I'll Miss You, Tom Butter;)

Magenta Pool, 18"x18" Oil on Wood Panel, 2010

Sadly, I have finally decided that I just really can't go to the Vermont Studio Center this January. It truly pains me because one of the visiting artists that month is Tom Butter, who was also one of my teachers about 25 years ago at the Philadelphia College of Art. I was thrilled when I noticed that he was scheduled to be at VSC during January which is about the only month out of the whole year that I can actually get away from here to go there and was SO looking forward to seeing him and also getting his feedback on my work these days. He was one of my favorite teachers mostly because even though I was an interloper in the painting department (an illustrator crossing over) he took me seriously unlike some of the other painting instructors who shall remain nameless. Well, mostly because I can't recall their names anymore, but whatever. However, at least Tom and I can be Facebook friends, there is always Facebook, I guess.......

Anyway, besides Tom being there, I also wanted to go because I have some plans for some new work in mind and being at a residency is such a good place to focus on new ideas. Or get really confused about what to do. Either is fine; as both are valuable processes. I will just have to settle for trying to get started on those new things here at home and hopefully will have made some progress before January 2012 which is when I have rescheduled my residency.

So I will stay home and paint. I will also prove how grown up I have become by using my residency funds for upcoming expenses, including two crowns I need and that our dental insurance probably won't pay for, and also by staying home with the kids while Doug does some traveling for his business. Evidently. we aren't supposed to leave kids home alone even if two of them would really enjoy that, heh.

And the sliver of the bright side here (besides new crowns) is that it may be better for me to skip a year anyway. As much as I enjoy those residencies, they are also kind of intense, and so I think I should take a bit more time in between.

But still, bleh. I am kinda bummed out about this today......

Vermont Friends

Last night together in Vermont: Jon, Rob and J.T.

Even though I spent way more time working than socializing while I was at the residency in January I did manage to meet at least a few people. I tried to keep most of my chit chatting to mealtimes, although there were some memorable conversations in my studio, or at one of the two parties I attended. Heh.

It was very exciting to see what other artists were working on in their studios and I really enjoyed 'Slide Night', the weekly event when the visual artists gave a short presentation of their work. Most of the artists I got to know have websites (seems more common than when I was there two years ago) so I am going to share them here with you.

I knew J.T. through our blogs before January, but he was also pretty much the first resident that I met; I walked in to the opening night reception and there he was. We got along well, we had most of our meals at the same table and also visited each others studios. The other resident that I 'knew' before we got there was Rob Williams. He found me after doing a google search about VSC and we hit it off right away, both via the internet and in person. He knows a few of my deep dark secrets too, lucky guy.
Rob and Jang Soon

I also really enjoyed the time I spent with Lauren, Marcie, Michelle, Aschley, Lindsay and Giordanne. I believe that technically I am old enough to be a mother to most of these lovely and talented women (in one 'ouch' moment I learned that Michelle's mother is younger than I am), but they did not in any way hold that against me! I am also very happy to have acquired several new pieces of art from this group of friends.
J.T. and Aschely

It's bad luck to discuss the details but I will say that I might have a potential project with JoAnna Johnson and Kristie Eden O'Donnell. JoAnna's dress project awes me and Kristie's work is very bold and strong with just a bit of vulnerability, just like her. Crossing my fingers about our project.
JoAnna's dresses, hanging in her studio.

Matthew McConville had a studio down the hall from me and he had some really helpful observations about my work, and I really appreciated those. His work is beautiful AND funny, which is the perfect combination if you ask me. Nicole McCormick Santiago also gave me some really good feedback about my work (she didn't need any on hers; it is ALREADY PERFECT!) and we had some good talks concerning painting process and the art biz too. I think Steven Pearson worked harder and longer in his studio than anyone. It was my own personal goal to work later than him in just once in the month we were there, but I failed; he was always in his studio whenever I dragged my zombie self home, no matter the time. He had a project that had to be finished while he was at the residency and it was pretty exciting when he did just that.
Steve, in front of his finished painting.

