Pelican update

The cheque for my grant arrived today which turns it into reality and means that I have to get down to business.  Part of that business is buying supplies to enable me to produce more gyotaku.

I've been quietly working away in the background on Japanese paper that I invested in awhile back and my store of fresh and frozen fish.  I've since bought more paper and will be purchasing even more.  I need enough to experiment with different types of paper and to have enough to wet mount the ones that I want to keep.

I will also purchase a cross section of printmaking inks to see which work best for the technique.  I've been using water based so far and they're fine but not high quality.  I'll invest in some oil and water based ones to see which produce the best prints for me.

While I know I will be spending money on supplies, the quantity that adds up in a little 'faux shopping' online is somewhat scary.  However, I'm sure I'll get over it quickly enough...

Meanwhile, some more watercolour brings me back down to earth with the pelican.  He's starting to take on a stronger shape now and colours creeping in to provide form.

Pelicans and giclees

 I've made a little more progress with the pelican, adding some washes and building the layers up on the beak.

Pelicans are such strange birds, almost prehistoric looking.  The length of the beak is extreme especially from this angle. They look so ungainly on land but fly and dive with such ease.  I'll just have to go somewhere warmer and watch them for awhile I think.  Its tragic to think how they are affected so badly by the oil pollution in the Gulf.  Poor things.

Meanwhile, I've put the new giclees that are available on my giclee and card page here on my blog and in my Etsy shop.  I have Koi Pool and Masai Portrait available in 11 x 14 and 16 x 20 giclees.  I'm quite pleased with the quality of the images and do hope they go to good homes.  Its always difficult for me to part with art, even reproductions.  Like animals, I always want to know they're going to good homes.

Unseen opportunities

I planned on so many things tonight, but time or technology chose to distract me into other areas.

So instead of stressing over it, I will share an image of Middle Cove taken today on my drive home.  There are road works on the main road that I travel on to get to and from work, so I thought I'd outsmart that and take a back route.  Well, so did everyone else, so I wasn't much further ahead.  Seeing as I was was in the neighbourhood I figured I'd drive over to Middle Cove and see what the ocean had for me.

This was it.  Fog was drifting in across the hills and ocean, creating a fantasy world. It seems that sometime delays and changes open up new opportunities that we would have otherwise missed.

World Ocean Day

Today is World Ocean Day and of course, the world's attention turns to the Gulf of Mexico and the disastrous oil spill there and how it affects vegetation, animals, birds, and people.  Its effects are far reaching and for other parts of the world who explore for oil, such as Newfoundland, its a 'there but for the grace of God' scenario.  

Newfoundland has vast oil reserves offshore that are being pumped as I write this.  Disasters have occured in the name of oil, mostly human loss of life due to machines failing.  There hasn't been an oil spill to date, but there could be and it could have equally devastating effects on the ocean, coast and way of life in this region.

Mankind puts a large footprint on the earth and destroys many things in the name of progress, most of which can not be replaced or made better.  While thinking of this, and reading about the Gulf disaster, the first bird that always springs to mind for warmer places is the pelican and it is one of the poor sea and shore birds that become victims of oil pollution.

I am starting a watercolour portrait of a pelican.  Perhaps it will ease my mind or bring home to me more closely the impact that ocean pollution plays in the world.  It is a perfect symbol for World Ocean Day in 2010.  The initial line drawing is here, darkened to show the lines more clearly.  I will start some washes later or tomorrow.  Its on 200lb Arches paper and measures 11 x 17.5 inches.

Grape leaves and ghosts

 

 I am still playing with leaf prints and colour and paper.  This print in white ink on black reminds me of ghostly images - the souls of plants captured fleetingly before they disappear back into the earth.  Something as simple as colour can change an image so much.

I have three grape vines in the greenhouse that produce wonderful grapes every year.  Grapes would never grow outside in Newfoundland.  The season is too short and too cool, but in the greenhouse they thrive.  White Interlaken grapes and a Pinot Noir vine have taken over and need cutting back every year or they'd fill the space easily.   The grape leaves and vines are multipurpose aside from the fruit they produce.  The leaves are used to create dolmades and now printing.  The vine cuttings I use to create charcoal sticks.

