you love, you can sign up to receive my blog posts by e-mail, that way you’ll be seeing it even before I post the link to Facebook.
The painting above, is on the same size gessoboard as Red Ixora, I was thinking of starting a small series. I’m out of that type & size board though – and I really prefer to work on canvas – I have to make time to go to the art supply store soon, to see what strikes my fancy. I had a really hard time packaging up Red Ixora & shipping it off to its new home in England … I’ve grown quite fond of it. There are beautiful areas in the painting that I never could have planned, that’s the pay-off for painting the spontaneous way I do, letting the work evolve through layers of paint.
I’m spending more time on each painting than I’d thought I would, so I’ve had to let go of some of my regular chores & activities. I looked up from the easel today, past the pile of paperwork & art supplies that I’m growing on my desk, to my potted plants in front the window … and I’ve lost the poinsettia! It hasn’t had red leaves for the last 2 years, but now I’ve lost track of when last I’ve watered it, & what leaves it does have left are curling up & falling off! I don’t have a green thumb … unless you count green paint!
I really appreciate the feedback from those of you who are enjoying reading my thoughts. If you have any questions, topics you’d like me to talk about, please comment on the post or e-mail & I’ll reply.
I’m exhausted, my eyes keep closing as I write this, I went down the rabbit hole on this painting. I knew yesterday before I started on it that I was already drained & and I should rest first, but I had several things to do first, and then I had a second wave of energy. I think now it must be some sort of adrenaline that kicks in, because I went till 5am on this painting, slept till 10 am and still put in another 2 hrs this morning.
My older boy tried to remind me, “Mom it is supposed to be a fast painting, not your best painting”. But there’s this thing that grips me, an obsession I guess, this thought that maybe I’ll get it in the next few strokes. So much can change in a few strokes. Changing the colour or the shape of something can make everything click into place & redeem the time spent.
The way I paint by blocking in colour and then pushing & pulling to build up the forms, then refining – as opposed to doing a drawing and then adding paint to it – means that I need to think through the paint, I can’t just dial it in. Or else the painting will be overworked, instead of fresh & loose. The key is to work smarter, not harder.
The problem is that when you’re overtired, your brain is impaired & it’s harder to see your way out of the spiral. Not that I was actually feeling tired at the time, but I was on autopilot. I had my headphones on, watching some series on Netflicks while I painted. It’s a bad habit I’ve picked up from my weekly sessions at a friend’s studio where she plays movies for background noise. Usually it works well for us, but I’ve been cheating & watching movies & shows I haven’t seen before, which means I’m not concentrating enough on my work. Confession time.
I have family stuff to do today, so I am going to post an older work tomorrow so that I can try and get back on track. I need to recharge my batteries so that I can start tomorrow’s painting full of energy and excitement.
Ixora is the name of a tropical flowering bush, the flowers come in many hues but I think red is the most common. I really enjoyed painting this one, I was very much in my comfort zone. On the other hand, I did spend way too long (about 10 hrs) … adjusting & adjusting! And to be honest I could keep going a little longer. So in that sense, the “daily painting experiment” is not really working out for me, I cannot keep up this pace indefinitely. My usual ideal painting schedule is to alternate long painting days with non-painting/recovery days. I will have to try setting a time limit on the next painting.
There were three arts events (in three different cities locally) that I really would have liked to attend last night, but I chose to stay in and paint. Each year as I meet more people and get more involved in the arts community, there are more events that I have to miss & although it may be a relief to make the decision when the drive is long or the weather is bad, the guilt and feeling of missing out lingers on for too long. Still, carving out the time to paint – something that many artists struggle with – is a necessity for a professional artist. Actually it’s easy to keep working at the easel & neglect everything else, though the marketing has to be done because making an income from our art allows us to continue doing the work we love, the hard part is in also prioritizing health and relationships.
How are you doing with this balancing act? Artist or not, I think this is something we all struggle with … the holy grail of life … trying to have it all.
