Inspirations

Yes, I've prepped some canvases. So I was not as idle last week as I was for the past two months! I have some good pieces planned, which I look forward to posting about, but in the meantime I have fodder for a few years worth of painting. I spent much of this summer traveling and spending time with family, and I came away with inspirations from images I saw and people I met.

When I travel I tend to visit galleries, and I like going places where the artists actually play a role in the gallery. The family-run Frykman Studio Gallery in Door County, WI is one, and the MPAF Artist's Coop in Monterey, CA is another (in which I have spent a lot of time and money over the past year, as I have attempted furnish my apartment while modeling my own business model on theirs). While wandering I've also run into art professors, a print maker and an oil painter my age.

Among all the people I met the most applicable conversation I had was with this painter, who had a tattoo of a Miro design on his forearm that looked to me like an airplane orbiting and lassoing the earth at the same time. I love Miro and all things Barcelona. But the point is that he was doing what I am in the process of beginning. He is specifically not selling - in fact he isn't even referring people to images of his art - because he is developing a solid body of work that is all going the direction he wants it to go. Once he has that repertoire he will presumably reenter the commercial art world. But he's my age and he's a good bartender and he loves to paint. I really enjoyed comparing notes with him.

I'm moving abroad in about a month, and I have some painting to do before I get there. But once I arrive I intend to do the same as he. I will no longer sell, but I will set up a studio and develop a strong body of work that is going the direction I want it to go. I will share it on this forum, but shipping is an issue so unless you come visit me I won't be selling. That said, I've been racking up images as fodder, and with my quasi-new digital camera I can share them with you! These will all be incorporated into the repertoire I develop, if only in experimenting with the play of light or the contour of a sea lion's skin. Please share your thoughts with me on how I can consider interpreting these images!

Door County



Sea Lion in Monterey



Ripples



Acadia



Lobster Boats



Rockland Sunset



Moules

Summer Vacation

Ashley's Bouquet



Stats: 8x8x1.25 in. oil on canvas
Playlist: Brazil Soundtrack
Beverages: Evolution #9 (excellent Washington white blend)

I've been remiss. This summer I have been doing more traveling than painting, and while this has resulted in a distinct downturn in "production," I have netted a lot of nice inspiration. This summer has been busy, hectic and hot. May and June were filled with local social engagements, and one of the most memorable was my friends' wedding. They had a lovely ceremony, a very classy reception, and the best part of all of it was having the chance to celebrate such an important milestone among very good friends.

Having a somewhat fluid concept of the passage of time, I somehow ended up with one of the bridesmaids' bouquets, which had been left I believe at the bar we went to after the reception. I thought I would try drying it and then give it to the bride, but that failed miserably. Not one to pass up a good, free still life model, I painted it first. I have not decided what to do with this painting - I haven't been painting these still lifes randomly for self edification recently. However, given that the bouquet represents such a significant event celebrated among good friends that intend to remain close throughout our lives, I believe I will give it to the Maid of Honor so that she is never lonely and always reminded of her good friends. Fortunately she has a spotty internet connection, so I am not afraid of her reading this post before I give it to her.

July followed with trips to Wisconsin, California and Maine, and I came away with some excellent mental images that will stand me in good stead for the next six to 10 months as I search for inner inspiration. I will post on these separately, since I took many photos of light rippling in the water, etc., that I would like to share with you. Now it's August. The heat seems to have broken, and I have commissions to do!

As a fair warning, I will be taking orders through the end of this week. Your deadline is Friday, 20 August if you want me to do a painting for you. After that point I will be focusing on moving overseas and will change my art objective from producing art to sell to delving into my craft and amassing a good body of work.

Irises

Stats: 10x8x.75" oil on canvas
Playlist: Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland
Beverage: Dark and stormy

It's funny. I had this open studio, and then I kept my own art up for my parents to see when they visited two weekends later, and a lot of people had the same comment. My floral still lifes are abstract. They're technically not - they're just painted quickly with liberal interpretation of shape. I like getting into the zone and painting what I see, but sometimes I'm not looking at the same image I started off with. I shift to the left or right. For example, in the tulips I painted in +/- I completely forgot to paint a blossom that would have been located in the upper left corner.

Those who know me will understand this as a common theme in my personal life. Oh yeah, the most basic life thing - usually washing the dishes - totally slipped my mind. I focus so much on other things I am passionate about that I sometimes miss the basic step of "which bag did I put my sunglasses in." (Three weeks later I remembered.) I blame it on the right-brainedness. In my defense, when I'm on top of a subject, I'm really, truly on top of it. That subject just does not happen to be location of sunglasses.

Painting is an outlet, after all, and when I tried to make it something else I got so frustrated that I stopped for three years. I know my limitations and I know my strengths. I try to play to my strengths by painting quickly, with energy, so that I feel as though I am expressing my soul in creativity. One of my favorite songs to listen to while painting is a French song by Mylene Farmer called "Dessines-moi un mouton" (Draw me a sheep). In the chorus it says "le monde est vide sans imagination" (the world is empty without imagination), and I feel like I am being true to my contribution to the world when I paint.

All that said, as I've grown in my appreciation for using art as a personal creative outlet, and listening to my inner creativity, I have found space to expand and develop my own technique. But let me tell you - that did not happen in a college course. It was only when I returned to the love of expressing creativity that I could apply formulas.

So, as an artist who knows her academic theory, I posit to you that no, these floral still lifes such as "Lillies" are not in fact abstract. They are rather an expression of my inner creativity - at its peak since I was painting for my mother and I tend to express personal feelings about "clients" in paintings. A true expression of how I view the flowers in actuality. I will partially cede to you and call them "abstracted." But for me these frenetic flowers are real.

