It's a wrap

I did it! I completed my 1 hour painting challenge. It was pretty fun and I felt like I have grown a lot in a very short amount of time. I’m glad I did it, and will probably do it again.

I hoped that while participating in this challenge, that I would get inspired for a new direction for work. Unfortunately, I’m still not really sure where to go from here. I do have a few paintings planned, so hopefully while working on them, inspiration (or at least an idea) will strike.

Anyway here are the paintings from my last week of the challenge.

1 hour painting #16- Oranges from photo 8”x8”

If you have been following along, I had mentioned that I wanted to experiment with a painting from life and how it compares with a painting from a photo. I think my results are a little inaccurate when it comes to enjoyment of the process and end results, because I was having a really off day when I painted the first one from life. But I do have a few things I can talk about that I observed.

Like I said, I was not having the greatest day in terms of painting while working on the first painting, so it is easy to say that the one from the photo was a significantly more fun. The biggest difference for me was how much contrast the camera added. The edges were also a lot more harsh. Which I believe is just because cameras cannot capture all the colors our eyes see, but I don’t know that much about cameras so I’m sure shutter speed and ISO are also contributing factors. Then there is that fact that your composition isn’t going to change slightly every time you move if you are working from a photo.

I like how they both turned out.

Orange painting #1

orange painting #2

One reason I did this experiment, was because I still sometimes struggle with the myth that painting from life is superior to painting from a photo. I would like to get better at painting from life, because I think there is a lot to learn from doing it. But if I can’t or don’t want to paint from life, does that make me less of an artist or a worse artist than someone who only paints from life? No. That’s ridiculous.

I think both have advantages and disadvantages. In the terms of improvement, I think it’s good to do both. But when it comes making art/ being creative, I think you should do what is right for each individual piece as well as what brings you the most joy. Because at the end of the day, making art is about having fun and getting your inspiration into the physical world. (At least, thats why I do it.) Anyway, end of rant.

1 hour painting #17 Baby squirrel

I was losing steam at this point, so I thought I would go to instagram and ask for suggestions on what to paint. One of my friends suggested a squirrel or chipmunk. Since, I prefer to work from my own sources, I went way back in the archives to a day when Ike was about 2. We went to the park and we were the only people there. However, there was a baby squirrel that seemed to be a little lonely. So Ike played with it for at least 20 minutes or so. It was one of the most precious things I have ever witnessed. They were both sad when we had to leave. Anyway, this is a portrait of that little baby grey squirrel. I enjoyed it.

1 hour painting #18- Oliver and his shadow

Like I said, at this point I was taking suggestions. I got a lot of responses and honestly didn’t know how to choose. One suggestions was cats. As Oliver lazily laid next to the fire while I got my set up ready, I thought it’s been a really long time since I have painted him. He is a very enjoyable subject to paint, so I thought why not. I found this wonderful image of Oliver sunbathing and watching the chickens. I loved the contrast of the light. This was a really fun one and I think I actually finished this one with a few minutes to spare.

I hope you enjoyed following along on this journey with me. I enjoyed sharing my reflections about this series.

Until next time,

Caitlin

It was a rough one

This past week was a bit of a doozy. I think I was just tired and a little stressed. In terms of painting, I didn’t really feel like painting most days, and when I did, I had a really hard time enjoying it. I could just not get in the groove. But I showed up and made the paintings. So I’m proud of myself for showing up and making a few not so great paintings.

Before this week, I thought I might continue this project for another month or so, but I have decided to end it at the end of January. I have a few other projects that need some attention and I feel like this project has served it’s purpose. I might pick it up here and there, but we will see.

Here are the paintings for this week. Like I said, they are a little rough, but not terrible. It was more about how I felt then the end result. (Also, I am “scrapping the bottom of the barrel” of my white. I ordered more paint and am waiting for it to get here, so I was very cautious about my white consumption. It made things a little difficult.)

1 hour painting #12- Flappy chicken 5.5”x 5.5”

I was really excited about this one, but once I got into I got a little frustrated. I couldn’t quite get the colors the way I wanted them. I also think that I should have gone with the bigger size panel. It would have been a little easier. But I thought I could make a little series and it would be cute. So I think this could have been better, but it’s fine.

redemption chicken 8”x8”

This is a painting that I immediately started after finishing the last one. I decided I would get out a bigger panel and try again. But This is probably 20 minutes in and I still felt frustrated and like things were not flowing, so I decided to call it a night.

1 hour painting #13- Silver fish lure 8”x8”

This painting actually went quite well. The only problem I had was I was really concerned about running out of white. I know it sounds silly, but it really made things difficult. Instead of freely painting, every mark carried a lot more weight to it. I think it came out nicely and happy with it.

1 hour painting #13-little silver fishing lure 5.5”x 5.5

After I finished my fishing lure, I got up to clean up and saw it from this angle and loved it. I liked that the shadow looked like a little ghost hanging out next to it. I also liked that I could see the second eye, and that you could tell they are those plastic eyes that stick out from the body. I don’t think this took me a full hour, maybe 30-45 minutes. I think it turned out really well.

1 hour painting #14- Blue oranges 8”x8”

Looking at this painting after a few days, it’s not as bad as I remember. When I started this I was already a little irritated and hot, but it got worse. I’m not sure why, but I felt like every time I looked up things shifted or weren’t in the same spot. I was standing in the same spot so it was almost like the oranges were playing a prank one me and moving every time I looked away. I felt like I needed to adjust things. After adjusting things once or twice, I finally decided I just had to make it work. Overall it looks pretty good, but it definitely was not my favorite one to work on.

Last week I mentioned that I was going to experiment with painting two of the same paintings. One from life and one from photo and see how they differ. This is my painting from life and in my next post you will get to see it’s buddy that is painted from a photo.

This week is going to be the final week for this challenge which is a little bitter sweet. I have really enjoyed this project (for the most part), but I can’t wait to get started on some other projects. I’m hoping I can wrap up this project with some enjoyable paintings.

Until next week, happy creating!

Week Three!

The paintings from this week were fun. I feel like I’m really getting in the groove. In fact, there was one painting this week that I feel like I overworked. I never thought at the beginning of this project that I would be able to finish, let alone over work a painting in an hour.

In the past, I haven’t really enjoyed working from life, but I am starting to enjoy it. I’m not sure if it’s because its different or I’m just enjoying the simplicity of subject matter. But it might be a fun experiment to do two paintings of the same subject but do one from life and the other from a photo and see how they compare.

But anyway, here are my paintings from this week. If you see any that you like, let me know.

1 hour painting #8- Fishing lure #3 8”x8”

I really like the colors in this one. Honestly, I don’t know why fake fish have orange eyes, but I am all for it. It was a really fun painting to work on. I love the reflective color. This one is one of my favorites.

1 hour painting #9- Lemons 8”x8”

This was my redemption painting for last weeks oranges. I really like this one a lot. I think the composition is much better than last weeks, but I think I still need to work on creating compositions. But overall, I love it.

