Transformation of the landscape

 Joshua Tree

graphite and colored pencil

Tree Line

colored pencil

Golden Leaves

acrylic

Oh, the many ways to paint a landscape. As you know I've recently gotten back to painting landscapes again. I love them, always have. In the early years of painting most of my work looks similar in technique to the way the Joshua Tree piece is done - very controlled, precise, smooth tones, careful pencil strokes. After many years of working in colored pencil and graphite I got to a point where I felt the need to loosen up a bit, and speed it up too. I just don't have the patience I did back then. I started working with colored pencil and mineral spirits, using the spirits with a brush to transform the pencil strokes into paint strokes. Then I discovered heat as a tool for making the colored pencil soft and creamy. That's what I did for the Tree Line painting in the middle. It's a fun way to work the pencils but working with a heat gun or griddle can get uncomfortable, and warm.... I live in Florida so for most of the year, adding more heat to my studio is not a good thing.

So now, as you've seen in the previous posts, I'm using acrylic - I love it. I love the juiciness, the layering, the texture, the ability to change things on a whim. I love using a contrasting color for an underpainting. I love being able to adjust and change what I'm doing. I love getting bolder with color. I just plain love the look and feel of working this way. 

Sometimes I get comments from people about my older work and how much they love it compared to the newer work. My older work was more realistic and photographic looking. That may appeal to a lot of people but for me I prefer seeing the loose brushwork, the uneven edges, the soft edges, the impressionistic feel. To me the newer work is more "me". That's the transformation. In the beginning there was learning and  precise copying of images. In the middle there was the confidence building and exploration of techniques. Now, in this phase (no, it's not the end. It won't be the end until I die - maybe it's just another part of the middle.) it's all about the vision and part of the vision is expressing my feeling about the landscape. Aren't we supposed to get more comfortable in our own skins as we get older? I think we get more comfortable on the canvas too. There's still so much to learn about painting but I think getting more comfortable makes it easier to express not only what I've learned but allows me to put more of "me" in the painting.

What time is it?

 Into the Forest

20x20

Acrylic on canvas

Light Through the Leaves

12x16

Acrylic on canvas

"Totally agree. Painting is a cumulative learning and doing experience. I've been asked the question about how long it took me to paint something and I usually reply with my age. The latest painting took me 52 years. In real time it may have taken me just a day or two but it took the years of experience in painting to be able to accomplish that in just a day or two."   

The above paragraph was my response to this blog post that I saw on Google+. How long did it take you to paint that? I've been asked that question many times. For a long time I didn't know what to say. I don't usually keep track of the time I spend at the easel on individual pieces. It's a little different than punching a time clock when you work a "regular" job. For me, painting is a calling. You might even consider it a religious experience if you're so inclined. It's kind of hard to put minutes and hours on that experience. Painting as a career is a mix of hard work, long hours, wearing many different hats, and spiritual experience. Giving such a reply as my age may seem to be rude to some people, but it's the most honest answer I can give. Creating art takes many past experiences building upon new experiences. Every painting we paint teaches us something new. If we challenge ourselves as we should then we continuously learn from what we create. These experiences then continue to inform our new creations. What appears to be a simple landscape didn't just happen with taking one or two art classes. A lot of life experience went into that canvas. A successful painting that looks simple may actually be incredibly complex and time intensive in it's building.

Hopefully, what I'm doing now will lead to better work down the road - work that takes 53, 54..... 60 or more years to paint.

Little Paintings from the Prairie

These are the 2 latest landscape paintings from this new group of works. I'm having such a good time painting these! The one above is Paynes Prairie. I did this from a photo I took while standing on the lookout tower. The one below is also from Paynes Prairie, but a different area. It's amazing to me how much variety there is in the scenery of the prairie. You can see open prairie to swamp to piney woods. It's just beautiful.

Both of these paintings, along with the landscapes from previous posts and a very large abstract too, are currently hanging at Brick City Center for the Arts in downtown Ocala. They'll be there through the rest of November so if you're in the area, stop by and check it out.
                          

