A Quick Hello Plus a Few Links

In Front and Behind, 2008, Oil on Cradled Panel, 6x6

Not much here today, as I really want to get to work on the paintings I have in progress. I did one yesterday that I am pretty pleased with and I am anxious to finish it up today. I will begin posting them soon.


David Castle is doing a cool little project over on his project and I am pleased to be a part of it. Unfortunately, we had a (long!) series of grey days and I wasn't able to get any sunny snow views from my studio window to send him. So I have posted a few that I took this morning. It's nice and sunny today, just a teaser though, before the snow showers we are supposed to have for the next three days at least.


Oh and I will throw another link in for free while I am at it. I found this blog via Gary and frankly if I weren't happily married, I would totally have a crush on Ben. What? I can have a crush even if I am married? Ok, good. Anyway, I love the photos of Ben's studio, a beautiful space that clearly contains a lot of creative energy.

Goals Update (January)

First Red, 2009, Oil on Cradled Panel, 6x6

On Sunday I was feeling kind of sad as it was the day I would have headed to Vermont to start my second month long residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Maybe it's just as well that I decided not to go this year as I have much to do for the next few months and last year I got a bit off track after I returned. But when my tween daughter was glaring daggers at me during some sort of fit, I couldn't help but think how I would be almost arriving in Johnson, with my car loaded with art supplies all ready to focus on painting and to enjoy great food and company as well. Sigh.

Ah well. The tween fit passed eventually and I was able to spend much of my day actually getting some things done in my own comfy studio. I'll go to Vermont next year and it will be fine. I will even have a few more shots at getting a full fellowship, so that is good.

At the end of December I posted a few specific goals and while I haven't been working as much as I hoped (many kid related distractions!) I did pretty well. I thought I'd go through the list, maybe the public humiliation will add just a wee bit of pressure on me in February. I am going to borrow from Stacey here and list my goals (in italics) and then explain what I actually did.

I will finish 20 figurative paintings on panel in January and hopefully at least 15 of them will be good enough to send out in order to pursue new representation.

I sure didn't do 20, but I am pleased with what I was able to accomplish. The People You Know series is tough and each painting really takes a lot of energy. I finished up three pieces that I had started in 2008, one 22x30 didn't work out and I finished three pieces (2 18x24 and 1 12x24) that I am very happy with. I have five pieces ready for color glazes right now and will finish them up this week. Three of them are mid size, one is 24x36 and the other one is 30x40, so the larger scale has slowed me down a bit too. If the five turn out (no guarantee!) I will have fourteen presentable (in my opinion) paintings that I can start sending out. After I gather up my nerve, that is.

In conjunction with the figurative work I will do at least five monochromatic underpaintings on gessoed paper each week, of the figure, with the intent of leaving them as is, meaning no color glazes.

I have had the prepared paper all ready to go, but never did get to these. Part of the problem is that I don't have enough room in my studio let them dry while leaning vertically (the paper is taped to a piece of masonite as a work surface) and the other problem is the distraction of the dang computer. Heh. Will be working on a solution to the drying problem as I really want to do these. Actually I NEED to do these.

I will continue to paint 5-10 small paintings per week to sell on my other blog.

I did twelve this month. Not bad but I should have done more, because as soon as I posted eight of them, three sold right away. How much more motive does a girl need for crying out loud?

And even if it kills me to do it so early, I will put together all my tax info from 2008 by the end of January. It actually doesn't take that long, it's just one of the things I really tend to put off doing each year until the very last minute.

Ick. Didn't even touch the pile of receipts. Will try again to tackle that one in February too.

I will also spend an afternoon each week or so, working on some collage ideas I have which combine my painting with the photographs I have been collecting for the figurative work. I did some of this in college and it was something I never really pursued after. So naturally, that's all I can think about doing now. heh. Anyway, this is just a fun thing to do, something I didn't do enough of in the past when I had so much going on.

I did one small piece that I kept seeing in my head, but it didn't really do what I wanted. I either need to think about it a bit more or do a few more and try to figure out what I want to do. This thinking part would be easier without the computer too.

And because no list of resolutions goals is ever complete for me without including losing a few pounds and exercising more I will add that as well. I have let my exercise go in the last few years and even more in the last few months, so that along with a recent issue involving Lindt dark chocolate truffles means I need to get out for a walk each day at the very least.

While I didn't specifically put it on the list, I was planning on eliminating sugar and flour from my diet. I did pretty well with this in January, not perfect but enough to feel so much better each day. Unfortunately I kind of bailed on walking everyday even though it always makes me feel so good when I take the walk. I went out a few times but it was so cold and even though I do actually own warm winter clothing I mostly stuck with the "too cold outside" excuse. I had some other options for exercise, like the awesome spin bike in my studio, but neglected to get it together to do that either. Will keep trying though.

This month I really must grow up and stop with the excuses. I have a show in April to prepare for and I really have to get started on that. Also I know that my outlook will be so much more positive when I can start getting my goals accomplished.

