Eclipse IV & V

January 19th, 2012

Here are the two paintings I made last weekend.

Eclipse IV, Acrylic/Canvas, 8 x 10″

Eclipse V, Acrylic/Canvas, 8 x 10″

They’re on display at Distinction Gallery until Feb. 4th, and you can bid on them here: Auction. At the moment, one of the paintings only has one bid and the other only two bids, so your chances of getting one of these for very cheap is really good right now! Proceeds will go to ArtHatch’s teen art program.

Here’s a sneak peek at a work in progress. It’s so big I am working on the floor instead of using my easel. It’s two canvases, each 24 x 36″, for a total size of 2 feet x 6 feet.

I’m only filling in large blocks of color right now, my first step in the painting process. It will look very different by the time it’s done!

On Getting Stuck

November 9th, 2010

I’ve been working on this one painting now for weeks and weeks, and by working I mean scowling at it discontentedly and wondering how on Earth I’m going to fix it.  Some paintings just go like that.  Sometimes they turn out to be duds, poorly designed from the start, and other times they turn out to be some of my best work, once I figure out what to do.

I’ve been a painter for years now.  I have had the joy of experiencing times of easy productivity, bursts of inspiration and creative energy, and art that almost makes itself!  But I also know about “artist’s block” all too well.  I don’t think I’ll ever conquer it completely–these things seem to go in cycles.  But something that I have found to work when I feel particularly stuck is to just put the project in question aside (out of sight completely if need be) and start something fresh.  I gain the momentum back by getting myself pumped about the new thing, then, in theory anyway, I use that momentum to  go back with fresh eyes and finish whatever thing had me stuck.

The new thing I started is a 40″ x 50″ Cosmic Dance painting that so far has emerged from the end of my brush like magic!  I am starting to feel the flow again, the thrilling feeling of being “in the zone.”

Here’s the work in progress currently on my easel.  It’s only in the beginning stages, but can’t you just feel that energy flowing when you look at it?

I won’t show you the painting in progress that’s been frustrating me so much, because I still have hope that it’ll turn into something great–so when you finally see it, you’ll assume it was great all along!

If you feel “stuck” in any part of your life, I recommend you try focusing on something fresh and exciting that will keep you moving in the right direction, while temporarily freeing you from the thing that’s weighing you down.  The positive action will help the original problem diminish in your mind.  So much of what we think is happening is all in our heads–you may realize, when you go back to the issue at hand, that you were not as stuck as you thought you were!

Here are a few quotes on artist’s block that I like:

  • When the path continues to be blocked it’s probably time to change lanes. -Birgit O’Connor
  • Blocks are simply part of an artist’s natural cycle, and mine come whenever I reach a plateau in my work. I’ll feel bottled up with negativism, but when I blast through all the garbage, I find I’ve emerged in a new place as a better artist. -Nick Payne
  • I have not worked at all… Nothing seems worth putting down – I seem to have nothing to say – it appalls me but that is the way it is. -Georgia O’Keeffe

(Geez! If Georgia O’Keeffe has felt that way, then there certainly is hope for the rest of us!)

Art & Motherhood

August 20th, 2010

So, I’ve been feeling kind of down lately because of decreased productivity.  At my current rate of painting I’m on track to finish only about 30 paintings in 2010, maybe 40 if I do more small ones instead of large ones.  (2008 was a hopping year for me–I made more than 70 that year!)

I understand that expectations need to be adjusted during the first years of your child’s life, especially if you’re the mother, and you’re breastfeeding.  But it’s disappointing to me nonetheless that despite my best efforts, I still seem to be struggling to squeeze enough hours out of each day to do everything I need to.  I won’t bore you with the full list, but in addition to the baby, I have a marriage, 3 pets, a house and all the things houses come with that are constantly breaking, a yard, bills to pay, and high standards for my health and fitness.  I attempt to have some spiritual contemplation, and some friends and leisure time too.   And that’s just my personal life!  If you can really separate my work life from my personal life, which is hard to do when your studio is attached to your home, my work life includes thinking up and creating paintings, writing about my art, maintaining my website, sending or delivering my art to galleries and occasional juried shows, networking online and in person, meeting with collectors and potential collectors, packing/shipping/cataloging/photographing artwork, marketing constantly to ensure enough sales so that I have some income, and so on.  You get it.  At times, I feel completely overwhelmed and don’t know what to do!

