Paint every day?

I don't think a day has gone by in several years that I didn't paint on something. So when I was due for hip replacement surgery I figured time off work to just lay around and convalesce would be the perfect time to paint more than usual. However, this has not been the case. I can hardly believe how much time I spent sleeping. The first week, I didn't do anything more constructive than eat and sleep. Almost three weeks since the surgery now and I still haven't picked up a paint brush to paint more than one picture. i want to say "what's wrong with me" but I decided to be kinder to myself and allow myself to fully recover before requiring my normal habits to come back. I haven't given up on art, just taken a break till I feel better. How did Mary Cassat do it? She created day and night, thousands of paintings, pastels and drawing in her lifetime. I need to keep the momentum up if I dare stay in the same category with the greats of old.

Live Painting at The Well

I don't know who I think I am but Wonder Woman I'm not. When I was approached to do a live painting during the church service, I jumped at it. It is a wonderful experience. The concept is that you have from the moment the music begins to the moment the pastor says "Amen" to completely finish a painting (usually about 55 minutes). It's not as hard as it sounds if you have it all planned out and prepared, plenty of brushes so you don't waste time rinsing between colors, etc. But I knew this was going to happen just 6 days after my surgery and I probably wouldn't be up to standing in front of a canvas. So I borrowed a wheel chair and figured "no problem". Then they asked if I could do the live painting for two services (the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.) and I said sure without thinking how tired I might be after one. Yes. It's official. I'm an idiot. However the Lord is good. Though I was extremely tired after the first service the adrenaline and the Holy Spirit helped me through both services and the rest is history. The sermon was based on the Scripture in Philippians 2 where it says that he humbled himself and became a man but then humbled himself further to death even the death on the cross. I wanted to portray that he grew up like the rest of us but he had to grow up under the shadow of the cross. Done in acrylic for fast drying.

Angelic

This little girl is a neighbor girl. She was sitting barefoot on the sidewalk looking up expectantly at the little boy who was feverishly trying to fix her bike. She had such and angelic look on her face, I had to paint her. Sometimes, inspiration is waiting for you right on the sidewalks just outside your door.

I used the wrinkled paper effect again for this one. It gives a stained glass look that I thought was perfect for angels.

Wrinkled Paper Effect

I call this painting "Fall Out". I so love the colors of fall and the other elements jumped out at me one day from a curb. They looked intriguing so I took them home to sketch.

I first drew the composition in pencil. I got my paper all wet in the bathtub then wadded it up like I was going to throw it away. Careful not to tear the now wet paper, I unwrapped and smoothed out the wadded paper and began painting. The watercolors seeped into the wrinkles or bruises, making a kind of stained glass effect. I almost looks three-dimensional. After the paper is completely dry, the details are added.

Knitting can be artistic too

I have been knitting sweaters in the Fair Isle style for many years. Lately I have done several for local shops to sell and some on commission for individuals. It has been very relaxing and very fulfilling artistically. I love having something to do when I am in my "down time" mode. Watching TV, riding in the car (with someone else driving of course), waiting for a doctor visit. And this is a frugal way to use up small pieces of yarn that otherwise would be thrown out. The patterns are fun to do, mixing and matching colors and patterns and designs. Here are just a few of my more recent knitted sweaters.

Joke of the Day

Okay, so if you throw a green shoe into the Read Sea, what do you get?


A wet shoe.


If the Red houses are on the left side of the street, and the Green houses are on the right side of the street, where is the White house?



Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, of course.


This is a little paper house from my Houses Book.

Nostalgia

Okay, it's been a few years! I found this picture among my older drawings. I made this pen and ink drawing of myself when I was just 19. I looked in the mirror for about 2 hours to create it (A very self-absorbed exercise). I think I was generous with all the features I hated most about myself. I think my lips are too thin so my drawing gave me a little more than I own. I think my eyes are too close together so I separated them more than they actually are. Any way you look at it, I'm not that cute anymore.

The style is called stippling where there are only dots, no lines, forming the gradation and shadows. It was fun making all the dots.

Etsy.com

I can not believe how many people have never heard of Etsy.com. Etsy is the Ebay of handmade, hand-crafted original items. They have everything you could imagine that people make, craft, bead, knit, sew, and paint. For just 20 cents per item, you can create your own Etsy store front and keep you things on the list for 4 months. Very reasonable. Please check out my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/shop/knittywhittyneesie. I have several paintings as well as knitted and ceramic items.