I had a lot of nice conversations with painter Jon Eckel. Jon lives in the Philadelphia area so we had that in common even if he was just 5 when I moved there, hehe. I was impressed with his motivation too; Jon was spending THREE months in Vermont to find new direction in his work and I will be very interested in seeing what happens with that.
Jon

I also enjoyed talking to Kim Manfredi, and reallyreally liked what she was working on and admired her process which was pretty involved. I am also still bummed out that I didn't get to see what she did in the last week or so, she packed up her work before the final Open Studio. Anthony Hawley came in for the second two weeks of the session and I like him right away, he was very nice to talk to. He also has an interesting project going on right now and I am pleased to now have two of his small paintings.
Anthony

I loved my housemates, Nancy Williams was only there for two weeks, but we had much in common and I enjoyed her reading (she is a writer). Kimberly Dark came in at the middle of the session and her performances were incredible, very funny and thought provoking, and she is just an all around wonderful and kind person. Tonya Gregg was very sweet to me one evening after I had had a frustrating day and I also was very taken with her work. She showed some images of previous work that I still think about, very strong, colorful and bold work.

So those were the people that I got to know best. I wish I had been able to spend more time with other residents as well, but I really wanted to work so unfortunately my social time was limited. However, many of those residents are my Facebook friends now and so I may get another chance. A few of these folks don't have websites (as far as I know) but I am listing them anyway: Marin Abell, JC Jogerst, Nicholas Naughton, Lia Powers, Carrie Elizabeth Cook, Ariana Franco, Jang Soon, Matthew Clark, Eric Markowsky, Christian Benefiel, Ariel Churnin, Kate McGraw, Mary Lamboley, Tatiana Berg, Jeremy Lundquist, Kit Burke-Smith, Liliya Zalevskaya, Sanghee Park, Seungae Bang. Also, Jeanne Marie Wasilik was in the studio right next door to me (which was the studio I had last time), and we had many nice chats.
Ariana Franco at the last Open Studio night.

Marin Abell's project.

Oh and it was wonderful to see David Grozinsky again. He works there and remembered me! Yay!

So anyway. I am sure I am forgetting someone and I apologize in advance. And if I am missing anyone's website or link please let me know and I will add it. Love sharing up links!

New Website

Black Painting#98, 2010, Oil on Panel, 9"x6"

More than a few mealtime conversations at the Vermont Studio Center revolved around our websites. J.T. was real keen on Other People's Pixels and he encouraged, and then helped a few of the other residents set up their sites at OPP (the next post will include links to those sites as well as to blogs etc of some of the other residents that I got to know).

At first I wasn't really interested in changing my website. A friend of mine had designed mine several years ago and even though it could use some updating I still really liked the basic design. So I mentally filed all this new info, which is not easy to do these days, I am perilously close to total overload!

After I got home and sorted through and photographed all the work that I did in Vermont, I was really excited to get my website updated and maybe give it a little face lift too. Unfortunately, my friend's company was swamped with work and it wasn't looking like anything was going to get updated for awhile. I was feeling a bit pressured to start sending my info out (this coming year is looking very quiet right now) right away, so I checked out OPP again. I signed up for the trial membership and within a day or so I got a good part of the site set up which really won me over. Gotta love anything that is easy enough for ME to set up! By the time I got everything loaded I was ready to sign up for a year of hosting ($160) and that is just what I did.

So go check out my new website. I like it a lot; it looks pretty snappy and I really like the simple layout and easy navigation. It doesn't have some of the wonderful little details that my old design had (love ya, Niklas:)) but I have finally gotten over losing those. Best of all I can load and unload new images and make other changes as easily as if I were on Blogger or Facebook. Not saying I am an expert, or am even fast at any of that, but eventually I can figure things out. Well, usually. Heh.

And if you happen to decide to sign up at Other People's Pixels, link to it from my site so I can get a free month. I bet J.T. has a free year by now!

Vermont Light

I wrote a post while I was in Vermont mentioning the light in my studio there and even though it was a little bit pesky if I was trying to actually paint, it was a comforting element in my space. My windows faced east, and slightly south, so when the sun was out (which was not too often actually, it was a pretty gray month) the light moved from one side of the studio to the other between about 10am and 1pm. And just by chance it often illuminated my work that was hanging on the walls and I was always trying to quickly find my camera to get a good shot.