 

 

 My garden gives me so much and asks so little in return. 

Printing nature

As some who read my blog may know, I am a herbalist as well as an artist.   Although my medicinal herb garden isn't as big as it once, there are still many of the more common and useful herbs in it that I use regularly.  Comfrey is one of them.

Comfrey grows to about 4 feet high, and has large leaves with visible white hairs on them, especially on young leaves, like peach fuzz. Comfrey grows like a weed and it is hard to get rid of once it has taken hold. It has drooping flowers, in colors ranging from purple to pink to blue to white. You can pick the leaves in spring and summer, they are best before the comfrey flowers. The flowers come in late spring and summer. And the roots are usually collected in fall and winter.

With the comfrey in the garden in full growth now, I picked some of the young leaves for relief printing.  Comfrey leaves and quite sturdy and hairy but that doesn't affect the print that you get with them.  I left the leaves to wilt a little overnight before printing.

Using 12 x 16 inch Okawara paper and a water based block printer ink, I inked the leaf on the reverse side, then turned it onto my print surface.  I burnished it using a baren and the resulting prints look almost like surreal trees.

I played around with some tiny prints using a hand made Indian paper, as well as used newsprint as above for some test prints.  There are lots of ideas in my head for more print options for plants and especially herbs as I have a garden full of them. A few grape leaves from the greenhouse work well too.

Why the initial image won't show as horizontal, I don't know.  Blogger has its moments I guess, so you have to use your imagination.  I will conquer it and this print will be available for sale on Etsy soon.

Ideas and walks

I have ideas spinning around in my head at the most inopportune moments and I usually try to jot them down in some form so they're not forgotten.   Sometimes an idea takes on a will of its own and insists on being put into a form that ensures it stays in my mind.

I have a vision of a fish skeleton in my head.  I don't know the final form it will take or what media but it has to be done.  I don't know why, but it does.

Now finding or creating a fish skeleton isn't as easy as you'd think.  But to spare you the gory details, lets just say I'm working on one with some help from Mother Nature. (keep fingers crossed).  Meanwhile a rough sketch of a skeletonized fish is what  I've worked out today in charcoal.  With more thumbnail sketches and some time, I'm sure I'll come up with something that matches the vision in my head.

Finally today was warm and sunny and after so much rain and cool temperatures it seemed like a different world.  I did my little tour of the property and the barn as usual and thought I'd share a few images with you.  I find it fascinating that no matter how many times I take the same route around the property, I always find new things to photograph.

The broiler chicks are two weeks old now and growing almost before my eyes. They're starting to feather out and loose their down, but still need heat lamps to keep warm.  They've dug little nests in the sawdust under the lamps and bask in the heat.

Sometimes nature doesn't always succeed.  This junco nest was under a garden chair that was waiting to be thrown out.  The three chicks in the nest had hatched but died.  This nest was built right on the ground even though it had some protection from the elements.  With the cold and rain, I don't know if that was a factor or if the parents got scared off somehow.  Unfortunate that it is, I still marvel at the beauty of the structure and of the little hatchlings.

On the far side of the meadow beside the house a little brook wanders through.  Its mostly runoff from the  land and is usually only full of water after a lot of rain.  I have to go through the trees to find it and its always like finding a surprise in the woods.

Finally, I've added some photographic prints for sale in my Giclees and Prints page.  You can find the link to the page on the top of this page.  These were a couple of black and white photographs that I took in the barn.  The barn is my treasure trove of old and dusty and new and alive.

Endangered art

"The applied arts are a cornerstone of our heritage "

I am a realist and don't dabble in abstraction much. However, it sometimes it becomes part of me, part of what has gone before.  I've been reading about various forms of Japanese art to wrap my brain around gyotaku and help me understand the culture of art there.  This little piece is my hurried attempt at suminagashi late at night.

Suminagashi is a Japanese form of marblizing paper and translates literally as 'ink floating'.  Its a very simple technique that has been taken to a high level of expertise and beauty in patterns.  Marbled paper isn't seen as often today as it was years ago and the number of artists who create it or mentor others into the technique are few.