Reassessed Resolutions

As the holidays approach and the year comes to an end, I like to review my resolutions I made at the beginning of the year. I wanted to paint 6 paintings for myself (not just for classroom projects) this year. I wanted to loose weight (ongoing struggle). I wanted to read through the Bible in the year (I'm almost finished now). I wanted to complete more children's magazine articles. I wanted to have my taxes done on-time this year (I succeeded). But I wouldn't say because I didn't do everything on my list that I was a failure. That I accomplished anything on the list makes me a success. Resolutions aren't supposed to be something that makes you feel bad about yourself. It's supposed to be something that encourages you to be better this year than you were last year. Better daughter, better wife, better mother, better person. I find that I used to make resolutions and then forget about them all year till the end and then think "What happened?" I had such good intentions. The only way to keep the resolutions in front of me was the same way I read through the Bible. By dividing the goal up into bite sized portions that could be accomplished in a week or a day. I get an engagement calendar and write something I want to accomplish each week. It works to keep my goals in front of me.

So I didn't finish 6 paintings this year.. only 4. I'm happy about the 4. I'm sometimes so busy with classes that I hardly find the time to paint something for me. I am a little upset with myself for not completing any new children's magazine articles/stories. I need to step up and work on that again. Maybe one of my resolutions this year is to be kinder to myself?

So what are your goals this year? Are they reachable? Or are they just resolutions that last a week and fade away?

Fearless

I've noticed that some of my students are afraid to take a chance on doing something different or untried. I'm getting to where I say "be fearless" a lot. Where would we be if the Impressionists never tried something new and untested? Where would we be in Da Vinci just kept painting in the "acceptable" mode of the day? Isn't all art about risk and possible failure? So what if something doesn't come out like you hoped? What have we lost but an hour or so of our lives and little materials. But the possibility of creating something new and different and exciting should out-weigh the risk factor, shouldn't it? What does it take to be fearless?

I have painted for several decades (more than I like to count) and I still have at least one out of 5 paintings that I will never show to people because I thought it was a failure. Yet my failures are very valuable to me. I've learned something new from each one. I know what not to try again.. but more than that, I think I have strengthened something basic inside of me each time. Like getting into a swimming pool. At first you only put in one toe. Then you brave up to the waist. Then you swim around in the shallow end. Before long you feel brave enough to "cannon-ball" into the deep end. Each trial worked up to the last and most fun "leap of faith" into the unknown. It's all good.

Confessions

Okay, I'm a terrible clutterer. I horde and save anything that might be useful for an art project or an art lesson "someday". This means my garage, my closets and my art room are packed to capacity and beyond. Why my dear husband stands it is beyond me. A lesser man would have thrown both hands up and left me years ago. So in the interest of "de-cluttering", I try to make most of my ceramic projects functional. Functional art is artsy but also useful. This isn't easy when I get really carried away on a project. Art for art's sake. But here are a few samples.

Foreign Exchange Students

If you have always wanted to travel and couldn't find the time or money...   If you always wanted to go on one of those church missionary trips and just didn't have a way.... If you thought you'd have to wait till retirement to visit other lands and cultures....   You are wrong.  There are so many foreign exchange students wanting to come here and experience the American way of life, to improve their English skills and go to school here.  I never thought it was possible but I have fallen in love with these teenagers.  I am keeping track of 2 so far, one from Sweden and one from Norway.  They are the sweetest kids ever.  Cleaver, creative, intelligent, industrious.  My teenagers were a hand-full, but these kids have worked hard to get here and are on their best behavior.  Amazing kids.  They WANT to work and study and please you.  Perhaps you should think of having one in your home!  I know,  I know.  Times are hard and it's tough enough feeding our own kids let alone someone else's.  But really, what's one more place at the dinner table?  And have you seen how those Korean kids eat?  Like birds.  I don't know what keeps them alive, they eat so little.

I spent a few hours with Victoria and Kristine this weekend making gingerbread houses.  They were so cute and happy to do anything I asked of them.  They even cleaned up for me.  But best of all was hearing about their homes in far away lands.  They even told me Swedish and Norwegian jokes.  It was a scream.  If you've never considered having a foreign exchange student in your home, you are missing out.

