Snail's Pace

My painting has really slowed down to a snail’s pace. I am discovering why I became so excited about contemporary, mix media and abstract painting and stuck with it for so many years. The fast pace, the unpredictable and inventiveness of the process is much more exciting than working in the slow, but seductive, oils. Looking for subject matter, arranging the set up and the lighting are so time consuming that I often lose interest by the time I start to paint. Then I find myself taking breaks from the studio because of the fumes of the thinners and mediums and often, distracted by something else, I do not get back to the easel. Excuses, excuses, excuses!

Back To Square One, Rocks

One of the advantages of retiring from the art show circuit is the freedom from painting in a style expected of me, which has been mostly acrylic abstracts and mix media art. Recently, after watching all the painters on YouTube, my interest in oil painting returned, especially still life painting. Since it had been so long since I worked with oils, I decided to start with something simple, like rocks. I was surprised how much I had forgotten about painting with oils and that rocks are not as simple to paint as they look! I made it doubly hard by painting on the absorbent raw side of the canvas. I chose this side because the color and surface texture intrigued me. My next challenge was to make my rocks, (that were beginning to look like a potato on a hunk of cheese), look like the rocks in front of me. After painting and picking for most of the day I decided to stop, add a touch of the unexpected, the tag, and sign it!

Old Movie, New Inspiration

Unhappy with all the political hogwash, TV reruns and garbage, I decided to watch an old 2000 movie, “Finding Forrester”, on my computer at HULU.com . What a great decision it was! If you have not seen it, I highly recommend that you do. The movie, written by Mike Rich and directed by Gus Van Sant, was a visual treat. Sean Connery and Rob Brown’s acting was exceptional and the story inspiring. It made me, as a senior citizen and artist, think about the remaining years of my creative life. There is a preview on YouTube. Check it out!

The Art Critic

I recently attended a National Art Show. I was looking forward to seeing this show as the judge was a museum curator who oversees the museum’s contemporary art program. You can imagine how disappointed I was to see only a few pieces that were interesting and exciting. The majority of the work was very conservative and traditional in technique. I questioned why the judge played it so safe. Did this show really represent her taste and professional judgment? Was she trying to please the more conservative members of the association that was sponsoring the show and advised about the kind of work she should pick? Is it possible, though questionable, out of over 600 entries she really did not have much choice? There were, to her credit, one or two controversial pieces, but overall it was a ho hum show and I left uninspired, confused and disappointed. It made me aware that we should never allow any judges’ opinion of our work affect us. You never know where it’s coming from. The circumstances dictate more than we know.

Winner!

Recently I subscribed to Susanne Clark's blog, No Naked Walls. Susanne is a wonderful painter and printmaker residing in the Atlanta area. I met her last year at a local art association meeting and was impressed not only with the pictures of her art that she showed us, but also with her as a person. You can imagine how thrilled I was to be the July subscriber winner of one of her Kimono collagraph prints!
I lived in Japan for over two years as a dependant of an Air Force officer many years ago. My father was stationed in Tokyo and the experience of living there totally influenced my life and art. Susanne’s print brought back many wonderful memories. It will hang harmoniously in my home and remind me of the wonderful life I have lived and that I am a winner!

In The Limelight

The Atlanta Artist’s Center show at Binder’s Limelight Gallery will be running until August 28, 2008. I feel fortunate to have two of my paintings in the show, the painting above, Chinese Laundry, and a small mix media collage. Stop by if you have a chance.

A New Day

It’s been an interesting experience painting with the Chroma Atelier ® Interactive Artist’s Acrylic™ paints. I’ve recently learned they were made in Australia and have been around for a few years. I didn’t know they existed until I went to the demonstration and I have been eager to paint with them since then. Finally I had the time to test them by painting an abstract and record my experience. The painting was fun, but making the video was something else. First it was too long, plus my arm and hands were in the way of the camera. A true amateur! Only a fool would continue, but I’m stubborn when it comes to having a previous investment in something. The only solution was to cut the video by capturing clips, (there must be an easier way than the way I did it). I ended up with a slide show! It would have been smarter to start another painting and photograph each individual step. I’m still having problems creating a video file that can be seen clearly.The printed information on the slides is hard to read in such a small format. If you double click on the video you can go directly YouTube and this video, then click in the lower right corner to view it full screen. Unfortunately it's still a little blurry. Hopefully, in time, I'll learn how to improve on my video skills!

