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.