Getting Older

Okay, so I'm getting older.  Aren't we all?  I could get all upset about it, deny it, or embrace it.  I've discovered several things about myself.  I don't think I would want to go back to being 30 again even for a flatter tummy and thicker, browner hair.  I wouldn't trade what I've learned about myself, about life, about things that just can't be changed for a model's figure (which I never had and always thought I wanted).  Although I hated admitting how much I weigh to the doctor's office when they called for information, I'm done killing myself for the waist I will never have.  I've decided to be kinder to myself and less critical.  Not that I won't work on myself, and try to do better or healthier, but I'm not going to chide myself for having one cookie, or not making the bed, or for watching a movie when I could be doing something more productive.  I've seen too many dear friends and family members leave this world before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

It's okay if I look like a sack of potatoes squeezed into a swim suit and swim in front of the younger firmer bodies.  They will get old too.  It's okay for me to like the music they call nostalgic (theirs will be too someday).  It's okay to laugh and see the roadmap of grooves on my face.  I earned all those laugh lines in the good times and the bad times.  

I've learned that it's easier to stay positive.  I don't really care what people think like I used to. It's okay to be wrong or make a mistake.  It's okay to ask a name, forgetting isn't fatal.  It's okay for me to stay up late reading and sleep later than I meant to.  Who cares?  It's okay to dance around the house in my underwear (although that's not a picture I would want you to visualize).  I'm free.  I can allow myself to be happy and to be my own friend.

Aging is really not so bad.  It's the cure that is fatal.

A Few of My Favorite Things

* Reading my Bible with a warm cup of Earl Grey tea beside me.

* Snow falling straight down, quiet and crisp.

* Leaves turning firey colors.

* The smell of pine needles.

* Clean, crisp sheets.

* Reading in bed late at night on clean, crisp sheets.

* Red roses that smell as rich as they look.

* Listening to my husband's voice as I lean against his chest.

* The way alizarin crimson and prussian blue watercolor paint explode on wet paper.

* Seeing my student's faces when they love their finished painting.

* Hearing my children laugh.

* Staring at a campfire.

* Seeing my illustrations in print, knowing kids all over are enjoying them too.

* The feel of yarn running through my fingers while knitting a sweater. 

Snow in Yosemite

I have a dear friend who lives and works up in Yosemite.  She just finished telling me about the amazing sights up there.  She works outside raking in the gardens around the Ahwahnee because she loves it outside.  Every morning she is followed by a buck and a doe from her dorm to her job. The snows have fallen and the place has transformed.  Sometimes when it is raining in the valley she said you can look up and see it snowing on Half Dome.  

These names mean nothing unless you have been up there.  For us in the lowlands, winter coming on is rather dull.  The leaves are only just beginning to change now.  It won't get cold enough for snow here in the San Joaquin Valley.  So the sounds and sights of the snow call us valley people up into the mountains that surround us.  I hear the call.  To sit in the peaceful white meadow and look up into the majesty of those mountains, Half Dome, Cathedral Rock, the Three Sisters... I'd love to run up there now and paint the awesome sights.  But obligations keep me in the valley.  Audible sigh!

Armistice Day

It was today, November 11, 1918 when World War I ended, called Armistice Day.  It was later adopted to be Veteran's Day in 1954.  Isn't that interesting?  I think we tend to forget what this day stands for and all the people who died to make this country what it is.  To make it possible for me to sleep-in in relative peace.  For a day-off for many/most.  Thank you, all you Veterans living and dead for giving me and my children and grandchildren freedom to enjoy this day and the rest.  Thank you for being so brave.  Thank you for caring so much.  Thank you to all the members of my family who took up the mantle to join the Armed Forces and face bravely whatever may or may not happen in the future.  Thank you to all those who are now on foreign soil facing hardships of loneliness and homesickness for us.  Thank you.  God bless you and bring you home soon.

Teach a Chid

So if you teach your child to be polite and courteous as a youngster, you better hope he never lives in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco when he grows up, because he'll never be able to merge his car into freeway traffic!

Knitters Unite!

If you are a knitter like me, you will find this fascinating.  This is a "must see" video.  I remember reading about this guy a few years back in an art magazine.  He had learned to knit after being wounded in a war, (I believe that's the story) and latter as a construction worker he worked out how to knit something really big using the big earth-moving tractors that he drove, and a pair of knitting needles the size of telephone poles.  The video shows him doing it.  The finished knitted piece was displayed outside a museum for some time.

www.theknittingmachine.com/Dave_Cole/Process  then click on the video.  You'll love it.

The picture here is not what he knitted, 0f course, but something I knitted.  Like wearable art.  What can I say?  Art is everywhere.

Genetics?

