Bucket List #2 - Don't Forget to Climb

Don't Forget to Climb   oil/canvas   48 x 36 x 1.5

My husband and I were blessed with three extremely active sons.  And now, two grandchildren who simply cannot sit still.  As I sit back (yeah!) and watch their antics, I am renewed by their adventuresome spirits and their delight in moving... pushing their efforts beyond what is doable, to what is possible.  Here, here!  We all have our bucket lists.  My own involves painting...in pushing myself by daily risk-taking.  I believe that we aren't really learning unless we are trying something new.  Note to self: allow my brush to skip, jump, skate and climb.  Explore the road less traveled.

At the end of the day, there is always the easy chair.

Drawing, Doing Dishes and Pulling Weeds

Drawing is the seed...the start of it all...the place where your love for a subject begins to express itself.  Amidst the daily chores of doing dishes and pulling weeds, I often find the search for large chunks of time for painting to be relentless and nagging.  After all, it takes me at least an hour to get into the zone, to shed the obsessions of life in hopes of arriving at the mindless freedom that painting is....at least for me.  Drawing takes less time.  Drawing requires fewer materials.  Drawing requires less commitment. Drawing can be more mindless, as imperfections and misplaced lines reside comfortably next to passages that are more truthful.  I enjoy their unfinished, unpolished, wabi-sabi qualities.  Drawing is where my soul finds peace.

Drawing is where I find the excitement and commitment to pursue the subject in paint.  Or not.

 One's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes.

                                                                                                                        Andrew Wyeth

One's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andrew_wyeth.html

One's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andrew_wyeth.html

Thursday Night Painting Class

Patty   watercolor   14.5 x 7

It seems that most of the artists in my classes like to try their hand at painting the human figure, which is fine by me, as it is my favorite subject!  I have read somewhere that an artist, by nature, is either a line-person or a mass-person.  While I am not sure if that is true, it can then follow that a line person probably prefers a fine tool and drawing, while a mass-person is well suited for the use of larger, more inaccurate tools, such as a large brush which is good for painterly paintings.  My goal for the class was for the painters to be able to "see" only the masses of lights and darks and midtones, avoiding then, the description of the eyes-nose-mouth-legs-arms-fingers syndrome which can lead to disappointment and more child-like rendering.  The week before the session, I set up a strong light situation in a darkened part of the room to photograph the artists as they entered.  That week, I cropped and altered the photos to promote my goal.  They were then printed on the grayscale setting.  I also offered the suggestion of painting upside down.  While there were a couple of takers, most preferred their reference rightside-up.  I believe that in this way, we can see that a likeness is more dependent on shape, than on detail.

My subject is Patty, a retired art teacher, and a strong painter.  I like the result. 

Bucket List

Don't Forget to Swing   oil/canvas   48 x 36

I am not a good tourist.  Wandering through crowds and snapping photos is painful.  Painting to me is the ultimate pleasurable activity.  And so, my personal bucket list has PAINTING on the top.  After that...many activities that reflect my desire for simple activities that flood my senses with excitement.

"Don't forget to Swing" is the first of a planned series of bucket list adventures.  My goals in this painting were many....the frozen stop moment of a swinging tire....the laxness of the chains, the wind created by the back and forth movement.  The most difficult passages involved the lessening of power of that big black tire which could easily overpower my small subject.  Every shape creates a counter-shape and these are difficult to manage.

I might be done.