Several art forms are endangered, suminagashi is one of them.  Gyotaku is reviving slowly and advancing in the Western world.  It seems that the current society of instant gratification needs do not want to spend the time to learn skills that have time attached to the end result.  Engraving and printmaking are in danger of being over ridden by machines that can produce similar results. 

This quote, from HH magazine, even though around watchmaking - another endangered art form - really applies to all forms of art that involve specific techniques that are produced by hand.

Speaking at a study day organised by the Société Suisse de Chronométrie (SSC) on the theme "Watchmaking and its Artists," Estelle Fallet, curator at the Musée de l’Horlogerie et de l’Émaillerie in Geneva, insisted on the vital importance of the craftsman’s hand in the watchmaking segment. "The applied arts are one of the cornerstones of our cultural heritage. They are heir to a multitude of expertises that have been developed and painstakingly transmitted throughout the centuries. Their history is a nurturing source of inspiration which enables them to embrace contemporary artistic currents. They add to a heritage which they also safeguard, through restoration work. Synonymous with perfection, these arts are a combination of gestures drawn from tradition and new technologies that are a prolongation of the human hand. They transform an ordinary object into a masterpiece. Materials are ennobled at their touch.

Investment pain

 I've been up to my ears in work and prints and marketing and haven't had a lot of time to do much drawing or painting.

Today I picked up the proofs for three new giclees that I will have available next week.  The pieces that will be printed are Masai Portrait, Koi Pool and Frozen Door to Dawn.  I will have more details on how to purchase them within the next few days.

Then I'll officially be in the poor house for awhile, as besides the giclees I've had additional printing done for a trial run I was lucky enough to have approved by the Historic Sites Association in Newfoundland for their Heritage Shops.  Its a small order to see how reproductions of a couple of  my watercolours sell locally. Purity Kisses and Merry Christmas Hares will be available as 8 x 10 images and single greeting cards in select Heritage shops later this summer.  Keep your fingers crossed! 

I've also had to throw more cash at packaging materials:  backing boards, cellophane sleeves, labels, etc., etc.  I bite the bullet and keep telling myself its an investment in inventory but there's always a twinge of pain involved in parting with larger sums of money in a short time frame.

The high point of investing money in art supplies is my grant from NLAC and the knowledge that I have sufficient funds in it to allow me to purchase lots of yummy new Japanese papers to experiment gyotaku with as well as inks and my prime subject - fish!  That will be one spending spree that I won't have to fret about too much.

More gyotaku experiments

Inbetween other pieces, I'm starting to experiment with fish prints.  The fishing season isn't in full swing yet, so finding whole fish is a challenge.  I come across the occasional fish and snatch it up.  Freezing doesn't seem to adversely affect the texture of the fish and prints remain the same.

This rainbow trout has done yeoman's duty before it went off the the compost pile.  Yes, some are eaten after printing, but many are too well used to do that.  I look at them as another art tool, albeit an expensive one at times.

I've put in an order for some Japanese papers and am looking forward to getting them and having some time to try out more.  There are a mind boggling number of Japanese papers, not all of them suitable for gyotaku or capable of withstanding additional manipulation.

Then the question of mounting the final pieces is taking me down different avenues of exploration.  Aside from traditional framing, I hadn't really considered other options and there are a number of them.  Its opening a whole new world of supports, techniques and processes.

Just a fish you say.....think again.

Mikaela's Rock WIP

 
Awhile back I virtually renewed an old acquaintance on Facebook and was struck by an image he had as his avatar.  So struck that I asked if I could use it for a portrait.

Terry Rielly is a much loved children's entertainer in the province as well as a serious musician, writing music and lyrics for a more adult audience. 

This image is about a special rock of a child called Mikaela who lugged this heavy stone from the beach to Terry's house.  Terry is now the guardian of the rock until Mikaela returns to collect it.

This is the beginning of a watercolour measuring 11.5 x 17.5 on 200lb paper.  This is the initial line drawing and the first washes to breathe life into it.

Beauty or the beast

Yes, another one found its way home, as beasties should never live singly.

Why I find these ugly birds appealing I have no idea. But everywhere I go now, I seem to see them in some form or another.  Hopefully this may get it out of my system and they can live their life out amongst the flowers in some bed hidden in the garden.

