Complaint Department...why my work changes drastically from one session to the next

The front desk of the complaint department of my art store (that imaginary place where I make art)is lined up with watercolor artists in my classes who register the same complaint again and again.....

...your work is never finished in class and when you bring it back, it looks entirely different...Guilty as charged. The reasons why are:

* I work within the framework of abstraction while painting realistic objects
* Time means nothing to me. Sometimes I finish before the end of the session...but that is rare
Paintings can take days to finish, or just a couple of sessions. I have goals, but they are so
flexible. My personal sense of aesthetic is the final judge. There is no checklist.
* I try to postpone the hard edges and dark values...as their harshness cannot be taken away.
I try not to commit too soon, all the while enjoying the painting process

At our last session, each artist was given three pine cones. What a difficult proposition! All that detail! All of that complex rhythm! The goal was to be able to put the form first....the details of the cones secondary. Those who obey realism the most will probably have the most difficult time, as they tend to describe the object by its detail, rather than the larger notion of its form in the composition. Although I have never been a fan of the 1..2..3..method of painting (there is no such thing as three simple steps), I will attempt to describe the progress of the cone painting visually.

The first class session was about 1 1/2 hours painting time. My goals for that beginning session where to lay down a groundwork of wonderful swirling light-valued washes that connected the three forms, while maintaining some sparkling whites. After that was done......and that is a slow process due to the amount of water on the paper and the time needed to dry it up a bit...I began LIGHTLY to describe just a bit of detail in the forms at locations that I have deemed important....all that is worked out ahead of time in preparatory drawings.

I am, and will always be, a toad. Spontaneity does not always equal speediness.

Surprises...

Tomato Basket   oil/canvas   16 x 20 x 1.5

I love surprises....just a bit of something that breaks through the ordinary. I never read programs at the theater, for example. I don't want to about the actors' real lives, at least not before the show. I want to believe the illusion that they present on stage. I rarely make the same meal twice....and when I do, it is usually a disappointment. That is why I paint like I do. Although the subject matter is concrete, I try to maneuver throughout the painting making snap judgments and relying, hopefully, on a more-or-less practiced knowledge of the design elements and principles. (The opposite, of course, being photo-realism, which allows for no surprises at all.....the goal being for the resultant work to look exactly like the photo).

"Tomato Basket" is a painting that never quite made it out of choppy water. I never ever felt all that comfortable at any stage of the painting. Uneasiness. Insecurity. I reached what I considered to be a stopping point, confident that I had attempted all possible solutions within my reach. OK. It was hung in the dining room during holiday season because of its color but each time I walked by, I questioned whether or not I should have another go at it. Our ASA critique was last evening....so I toted it along wearing my thick skin in hopes that other solutions might present themselves. Problem areas to me were not problem areas to the leader whose aesthetic sense is one I trust. Problem areas that were questioned by others were not problematic to me. I was surprised. And I will let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. Unless, that is, you have another solution that has not yet been considered...

Between the Folds...on origami...

Leap of Faith   acrylic/paper   29 x 19

We watched an amazing movie the other evening...."Between the Folds", a documentary focused on those who have become obsessed with origami....scientists, artists and mathematicians. This movie appeared at last year's Cleveland Film Festival but we were unable to attend, so anxiously awaited its release at Netflix.

Matisse said: Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium.

True. True. True. Painting is an additive art. Sculpture a subtractive. Origami uses only one given....a square piece of paper that can range in size from a few inches to several feet. Some of our era's greatest minds have given up their lives to study this discipline, a wild combination of art, math and science, and actually believe that it might hold the key to solutions in medicine. Technique has exploded since the 60's when an origami work may have had a dozen folds compared to today's works that take several days and hundreds of folds to complete. Works using thousands of folds are on the horizon.

As technique has become more important, however, several practitioners have noted the inverse relationship between technique and emotion. The more technique.....the less emotion. And these same artists, whose work in origami has spanned decades, have endeavored, after achieving great technical feats, to reinstate emotion into their work by reducing their efforts to the simple, the expressive, the abstract. Sound familiar?

The work is a ballet in progress....yes, yes, yes. If the process is good, then the end result is an object that looks good. Orchestration. Dance. Music. Yes. It's all about process. Amen.

beep...beep...beep...(annoyingly)...backing up..

Cog   watercolor/mixed   9.5 x 13

These days you can hear all sorts of vehicles backing up....dump trucks....public transportation buses and even cars. The sound is annoying to be sure. But necessary. I am backing up here to our first watercolor class. This one is the very first, where artists come somewhat prepared, but what to paint? For too many years I used apples because they were easily portable....and cheap. We cut them in various ways to make it interesting. This year I was certain I needed a change when one of the participants came prepared with an apple....just too predictable. I decided that we just needed to experience the joy of mucking around with paint...in a restricted non-objective manner. I felt some perimeters were in order:

* we attempted to preserve sparkling whites
* we had to work in the traditional watercolor way....light to dark
* we needed to use both organic and straight line (forms with those lines), with one or the other
being dominant

My hope was that we could all enjoy the freedom of painting spontaneously and non-objectively without the concerns of reality-painting, and more importantly, that we would be able to transfer this freedom to painting from reality during the subsequent lessons. All went very well. The results were admirable. "Cog" is the result of my work that night. I finished it off at home with a fat dark water-soluble crayon. I guess my brain was telling me that I need to get in gear. Get that vehicle in drive!

The sublime...the soft...the understated...