Sometimes it seemed as if the light was communicating with me, telling me to do another painting:


Showing me the drama in the Black Paintings:





Highlighting a favorite:




And gently saying goodbye as I was taking my work down at the end of my time there......






And PS: JT was visiting my studio on a sunny morning and here is his hand:

Vermont, Plan D

Plan D was actually the first project I had planned for my time at Vermont Studio Center. I have wanted to sit down and focus on my mark making for a long time so I merged that with an old concept that I had briefly worked on a few years ago involving small squares of colors. I lost interest in that as it didn't really do what I had imagined it would, but I kept thinking how I wanted to put tiles together. So when the scratching became a stronger element in my work, I combined the two ideas and saved it for Vermont.

Over the past year, I have had all kinds of plans about how to set up the project but eventually I simplified it as much as possible and decided to refocus on the mark making aspect. And because I wanted it to be all about process, meaning I wanted to expand my mark making skills without feeling compelled to refer to those marks in future work, I decided to make it a give away at the final open studio at VSC. In keeping with that I also decided not to document the pieces, and only took a few general photographs of the project as it progressed. I wanted this to be all about my internal process.

So, process. I stocked up on about a million 4 inch squares. Well actually only 120 but it seemed like more. Heh. I also had some larger squares which only made it to the underpainting stage. I had planned to have them all gessoed before I left for Vermont but things got crazy busy before I left and so I ended up having to do all the prep after I got there. Then it took me several chunks of time over a few days to do the underpaintings and I admit to being mighty sick of the whole thing by the time I finished all of those! I didn't have a specific plan about the composition on these and I did do a few that would end up being one color as in my original idea. But I then decided to incorporate some of the more abstract elements that I was also doing in the border paintings; small sections of color at the edges, borders, contrasting squares in the centers, etc. I did at least a dozen of each composition, knowing that color would differentiate them later. By the night of the first open studio, I had all the underpaintings finished along with the first layer of glaze. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of that but this one has a bunch of the underpaintings in progress as well as a few that already have color:

Things in general after that got pretty hectic, I had all the other work going on plus there were artist talks, readings, etc so unfortunately I put off doing the color and scratching on these for just a bit too long. I ended up doing far fewer of the squares than I had planned and on one memorable night I seriously considering bailing on the whole thing entirely. But the next morning life seemed was all bright and shiny again and I decided I could do it after all. (Note to self: Never make any decisions after 1am;) I counted out how many I needed to have finished so that all the residents and staff could each take one and just focused on doing those. I ended up finishing seventy-two of the 4"x4" squares.

It was really a challenge to feel like I was varying the colors as well as the marks in each one. Um, especially after about #43. I settled on making very small shifts in color and by the end, both the marks and the color got pretty minimalist. There are a few squares floating around out there that only have one scratch running right down the center. Heh. I also learned that the most successful marks tended to be the random ones, marks that were not very representational, and that really carried over to the marks I made on the other paintings as well as what I have been doing since I have been home. I tried using some different tools to make the marks, but for various reasons I ended up preferring the little rubbery pointed tool that I was using in the first place.

My self imposed rules for Plan D were:

1. All the give away pieces would be on 4 inch square panels.

2. Because the project was to be all about process I would be giving away all the panels, without documenting them.

3. I also decided that I would stick with the initial colors that I chose for the glazes, no wiping off the paint to change the color and no working back into the painting later. Whatever I put down first, I had to make work. This was somewhat of a time saving rule;))

However, it turns out that the whole thing ended up being so much more than my process and it had such wonderful and unexpected results. In some ways, I think Plan D was really the most valuable project for me in Vermont and gave me some really good things to move forward with.

The unexpected things that happened here were:

1. They looked AWESOME all grouped together! I had always pictured this project as being only squares of solid color so I was very surprised to see how the small patterns on each square formed so many larger patterns. It was also interesting that the panels even worked together at all, considering they were all painted with no thought about how they would fit together later.