The line between beauty and ugly can be a fine one sometimes.  Perhaps its more the charicature aspect of these silly things that tips the balance. Beauty tends to be a certain placement of features that when seen triggers some internal primal emotion likely related to survival of the species.

So where does the line slide over into appealing?  Or is that related to some instinct to nurture a weakling that only humans have?  In the animal world, the weaker are dispatched pretty rapidly. Or is it simply human nature to like the quirky?

Talent or hard work?

This sketch about sums up how I feel tonight.  Its been a busy week at work and with art and soon I need to sleep.

I've been marketing my work, experimenting with new papers to print fish with, setting up meetings, etc., etc.  Whoever thinks that any successes in art are handed to you on a plate really isn't thinking logically about the workload involved in this field.

If I hear once more about 'God given talent' I won't be responsible for my actions.  Let's get real about talent. 

I don't have talent.  I have the ability to create illusion and that ability has come from years and years of practice, of colleges, workshops, self study about technique and more practice.   Anyone has an inbuilt ability to draw or paint.  Not everyone has the willingness to put in the hours it takes to do it sufficiently well.  Creativity needs to be nurtured hand in hand with technical skills otherwise the blob of colour on a canvas that the teacher praises will never allow the student to advance and put their thoughts into reality.

Yes, some individuals have an ability to see more easily the ways to create a piece or have a more advanced colour sense than others do.  But its not down to divine intervention or genetic makeup.  Its down to lots of good old fashioned hard work.

More clock

I have completed the painting of the clock face that I was working on a few days ago.  I've drawn in the numbers for the face and now need to drill a hole for the mechanism and insert that and it should be ready to tick.

Its whimsical and fun, done in layers of inks and watercolour on a piece of pine which was not primed, so the wood grain shows through.  Its been sprayed with several coats of varnish to seal it. I will experiment with other offcuts of wood that are around the property and I have my eye on a nice piece of natural slate that I found too.

So many ideas, so little time...

Funky chicken

Sometimes the world of ordinary or extraordinary catches my eye and I just know it will turn into a painting.  This was one of those things.

I found this strange bird in the supermarket garden section of all places.  I presume its meant to be stuck in a big flower pot or in a bed of flowers, nodding on its spring in the breeze.  Its weird and funky and I had to have it so I could paint it.

This is completed in watercolour, 12 x 15 on 300lb Arches paper.  This piece is now available for sale on my Available Art page.

Gyotaku project

 Damp red fish print drying

Kitakata paper 

One of my goals for 2010 was to apply for a grant, which I did and was successful in receiving it.  Grants are approved through the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council (NLAC) and not everyone who applies receives their grant or gets the full amount that they requested.  I was lucky on both counts.  My grant project period began on May 15th and will end in April 2011.  I applied for a longer period of time, rather than a short project period, as I work a day job and need all the time I can get to produce quality work.

My project is to produce a body of work (10 - 15 pieces) in gyotaku, using fish that are local to the province. I'll be experimenting with different types of Japanese papers as well as ones traditionally used in art.  I will also experiment with different backgrounds and presentation methods. I will offer a workshop on gyotaku next spring, to share the knowledge that I've accumulated over the grant period with other artists.

I won't be sharing much of my grant project work with you online, as it will be offered to a gallery for exhibition after the project is completed and I don't want to spoil the surprises.

However, I can share some of my findings with you.  Today, I did a little experimentation with some Japanese papers that I have on hand as well as newsprint and masa.  I used an ocean perch, also known as red fish, that was lurking in the freezer, well past its best by date, so it was a little 'high'.  However a fish is a fish when it comes to gyotaku and fish odours are one thing that you need to get used to, as well as any queasiness about anatomy in preparing the fish.  I love the gill plates of this fish with their patterned edges and the large eye space provides lots of scope for painting.

Speaking of which preparation is likely the most lengthy part of gyotaku, if you want good quality prints from your fish.  It can take an hour or more to prepare the fish for printing, choose the print paper and ink, prep your worksurface, then get down to printing.