Motivation or Inspiration

I wrote in the previous post about my search for the motivation to move my body into the studio and paint. It took the Atlanta Artist’s Center show at Binder’s Limelight Gallery submissions deadline to push me to do so. I vowed to stay there until I had three painting framed and ready to deliver to the show committee. I’m happy to say two of my pieces were selected. Deadlines and success are certainly motivators, but inspiration may be a more desirable one. It comes without bribery. It’s the rush of something new and springs from the creative center of one’s soul and imagination. Case in point: recently I went to a product demonstration of a new acrylic paint, Chroma Interactive Artist’s Acrylic. These acrylic paints are said to have the best qualities of both acrylics and oil paint. Meaning they have a long open time so they can be blended and corrected like oils, but they can also , with medium added, dry very quickly for over painting! This is an acrylic painter’s dream. Excitedly I brought home the reminder of my samples and stored them in small air tight palette with a sponge. After almost two weeks the paints have remained moist and creamy. This is inspiring! With the AAC show behind me, I’m eager to go to my studio and start creating with these new paints. I will update my results in a future post.

Motivation

I allowed a recent disappointment to drain my motivation. Common sense tells me that I am foolish to let uncontrollable things control my moods, but try as I may, they do. Other artists have told me they have the same experience. I Goggled "motivation" and there were a lot of opinions on why and how to overcome the lack of it; (which takes motivation!) One thing for sure it is a rare thing to stay motivated all of the time. My guess is those who are constantly on "go" really suffer from OCD or they have some biological or artificial chemical advantage! "Oh no', I can hear someone say, "I just love what I do so much I can do it 24/7”. Isn’t that called an addiction? If so where do I sign up? I just hate having to push myself into my studio, reluctantly go through the motions of painting only to waste a lot of good paint and surfaces. I might as well give myself permission to close the door and chill out! Now that’s a motivating idea!

Mind Maps

I’m sure most of you are familiar with mind maps as a way to plan and visualize one’s goals and projects. If not there is an informative video on You Tube ‘Maximise the Power of Your Brain - Tony Buzan Mind Mapping”. In the past I have created them on paper or whiteboards, etc. Recently I discovered there are numerous computer software programs for them . A free program is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh OS X. The name is FreeMind. It is a nifty little program and the one I started with. I got so hooked on doing mind maps on the computer that I upgraded to ‘Inspiration’ .This program appeals to my creativity and it has more tools. Unfortunately it’s not free, but the cost is not out of sight. Now if I will act on all the things I have posted on the map I will be happy!

40 Years of Creativity

It’s been many years since I lived in Newnan, Georgia and belonged to the Newnan Coweta Art Association. Thursday, June 19th, they will be celebrating their 40th anniversary and paying tribute to their past presidents. I served as president in 1980. It was my first time serving in any official position. Needless to say it was a challenge, but with the help of everyone, especially our dear late friend Harriet Alexander, I manage to pull through it. I have fond memories of those years and I enjoyed being a member of this wonderful organization. They were like family. Today I am reminded how much I miss those times together. Happy 40th dear Newnan Coweta Art Association!

Time Slips Away

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I last made an entry. I’ve spent most of my time in my studio and doing physical therapy for my left knee replacement. Fortunately I’ve had some success with my art and my knee is slowly coming along. I continue to be fascinated with Yupo, the plastic sign material now available for artists. I wrote about it in an earlier post “Feeding The Soul”. The slippery surface is still a challenge. The first image, “Shifting Gears”, was accepted in the Georgia Watercolor Society show. Years ago I was a “signature member” with this group, but lost my status when I didn’t renew my membership. Now I’m back to square one. The second one, “Casting Up Stream” won an Honorable Mention in the recent Atlanta Artists Center show. All of these “pats-on-the back” are keeping me inspired and painting. Now if I would only keep my blog and web site up to date!

Show Success and Giclee

The “Driven to Abstraction” art show has been a success. A lot of paintings were sold including the debut giclee of my acrylic painting, “The Gathering”. Phoenix Galleries is the publisher and they did an unbelievable job of enlarging and printing my image on canvas. You have to touch it to believe that it is a reproduction. Since it is an open series any future ones I sell myself I will hand-embellish and sign.