2. More than anything I wished I had been able to observe and possibly document the other residents as they were choosing and deciding on which one to take (I wanted to see the other resident's studios so I couldn't be in my studio the whole time). I was able to be there for awhile though and it was really interesting to watch a few people making their choices. Some people would pick out one, then change their mind a few more times before deciding on one, others connected with one particular piece right away. SO much more to do with this aspect of the project!
Matt Clark, Kimberly Dark and Kate McGraw making their choices.

Marcie Kaufman showing me her choice.

3. As I was walking through the other studios, other residents were so excited to show me which square they selected and it was fascinating to find out why they picked a particular painting. I think this was the best part; immediately seeing hearing why and how a fellow artist chose something I had made. Sometimes I feel a bit removed from that aspect of my work; why someone finds a certain piece appealing.

4. I was secretly glad that the all black piece ended up as one of about 10 leftovers. It was my favorite and is now part of MY collection!

So Plan D gave me so much more than I had imagined it would. Now that I am home and eying the balance of the half finished 4 inch panels, I am working on some ways to incorporate these other elements into this fourth new direction that I have going.

Very exciting!

Vermont Plan C

I began the 'People You Know' series during my first residency in Vermont and so it seemed natural to use this residency to continue developing them. I have learned in the last two years that this series is tough and so that is one reason I decided to take a few other projects to work on this time. Most of the other painting that I do, even if it is new to me, usually just flows out of me. The portraits involve much angst and wrestling, and well, they just hurt me sometimes. It is difficult for me to get started on one, even if I have an image I am excited about. Once I get past that part, things get somewhat better although still (unlike the landscapes), I can only do one or maybe two at a time.

In addition I have struggled with the validity of the whole project and the fact that I use found photographs as a basis for the portraits. But finally, I have realized that much of the process in this series involves my choices in imagery. Just as I find scenes in the landscape that I like, I am finding images (in the form of found photographs) of people that appeal to me for some reason and that I feel compelled to express. The paintings in this series are about the photograph first and the actual person second.

And so after many discussions with Doug about this, and then also in talking to the visiting artists at VSC, I am embracing this aspect rather than feeling so unsure and even somewhat guilty about 'copying a photograph'. One of the visiting artists (Jill Moser) suggested that I consider trying to capture the specific qualities of the photos that I choose, such as an object in the background, the faded colors of the print, the patterns in the clothing and other details that make each photo so unique and yet so universal at the same time. I don't think that I will go all out with that because I still want to express myself in this work by making certain changes. But it sounded like a very intriguing direction and so I will be thinking about all that in the next group of portraits.

However, I was pretty far along with this group of paintings when I finally got these fab realizations so the rest of this post will discuss how I handled these particular paintings during the residency. Everyone likes to hear about process, right???

The first few days I was busy with the larger works on paper and I also spent my evenings sorting through the two big boxes of photos that I had brought along. When the works on paper got to the point of needing time to dry, I turned to the portraits and did these two:
I worked on other things while those dried for a few days, then finally gathered myself together and did the color on Deanne, the girl on the right. J.T. came by my studio after I did the first swipe at the color and he gave me some feedback, suggesting I focus on a few details like highlights on the glasses, the earrings, etc. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to do that as I felt that they might begin to look TOO traditional. However, I decided to forget about that and just focus on what was best for this painting and bringing out those details was it.

So this is the finished painting:Deanne Likes Pink, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x14
And a close up:

I did a few more underpaintings next then got to work on the color on the other lady. This one gave me some trouble. In a way, I was trying to figure out why I was even painting it; this woman is very pretty and is posed in a very traditional way, quite unlike most of the women I am usually drawn to. But there was something about the nostalgic late fifties quality of the color in the photo, the red scarf and also her perky breast. Heh. Then THAT particular feature had to go when I got to the color stage, white shirt with perky breast just did not work in color and so the coat ended up covering it. I am continually reminded that giving up my favorite parts often benefit the whole and this is a good example of that. At least I still had the red scarf! Red Scarf Day, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x14