Five for Fighting

24x36
No real chit chat today, alas. Tomorrow is a short work day for me and so I must get a few more underpaintings done today. But I thought I'd stop in and at least post what I did yesterday. Even though it seemed crazy to do such a complicated grouping at this point in the series, I kept getting drawn back to a photo that had five people in it. I was initially interested in the lady at the bottom center. She has a polka dotted dress which really had me intrigued. Even after I started the painting, I thought I would crop it and only keep two or three of the figures in the painting, but I ended up leaving them all in. I am pretty pleased with this and I especially like the couple on the right.

Still looking forward to figuring out how to handle the pattern on the dress, but now I am wondering about how I will get all these folks to "talk to each other" too.

Good challenge!

More Snow

The Road, 4x6, Oil on Cradled Panel, 2008

Well, it's a snow day today, so I figured I'd better get a post up before either the satellite goes down or we lose our power. I managed to get out to the hen house this morning and I also filled all the bird feeders (normally my son's job, but I decided to let everyone sleep in this morning). I also got out to the barn to look for more of my old work. We have had a lot of snow this winter already, and even more last night and today and I am pretty sure I pulled more than a few muscles while climbing over the snowbanks and trying to carry a bucket of hot water, a bucket of scratch, a bucket of bird seed and a portfolio and a suitcase while walking in three feet of snow. Not all at once of course, several trips were involved here.

So today I am going to do some painting and then I will be going through the old work later on. I did take a quick peek though and there will be an added bonus for all you super lucky folks-I found some things that I did in high school! Most of it revolves around images of Jim Morrison and The Doors, and I probably should be too embarrassed to post them, but what the heck.

Oh and by the way, this morning I added about eight new paintings to my sales blog, including the one above.

Memory Lane (Part 1)

Well, I managed to get out to the barn this weekend to retrieve my portfolios of the work that I did in college. Actually I got Doug to trudge through the three foot high snow drifts, shovel out in front of the door and then poke around in our junk filled barn, but whatever. I was busy in the hen house and had my own issues with the snow and cold.

He brought in two portfolios and after going through them I realized that there is still another batch of work somewhere, so perhaps another trip out there is in order. I am pretty sure that I stored quite a bit of work in an old brown suitcase. Awesome storage, I know. Heh.

Actually most of the work is in pretty good shape all things considered. I have moved about 9 times since college and everything has been stored in basements, or attics and now it's been in a barn for almost five years. Many of the pieces are only scuffed because they were not protected by a covering and were rubbing against the back of another piece, but the paint itself looks good, no cracking or peeling. And since it has rarely seen the light of day, the colors have not faded.

Ok, now that I have reminded you all about how NOT to store your art, we can move on. I was an illustration major in college so much of my work seems a bit out of context now. We did a lot of portraits, both from live models and from photographs (I wrote a bit about that here). We also had to put images together, make visual statements for potential editorial assignments (not my thing, but I tried) and we did a ton of figure drawing. Most of the work I am putting up today are portraits, which seems appropriate considering what I have been working on lately.

So here are a few:
Painted from a live model, and it was obviously during the 1980's. I had more than a few jumbo disc earrings like that myself!

From a photo of course, and it looks like I did some scumbling to prepare to make some changes on his chin and in the background. Yet again, left unfinished.

Graphite on Gesso drawing from a photograph. Looks like it might have been for a toothpaste ad. heh.

These were done sometime around 1986, maybe 1987. I had learned how to glaze over an underpainting, in a class with Phyllis Purves-Smith, using traditional methods and I worked in that manner for quite awhile. Struggled is more like it. What I see now is that working so precisely and realistically was totally not right for me. I recall that I enjoyed doing the monochromatic underpaintings but clearly the rest of it wasn't me and I often gave up and left the work unfinished. Same goes for the graphite drawing. It is interesting to note now that I paint in a very loose manner, yet there are places where I can utilize the more exacting side of me too. It's like I solved the puzzle of me. Well, temporarily, anyway; I am sure there will be more shifts in the future.

Anyway, the assignment here:
was to paint a romance novel cover. Our illustration class lugged our supplies to one of the historical buildings in Philadelphia and the models posed in various ridiculous dramatic situations. I was very unhappy with this piece, the figures are SO stiff! BUT it was also kind of a breakthrough for me-I was really excited about how the background looked and how the more simple glazes worked over the underpainting and textured surface (gesso).

That painting led to more work like this: where I was playing around with textures, and more dramatic lights and darks. And for some strange reason I was also perfecting the art of making paint crack by coating a layer of oil paint with matte medium. Eventually the matte medium cracked and then I rubbed burnt umber oil paint into it which gave it sort of an old wood like look. Now you can buy a product that does something similar, but back in the old days I had to find other ways to get the effects I wanted.

This portrait:was done soon after I painted Bette Davis and is directly related to what I am doing today. I got a shiver when I saw it again. I was still using paintbrushes (now I just use a cloth to rub off the paint) and probably turpentine too, so it's a bit tight, but I remember understanding that I wanted to figure out how to add color. I never got to it back then, but it has nagged at me ever since I began painting again and now finally I am beginning to solve that puzzle too.

