Another Long Wait

Hi everyone, I know I'm not the most prolific blogger and it's been a while since I've posted anything but time just seems to fly by faster and faster all the time. I thought I had better post an update at the very least that I have been working on several paintings, none of which I am ready to post....but I will do so ASAP.

So in place of a painting, here is the view from my window yesterday afternoon. The weather is getting a little frostier now after a pretty nice November.

The bit of news I do have is that I have joined a site called Fine Art America, and for those of you who are artists please check it out to sell prints of your own work. What I like about this site, is they print on demand your artwork or photos onto canvas, prints and cards...so if you didn't know what to do with your paintings or before you sell of the originals on Etsy, get them scanned and onto FAA.  Most of their services are free and if you want more, the fee is very little. They also provide an online shopping cart for  your Facebook fan page....no cost.  I guess I can't say enough about them, check FAA out and decide for yourself.

Please feel free to come and check out my page at FAA and leave me a comment.

At Long Last, A Painting

Speaking the truth....I've had such difficulty painting anything since the beginning of the summer, then I remembered and put into practice a mentor's wise words about "painting mindlessly". So I finally let go and forgot about everything, not caring about the outcome or how the  painting looked and came up with this...Spirit Woman.

It was such a relief to enjoy painting something again after having such a hard time, getting caught up in being afraid to ruin what I already had put on canvas, getting past the bottom of the curve so to speak. It was quite paralyzing and kept me from taking paintings where they needed to go. I have a half started painting waiting for me to let loose on.....oh dear, I have to get brave all over again. 

Self Portrait

My version of me. I used photo reference for my face and hair but was influenced by the painting  underneath....yes, I was covering up an old painting again but I got the inspiration for the shawl wrapped around the shoulders from that painting. I just went with what I saw and this piece came together surprisingly quickly without some the usual pulling out of hair and not knowing what to do. 

 I love to blast loud music when I'm  painting, particularly tribal music, something with lots of drums and primal energy. It keeps me out of my head and painting from the soul, so to speak. I believe I was listening to a collection of didgeridoo music for this one.

The previous painting still shows, and how I was influenced by the stripes of colours to create the wrap. The old painting was actually painted over the previously mentioned "Fear of Flying" piece from my prior post...so there are actually three paintings going on here.

This is about the extent of any mapping out I do for most of my paintings. Sometimes I just slap paint on and see what images emerge and then pull those images out of the mix, but lately I've been trying to at least plan a starting point for my paintings...and then I blast the music.

Spirit Helper

After the mental anguish of my previous series of paintings, I started using some reference for my figures, not to copy them but to use as a starting point for shape and anatomy. So here's what I came up with. I'm still starting my paintings without really knowing how I want them too look, they just emerge as I go and things get changed around a lot sometimes. There's a few areas I would still change or finish off better but I've left it alone for now since I have a tendency go back and make a mess of things, so I'm a little scared to do the touch ups needed. 

The first picture is the finished version so far. I'm rather liking it. It came from a place far away from where I started as can be seen in the photo series below.

I wasn't loving the bear too much, so out it came and was replaced with another...oh how to let go of attachments to certain things, kind of like a life lesson.

This was my starting place which is actually on top of another painting I didn't finish. The small figure in the background is from the old painting. I rather liked it but as you can see he didn't end up in the final painting....letting go of attachments again. I look at this forlorn blue face and wonder what sort of pain is coming out through my painting. When I look at this early version and compare it to the finished one, I rather like this one better for it's raw energy and emotion. It's always a struggle as a painter to know when to stop and how to keep that first magical energy from getting too refined. It's a hard balancing act indeed. 

Awakening

I had been struggling with a painting previous to this one that had to do with flying, I painted most of it and then got caught up in an area I didn't like....I'm sad to say I let my temper get the better of me and I ended up painting over the whole thing...it no longer exists.  

