Guest

Guest   oil/canvas   8 x 24 x .75

We had quite a few guests over the Christmas holiday....our sons from California, our son from Virginia, their lovely wives, our new grandson.....and....snow!  Those who live in San Francisco relish the opportunity to see snow...feel snow...and enjoy the feeling that this season provides.  This is, after all, the yard in which they grew up....running, hooping-it-up, raking, and gathering.  The mood was all-important here...the feeling that this scene emits.  Values in the mid-range help to tell the gauze-like story of the gray day.  Guests....

oh, the memories...sketching during family celebrations...Nate in the car

Nate in the Car...a sketch

of Christmas 2011!  They came.  We ate. We played.  We enjoyed.  We hiked.  We listened.  They went.  All the people that I love in this world!  It is always so bittersweet!  The tree has been disassembled and the cookie tin emptied.  I keep in touch with my pencils during this time of altered reality by using small moments for small,  intimate and, hopefully, soft drawings of my loved ones that will sustain me while the merriment ends.  I never ask anyone to pose, so often the drawings remain imperfect and unfinished.  Sometimes that is definitely for the best.  Stopping too soon is always preferable in my book...sketchbook, that is.  Love.

Critique

The Red Shoes   watercolor/gouache   25 x 14

Last week, I was invited to critique work at our club meeting - The Akron Society of Artists. It is an exciting event and I can rarely sleep afterward. To be surrounded by so many people of like mind is just the best......people who are stimulated by the many ways of visually expressing the world around us. Thomas Edison said "I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world". This is how I feel about my painter friends. Of course, some painters leave the meeting elated after having received positive affirmation from their peers. And.....some are discouraged and disappointed. We have all experienced a little of both. For me, the goal is always to be able to self-critique as much as possible, so that the visual problem-solving is somewhat resolved before the painting is presented. I took the painting "The Red Shoes" to critique many years ago and will never forget what the critique-leader said (do we ever?).....that he liked the painting but wasn't sure about the red shoes. Well, for me, the whole point of the painting was indeed the red shoes, and the character of the person who dares to wear them! Definitely my son Nate! I this case, I ignored the comment and have continued to enjoy the painting.....and especially the red shoes.

Birthday

Independent   pastel/paper   20 x 13

Today is my son's birthday. My husband and I are excited to give him a call and have been trying to figure out the best time to do it as he lives three time zones away. I credit my children for giving me the depth of love that it takes to paint - to feel so deeply that it almost hurts, and to risk all for what you believe in. In "Independent" my son Nate posed for my Kent watercolor class. He actually fell asleep during the pose! (oh that I could relax so well!) The watercolor didn't work out so well and then transformed itself into a pastel. A morphing so to speak. Commitment. Thomas Edison said: "Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged." Thanks, Tom. I needed that.