1 hour painting #10- Horse Friend 8”x8”

I didn’t want to decide what to paint so I asked Reese. The horse girl that she is, she insisted I paint a horse. So, I did. When I was training for my half marathon last year, there was one trail that I like to do my long runs (because it was pretty flat). The pasture for these horses butted up against the trail. One day they were out and not far from the trail so I made my way through the brush to say hello. After our initial meeting, every lap I would stop and pet them. Surprisingly, they would come and see me each time, even though I didn’t have any treats for them.

This painting was fun, but I feel like I overworked the horse a bit. I think I could have kept it a little simpler and just made the colors and strokes a little sharper. (If you know what I mean) But overall, a good painting, and Reese approved!

1 hour painting #11- fishing lure #4 5.5”x5.5”

After the snow we got, Ike had an e-learning day, which meant I was doing school with him all afternoon. We needed a quick break, so I asked Ike what I should paint that day. He likes the fishing lures so he went through the box with me and picked out a few that he liked as well as colored back drops for each. He liked this particular one because it looks like a giant bug.

I painted this while recovering from being sick, so I didn’t really feel like painting. However, I’m glad I got in the studio and got it done.

I’m starting to really get into this project and find enjoyment in making a quick painting. I’m not sure what this next week will bring, but I’m sure it will be fun. If you have anything you would like to see, I’m open to suggestions.

Second week of Challenge

I just completed my second week of my 1 hour painting challenge. I feel like things went a bit better this week. I’m starting to get a little more comfortable with just jumping in and paintings something. I also feel like I’m less concerned about the outcome. So progress is being made slowly but surely.

However, I’m still not great at time management. I bought this cute little visual timer for myself to help me with this project. And it is great, but it doesn’t make any noise until your time is up so I often forget it is there. To help myself out I break my paintings down into 30 minute segments. I feel like the first 30 minutes go by so fast and occasionally I haven’t really gotten much done. So, next week I’m going to try and pay more attention to my timer and try and get at least half of the painting done within the first 30 minutes. (Because that is not the case right now. My second 30 minute block is when the majority of the work is done.) I think it make a huge difference.

Anyway, here are the paintings I did this week and my thoughts about them.

1 hour painting #4- Favorite fishing lure 8”x8”

After painting the cicada and really enjoying working on a small single item still life (to me they are portraits, but I think technically it’s a still life), I decided I would do it again. If you have read some of my older post you will know that our family inherited a collection of antique fishing lures. I find them really interesting and tried to create a series out of them, but it just didn’t work out. Well, they are back and I am feeling more positive about them now. Who knows maybe that series will actually come to life during this challenge.

I really love this painting. Not only did I really enjoy working on it, but I love how it turned out. I also love the concept of taking something small and making it big. I think the cropping on this also helped with it appearing even larger. So I might continue to play around with this idea in future paintings.

1 hour painting #5- Fishing lure #2 8”x8”

Of course, after the previous painting, I wanted to paint another lure. This one however, I don’t like as much. It’s not bad, but there are a few things I could have done to make it more enjoyable and a more successful painting in my eyes. First off, I have a package of very bright, very vibrant cardstock. I thought this beautiful magenta color would be great for this green lure, and it was, but, I hard a hard time getting the color anywhere close to what it actually looks like. I’m fine with the color it is, but I wish I hadn’t spent so much time trying to get it perfect. Second, the composition. I wish I had cropped it a bit more to give it more of a presence and appear more like a portrait than a still life. And Lastly, I just wish I had been looser while painting this. I felt like I was trying to get everything perfect, which felt like I had to wrestling it out of me instead of letting it flow. But, it’s not bad and next time I will use what I learned from this one.

1 hour painting #6- Pelicans 8”x8”

This painting was fun, but because it’s something I would typically paint, I fell into familiar habits. The one most common habit, taking my sweet time so I can make sure everything is correct. Ugh, what an annoying thing to do. It is a hard habit to break, but I’m working on it. When my first timer went off and I only had about a quarter of the background done, it was a good kick in the pants. I’m not going to lie I gave myself an extra 20-30 minutes on this one.

1 hour painting #7- Oranges 8”x8”

This has been a painting I have wanted to try for a while. I have been following one of my favorite painters, Erika Lee Sears for a few years now. She has the most beautiful citrus still lifes (her other paintings are also amazing). She has a lot of citrus paintings and every time I see one, it makes me want to give it a try. So I did.

I don’t think it was a bad first attempt, but I definitely think I could benefit from taking a little extra time on my setup and overall composition. I just threw some orange slices down and got to work. I feel like if I had cropped this in a little closer it would have been a more interesting painting.

Overall, I think it was a good week. Clearly I have a lot of things that I want to focus on improving. So we will see where next week takes me.

What to do next?

After my show in August last year, I felt like it was time to move on from cattle paintings. Do I love cattle and still occasionally see scenes I would like to paint? Sure, but it was getting to the point where I wasn’t really feeling excited about it the way I used to. So I took some time off to relax and think about what to do next. (As well as catch up on some sewing projects that were put aside.)

Well after 5 months, I’m here to say that I’m still not 100% sure what direction to go or what to do next. In painting and life. So, I went on the internet to look up books for creative inspiration. I decided to check out Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist by Carol Marine. It is a great book! Like Carol, I have been given the advice many times that I should create a painting everyday. For me it was easy to ignore or put off this advice for a later time, because I received the advice from books. It’s incredibly easy to ignore advice from a complete stranger. I think another reason I have never given it a shot is because I tend to work pretty slow and get absorbed into the details. It seemed like there was no way I’d be able to get a painting done in an hour.

Well for whatever reason, I decided this time I’m going to give it a shot. I mean, what do I have to lose? If nothing else, I will get some good practice in and get back into painting. My hope is that it will help me establish a sustainable practice, that I will improve my skills, I will get better at working quicker and maybe sell a few paintings.

So I have decided to give myself one hour at least four days a week to make a painting. (There is a little wiggle room, but I want to challenge myself to keep things to an hour.) I cut up my left over plywood into 8” and 5.5” squares got them primed and ready to go.

Last week was my first week and I will say it started off a little rocky, but thats okay. Here are the paintings from last week.

1 hour painting #1 Chickens and wood pile 8”x8”

This chicken painting was the first one I did. I wasn’t really sure what to paint to start this journey, so I just picked a picture I had of our chickens and jumped in. I think it turned out pretty well. It definitely was a little challenging to get everything down in a hour.

1 hour painting #2- Butter 8”x8”

I don’t know if was from all the baking I did for Christmas, but I decided that I needed to do a butter still life. This one I did run out of time. I spent way too much time on certain parts instead of focusing on the overall composition. It’s not bad, but it did not turn out the way I had in my mind so maybe in a few weeks I will try this idea again.

1 hour painting #3- Cicada 5.5”x5.5'“

I found a dead cicada that magically did not get run over in our driveway a few months ago. Being inspired by my friend Julie Crews who has painted cicadas in the past (or at least one. And I thought it was gorgeous.), I decided I should definitely keep this dead bug so I could paint it. After being a little discouraged by my unfinished butter painting I decided this would be the perfect subject for my next painting. It was so fun and I really enjoyed working on something so simple. So far this is my favorite from this experimental series.

