Sunrise

Sleep was evading me last night so I was up well before dawn and could see it creep in across the sea and land.  I grabbed a couple of quick shots with my iPod camera and once tweaked with Instagram they almost become a pastel painting in the making. 

I thought I'd try my hand at the scene with the light just visible, sillouetting the trees.  Its not what I saw in my head and my skills with pastels are hit and miss, mostly because I use them infrequently.

I'm using a variety of mediums lately to try to get out of this slump, who knows what it will be tomorrow.  Inspiration - the kind that fires me up and has me anxious to get into the studio - is missing right now.  It will return and meanwhile, I'll potter and tinker with things I don't usually do and before you know it, I'll be back in the swing of things again.

Sleeping Beauties

 Sleeping Beauties

5.75" x 22"

gyotaku/watercolour

While looking for something else, I rediscovered this long gyotaku print of some small perch that I had completed last year I believe.  

I had done several gyotaku pieces directly on heavy watercolour paper as I wanted to add a lot of washes of pigment to the paper without it being at risk of buckling.   The process of taking the fish to the paper instead of the paper to the fish makes it a slightly less reliable technique as you have less control with a heavy paper that you can't manipulate, unlike thin Japanese papers.

The prints didn't turn out exactly as I wanted and I see why I put it to one side, perfectionist that I can be at times.  But as I'm doing my best to finish off abandoned pieces I thought I'd add some more pigment to it and see if it could be salvaged.

I stayed with the fairly sombre colouring of these fish then gave them some shots of bright turquoise as highlights.  Sleeping Beauty turquoise from the Daniel Smith range of watercolours is one of my favourites.  Its semi transparent and a beautiful shade that's perfect for my aquatic pictures.  The link image really doesn't do justice to it.

Straight Sailing - complete

 Straight Sailing

15" x 30"

oil on canvas panel

Despite the muse being AWOL, I pushed myself to finish the last strokes on the Straight Sailing piece that I posted on New Year's Day.  If I let myself stay away from it too long, my palette will change and so may my interest in completing it.


Its not the best image, even with good lighting which seems to wash it out a bit.  I can't seem to get far enough away or close enough, if that makes sense.  I'll try for another shot when its dryer at the weekend and some daylight will give a truer reading.

When the muse is away...

Abandoned in the Garden

7" x 9"   oil on canvas panel

SOLD

When the muse becomes less than amusing or takes an unexpected leave of absence, its like hitting a wall.  You have a need to produce, but the connection between brain and hand doesn't exist.  Inspiration is nowhere to be seen, packed up and taken away in the muse's overnight bag.

I'm museless at the moment and its frustrating.  I know it will pass.  And when it does, I'll go to the other extreme of being overwhelmed with ideas to the point of not wanting to sleep so I can get them all down.  So what to do?

When this happens, I look in a couple of directions.  I browse art sites and artists' blogs.  I create other things in the form of knitting, cooking, and heaven forbid, cleaning sometimes.  I also try other subjects or mediums that I'm not as comfortable with to  allow myself to get colour on canvas but not think much about it.

This piece is one of those free thinking, abstract pieces that allows me to thumb my nose at the muse's departing back.  Inspiration came from some photos of the garden one summer.  Hot reds and oranges against dark foliage tipped with sunlight lit up the spot.  A brush was soon abandoned in favour of a palette knife and thick smears of oil paint.  Abstract meets floral.

Take that muse!

Straight sailing - in progress

 2012 is here, and with it, a fresh page on a new year.

New Year's is often seen as the chance to make resolutions to improve some part of your life.  For me, resolutions are meaningless unless they have plans attached to them.  They are simply dreams and I prefer to base my plans on something more concrete.  For the last few years I've been posting the 'business plan' for my art career for the coming year and analyzing progress at the end of the year.  Its beneficial in keeping me on track to have objectives to aim for, otherwise I wander in circles, never accomplishing what I intended.   I can still do that from time to time, but less so knowing that there are measurables involved. 

In looking back over 2011 several things jump out at me which help me plan for the coming year.  Time - or lack of it is one and stretching myself too thin is another.   I want to do everything, but seldom accomplish that, then frustration sets in.   So in 2012, I will set myself very similar goals as to the previous year, but limit myself to areas that I know will be fruitful.

Production

I will still work on the body of work with water as the subject.  It has a lot of potential.

I will continue to hone my painting skills in oils.  Using acrylic works sometimes, but I find myself turning more to oils for application ease and predictability of use and colour.  Also, oils sell.  Its an age old conundrum for artists as to what medium to use, but collectors seem to continually lean towards investments in oil paintings, no matter how beautifully other mediums are used.

I want to try more still life exercises also, more classical pieces.  I enjoy the challenge they bring in creating detail and form.

