Category Archives: Acrylic

Jun17

Thursdays Time out for Art

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Retirees Paintbrushes

Retirees Paintbrushes

As I retire my old paint brushes they need a voice.  They have served me well, and each one is different in its own way.  These fancy ladies were created for  my Artsie Fartsie friend Susan for a Christmas present, and they are displayed in her dining room on a shelf.  Maybe they will inspire you to do something similar, giving your old worn out brushes a voice as well.

Thursdays Time out for Art is an online blogging group to keep us painting, creating, and sharing.  It does all those things for me, check them out!IMG_2235

Oct9

Time To Create Again!

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Anyone who knows me, knows I haven’t been very productive in quite a while.  I’ve tried, but somehow I just haven’t been able to find inspiration…until now!

A couple of months ago, I signed up to be part of the Sketchbook Project!

For the last few summers I have watched each year as this project unfolds, and in the back of my mind, thinking one year I would join in.  This was that year!  Of course, I needed another project, but what better time to start an art project than when you’re  busy, right?  My thinking was that it is only 32 pages, and certainly a little project like that would be a snap for me!  The other thing is, we are all busy all the time anyway, so why wait?

After getting back into our home since having bamboo floors laid in the entire house (studio included), I think I’m ready to start thinking about putting pen to paper, and leaving my mark on whatever community it will be going to.  That’s not to say that everything is perfect in our home.  After all, some of the paintings still remain stacked in the corner waiting to find their rightful place on the wall.  The livingroom looks new, and fresh.   I’ve changed things around, replaced some things, and gotten rid of others.  It feels like a new home to me, and now I’m ready to get back to sketching, and painting!

It’s interesting how something like this can give us an entire new outlook on just about everything, and I find myself energized, and inspired!

Who knows how long it will take me to complete this sketchbook.  The project needs to be mailed back by January 15, 2014, so I really do have plenty of time.  Anything goes this time, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, anything, whatever feels right!  Poetry, sketches, collage, ink, pen, you name it.

In the next few weeks, or maybe I should say, next couple of months, I’ll be posting the pages I work on, and you can tell me what you think.  Make suggestions,  I’m always open for comments, in fact I love getting comments, it keeps me motivated!

Sketchbook Project

Sketchbook Project

This little Sketchbook will be going to the Central Part of the Mid-West!

This little Sketchbook will be going to the Central Part of the Mid-West!

So for now,…..  Start a project, and share it with me!   I’ll be back!

Jul25

Finished or Not Finished?

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Well, That is the Question! It is said that it takes two artists to paint a painting.  One to paint the painting, and one to tell the other one when to stop!  I believe this, and this is why……. I’m a terrible closer!  When I worked in sales, my boss use to tell me, I […]

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Mar12

The Practice Never Ends!

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Model for the day!

Model for the day!

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Over the weekend, my friend and Art Sister, LaRetta took a class at the ArtBeat on Main Street in Vista. It’s a trendy gallery that the area is much in need of!  Scott Pryor was the artist,  and we were fortunate to have Billy as our model. Billy even brought his little dog, “Kilo” with him. Kilo spent the day visiting with everyone, and protecting the gallery from imminent danger!   Standing on concrete from 9am until 4pm,  left us all exhausted and ready to break out the wine…

But the wine had to wait!

Cleaning up all our supplies, packing them into the car, and driving home was about all we were good for,but we did it!

It has been years since my life drawing classes and my only thought was,  “Crap, how am I going to do this?”  Kicking my ego to the curb, I dug in like I knew what I was doing, and had a great time!  There were only including the instructor, so it was small enough to watch, ask questions, and paint without bumping into someone else.  Since my easel is far too large to be stuffed into the car, borrowing one from the gallery seemed like a good idea.

Believe it or not,

I  had to get help to set the easel up!  All my portable easels were old watercolor easels, and would never work for all it needed to do!  Once the gallery  easel was up, I set about fixing the acrylic paint so it wouldn’t dry out. Retarder  was the item of the day, and that was a   Snap!…

This isn’t perfect, far from it, but it was my first try at painting a portrait on location without the help of a sketch to get started!  There is much to be learned from painting this way, least of all – “ pay attention! “

Will I be doing this again?

You bet I will!  I had so much fun, and I love the idea of doing a painting in a day!  That’s why I loved abstract so much, get in, get out!  And it’s done!  However, once again it’s Practice, Practice, and more Practice!

The practice never ends!

Mar7

And…More Practice!