I realize I am being a big fat whiner right now, but bear with me for the moment.  Tomorrow I’ll suck it up and get back to business as usual.

So I sent a note to the very famous Robert Genn of the Painter’s Keys, seeing what he had to say about the whole thing.  To my delight, he actually responded by writing one of his twice-weekly-letters in response!

Unfortunately, he didn’t quite answer my questions and didn’t seem to understand what I’m going through, like, AT ALL.  He clearly doesn’t understand the commitment a woman makes when she decides to be there all the time, every day–24/7/365!  Or the exhaustion of having your sleep frequently interrupted every night for nearly a year, and what that does to a person.  Or that yes, babies sometimes take a nap, but the rest of the time they need constant supervision, and by constant I mean you literally can’t look away for 2 minutes without worrying what they’re putting in their mouth, smearing all over the floor, or trying to climb onto.

Robert Genn is a man, he’s in his 70s I think, and this is just a wild guess but I don’t think he’s ever been anywhere close to being in my current shoes.  To be fair, he did warn me before posting his response that he didn’t consider himself qualified to respond.  He’s a nice guy and having read his letters for years, I like him a lot.  However, the encouragement and advice I was seeking came not from him** but from the many people who added their comments underneath the letter he posted, and from the dozens of private emails I got in my inbox this morning from kind people all around the world, mostly but not all professional artists/mothers themselves.  I was blown away!

You can read Robert Genn’s letter and the comments on it (and comment yourself if you like) here: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/motherhood.php

I was in a deep funk when I wrote to Robert.  Today I’m feeling much better, knowing that I’m not as alone as I was feeling before, and I’m beginning to get a fresh outlook.

I’m definitely going to work on creating a playroom in my studio in the hopes of keeping my baby distracted for longer periods of time.  I’m definitely going to start hiring babysitters to squeeze in a few more hours of work every week.  Perhaps my husband (he’s fantastic, by the way) and I can be more strict or more inventive with the way we collectively manage our time.  Soon enough my baby will sleep for 4+ hours at a time again, as he did for awhile–it was glorious–when he was 4-6 months old, and when that time comes I will feel more sane.  And maybe if I only make 30 paintings this year, since I’ve sold some of them already, if I make sure to stay on good terms with my galleries through good communication, it’ll be okay.

Sincere thanks to the many sweet people who have written to me!  I haven’t read through all the messages yet but I intend to ponder all your generously given advice and to use your encouraging words to help lift my spirits.

—————–

Oh, and here’s a quick web-cam shot of what’s going on today in my studio!  I’ve just started a 30″ x 30″ sunflower.  I wish sunflowers were that large in real life.

**Edited to add: Robert’s advice about the super-manic-power-hour was excellent, I’ll give him that!  Indeed it’s been the only thing that’s worked for me so far!

Tree Painting: Work in Progress

July 27th, 2010

Just wanted to show you what’s on my easel today: the rudimentary beginnings of a 40″ x 30″ painting of tall trees.  First I blocked in the colors in the sky, then began outlining the trunks and branches, then began adding in the greens of the foliage.

I have yet to finish the base layer of the foliage, fill in the colors of the tree trunks, then go over everything again, adding more and more detail to the branches, the foliage, the trunks, and the sky, (in no particular order), with progressively smaller brushes, until it feels finished.

Sorry for the poor lighting and glare!  When it’s finished I’ll photograph it properly.

Back From Arizona

May 11th, 2010

I just returned home from a week in sunny Arizona to visit some close friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.

It was a week of adventure and decadence.  I enjoyed lots of sunshine, hiking, and good food!  I lounged poolside.  We ate at a fantastic Ethiopian restaurant, a fantastic Greek restaurant, a fantastic vegan restaurant, and at my friend’s house we enjoyed ripe avocados, fresh-squeezed citrus juice, and dark chocolate!

I of course brought my 7-month-old with me, and carried him on my back for much of the time.

