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.