Here's to New Friends

My husband Michael and I are just home from a cycling vacation in the Eastern Townships of Quebec Province.  On this (supported!) VBT tour, we collected some new friends, who may, just may, take a bit of their time to look at my humble collection of artwork here.

It was wonderful to find out that a number of us were artists of varying levels of seriousness...and media, too (a well-published author of science fiction and thrillers included!).   On the very last day I found that one of my fellow cyclists was what I call a SERIOUS artist, with the "chops", degrees, and gallery representation to prove it!  I humbly direct you to Robin's website.    What amazing artwork!

Meanwhile, I find my own gallery on this blog is extremely dated, so I am going to take a minute (or 60) to bring it up to date.  I hope you will take time to peruse it.

And meanwhile:

Pompous? I hope not!

 The eight SOBs are getting ready for our May show at Anton Art Center in Mt.Clemens, Michigan.  We will have about a half-dozen paintings each, plus a "history room" that will show the background of our group.

The Art Center will also have on display a book with our various artist statements, so all of us are writing new ones or updating old ones.  The following is what I'm using this time around.  I always think that writing statements makes me sound pompous. 

Maybe that's the point?

 

“Art” should  be a verb,   not a noun!

I  prepare to paint by stretching my watercolor paper:  I soak it, then staple it to a backing, and allow  it to dry taut and clean. The process is magical for me, pregnant with possibility and hope.  There are infinite possibilities ahead of me with this sheet of paper.  It may be a failure, destined to be torn for collage, or gessoed over, or scrubbed, or just recycled.  Perhaps it’s destined to be a  personal “masterpiece”, a work to give me joy and confidence for years to come.

 Before I’ve even made my first marks, from the moment I’ve decided on subject matter,  the possibilities and options begin to narrow. My choices become more limited,  driven by previous choices, previous marks.  (wait a minute… is that not exactly like life?)

The total fascination of art for me is that journey, from the first moment with the blank sheet of paper, to the ending, whatever it may be (successful or not).  Decisions of subject, color, design, texture all provide my escape from life’s more difficult decisions and choices.

 I generally paint using traditional watercolor techniques and materials, with recognizable subject matter. I often enhance and expand on my subject matter by obscuring the actual original environment using dramatic value contrasts and patterns.

Click Here to visit the ANTON ART CENTER site.

Click Here to visit the Sisters of the Brush website.

Almost TWO YEARS!

I can't believe it's been almost two years since I posted here. It's because of Facebook: for a while I 'published' my artwork here, then I published it BOTH places, and eventually that was too onerous, so I have just been posting on Facebook.

Well, just to break the ice, I'll post acouple of the paintings that were accepted into the Our Town exhibition this fall, at least those are fairly current. And then see about getting serious about keeping this up to date.

The Sisters of the Brush have a holiday event...

I probably haven't posted much recently about the SOBs with whom I associate.  They are aka the Sisters of the Brush, and we have critiqued and learned and painted and shown artwork together for quite a few years (don't make me go back right now to figure out the first time we met - but I'll guess well over 10 years).  This year we'd arranged to have our artwork featured at the Fieldstone Winery for the month of December.  Several of us have had solo shows there, and we've had a group display previously.  Because it's the holiday season, we've gotten ourselves into a mood for a party more than an opening.  We're bringing our most affordable art (sometimes some older things, sometimes reproductions, often smaller items) so that our friends and followers can find something they like to take home. We also pledged that 50% of our artwork sales from the party and the month-long display will be donated to support the Mary McCarthy Anderson Art Scholarship fund.  We hope we can pull together a substantial amount in order to sponsor more students in their pursuit of artistic expression.

Mostly, we hope we will see you there!  You can come by to see and buy the artwork any time through the month of December, but on Thursday the 11th, you'll find us there, and a rack of notecards, and a rack of REALLY affordable matted/unframed originals and reproductions. You'll also find wine tastings (Fieldstone wines, of course),  and good refreshments.  So, does that motivate you to find time between 6 and 9 that evening? I sure hope so.  And of course, I also hope that Old Man Winter cooperates.  Enough of the bad weather just when you plan something fun!