I am having fun and finding it so much easier to get into the studio knowing that it’s only an hour and after that hour, the painting is done. I will continue to share my paintings from each week. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to let me know if you see something you like.

Notes to Myself

Well, January is coming to a close and it didn’t go quite as expected, but I’m pretty pleased. I did not get everything done I wanted, but I have been consistent. 

As I sat down today to think about how my month has gone I made a little list of my thoughts.  

Keep showing up. Most of the time for me the hardest part is just showing up. It’s a lot easier to make excuses or procrastinate than it is to just show up in the studio and get to work. Once I’m in the studio, no matter what happens, I am making progress. 

Be Patient. Good work takes time. I know I’m not the most patient person, and I’m working on it. But, I have so many ideas that come to me that I want to be able to get to all of them and complete all of them without losing steam. I have tried skipping steps in my creative process to allow me to get around to all my ideas in a “timely” manner, but it always gives me more resistance than if I had been patient with my process. I have also found that sometimes getting a really rough sketch or a study satisfies me and helps me weed out okay ideas so I have the time that I need with my better ideas. 

Be patient with the process. My process happens in stages, and the length of each stage is dependent on each individual painting. 

The first stage is where I block everything in. This is a fun and quick stage. (It’s quicker and less frustrating with a preparatory sketch.) It’s one of my favorite stages, because everything will eventually be painted over, so there is little to no pressure. This is when I can just be pretty loose and just get things where I want them. I do block in basic colors, but they don’t have to be super accurate. This is the stage where major changes are usually made. If I decide I don’t like the composition, I will quickly move things around until I find a composition that works. 

The second stage is similar to the first. This is where I go back into my painting and define the shapes and colors a little more so they are a little more legible. For instance, if I am painting a group of cows, my first stage would just be a big brownish blob with straight lines for the legs. In this second phase, I would go back into this blob and shape the group by focusing on the negative space around them as a whole to make it look more like a group of cows than a blob. I also work on the interaction between the cows, usually using shifts of color. This is the first pretty stage. There is something really nice about how simple it is, however, it’s not completed so I have to keep going. (Even though, there are times that I don’t want to, because I don’t want to ruin it.)

The next stage is my least favorite, but also essential to complete a finished painting. It is the ugly phase. This is when I have to make important decisions and possibly destroy what I’ve laid down. This is where I need to really practice patience, and a positive attitude. I have found the times when I have a less than positive attitude or lack of patience, I question everything. I have thoughts like “This painting is terrible. I am a crap artist. That’s it, I should give up painting forever.” Luckily, I can usually sleep off these thoughts. When I have a more positive outlook and more patience I think thoughts like, “what could I do to achieve the look I had in mind? Well I don’t really think this is working so I may as well experiment. It’s okay, it can only get better, right?” I will say having patience and a positive outlook makes this stage not only shorter, but also more enjoyable. I try to have a pleasant ugly stage for my paintings, every once and a while it’s pretty bleak. 

Once I’ve made it through the ugly stage, I reach the second pretty stage. This is the stage where most of the serious problems have been solved and I just continue on until I finish. (I should note that sometimes after making it to this stage I will go through another ugly phase or two. It is all dependant on the painting. )

Sometimes a painting goes quickly and sometimes it seems like an eternity. Regardless, I need to be more patient with my artistic process. If I do, I will get the most out of it. 

Just because I love doing it, doesn’t mean I will always like it. Painting is just like anything else I love. I love my children, but sometimes I don’t like them. I’m sure if you have kids you know what I mean. Or I love my cat, but I don’t like when he destroys my furniture or wakes me up before the sun to let him outside. I love painting, but sometimes, I don’t like it. I realize this is completely normal, and have even scheduled days that I can take off from painting. I know it seems like working everyday will result in greater improvement and productivity, but I don’t think that is the case. I think it’s much more like exercise. In any exercise program, the rest days are just as if not more important than the actual work out days. It’s important that I take days off  when I need them.

It’s also important to remember love does not equal easy. Just because I love painting doesn’t mean it will be a walk in the park. I think the opposite is true. I think because I love it, I will be willing to put in the hard work that it requires. 

Make sure to recognize and celebrate my successes. Sometimes I can be really hard on myself, especially when it comes to my work. It’s a lot easier to focus on things I didn’t accomplish than what I did accomplish. But I think for myself it’s important to recognize and celebrate the little wins. Yeah sure I didn’t meet my goal of having five or six paintings done this month, but I did show up in my studio consistently, even if it was just for an hour. And I was able to solve a few big problems I had. So, I’m proud of myself for what I have been able to get done. 

So, whatever it is you are doing, be patient and keep showing up for yourself.

New year, new challenge

It’s a new year! Usually in the month of January, I am super motivated and productive and just an all around go getter. The promise of a long year ahead, leads to ideas flooding my brain hoping to get created. And with that, I have an ever growing list of goals/projects. Will I get to all of them? Probably not. Will some of them change half way through the year? Most likely yes. But, you know what, I like having a starting point that I can work from. I feel like l’m constantly re-evaluating my needs and wants and being honest with myself for what is best for me. But, I feel like that is what goals are for, right?

Anyway, One of my biggest goals for this year is having a big, local show. I need to be better about putting myself and my work out in the world and this is the easiest way I can think. It pushes me to make those connections with others. Plus, it keeps me accountable, helps me manage my time by setting/meeting deadlines, and gives me something tangible to work toward. Also, having a bunch of my work filling a room to be seen by others is a huge reward. 

So, I have this show I am preparing for, and at the moment I have a little less than 7 months to get everything ready. It may sound like a long time, but did I mention that I have at least 24 new paintings planned for it and more ideas that I hope to include if I have time? I know, I’m straight crazy. But, I really want to challenge myself, and I have all these painting ideas I want to create. I would love to have nothing but new to work hanging in this show, but that seems a little far fetched. Anyway, I am going to try and work my butt off to make it happen. 

Unfortunately, the first week of this new year hasn’t been as productive as I hoped. Yes, I have been painting, but I don’t feel like an artist with a studio practice. If that makes sense. I feel more like a student fulfilling assignments. 

I have been focusing on these 3 paintings of a frolicing cow for the last couple weeks. I wanted to get them done ASAP to make my quota for December and move onto my paintings for January. Yeah, that does sound terrible doesn’t it? Well it has been. I am trying to pace myself so that I’m not trying to squeeze everything in right before the show, and I think I got a little carried away. There is a difference in creating for a finished work and creating for the process. I believe that is why I have been unsatisfied with my studio time. (I want to note I still enjoyed what I was doing, it just seemed a little more forced).