Our local art group will have a monthly painting/drawing session, nothing formal but a learning exercise for all of us, I'm sure.

Visibility & Marketing

A marketing plan for my reproductions and note cards will be created.  I need to have them travel a little around the province as well as the world.

Another couple of group exhibitions are planned for 2012, but I am looking at a solo exhibition in the summer.  There are local juried exhibitions to enter and this time I will ensure I have prepared for them in time!

With a renovated new in-house studio in the works for 2012, I will have the capability of offering small workshops in-house.  Time has been the challenge to deliver more in 2011, even with demand growing.   I prefer teaching workshops over weekly classes.  I like the concentration of a longer session to really explore technique with students. A gyotaku, a drawing and a painting workshop will be on the cards later in the year.

I'm leaving my goals a little looser this year and allowing for opportunity to present itself, with enough flexibility to act on it.   Many artists are considering a word or phrase to be their guiding force during the year.  Its a good practice to do so, to print it in large letters and put it on the wall of your studio to act as inspiration and a reminder of your direction. 

For me, the phrase would be 'straight sailing' as in this painting in progress.  The painting has one foot in 2011 and one in 2012 when it will be completed.  It will remind me to face forward and move ahead without getting sidelined.

I've created a little slide show of the creation of this piece from sketch to its current stage.

2011 Review

In reviewing what I've done in 2011, there are successes and forward movement and also some stagnation.  2011 has been one of my best years financially for art, despite a recession, with most work coming through online sales and commissions.

Production
The creation of a local art group has been beneficial to have others to bounce ideas off and to produce group exhibitions.  This will continue into 2012 and hopefully expand.

I planned to create a body of work in the subject of water.  I did produce about 18 or 19 water-related pieces, but not enough in my mind to build a body of work, so more to add on that next year.  Time, or lack of, is always a challenge for me when balancing a full time job and pushing an art career hard too.

I wanted to increase the number of drawings produced and those have been minimal unfortunately.  I do sketch every day and always enjoy the process of drawing so much, but painting needs for exhibitions or otherwise seem to take precedence.  

Making time for the business of art as well as the production of art is essential and I've done a decent job on that in 2011.  I've created business cards twice a year, postcards on gyotaku, produced a book, The Gyotaku Project, in print form and as an e-book.  I keep my art resume, biography and artist statement up to date.  

Visibility
Visibility was another area I wanted to concentrate on in 2011.  I made efforts to enter local juried exhibitions and had pieces selected for two.  I took part in two local group exhibitions and had a piece exhibited in Edinburgh at the Trees for Life charity fund raiser.   Other local opportunities slipped through my fingers due to work commitments and just not having enough time to coordinate entries.

I didn't manage to explore other outlets for card and reproduction sales, again a time factor.  There are only so many hours in the day and when I need to be able to meet and greet and show products to the market, my day job takes over.   More plans for that next year.

My aim for an exhibition proposal became just that. I created the proposal and image cd, but have not had time to research where I want to send it.  Aiming too high may be an issue with me.

Web Presence
In May I created a website to provide additional visibility and showcase my art besides my blog.  It continues to evolve and is updated as required.  A media and exhibition page also were created.  I pushed harder for a presence on Facebook and Twitter.   I have produced a year's worth of monthly newsletters featuring regular pieces and interviews with artists from around the world.

I have had successes and feel the year has gone well, despite not being able to fulfill all my goals.  I know the direction I'm heading in and will put that into words in the day or two.  I'll leave the last day of 2011 with a sample of paintings that I have produced over the past year.

Happy New Year and thank you for taking time over the past year to spend with me and my art. 

Iced water

I took to the woods yesterday, wild and windy as it was.  There is a new bypass road opened a month or so ago and as I drive it in the morning, I see all kinds of opportunity for paintings.  By the water supply for Torbay, lines of trees are left standing, a wind and snow break for the bypass road and the little woods road that leads off into the forest, lake and beyond.  These trees are the remains of thinned out woods, stark, ragged and deprived of sun until now when the landscape was opened up.

I took a number of photos and have some concepts for new paintings.  I played around with some of them in Photoshop to see what I could come up with using various filters to produce effects that I may use in future paintings.

There is a thin layer of ice on the water and the sun would peep out from behind scudding clouds now and then allowing some reflections on the frozen lake between the trees.  This image is one that I created digitally from one of the images I took.  I liked the bluish tone, keeping that feeling of cold in the piece and altered it to a more turquoise colour.  I think I still like the first colour the most, which do you prefer?

Pure Gold

  Pure Gold

3" x 5"   acrylic

Available for purchase here

A leftover gold foil wrapped chocolate was sitting in a bowl on the table, catching the light, so it seemed like a good idea for a painting.   These tiny chocolate drops made a fitting subject for a tiny canvas, this measuring just 3" x 5" and using the end of an acrylic palette.

