Lisa's Art Blog

A New Series

2010-09-19T12:55:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty excited. I painted for the past 3 days in a workshop with Jane Slivka and rather than do the exercises she had her other students doing I just worked on the figure, my personal goal for the class. I'm very happy with the results and plan to explore the figure further in this same style. I'm calling it my beach people series. What do you think?

Photography Class

2010-08-14T09:35:00.009-04:00

I've been SO busy teaching this year I've not been painting much. Right now I'm teaching Environmental Photography for Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT (online of course).

I've been taking a lot of photos this summer, plus spent a month, June/July, teaching Tech 4 Educators 2x face-to-face in southern VT. These are VT pix: walks, Farmer's Markets, all would make great painting subjects. I take a lot of photos with my artist's point of view. It's a different medium than painting, pure composition with light and color, without all the painting technique issues; good for keeping my "art eye" fresh.

January Art Workshop w/ Jane Slivka

2010-01-30T12:53:00.002-05:00

This is the second year I've painted with Jane. She has a nice loose style and a Florida palette both of which I appreciate. This is probably my favorite for the 3 days. It is done from a photo I took of a house here in New Smyrna Beach. I added the water in the background, which isn't really visible, but adds some depth to the painting.

January Art Workshop w/ Jane Slivka

2010-01-30T12:50:00.003-05:00

This subject was to work on light and shadow, and how to deal with blocks of color rather than falling into depicting every blossom or leaf. I particularly like the shadows on the walkway. I think I need to break up the mass of flowers on the left fence.

January Art Workshop w/ Jane Slivka

2010-01-30T12:46:00.002-05:00

Still life. Working with light and shadow, trying to depict fairly common forms in a loose inviting manner. Jane's suggestion was to make the background a warmer dark tone, to pop out the blues in front.

September, 2009

2009-09-18T15:51:00.004-04:00

Spent the weekend at our family camp and attempted to catch its 1908 architecture. I think this is a bit "precious", way to worked and look forward to another weekend in which to try a looser style.

Sawmill Farm Hill

2009-07-14T22:03:00.002-04:00

This is the view on the steep road up which I hike each day. I want to lighten some of the grass areas and do more with the barn, but this is a rough draft. 18x24 acrylic - 7-11-09

First Summer '09 VT paintings...yup it's a FL scene

2009-07-01T11:18:00.003-04:00

It's been cold and rainy in VT so my thoughts have gone to FL where it is hot hot hot. I took a number of photos with the idea of using them as art references and am just now getting around to actually painting a few. I think the figure will be my focus this summer. This one is tiny, just 5x7, acrylic. Lily on the boat, Indian River, New Smyrna Beach, FL

New Smyrna Views

2009-05-22T20:44:00.003-04:00

I've had the pleasure of painting this spring with the most amazing artists. We 4 women meet at a the beach, a park, each other's homes and paint once a week. I'm posting my last few paintings, some not really finished, but hey, here goes. All are acrylic on canvas. This one is the view from Edgewater looking towards the south causeway in New Smyrna Beach.

2009-05-22T20:38:00.007-04:00

This one is Tim's boat on a sand spit off the inner-coastal, the Indian River; New Smyrna Beach condos are in the background.

Last FL Art This Spring, Off to VT

2009-05-22T20:10:00.005-04:00

This last one was a small painted sketch done while we floated down the St. John's River.

More FL Art

2009-02-21T14:52:00.003-05:00

Grooving on the Florida landscape as usual, especially since it is February and VT is cold, sloppy and still fighting off winter. I'm working on my color palette with these two paintings. Both were done in, or inspired by, the Jane Slivka workshop I took in January. Jane is a Ohio transplant, a painter from Mt. Dora, FL, who has studied with Robert Burridges and Steven Quiller, both colorists and fans of loosey goosey brush work. This is all good for me too. As a recovering tight watercolorist I aim to get loose and free with brush strokes and use color in such a way that the painting looks colorful, although not like a carnival. This is not always easy to achieve, I fail at it more than succeed. Jane was experimenting with gray skies and I may bring some gray back into my palette as well, to offset the color.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A Workshop Painting from Daytona Beach Art League Workshop

2009-01-31T23:34:00.002-05:00

Here's another painting I did during the Jan. 19-23 Jane Slivka workshop. I used a photo of a tourist village in some great warm place, not sure where. I thought the mutli-colored roofs would be fun to do but found I had to revert to a black and white photocopy because the color of the roofs and buildings confused my own color sense. Dark/light, that was what I needed to focus on. There's more to do here, but it's fun to look at.