At times, I felt very positive about things. My paintings are progressing and I am not working myself too hard. So the chance of burnout is less likely. But also, I have that nasty, little inner voice that is adding it’s two cents. You know the one that says things like, “You really want to show these? I think you are actually getting worse” or “Yeah, there is no way you are going to pull this off. You paint so slow. A sloth with no training would be more likely to succeed.” 

Well I did not ask for your opinion, little voice. But yes, my voice might have some good points. I wanted to push myself and become better. I do need to work on paintings a little quicker. Which would mean that I need to be more decisive and intentional with my marks and colors. I need to paint without worrying about whether I like it or whether this little section here or there is absolutely perfect. I just need to relax and trust the process. Let the painting come together organically. It does not need to be perfect. It needs to be enjoyable and fulfill my creative needs. If I can do that, the rest will take care of itself. Or at least it has in the past. Those are the moments that I really get swept into the zone. And the zone is my favorite place to be.

Am I getting worse? Hard to say, but probably not. Growth is uncomfortable, and it can make you question yourself. (Also, taking a break from your work for the holidays can sometimes make it feel like it’s been forever and you can’t remember how to do things) I just need to keep going. Keep trying new things as well as continuing to do old things that feel right for me and my paintings. If I step back from a painting and am not liking it, what can I do that would make it more interesting?

I think the most important thing for me to do right now is approaching my studio practice with a positive outlook and enjoying the process. If I obsess or whether I am getting worse, whether I can pull this off, or fulfilling a quota I won’t make anything worthwhile. 

In the last two days in the studio, I decided I was going to go about things a little differently and already feel better. I put the three paintings on hold and started three new paintings. (You would think this would make me more overwhelmed, but it does quite the opposite.) I usually work on five paintings at a time so I can bounce around. It definitely helps. When you run into a problem, you can let it sit and move onto another painting. And often I find a solution while working on a different painting. I thought working on three would be okay, but since they are basically the same painting, it felt more like I was working on one painting. So know that I have six paintings in progress, I feel much more comfortable and loose. 

I’m going to try and share more of this journey to my first big show with you. So, hopefully in a couple of weeks I have some progress to share. Until then, Happy creating!

It's Not A Waste If You Got Something Out of It

Not all ideas are good ideas. Sometimes it’s best to abandon an idea if it is not the right fit. I have abandoned my fishing lure project. It was a fail. Was it a total waste of time? No, not at all. It may seem like a waste, but I’ll tell you why it wasn’t.

The project got me back into doing preparatory sketches. I was doing sketches before but it was kind of a rare occurrence, which Is a shame. I really like doing sketches. Sketching allows me to be loose and really mess around, and work out concerns without committing to anything. I also have found that sketches capture an exciting energy that isn’t in a reference photo. Because of that I like to work from both a reference and a sketch. 

The project made me more aware about what I do like. When I was trying to make still life work for me, I made a list of things that I love from my previous works and tried to apply it to my still life setups (to make them more interesting). I do this a lot with other artists' work, but very rarely look at my own work in that way. Which was kind of fun. I discovered that I was doing a lot of things that I wasn’t aware of. When I look at other artists' work, I assess things that I like  and then experiment with them in my own work to see how I like it. When I reflected on what I like about my work, it brought a level of excitement, because I know how much I’m going to enjoy it.

The project got me to really focus more about composition. I always think about composition, but when you are building a painting out of nothing, you focus a lot more on composition. Since my still life setups were all boring me I decided to do some good ‘ol youtube research about building interesting compositions. That took me down a rabbit hole of all sorts of videos on making more interesting paintings. It was a nice refresher about all the things that I should consider before starting a piece. It also got me thinking more about editing. After all, it's not very common that people see my source material for my projects, so why not push things a little?

The project gave my brain a break from my usual process and allowed me to think differently. Basically it gave me the space needed to miss my work. After having space and a few new insights, I was ready to create a bunch of new paintings and really dive deep into my obsession  with livestock. It got me thinking about how I can better capture or recreate my experience with them. Before I knew it I had about 20 paintings in my mind ready to be made. Which is not common.

It has pushed me to be more confident in listening to my gut and making little mini series that, let’s be honest, is basically the same painting multiple times, but slightly different to show movement or the lapse of time or whatever. I don’t know if it’s because I love stop motion or if it’s because I’m just overly obsessed with cows and their every move, but I really like the idea of painting the same thing over and over again. It also feels like the more I paint them the more I will truly get to know them and how they move. 

It was very clear that it was the right decision considering that after about a month of trying to find a composition that worked for my fishing lures, I still had nothing. Within a few days after giving up on the project, I had multiple paintings in my mind ready and waiting to come alive. 

I’m loving this series so far and glad I was able to have this failed experiment with my fishing lures. Failures are always good. Without them, I would never grow my ideas and try new things. 

Until next time, happy failing!

Not What I Expected

Ever have an idea? A very loose idea. That you feel is going to be something big? It’s going to take you to new places. It will stretch you out of your comfort zone and unleash potential you didn’t even you had. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

But what happens when you take that first step forward, and it’s a flop. You thought you would be so inspired that you wouldn’t be able to stop working. But that’s not the case. You’re not inspired. It’s not exciting at all, let alone the way you imagined. That’s how I feel right now. I had this very cool idea that I thought would snowball into a huge obsession. So far, it’s not going as planned.

Now, here’s the thing, I still want to make this series. I just think I need to adjust my creative process to make it work. I don’t always push through if I have an idea that isn’t working for me. Sometimes it’s best to trash the idea and move on. But in this case, I am still stuck thinking about this series. I want to work through it. I think because it’s so different from what I usually do that it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes being uncomfortable is just what you need.

Let me back up. We were given some antique fishing lures from my father-in-law a while ago. When I saw them I knew I wanted to paint them. I’m not sure if it was because I was very invested in the series I had been working on at that time, or if it was because it would be so different from what I usually work on, but I had no intention on making a whole series around them. I just planned on maybe one painting. Well, a couple months ago I rediscovered them in the garage and had this great idea to do a portrait series with them. Now, that’s all I really had in mind. I figured I would just jump in and everything would be great. Well, after painting two small portraits I realized there is a lot more I have to do to make this series interesting.

As a landscape painter, my creative process is pretty straight forward. I find a scene that interests me, lay out how I want my composition, and get started. Now I’m not saying that it’s always smooth sailing, but there is a lot less you have to consider when information is right in front of you. There is a lot I have to consider now. This is kind of exciting, but at the same time it’s a little overwhelming. But I think if I do a lot of preparatory sketches and get in the groove, I will feel more comfortable taking risk and being more experimental as the series progresses.

Another thing that I’m running into, is that I don’t necessarily have a vision of what my end series is going to look like. Normally I have a bunch of different paintings going at the same time (and planned out) and get to see them all together and kind of bounce back and forth between them as I work. With working from sketches and still life set ups, I don’t know how realistic this is. I don’t have a ton of space to have 4 or 5 still life set ups going on and room for all the paintings. So, I may have 2 going at the same time and then have a few side paintings. So we will see how this all goes.

I still feel really excited, but also a little uncertain on how it is going to go. I plan on documenting each week or so to see how things progress and evolve.