So where does it come from?  This "ability"?  This "talent"?  This drive to create when others are content to just live and work and exist?  People are always asking me "where did you get it; was there someone in your family with talent?"  So they already presuppose that it's genetic.  Yes.  My maternal grandmother was gifted with ceramics, carving and painting and creating real art.  And yes, my mother paints as well, from time to time.  Does that mean that I won the genetic lottery and my siblings didn't?  Does that mean that one or more of my kids should have it too?  The interesting thing is that though my oldest daughter was "talented" at an early age, she never really pursued the art and so nothing has really happened there.  However my youngest daughter is a fabulous artist, (puts me to shame) and she isn't even mine.  She is my husbands daughter from a previous marriage.  But I feel like she is mine since I raised her.  Did she "get it" from me? If so then it isn't genetic, it's environmental.  In that case wouldn't anyone being "around" art pick it up too?  

It's more than just art, or talent I think.  It has a lot to do with the drive, the ambition to create every day or die trying.  It has to be as necessary as your next meal or your next breath.  I think lots of people have the talent but they don't all have the drive to create.  Without that it's like a muscle that is never exercised.  It had potential but was never strengthened or worked.

To be honest, I don't know what drives me to paint every day, or where the gift comes from.  All I know is that the pleasure I get from creating is greater than I can resist.  I do have the theory that God wants us all to be just like Him.  Creative people.  Not necessarily creating a universe or a planet but a facsimile of them.  When I do I feel Him smiling down on me.  Life is good.

Nature Journal

I am a firm believer of having a nature journal.  I don't get out often but when I do I take my little tablet and watercolor travel kit or colored pencils (whichever is easier).  When I see something intriguing or new to me, I draw it, ink the lines with a pen or marker and color it in the colors of nature or as natural as I can get it.  Then I like to pick the weed or flower or leaf or feather and paste it into the journal next to the drawing.  In this way I have the real thing and the drawing of the real thing.  Then I make notes: where I found it, when, the date, and what I thought the name of the plant might be.  I look them up later and try to find the real name of the weeds.  Then I can incorporated these journal drawings into a painting.  I call this painting "A Walk In The Woods With Tiffany" because it has things from my nature journal all around it.  Bugs, feathers, leaves, weeds, even a rock I thought was really cool.

One day I was walking along in the "woods" at Pacific Grove near Monterey and I came across a little weed with bright red and orange leaves.  It was beautiful.  I stopped and drew the weed, colored it in watercolor then reached down and picked it to paste into my journal.  Later I looked up the weed only to find I had picked poison ivy and pasted it into my book.  Somehow I lucked out and didn't break out into a rash.  Lesson learned.  Watch what you pick.  But it was so pretty!

Putting a Price on Your Work

How do you put a price on your paintings?  Most artists put their heart and soul into their work.  How do you price your heart and soul?  People have asked me which is my favorite painting.  I feel like they are my children; I labored and birthed them.  So how can I pick a favorite child?  How can I sell one of my children?  And what price would I put on it if I did?  Some say to add up the hours you took painting it plus supplies and give yourself an hourly wage.  That's a great idea if it were a 9 to 5 job and not 50% inspiration and 50% perspiration.  What is my time worth? $10 per hour? $20 per hour?  $25? $30?  I like to think like James MacNeill Whistler said in the courtroom testifying about why he priced his paintings so high.  He said he wasn't charging the public $200 for 2 hours work but $200 for a lifetime of experience in art.  Isn't that what it's all about?  Not the time I spent making it but the experience of all the others before that lead up to this one.  That's what my painting is worth.  A lifetime of experience in art.

Nothing is Free

I have noticed that the best things are free.  But not much is anymore.  Even water is being metered, so that's not free.  Sleep even costs me because I like to be warm.  The air-ways aren't free anymore, so there goes entertainment.  Even my attitude isn't very free as I'm constantly "paying" for it.

But drawing and creating, my friends, no one can take that from you.  Sure you have to buy a few supplies but once you have them... the world is your oyster.  Create something today.

Lost Art

I was talking to an art and design instructor this weekend.  He teaches computer design with programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.  His observation is that most of his design students don't know how to draw.  They let the computer do it for them.  He was saying that he refused to let them get away with this and required drawing for a passing grade.  But my observation is that drawing is fast becoming a "lost art" (pun intended).  It takes time and skill, effort and patience: things which we are sorely lacking in this country.  In a world of fast food and microwave ovens, who takes the time to draw when you have cameras... and not just cameras but digital cameras that instantly download to a computer any image you want to tweek.  With this kind of technology, drawing is as antiquated as a marker is to a quill. 

But there is something to be said for the old ways.  Observation is more than just snapping a photo of the image or scene in front of you... it is also capturing the feeling, the essence, the spirit of the moment... something cameras don't always do.  There is something very spiritual about using pen and ink, dipping the nib into the ink, scratching on the paper and dipping it in again.  If you've never tried it you are missing out.

