Golden...

Five O'Clock Shadow   watercolor   20 x 13

It really is a great time to paint landscapes...what, with all the color and all.  Our weekly painting assignment was to capture a beautiful autumn landscape with our cameras.  We would be painting from our photos, as working outdoors is impossible during class.  ( I do believe, however, that those who paint out of doors on a regular basis are more able to translate these photos in a realistic and natural way).  I don't much enjoy landscapes.  I prefer including houses or people or some element of humanity.  My husband does not understand it.  That being said, I was fretting about the weekly assignment myself.  Our niece's wedding reception was being held at Hale Farm and Village.  Accompanying us were my husband's parents who had made the trip up from North Carolina.  As there was a bit of a gap between the wedding and the reception, we sat on picnic tables in the crisp autumn air, waiting for the the caterers to complete the set-up.  Voila.  Before me the sun was magical in its goldenness.  The time: 5 pm.  The memory:  wonderful.  "Five O'Clock Shadow" was the result.  My assignment:  complete.

Whew.

Goal Setting and Problem Solving...

What's Up Jack?  watercolor/gouache   11.75 x 7

are things we strive for in each class.  They vary from session to session.  At the first class, I try to establish a list of problems that artists would like to work on.  One of the suggestions was learning to paint things that are wet.....things that reflect into wetness.  Who among us has not greatly admired those night time street scenes where tail lights and street lights are reflected into the wet pavement?  Replicating such a problem in our classroom with overhead lighting is a bit tricky.  We brought in small vanity mirrors and placed objects on top in order to understand the object/reflected object relationship.  Very tricky.  In our particular situation, the reflected objects seemed just as solid as the objects themselves.  I chose a vertical format and also chose to elongate the reflection that I saw for aesthetic purposes.  My subject matter - "jacks" - was so simple that I added calligraphy words related to the game.

Great fun.  Memories of many childhood hours playing jacks on the sidewalk. 

Onesies.  Cherries in a basket.  Paintsies.

Paper Dolls? Surely you Jest........

Paper Linda  watercolor/mixed...a paper doll  11.5.x 7

Paper Linda (back)

One of our first creative problems to solve in watercolor class involved the making of paper dolls.  Needless to say, the project was met with skepticism.  My motivation was twofold:  to understand the moving of painting in three dimensions in the focal area (the face) to a more flatly rendered body and clothing; as well as to paint what is imagined, yet unseen (the back of the figure).

Artists brought picture of themselves as children.  One artist just painted a self-portrait that moved from detail into more of an abstract presentation at the bottom.  I ended up painting a front and a back, as well, stitched the edges on my sewing machine and stuffed it lightly with cotton balls.  All in all, the project was a bit of silly fun.  Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously.

I love technology...

Dappled   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

when I am able to view an exhibit online.  "Dappled" was selected for inclusion in the Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional exhibition being held at Walls Gallery in Wilmington, North Carolina.

I feel honored to have my work shown in this good company!

Walls Gallery

The Drawing of the 10,000 Kernels...

Indian Corn...a sketch

began last evening....each artist was given an ear of dried Indian corn to draw.  The results were fabulous!  Each drawing was as individual as the artist him/herself.  The twisting leaves were a challenge, as well as the rendering of the rows of multi-colored kernels.  We re-learned that the form of the entire ear is more important, and should be more dominant, than the individual kernels.  Even the beginning artists turned out highly successful drawings.  Pleasant surprises......let the good times roll.

Last Chance...

Sunflower Head   watercolor   8 x 8

warnings always bring me back to reality.  As I spend a good deal of time in my imagination, I tend to overlook some important things until they become a crisis:  i.e.  last gas station for the next 200 miles, last chance to use the restroom until the plane lands, and last chance to visit Stuckey's pecan roll superstore.  The sunflowers came and went in my garden throughout the summer.  As they waned, we placed the heads near the bird feeder.  I thought the opportunity to paint them had passed me by.  Then early in September, I noticed two tender sunflowers that had sprouted from the bird droppings.  Having painted sunflowers many times before, I wanted this attempt to be different from all of the others.

It was, after all, my last chance.

Painting Challenges...

Bartlett Pear   watercolor and thread   5 x 8

are an excellent way to keep one's work fresh.  Most professional artists I know give themselves challenges on a regular basis.  Goal-setting is a related notion.  It keeps us from stagnation or becoming embedded in a comfort zone.  On the first night of watercolor class, we were each given a pear and selected a goal out of a hat.  My goal was to focus on value only by painting in one color.  Others were:  painting only with a flat brush; using an analogous color palette; using a power stroke; using both organic and straight line; and using a huge wash brush for the entire painting. 

"Bartlett Pear" is the result.  I used only a brown mix that was in the mixing well during class.  The yellow-green was added at home.

Seeing the Universal in the Specific

Many years ago I was assigned, by the print company for which I worked, to paint a series of angels.  I worked so hard on those angels.  But the series was rejected for print because they looked too much like real people.  I have struggled with this notion.  I yearn to see universal humanity through an individual, not the reverse.  The market is flooded with images of generic people, done so because, supposedly, more people can relate when a particular visage is rendered in an undefinable way.  These images smack of mass marketing to me and seem somehow cheapened.  And so it goes.

So when I read the following quote about H. Craig Hanna on the website from Amelia Johnson Contemporary, my heart was lightened.....someone else feels the same as I do.

 He paints recognizable human beings as opposed to standard images of physically perfect or stereotypically imperfect 'types'.  They are not, however, portraits, and most have their identities effaced, faces obstructed, but their presence is the strongest and most captivating element in the painting.

 Affirmation.  Sweet.