The "FALL" art season begins

Both these pieces, painted earlier this year, have been accepted into the Birmingham Society of Women Painters fall exhibit, juried by artist Joseph Sim.  The show is being hung at the Birmingham Unitarian Church (a very nice venue), with the opening reception being held on Thursday, November 20th, from 6 to 8 pm.

Congratulations to Lisa Richter, who won BEST OF SHOW for this exhibition!

Yes, it may be the fall art season, but we have winter here too.

Summertime painting

Pleased to say that two of my three submissions to the Our Town 2015 show/sale were accepted (no, not the paintings shown here: I'll post them later on).  That's a welcome pat on the back near the end of summertime which, for me, is traditionally my time of LEAST painting.  And, you might notice, least posting.

To those blogging art friends who have kept it up  (both their art and posting), congratulations on both, and, although I've not taken time to post comments, I have been watching your successes - many of them!

I actually did do some summertime painting too, though, this year, some of it at our cottage, most at home on the rainy days.  I decided to make summer painting into a 'Hobby', and not challenge myself. The goal was to make it fun and easy. In pursuit of that I stretched quarter sheets, half the size I've been working on usually.  I found interesting source photos - just fairly unchallenging still-lifes - did drawings, picked a few,  transferred the drawings to the paper, and then just carried the results and a small pallette with me up north.  Rainy days there were frequent this summer, and with   less to do in bad weather than when at home,  I got my painting time.  Two of the finished results are shown (very casual photography).  Anyway I like 'em, and even more, I liked painting them.

Hope you've had that much fun with art this summer. If not,  just wait. Those other seasons that shall remain nameless are indeed approaching, and maybe you'll find more time to get inside and make art.

MWCS Members Award!

Although I've been a member of this organization for a number of years, I'm not exactly sure what "Members Award" exactly means . . . Except that I'm a member and . . . I got it!

Saturday was the big day - the Michigan Water Color Society's 67th Annual Exhibition - which included a critique by juror Paul Jackson in the morning, a convivial and well attended board luncheon at midday, a lecture by the juror in the afternoon, and finally the awards ceremony we had all (well, I had) been waiting for!

I'm very honored by being chosen for one of the awards: the company of the thirteen award winning artists is of the highest caliber.  If you don't believe me, write to me to buy one of  our beautiful catalogs!! (Sorry: fund raising never ends. But the catalogs really are lovely
- and only $15).

Anyway, my husband reminded me to get a picture taken with the award winning painting  ("Treepodia"), so here it is for your perusal!

MWCS 67th Annual at Greater Flint Arts Council

 That's my painting (MINE!) in the upper left of the postcard and the poster for this event.  I actually had two paintings accepted into the show, a first for me, and have been feeling guilty and apologizing ever since (the large number of double-selections means that a lot of friends who submitted  amazingly wonderful paintings WEREN'T included - not ideal).

I was part of the little "committee" doing intake in Flint on Saturday, making sure all 70 paintings got there, had boxes, had wires, had white mats, had return shipping labels if need be. A wild and crazy 4 hours indeed, and not enough time to look closely at the incredible artwork.  THAT will be this coming Saturday. Hope to see you there!

For directions to GFAC, follow this link.

A nice Opening Reception

I love this picture friend Janice took on Friday at the Lawrence St Gallery reception for the Sisters of the Brush exhibit.   That's husband Michael hiding behind me.  Next to my left ear is a painting by fellow SOB Barbara Markham. Behind the word "of" is one of my paintings.  Laura Host did a wonderful job hanging the show and we were very happy with it.

We had five of the seven 'Sisters' at the opening reception.  Although we won't all manage to be at the mid-month reception either, we hope to have a different mix.  And we hope you'll be able to attend. That reception is on Friday, May 16th, from 6 - 9 pm.