August was Busy

So I recently finished the two paintings I was working on and planned to finish a third one by the end of August, but it didn’t quite happen. Luckily, I finished the third one within the first week of September, so I’d say I did a pretty good job at being productive in the month of August. 

Honestly, one of them I don’t really like all that much. But that’s okay. we can’t like them all. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine painting, I just don’t particularly care that much about it. That’s okay, someone else might love it. 

The one I most recently finished, I had put off for a while. It was a little daunting because there was a lot of information to include and my source images were not the best.

 For the majority of my cattle paintings I take my source photos from my car or just outside my car. Well on this particular day, I can’t remember why I didn’t stop, but drove slowly while holding my phone in the general direction, clicking the photo button as much as I could. Now since I was driving and the sun was super bright, I could not see if I was actually taking pictures of anything. So as you can imagine they looked like pictures my kids took. Actually they would have been better if my kids had taken them. 

Also, since I was I was moving while taking each photo, the scene I wanted to paint was more like a panoramic scene, which is not what I was going for. So I have collaged numerous photos and angles to try and make it a believable still image. Like I said, it’s a little daunting. 

But once I was able to find my groove with it, things really came together. It came out great and was really fun to work on. It was one of those paintings that I feel made a big impact on my progression as an artist. 

Anyway, I will be starting a new project that will take me to the end of the year. I will be doing 1 hour paintings twice a week. (An hour isn’t that long. I may decide to make them 2 hour paintings). I’m really excited for this because I won’t have time to really think about things too much or get too attached. I look forward to sharing my experience with you. 

I'm Back!

I’m back! I took a little break from blogging to journal, but I thought I would get back to sharing my thoughts with you. 

I have had a weird year so far which caused me to have a little bit of a break from painting, but I’m back in full swing. 

I’m currently working on a series that I’m ready to be done with. Probably because I started it, took a break and am now finishing it. I feel like I have been working on it forever. Plus, I more recently got an idea for my next series and am really excited to get started. It’s a little different from what I usually do so there’s an extra level of excitement. 

These last two weeks I have been pushing myself to get these two paintings completed. I thought I they would go really quickly, but once I got into them I found things that needed to be adjusted. Now 2 years ago I would have thought “I’ll just leave it I don’t want potentially ruin what I have already done. It’s not that bad, but I definitely don’t want it to be worse”, but now I’m definitely in the mindset of “it’s going to bug me I don’t care if I ruin it. If I do, I'll just paint over it.”

So I didn’t get them done when I was hoping to, but I know they are going to be so much better when I get them done this week. Hopefully? I can’t wait to show the final product. In the meantime, here is a fun progress video for you to enjoy.

11 Things I Have to Remind Myself

I have started a new body of work and am super excited about each piece and those that are just ideas waiting for their turn to paintings. I was super excited and ready and motivated to get them going. I got the underpaintings laid out and instantly felt like they had somehow let me down. They weren’t bad underpaintings, they just didn’t give me the same vibe as the sketches I had made. I had lost some motivation to work on them.

I thought about what I could do differently to fix my problem. Should I throw on a podcast or a movie while I work so I’m not thinking too much about what I’m doing? Do I need to sit down and tell myself positive things about them before even picking up a brush? Maybe I need to do some jumping jack or push ups to get the endorphins going? Those are all really good ideas. While I was thinking of them, I came up with a list of things that I need to remind myself every once in a while to make my art practice successful.

1. I am a good artist. even if I don’t make good work all the time, that is okay. Good artists make bad work sometimes, if not the majority of the time. So why should I expect myself to never have a bad painting? Make bad paintings and move on. Expecting to make good paintings all the time is too much pressure.

2. Don’t worry about selling a piece before it is even made. If I worry about whether it will appeal to people before before creating it, it almost guarantees it’s not going to be very good. I need to focus on making a piece the way that feels right to me, and others should notice that. and if not, that’s okay, it was fun!

3. Painting should be fun. It’s important to keep the process fun. There are definitely difficult moments where you will have to do some problem solving, but the majority of the process should be enjoyable. If the it isn’t, I need to try a different approach.

4. Taking care of kids all day is hard and exhausting. I can still be an artist and mother without working myself to the point of burn out. Would I like to work 4 hours a day in my studio everyday? Yes! is that a realistic and achievable goal? Not really. Do what you can, when you can.

5. Consistency is everything. Show up for yourself. It doesn’t have to be for hours at a time. It doesn’t have to always be the act of painting. Sometimes it’s sketching, painting for 30 mins, photographing work, getting out to get inspired or even just reflecting about your work. Make a schedule. When you do have studio time/a studio day, just show up. It will give you more opportunities for you to slip in to that sweet spot I call the zone. (The zone is where you get completely lost in whatever you are doing and time flies, and you are totally unaware of things going on around you. )

6. Be efficient with time. During the day when you have time (making dinner, rocking babies, driving in the car, etc.) think about the things you are going to get done, so that by the time the kids are asleep and you make it to your studio you can get straight to work. It may sound silly but I plan what i will be listening to (music, podcast-which one, nothing, etc.), make sure I have the things I need, and how much time I’m going to spend and which pieces. This way I save a lot of time. This is just a starting point. If I slip into the zone on a painting I planned on only working on for an hour while listening to a podcast about the history of paint or whatever and suddenly two hours have gone by, I’m still working on the same piece and I’m sitting in complete silence, that is okay. I would prefer it actually.

7. Being an artist is about growth and progression. Be willing to encourage yourself to experiment and try new things. Being slightly uncomfortable can bring some great break throughs.

8. Comparison is the thief of joy. People do things differently. Enjoy the work of others, but do not compare your work to theirs, it will not do you any good.

9. Learn from others. Take notice of what other artists are doing that you enjoy and experiment with it. For example, if an artist you really enjoy paints with a lot of texture, try a small study where you experiment with how to use and create different textures. Maybe you find a technique that you really love and want to incorporate into your work. Or maybe you hated it and would prefer to paint with little to no texture at all. Either way you learned something.

10. Just do it. Make work. Lots of it. Make good work, bad work, weird work, half finished work, whatever you feel like. Just make work. Don’t be afraid to paint over old work, revisit unfinished work, just make work.

After making this list I felt much better about getting back to my paintings. I was ready to take over the world! Not really, but take over my little portion of the world. I jumped right back in ready to make magic. But for some reason I was still having issues and I realized I was just getting ahead of myself, which was making things a little overwhelming. So I have decided to add one more thing to my list.

11. Break the work up. I found that I personally need to focus on one thing at a time to not completely overwhelm myself. Instead of trying to get the whole background filled in, work on this group of trees for 20 minutes. I find when I do this, it gets me working and ends up flowing into other portions of the piece. And before I know it my background is filled in!

I know that none of this is revolutionary stuff, but I know I need to remind myself about it all the time. Until next time, happy creating!

What Am I Even Doing?