Tim on the Beach

2009-01-27T00:31:00.002-05:00

We're back in FL once again, sold the VT house and made the big move. This painting is 8x8", acrylic on canvas, painted from a combo of photos of Tim, my hubby, reading in a deck chair in Maine last summer, and a photo of the beach in New Smyrna Beach, FL where we live. I just took a workshop from a wonderful FL artist, Jane Slivka, http://www.janeslivkagallery.com/ who lives in Mt. Dora, southwest of Deland. She studied with Steven Quiller and Robt. Burridge so is a colorist and free spirit who paints luscious loose works: FL landscape and architecture as well as some Caribbean scenes. I love her painterly style.

Closure

2008-11-17T11:42:00.002-05:00

We sold our VT house this fall. The day before the closing we had a bonfire for our personal closure, I threw in a few art pieces including this paper mache art spirit I'd made after receiving a flying Balinese carved wooden female from a friend who traveled there. This photo says it all: flying into the flames of the unknown we end an era of building our house, raising our family, stability and homesteading. Now on to new and exciting adventures!

late summer bounty

2008-08-25T11:45:00.006-04:00

We're selling the VT house this summer so I've been busy getting rid of rather than making new art. Here's a few little doodles that I've done recently, not nearly enough time spent either in FL or VT this year on art. I think I'm ready for a new dedication to work. This is my last year teaching so I'm hoping as I finish up that chapter in my life (28 years!) I'll find more time for painting.

Two of these pieces are oil pastel on handmade paper (from Mexico where I bought it directly from the paper maker. The tan paper is banana leaf) with ink. both are quite small, no bigger than 10" wide. The landscape w/ barn is acrylic and is also small, 8x12, on primed canvas.

The two collages are about 5x7, done in FL. Collage is a great way to get the juices flowing. I had a collage party with 4 other art wimmin where we all brought some magazines, I provided cardstock and each person brought scissors and gluesticks. We brown bag lunched it too, so it was no work for me but fun for all. We all got ideas from the process. I had no particular intention, but I like the Surreal quality to the pieces and might experiment with painting on top of the magazine images.

Killington Mountain

2007-10-08T21:24:00.000-04:00

Oil pastel on red gesso primed paper, 8x12"

Autumn in New England

2007-10-08T21:15:00.001-04:00

Oil pastel, watercolor and mixtures of the two are my media, landscape my subject, yet somehow that pile of fruit, which I actually drew many years ago and just recently decided to paint, found its way to my table recently. I'm experimenting with value in all media, something I know my work has needed more of.

September '07 Work

2007-10-08T21:05:00.000-04:00

Landscape seems to be my theme these days, I don't know why except possibly dividing my time between two such disparate climates as FL and VT has alerted my awareness to my environment. I adore both places for many reasons, not the extremes of course. Autumn in Vermont is one of the wonders of the world. This is the 26th one I've spent here and yet the subtleties of color, the light glistening through the translucent leaves, grab my attention, slap me awake, and say, LOOK! So, I look...through my paintbrush and although I never feel I've caught it, just trying to is fun.

Lisa Goes to Art Camp

2007-08-03T21:17:00.001-04:00

This is the second year in a row this teacher got to go to grown ups Art Camp. Holbein Art Products distributors for North America offices and warehouses are in Burlington, VT area. Each year they throw a big "party" and lots of artists come. Actually, they invite a dozen or so artists to lead workshops over a 5-day period. Artists, or wannabe artists, can sign up for a few as one, or as many as eleven workshops over the 5 days. I took 11 this year....whew! I've got one more to go, but I thought while I had a speedy Internet connection (in the hotel) and time to do so, I'd post a few of my pieces. Remember these are 3-hour workshop works, nothing to frame, but great experiences working in a new medium, or with some new techniques.

The first one is an acrylic floral I did in a Margaret Roseman workshop. Roseman is a Canadian painter known for her loose floral and landscape work in both watercolor and acrylic. Her website is: http://www.margaretroseman.com/artwork.htm

I would say her emphasis is on light against dark, dark against light and gradation. Basically, we are talking value. It seems to me this was the big message I got over and over in the workshops I took this past week: pay attention to, and emphasize, value changes. It's pretty easy to just think of art as line and forget the 3-D value of it; form.