White Rose Pair   watercolor   6.5 x 20

To me, watercolor works are sublime. Soft. Understated. These days we are barraged with images from all corners of our existence and, unfortunately, those images that shout the loudest are those that stay with us. Watercolors require us to pay attention. They often speak to what is underneath the surface. And they are the most difficult to bring to fruition given the nature of the medium, which does not allow for infinite applications of paint. In a world of words, watercolor is poetry and even, perhaps, haiku. In my earlier years, I wanted watercolor to be the end-all while I went about trying to break through its limitations. That is good.....an envelope pushed. These days I find myself being more satisfied with its limitations, and even enjoying them. That is good too. Age? Fatigue? Acceptance? Whatever. "White Rose Pair" is one of my favorites.....I can actually say that I like it. Especially the small violet wash that came as a surprise.

Watercolor is full of surprises................that is its strength.

Crunch...

Winter Print   watercolor   11.5 x 8

Crunch is definitely an onomatopoeia word.....sounds like its intended meaning. And we are hearing plenty of it these days as we trod through the snow to get our mail and get to our vehicles. Crunch. The footprints left behind are a sort-of fragile relief.....many layers of to and fro....patterns that catch the light in various ways. Last year I attempted a footprint painting....in fact, I attempted two. My goal was to achieve the 3-dimensions of the pressed print left in the snow by heavily soled and corrugated boots. OK. Also.....to play with color temperature....a dominant cool painting with bits of warmth to make it more dynamic. This little project was more work that what I thought! Each stroke seemed too strong.....yet necessary for the definition of the pieces parts. The little resultant painting is confusing, I think. I don't believe that it reads as it should. The print part doesn't really read as being beneath the surface of the snow. Perhaps my aesthetic need to join the shape with the background resulted in the visual confusion. At any rate, I am still crunching away. Maybe I will try it again.....next winter.

It Takes a Village...

Every Mother's Daughter   oil/canvas   36 x 48

I am a painter.....yes, indeed. And a painter with focus, I believe. But I am a mother, first of all. We human beings are very fragile....our children are fragile.....and I believe that the responsibility of raising feel-good children belongs to us all. Many years ago, I painted a young friend while she was still a university student. For me, she epitomized the notion of openness, of inclusion....she still does. She posed, somewhat painfully, on the fireplace mantle in her small apartment, with an Indian mandala cloth tacked up on the wall behind. This holiday season I heard from dear Kate.....she is really one of a handful (sadly - yes) of women I have met who celebrate others as well as themselves....who understand the notion of different but equal.....a very difficult lateral adjustment for those of us who grew up within the vertical ladder of success of authoritarian behavior. ( Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm) Sure, she demonstrates good-for-me......but she also celebrates good-for-you. She is the product of lots of love....from her parents.....and from the village. She now lives in LA and works in Hollywood in the movie industry....and travels the globe. Good for you, Kate!

Giving Pause...

So Young Worries   watercolor/mixed   15.5 x 10

We should pay more attention to those things, those events and those life passages that give us pause. I love that catch-phrase "giving pause"! I believe that it is our creative subconscious at work, highlighting notions to which we should be paying more attention....those designs, those colors, those fragments of knowledge that help to define our individual selves. And, counter-likewise, when we see works, actions and events that "turn us off", we should pay attention as well. Those negatives help us to see what we are not.

Defining our individual selves as artists is quite difficult. I think that we should avoid trying to paint like Joe, or Pablo, or whomever. By gradually eliminating what we are not, we should be able to come up with, over time, what we are.....hopefully. ATTENTION MUST BE PAID.

Who knows why some images just stick in our brains? It happens to me now and again. My daughter-in-law recently shared a book on Picasso with me that she is using as inspiration in her job as a designer at The Tea Collection. I thumbed through the pages enjoying them all. Then, a week later, I found that I just could not forget one in particular. "Woman with a Crow" was done in charcoal, pastel and watercolor. The overall effect is so immensely pleasing to me.....the subject matter, the way the color is used, the vibrant colors that were selected.....and the paint quality. In addition, this work is owned by The Toledo Museum of Art, my daughter-in-law's home town.....quite a coincidence! This image, for me, may represent a direction for discovering my artistic self. Perhaps not. But I am wealthier for taking note and really really infusing this painting into my soul.

Purgatory Ain't Nothin' But The Blues

During the weeks of altered Christmas reality, where I seem obsessed with making lists and sub-lists of those lists, an image from the newspaper caught my eye.....no time for this....remain on current list-track.....can't help it.....it is powerful and amazing......there before me was an article by Dorothy Shinn reviewing an exhibit by former Akronite and always-my-hero-and-inspiration Tyrone Geter. By the time the article appeared, the exhibit was almost over. We made it into the little-known-and-had-to-be-unlocked gallery on the last day, January 4. This man and his work bowl me over! His drawing skills are extraordinary. His expressiveness beyond compare. The resultant charcoals speak, yet softly, across a room. These newer works combined collage, with torn and cut paper, and assemblage with his drawing and painting. Beautifully-constructed boxes held some of the work. His heritage and his elevated consciousness are beautifully told. For a short while, I was transported into his world. What a wonderful gift! Thank you, Tyrone Geter, for your stories. Thank you, Tyrone Geter, for sharing your growth with Akron.........Thanks..............I needed that.

Winter Red...a simply cardinal painting

Winter Red   watercolor   19 x 12.5

It has been snowing for days on end....beautiful quiet stuff. Peaceful. Our home has been emptied of holiday visitors (sigh) and we are back to our pre-holiday rhythms....albeit a bit slower than usual. Outside our window, however, is a feed-fest. Our bird feeders are open 24/7 for the cold and hungry. Watching the diners is like peeking into the microcosm of human and animal behavior. Big bullies. The tolerant and the not-so. The flighty. The stable. Those with beautiful coats pure in color. Those who sport tasteful neutrals. It is both enjoyable and entertaining. Peaceful it is not.