I've found that dampening the papers by spraying with water makes it much easier to mold around the fish's body, though it does make the process trickier as the paper is much more fragile then, especially if the fish is bony,, such as this one is.  I've commandeered some shelving to dry my prints initially and after drying completely, the eye of the fish will be recreated and any additions made in colour or touchups before it goes into a board press for storage.

Of clocks and cats

I have some new projects in my head and have been sketching out others.  I also have this grant proposal to put into action as well.  Aside from that I have a little piece of whimsy that I've been working on here and there.  It will be a little clock eventually.  I have the bones of it on the wood and have more work to do with it yet, but here's a little glimpse.

I initially did a watercolour wash on the wood.  Of course this raises the wood fibres, but also gives an interesting patterning as well.  I will be adding acrylics or oils to finalize this and put in a clock mechanism and paint on the numbers etc. I can't tell you what it means or where it came from, it simply is and mostly done late at night in bed.

I've spent a lot of today working in the garden and wandering around the property, seeing what winter has moved and spring has revealed.  Of course Tripod sticks like glue.  He has a horrible habit of running in front of me, then throwing himself on the ground, hoping to be picked up and carried.  More often he gets kicked or stepped on as you trip over him!  Today was no different and as I started out with my camera, there he was.  Meowing and racing over to ensure he wasn't left behind.

I wandered down the lane by the house and noticed Tripod stopping for a drink in a little stream by the side of the road.  He's a strange cat and won't drink water inside the house from his bowl.  He has to go out and drink from puddles or streams. Perhaps a throwback to his feral days.

Of course he noticed I was wandering off so he scrambled up the bank to chase after me and once he caught up, he shot ahead and flopped on the ground.

His attention span in the great outdoors is limited, so the sound of birds or squirrels has him peering into the woods at regular intervals.  Until he realizes he's left behind again...

Feels like rain

Living on an island, I'm more than familiar with rain, so this drawing is a way of accepting it instead of fighting against it.  Water in all forms holds a fascination for me and I think we all become transfixed by the circles pushing outwards on the water's surface, whether from the impact of a raindrop or a stone thrown.

The initial acrylic study for this piece was posted a couple of days ago and now I'm working on a full sized piece.  This is done on blue Canson paper 19 x 25 using charcoal.  Without a daylight shot, I'm not even trying for the muted blue of the paper.

The subtle differences in the water movement out from the centre where the raindrop hits is challenging.  Even the drawing was intricate and somewhat of a maze that I get lost in as I'm going. It seems I can get enough of punishment in terms of detail, having completed the hundreds of beads in Masai Portrait.  I'm hoping this one won't be quite so detailed.

Stay tuned for updates!  And a short clip of one of my favourite musicians, Maria Muldaur, It Feels Like Rain.  This music keeps me company constantly.

Paying back

 Sparrow Tutorial in progress

I read an interesting piece tonight about an artist, perhaps intermediate level, who was wondering if she should give lessons in oil painting to people who asked.  Her dilemma wasn't whether she was experienced enough in technique and teaching to do, but that if she taught people, they would become her competition.

To me, that thought defeats the teaching rationale.  As a teacher, I want my students to excel and to be better than me.  I know they are not my competition, as I have my own style and so will they.  I know there will be wide eyed individuals who think that art teachers have secrets they will pass on that make instant artists, instead of old fashioned hard work. Yes, there may be more artists in the same market if a teacher gives them direction, but there are many elements in place to ensure success in the market, not from just one artist, but from many.

Part of teaching and or learning is the ability to give away part of yourself to others.  It can be in words or more tangible objects, but in the giving, you enable others to move forward and you enable yourself to pay back to those who have helped you along the way, even if they may never see you again and know what you do now.

This little sparrow is one of the things that I'm giving or will when its complete.  Its another tutorial that I've worked on when I've had the chance.  I have several tutorials available and some are for sale on my blog, some I provide just to see others learn and grow.  Why?  I can't teach art and I can't live life unless I can share it with others.  That doesn't always come with a price tag, but brings wealth in its own form.

Keep an eye out for the tutorial, it should be available in the next couple of weeks. And yes, it will be free!