I have tons of drawings that were done directly from the model, but this is one of my favorites:
The model was a guy who I got to know a bit at the bars, he was a nice guy, AND he had great hair, which is always a plus when it comes to a model! I always wanted to give him this drawing because it actually looks quite a bit like him but he moved away before I was able to and of course I haven't the vaguest memory of his name.

Another interesting thing about looking at all of this old stuff is how bad it is! My perception has always been that the work I did in college was mostly really good, especially this work, the work I chose to save and lug around with me for 20+ years. However, I am less than impressed with it now. I guess that means that I have grown as an artist, since it is usually a good sign when old work is cringe-worthy, but still. Kind of a bummer, you know? Also, clearly I have since developed a very different color sense. The old work sure does look pretty dreary next to what I am doing now and I think that might be a huge understatement.

Anyway, more to come!

Pregnancy and Painting

Patterns, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 20x24

So several folks asked me about the use of paintings supplies and materials during pregnancy. I wrote a rather lengthy post about my studio practices a few years ago and after rereading it I think it is still accurate. Since I didn't actually paint though while I was pregnant, I can't really offer much advice other than to say that one of the main reasons that I didn't paint during those times was because I was leery of the effects of using oils while pregnant. I had heard so much conflicting info on art supply safety, but in the end I just didn't want to risk it.

However, y'all got me started on the pregnancy thing so I will tell you what kind of art I did do while having babies.

When I became pregnant with my first little baby, I wasn't really doing any painting or drawing. I owned a small company called redesign (see picture of my product line here and had been making handmade clocks, picture frames, mirrors and boxes. I was taking them to trade shows in NYC and doing pretty well, selling them to small gift shops and catalog companies (Ballard Designs carried one of my mirrors once) but then we moved to Utah and poof! most of my business dried up. I was still filling an order or two when I got pregnant, but I let everything go after that. We were already raising our adopted son too, so I decided that I wanted to focus on being a parent. But because I was so incredibly tired, I mostly ended up watching the entire O.J. Simpson trial while growing that baby. My son might not realize it yet, but he learned everything about the trial of the century while in utero! He was conceived, born, and almost walking between the time of the murders and the acquittal.

When I was pregnant with my second baby, I was filled with unbelievable energy and that's when I really started to miss making art. I still didn't feel comfortable using oils, so I decided to focus on drawing. I went to a figure drawing class each week, where everyone watched me get bigger and bigger, until one week I brought the baby to class with me and she slept in a car seat next to me while I drew the figure. I haven't looked at those drawings in years, but at the time I felt like I was doing the best figurative works I had ever done. I mostly used charcoal or graphite woodless pencils, which are still my favorite thing to draw with. Also during this time, I taught myself how to knit and to sew and began making a quilt. Never did finish it, but I do still have a box of squares stored away. Someday.

I kept up with all this after my oldest daughter was born (still had awesome energy) and even decided to take a volunteer position at the local arts group where I organized the visual arts department, scheduled classes etc. And that is when I took a pastel workshop with artist Colleen Howe. I fell in LOVE with pastels! They were easy to pick up and put down, great for someone with three kids, including a toddler and a baby, I love the drawing aspect and the colors! Wow! That was how I began using saturated colors.

While I was pregnant with Ginger, my third baby, I still did the occasional pastel, but at that point our house was bursting and the only place I had to work was in a very small three season porch, right next to the cat litter. So mostly I just kept up with the knitting and sewing. Right after Ginger was born, we bought a larger house and I spent several months overseeing the remodel it needed. I fell in love with that whole process and learned more about plumbing, electric and how not to get ripped off by the sub-contractors than I ever thought I could learn. Once that project was finished and we moved into the house, I really felt like I would just die if I didn't get back to painting. I had my own studio (don't get me started on how big and beautiful that space was or I will cry) and was able to get a few hours here and there and for awhile a neighbor girl came in and played with the girls so I could paint. I was also doing some pastels during this time, but frankly once I picked up the oils again, I wasn't quite so interested in the pastels any longer. My boxes of pastels are still tucked away and someday I will pull them out again.

Anyway, I have often regretted taking so much time off from making art, but now I see how much those other activities really feed into my current work. So I just try to do what I can to be a good parent AND to make up for the years that I didn't paint. I am a firm believer in silver linings.

Ho Hum

Brothers At An Event, 2008, Oil on Birch Panel, 20x24

Well, it's back to work today. It sure won't be an exciting, awesome, incredible day like yesterday was, but it will be just fine; way better than most days in the last eight years have been. Today seems like a good day for everyone in America to roll up their sleeves, get down to work and get this country straightened out. Not sure if making more art will help much, but it's all I have to offer right now.

On deck for today:

Eleven small landscape underpaintings need color glazes.
Prepping more panels.
I have to tape down gessoed paper on panels in order to do some monochromatic sketches, hopefully I can do them tomorrow. I had hoped to be doing a few of those each week, but oops, have slacked off on that particular goal.