There is always a part of the creative process where you think to yourself, “what am I even doing? Nothing I make is any good and my ideas are stupid. Am I kidding myself thinking this is all worth it?” If you are creative and haven’t had these thoughts consider yourself rare. I know this is a natural part of the creative process, but it is literally the worst. I am in it now, and it just sucks!

Now I’m sure part of this has come from burn out. Sometimes I wonder how I take care of two small children for 9-12 hours a day 6 days a week by myself, cooking meals, maintaining a relatively clean home and still find the energy to paint for 2+ hours at night after the kids have gone to bed. It seem insane. It is insane. And you can only keep this schedule up for so long before that little voice in your head, pipes up to say something nasty. It knows you are vulnerable and a little sleep deprived. It’s the perfect moment to strike.

Even though I was exhausted, I wanted to keep that momentum going. I was moving forward, but I just needed a little boost. Instead I got the opposite. I heard back from the shows I applied to and was rejected. Being rejected wears very little on me, but that voice knows this information can be used against me, and will try its hardest to bring me down. (Inner voice, why are you always trying to bring me down? Can’t we just be decent every once and a while?)

I know jurors and curators have limited space, and a giant pool of work to choose from, so if that particular person doesn’t like my work or thinks it doesn’t really fit the brief, then that’s okay. In the words of John Hodgeman “people like what they like”. I know my work is not for everyone and I don’t expect it to be. The good thing is I put myself out there. It’s just unfortunate that it cost me money. So I took a few minutes to get over it and moved on.
I dove back into experimenting with my work. I was hoping to get real crazy with my experimenting, but it just wasn’t happening the way I hoped and dreamed. I didn’t have some creative break through or a new technique I discovered worked really well for me. I just felt like I was doing more of the same with very small variations. (I know this is something that takes time and hopefully I will get to that a-ha moment, but let’s be honest, I’m impatient.)

One day the kids and I went on an outing to try and get some inspiration. I decided we would go check out Half Priced Books, because what is more inspiring than a discount book store with a huge selection (the majority, books I’ve never heard of). I hit up my usual sections. Nature, science, crafts, humor, and art. I very rarely have luck in the art section finding something that I have genuine interest in, but this time I saw Art & Fear. A book that I not only had heard of, but also one that people raved about. So without hesitation I knew it was worth risking $3 on. (Usually I would stand there for 20 minutes debating with myself if I should buy it).

It was well worth $3. I read it in 3 days and felt that it was exactly what I needed to be reading. So after, I decided I would reassess my game plan and change things up a bit.

I was excited to get to work…but at the same time was exhausted and just wanted to lay down and watch tv. So that’s exactly what I did for 3 days. Did I feel a little guilty. Yes! How could I use this time I dedicated to myself for a residency to do nothing? (I guess I was still sketching and little doodles, so it wasn’t exactly nothing.) But it was exactly what I needed to do. Did it get me out of the funk? No, but it at least gave me some energy so I could at least get back in the studio.

I do have a secret project going that is unlike painting that it’s been quite enjoyable. I started thinking I knew exactly how I was going to approach it, but my first attempt was a bit of a fail. At first I thought, “well I guess that’s the end of that idea” but after a day or two, it still hung in my mind that I need to do this. So, I went about it from another angle and was loving it for about an hour until I hit another snag. Since it’s new to me, I feel like it’s okay to hit bumps and try and figure things out without beating myself up. Why can’t I feel the same way when it comes to my paintings?

I have decided to get back to basics. I am working through the book How to See Color and Paint It by Arthur Stern. It a great book to help you really focus on building an image with blocks of color. Painting colors that we see with our eyes instead of what our brain thinks it’s should be. My first assignment didn’t go great, but it’s about learning as I go. So even though I was a a little frustrated, I know it will get easier the more assignments I do.

I have also started some ugly paintings. I have tried this in the past, but ultimately failed, because I secretly thought “maybe these will turn out nice and I can sell them”. This time is different. I truly don’t have any expectations for these paintings being sold or even seen for that matter.

I know at the beginning of this post I was feeling like I was in a pit with my work, but it turns out I’m not in such a bad place. I’m doing what can so that by the time I get out of the pit, I will have more to contribute to my work.

Happy creating!

Let The Experiments Begin

I just finished my first month of my residency. It was pretty intense to say the least. I did end up getting 4 1/2 paintings done in one month (the shortest month)! I still have a hard time believing what I accomplished.

I really enjoyed working on the paintings. But, when I was in sight of the finish line, I experienced something new. Traditionally, when I finish a painting, I feel really attached. I want everyone to see it, but want to keep it for myself. This time, I got to the end and had to ask myself if I liked how they turned out, because I didn’t have that usual feeling. And the answer is yes, I really do like how they turned out, and am very proud of them, but for some reason I didn’t feel that need to hog it for myself. Is this because I enjoyed the time I was working on it more than usual, the fact that my storage is getting pretty limited, or that I am just seeing my work in a different way? Who knows, but it’s nice.

I was able to apply to 3 juried shows and a magazine. After everything was submitted, told myself job well done, and started thinking of my next project.

For this month, I am focusing on making small, quick paintings where I can really experiment. It’s been pretty freeing to not really having a plan and just be able to respond to my materials. So far, I have been experimenting with different painting surfaces.

I mainly paint on panel. I love the firm smooth surface. In college I painted on canvas, because that’s what painter’s typically paint on and I didn’t think about panel, until my last semester. I thought I would try surfaces that don’t require a lot of preparation to save time and take away preciousness. I invested in Arches oil paper and sheets of mylar. Both of these surfaces can be painted directly on with oil paint without being primed.

Sounds great, right? Yes, but it s actually as good as it sounds?

First, the Arches oil paper. I know lots of artists that really enjoy working on this oil paper, so I thought I’d see if it’s worth the hype. This paper is great and definitely saves time. It has a smooth surface, which is what I prefer, but I imagine people who mainly paint of canvas may not like it. This is great for studies, but I think I prefer a panel for larger pieces. The one thing I will mention is to make sure you store it in a different place from your watercolor paper. If you are using sheets straight off the pad you shouldn’t have this problem. However, I like to buy large pads and cut them into smaller sizes. (Yes, it does take a little more time, but it is more cost effective and is a good productive procrastination activity, when you don’t feel like working.) I did have my pre-cut watercolor and oil paper separated with a post it note, but with small hands around things happen. They look and feel fairly similar, but do not respond the same to oil paint.

Now, the mylar. I like the idea and feel of mylar, but it is a super slick surface. I don’t particularly like painting on it, but I do like it’s transparency. It opens up a lot of opportunity for play. I’m thinking about experimenting with layering multiple layers of painted mylar to build more dimensional paintings. It will also be interesting to see how it handles thin washes.

Along with surfaces, I’m exploring adding different materials and applications of paint. I’m working to incorporate oil pastels, as well as working with different thicknesses of paint and scraping.

Happy painting!

