Inspired by Places

Sunny Summer Day in South Carolina, 4.5" x 6.5" Oil on Oil Paper

Places that I know most intimately or places that I visit inspire me. I particularly enjoy going for a run or walk – in new or in familiar places. The emotional impact that the place creates in me inspires me to want to express that in a painting or drawing. It may be the overwhelming color of the area – like the greenest green haze that surrounds you in the foothills of South Carolina in the summer or the cool blue-greens and blues and browns that swirl around you when walking through the Florida marshes.

I usually start an artwork with a purposeful visit to a place, a run or a walk through an area, just emptying my mind and looking.  A second visit finds me with camera in one hand and sketchbook in the other, working to capture some of the sense of place that impressed itself upon me. Sometimes, I sit down and do a few watercolor sketches on location. Later, in my studio, I paint a series of paintings inspired by the place. Do you have a place you would like me to visit and capture in paint?

Not Always Successful

6.5" x 4.5" Green In South Carolina 5

I was trying out my oil paint paper -- Arches -- again today, trying to capture that green, sunny South Carolina summertime feeling again. I got the trees and the distant sunshine in ther and even ALMOST got the color scheme right, but it just did not come together for me today. Perhaps when I come back to it later I'll feel differently. It doesn't really bother me too much when this happens, but it seems senseless when it does.

Green in South Carolina 5

What I mean by that is that I'll have an idea of what I want, I'll be working it out as I go and it will be progressing well, then suddenly the paint is not going on like I want it to. I wipe some off and try again. Nope. It's not behaving. I persist. Eventually I get to a stopping point, but the mood that I was trying to capture has eluded me. I think I may come back to it another time, but I may not. Sometimes it's better to just drop it and move on. Perhaps I'll do a few studies that will help me to better understand how to get the effect that I'm going for . . . those trees on the right and the close-up tree . . . the folage is just not right. And the sun doesn't look like it is shining through. Okay, enough. Move on.

Christmas Day, 2014
Later, I did go back to this little piece. Here is the result. I'm much happier iwth the depth and the sunlight shining across the trees.

Seeing Through Artist's Eyes

16"x 20" Green Orchard, Oil on Canvas

I'm over half a century old, and I've been making art of some kind or other for most of that time. Yes, there have been times when I did not make art; that comparison of how a practicing artists looks around her to, well, how a non-practicing artist looks around her. In those times when I have been regularly drawing, painting, collaging, everything I look at is seen as colors, textures, patterns; I'm thinking of how to get that effect, how to express that moment.

The feeling comes first: wordless, eyes widen, breathless. Then comes the smile, a feeling of great satisfaction, wonder. Next, the translation begins, as I described above. It's not even done in words. It's more of a wordless thought process. For me, it is connected to, flows from, my beingness. I'm being myself, an artist; I'm doing what I do, seeing and changing it, one foot in this shared world and one foot in my own, personal world; How can I bring this world into that world? How do I share this?

This painting is a window into that early morning, patterned colorful world of my childhood.

"If I were called upon to define briefly the word Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses preceive in nature, seen through the veil of the soul." Paul Cezanne  

Subject Matter

In today's art world, it is popular to paint about a concept. This is not something that I want to do right now. As a teacher (my day job) I am constantly needing to verbalize, analyze, describe and demonstrate. When I paint, I simply want to think in that unique, non-verbal, joyful way that simply comes to me as I paint or as I look. It's a unique communication which is personal and timeless, and there's something stress-free and unconcerned about it; during the moment of creation, it doesn't matter if it is received or not. It is only later, sometimes much later, that gratification comes from observing that someone "gets" it. And even, hopefully, purchases it.

Primary Motivation

What is my primary motivation as an artist? Currently, I can see that if I could create financial security and stability as an artist, many of my distractions could be eliminated and more focus could be put on creating art. For example, I love creating a beautiful home and a beautiful yard and even enjoy teaching children art, but I could be the designer of my yard and home and hire others to do a lot of the labor, saving me lots of time.

If financial stability is a primary goal in present time, it is because it will let me focus more completely on artistic excellence. Creating art is simply an urge that has never gone away. I felt it as a child and it has continued to be important to me into adulthood. At one point, I put it aside and took a totally different kind of position. For 5 years, I did no art and focused on creating my position in the organization where I worked and although I did well and earned a good income, not doing art was actually painful to me. So it is a necessity that I earn a good income with my art, and not just a want.

Finally, recognition as an artist would be a real bonus, though I don't really crave it. A cadre of collectors who focused on and supported my my work is a new concept for me, but I really like it.

I think that Henry Moore puts it best for me when he says, “There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.” For me, experiencing life through art is all. Viewing, creating, thinking about, researching, appreciating beauty, aesthetics, art, that is simply how I live and how I want to live.

My Biggest Challenges

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Pablo Picasso  
 
Rather than listing out the difficulties that I have in creating art, I want to describe the most success that I have had in creating art. There was a time when I created 50 large works in 2 months. It was a hot, muggy summer, but I didn't care. I was outside, off and on all day nearly every day, painting, painting, painting. Totally absorbed. It was wonderful.

So what's different now? Then I had no real responsibilities. I was married, but had no children and I wasn't working at a job. I was taking 2 classes at a university that I only had to attend 2 days a week and one of those classes was a painting class with an amazing teacher who was like a mentor to me during that time. Now I have a house, a family, pets, a job and many friends. I belong to organizations which need me to contribute my time and I have to work harder to keep my health good. Finally, I have no painting mentor now. I think that is actually key here. Having a mentor who helped me find my focus allowed me to prioritize my painting, then not having other responsibilities allowed me to pour everything into it without distraction.