The next painting is of Deanne again and I have painted her so many times now that I am thinking that she qualifies for her very own post. Coming soon, k? Anyway, I liked this very straightforward image of her in a mucky colored lazy boy and so it was next. When I got to the color, I was really wishing I had not kept the background dark in the underpainting as I can't really make it light with color without losing the translucency of my glazes. I think it's OK dark but it might have been better with a lighter area. However, I still think this painting is a worthy addition to my collection of 'Deanne' portraits:Deanne in the Easy Chair, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 14x18

And the next image seems to be Deanne's mother. She is sitting in the same chair and I have a number of photos of those two in the same rooms. This photo was actually pretty blah but I kept coming back to it and decided that I was really intrigued by the red line going up the center of her clothing and also by her breasts falling down to her sides. This piece is quite different than the others in that it the person isn't really posing and is actually kind of depressing, I believe Doug used the terms 'disturbing' and 'depressing'. I like that! Days of Our Lives, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x14

Now at this point in the residency, I realized that if I was going to be able to get all these portraits finished before the end of my time there, I would have to get all the underpaintings done PDQ. I spent a bunch of late nights in my studio and managed to get five more finished. I would have liked to have done more but really the most I could do in a day was two underpaintings and some days even that felt like I was really risking my sanity.

So after I had all the underpaintings done and while they were drying, I worked like crazy to finish up all the other work I was doing so I could get it all up on the walls and out of the way. For the last week and a half or so I focused on finishing the portraits and my other project, Plan D (more about that in my next post).

Eventually I got back to the color on the portraits and the next few passed in kind of an overtired, sand in my eyes haze, so I am not entirely sure of the order. I loved the dark blue dress on this big strong smiling lady, as well as the lower viewpoint. I simplified the background and one visitor to my studio said that image seemed like a memory or an image from a dream: Midnight Blue, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x14

And a close up:

And this piece was actually based on a photo of a seated older couple but I decided that I only wanted to paint the woman. Something about her arms and that insanely large corsage. I totally simplified the background and am pleased with the graphic quality of this image. A nice reminder of the year in college that I was a graphic design major.Wallflowers, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x14

The next two were painted on the last possible day that I could paint in Vermont so that the panels could be dry enough to pack up. Last week here at home, I finished them up. I learned a valuable lesson on the single woman; do NOT keep such strong shadows in the face at the underpainting stage. It is tempting to leave the shadows in because they look SO good at that point, but they are VERY difficult to handle at the color stage. I have enough trouble with flesh colors let alone doing such shadows too, yikes. But ones of the things that I liked about the photo (besides that most awesome poodle hairstyle) was the strong light. I must have painted the color on that face a hundred times before I finally got really ticked off and just slobbed on one color over the whole thing. That actually ended up working out ok, but I'd like to do better next time. Note to self: resist the allure of the underpainting.Peter Pan Collar Lady, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 18x14

This image is actually cropped quite a bit, the photos shows both full figures and it is so funny, the two of them standing there holding flowers. But unfortunately I didn't have a large enough panel with me to do the whole thing, so I decided to crop. This painting has much more detail than the others (the flowers) and is a nice contrast when grouped with the other paintings. In looking at the painting now, I think that I need to work back into the areas where their hands are, it looks like there should be more of an indication of a vase there. On the other hand, I think that the man's left ear is probably the best ear that I have ever painted! We Got Flowers Today, 2010, Oil on Birch Panel, 14x18

A few more things about Plan C:

I also did one more underpainting (of my apparent muse, Deanne)which I could just not do before it was time to leave Vermont. It really bugged me that I just couldn't do it, even though I recognize how crazy it was to feel that way given how much work I did actually complete. But I am over it now and plan to finish it up this week.

I feel like the actual style of painting in this group is a bit more refined than in the previous portraits I have done. I have mixed feelings about that as I really feel that there about a zillion other artists who can paint portraits better than I can. I don't really feel that I am a traditional sort of portrait painter either and I am worried that I may be headed that way. However, I also think that these are a pretty successful group of portraits and so I will try to stop worrying about this aspect. Well, for now, anyway.