New, Helpful Habits

It’s now the end of week two of my residency and I am having a blast! I cannot believe how much work I have gotten done in such a short amount of time. I started with the goal to get four paintings done this month. One that was half done, and three new paintings. It seemed slightly impossible at the beginning, but I thought it was a great way to push myself. Well, it turns out that I’m slightly crazier than I thought, because now that I have finished the one that was half started, I have decided that I can throw in another unfinished piece into the mix. Yup, you heard me, five paintings, four weeks. I can do this!

Now usually it takes me forever to finish a painting so I have gone about things different than usual. My usual process is filled with frustration, self doubt/criticism, lots of procrastination, and the occasional enjoyable flow. I decided this year would be different. I am going to have a more positive art practice and really enjoy the process. Listening to hours of art podcasts and being honest with myself, helped me come up with a game plan to put into action. 

I was putting too much pressure on myself and my paintings. I was expecting every painting to turn out exactly how I imagined it. I was too critical of everything I was doing and letting that nasty voice pipe in and add it’s two cents. I wasn’t allowing myself to just create. It has been so freeing to remind myself I don’t paint for the final product, I paint for the enjoyment. It’s so simple, but easily forgotten. 

Things that have been helping break my bad habits.

1.Tight deadline. 

Obviously trying to get five paintings done in four weeks leaves little time for procrastination, and self doubt. When my inner critic wants to pipe up, I have to tell him, “Sorry, I’m busy, leave a message and we’ll talk later”. It seems to shut him up for the time being, and I’m able to get work done. 

2. Multiple pieces going at the same time

I have always tried to work on more than one painting at a time, but I wasn’t very good at it. I would mainly have two going at the same time, but they would still be pretty disconnected. I will say after having five going at once, I don’t think I could go back to my old ways. I love having my paintings come to life together. It’s also incredibly satisfying to see so much progress.

3. Using a timer

I decided to set a timer to help me focus and track the time I spend working in the studio. It’s great when I don’t really want to get started. I set a timer for 30 minutes and before I know it it’s been an hour. It also helps me be less precious. I give myself tasks that would normally take me 45 minutes to an hour and try and complete it in 30 minutes. It doesn’t always happen, but it does help.

4. Being open to change what is not working 

When it comes to resistance, my biggest problems are the feeling of wasted time and ruining what is working. 

For instance, one of the paintings I am working on was started probably a year ago, but I couldn’t get it to fit compositionally how I wanted on the panel. I tried reworking it a few times, it didn’t help. Then I heard of some people adding on a panel to already existing works, so I figured I would give it a try. So I built an additional panel that would fit perfectly. I was excited to finally get this painting laid out and allow it to finally get made. When I went to work, it still just wasn’t working. Now normally I would try and force it until it worked out because I didn’t want to waste all the time I had already put into it.

This time I decided I would separate the two panels and scrap the original panel and restart it on the newer panel. (One of the reasons I was even willing to try it was that I had very little on the smaller panel so if I decided to go back, my original drawing would be there untouched.) Well I’m so glad I did it. It came together so easily, and compositionally how I wanted. I would have saved a lot of time if I hadn’t been so concerned about wasting that time. 

Secondly, I tend to hold myself back with the fear that I will ruin my paintings by changing things that aren’t quite working. Seriously. I know it’s silly. I finally got to the point where I knew I needed to take the risk in order for myself and my work to grow. After all, what's the worst that could happen? I could run out of a mixed color and not be able to do a touch up. Yes! I could make it worse? Yes! Well that’s about it. So I decided I needed to throw that fear aside and just paint. If it ends up terrible, no one has to see it and I can paint over it. How much a difference it has made in my practice. 

5.Working in layers

I am used to working in layers, but this time I went into it with a different perspective. It comes back to not allowing myself to get too precious. If it still wasn’t quite right I told myself “it’s okay I’ll just go over it with another layer.” Are you kidding me? Who is this person and where has she been. She’s so cool and relaxed. I know I can’t believe it. 

6. Staying positive 

This has been crucial. Without positive thought about myself, my process and my work, nothing would be going as well as it is. It is essential. 

Happy painting!

New Year, New Challenge

At the end of last year, I decided I wanted to do something to challenge my creative practice. I started to really like the idea of a residency, but with two small children, a husband who works odd hours, and a pandemic I figured that wasn’t in my near future. Then I started really looking into residencies that are completed in your own space. I came across and had a friend recommend the Artist Residency in Motherhood program. It seemed like a perfect fit for me, yet I was still a little hesitant. I forced myself to fill out the form and officially commit, and I’m glad I did. 

Week 1 of residency:

I was super excited to dive back into painting after taking a break. While on my break I found a few shows that I would love to apply to and of course decided I would try and squeeze in a few new paintings to apply with, because well I always feel like making something fresh when applying to a show. 

Originally I was going to focus on weird experimental projects to start my residency, to get loose and crazy, but I figured I would focus on getting new paintings done to apply to these shows. I figured I can try and loosen up and get crazy with them. I also thought it would be great to have such a tight deadline. Four paintings in four weeks. I won’t have time to be nit picky or overthink things right?

I figured I would start on a painting that I started a while ago and never finished. It was pretty far along and I figured it would be a quick finish and give me some momentum. 

I also wanted to focus on not thinking too much and just allowing myself to create. Trying not to let myself have negative thoughts about myself, my process or my work. 

I worked for about three hours on filling in the areas that were still untouched from the first go round and found myself beating myself up about my figure. (I hardly ever have human figures in my work, so yeah I’m a little rusty). 

After taking a much needed snack and Netflix break, I came back and looked at it, and yes it’s not perfect, but it’s not bad. Why do I always have to be so hard on myself, even if it’s under painting. It’s so silly. If it doesn’t come out well, I can paint over it and no one ever has to see it. 

So I have decided that yes, this residency will be for me to experiment and loosen up with my work, but will also be a time for me to work on how I feel about the process and help me turn those negative thoughts and feelings into positive and supportive feelings. I need to be kind to myself as an artist. Beating myself up about it will not help me progress and help me get where I want to be. 

I hope that these three months, I will be able to change the way I see myself as an artist, allow myself to be less restrictive with my work, and create some terrible and great things. 

Day 2

Working on things in little chunks of time here and there throughout the day. Feeling much more relaxed and excited to push some paint around. I’m really enjoying the sloppy beginning stages of new paintings. I feel like I used to make sure everything was “perfect” before even beginning, and now I’m leaving space for change if needed. I’m hoping to stretch out this approach during each painting. 

I definitely believe this short deadline will be good for me and my creative practice. So far it has already pushed me to get more done in a little amount of time.

What Lies Beneath (ooo…spooky)

There it is. On your easel. Blinding you with it’s pristine brightness and perfection. You know what I’m talking about. It’s that blank white canvas. It’s oddly powerful. Some artists have a hard time even starting a painting, worried they are going to ruin that beautiful canvas. Once you do start to paint your colors are being compared to that glaring white behind it. Now I’m sure that some artists have no problem with a blank white canvas, heck some might even enjoy it. I am not one of them. 

