Last night I sliced the tomato from the previous painting, and painted this composition. What do you think of fruit & vegetables as subject matter? I’d like to try citrus next. I had a couple more tomatoes in the fridge … but they seem to have disappeared!
One week of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge down, and three more to go – I am so happy to be back to painting every day. When I am in between projects my to-do list grows into this big monster, EVERYTHING seems important! A regular painting routine gives focus to my hectic day, helps me put things into perspective, and keeps me (and by extension my family) sane.
Can you relate to this – do you have a creative practice? Or does regular exercise do it for you?
I think gardening and cooking are also great activities for connecting to your inner self, there is a certain amount of repetition which is necessary for getting into that spiritual zone.
Contemplating art can also focus your thoughts, and serve as a reminder of what is important to you. Is it creating delicious, meals, and entertaining your friends and family? Do you grow your own food, or shop at Farmer’s Markets to ensure a supply of healthy ingredients?
I think paintings of fruits and vegetables are appealing because they celebrate both Nature’s bounty, and the comforts of domestic life.
Looking through my digital photographs last night, I could not settle on something to paint. I wanted to do something simple and fast because I was starting late, and the images that were appealing to me were detailed, more appropriate for larger canvases. So I decided to grab something from the kitchen, to try painting a still-life arrangement from life.
The longer I painted, the more I saw to paint. The thing about realism is that it is seductive. I did not plan on doing a realistic painting, but it is such a thrill to add a highlight or a shadow and see the image in front of you appear to have volume, it’s like a magic trick. And the longer you look, and paint, the more realistic the painting becomes.
I will have to make a conscious effort to avoid this tendency if I want to do more semi-abstract art. Some artists put away the paintbrushes to achieve this … working with a palette knife, or another medium.
You’ll just have to wait to see what happens next. I am really liking the idea of working in multiples of 3’s for the rest of the challenge. So, I could do 2 more tomato paintings.
It has been a busy “back-to-school” week, every day the kids brought home more homework for ME – an endless stream of forms to fill out, checks to write, shopping to do and appointments to make. So, I am no longer “ahead” when it comes to the challenge.
Today I attended a meeting at Burlington City Hall, to discuss the Culture Days event that I will be participating in on Sept 26, 12-9pm. They are providing me with a canopy, table & chairs, and I will be painting my heart out in public, in front of City Hall! Of course I have painted with people around many times before, but this is the first time I’m going to attempt to start and finish an actual painting with people coming and going (and filming and photographing). And, it’s outside!
It will be a very full and fun day, “featuring activites and performances from musicans, dancers, filmmakers, poets, fine artists, photographers and more!” The Burlington Fine Artists Association plein air group will also be setting up wherever they find interesting spots, to paint the goings on. If you’re in the area, add this date to your calender, I look forward to seeing you there!
Today’s painting is from a photograph I took of the view from my Godmother’s house a few years ago. Coubaril is an interesting neighbourhood in St. Lucia, as a child I always felt as if we were going somewhere special and magical when we entered the area. The trees form a canopy overhead and the road is narrow, so it is like you are going through a tunnel.
Anyway, many of the houses are on sloped properties, and there are also a lot of these black rocks in the gardens. I’m glad I don’t have to cut their lawns, it must be quite the workout. On the other hand, as a kid, it is great for playing hide and seek!
This variety of heliconia … the “sexy pink” is very exotic looking. I only recently came across it in St. Lucia. We do have a wide range of heliconias … my other favorite is the yellow and red “lobster claw”.
Originally, this was a realistic painting, but I decided it was too busy and I wanted to experiment with carving out the negative space. From there I decided to contrast the realism of the flower with colour blocks. The turquoise is from Paris … Sennelier acrylic … my kind of souvenir.
Here is the third canvas in the Torch Ginger Trio. As I mentioned before, the paintings can be hung/purchased individually or as a group.
They are inspired by my recent trip to the Caribbean, where exotic flowers & foliage abound!
Torch Ginger Trio, a view of all three paintings
I enjoyed painting these in a very loose, flowing style, I’m looking forward to doing it on a larger scale, where I stand & use my whole body – painting from the shoulder, instead of the wrist.
Meanwhile, with the painting I will post tomorrow, I went in the opposite direction.
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This was the first painting I did in this set of 3, but all are inspired by the same photograph that I took of some torch ginger lilies on my recent trip to the Caribbean. They can be purchased and/or hung individually, or as a grouping.
My collection of reference photos has probably grown too large … it takes a long time to choose something to paint!
I’m thinking of heliconia next though … what do you think?
Yes. I am that crazy. They say if you need something done, give it to a busy person to do … and I know that to be true. So, at a time when I am completely overwhelmed by how much I have on my plate, I’ve signed up to do Leslie Saeta’s 30 paintings in 30 days challenge again this year – along with over 800 other artists from all over the world.
Admittedly, it is a form of escapism. Self-medicating with art therapy, meditation, however you think of it, there is something about the act of painting that centers a person. It forces you to be in the moment, and the more you give in to your instincts, trust your intuition, the easier the work flows out of you. And you are changed by the process. Art is my mood-altering drug of choice.
After a fantastic 5 week working vacation to the Caribbean, my return home has not been an easy transition. It felt as if a giant baby picked up my house, shook it like a rattle & then put it back down. It seemed everything was in the wrong place, and it’s taken me almost 2 weeks to get a handle on it.