Today I got carried away working on the painting I started yesterday, and I prefer to photograph it in natural light tomorrow morning. So, I’m posting this little painting I did in June 2011. It is currently in St. Lucia, but can be shipped internationally. E-mail me if you have questions.
Recently, people have referred to me as a flower painter, or a floral painter and it doesn’t sit well with me. Sure, there are lots of flowers in my portfolio, certainly in the last five years, but the flower (or even the foliage, which I favour) itself isn’t the point of the painting. If it were, I would regularly go to the florist & buy the most beautiful version of the flower I wanted to paint, and paint from life.
For me , painting – like writing down my thoughts – is a way of observing life, in the pursuit of insight. An important theme underlying most of my art is the search for identity through landscape painting. Some artists value imagination & innovation above all else … their aim is to create something that has never been seen or done before, others view art as a tool for persuasion … social commentary & opinion. Those are very important aspects of art, and why art is so important to cultures all over the world, through time.
My drive as an artist though, has more to do with the desire for discovery than anything else. This is evident through all stages of my creative process … the first tug comes when I see something that moves/excites me. In our world of excess, desensitization and stress, the moments of true joy are rare, so I pay attention to those moments. For me, they most often occur in nature, but I don’t have to be alone in a woods next to a babbling brook, or even in a garden, it could be under the skylight in the floral department of my local grocery store, where the light is so magical that it highlights whatever potted plant they place on the little ledge and I always have to stop for a few moments & stare.
Those are the simple things that inspire me – shadows creating interesting patterns, back-lit leaves and petals, coming across a new plant or flower with unique shapes. I love exploring new locations with my camera. I wonder around, shutter happy as I make discoveries. It’s not that I’m a very good photographer – I have a lot to learn about how adjust my camera to get the shot I want in the available light – but I love composing through the lens. For me to capture the true colours though, I’d have to paint plein air.
Which bring me back to this painting, which I did from observation (flower in hand), on a canvas I’d previously textured. Passion flowers are so exotic to me. And I remember taking pictures in the greenhouse in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, and coming across the vine near the koi pond. There were just a couple flowers, but the vines were so tantalizing, so Art Nouveau, discovering them was the highlight of my day. Every time I go back there I look to see if there are flowers on the vine so I can get a few more pictures. It’s like I said, it’s not about one perfect specimen that’s going to represent all other flowers of its type … it’s about the unique qualities of each individual flower. The combination of the flower itself & the leaves, or vines next to it, and whatever else is in the background. The environment tells the story of that flower, the same way it would in any traditional portrait painting.
For every painting I do in a year, there’s a thousand more digital photos waiting patiently on my computer. When I’m about to start a painting/series of paintings, it can be a daunting task to look through and choose reference photos that are both appropriate and intriguing. I would never dream of painting from someone else’s photos (unless it was a commission, because work is work), because each photo has memories for me … each photo is a story waiting to be told with my paintbrush.
When you paint something, you find things about it that you never knew before … like when I spend 2 months on a croton painting and discovered for the first time that there were flowers! My whole life in St. Lucia I grew up with croton bushes in our garden, in our daily lives, and I had never noticed the tiny flowers before!
Finally, reference photo(s) in hand, when I stand before the blank canvas, my adventure is just beginning, and that’s the way I like it. The photos I paint from are usually not my best, because there is nothing left to be said about them. The ones I choose have something elusive about them, and often it’s the background where I get to invent, to use emotive colour, to push & pull forms & create rhythms. I teeter on the edge of needing to find control (the perimeters of reality form a nice, safe box), and needing to break free, be spontaneous and wild. Roots and wings, another theme.
Well this post, like today’s painting, has rambled on. And I’m going to pull a Mark Twain & say, sorry, I don’t have enough time to write the short version!
BLUE ROOTS ART STUDIO – acrylic paintings of Caribbean & Canadian landscape, flowers & foliage. Burlington, ON, Canada. 905-639-3419