Sean Dye - Mixed Media Master Teacher

2007-08-03T21:11:00.001-04:00

The next work is in gouache (opaque vs. transparent watercolors). This is the kind of paint kids use in elementary school and is called tempera, but artist quality tempera, or gouache (gwah-sh) is much more refined. The paint is a bit chalky and totally opaque and flat. It is great for painting fast and colorful work. The Shangri-La is a motel in FL I really love, it reminds me of my childhood visit there with my family in the 50's one winter when I was about 12 (by car from NJ) . Professor Sean Dye, University of VT art instructor, is master of many different media. Matter of fact he has written a great book on mixed media in which he talks a lot about his personal techniques for making art. Check out his website at: http://www.seandyestudio.com/

Our home in FL is about 3 blocks from the railroad tracks. We hear the train at least 5 times a day (and at night). It is a freight line so great long trains go through with everything from autos, to animals, to produce, to …. sand. This is the sand train. I guess the sand is used in cement and for other building uses and is shipped all over. I love the long line of cars and huge puffy clouds in this scene. I have lots of train photos from FL and suspect a series is percolating in the back of my art mind. This one is in oil pastel, done during a workshop taught by Sean Dye.

Tom Lynch - Watercolor Master

2007-08-03T19:21:00.000-04:00

Finally, I took a Tom Lynch watercolor workshop this afternoon. Tom has taught all over the world for 25 years and has authored many books, video, DVD’s and artist’s materials. He is a very savvy marketer of his workshops and art. One thing he does is work with various artist supply companies to use his name on a specific product he designs, or they’ll hire him to teach workshops on their unique products. His latest favorite product is Fredrix Watercolor Canvases. Watercolor CANVAS? you say. Yup, this company has figured out a way to coat a canvas with an emulsion that allows watery media to sit on top without beading up. A regular canvas primed with gesso (acrylic paint) would do just that. This is kind of across between a clayboard and Yupo board. Don’t know what these items are? Google them or go to http://www.dickblick.com/categories/watercolorpapers/#watercolorpanels and click on the name on this page. In Tom’s workshops you follow his lead and paint what he paints. Great for beginners and this is the way the Japanese teach art; follow the master. In this case it is his technique the student is trying to master, not creativity; that comes when you return to your own studio and play with his tricks on your own compositions. See Tom's website at: http://www.tomlynch.com/

A number of other artist's workshops were awesome, although I've talked about them previously I'll mention them again. One is Caroline Jasper, author of Power Color, a fabulous resource for artists on using color in their work. This workshop was in oil and my work is drying in my car at the moment so I don't want to go out in the 95 degree heat and photograph it. Caroline's website is: http://www.carolinejasper.com/

Jeanne Carbonetti is an extremely thoughtful and fluid watercolorist. Her book The Zen of Watercolor explains her "tummy jumps" and "heart-mind" approach to painting. She is a master of awareness of her process and her workshops are kind of like art meditations. Jeanne's site is: http://www.crowhillgallery.com/

Bob Burridge is always fun. He's the wild man of art, encouraging artists to get loose and let their creative juices flow! He's a one man cheerleader for having fun while you make art and his techniques and workshops are super fun and freeing. Bob's site is: http://www.robertburridge.com/index.html You can sign up for his free "artsy fartsy" email newsletter.

Mostly New Vermont Work - Early Summer 2007

2007-06-28T17:08:00.000-04:00

Here I am back in Vermont after a few months in Florida during the worst of winter. Lucky lucky me! I loved painting in FL and just as much I love being back in my glorious new studio in VT. Many of these paintings are small, whipped out in a few hours after a day of doing other things, like cleaning out closets - ugh! Right now the idea of moving does not excite me, I just want to hunker down and enjoy my art space. Recently though, I've said many times, an art space isn't the same has having space (time) to make art, and the later is more important than the former :-)

This is a quick watercolor landscape of the view from my painting porch in VT. I imagined the colors pretty much, which you know I love to do. It is about 10" x 6"

First Lily of the Vermont Gardening Season

2007-06-28T17:02:00.000-04:00

This is watercolor on watercolor paper and is about 8" x 10". I began this one last year and finished it this spring in the studio. It's a bit tighter than I like to work but it was a good way for me to get going this spring upon my return to Vermont. I needed to just start moving the brush! Speaking of moving the brush, check out Robert Burridge's Newsletter online: http://www.robertburridge.com/newsletter/artsyfartsy_june07/
He's a crazy acrylic painter who really has terrific ideas about composition, loosening up, letting the paint guide you, etc.

Acrylic Sky

2007-06-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

This painting was finished here begun previously, maybe last fall on retreat, I can't remember. I cut it up and made a kind of triptych, except there are 4 parts...what is that called in art-talk? This is acrylic on paper and all the pieces displayed together like this equal approx. 24" x 10".