I am finding myself a bit low on subject matter here lately, maybe I used up all my ideas in December when I posted every single day. Or maybe this is what happens when one has a blog for almost three years. But more likely it's because lately, every day here is pretty much exactly the same as the day before, not giving me a lot to write about.

I could display one of my "talents" that people in my real life already know about. A brief question can cause me to go on forever. So help me out with post topics and ask me anything. Can't day I will answer ANYTHING, but I'm a pretty open sort of gal, so will give all questions consideration.

PS. Lurkers are welcome to participate! Email me if you are shy.

People You Know

THIS House Dress Has a Pocket, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 12x24

Wow, didn't mean to not post for so long! Nothing much going on here either, every day seems the same lately; getting the kids off to school, doing a few chores, shoveling, of course, studio time and then what feels like an excessive amount of driving each day. Doug has been traveling a lot, so I have been doing double duty I guess.

I have been working steadily in the studio however, and have nearly finished three new paintings with three new underpaintings on deck. I was hoping to be able to put up some images of them last week but after unsuccessfully photographing them, several times, I have realized that I will have to change my system. THAT means I may have to pull out the stupid lights and get a whole set up in order to photograph them properly. Blech. I hate having to do this because a. I am super lazy and do not want to have to do all this extra work and b. I am at the very outer edges of my brain capacity when taking photographs, using a digital camera and photoshopping, so between that and having to do all the extra work, I am usually just pissed off. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's true.

Anyway, I did manage to get one half decent shot that I was able to photoshop enough to look pretty accurate, so I am putting that up today, along with a close up shot of the face. I am pretty pleased with this painting.

I have decided to consider this work as a series and am going to call them "People You Know". I have been referring to these pieces as portraits or figurative work but neither of those seemed accurate, so I felt a series title would be more appropriate. This series will only include the work from photographs of people that I DON'T know, but whose stories I want to tell. The paintings in this series are about the photographs.

Studio Updates

underpainting, 12x24

Not much to report today. I have been hibernating lately; haven't gone anywhere since Saturday. Partly in order to get back into my studio schedule, but mostly because it is dang cold here! Zero degrees on our front porch this morning. Doug was out of town last week, returned Sunday night and he has been relieving me of driving duties for the last few days. Only because he is leaving again soon, but whatever. The short break from driving and errands helps me stay relatively sane.

Anyway, I have three new portraits to work on this week. I may have to adjust my goal of doing five per week. Doing more than three underpaintings in one day might be too much. This Friday I plan to see just how many I can handle if I can spend the whole day alone in my studio. If my head explodes by noon, I will definitely readjust my weekly goals. Heh.

Yesterday I did eleven small landscape underpaintings that will eventually be posted on my sales blog. While they dry over the next few days I will be adding the glazes to the portraits.

I am feeling like I am getting back on track. Not that I was totally off track but I am unhappy with how I have handled my time in the last 3-4 months. I am working steadily in the studio and am even taking some time each evening to do two things that I have neglected lately; reading and knitting. (I am reading Orchard by Larry Watson and am knitting a scarf for a friend of mine-might get that done by spring:)) I have stopped eating flour and sugar (again) so I feel a lot better, more energetic and clear headed and I am making an solid effort to NOT spend so much time on the computer each day. Still trying to get in a walk each day, but haven't had much luck and I am using the weather as my excuse for that.

My biggest problem now though, is that the only two reality shows that I am interested in watching (The Biggest Loser and American Idol) are both on at the same exact evening and time. And we don't have tivo. Last night I watched The Biggest Loser and switched to AI during the commercials. Life is rough.....

Linkety Art Links

underpainting, 20x24

Well, I have tons of work to do in the studio today so I am sending you all elsewhere, 'k? I have come across some good sites lately and would like to share.

I like this one because I LOVE self-portraits and there are a good variety here. I keep thinking that I should be doing at least a yearly self portrait, so I can document my aging process (yay), and pretty soon I will get to that. Maybe.

There seem to be quite a few textile and fiber artists reading this blog and I "met" Prairie Fibers via facebook recently. I love Kimberly's work, especially the Prairie Potholes series, and am feeling a bit sad that I am on an art buying budget (stupid economy) because I would be totally shopping over there.

I found Mary and Sarah (through my blog friend Steven LaRose) They are both included on the Fine Art Department, and I enjoy hearing what they are up to, both in their studios and in their lives. New blog friends and again with the stupid budget/economy thing here too!

And because I could possibly be the modern, online version of Gladys Kravitz, I am loving this blog and especially the recent series which shows artist's studios. Look for Number 10, the studio of another blog friend, Mary Klein. Since I am partial to painting I especially love seeing other painter's work spaces as something about paint tubes, brushes and other supplies really gets me going. I am easy like that. heh.

So go forth and enjoy!

Patterns

Thanks to everyone who gave me some reassurance after my last post. I do tend to be really hard on myself about a lot of things and most of the time I actually think it works for me. After all, if I had been easier on myself, I'd probably still be floating around back in my hometown, with no education, no art in my life, and probably with way more kids than I have now and either fewer or more husbands too. Heh.

The key is to know when to let up, I guess, and I am going to try and remember to do that before I make myself crazy.