I also took a couple of short videos showing the complete show. IF I can figure out how to suppress the inane comments I was making from behind the camera, then I'll try to figure out how to post it.

Sisters of the Brush at Lawrence St Gallery

The final week before our exhibit at Lawrence St Gallery. The image at left is just a detail of one of the paintings I've chosen to show there. I still have to give it a title, though. I've rejected "Tiger in the Sun", it's initial name.  I want the title to somehow refer to or invoke the intensity of midsummer sunshine (yes, we DO have that now and then, even here in Michigan).  I'll need to have something thought up by tomorrow, I think.

The seven Sisters of the Brush descended on the gallery in waves on Saturday and Sunday, bringing our favorites, looking forward to seeing how Laura Host would hang them on the pristine white walls.  As a group we've been known to bring way too many pieces, and too large, so this year we made a special effort to cut back so the display wouldn't look cluttered and art-fair-like.  Well, we did TOO good a job: Laura called me later in the day on Sunday, saying, everything was hung, but that we were "short 6 or 7 paintings".  I first thought she meant they were MISSING!  No, she actually had some awkwardly empty wall sections. 

So the Sisters put their  heads together (digitally) and figured each of us could find one more painting to be included.  A flurry of drop-offs and pick-ups and transfers, and the additional paintings were delivered and hung on Monday.  It looks wonderful.

Anyway,  Lawrence St Gallery will be holding two receptions.  We expect that a majority of the 7 of us will be at each one. I'll be at both. If you are in the area for either of the following dates it would be so nice to see you there!

The opening reception is this Friday, May 2nd, and runs from 6 - 9 pm

The mid-month reception is, startlingly, mid-month, on Friday, May 16th, again from 6 - 9 pm.

More color, more color!

Recently, one of the artist groups I belong to (Birmingham Society of Women Painters) held a group critique, asking a well known local artist to come critique our work.  Most members brought in one or more of their paintings, the original, framed or unframed. This group works in all manners of media, oil, pastel, collage, watercolor, you name it.  But what was consistent  and remarkable (we all remarked on it!)  on this particular day was that everyone had just been through the same long Michigan winter.  I never saw so many colorful paintings. 
And here is my contribution to that trend. They were all stacked ready to go to the photographer, when I started looking at them (they needed some kind of title penciled on, so he knows how to name the files).  I guess I needed color, too  -   these are January, February, March, and a bit of April. FYI, the two in the center are from Kanuga.

Michigan Water Color Society Annual - Accepted!

Treepodia

I learned this week that both of my submissions were juried into the Michigan Water Color Society's upcoming annual exhibition.  How exciting is that?  I'm feeling a wee bit personally perplexed, though, because they are from the series of  mostly abstracts that I was working on all last summer and fall after my Kanuga workshop with Mike Bailey. I submitted them because I thought they were good enough, and I like them both, but since then have happily turned back from the abstracts to my floral/pattern paintings.  Now, the nod I have gotten for my abstract work seems to tell me, paint more of THOSE.  But . . . I'm not sure I really want to anymore.  So: what do I do with THAT?

Pushing the Pattern

My last post showed this painting, still unfinished as we left Kanuga.  I'm pretty sure if I had been there even one more day, Robbie Laird would have found time to reinforce a hint that I think I inferred earlier in the week - about remembering subtlety when indulging in my patterns.   Certainly a worthy goal, and one I often, but not always, should keep in mind.

In this case,  having brought the painting home and lived with it a while, it became clear to  me that  this one (like so many of mine) was about the pattern more than the flowers.  So I went with that. I've modified and pumped up and added pattern to the point where I hope it's obvious that the imbalance is intentional.

I am extremely pleased to have, from this year's workshop,  a COMPLETED PAINTING that's not a throwaway.  How rare is that?  And there are still those other starts, two of which show good possibility, plus a problem-child painting which will keep me challenged for quite a while as I try to solve the problems I created for myself as I started it.  