Vermont Trees

2007-06-28T16:51:00.000-04:00

I was playing with tree forms while looking at one of my favorite VT artist's work, Wolf Kahn. His color sense is so amazing, I get pumped up just looking even though my own work never really looks like his.

This is about 5" x 12" on watercolor paper with a wet on wet watercolor wash laid down first then oil pastel on top and lots of smearing with both a blending stick and my fingers.

New Small Vermont Landscapes

2007-06-28T16:43:00.000-04:00

Landscapes in Vermont so different than Florida, yet similarities about. I'm so fascinated by skies, the different kinds of greens, pushing the color palette, which is always my favorite thing to do!

These are watercolor first (free-form flows wet on wet) then oil pastel on top. Paper is bumpy to they don't smear all that well, but the color is rich (my favorite Holbein oil pastels in use here and mostly Holbein watercolors as well). They are both small, about 12"x 5".

New Florida Water Media Work

2007-04-09T13:49:00.000-04:00

The transition has been made. I have spent the winter months in FL not New England and am one happy camper! So happy that I've actually gotten some time to make art in the luscious FL outdoors. Here are some of my latest works, what do you think? All are fairly small, the largest being 12x18". All are water media or a mixture of water media and pastel. I've experimented with different grounds, gesso and acrylic medium. I studied for a week with Barbara Baldwin of Deland, FL. She uses a variety of water media mixed with pastel and is mostly a pastel artist. Her workshop was on loosening up and I'm always looking for ways to do that.

This is Spruce Creek - Acrylic on gessoed paper, 12x18"

New Water Media Work

2007-04-09T13:46:00.000-04:00

Beach Day - Watercolor and pastel on paper, 7x9"

New Water Media Work

2007-04-09T13:43:00.000-04:00

Cliffs - Watercolor and pastel on paper - 7x9"

Bridge Grass - Watercolor and pastel on paper, 7x9"

Hibiscus - Watercolor and pastel on acrylic ground, on paper - 7x9"

New Water Media Work

2007-04-09T13:41:00.000-04:00

Mountains - Watercolor and pastel on paper: 7x9"

Ocean - Acrylic and pastel on gessoed paper: 12x18"

Carbonetti

2006-08-04T00:44:00.000-04:00

Jeanne Carbonneti is a Vermont artist who writes books like: The Zen of Creative Painting. Her approach to art is one of mindfulness (the exact opposite of Bob Burridge) and yet her artwork is spontaneous and free, loose and full of movement. Tomorrow I take 6 hours of class with her, and took one tonight too. I'll add my attempt at trying her technique and you can see more for yourself at: http://www.crowhillgallery.com/ I'll say more about her after tomorrow.

Painting with Negative Spaces

2006-08-04T00:31:00.003-04:00

Linda Kemp is a Canadian artist who paints in watercolor, oil and acrylic. Her technique is very interesting, intellectual, and yet a wonderful combo of free and controlled. One begins with loose layering of color (this is the part that I am too controlling with and want to work on) building up many layers that are applied wet on wet, yet the colors show through (check out her website by clicking on the title of this post, and you'll see what I mean). After these are dry you go in with the detail work. At no point are you ever painting the subject, you are always painting the spaces between, around, or behind the subject which make for a unique look. Many floral watercolorists use this style to build up layers of flowers, but then they paint in the actual flowers in the foreground, Kemp never does this. She also has a style of landscape that is interesting, dreamy and loose, but we only got a tiny little demo of this in the last 20 minutes so I'll have to try it at home.

Mayonnaise?

2006-08-04T00:15:00.000-04:00

Okay, I admit, oil is not my forte. I am a watercolorist, I draw with anything, and I love sculpture, especially using natural materials like branches, grasses, birch bark, etc. But oil paint...not my thing. So to challenge myself I took an Impressionist Color workshop with Caroline Jasper in oils. Ohhhhhhhh. It was an evening class and I was already fried from a day with Bob Burridge. I was not a happy camper when we began and I realized I had no clue what I was doing. It felt like I was laying mayonnaise on the canvas! Well, we began with little oil "sketches" on canvas paper and then developed them. I understand the theory of Impressionist color, but damn if I could figure out how to apply it. After a lot of whining and Caroline showing me that my sketch looked great from across the room even if up close it just looked like a mess, I began on the canvas. It helped me to take off my glasses and hold the brush at its very end (farthest away from the brush part); both of these gimmicks made me less controlling and more free. You'd think after a day with Burridges I'd be quite loose, but that old meany fear just slipped in and got the best of me. This piece is surely not great, but then many of the instructors at this event have mentioned: you don't do your best finished work at a workshop. You take risks, learn new stuff, and then go home to your studio to apply it to your daily work. I'm not sure I'll go out and invest in oil paints (for one thing the paintings aren't even tacky and this is 24 hours later, I have no patience for that kind of waiting:-), but I may try some of these brush work techniques and color techniques with acrylics. On this image the water ended up the last area I worked on and I just blended it, a big no no for this technique. I may go back and try working it up with some brushstrokes and color later (if I can mange to get it home in one piece).