Anyway, I did the above underpainting on Thursday afternoon. Then I did two more on Friday morning before I had to rush out of the house to have lunch with a friend, go to my daughter's basketball game and then drive back and forth between our house and town like a hundred times. So I will put the others up next week. I am not sure I like these, nor am I sure they will "turn out" but then isn't that the fun in all this? I enjoyed doing them, it was great having my hands in the paint again and I look forward to seeing what will happen here.

This one is on a birch panel, 20x24. I might pull out a really big panel next week and see what happens. Doug keeps telling me he wants to see them larger and I am starting to be able to see them at a larger scale too.

Mental Adjustments

Pink Side of the Road, 2008, Oil on Birch Panel, 16x20

I just wrote a whole thing about what a funk I have been in lately, blah, blah, blah. I realized that I have spent yet another day doing nothing in my studio and I am feeling disappointed in my lack of progress in the studio. Of course today I had a good excuse (snow day, kids home) but it seems like I am always making excuses.

Usually I prefer to beat myself up for not doing what I think I should be doing each day but I am giving myself a rare break from that tonight. So I deleted what I wrote (too depressing, even for me at this time of the day when I can be very pessimistic about everything) and will just try to work in the studio again tomorrow.

I should remember the story about the above painting: I did the underpainting for it (and the one I posted on Monday) last spring, way before I moved up into my new studio, before painting the walls, planting the garden and preparing small format paintings for a July show. I finally got back to the underpaintings in November and added the color, even though I had completely forgotten what I had had in mind for them when I started. But I love them, and maybe they turned out better than they might have if I had finished them right away.

I gave those two pieces very little thought all that time, but instead of bang, bang, banging them out, there was time and other experiences between the start and finish line. And now that I think about it, that is how I have been approaching the portraits too. Much more slowly, with time in between each step, but not a lot of consideration either.

Hmmm. Perhaps I need to reconsider my process just a bit, rather than giving myself a hard time about not painting like I used to, such a hard time that I can't even work at all.

Local Barn Update

Last August, I wrote about one of my favorite barns and how it was being taken down. In September, I wrote an update, showing the progress of the demolition.

I took some more pictures in October:



And now nothing much has happened to the structure for at least two months, which is understandable, given our winter weather so far. However, if they wait until spring, it may just come down by itself.

This is what it looked like today:


And here is a recent painting I did of the barn:
Before It Was Gone, 2008, Oil on Gessobord, 5x7
A before shot, of course. This is a very well documented barn!

So. Tired.

Color in the Woods, 2008, 16x20, Oil on Birch Panel

Well, today is the big day. The kids are at school (I personally observed them boarding the bus), the house is quiet, I have prepared panels ready to go and am really excited about my studio plan for this year.

The problem is that I am so incredibly tired today. We succumbed to temptation to stay up late, get up late and just oversleep in general during the last two weeks. I knew I would regret it, but it was lovely staying up late the last few weeks and there is nothing like a Monopoly game that goes past midnight.

I did attempt to get close to our usual schedule at the end of last week, but no one, including me, did very well at it. Yesterday was a mess, due to a number of events one of which included a vomiting child the night before. So no one was asleep before 11pm last night, I was up until 1am and since I was worried that I might sleep through my alarm, I am pretty sure that I didn't fully fall asleep at all. Luckily though, even though none of them had enough sleep, the kids all popped right up out of bed this morning. I suspect that they were very excited to get out of the house and away from the 'rents too.

I however, am left exhausted. I will not nap today because if I do I will be up late again tonight, but I am not too sure what I will be able to accomplish today. Um just so you know.

My first excuse of 2009. heh.

My Road Map for 2009

Plaid Dress, Oil on Birch Panel, 12x16

Ahhhhh. The last day of 2008. But more importantly to me at this moment, it's the last day of the month, which means I am done with posting here every. single. day. Not that I have hated it, mind you. In fact it was fun, a good challenge and it also came at a good time. I was feeling a bit like I needed a break from the blog and now after posting so much, I feel energized about it all again, even if it has taken quite a bit of time each day. However, I feel great about the last month here-I had a birthday present contest, wrote a few sob stories a bit about my background, struggled with a decision about going to a residency and even participated in 100 Things, a meme going around in blogland which is the sort of thing I don't usually do. I do wish I had been painting more though, so I could have posted more new work.

The last half of 2008 was a slow time for me, I didn't have much, well anything really, going on show wise and even though I was trying to develop some new work I was pretty lackadaisical about it. I wanted to be busier but just couldn't be. I guess I just needed a break and it came at a good time, because looking back I see that I was getting pretty close to being burned out about art completely. As it is I am only close to being burned on painting landscapes, and I think I have even backed away from the edge of that by taking such a good long break from it all. On a more personal note, the slower time was really important for me to adjust to Ginger's diabetes as well. I have had time to research it, and get used to it all and I needed that. So I have no regrets about my less than productive second half of 2008, except that I wish I had spent more time enjoying it rather than feeling guilty about my productivity.