Here we are at . . . . Camp Kanuga!!!

Does that plant any tunes in your head?  Sorry (sort of). Anyway, it's wonderful here as usual. And the weather has blessed us with 70+ degrees the past two days and apparently for another couple of days.  The forsythia here have started to bloom, and there is a spectacular and enormous weeping cherry that gets better every day.   The picture below shows the little red schoolhouse where my "Mentor or Muse" class with Robbie Laird is being held. It's a nice long walk from the Inn, so I'm getting plenty of activity going back and forth.   Essentially the class is indeed independent study but with voluntary support and critique from Robbie.  Until now I've only known Robbie as the graceful and gracious director of Kanuga Watermedia Workshops, but indeed she is a very good teacher, mentor, muse.  I'm enjoying just the amount of support and independence that this workshop offers, and wondering how soon it will be offered again.

You can also see that, after just two days, I have a nearly finished painting that I like: this is very unusual for me, in that workshops are sort of known for pushing you in such new directions that you don't find your footing for a while. .. and certainly not soon enough to finish anything that you like.  So, I'm quite happy to have this one in the final stages, and a couple more well started, and still two days to paint.

What I don't understand is, why aren't ALL of you here too? In artists' heaven?  I wish you were!

But I don't have the Blues

It is very nice to have finished a painting, and, even better, one that I like,  just before leaving for Kanuga.   What a confidence builder!  A few weeks ago,   I took  a great number of source photos of this bouquet of white blossoms, in different blue glass vases and sitting on a variety of blue silk scarves.  This one didn't turn out the way I had planned or even what I expected (so, what else is new?).    But I like it anyway.

I'm all prepared for my "semi-independent study" with Robbie Laird at Kanuga (that's what I'm calling it, I'll report on what it actually is upon my return!).    Having chosen maybe a dozen source photos that I liked a lot, I spent the early part of March doing newsprint drawings from them.  That exercise helped me narrow down which ones held my interest.   I ended up with six favorite drawings.  I traced those drawings onto half-sheets of Arches 140, and THEN soaked and stretched the paper onto both sides of three pieces of Gatorboard.   This should give me lots to work on when I get there. 

I've never prepared so many "starts" at once before.  It has been fun and productive both.  I found my drawing skills coming back a bit as I worked.  I'm quite excited about what will come next, and pleased that I will have four days to work on all of these.    I am already wondering if it will turn into a new way of working for me.

Do most of  you have multiple paintings going at once? I'm usually sorry when I don't, because I am more likely to move too quickly and make poor decisions.  Setting things aside for a bit is never a bad idea.

Get back to work!

This will just be a short post. You will see why:  Here I am, spending a nice Sunday afternoon, browsing the blogs of my new blog friends  (do you recognize this blog?).  But, I am being observed. See that little poster up there at the right? I circled it to make it more obvious. It was recently provided by an art friend.

Wait.

I'll make it easier for you to see.

And then I'll go.  Maybe you should too?

Mentor or Muse at Kanuga 2014

Kanuga 2011 - it was WARM that year!!!!

The Inn and Lake at Kanuga

I would dearly love to know how many of you are two weeks away from Kanuga, as I am.

Probably I need to insert a brief explanation of what I mean by Kanuga for those unfamiliar with it.  Kanuga Watermedia Workshops is art camp for adults!!!! ( Yay!)  Okay, a better description: a spiritual retreat facility in rural western North Carolina rents out its grounds for a week.  Ten or twelve well known watermedia instructors and maybe 200 artists show up on a Sunday for registration, and then for the next four days everything is about art and camaraderie.  Rooms in either a rustic inn or cabins in the woods, meals together at tables for eight in a big dining hall. Art class all day long, presentations and events in the evening.  And, after three years, even familiar faces.

I've signed up for Robbie Laird's (new) workshop that she's entitled, Mentor or Muse. I'm translating the detailed description to "SEMI-independent study" - at least, I think that's what I'll be getting.  I was initially very excited about this option, but of course as the day approaches, I'm semi-terrified (this is usual for me before a workshop).