But what does that have to do with this painting? Well, after my attempt to paint the flying theme, I started another painting, not this one even, but now flying turned into a figure entombed underground...yikes...what does this mean? I didn't really like the painting and never finished it to a state where I would want to show but it gave me food for thought about I where I might be subconsciously in my life right now. 

Now I'll get to how this picture relates to it all.  This painting is a continuum of fear of flying to rebirthing (the figure underground) to now emerging into a rich field of life sustaining wheat. I'd describe this painting as a young girl awakening unto herself, the bear being a symbol of coming out of hibernation. My boyfriend finds this piece a bit creepy, at least the girl, who he describes as zombie like. That's okay with me, art is to be interpreted in anyway that the viewer relates to.  I went through a lot of personal angst to get to this painting, it's not my favourite but it represents a great deal to me as to were I might be in my own life at this moment. 

After a bit of thought, I came to conclusion I would add my "entombed figure" painting that I had done previous to the girl in the wheat....I didn't know where to go with this one so I never really finished it....I pretty much got bored with it and just left it. 

So I also added the flying painting that doesn't exist anymore, except in this photo. I think I got mad at it because I wasn't using any reference for the figure and I just couldn't get it right for what I wanted it to look like...urg!  I kind of got lost on this one too. I started using more reference from this point on. 

Time to Catch Up

I'm hoping to slip a few more pictures of my progress up whilst I have a window of internet connectivity. Still no new tower hook up yet but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

So far so good, I managed to upload these two images I worked on in May during my workshop with Wyanne in her online Paint Free workshop. This is a workshop that is certainly worth checking out and very affordable.

For me it's worked great because Wyanne works with how to find your creative self again and not technique or working within any boundaries or rules. It's all about finding that wild inner creative self through rediscovering your love of painting like we had when we were kids and to be able to paint mindlessly and with love.  So here are my last two pieces I did with that particular workshop.

I never know what I am going to paint before I start. This one is painted over another painting I had started on tar paper that I didn't like. I saved the child's face and that was all, everything else evolved from images and feelings I saw or had during the process. This process involved concentrating on feeling love whilst I painted and remembering to enjoy the feeling of the paint on the paper as I made the brush strokes....and everything just kind of emerged on it's own.

This painting I did on canvas, again concentrating on love and happiness as I painted.  This painting emerged from a thirty-second scribble drawing where I saw a face that I started fleshing out. The feathers  emerged from some wild brush strokes and the face at the bottom was a ghostly image that I filled out...and that's pretty much how everything happened.  I'm not working from any reference up to this point but doing everything from out of my head/heart.

Rural Internet Sucks

Hello again, it's been a while since I've posted my progress. This is not from lack of wanting to but from the horrible and random internet access I have with Bell Canada. I'm in a marginally serviced rural region and have been having a great deal of difficulty uploading anything more than a text e-mail since March. I'm hoping this will be remedied soon because much to my delight Bell is finally building a new tower to service us rural folks out here near Holstein.

So stay tuned, I have lots to show.

Paint Free - Timed Painting Exercises

I started taking another online course a couple of weeks ago that works on just playing and having some fun in order to find your creative style. I am much in need of this as I find a great deal of pressure in "all pieces must be masterpieces".  The previous course I took helped me get painting again but I was still struggling with finding my style of painting.

So we were instructed to pick a couple of colours plus black and white and paint within a time limit. We were never to stop painting or think about what we were doing.  This is an amazing release, there are no rules or right or wrong in what we are doing. It's very freeing...no pressure to produce, just play and enjoy the feeling of the paint and how we use our brushes. 

So this is one of the pieces I did that also involved timed painting periods but also thinking and feeling something one loved as a child.  This took some thought and I came up with two things, this painting is about my love of the sound of frogs singing in the springtime. So I painted a sound....I stopped painting when the timer went off...a good thing because it's easy to keep going and loose the vitality of the painting. I am very happy with this exercise.

I did a second painting in this method about something I loved as a child and I painted one of my childhood stuffed animals who still exists to this day....Mr Putty Pants.