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This practice thing is going to be on-going for a very long time.  One might say, it never stops!

I said there were many unfinished canvases in my studio, and I was planning on finishing them.  The more they sat there, the more I started to think, “If they haven’t said anything so far, maybe even they don’t know where to go with themselves!”  So I grabbed a second unfinished painting, and gessoed  over it.  Ha! I’ll show it!  Gessoed over it very lightly, so the under layer of a mix of Quinacridone Burnt Orange, and Quinacridone Gold still showed through in places.  Then the sky came to life with some light blue, and next but not last, I lightly brushed in some violet, orange, and yellow.   That ‘s just the sky!

Now the trees!

The larger trees were already roughed in with tissue paper, so my decision to paint trees was already made.  I just followed through, and added some more trees, but decided to emphasize the bigger trees since they were standing out in the first place.  No big decisions there!  At some point, my thoughts have gone to, “Enough time wasted on this, let’s get down to business!”  While I love to keep playing with my trees, I also want to decide on what to do next, and start something else!

My ideas are all over the place, and usually I tend to jump in feet first, sink or swim……usually sink!  It would be nice to do a little more planning for the next one.  The funny thing is, I love the spontaneity of not knowing where I’m going, or how I’ll get there. I love letting the painting take the lead, with Happy Accidents at the finish of the painting!  The very thing I love the most, is the very thing that trips me up the most!  Is it the planning that is the problem, or is it the subject matter?  Or, am I not listening?

How many of you have the same problem, or do you have answers that I hadn’t thought of?  Let me know because I’ve been struggling here, and someone must have answers….

The trees are speaking……

After playing with lighting, and watching my trees, I pretty much decided to keep playing with them.  My trees are not finished, but still need shadows, more lights, and darks!

While I’m finishing up my trees, I’m also getting ready for another class.  This class will be all day at ArtBeat on Main Street.  This is a fairly new gallery in the heart of Vista, Ca,  that took me by surprise when I walked in.  The ladies that own tArtBeat are down to earth, and easy to know.  They seem to have put together a gallery rarely seen in this area!  It really belongs further south in Del Mar, or La Jolla.  It’s that classy!  So when my friend, and artsy sister said she was taking this class, at her urging I checked it out, and was pleasantly surprised.  The artist teaching will be Scott W. Prior, an artist well known in the art community.

We’ll talk…

Feb26

Practice, Practice, Practice,

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And more practice!

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Recently I was in a workshop at the Artist Tree in San Marcos.  The artist giving the class was Cathy Carry, and if you aren’t familiar with her work, please take time and look her up.  Cathy has a distinct style that I haven’t seen in too many present day artists.  I’ve always been interested in her work for a number of reasons.

  • Cathy is really good at what she does!
  • She is an excellent colorist!
  • A great teacher!
  • Easy to get to know, and willing to share!

So when the opportunity presented itself for this half day class, I jumped on it, and  I wasn’t disappointed!

In my February 4 post, I talked about the class, and a little about my history with Cathy Carry.

Last week one of my paintings that wasn’t working, just found itself with a fresh coat of gesso on it, and the beginning of not just a new painting, but a new technique!  It started out so well, and just like anything else one is trying to master, went downhill…….  There isn’t much else to do to it at this point, except maybe gesso over it once again.  However, I’m not going to do that.

Here is Why!

When I’m working on a new technique, I like to look at it, analyze it,  let it sink in, and give it a chance to talk to me.  That is my process, and in doing that I can see things I don’t want repeated, things I might do differently next time, or even things I really love about the painting.  This painting has all of that!  I have posted pictures from beginning to end, and I don’t think I’m going to go any further on it, but rather keep it so I might be reminded of what direction I want to go, and what direction I never want to go again!

The pictures are also an attempt at stomping back my ego, and get over myself!   After all you can’t be perfect right out of the gate, and how can I develop a style if I don’t practice, practice, practice?  

Taking pictures of my work as I’m painting is one of the ways I find things that might, or might not be working.  I’ve done this for years, and it has helped me a great deal.  As I’m gathering the pictures to include in this post, I’m seeing new things that I like, and things I realize now I don’t want to repeat.  So thank you one and all for prompting me to keep writing, and to me for listening to you.  I’m learning as I sit here and blog!

P.S….As I look at this painting, and trying to figure out what isn’t working, I’m seeing many things that I hadn’t seen before.  I said it was finished, but I’m going to play with it just a little more, and then my intentions are to leave it alone, call it finished, and learn from it!