+/-^2

Orchids Positive



Orchids Negative



Stats: 2 10x8x3/4 oil on canvas
Playlist: See previous post
Beverage: Dark and stormy

These two follow the previous two positive and negative tulip paintings from my previous post. The same theory applies - the negative images uses all complementary colors. Again, let me know where to go from here! I got some great feedback from the Open Studio, which I will post next time, but I always look for more.

On a side note, I like this composition better than the tulips, and the flowers lasted a lot longer. I am going to have to raise my prices to be able to comfortably afford to paint orchids from now on. They are lovely.

+/-

Tulips Positive



Tulilps Negative



Stats: 10x8x3/4 oil on canvas
Playlist: Newly downloaded - Vorspiel, The Planets - Jupiter, Lever du Jour, Lux Aeterna (from Requiem for a Dream), I Believe, Lake Michigan (da lake), Love in Vain, October, Feeling Good (Nina Simone), Heart Skipped a Beat, Intro, Heart of Hearts, Electric Feel
Beverage: Water

In preparation for my Open Studio I did some crash painting. I love these two sets of pieces. This and my next post focus on something I am going to delve more into over the next few months. Rather than think so much about making my paintings interesting from an academic standpoint, I decided to stick to my preferred technique but make my theme academically interesting.

If you can guess what that theme is you get bonus points. Comment and let me know if you did - I'll work out some sort of prize mechanism. Honor system applies.

I love color. Why deny it? So I took one painting of the positive image of some tulips I picked up across the street, then flipped it and did the second piece in negative. It's like the positive and negative image of a photograph. In the positive image I stayed true to the original colors. In the negative image I used the same palette but literally flipped each color to its exact complementary color. Blue became orange, red became green, yellow highlights of "light" turned into light purple highlights.

Painting it felt like doing sudoku for a color-obsessed person. What do you think? Any suggestions on how I can take this type of theme deeper?

Flying Buttresses

Stats: "Roark" 30x15x.75 oil on canvas
Playlist: French and Brazilian music
Beverage: Dark and Stormy with curiously old ginger beer. Mental note: It is a new year. Buy new ginger beer.

Yes, I named a painting after the main character in The Fountainhead. Although this painting is really taken from a photo I took of the flying buttresses at the National Cathedral, when I finished it it reminded me of the cover of the book The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I always liked the main character, rogue architect Roark, so I thought the name was appropriate.

This painting was designed to allow me to play with my interpretation of composition, light and color of a classic architectural element. I have always loved flying buttresses. What kind of a term is that, anyway? Aside from whatever the word's etymology does to attract my attention, though, I like the fact that they create unique lines from behind which light pokes out in an interesting fashion.

I wanted to show that the sky at the top of the cathedral's hill can get stunningly blue, and that the building itself turns pink in certain lighting. I used my palette to accentuate these features, which led to a green-less palette. I also insisted on painting this entire thing in one fell swoop. I started the blue background only 30 minutes after painting an orange wash over the entire canvas, so none of the layers of color are unique to what I had mixed on my palette. Each color took something from underneath. I suppose that also lends a post-industrial, anti-communist, freedom of expression sheen to the piece that Ayn Rand would be proud of. Every layer is built off of a foundation of rusted iron ore (transparent iron oxide orange), to give it a new, expressive life. It also makes for a pleasant evening and quick work.

I will be doing more quick work this weekend. In preparation for my upcoming Open Studio, I want to return to my roots and do five 8x10 floral still life sketches. Two pairs will be positive-negative images, and one is a commission for my mom to go with Pink Tulips. I intend to spend 45 minutes on each. Stay tuned!

Seasons

Seasons I: Winter



Stats: 18x24x.5 in. oil on canvas
Playlist: Shostakovich
Beverage: Water

Seasons II: Spring



Stats: 18x24x.5 in. oil on canvas
Playlist: Khachatourian, French music, Jack Johnson's September Sessions
Beverage: Water

After purchasing a digital camera last November I have been steadily compiling images from life over the past few months, with the intention of putting them onto canvas. These two paintings of a series entitled "Seasons" capture Winter and Spring. I painted both of them on identically sized canvases with a transparent iron oxide red wash to make the blue of the sky pop. I wanted to finish one yesterday, and the Winter piece only took about an hour total. So I thought, alright, time to move on to the tree blossoms! That took longer. But it was still worth it. They're relatively simple, almost like sketches, but they depict what I wanted to show.

Speaking of which, here are my original photos from which I painted these two pieces.



Winter was taken outside of the National Cathedral during one of the blizzards we had this February. I snowshoed over to the Cathedral in the middle of the blizzard, climbed onto a snowbank outside of the Cathedral grounds, and took this photo of an icicled lamppost. Yes, I snowshoe.



Spring was taken on one of our nice sunny days in April while walking to a friend's house for lunch. I stood under this blossoming tree in the Rosedale Conservancy, an estate/dog park. As you can imagine, allergy season is upon us in DC. This piece, and the simplicity of the composition, was also inspired by some watercolors of cherry blossoms I had recently seen at the Japanese Festival. I wanted to show contrast between the blue and pink colors, and simplicity of composition rather than depth.

My next two projects are going to be the Cathedral, which turns pink just before sunset every day, and an abstracted version of the Cathedral's flying buttresses (my all time favorite architectural term). After using a brush for the two Seasons paintings I am going to try to depart from that texture and use exclusively palette knives.

I've been painting for my own inventory lately but that doesn't mean I am not taking orders. Please feel free to request pieces. In the meantime I am hoping to have an Open Studio with the ones I'm currently working on some time in May. I'm taking donations of finger foods and bartenders for that event, as well.