The materials list is easy: there isn't one from Robbie, I just need to bring what I want to use.   I started a list for that weeks ago, so I'm feeling fine about that.  But, this time around I really need to know what I want to work on before I get there. So the preparation matters more than usual.

So far I've printed out a dozen or so possible source photos, and actually begun doing composition  drawings from each of them - this I hope will allow me to (1) quickly eliminate ones that are poor choices, and (2) take the 'finalists' and transfer the drawings to stretched w/c paper.  I know I'll need three or four to be working on, like I have at home on my most creative days: one to be thinking about, one to be drying, and one to actually be painting.  I'd like to take even more than that, just in case.  I'm resisting using any of these Kanuga "starts" ahead of time:  I want to keep my brush wet (to paraphrase Marilynn Derwenskus) between now and then, but also want to be excited and happy about what I'll have to work on when I get there. 

So: who should I be looking for when I get there? You, I hope.

Need advice on BLUE

My sweet big sister sent get well flowers (re broken ribs) last week, and they arrived in a cobalt blue vase, my favorite. Today, with a rare day of full sunshine, and a cessation of pain, I took the flowers that were still happy and started taking source photos in the sun room.  Loving the blue, I went hunting for background fabrics (I'm not a collector of such things like I know many of you are).  I found two shawls,  deep blue wool and  turquoise silk, and threw  them all together in the intense sunshine.

(Special note here: the flowers, the vase, AND the two shawls, I realized, were all gifts over the years  from this wonderful big sister! Am I a lucky 'baby' sister?)

So now I have 30+ source photos which, because they all have my favorite colors (and sunshine), are breathtaking to me.  I'd like to tackle at least ONE of them soon. But I've not painted blue very often or very successfully. So, I'm asking:

Looking at this source photo, typical of the ones I will choose from, do you have suggestions of the blues I should be using, and how to use them, to give them the life they deserve? (BTW - In stock I currently have  ultramarine, cobalt, cerulean, indigo,  and pthalo blues).

I don't love it but I like it

I'll go on record.  I don't regret at all that I obliterated the "real" desert sky color here.  I like it much better having taken the image somewhere else. I DO wish that I'd thought of it sooner, so that I could have done a more delicate red wash of a sunset sky - but because I was going over a cerulean and ultramarine wash, I had to get past that. So, it's pretty heavy looking. Surreal. Maybe that's why I like it.  It's certainly unexpected. I find myself thinking already of variations this may inspire -  just not now, too many irons in the fire this month.

MWCS Reminder - projection of entries

If you are a Michigan artist reading this, please be reminded that this Saturday, March 8th, is the always fascinating Michigan Water Color Society event, the projection of entries for the upcoming annual exhibition.    This year the projection will be held at the Baldwin Public Library in Birmingham.   Click HERE for the MWCS website and calendar.  The projection starts at 1:30pm.


I always try hard to attend this event, because I love to see everything, not just what the juror ends up keeping for the show. As many as 300 paintings are shown for several seconds each, of which only 50 - 80 paintings will later be selected by the juror (depending on the size of the venue).  Of the 200-some that are NOT selected, there are still many many wonderful and interesting paintings, and this is the only chance, sometimes, to see them.   Michigan artists are a varied group, and there will be a wide range of styles, from abstract to still life to portraiture.

And  (if you entered) you get to see your own work projected on a large screen, an experience in itself : in my recent post I was musing about how photographs of my artwork seem to look BETTER when concentrated down to a couple of inches.  When the same artwork is expanded, all bets are off - I am often surprised at which paintings look better, which look much worse that way.  Okay, some are even fairly represented too.

If you've not attended one of these sessions, be reassured that commentary - even whispered - is discouraged quite seriously.  Although honestly, I've often heard murmurs when the subject matter turns out to be an especially cute animal.

I hope to see you there!