Caroline Jasper

2006-08-03T23:45:00.000-04:00

Actually, I was in a Power Color workshop with Caroline Jasper on Tuesday and Wednesday was Bob Burridge, but I'll talk about Caroline here since I just uploaded all the other photos from the burridge workshop. Jasper was a long time high school art teacher and did a lot of research on color theory. She taught workshops for artists on color and was asked to write a book, researched even more, and has written an awesome book called Power Color. I learned a lot of stuff that I already knew, but she broke it down in such a way that the application of the theory made more sense to me. These three studies are just that, theoretical applications of color with emphasis on value in the first one (without thinking of the color itself just its place on the value scale that refers only to its pure hue); the second is about cool and warm colors, receeding and projecting using color; and the third, the mug is a quickie on a similar theme. I learned a lot from her that I hope I'll remember to apply. She has a great book and a great website at: http://www.carolinejasper.com/

Art Woman, Crazy Woman?

2006-08-03T22:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, this is it, I've been busy all summer building my studio (well, supporting my hubby and helping as he builds it) teaching, and other stuff, but this week I have been in art heaven. I've been attending the Holbein Vermont Art Event, in Burlington, and am a total art fool at this point. I have one more day of glorious workshops and then will spend most of next week at a family mountain cabin, painting and experimenting with all the techniques I learned this week.

For now let me show you what I've been doing. This first bunch of photos are from a workshop taught by Robert Burridges. He is a wonderfully funny, creative and fearless artist who as an artist by breaks all the rules. Check his site out at: http://www.robertburridge.com/index.html. Honestly, though you just have to see him in person to get the real gist of his magic. The images with this post were all done by me at his workshops (I took 6 hours worth) on Tuesday, Aug. 1.

Non-art

2006-07-14T11:02:00.000-04:00

The past few months have been non-art producing yet to make myself stay focused I signed up for a local art show. Sigh. Now the event is encroaching and I am struggling to feel okay about the little I have to show. It's not that it is a little bit of art, I have enough pieces, it is I have little to choose from that I've completed this year. This has been a Non-Art banner year. My studio is under construction, my 1/2 year teaching position has been accepted by the administration, so my snowbird status and partial retirement has actually begun. It doesn't feel like it b/c I'm very busy this summer with my new school: teaching tech to teachers during the summer, moving into a new classroom, as well as helping with implementation of a new student information system. Lots to do. I hope to begin my art life next week as I truly go on vacation. I'll travel to FL, then to VT for an art workshop, then to a mountain top for a painting retreat before school begins again in late August. Until then...

Stage 2

2006-03-27T16:22:00.000-05:00

I'm a watercolorist and have some experience with acrylic but painting with oils is a mystery to me. Today I found myself using my fingers because I just couldn't get the brush to do what I wanted it to do. I'm so used to working either totally wet or totally dry and this greasy in between is a challenge. Step two of this soon to be tropical scene.

Begin Again

2006-03-24T13:24:00.000-05:00

I begin again. After looking at a 24"x30" stretched canvas all last weekend and this week, I found I was daunted by its size and blankness, and although I have an idea of what I want to paint I just couldn't seem to begin. Part of my problem is I want to experiment with oils and/or acrylics and I have little experience with them so technique was an issue. Another angst is time, I'm so busy with other stuff, work stuff, ewwwww! With the help of my hubby I realized this is just the time for small art. I don't HAVE to do big art (somehow this seemed the next reasonable step). I need to do lots of little oil and acrylic "sketches" to work on techniques, work out compositions and colors, and to keep myself sane regarding time.

That said, here is a beginning of a smallish piece I began last night. I'm selling my daughter's car (after she has been gone from home for a year) and I'm feeling a bit of final tether removal going on in my psyche. These clouds seemed a good place to be and although they will build up to being a lot whiter (I think) this is where I stopped last night. This is about 8x18" on heavy watercolor paper, not gessoed. I'm not sure if the oil won't soak in too much but that's part of the experiment.

