Charge!

I have decided my elephant painting is done.  I'm not entirely happy with it.  I like the elephant but not the lions so much.  But I can't seem to make it better so I'm moving on to another painting.  I have three more that are nearly finished.

Here is my process.  Like the old masters I start with a contrast painting that is a simple drawing of  light and dark.  I learned from this painting that I should incorporate a contour drawing into that.  I think that will help me with composition and depth.

I had just finished reading Jodi Picoult's book Leaving Time.  If you have read her books you will know she picks a societal problem and spins a tale around that.  In this book it was elephants.  They are being slaughtered for their tusks and if this isn't stopped they will be extinct in the not so distant future.  They are fabulous creatures that have many wonderful traits.  Yes, they really do never forget.  And as mothers they put humans to shame.  I really enjoyed painting this.  Perhaps my fascination with the elephant is why I neglected my lions?

Reference Photo

The painting above took about two hours.  I knew at this point I had a painting that would look good simply because the photograph was a good one.

After adding the second lion I added color.  I actually like these lions better than the ones in the finished product.

I used a glazing medium to get some purple on the elephant.  I don't know why but just about everyone agrees that purple and elephants go together.

More contrast.

The elephant is floating.  I struggle with this for awhile and never really solve the problem.

Too Dark

Too Light

I gave up!  The elephant looks kinda sad but I do like the eyes.  I hope to learn how to portray emotion in my future paintings.  I missed the mark here but that's okay.  It is all a process.

More Paintings!

Once I just about complete a painting I start a new one.  I never know how long it will take as I get stuck one a painting and it just takes time to get unstuck and move on.  If it isn't enjoyable then that is reflected in the painting.

This is the first night  I started it.  Below is the reference photo.

Above I added the second lion then added some color.  Below I used a glaze for the first time!  A glaze is just that, a thin coat of paint.  I wanted the purple in the background for the elephant.

Last night I started with the above and I worked on the lions and started adding purple to the elephant.  My teacher tells me the elephant looks like he is removed from the picture.  When I put the "dust" on the picture I think that will cure the problem.  There is still much to do but I KNOW what to do so it won't take as long.

What Is In A Name?

I am sure everyone is familiar with that quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  I was just thinking about when I started this blog a couple of years or so back.  I had become bored with my job and was craving a creative outlet.  Writing has always come easy to me so I thought I would share my writings with the world via Blogger.

Perhaps I should rename my blog "My Life as a Painter".  I hesitate to call myself an artist.  Well, yet anyway.  I'm a fledgeling.  I like that.

This summer when I painted it was an escape.  One afternoon I picked up a brush and made strokes that felt good.  I  made more strokes and more.  I inadvertently left the painting out in the yard next to the gravel driveway.  That night it rained.  The paint had bubbled up in places and collected gravel dust in the ridges left behind.  Mother Nature decided to help me out.

I have always loved abstracts.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Have a great day.  Create something.

My Inner Jackson Pollack

While I was painting my porch I stumbled upon some dollar samples of  pastel paints and I decided to go all Jackson Pollack on my black mailbox.  The mailbox had been kicked around the bottom of the steps so my postal carrier didn't have to skate up the icy steps in the winter.  He'd suffered some scrapes and the loss of a handle so I gave him a new look.

I, personally, wanted to put some crimson on the last layer but alas, my better half said nope.  It's done.

My inner Jackson Pollack, however, was not done.  I grabbed my latex house paints and went to town on a piece of plywood.  I dripped with a random stick I picked up.

There is something delicious about dripping layers of paint and watching the randomness blend.

I'm particularly fond of reds and greens.

And yellow!

One of my painting classmates doesn't use yellow and I'm constantly telling her to add yellow!

There is something I really like about action painting.  Next spring I'd like to get out in the back yard with a tall easel and attack a large piece of plywood with color!  It is exhilarating spontaneous creativity and it makes me joyous.  It is the kind of joy I remember experiencing as a child playing and not knowing what might happen next.

Fox

As the next challenge I decided topush myself even more and paint another "thing".  I wanted to take full advantage of having an artist as a teacher and learn as much as possible.  I liked this picture because the fox is running.  He looks happy.  The challenge, as always is to paint a "thing".  This also has shadows.  I thought it would be a real challenge and it was!  I proceeded with the value painting but this time I used green and orange.

The first thing I learned was green and orange trick the eyes.  My values were deceiving.  I kept painting and with help I finished the value painting then I made my next mistake.  Struggling with shadows I painted Gangrenous Fox.

As you can see I am doing fair with the value with the green areas.  The shadows on the fox are awful.  With some more help and advice  I painted on...

I made the nose bigger, added some teeth, did some work on the legs and got the shadows working!  I have been looking at Running Fox for nearly a week.  I want a block of time alone that is peaceful to paint uninterrupted.  It hasn't happened yet.