I typically make all my own surfaces (with the exception of gifted surfaces). I personally do not enjoy the flexibility that a canvas has, so I mainly paint on plywood panels. A few years back I discovered clear gesso. It is definitely a different consistency and feel from regular acrylic gesso, but I love the option to have exposed wood in my paintings. Also, I figured I wouldn’t have to tone my surface. 

Recently while making a fun painting on a canvas board gifted to me by my mom, I learned maybe that is not the case. I started two separate paintings of my cat, Oliver. One was on the toned canvas board while the other was on a wood panel. Same subject matter, but different compositions.

I started the one on the canvas board first. It was just a fun painting where I could work on my color and loosen up a bit. Well, it didn’t take long before I thought, “I’m a gosh dang genius. My colors look so good.” I figured it was all the color studies and play I have been doing that had suddenly improved my color choices. Then I decided I would start another one on wood. I started with the same excitement as the first, but it quickly disappeared. This painting was not nearly as fun or as nice as the first. The colors looked almost ill (not in a good way), and it felt too structured and overworked. What had gone wrong? I had gone about them the same way...except toning my surfaces. 

I just figured since I was working on a surface that wasn’t white that I would get the same effects of a toned surface. Well they don’t. Having a bright unnatural background color really changes the way your paint color appears. Sure there was probably some of that with the wood grain, but it is not as drastic. 

I also realized that as much as I love the wood grain exposed on the surface, I may love it too much. I have made it precious. I don’t want to be restrictive with my paintings before they even begin. Thinking back,  the wood panels that I have painted on over failed starts are so much easier to dive into and not overly care about then a blank one. 

I still love the idea of being able to have wood grain exposed in my paintings, just now they will be fun colored wood grains. 

Fall color INSPIRATION

I love fall. It is full of bonfires, flannel shirts, crisp air, hearty soups, pumpkin flavored everything and beautiful colors. We have been getting outside for a walk or hike almost everyday, and have been exploring all the changes that are happening right now. This week I focused on finding color inspiration in everyday activities and life. Yes, the leaves are truly beautiful this time of year, but I found that there are a lot more things that I usually overlook.

Our garden is sadly done producing and has been ripped out to create space for burning leaves and bonfires. This means it’s time to process our pumpkins, so that we have puree for pies, pancakes and cookies until next year. Ike is a great helper when it comes to picking and organizing our pumpkins. He likes to line them up in a long line. The pumpkins are all so different in size and shape. (My favorite is how crazy all the stems are). They are all generally a similar color orange, but have slight variations. I love the pumpkin that has the green patches on it. I find the color combination so fun. When you line them up they create reddish-purple shadows on each other.  

Speaking of puree, having a 9 month old means lots of puree. I try and get creative with food combinations so Reese gets to try lots of different flavors. I get lots of different colors. Some appealing, some not so much. My favorite (and probably Reese’s favorite too) is Spinach and Mango. It’s the middle container in the picture below. It’s one of my favorite colors. I realized it’s in the same family as a color I currently have on my palette. 

We recently added a few more babies to our family. Our chickens are getting older and have started not to lay, so we got a new round of chicks! We were planning on sticking with Wyandottes, but options were limited, so we got some barred rocks. They are a beautiful breed (basically the zebra of the chicken world) and I am excited to paint them in the future. Anyway, in order for chicks to survive they need to be kept warm. We have them under heat lamps. The lamps make a beautiful bright red-orange. I love this color!

Every night after dinner, the kids and I go on a walk. It’s an activity we all enjoy and burns off some energy before bedtime. Ike insists on pushing Reese in the stroller, which means we walk very slowly. It gives us plenty of time to look around and really see things. We noticed some leaves that were in the process of changing colors, creating a beautiful palette.

We also saw a bush with little black berries. The stem was such bright pink, that really popped against the green leaves. 

One day we had a neighbor who had a giant tree taken out of the backyard. The rounds were so big, Ike thought they were round hay bales. With Ike’s fascination with chainsaws and cutting trees down, we stopped to watch them work for a while. They had their bucket truck parked out in front of the house. I loved the seafoam/minty color of it. I definitely want to use this color in the future. 

I know if I continue to pay more attention to the world around me, the more I will be inspired. I encourage you wherever you are to take a look around and find a color or combination of colors that excite you.

Back to Color Basics

I absolutely love color. Mostly bright, bold colors and rich earthy tones. Mixing colors is one of my favorite parts of painting. I have a few tried and true color combos that I use on a regular basis, but would like to have a better handle on color.

To truly understand color, it’s best to get back to basics and play. I researched many books about color theory, and decided I would give A Field Guide to Color: A Watercolor Workbook by Lisa Solomon a try. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned artist, this is a great resource.

The exercises start with creating your own color wheel. I do think about the color wheel and compliments fairly often while painting. But It has been a while since I had actually a painted one that I could use as a visual reference. It is definitely worth having in the studio.

So far, my favorite activity was creating different color schemes. I typically don’t work with a limited palette, but after doing this exercise, I realize I should. I created some beautiful colors that I really didn’t expect. I love when that happens. Plus, Lisa provided a great little illustration for the activity which I absolutely love.

This exercise increased my love of color and has gotten me really excited/confident about experimenting more with different color combinations.

As person who likes lists, I really enjoyed charting my colors. This is something I have never done or even thought about doing. Its very helpful when you need to adjust a color. Plus, the chart is very pretty to look at.

I am slowly working through this workbook so that I can apply what I am learning. I know simple exercises like these can only improve my use of color, and I’m excited to see the impact it has on my work.

A Creative Adventure

Welcome! I’m very excited to be starting this blog and share my creative process. As an artist, I don’t like to stay in a comfortable place with my work. Before quarantine, I was starting to get bored with the process in which I made work. Once quarantine hit, I thought I would get so many great ideas and have a lot of projects I was excited about… The opposite happened. I had the desire to do nothing.

Now that the fire is back inside of me, I am ready to explore. I hope you enjoy and follow along with me as embark on this part of my artistic journey.

Music Credit: Elevator Beat By DJ Burn

Currently, I’m focusing on building an image with a focus on color and mark making. I find it much more exciting to piece together images to create something all my own. Something that as never really existed in the same time and space. I am also finding it much more exciting not to plan out the entire painting before starting. It allows me to be more experimental, and prevents my work from getting too precious. (A HUGE problem for me).

I really wanted to make a painting of some cattle with cattle egrets. There is something fun about two drastically different creatures, that hang out together. There is a herd of Wagyu cows that graze not far from my house. I’m not sure what it is about them, but I find them so inspiring. They may appear black, but they have such a rich color to them. I started with a focus on building the painting around these three cows with a cattle egret perched on the back of one. I decided to add a few more cows and birds to help with the composition. After roughly blocking a few cows and birds, I thought adding some interest to the background. Sure, they could be grazing in a large field, but I felt I needed something more. I came across some old sketches that my great aunt had drawn of some barns and sheds, what a gift. It was the perfect solution to my background.

This is just the beginning for this painting. I’m excited to see where it takes me.