Creating the tiny creases and shine from the foil is a challenge at this scale as detail isn't involved, more optical blending.  But I like the final result and may save a foil wrapped truffle from its fate a little longer to be preserved for posterity.

Ornaments

 

Snippets of time allowed me to finish 'dotting' this piece.  I'll straighten up the edges a bit, then its complete.  The original ornament hangs on the Christmas tree, even if its quite heavy.

 

The piece is about 5 x 7 on a 9 x 12 sheet of Bristol smooth.

Twas the night before Christmas...

And all through the barn...  well, its like this:  Tripod likes very much to be the centre of attention and he goes about it in strange ways sometimes.  Literally 'in your face' he likes to remind you that he's there, usually around 3am as he stands on your chest and head butts you.

He's been poking around the Christmas parcels that have arrived, turning them over and examining them closely then putting them back under the tree.  When I went to the barn the other day to check on eggs, I discovered him sitting discussing gifts with the ducks.  Well Tripod was doing the talking, the ducks were sitting there rather bemused.   Next to him, was a red gift box.

Now I know Tripod's kind of gifts.  Like the one he promised Katherine Tyrrell last year after she gave him The Moose, so I have a little bit of a cause for concern about the contents.  I did tell him that sending Katherine another gift would not improve his chances of being a contender for The Moose again. Especially when the box moved a little as Tripod explained to the ducks that if they were good they could have some too...sort of like passing the chocolates around.  Let's just wait for Christmas morning shall we?  Sigh.

10 x 10 acrylic

Gyotaku highlighted

Today I received a copy of the Winter 2012 Conservation Magazine which purchased one time rights to use one of my gyotaku prints - Camoflaged Rainbow - in a feature article and on the cover.  Its a comprehensive magazine dealing with topical subjects that impact the natural world.  You can read the full article, Chasing Rainbows, that my art illustrated here.

The original gyotaku is in the collection of the Provincial Art Bank, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.  You can see the full piece or purchase fine art prints and note cards of this piece  purchased here.

Silver ornaments - in progress

I'm still undecorated for Christmas for the most part, but I'll get there.  As long as I have the tree up by Christmas Eve, I'll be doing fine.  I have been unearthing decorations and pulled out a couple of special ones.  These are Indian and the one on the left is a cone made of pale blue crazed glass captured in a cage of silver.  I love the intricate nature and detail of it.   The ornament on the right is silver, lined and indented in perfect symmetry.  They are too heavy to place on a tree, so they are reserved for a bowl or nestled in a centrepiece of greenery to give some sparkle from candle light.

I haven't done a pen and ink piece for a long time, and not one using pointillism.  It seemed I was foiled at every attempt by all my technical pens.  They were cleaned, emptied and put away after the last project, but still will not let ink flow to the nibs.  I turned eventually to a little Micron pen to satisfy my 'dotting' need.

Here is the progress of the piece so far.  I do a little dotting during the news or a few minutes in the morning before work then it slowly builds.  Perhaps it will become next year's Christmas card. Its on 9 x 12 Bristol smooth, the drawing itself is about 5 x 8 inches.

Fuzzy

This is a last minute Christmas gift portrait of my mother's cat.   When you're 87, it becomes a challenge to find gifts that are needed or wanted.  Her cats play a role in her life, so I thought a portrait may make a good gift idea.

This cat, like many others she has adopted over the years arrived as one of the kittens from a pregnant cat that seemed to think my mother's house was the maternity ward.  It was hand raised as the owner of the mother cat claimed it back, and left one of the kittens as thanks, but really too soon to be taken from its mother.   The cat is probably 13 or 14 years old now, a huge, long haired beast, with enough fur to withstand a Siberian winter.

This painting was done from a blurry cell phone image of the cat, so there's a bit of guesswork and reference to other similarly coloured cats that had to be done. There is another cat, mostly black, at my mother's house, but it never stays still long enough to get an image of it.  So the companion piece for this may have to wait.

The painting is 8" x 8" in acrylic on a canvas panel.

Clementine I - complete

 Clementine I

8" x 8" 

oil on canvas panel

 SOLD

I don't think there are a lot of significant differences in this image and the previous update for the clementine painting, but there are some more layers and tweaking, til I'm now ready to say its done and let it leave my hands ready to pass into someone else's.

For the life of me I cannot get the intense glow of colour that is present in the clementine to reproduce on the screen.  Its as if the camera has a built in censor for glow.  But in real life, this fruit has presence and feels as if there is a light coming from within it.  All the water in the fruit acts as reflectors and when sun hits it, it does glow.

So now this is complete, its time to do some Christmas baking and a little decorating.  Snow is now forecast for tomorrow, so it just may set the scene.