Marshmallow Clouds

2006-03-13T20:53:00.000-05:00

Tonight it is 37 degrees and thundering and lightening. Crazzzzyyy weather! There was a tornado in Kansas yesterday and I wonder if this weather is part of the same front. Maybe being in New England during late winter is making me daydream of these pillowy clouds piling up on the horizon over the Atlantic. I was experimenting with combing Van Gogh oil pastels and Sennelier. The Van Gogh's are hard and waxy, the Sennelier's soft and buttery. I'd like to find something with a middle consistency, but haven't yet.

Cloudy Horizon

2006-03-09T17:25:00.000-05:00

Recently I was in southern climes and found myself fascinated by the distant flat horizons and mounds of cumulus clouds. Nothing much weather-wise came from these clouds, not rain or even damp, but there they were most days looking like mountains on the horizon if you caught them out of the corner of your eye. I felt right at home and didn't miss my cold New England hills at all. I took dozens of photos and now that I’m back in the frosty north, tonight I began exploring some of the color and formations that stayed with me.

Artblog Returns!

2006-03-08T14:31:00.000-05:00

I've been swamped with work, then away on vacation, and now finally I'm back after quite a hiatus from my "every" day artblog. Ahhhh, well, I guess I'm human. This image is a quickie I did last night to try out some new oil pastels I just bought. I'm experimenting with different brands and types. There is an iridescent gold and a couple of fluorescent colors in this painting. It is small, only about 4x6. It came out more Van Goghish than I thought it would, but I was layering on the oil pastels pretty thick.

I'm a Sap 4 Art

2006-02-12T14:40:00.000-05:00

The past few days I've been working out my color experiments on an unusual surface...a sap bucket. My town library has asked local artists to be creative with galvanized sap buckets as a fund raiser. Here's mine so far. I'm tempted to add some gold "stars" to the sky with permanent paint pen, but not sure. What do you think?

Mentors

2006-02-11T08:32:00.000-05:00

Last night I divorced myself from work and spent hours drifting through art books: Wolf Kahn's America and Wolf Kahn's Pastels, as well as Painting Maine, Borrowed Views of Connie Hayes. The common denominator is color and shape. Hayes paints interiors and the rocky villages of ME, while Kahn loves the woods and fields of VT (with some staunch barns for company). Both push their color palettes towards bold so one gets to see: turquoise barns in ochre fields (Kahn); sun filled living rooms with bulky furniture shapes so full of light the whole painting seems yellow (Hayes); hot pink and orange trees in a purple field (Kahn). I realize color jumps off the canvas to me and pulls me right in. Looking at Kahn's purple skies and violet grass make me feel like I'm indulging in the most exotic three layer mousse chocolate dessert extravaganza. It fills me right up with pleasure and satiates me with joy.

With all that abundance of color in my head I began by laying down red/orange grass, purple mountains - orange rimmed - and periwinkle sky. The green crept into the sky when I added yellow to the periwinkle to make it glow. Although I was looking for a kind of acid green, the kind of light that tiptoes in before a storm, I ended up with a more mature grass green, that of dark roiling summer storms; or the stuff found stuck to the lawn mower blade housing after a day battling the abundance of lawn growth during a New England spring.

OIl pastel on paper, 6x8".

Still in Progress

2006-02-07T12:27:00.000-05:00

I got to thinking about this piece after perusing Ken Leslie's Oil Pastel book. He uses a lot of curved horizons in his work and wacky perspective and I thought about that "global warming" piece I'd been playing with. I'm struggling with this long, albeit mild, NEngland winter and thinking fondly of my partner who is enjoying the warm breezes and tropical sun. Here I'm depicting my southern and northern homes and for me the conflict of not being with him under palm trees.

Framing

2006-02-07T12:24:00.000-05:00

Here are 3 of my blog paintings framed for a show (and one previous work from the fall). I'm pretty pleased by how they look and just thought I'd share.

Finally, I'm back!

2006-02-04T16:16:00.000-05:00

This has been a hellish week. I didn't produce art although I did a lot of art related stuff. I took four of my art blog works to the framer to get framed for a local show and got another big piece of heavy paper taped to the board and so I'm ready to go. Tuesday and Weds. I read some of Ken Leslie's Oil Pastel book and was just blown away by all the techniques and materials he talks about. I need to read more. Every night this week I've been working on online classes until 7pm so that leaves little evening time for anything, let alone art. Thurs. evening was a blob out and I think I watched a movie called Let's dance about ballroom dancing. Also perused the Oil Pastel book some more. Friday I had an appt I couldn't get out of and got home late, but while out bought two more books by the artist Wolf Kahn. His color work is so amazing. I am really inspired by him and was drooling over these books at my local museum, bought some postcards of his work a few weeks ago, and now own the books, yipee.