Some of this is our own doing – a make-over for my son’s bedroom – and some of it is due to a freak flood that happened in our area (2 months worth of rain in 3hrs), which seeped into our basement. We have to replace the flooring, and I’ve had to empty my office/storage room and slowly but surely I’m purging through paperwork etc. that has accumulated over the years. Two of the items I unearthed were a calender from 1993 – the year I started University – and a vinyl sign (Aquavisions by Donna Gomez) from my first solo exhibition in 1996.
It will take time to go through, there is a large portfolio of older drawings that got partially wet & has some mildew. I’d like to photograph the drawings before getting rid of them, and each one is charged with nostalgia. I am considering turning this into a little art project.
As I look forward to other things coming up this month, I realize it would be easy for the weeks & months to zip by before I get back to a more consistent painting routine. So, instead of waiting till the chaos is over, I’m going to accept this as the new normal. And I’m going to balance the chaos with creativity.
This painting of torch ginger lilies is one of a trio of small paintings I just completed. They may be purchased individually or as a group. I will post one a day, I just wanted to get a couple days ahead of the challenge so that there isn’t too much pressure to produce. And this may be the longest blog post for some time, most days I will probably just post the image & details.
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This challenge was a great way to start out the new year! I really enjoyed making my painting a priority this month, because the last couple months had been about building this new website, preparing for the studio tour, then for the exhibition in Paris, then Christmas with my family and so I was craving time at the easel.
Doing the challenge in the public eye was a wonderful way to hold myself accountable, but also it made it easy to carve out the time because friends and family knew this was my priority this month. There are a lot of loose ends to tie up now, and things to catch up on, so February is promising to be just as busy as January. However, I’ve decided to build on this experience by posting a “painting in a day” once a week on this blog. Starting on Thurs February 6th.
Leslie Saeta, the artist who initiated this challenge, asked for feedback from the 400 artists taking part. She did a podcast on it yesterday, on her internet radio show Artists helping Artists and she read my response – it’s at the 18:31 mark. If you’re an artist and you haven’t come across this resource before, I recommend the AHA show as something to listen to while you paint – second to music of course.
It was funny to hear Leslie remark that I “should be a writer”, because I’ve found that one of the things that came out of this was I gave in to blogging. Each day I’d write my thoughts at the time of posting, with no preconceived plan, and no time to edit beyond a quick read through or two. Normally I do this type of writing as part of my creative process, and no-one else sees it. However, I’ve received some great responses to the writing, and I think in the long run blogging does enrich my work by allowing me to present a wider view of my artistic production.
So thank you everyone for following, for taking the time to keep me company on this journey and giving encouragement by way of commenting, sharing and best of all, investing in my art!
This is the last painting of the challenge, a photo I’ve wanted to paint for a long time, I think it has a narrative quality to it. I could dispel the mystery right now by giving the location, but I’m curious to see who will recognize it. Let me know, in the comments below!
Technically this painting was completed before midnight, but I waited to photograph it this morning. I really should have picked a simpler image so that I could get done faster, but I was drawn to this one, and I’d rather paint something that intrigues me than something easy.
This is another painting that I could see myself doing again, larger. It would be completely different of course, since each brushstroke I make and each colour I mix is in the moment, but the general structure would be the same. Then again, there are so many things to paint – each day brings new inspiration if you’re open to it. So I probably won’t circle back.
I’m going to create a collage of the 30 paintings, that will be in another post later today.
One of the things I love about tropical landscape is its resilience. Even with drastic weather – drought and hurricanes – Nature persists, it finds another way to exist. If a big tree comes down, it lets light in for smaller plants to flourish.
On one hand you have beautifully manicured lawns and flower gardens, which take regular maintenance to upkeep or else the wild will take over! On the other hand, left to itself, it turns into a big tangle of bushes, trees and flowers that are strangled by vine and bloom anyway! There is a intensity about this lush vegetation, the sunlit leaves and bright colourful flowers scream with optimism, with a great gusto for life.
The landscape endures natural and man-made changes, and outlives us all. You can stand under a coconut tree and look out at the seascape, and the view, the feeling of the gentle breeze on your face, the sun on your skin and the sand between your toes is the same that someone would have experienced hundreds of years ago. Being in Nature makes you realize how small we are, how insignificant in the flow of time, and it gives you perspective.
This painting is based on photos I took in an elderly friend’s garden, when I visited the island many months after she had passed. The aging house had been left to rot away, she didn’t have family or means, and only minimum maintenance was done in her later years. New owners had plans to level the building to the ground and build something new and big in its place. Her beautiful and bountiful garden was left untouched, except for neighbours and passersby picking fruit off the trees. The roses, ginger lilies, bird of paradise flowers etc. that she used to make bouquets as gifts for friends were strangled in vine.
It was sad, and yet so beautiful.
I took so many photos that day, and then on subsequent trips. Later, I did the same thing with my Grandfather’s garden, I was drawn to it. As an avid horticulturalist he had some amazing things in there, and although it has not been completely neglected, little by little the magic slipped away.
At one point I was going to do a series of paintings based on this theme, but I guess I got busy with some project, followed by another project and it’s just been sitting waiting for me.
I feel as deeply about this idea for a series as I do about the one yesterday. And although the theme/sentiment is different, the paintings seem to go together. I think it has to do with the personification of the flowers. I’ve always maintained that I’m not just painting a flower, the image usually has more meaning to me that that … which is sometimes reflected in the title.
Hmm. The cogs are turning … time to figure out what I’m going to paint for Day 30!
BLUE ROOTS ART STUDIO – acrylic paintings of Caribbean & Canadian landscape, flowers & foliage. Burlington, ON, Canada. 905-639-3419