I've always wanted to do a kids book with him but didn't know where to start with the illustrating style of it.  This exercise gave me that and I think I now have a great beginning to knowing how I want others to perceive him in his book, The Adventures of Mr Putty Pants...coming soon.

My Design on Zazzle Awards Showcase

I've recently begun adding some of my designs and paintings to Zazzle which is a print on demand company who will allow anybody to add their own artwork to t-shirts, iPad cases, stickers, photo cards etc and post them for sale. So I've been adding a few of my own on LMK_Art and NastyShark Designs.

This is my latest design called Soul Tree that I added to an iPad case, shoes and art cards. The iPad case was recognized by the company and put on their Awards Showcase page. So that's a nice reward for my efforts.

This particular piece evolved from working very spontaneously within time limits on a project inspired by an online painting course I'm participating in called Paint Free. The course is created and hosted by a very talented and inspirational woman named Wyanne. Check out her courses sometime...very worth while for those seeking to play and find their creative style.

Week Four Painting

So after a very creatively frustrating week, I cranked up the reggae tunes and decided to attempt a portrait of Yuri, my boyfriend. I have some great photos of him I've taken over the years so I thought I'd make an attempt at an accurate rendering. For me this is a big deal because I've never felt adept enough as a painter to do something like this and be happy with it.

So my attempt this week was to be a little more painterly or impressionistic, I didn't quite achieve the impressionistic goal but I'm pretty happy with the portrait. Oh how I envy painters that can break down what they see into shapes and colours, not getting caught up in too much realism.

Wild Connection - Acrylic on Canvas - 12" x 24"

So anyhow, I did get caught up in trying to get the background how I wanted it, it's not quite there but I'm going to leave it alone...it's not as good as I know I'd like to be able to do it.  I'm very happy with the face and t-shirt, especially the t-shirt and it's paint application. Surprisingly enough those came very easily...I believe I remained very focused and grounded for this part of the painting...lots of old school reggae music helped.

I find that playing loud tribal or primal music really helps me stay grounded in my body and out of my head...which translates into a much more spontaneous painting. When I can combine that spontaneity with understanding of what I'm painting and how I'm painting (ie: technical skill), things tend to go pretty well. I like to call it "painting with purpose" as apposed to piddling and puttering around not really knowing what I'm doing with my brush.  I always stand when I'm painting to let the music generated energy flow through me and out my bush...sounds a little hokey but for me it works. 

It's been years since I've seriously tried to paint and I'm finding my way back to where I once was, only now I'm going forward with more knowledge and life experience so this time my experiences and outcome will be different, better I hope. It's like being on a spiral and I've come around to the same point again, only further up. 

Painting Week 3

This week was another week that I struggled a lot to accomplish my mission of creating a painting, any painting...some sort of painting that I feel is presentable to my painting group.

I began with a vision of a tree which started out very well, but I found I got stuck not knowing where to go with it beyond a certain point...at this point I stopped and posted it unfinished. To me it seems really boring, it's just there. However, when I posted it to my Flickr group, to my surprise I got a great response telling me it was magical, and not at all boring and to leave it alone.  So, this is a great reminder that others will always see your work from different eyes.

The Tree - Acrylic on canvas - 12"x 24"

I posted another painting I completed after the tree to Flickr, one that I like much better because it evoked how frustrated I was, but it received very little response.  I've noticed this pattern throughout my creative life, the works that I really like are the ones that illicit the least response from viewers, however pieces I've done that I don't particularly like are the ones that are the best received...so what is that?  Things like that make me question my own creative judgement.

OMG - Acrylic on roofing felt paper 

Week Two- Final Painting

I wasn't sure to call this one "Giving Thanks and Praises" or "Receiving a Blessing"?