Painting is becoming a passion for me and I am happy when I paint.  It doesn't matter if I am good, or if anyone likes it, this is something I must do for me.  I don't understand how or why my life takes such turns as it has.  I don't understand why I end up where I do but somehow it is all interconnected and at the time I make a decision it always seems right.  24 years ago I left the arts.  I lost the muse.  Just as abruptly she returned.

I think it is no coincidence that the first painting the muse selected was a fox.  The fox is sly and cunning and can get around tricky situations where a direct confrontation would mean disaster with stronger larger animals. 

For example, I was once dog sitting for my brother and his dogs raced up and down a fence row on our walk.  Back and forth they went again and again desperately thrashing through the brush in the same area over and over again until their tongues hung down and they slowed to a lope.  I called and called and they refused to obey.  Suddenly I looked down the road and a grey fox trotted from the ditch onto the gravel road.  The fox turned and looked at me then trotted away. 

I haven't painted in a week.  I had too many other obligations.  I have looked at my fox.  I have dreamed about a fox.  It just seems right in a very new age way.

With a few more layers I hope to have Running Fox finished.  I will present him to you then.  The holidays are coming and I hope to have lots of painting time!

Sunrise Bird

Remember this picture?


Photo Credit: Don McClure Havre de Grace, Maryland

At my first painting class my teacher instructed us to pick a landscape that had some meaning to us.  The first painting she wanted us to paint a landscape because they are relatively easy.  I picked my friend Don's picture because it had a "thing" in it (a bird) and I had been playing with blending colors.

The first class we did a value drawing like the old masters.


Value Painting



Next I started to add colors.

 

 

 

 

Then I lost the bird.

 

 



But after many layers I was pleased with everything but the bird.  However, Sunrise Bird's new owner declared it finished and I condescended to her wishes.

Had I "finished" it I would have made the bird a bit more like the picture.  But all in all I am very pleased with the result.  Kudos to my painting teacher Christine Kuhn.  She is amazing.

It Has Been A Year!

Hello Everyone,

I can't believe it has been a year since I last blogged. 

It has been a long year with so much loss I can't even recall all the losses in one sitting.  I have had a lot of anger and sadness this year but mostly sadness.  I do not handle anger very well.  For me anger manifests as anxiety.  I am not an anxious person by nature and I'm ill prepared to deal with it.  I'm lucky to have someone that helps me along the way during those times.



Sunrise Bird at Havre de Grace, Maryland
photo credit: Don McClure

 

 

Since I have grieved the loss of my career I have done a lot of soul searching.  I reached the conclusion that I am a person that thrives on self growth.  When I reached the farthest I could go in my career I began exploring other options for learning and growth.  I wrote, I tried sewing, and a few other things until I happened on painting.  I dabbled and the muse left me.

 

July 4th in the midst of severe anxiety over an unsolvable life issue I started the process of painting my porch.  My poor porch had peeling paint from a previous owner and was in awful shape.  It was incredible!  For the first time I felt like I was in control of something that would turn out very very good.

 

 

 

Pressure Cleaning Said Porch





I was able to get so involved in this project my mind was blank.  It was lovely to be calm and peaceful.

 

Finished Porch

I didn't pick the color.  It was a mistake but for the better!  The first mistake I've made in a long while that worked out better.  I was such a painting fool I painted the old table and chairs too.

Table and Chairs on Said Porch

 

 

 Painting is therapy for some people so I went to Lowe's and bought different colors of sample paint and picked up some scrap plywood for free.  I went home and started to paint.  I wanted to turn all this sadness into anger.  I couldn't access the anger.  That was the plan anyway.  I got so much pleasure from the porch project I thought I'd give actual art a try.

 

Next I will show you some of my therapy. 

 

 

 



Watercolor Exercises #1 Brush Strokes

Okay, here we go!  Promise not to laugh.  Well, promise not to laugh at me.  I have to admit that I laughed at these pictures. It was a fun laugh and I hope you get some enjoyment out of them too.

First up is my very very first watercolor.  I was feeling the brush on the paper and becoming quickly intoxicated by the power of putting this color anywhere I wanted in any way I wanted.  Amazing feeling.

I'm thinking I might name this one Ghoul. 

I sorta made a mess splashing the paint on the paper.  I felt like a 5 year old channeling Jackson Pollack.  It was hard to make myself stop.  Any suggestions for a name?

I thought I had ruined this painting by taking a big fat brush and  blending all the vibrant colors but it is growing on me.  I'm thinking it might be upside down?

Whatcha think?

I learned quickly that brush strokes take a lot of finesse.  Now when I look at watercolor paintings I'm really in awe of the skill it takes to create them.  I doubt I will ever be skilled enough to paint a detailed landscape but in time I hope that when I put brush to paper I can have some idea of what it will look like!

There you have it.  My first peek into the wonderful world of watercolors.  I have only destroyed one creation so far.  I have a couple more in progress I'll share next week.