Feeding The Soul

Throughout the unpleasant events that have taken place this year I was forced to “feed my soul” to maintain some sort of reasonable sanity. Unfortunately the drama has not ended and new business challenges have raised their ugly heads, but escaping to new art classes has really nourished me.
It never ceases to amaze me how silver linings can be found in the darkest clouds. Due to a cancellation of a demo by one of my favorite artists, Pat Dews, I chose to take her workshop just to meet and watch her work. And work she does! I‘ve never met anyone with so much energy and generous creativity. She pulled me out of my “pits” and pushed me to create again. Not only did I acquire some new techniques, I also made two new wonderful friends, Pat Dews and Shirley Shepherd.
Shirley lives near the Atlanta area (I wish she were closer) and has a wonderful studio in her basement that her handy husband, Dave, built for her. I had the privilege of going to there to paint with her. Shirley introduced me to a new plastic painting surface called Yupo. Can you imagine trying to paint with watercolor on plastic? Yep, it slips, slides and has a mind of it own. This challenging stuff really forces you to free up and play. The outcome is never predictable, but always unique, guaranteed to get your mind off of anything but creating. I became so excited by this that I took another workshop taught by Lala Streett, and got lost for two days in slippery paint. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to “Feed the Soul”.

Art Class

I cannot really express how much fun it was to get back into a class again and play with paint. This week’s challenge was to take a small section of a picture, painting, some sort of image and enlarge it. Although my painting is only 10x 10 I found copying the section I had chosen a little tricky. Not having all of the supplies with me from my studio was also a challenge. After class the instructor offered me an opportunity to submit a proposal for a workshop of my own. Wow! That got my juices running.

Mood Swing

Mood swings; pretty much describes my current reality and the Atlanta weather. As fall arrives we are experiencing beautiful, foggy mornings brought on by the extremes of hot to cold, dry to wet weather. It brings back memories of the wonderful foggy mornings in the mountains of North Carolina where I taught beginning artists at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

“Mood Swing” is the title of one the many photos I took while teaching at the school. I would love to be there again, sitting in the swing this time, watching the fog lift, revealing the autumn foliaged mountains. Photos have the magic to transport us to another place and time and they often trigger emotions and issues we are currently dealing with.

Hurricane Season

Wet reminders
Still Surviving
Katrina

This is one of the photos I took in New Orleans in June of 2005 before Katrina. I am so grateful that I was able to visit there again before the disaster. I love this city, it antiquity, it’s style, it’s people and it’s creativity. Katina will long live in my memory and I pray that no one ever has to endure such a disaster again.
Even before Katrina this time of year has always created a feeling of anxiety for me. My house being surrounded by old oak trees with shallow roots, the hurricane season is a major concern. Falling trees and heavy rains flooding my basement more than once and a leaky roof are experiences that I pray I don’t have to endure again.

Found Treasures

Since I was a young girl living in Ohio I’ve been fascinated with fossils and shells. We lived near Dayton in a small town now named Fairborn, (if memory serves me right) a combined township of Fairfield and Osborn. Apparently this area of Ohio was once covered with water so plant and water-creature fossils were not hard to find amongst the rocks. I remember spending hours looking for and collecting them. I’m surprised I no longer have them, but because they were so commonplace they probably were not considered treasures by anyone but me, just more junk for my traveling military family to deal with. Which may explain why my basement is now filled with my ”junk” treasures. Since I’ve retired I have to deal with disposing most of it. It is so hard to let go when such fun things can be created like the “found treasure” creation at http://rightbrainspa.blogspot.com/

Summer Burn-Out

My watercolor alumni group chose vegetables as this month’s watercolor challenge. I painted the few veggies that have survived this year’s crazy weather. My garden looks much like I have been feeling; “burnt-out”! There are too many projects and then interruptions when I do get involved with one. For instance, I just received an email saying the free HP eBay course I signed up for months ago is now starting! Like I need another project now! However since it took so long to get in I feel the need to do it. So I’m off again in another direction, but with much less enthusiasm!

4th of July Fallout

Every 4th of July my neighborhood fills with cars to view the fireworks from the local park. The past couple of years the rain has postponed the show to the following weekend. Fewer people show up and I reap the benefits of having my street side view to myself with only the trees blocking some if the action. Fun for the moment, but the holiday interruption is a headache. I realize most people look forward to the long weekend, but some how the weekend spills over into the rest of the week and it’s nearly impossible to get things back on track. Much like the interruptions I’ve had with my projects. I’m still trying to finish the graduation videos I started for my grandchildren. Constant interruptions, delays and software crashes made me shelve this project for a while and I’ve started working on some digital collages requested by a local publisher, but the holidays have broken down the communication with them! They are all behind due to the break. Forget the fireworks, I feel like exploding. Grrrr!! I’ll take this time to get back the unfinished kitchen.