My encouragement to all my artist friends is to keep a tablet and pencil in your car, maybe under the seat.  Pull it out and exercise those drawing muscles before they atrophy altogether. Drawing doesn't just exercise the hand muscles but also retrains your eye to see beyond the surface.  It is aerobics for the healthy artist's spirit.  Try it.  You will be stronger for it. 

Painting with the Senior Citizens

I teach watercolor painting techniques to senior citizens every weekday morning at 5 of the 15 senior citizen sites in Fresno.  It is quite a joy.  These special people are waiting for me with smiles and anticipation, ready to paint whatever I dreamed up and brought it.  We only have an hour and a half so we don't waste time with drawing.  I bring the pics already drawn and ready so we can jump right in a start painting.  One week I'll bring a landscape, the next week its a floral, next an animal or bird, next some whimsical portrait or fantasy pic.  Something for everyone's taste.  The fun thing is to hear all the comments.  Many of my seniors are just retired (60 or older), some are in their 70's and still feel mobile to come and enjoy other's company, some are in the 80's and 90's and are happy to have mental capacity and mobility (though many of those don't drive, they take a bus).

Just when I think I've heard it all, they surprise me with something else new or funny.  I've heard numerous life stories, tragedies and comedies.  But mostly I hear that they haven't painted since they were in school (mostly since kindergarden or first grade).  Isn't that a tragedy?  Painting and creativity shouldn't be something you put off till you are retired, it should be an everyday-of-life event.  And most school when presented with budget cuts, don't cut the football team or any of the sports.  No.  They cut the arts: music, theater, band, fine arts.  This is the worst tragedy I've ever heard of.  So senior citizens are reintroduced to the joy of painting after life, parenting, jobs, and youth are over.

Don't get me wrong.  I do love my job.  And better late than never.  But surely something can be done.  How can we incorporate more arts into life beyond the first grade, or even the 12th grade?  Anyone have answers?

Art Show in the Library

There seem to be fewer and fewer places to host art shows these days.  The public library seems like a likely place except for just a couple of things.  Have you noticed that people are reading less and online more?  Have you noticed that 90% of the kids at the library are there waiting to use the computer and that is not for research but to play games?

The Society of Western Artists now has our 48th Annual Membership Show at the Sunnyside Library.  As a side note I won a 2nd place prize.  But I'm asking how much actual traffic will the library showing get?  Besides friends and family who have been invited to see the show, who will take the time to look at the paintings, and maybe buy one?  Precious few, I think.  So what is the answer?  We had our show at the City Hall at one time, however, I ask the same question.  Who goes to City Hall besides people paying property taxes or buying a copy of their birth certificate?

Anyone have a solution?  Where would be the best place to have an art show that would receive the most traffic or best viewing?  Banks used to open their wall space for non-profit art organizations but not anymore.  Restaurants don't want to be bothered.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Photos from Open-Air Paint-out

This is a photo of Victoria painting in the open at the park.

Open-Air Painting

If you haven't done it before, I would highly encourage it.  Paint in the open like the masters of old.  It is incredibly scary because people are passing by, watching, commenting, critiquing... and the light is constantly changing.  The sun just won't hold still for you.  

So this weekend I went out to a large park with a lake in Fresno and painted for 4 hours.  It was so exciting and yet peaceful.  The geese gliding by and honking at me.  The sun was warm and not too much wind to blow my paper around.  It was a perfect day.  Many of my painting friends worked in oils and acrylics, but I really like the versatility of watercolor. It is portable, dries fast, economically and ecologically sound.  I picked a likely spot, settled into my lawn chair, sketched out my design and proceeded to lay in color.  It was wonderful fun.  The very next day the painting sold... unframed.  I call that a success.

You must decide what to paint from a large landscape full of possibilities.  I find an empty slide sleeve and use it for a "view finder."  Then once you decide on the small piece of the world to paint onto your paper, sketch it out and take a photo to remind you of the light and shadows at the time.  Get one of those watercolor travel kits.  They have plenty of colors, a little travel brush and the Winsor and Newton travel kit even lets you buy little square paint replacement cubes, so if there is a color the kit doesn't come with you can buy it separate and insert it into the kit.  I did.  I like the Hooker Green better than the Emerald green so I exchanged them.  I three hours I had most of the painting done and stopped for lunch with friends.  Then I finished the painting after lunch.

My friends from the Society of Western Artists paint in the open twice a year.  You should maybe think of finding someone to join and try it.  You'll love it.