Etcetera

Prairie Walk
18x14
acrylic on canvas

Blue Sky
14x18
acrylic on canvas

 These are the 2 latest landscapes. Blue Sky is just off the easel this morning. I'm really getting into doing these scenes. I have a little 8x10 started and a 16x16 canvas that I prepped today. I added both of these new ones to the Etsy shop. I love being on a roll in the studio. Now if I could just figure out how to clone myself so I can send the other me to teach the classes, run the shop, mail the packages, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.......

From Jersey to Florida

Today was stay in the studio and paint day. I needed a day to create with no interruptions. It's been difficult lately to have a span of time to really focus so since Kelli was able to open the studio for us today I was able to stay home where it's peaceful and quiet. Well.... quiet except for the Sopranos. I've got all the seasons on DVD so Tony and Carmela keep me company when I work. 

While the tv was taking me back to my state of origin (thankfully location is the only thing I have in common with the characters on the Sopranos) I was making a landscape from FL, the state I've called home for the last 39 years. Years ago I did a series of colored pencil paintings of Paynes Prairie. I felt like revisiting those scenes in a different way so I pulled out my references and my acrylics. My first step was to texture the canvas with Super Heavy Gesso and then I toned it with orange acrylic.

 After sketching in the basic shapes with a white charcoal pencil I started blocking in color on the background trees and foreground grasses. I love, love, love, painting landscapes on hot color backgrounds.

Adding sky and more foliage. I used some of the sky color to soften the greens.

Time for tree trunks and branches.

Finishing.... warming up some of the greens in the foreground, adding highlights on the trees and punching up the yellow in the foreground where the sunlight is coming through the trees. The icing on the cake is pushing the values in the darks and lights.

Overall, I'd say it was a good productive day. I'm ready to start on the next one.

I agree!

I saw this photo on Lesley's blog Artsy Forager LOVE IT!

Paper Party

Say Something

16x16

Mixed media on canvas

This painting is part of a series I've been working on called Body of Work. The reason I'm posting this particular piece tonight is I just got back from Gainesville where I attended a party for the 25th Anniversary celebration of the magazine Hand Papermaking. Amy Richard was kind enough to throw this little bash and I loved it! There was fun, hands on papermaking going on outside, great food inside (black beans, yellow rice and empanadas - what's not to love!) and a fabulous presentation by Steve Miller from the University of Alabama about a handmade book project he did in collaboration with the artists in Havana Cuba.

Ok, so what does that have to do with the painting above? The section of blue to the left of the face is paper made from denim. An artist here in Ocala made this paper from jeans that my mother gave her. It was so soft and wonderful that I knew I had to use it somewhere in my work.

I'm one of those people who loves paper. I love to feel it, smell it, hold it, buy it, paint and draw on it, tear it, cut it up and glue it in collages, attach it to canvases. I want stacks and stacks of all varieties of paper at my disposal at all times so that it can satisfy whatever creative whim is smacking me upside the head at that moment. Being one of those people you'd think I would be a paper maker by now but I've never actually done it. I've always been interested in it but there's only so many hours in the day and only so much square footage in the studio. 

Kelli is the one who invited me to this shindig (she actually has made paper) and on the way home we got to reminiscing about our college days in the art programs of our respective schools. That trip down memory lane reminded us of our need to get back to the fun of art again. Back then our main responsibilities were making sure our student loans came through and making it to class on time (she was dealing with the Michigan winters and I went to the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale and back then it was right on the beach - she may have more paper making experience but hey.... I went to art school in my bathing suit!) When we got to our art classes we were totally absorbed in the work. We could sink into the experience fully and really be creative from the core without thinking about paying studio overhead, making the commission deadline or paying the mortgage. How long has it been since we created simply for the joy of it without worrying about whether or not there was a market for what we were creating? I've had snippets of that feeling here and there but not for any real extended period of time. Since we opened our studio last May we've been very focused on teaching and selling - nothing wrong with that and that is what's necessary to make it but sometimes we need reminders about why we do what we do. We need to get back to the joy of the process and remember to spend some time playing. Just as children learn to live through play, artists learn to paint through play. Being in another artist's studio tonight, seeing another person's process in an art form that I don't work in but I do have a desire to learn, really gets the creative juices flowing again. Even if I don't get to make paper any time soon, I still feel energized by tonight and am excited about the potential of what's waiting to happen in the studio.

Wherever you are, whatever you create, take the time to enjoy it.