But now I HAVE to get moving! I have an exhibit schedule this year, as well as some goals to move my career along. I had a plan for all this which included spending a month at the Vermont Studio Center, however that was scrapped because of our personal finances. So I have rearranged things and in some ways it is much more practical for me to stay home and work in my own (new!) studio.

I am not making new year's resolutions exactly, and I don't usually like to talk about what I will do (I worry about jinxes) but I am feeling pretty excited about all this so what the heck. I have most of the coming year mapped out which will just so happen to start on January 1st, actually more like Jan. 5 which is when the kids go back to school, but whatever. This is what I have planned for the next three months:

1. I am taking the whole month of January to work on the figurative paintings. I have decided not to pursue new gallery representation based on my landscape work, with the possible exception of finding a new seasonal gallery, perhaps in Cape Cod again. I already have two galleries showing the landscapes/barns and I don't want to go back to doing quite so many paintings for so many different places and events (I still love painting the landscape and want to save myself from burning out on them).

To that end, I will finish 20 figurative paintings on panel in January and hopefully at least 15 of them will be good enough to send out in order to pursue new representation.

2. In conjunction with the figurative work I will do at least five monochromatic underpaintings on gessoed paper each week, of the figure, with the intent of leaving them as is, meaning no color glazes.

3. I will continue to paint 5-10 small paintings per week to sell on my other blog.

4. And even if it kills me to do it so early, I will put together all my tax info from 2008 by the end of January. It actually doesn't take that long, it's just one of the things I really tend to put off doing each year until the very last minute.

5. I will also spend an afternoon each week or so, working on some collage ideas I have which combine my painting with the photographs I have been collecting for the figurative work. I did some of this in college and it was something I never really pursued after. So naturally, that's all I can think about doing now. heh. Anyway, this is just a fun thing to do, something I didn't do enough of in the past when I had so much going on.

In February, I will have to shift gears a bit as I have a solo show in April to prepare for. So continuing on:

6. I will paint at least four landscape/barn paintings each week in February and March, with several being large scale (for me), 40x60 or so.

7. I will continue on with the figurative pieces, painting at least three per week (or possibly every other week since I don't have unlimited storage). These are most successful when I work in batches so I should have at least three going at a time.

8. I will continue with the monochromatic paintings, and will probably still try to do five per week. Once the paper is prepared and everything is set up, it is just as east to do five as it is to do one or two, so I may as well do as many as I can.

9. And this year, I plan to keep up with recording my expenses each month, instead of going back and digging out the receipts at the end of the year. It should be easier this year to keep up, since I am pretty well stocked for supplies, have no money to spend and don't plan to go anywhere or do anything. Might take me all of 2 minutes to do a bit of bookkeeping each month....

10. And also in February I will begin sending out my info to the list of galleries that I have been putting together that I think may be receptive to my figurative paintings.

I will suspend everything though in the last few weeks of March so I can finish everything up for the show that opens at the beginning of April. I have another show in August and will have to prepare for that in June and July, mostly June actually because the kids are out of school in July and I figured out a long time ago not to expect to be able to get much done when they are home on summer vacation.

Unless more exhibition opportunities come up, for the rest of the year I will work on finding a way to balance working on both figurative and landscapes. Both subjects need different things from me, but I am sure that if I keep working consistently I will be able to get better at doing both at the same time.

And because no list of resolutions goals is ever complete for me without including losing a few pounds and exercising more I will add that as well. I have let my exercise go in the last few years and even more in the last few months, so that along with a recent issue involving Lindt dark chocolate truffles means I need to get out for a walk each day at the very least. So a daily morning walk (and no chocolate)is number 11.

12. Ok, let's make it an even dozen while we here. I will have to post here just a bit less in 2009. When I started the blog I was pretty faithful about posting each weekday, but in the last 6 months or so I got a bit spotty with that. Not because I didn't have time, but because I didn't have so much going on, at least as far as making art goes. I was also feeling like I had told all my good stories and I wasn't too sure that I had much more to share. Like I said though, this last month helped me feel more enthusiastic about the blog again. BUT once I sit down at the computer to write a post, I tend to go on to other things and before I know it the day is almost gone and the school bus is coming up the road. So I will need to have at least a few days where I don't sit down at my desk first thing each morning. I have decided to post Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, posts where I talk a lot (but don't worry, few will be as long as THIS post, thankfully:)). And if it turns out that the work I am doing is presentable, I will put up an image or two in between.

Well, this is my plan. Now that I have put it out in public, I will stick to it right? Um, right. Actually I feel pretty confident about this, I am excited about what I will paint and anyway I have a few tangible deadlines to keep me on track.

A quick comment about the piece shown above: I think it is one of the best portraits I've done so far. It has many of the elements that I want my portraits to have; a sense of reality, a few abstract qualities, somewhat disturbing emotions and good color. It also happens to be on my favorite support-birch panel. Coincidence? You decide...

Thanks for reading my little old blog here, and for sticking with me through this crazy post-every-day-for-a-month-thing. I am going to take a few days off now, but will be back on Monday, all ready to prattle on, and to paint too.