Desire and sacrifice

 Ripples

Acrylic 4 x 4

People often ask how I find time to produce the art that I do.  There's no magic trick to it, its all down to desire and sacrifice.  To do anything, art included, you have to want to succeed at it desperately and to ensure that it happens you have to sacrifice other things.

When I hear others say that they can't produce art because they (pick your choice) have children, have too much work, or don't have time, don't have the skill, it annoys me a little to be honest.  Yes, we all have commitments, but we free up time to do the things that are important to us and we eliminate other, less important things, to make sure we can achieve what we want.

Today I learned that I was successful in obtaining a grant to produce a body of work in gyotaku and deliver a workshop on the method.  It was one of my goals for 2010 in what I wanted to achieve this year.  Perhaps as I approach the half way point in the year, its time to revisit those goals and take stock of what's progressing and what isn't.

I have a full time job that teeters on 50-60 hours a week some weeks.  I have a life outside that job and I have my art.   So where do I put in the time to produce the work?  Evenings and weekends are my time and I push other things that I once considered important to the side to make sure I can produce the work that is necessary.  Yes, its all about me.  And its all about me because that's how it has to be if  I want something badly enough. 

Its worthwhile analyzing your average waking hours to understand just where time slips away that could be used for artistic purposes.  I'll share a sample of my day so you can get an idea of how my time is split.

• 6:30 - 7:30   Get up, showered, dressed, coffee.  Then work for 15-30 minutes on current art project or research for new one
• 7:45 - 8:15   Drive to work.   Listen to art marketing art or art history podcasts on the way. Sometimes stop to take photos of objects of views that interest me.
• I  stop work for lunch at some point around mid day.  My schedule varies depending on workload as to time.  I often eat at my desk and catch up on blogs, facebook etc.  I sketch out ideas for projects, make phone calls related to art marketing or prepare brochures, write out tutorials, etc.
• 6 - 7:30  This is my down time when I eat, relax, watch the news, but even then I usually have a pencil in hand jotting down ideas
• 7:30 - 11  This is my time to completely concentrate on producing art, following up art marketing, sending emails, writing blog posts, etc. 
• 11 - 12  I go to bed and sketch more ideas or sometimes just collapse and sleep

I don't have blocks of free time and that works for me.  I like the structure it imposes on me and the deadlines that I set for myself. I use time that I could waste on trivial things on things that move me closer to my goals.

This routine varies, depending on what else is happening in life, but its more the norm than the exception.  Social life fits in at weekends.  Work over rides social life, either the day job, art or teaching.  I don't have small children to contend with anymore but there are ways around that.  I have always found ways to fit in my drawing time, even when my children were small and I was a single parent.  Nursery school gave me a couple of hours in the mornings.  One hour to do chores, another to draw or paint. And each night when they went to bed, I hit the easel again til midnight. Yes, sure I was tired sometimes, but having my routine was important to me and ultimately to the children as it kept me sane.

My sacrifices?  I don't see them as sacrifices. I see them as manipulating my life to my advantage. And for that I do not feel guilty.  Women, especially mothers, are constantly in a pull/push situation of guilt.  I believe making time for yourself helps eliminate that guilt.  I love my children, but I have a life outside of them.

I rarely watch television, except for the news.  I use my time to concentrate on what I feel is important to me.  I don't allow myself to 'play' until I have reached a goal that I've set for myself, either in my head or on paper. Weekends allow me more time to draw or paint as there are less demands on my time.  I fit in housework and errands on weekends, laundry on week days and clear up as I go during the week.  I'm toying with the idea of a cleaner once a week to do the majors like vacuuming and washing floors.

Art is hard work.  Being successful in art is even harder work and it takes dedication, planning and the ability to not be easily distracted by less important things.  Its also about taking control of your life and not being swept along on a wave that is not of your own making. Its about knowing what you want and just going for it.

My way isn't for everyone.  We use a lot of excuses to not reach our dreams and then complain about not being able to reach the same dream.  Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of rejection all play a part in staying in safe harbours and never risking the surf.  Its a matter of logically examining each excuse that you throw up and finding a way around it.  There always is a way, if you want to find it badly enough.

I've thrown my excuses out and choose to take some risks.  What about you?