I'm back working some more on my courses today, picked up the framed work which looks great, and hopefully will break out the colors tonight and begin a new work.

Misty Birthday Morning

2006-01-30T10:22:00.000-05:00

Today is my birthday and I am celebrating at home painting and reading and doing yoga and later eating that pint of Ben and Jerry's Fish Food ice cream I bought for this occasion. It is warmish today, high 30's and the snow is being eating up by the warm air so it is so foggy I can hardly see the road across the meadow. I can barely see the trees across the stone wall too so I painted that this morning before I did anything else.

Pink Snow

2006-01-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

It's funny how in this almost colorless landscape of New England in the winter I am seeing color everywhere. Maybe it is because I need color to lift me up a bit out of the winter doldrums, but maybe it is because the environmental palette is so neutral that I am seeing color leap out at me. Saturday morning the sun was rising as I began painting. The snow seemed tinged with pink and purple shadows, the deciduous trees and mountains far away were deep gray/green. This one is larger than the other paintings I've been working on, maybe 12x10". It's amazing how much of a Sennelier paint stick I can use on a format that small. I'll continue with this one on Sunday and Monday too I think, so this is a work in progress.

Murky World

2006-01-26T23:34:00.000-05:00

My son talks about the New World Order, makes connections between things that make my mind spin. Is his world spinning or is mine, is it the same world we live in? When he talks it seems we live on two totally different planets. I washed the "global warming" painting in white mist last night, misty confusion.

"Judgment day, everyone will think they're crazy". I'm watching Angel's in America the past few nights, Tony Kushner's play (in video form with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson). Hell, heaven, life, death, angels, madness, an amazing play. One character, a Mormon wife statue who steps out of the tableau, talks about what happens when God calls you. She says, "He reaches inside you and grabs your insides, wrenches them out, then stuffs them back inside all dirty and dusty, leaving you to sew yourself up". I think of the power of spirit in my son and how he is wrangling with it and the world. "He had great need of understanding, his need was prayer, his prayer brought understanding", says a character in the play who is talking about the prophet Joseph Smith. I think my son has a great need to understand life, his role in it and he finds solace in his radio preacher's sermons.

The world is a murky place, spirit sweet, let me not judge where one finds solace.

Global Warming?

2006-01-25T18:46:00.000-05:00

I was so tired last night I just had to play. I liked these colors, smeared them around to see what I'd get, and now I'm entranced with the possibilities. What can happen here? I need to wait and see.

An art teacher friend mentioned that I should comment on the size of these pieces. Almost all of them are not much bigger than a postcard (or two). I've got a large sheet of heavy smooth paper taped to a board and have divided it up into sections. The largest one is about 10x12" and it is the "Hot Landscape on a Cold Night", the rest are much smaller.

I like working this small because it isn't daunting, especially since I'm so busy with my other work stuff and have little time for art. Even spending 5 minutes every day makes me feel so good though, I'm really glad I'm doing this.

Variety

2006-01-24T11:49:00.000-05:00

Tonight I was tired and almost didn't make art. But I found, when I sat down with the promise to myself that I'd only work for a few minutes if that's all I felt like, I became rejuvenate by working with the materials and color. This door is from a photo I took on a country lane in Ireland last summer. We had to stop the car so I could capture it. I loved the greenish door scraped through to hot pink underpainting contrasting with the yellow ochre building. Ireland is full of colorful surprises. Many come from painted doorways and window trim in very old stone or masonry buildings. I remember being so struck by this in England back in the mid-60's when I first visited a country outside of the states. The row houses there were all the same dull gray, but each one had it's own painted wood trim color scheme and the combination with flower boxes was just stunning and stays with me today.

More Color

2006-01-23T15:29:00.000-05:00

Last night I experimented with using any old content but pushing the color as far as I could. I like the result although I realize I still stuck with fairly realistic colors. Maybe next is a series of totally unrealistic oranges? I can't remark enough about the quality of the Sennelier oil pastels, and to think these have sat on a shelf in my studio for years. I think my French cousin gave them to me for Christmas one year. Bless that man!