Happy new year, everyone!

Purse Lady

Oil on gessoed paper, 11x14

So I did manage to get quite a bit of painting done yesterday after all. I finally got the color on to three underpaintings that have been sitting here in the studio for nearly two weeks. The ones that have making me feel really lazy during this entire last week. You know, for trying to have a holiday without working in the studio.

I am still feeling giddy from last night's late night painting session as my true calling is to be a night painter! Alas, real life is suspended right now during school vacation and so the possibility of night painting will end next week when I must start my days before 6am which will render me totally unable to see clearly after 8pm, or 10pm if I am lucky.

Anyway, this painting shown above is the first one I did yesterday. It's another portrait of my favorite unhappy looking woman and I like this one much better than the first one I did of her a few months ago. Doug says it's a little creepy and somewhat disturbing and I take that as a high compliment.

And in other news (about me, of course, what else is there, heh) I got second place in Making a Mark's Best Portrait by a Female Artist. Thanks to everyone who voted for me! I really was excited to have this new work nominated, but I also think that the piece that did win "Zen" by Nicole Caulfield, deserved the top spot. I actually might have put "Paul" ahead of myself as well. Katherine has also awarded me the “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches / The “Amusing Musings” Trophy for 2008 in her end of the year awards and I am very excited to add a new trophy to my shelf full of 30 year old bowling trophies. Especially if it is a virtual trophy and not a shiny statue of a bowler with some sort of tacky, yet very glittery five inch high base.

Thanks Katherine, you have been so supportive of my art and also of my little blog here. I really appreciate it!

Painting, Painting

Under the Sky, 2008, Oil on Gessobord, 5x7
Well, so far this vacation has passed in a somewhat boring haze of nothingness. The kids are watching just a bit too much tv, we are all staying up too late and sleeping too late in the morning and are wasting away much of the day as a result. I have been trying to get some painting done and I could, since no one is bugging me too much up here in my attic hideaway, however I have been caught in the web of my computer and so not much has been accomplished.

But today I turned on the lights at my easel, which nearly always gets me going. Then I set up my paints which is the real clincher! I have finished one of the the portraits that I started before all this holiday silliness began and I am planning to do another one after I post this.

So you'll forgive me if I go now. My paints are calling me, and I am anxious to put some color on my crabby old lady portrait. I will leave you with this link though, to a couple of self-described old ladies whose blog I came across during the recent election. I have been enjoying every word they write and I can only dream of being so blunt when I am their age. Warning: If you are a Sarah Palin fan or a George Bush fan, do not go there - you will become upset, I promise. If you are NOT a SP or GWB fan, go forth and enjoy!

Practically Gourmet

My mom rarely cooked when I was a kid. We seldom sat down to eat together and most of our food was whatever I could cook or whatever she could make in 5 minutes or less. She often brought home leftover food from whichever restaurant she was working at, but we mostly got by on packaged foods, hot dogs, tv dinners, donuts, candy bars from the gas station on the corner, that sort of thing. We qualified for food stamps so once a month or so there was a trip to the grocery store and that was pretty exciting. Chocolate pudding in cans! Fruit Loops cereal! Bologna! Wonder Bread! Those were big treats for my sister and I. So obviously I grew up with food issues, childhood food habits that I have been trying to override almost all my adult life. At least I don't really crave any of the specific foods that I grew up eating, mostly since we had the same foods so often that I still can't bear to even look at certain things. Velveeta cheese and Hamburger Helper would be good examples of that. Heh.

But once in awhile my mom would pull out her cookbook and make a real dinner, especially if family was coming to town to visit. We were always excited about that but I am afraid it always ended badly. She had two dinners in her repertoire; one was a chicken/rice/Lipton onion soup mix casserole which wasn't bad (I make it once in awhile) except that she always overcooked it. I was shocked to learn as an adult that rice was actually soft and not crunchy. The other thing she made was meatloaf, which always smelled good, but then had a suspicious vomit like flavor to it that was pretty disappointing to say the least. I never did figure out what she added to get that flavor.

Anyway, my mom died over a year ago and last summer I received some of her belongings. I have been slowly sorting through things and greatly appreciated the irony of getting her cookbook and box of recipes. I make most of our food from scratch and while my kids certainly have the occasional crappy food, mostly we eat unprocessed, organic foods. I was so proud when my children expressed utter horror when they saw these three recipes:

In case you can't believe your eyes, the recipes are for Coca-Cola Cake, Dump Cake, Wacky Cake (wacky ingredient seems to be vinegar?) and the real stomach turner is Mayonnaise Cake. I have a vague memory of that one, it was actually a chocolate cake and the mayo was supposed to make it more moist. I suppose it tasted ok but well, maybe it should have a different name. And who wants Miracle Whip (of course we only had Miracle Whip) in their cake? yuck.

There were other interesting things in the book too. I left my mark on her notes for her work in a furniture repair shop, and yes that is a cigarette burn mark on the paper, my mom was never without a Kool Menthol in her hand. Don't get me started on how everything of hers STILL smells like smoke....