All of these are on 14x18 birch panels. I brought panels because I felt this series was further along than the other work I was planning to do there (which is why I did nearly all of that on prepared paper). Also, I received a lot of positive encouragement on these and Brenda Garand, one of the visiting artists reallyreally encouraged me to pursue showing them. So I am planning on doing just that. I may have to start with applying for exhibitions at nonprofits again, just as I did with the landscapes.

And I always seem to put off painting these portraits until I believe that I have enough time to really focus on them. but since they are intense I can only do one or two at a time. I need to stop pushing them to the back of the queue and simply start fitting them in around other work.

There. I have stated goals out loud and in public so I have to pursue them, right???

Vermont Residency Plan B

The Black Paintings ended up being Plan B (I don't consider this list to be in order of importance). I had done a bunch of black abstract paintings during 2009 (you can see a few of them here) and felt they were going in an interesting direction so had initially planned on making a ton of smaller sized black paintings at the residency.

BUT.

When I got everything set up in my studio, and really looked at the space again; the big white, beautiful walls and high ceilings, I knew I would have to work bigger there. I wanted to take advantage of the vertical walls, the ability to see all my work grouped together while hanging on the wall and I also didn't want to fool around with cutting up my paper, and having to make a hundred decisions about size, scale, edges, etc. So I decided to readjust my plan, and do the black paintings on the 22x30 sheets of gessoed paper that I had brought and to accept the limitation of working in a vertical format (it could have been horizontal, but I preferred the vertical for some odd reason;)) rather than square.

The first batch of underpaintings that I did were to be color paintings and I had already decided that they would include landscape elements. So it seemed natural somehow to focus on barn like structures, in the Black Paintings. I had done this small painting:last summer which was a bit of a departure from the abstracts, but I kept thinking about it. And at the last minute, I wrapped it up and took it with me to Vermont, so I could have it to refer to.

As with the color paintings I spent a few hours making sketches before diving into the black paint. Again, doing the sketches helped; I felt the images needed just a bit of planning, not a lot but I wanted something to refer to.

This was how the first group of Black Paintings looked:
After looking at them for a few days while waiting for the paint to dry (the black paint takes forever to dry even though I mixed in some Liquin, which at least helped to make the paint easier to move around) I decided that I did not like the sections of white, which is actually not white paint but rather a lack of black paint. I felt it was too harsh and so when the initial layer of paint dried I went back into them and softened the lighter sections. I was pleased with the results of that and when I did the next batch I was prepared to keep the images darker.


The scratches and marks into the paint have much more significance in the Black Paintings and it was a constant struggle to make them subdued yet still important and visible. Finally I settled on making more marks than I might have wanted, and then would either darken them or paint over some of them after the initial layer of paint was dry. Most of the marks evoke windows, doors, roads, telephone poles, etc., rather than the more random marks that I tend to make on the color paintings. The marks will evolve as I keep going with these.

The Black Paintings were tough but exciting too. Even though I had sketches to refer to, I still couldn't really see what or where I should go next with them. I knew I wanted to push the abstract qualities as much as possible, but just couldn't see how to do it until my hands were actually in the paint. Also with these, I couldn't really see where to go next (other than changing scale), whereas with most of my other work I have some sort of idea about where things are headed. It is good to have a different method, I know, and this was good challenge for me, even if it was a bit stressful.

The visiting artists were very enthusiastic about this series, one used the term powerful, which made my ego inflate slightly, heh. And again, as with the color landscape/border paintings, I think scale is important with these, but I am planning to do some smaller ones in the next few weeks to find out. I actually feel optimistic that the deepness of the black will allow them to be strong in a smaller format.

So these are the finished paintings, pretty much in the order I painted them. I photographed each group after I finished so can't be sure of the exact order. They are all 28x20, on gessoed paper and like the other paintings on paper, they are tucked into a drawer until I decide about doing something with them.

Black Painting#1, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#2, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#3, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#4, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#5, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010
Black Painting#6, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#7, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#8, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#9, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010

Black Painting#10, 20x28, Oil on Gessoed Paper, 2010