I liked playing with the line at the horizon/table edge. Is it too distracting to have red and yellow there or does it add to the overall composition? I'd like to hear your comments.

I pasted a link to Eric Aho's work in a reply to Lady Di, but here it is for anyone else who would like to see. You can see his color is certainly nothing that is inspiring me, but his landscape forms. http://www.artnet.com/artist/1306/eric-aho.html

Painting w/ Lipstick

2006-01-22T11:39:00.000-05:00

Sennelier oil pastels are, as I said yesterday, kick ass. They truly are so soft and luscious that they seem almost an extension of my hand. The warmth of my hand, fingers, softens and blends so easily I find myself doing a quick sketch then "finger painting" for the rest of the painting until I need some more color. Then a few more dashes with the stick and more smearing. Lovely. This morning I had a revelation that I can do color exercises w/ any content. Damn, I wonder why these "ah-has" which are SO SIMPLE need to keep coming back and slapping me upside the head? I know I've thought this before, many times probably, but here it is again to maybe nudge me away from the landscape and see what else I can do with color.

Landscape as Color Exercise

2006-01-21T16:17:00.000-05:00

I went to a poetry reading and slide show Thursday night (on my way home from the workshop) and was inspired by the artist's landscapes. His work was loose and dark, muddy, earthy colors. After the slides I browsed the museum gift shop and got REALLY excited by the color work of various artists. This little landscape was done in oil pastels and is a quick color combination sketch. I'm pleased with the colors, not too pleased with the quality of the pastels I was using (a box of my daughter's school grade oil pastels). I'll have to get out my Sennelier's which are like painting with lipsticks. Stay posted - more color work to come.

Thursday Doodle Art

2006-01-21T16:15:00.000-05:00

Thursday I spent the day on the road and in a workshop. Since I wasn't going to get home until late I've chosen one of my doodles from my workshop notes as my "art" for the day.

Clementine

2006-01-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

Time raced away with me and here I am two days later finally putting up the clementine I've talked about previously.

Stipple Hell

2006-01-17T20:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry, no picture, my camera battery is dead, tomorrow it will have to be.

Stippling

2006-01-17T19:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight I stippled a clementine. Stippling sucks. That said I'd like to add that there is something intensely gratifying about making a drawing of only dots. I chose the clementine because I wanted this to be a 5 minute art project, ha! Is there such a thing, I don't know, but 5 minutes of stippling gets you nothing but acne on your paper. As I was dotting away I started thinking about my child the fundamental Christian, something about the monotonous, repetitive motion allowed my mind to wander. I thought of this child of mine (this child I reared, because at this point in my life, with young adult kids, I feel they are just loaners; kind of like stray cats one adopts, feeds, grooms, gives medical care to, loves, cuddles, and adores - then they run away.) This adult child is so rigid, so clear on what is right and what is wrong. Like stippling my child is trying to fit into a rigid pattern. The monotony of stippling can be soothing and it too can be frustrating. After about 15 minutes I find my clementine is fairly much there, but fairly wane. It needs bolder, stronger blacks. I yearn for a LINE, but no, stippling is dots only. So back in to the drawing I go with my pen, dot, dot, dot. Trying to fit more dots into spaces that seem too small for even a space. I think, "God only, no doughnuts, no psychology, no feel good anything", how can my child be like this. Yeshua and Satan, black and white. He is living a stippled life.

Hot Landscape on a Cold Night

2006-01-17T09:20:00.000-05:00

Working late last night on this oil pastel, which I began this fall. I had rubbed most of it out because it was insipid. Last night saw it sitting on the table in the living room and realized I hadn't done my daily art (I'm at that moment between semesters when I have 175 report cards to do and 3 online classes, and many face to face classes, to prepare, which begin Weds. arggghhhhh-computing nightmare). I was frustrated, angry, and so scribbled away. Also, I didn't like the damn thing to begin with. So here it is. It's better. I like the hot and cold contrast, I might do more, not sure.

I was watching Artemisia, about Artemisia Gentileschi, Baroque Italian painter, last night her mentor Tassi said, "Don't do what you are familiar with, do something different", as a way to move her beyond what she already knew as a painter. Words of wisdom.

I will make art every day

2006-01-15T14:37:00.000-05:00

I will make art every day. This sounds like an easy thing for an artist to say but somehow the rest of my life seems to grab my attention and suck me in. I am reading Julie and Julia right now and got the idea of making an art blog as a way to keep myself accountable and make a public promise to myself: make art every day. So I begin with a little Photoshoped image of myself.