This was a coffee cake recipe written by my grandmother:

And oddly, my mother's tax return from 1975 was tucked in the cakes and cookies section which was just classic. But it was also a poignant reminder to me of my childhood and of how hard she worked; she mostly had waitress jobs, but that year she got a "better" job refinishing furniture, a job that she thought might have a future. Unfortunately, there were no tips at this job and her income - $2,450.83, was far less than what she earned as a waitress. She went back to waitressing the following year and stuck with it until a few years before she died.

Well, I am off to bake something, anything to rid myself of thoughts of Mayonnaise Cake running through my head!

It Figures

It has not slipped my mind that I will need to be writing some sort of statement regarding the figurative work that I have been working on recently. At least if I want to do something with it, other than to continue tucking the finished pieces away in my flat file.

So I guess I'll start here on my trusty blog. The place where I can rattle on and on and maybe get some feedback too.

I was an illustration major back in college so there was a lot of emphasis on figure drawing. Endless hours of drawing from a model daily. I loved it but also hated it just a little bit, it was so draining. But my drawing skills were pretty good and got better and I still value that so it was all good. Later on, much time was spent on capturing likenesses, a pretty important skill if one hoped to work as an illustrator. we worked from life as well as from photographic reference and I did pretty well with both I think. Once I did a painting of Bette Davis (above) using a photo that had been printed somewhere. It was great fun to do, but I never really felt that I wanted to keep painting portraits in such a realistic manner. Even then it didn't feel right to me.

Around that time I got a hold of some my old family photos and became really intrigued with them. I was doing a lot of monochromatic paintings, which was actually the beginnings of the development of my current underpaintings, and so I began working from the images I had. Here are a few that I did right at the end of college, around 1988 or so.


Doug has always encouraged me to paint portraits, but when I began painting seriously again a few years back I didn't know what I wanted to say, although I had a lot to express. I fell into the landscapes by chance really, we had moved to this beautiful area and I figured I'd give them a try. About a year ago I started to really yearn to do something different and again Doug encouraged me to go back to portraits, and so I guess I just picked up where I had left off after college, deciding to work from photographs again as well. Not to faithfully interpret them, but to make my own interpretations, my own conclusions, my own stories about the photographs I collected.

In many ways the process of using a photographic reference for the figurative work is the same as how I use references in my landscape work. The photos are a starting point, a reminder, the beginning of a story that I can tell. The difference is that with the landscapes I mostly use my own photos, taken in a place that I have been, a place that I have experienced and have felt. Oddly, I have so far been unable to work effectively from photos that I have taken of people. Perhaps that will change in time but for now working from other family's old photos is something that is resonating with me and I will continue on in that direction for now. However, I view the process of interpreting the photographic reference as part of the painting process no matter where the photo originates. The process is still me and there are obvious similarities (palette, composition, drawing) no matter where the image comes from.

And a few more details. I am not interested in getting the likeness, although it is very tempting sometimes, especially if the photo is very appealing or if it is someone that I know in person. I am also not interested in doing commissions. I know this because when I was younger and was doing more realistic work, I did a few and it made me miserable. Few people are ever very happy with how they are represented by an artist and I couldn't handle feeling badly about how they felt. I suspect I have not matured much in that area and so will be refusing commissions, already I have been asked (casually) and I politely say no. Which brings me to the next point: I am not doing nice things to the people I work from! I am not making them more beautiful or more graceful or happier or better! I do hope to express though, my respect for their lives, their place in time and the relationships they have with others. There are also visual aspects that are important to me; color, form, looseness, patterns, the curve of a leg, the impressionistic drawing of a shoe, an arm, a hat, those are things that I love to be able to express.

So that's what I am thinking about this work. Of course, I try NOT to think too much, often thinking and planning messes me up. When I am actually working, hands and/or brushes in the paint, I am going on instinct and am not plotting out what I will do next. My work is really all about me and my instincts, for better or for worse, I suppose.

A Quiet Day

Well, pretty quiet around here today. Ginger, who keeps us all either hopping or needing a nap (the above photo is what she looked like all day yesterday:)) is at a friend's house. The rest of us are at computers or reading or playing with our new toys.

Doug gave me a small book of figurative paintings by Egon Schiele and I have spent a lot of time going through it today. The book has many images that are not included in my other book of his work and many of them are very suggestive. Um, which I like. Not what I like to paint particularly, but I usually appreciate it in the work of others, nonetheless.

If I can manage to get myself up out of my chair (you can't believe how many cookies I ate yesterday and they are affecting my ability to to walk around without bumping into stuff today, heh) I hope to at least tidy up my studio after the whirlwind of gift wrapping swept through it in the last few days. Mentally at least, I am feeling like getting back to making some art and if I can get my body to cooperate it would be great to have a relatively clean studio. Maybe I'll turn up the volume on the stereo, that always helps me feel motivated.

Oh, and someone asked me awhile back about my underpainting process (sorry can't recall who right now, and I blame the cookies for that too). I came across this post written a few years ago (what? I have been writing this blog that long?) and thought it was a good and still relevant explanation of how I begin my paintings.