My friends and I had a wonderful visit to Sedona and hiked one of the Boynton Canyon trails to a “vortex,” or a spot where spiritual energy is believed to converge in a spiral, where this beautiful rock formation sits.

I climbed partway up the actual rock formation too!  In the picture below, the tiny figure waving at the bottom is me and the one at the top is my much more badass rock-climbing friend.

Enjoying the view:

Near this spot were dozens of little cairns (stacks of balanced rocks) left by people all over the place.  It is customary to build your own cairn, say any prayer you like, and leave it there.  I thought it was cool, and beautiful to see the physical representations of the prayers of many people who had passed through.

The mountains in Sedona are incredible!

I also really enjoyed browsing the Southwest-themed artwork in the Sedona galleries.

I’m glad to be back to work in the studio.  I’m currently working on a new Lotus triptych.  The Lotus series is popular as ever and I’m struggling to keep up–the good news is I’m still not tired of painting them!  Here you can see I’m just laying down the base colors in the first layer of oil paint.  Much more detail will be added as I add more layers.

A collector sent me this photo of one of my Lotus triptychs hanging in their home.  It looks beautiful with the colors of their bedroom!

I just received word that 3 of my Sunflower Heart paintings have sold from my NC gallery, and I have more of those in progress.  A fresh 40″ x 30″ canvas is sitting on my easel as well, with the design already sketched in for another tree painting.  So there’s a lot of action right now in my studio!  More news to come…

How to Build a Shipping Crate, Lotus Art in Progress

July 16th, 2009

This week I had to ship a large painting across the country, and I decided to take detailed step-by-step photos as I was building my heavy-duty shipping crate.  This will be most helpful to artists who need to ship large 2D artwork and want to build their own shipping crates, but even if you have no such need, it still might interest you: Click here to see.

I’m currently working on 3 new Lotus paintings all at once, laid out around me on the floor of the studio.  I’m almost done filling in very rough, big blocks of color on all of them.  I’m about to start adding detail and definition.  You can expect pictures of my new Lotus flower art within the next few days as I finish them up!

Here are a few teensy sneak peeks at the works in progress:

Lotus Art in Progress

Lotus Art in Progress

Lotus Art in Progress

This weekend I plan to go with friends to check out Artscape, Baltimore, MD’s annual summer arts festival.

I have never participated as an artist there, mostly because I never seem to have enough artwork in stock to fill a whole booth.  It’s the kind of thing I’d have to plan many months ahead of time.  This year I never even considered entering Artscape because I’ve been so busy making enough art to keep my three galleries supplied, and to replace paintings I’ve sold.  This, I suppose, is a good thing.  But I think I might like to participate in an arts festival at some point in the future.  For now, I’m happy to go downtown and experience the festival as a member of the throngs of spectators.

Lotus Art in Progress

June 26th, 2009

Here’s what I’m working on today in the studio.

I did a lot of quick thumbnail sketches for my next Lotus paintings, just to work out the basics of composition.  I may not use all of them, and I may do a lot more.  For now I’ve started working on the ones I feel are strongest.

I have the plans for my next 5 paintings sketched in pencil onto canvases, and have started painting them!

Lotus Art Sketches

I’m working on a drop cloth on the floor today, so I can spread several paintings out around me and work on them all at once.  I’m listening to music and am in my “painting zone.”

Lotus Art in Progress

I was just thinking how much I genuinely love painting the Lotus series–I’ve heard that artwork created in a spirit of love and joy will be infused with that energy, and make other people love it.  Like I’m somehow filling the actual canvas and paint with a living energy that makes people feel good when they’re around it–a kind of artistic chi.  I don’t know if this is true, and it doesn’t make much sense from a logical/physical standpoint.  But it’s a nice thought, and people do seem to always love the finished Lotus paintings.

It also makes me think about the idea that whatever you put out into the world will come back to you in other forms.  I know this is true in social situations–in general, if I’m kind to people they reciprocate.  The same is true if I am nasty or spiteful.  This is why I make an effort to be as positive as I can in as many ways as I can–a challenge to be sure, but worth it.