Acrylic on roofing paper - 28" x 36"

This painting is more or less a self portrait, not so much as it was made to look like me but a portrait of where I am on my life's journey. My boyfriend says it's very dark in feeling but that's fine with me since I'm comfortable working with the shadow parts of myself and bringing them out to be witnessed by those who wish to look...it's a very personal thing. Which is one of the reasons I struggled so much with the paintings as I did.  If they don't speak to me on that level I lose interest in them, as I did with the one in the previous post.

My learning this week, was not to get too attached to an outcome...let the painting go where it needs to go. Easy to say and difficult to do but I'll keep on trying to stay open to that concept.

Face - close up

So here's a few shots of the painting as I went.

The  Concept - chalk on roofing paper

Starting to pull it together.

Just after this point I hit the bottom of the curve struggled with the painting the rest of the way, mostly with the eyes, actually just with the eyes when I think about it, urg...because the hands came easy enough and so did everything else. Those darned eyes drove me crazy and I'm still not happy with the finished result but I'm going to leave it alone for now. 

So my question is: how do you know when your painting is finished?

Week Two of Artist Recovery

My first week painting for Get Your Art On got me really excited and I produced a few pieces. So when the second weeks assignment was posted I felt really inspired by the new project, which was to be influenced by a particular artists style, or colours used, or subject matter...whatever, and apply one or some of those aspects to your own painting.  

One artist that really inspires me is Dale Auger, a Sakaw Cree, from Canada's First Nations.  What I love about Dale's work are his colours and stunning imagery. I love the graphic quality to his work, the shapes and seeming simpleness...I could stare at his works all day. 

My Week Two Painting Process

Beginning of my painting, when I had a set image of what I wanted in my head...

Yup, just having fun painting away, still liking what I was doing...feeling good but it was at this point that I lost what it was I was doing and didn't know where to go with the painting.

So I turned up the reggae music and stopped thinking about it and started using some chalk to play around on the surface of my piece to see what happens...My original plan had been to have some sort of face in the composition but I didn't include that in my initial mapping out of my piece, so then trying to place a face in now was proving to be difficult.  Lesson learned: try and work up your composition as much as possible before you focus in on one aspect of your piece. 

Now I'm starting to really like where my painting is going, kind of just going with the flow but painting with a purpose, not dibbling and dabbling with no idea. 

Opps, back down to the bottom of the U curve again, what did I do...urg!  I like the ravens but not how I addressed the face and bodice....I'm at this stage right now with this piece, so as I'm writing this I'm actually avoiding getting back into my studio to work through this...I'm so tired. 

What I do find helpful is to look back at some of the pictures I've taken along the way and if I need to I can see some of the elements I'd lost that I can pull out again.  Digital pictures are a great way to see how  you develop your paintings and can be used as reference for stuff you'd painted out and wished you hadn't.

Heading back to the studio to see what I can do with this now. 

I Signed Up For An Online Art Course

In order to get my groove back in the world of painting and being creative, I didn't know where to start, so when I came across an online painting course called Get Your Paint On quite by accident I immediately signed up.  I thought that by having some structure through assignments it would get me organized to start somewhere....anywhere.

Week #1 -  Get Your Paint On
It's been a full week since I started and I created four paintings, three paintings that I posted to the GYPO painting group on Flicker. Our assignment was to paint using a grid format from the inspiration of the Alabama Gee Quilters.  So here's what I came up with.

Painting #1 - 30"x 40" - Acrylic on roofing paper 

Painting #2 - 14"x 14" - Acrylic on roofing paper

Painting #3 - 11"x 14" - Acrylic on roofing paper

So anyway, my three paintings are all painted on one of my new favourite surfaces, roofing felt paper. That's right, the stuff that's used in between the sheathing and the shingles on your roof.  It's got a great surface texture, it's thick and heavy and lovely and black, which for me is the most wonderful and inviting way to start a painting. A black background is just begging for colour to be added. The surface is perfect for dry brush techniques but will also accept opaque paint application quite nicely. I've got two rolls of it here and I'm going to use them.