How do I apply that to now? Finding a mentor would be great and not something I have really looked for in a long time. I'm so independent now that I have a consideration that I should be able to find my focus by myself. That's a whole other topic to take up at another time. I do have my own ideas, but it is great to have someone who is able to spot your good points and help you to amplify them. It's like a power source that ramps you up exponentially. If I can focus and turn on the power, then "cleaning up" my life in order to pour myself into my painting without constant interruption would be a next step.

So to simply answer the implied question of "What are my biggest challenges with regard to my art?" They are finding my focus and eliminating distractions.

Recently - Working on Planning

Lately, I've been doing more organizing and researching than painting. It's been a good experience. Between getting ready to go back to teaching, helping with the schedule and doing trainings, I've been been spread pretty thin, but I've just tried to make a little progress every day. Even if it is VERY little. I have a lot to do, that's for sure, and to get it all done while teaching school is quite a task, but I consider it a challenge.

Speaking of challenges, I'm coming up with one to really get myself producing art every day. I haven't decided exacty what yet, but it will be something along the lines of an artwork a day for five days that I sell for $5 each, then 1 a day for 10 days that I sell for $10 each . . . for a while. Mmmmm, let me get organized first. Just a little bit?

Moving On

Did 2 more oil sketches yesterday. As soon as it cools down a bit more, I want to go do some more painting on location. These last few days of drawing and painting have been so much fun . . . an artist friend even came over and painted for a while with me yesterday. Ahhhh. I could live like this.

The next few days will be taken up with getting ready for an art camp that I'll be teaching at and getting my house in order again. As I wrote earlier, my house just gets into a mess when I'm painting. And, of course, the grass continues to grow while I step out of time and paint. Silly grass. So I had to go out and work some art on the yard this morning. That's okay, though. A person can make a beautiful life and cutting the grass with my little mechanical mower is part of that; so is pulling the weeds and putting out more plants and making a special chicken salad for lunch.

I thought I might post a couple of the sketches I did in South Carolina last week and one of the watercolor sketches I did on location. Here you go.

Sketch from Yesterday

I've been doing most of my sketches in pencil or watercolor in the past 3 weeks, so I was a little awkward when I did this oil sketch from yesterday's walk. I liked how the real world looked kind of ethereal and the reflection more clear and defined. The colors, too, were so different. More sketches to come tomorrow. There's a certain feeling I'm trying to capture. I'm not sure I can even describe it in words. I'll work on it again today.

There's something about painting, looking, preparing to paint, thinking about painting and after painting; my house always gets into a mess while I'm painting. It just happens.

In the past, I became so involved in making a living, supporting my family, doing volunteer work to help other people, that I only painted in brief spurts of production. I always allowed myself to be distracted or chose to only paint for myself, telling myself that I did not want to paint for money. I didn't really want to share my paintings; it was more of a feeling that I was not completely aware of rather than a thought in words.

Something changed, though. Part of that change was when I worked with a friend who was trying to help me increase my income. She pointed out that she could understand that I didn't want to sell my paintings for a few pieces of paper (money) because my paintings are little pieces of my spirit, they are my creations and I love them. Of course, I wouldn't want to trade them for little pieces of paper. However, she pointed out that there might be things that I found to be valuable to me spiritually or emotionally. And I suddenly got it!! The way that I was holding myself back, even holding my family and friends back from what I could share with them was by NOT painting and NOT sharing my paintings. My exchange was not just money . . . it was for what I could do with that money or even with what I could do with sharing my art with people.

Another friend helped me to find and put into words my basic purpose. Finding that has helped me to remove some barriers in my life that I didn't even know were there. More about that later perhaps.

Finding My Voice

Looking is a large part of the activities of an artist. Some artists look inside and others look out more. This summer, I decided I would visit the parks in Pinellas county to look for my inspiration. Today, I went to Brooker Creek and walked one of the trails. Brooker Creek is a nature preserve and has an educational center which was closed today. It was beautiful! I took lots of photos while I walked; in fact, I ran the batteries in my digital camera down completely. Here's one of the photos that I took and an oil sketch that I did from it.

I liked the way the sun glared on the water and how the reflection seemed clearer than the reality. My painting is just an impression of the work.

There was no one else hiking and it was very quiet. There were no birds singing and no squirrels chattering. I did see a peahen on the drive in; the drive that leads to the parking lot is about a mile long. And later, I saw a snake hold its head up looking toward me as it slithered across the path ahead as well as a few blue dragonflies flittering their transparent wings. Those are the only animals I saw during the whole walk.

The feeling of quiet beauty, the shadows that were dark and hardedged one minute and soft the next, the blue sky and the dark clouds, the dragonflies, the glistening drops of dew on the strange grasslike lichens on the path . . . Those gave a certain mood/ flavor that I would like to try to capture. I'll make another attempt.

Entering the World as an Artist: My Journey

That title just this minute came to me. I've almost always, this lifetime, considered myself an artist, but that was only in my own personal world and sometimes in the world of my closest friends and loved ones. I've never tried to enter the shared world as an artist. Now, though, is the time. Something in me has changed, awakened and now I want to live my life as an artist. I've written a program for going about it in a more organized and professional way and I've put my feet on that path. This blog is purely for me. I don't even know if I will publish my notes or not, but here I go.

The greenness of SC really hit me this time. I think it always does. I'll be doing some paint sketches to try to capture that breathing, living green.