Making art and sending it out into the world is like sending out a gift of beauty and happiness.  Does that result in beauty and happiness coming back to me in the form of gifts from others?  I think it does.  (At the very least, musing about such things while painting makes the work enjoyable for me and keeps me excited about doing it.)

I went out into my garden yesterday and came back with these treasures!  Baby lettuce, basil, purple & green string beans, sugary snow peas, and even a couple of red grape tomatoes!  The abundance of fresh produce in the summer makes it one of my favorite times of year.

From Cedar\'s Garden, June 2009

Lots of things are blooming!

Cedar\'s Garden, June 2009

The bees are going crazy for the borage flowers.

Cedar\'s Garden, June 2009

And, as usual I’ve planted my vegetable garden in amongst the decorative plants, so everything is starting to take on a slightly jungle-like quality, everything growing there on purpose, but still a little bit chaotic.  Hey, that’s how I like it.  :)

Cedar\'s Garden, June 2009

Painting Trees

May 20th, 2009

This is what happens when a puppy gets too close to my paintbrush.  What can I say?  That nose was just asking for it.

Blake with paint on his nose

Here’s the progress on this painting so far.  Right now I’m just getting the color onto the canvas (which takes a long time with a big canvas) and figuring out the basics of the design.  Once the canvas is filled with the first layer of paint, I’ll come back in with smaller brushes and add more details throughout.

Work in Progress, May 20, 2009

Right now, I’m laying the paint on thick and sloppy.  I’m going to clean it up a lot and add some intricacies later, but I want some of that loose feeling to come through in the final painting.  Starting sloppy and fast and then finishing up with more care and attention to detail is one way I attempt to balance freedom with precision.

Here’s a close-up detail of the work in progress:

Detail of Work in Progress, May 20, 2009

I like how some of my tree paintings evoke a certain mood.  For me, it’s the smell of the woods and the feeling of clean air in my lungs that always comes to me–not always while I’m painting, because then I’m mostly focused on mixing colors and thinking about the composition–but every time I stand back to look at it, I have a feeling of being there in the painting.

I probably won’t finish this painting until next week.  My sister is visiting from out of town, and one of my brothers is going to be joining us this weekend.  This Friday I’m going contra dancing with friends for the first time in months!

Mid-May Work in Progress

May 15th, 2009

I’m painting outside today.

Painting Outside

My setup is not fancy, but it works.

Painting Outside

I’m using Winsor & Newton Artisan water-miscible oils.  I love them.

Painting Outside

Here’s a quick sneak peek at my work in progress–one of my “Looking Up” tree paintings.  The bare bones of the design has been laid out and I’m starting to work some color in.  I’m taking a very loose approach to this painting–now that I’ve got a rudimentary plan, I’m going to just follow it where it takes me.

It’s a good painting to work on out in the yard, surrounded by living green things and the contrast of sun and shade.

Cedar\'s Work in Progress, May 2009

My sweet canine companions are keeping me company.

Dog Companion

(Not too much longer now till Blake gets to take off the lampshade!  He is happy and doing well.)

Dog Companion

Lots of things are popping up in the garden.

Garden, May 2009

My strawberries have bloomed.

Strawberry Blossoms, May 2009

Happy May!

Works in Progress, Blossoms, Pics

April 21st, 2009

Here is a sneak peek at the sunflower paintings I’ve been working on. I’ll take clear photos of each one when all 9 of the new series are finished.

I think these are going to be the best sunflowers so far in my series–I love how they are turning out!  This time I am purposely making the background colors similar in all the paintings so that they will display very nicely together.

Some are all done except for small finishing touches.

Sneak Peek of New Sunflower Paintings!

This one is a work in progress–only the background has been painted so far.

A Sunflower Painting in Progress

The cherry tree in our back yard is blooming! I love watching it every spring.

Cherry Blossoms

When all the flowers are fully bloomed, like big puffy pom-poms, the petals will start snowing down on the ground and make a thick pink carpet all over the yard.

Cherry Blossoms

For those of you who are interested, I’ve finally finished sorting through our photos from our recent vacation.   Click here to see them.  (Warning: lots of scrolling!)

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