Joining the dots

 

My week has been wildly busy.  Christmas is nearly on the doorstep and I'm well behind in preparation with not a decoration to be seen or the scent of a seasonal cake in the air.  This weekend I'll need to get moving and make some progress.  Busyness unfortunately often leaves painting and drawing in the background and I really don't like that and feel uneasy if I don't get something down on paper or canvas.  I have a few stolen moments in early morning or evening and still try to do some drawing of something each day.  

Here's a small pointillist ink piece done with half an eye to the news.  A little silver ornament was next to me.  A pen and paper not far away and this was the result.

I should do another pen and ink piece.  Its quite soothing, all those little dots and seeing them take shape on paper.

Clementine update

I've added a few more details to the clementine that I started a couple of weeks ago, trying to find the exact moment when the colour and value work together instead of competing against each other.   With the peel that moment is a struggle.  I thought the peel would be the easier part of this painting.  Guess I was wrong there, its kicking my butt!

So another few layers, another day or two of drying, then another few layers and hopefully I can declare it complete.

Its all in the presentation

I've been thinking about plans for the coming year and working out little things that may seem little, but have a lasting impact on the impression you give to those who purchase your art.  One of those things is packaging and how the final piece looks when the buyer opens their package.

This season, I am tucking small paintings into Christmas boxes that come with gift tags, all ready to present to the recipient.  That's one less thing the buyer needs to think about if the piece is meant as a gift. This little marble painting is still available in my Etsy shop and comes gift boxed, ready to tuck under the tree. If you're local, there's still lots of time to make someone happy with this original painting.

There are other options in packaging that guide the buyer in how to display the piece.  A small display easel included in the package lets the painting be displayed without a frame for instant enjoyment.

Boxes are supplied by many packing companies and you can find others in interesting places.  My find was a cash and carry and a stack of generic pizza boxes.  These are perfect for shipping, allowing enough room to protect a painting with packing and sturdy enough cardboard for shipping, but still thin enough to reduce shipping costs.  The boxes come in various sizes and I can add labels to the outer or inner box to personalize them.  They look professional and are economical to buy.

Clear or translucent plastic boxes are also available  that can house paintings or note cards.  I use natural kraft boxes with clear lids and kraft envelopes to hold 6 cards, then tie the box up with a piece of hemp string.

Presentation does make a difference.  It reflects on how you see your art.  Is it beautiful and should be presented as such or would you rather shove it into a crumpled paper sack and give the impression that you don't care about your work?  Each piece of art is a gift and as such should be wrapped as beautifully as possible so the recipient knows that a treat lies inside.

How do you wrap your art?

The Last Drop II

I don't seem to have long enough blocks of time to sit down and completely a painting, so I chip away at it in minutes and hours til its done.  This is why you see endless 'in progress' pieces on the blog. 

I have started this image a number of times.  I swear my grand daughter will be grown up by the time I finish something I will be happy with.   This painting was put aside and I wasn't happy with the skin tones, too blue and cool, even if she is quite pale and blonde with the skin tones that are more blue than pink.

I pulled it out in the wee hours of the morning when I could not sleep to see if I could revitalize it.  I seem to switch from tight realism to loose impressionism at will.  The original painting was tighter and I wanted something looser this time around.  I wanted to let some of the underpainting come through but also give the skin a feeling of life.  Its a little pallid right now but more colour will come.

It is 8 x 8 inches in oil.

The S-Bend

Cold weather hasn't shown up much so far this year and virtually no snow except for one storm a few weeks ago, so its a bonus for painters who want to get outside to photograph or paint.  It also makes wetlands and woods more accessible, so I'm stocking up on images and sketches before the snow flies.

There are lots of bogs and wetlands around my property and when the vegetation dies back a little in winter, the bones of the landscape reveal themselves.  This little....I'm not quite sure what to call it - stream perhaps? - winds its way through the hummocks of fading grasses on its journey to the distant sea.  It comes from ground water in the distant hills, through the forest and on through the bog, filtering and giving life as it goes.

The field in the distance is ploughed and flecked with dried grasses and the sea is a tiny sliver of light on the horizon.

This is acrylic on an 8 x 10 inch canvas panel.

Mare's Tails

 Mare's Tails

8 x 10

acrylic

I did a demo of clouds at a recent art class using acrylics.  I haven't used acrylic paint for awhile and getting used to the quick drying again took a little adjusting from the oils I'd been accustomed to using.

Clouds, I find, are best created with a very dry brush with a minute amount of pigment on it.  Building layer over layer gives some structure to the cloud amd I've found that using a Q-Tip end is perfect for feathering out edges of the cloud into those transparent, wispy edges.

These clouds are cirrus and one of the most abundant.  The wind teases them out into streamers and thin layers and usually indicate a change in weather within 24 hours, often fine weather.