Before & After, the New Digs

Before: Chaos
Current: Room to breathe

Happening Now or Wrangled into Artprize

August 31, 2010 - Beginning the 7'x5" painting

August 31, 2010 - End of the Day

Sept 1, 2010 End of a LONG day


At the beginning of May 2010, I really had no intention of entering into the Artprize fray. But at my nephew's graduation party, fueled along by a couple of glasses of wine served with a tiny bit of arm twisting, I somehow heard the words "yeah sure I'll do it, but I'm going to do a big canvas -7'x 5'. What? Did I truly just commit to doing the event, let alone a 7'x5' painting? Yep, thats what drinking can get you into. Seriously after 40, nothing good happens after 10 p.m.

So I've had this desire to make some bigger paintings for quite some time. Pretty much most of my illustration career has been small format, under 16x20". Its really not feasible to make art much bigger than that when you need to consider that it generally needs to be reproduced and usually you have tight deadlines, small is just more efficient when you work for hire. But painting......thats a whole 'notha thing.

But this big canvas, it opened up a whole new set of problems - like getting them. Cheaper in the long run to buy 2 - 7'x5' canvases rather than one, but more expensive to have it shipped to a residence. Had to ship them to a business address and strap them to the top of the car to get them home. Once home, I realized that the canvas was almost bigger than the space I had to paint them in. Hello new studio space downtown, sweet location!!! Canvases back on to the top of the car to go to their new space. Once at the studio I realized that my easel was not up to the job and Craig came up with this great 2x4 rack system for holding large canvases, that can double as a drying rack. Meanwhile, the pressure of the big white canvas vs the clock has started to set in. The thing needs to be dry, (well mostly) and installed by September 21. 

August, Already?

Back in December when the summer schedule was confirmed, I remember thinking "I've got all the time in the world." But once May rolled around it seemed like the continuum of time started to contract at an increasingly accelerated pace. First there was the 11 day painting trip to Glen Arbor, followed by 5 days in Cross Village/Harbor Springs partly spent with my painting mentor Stuart Shils. (See stuartshils.com) The 4th of July came and went with a quick trip to Harbor Springs Tvedten Fine Art for painting delivery. And the middle of the month was consumed by framing/photographing/cataloging work for my solo exhibition at the Center Gallery in Glen Arbor. The week long show was capped with another quick trip to Cross Village where I taught a Gouache Workshop at Three Pines Studio. Then immediately back to Grand Rapids for delivery of new works to the Water Street Gallery in Douglas for a Group exhibition which opened last night. Throw a move of the painting studio into the mix and suddenly I find its the middle of August. Wow. Times flies when you are having FUN! No sarcasm intended. To paraphrase Professor Douglas Brooks, scholar of tantric philosophy "I got the lucky" right now. In all seriousness I find myself very grateful to be able to follow this path. Even while all the stress of pulling work together for 3 separate shows within about a 2 week time span seemed a little daunting and chaotic, in retrospect I wouldn't have it any other way. Perhaps my husband, family and friends see it differently, but you'd really have to take that up with them.



So now am ready to settle back into the space of making the work. Have painted for 2 days now in the new space. And even though its downtown, its quiet. Interestingly enough, while the city is buzzing and vibrant around me, its calm and even somewhat serene within the context of the new space. No distraction from the phone, the email, the laundry, the furry beings and all the other little things that disturb the flow of concentration.

Small Works

Where the County Road Ends

Northport

Platte River
Ice Shanties

Its been some time since I've posted anything. A thundery morning seems like a good time to do a little blogging before I get into the space of the studio. It was my intention to be a much better blogger but.....well life gets busy you know?

Over the winter I started teaching Yoga at Expressions of Grace Yoga Studio. Its been such a great experience - I love our students and we have a really great community of teachers. The practice of Yoga is such a complement to making art. For me, it helps to get me "out of my head" so to speak and move past any judgement of the work while its in progress. The whole negative self-talk, second-guessing, doubt thing really puts a damper on things when you trying to make any kind of art (yoga or painting for that matter!).

Have also been spending time out in the world painting. Eleven days in Glen Arbor in May without TV, radio and Craig yielded
21 small studies, 1 med painting, a small painting, a novel read, and the entire back of a sweater knitted. Thanks to my friend Cre for getting me right with that sweater. I now know that just because something has a lot of holes in it, that it won't be a fast or easy knit.

Last but not least, just returned from 6 days in Harbor Springs/Cross Village where I spent 3 days with the man who I've really come to regard as my painting teacher/mentor, Stuart Shils. The best way to describe a workshop with Stuart is that its a boot camp for painters. Its full-on. Its really an immersion in making art, looking at art, talking about art. Long days that begin around 8ish for breakfast/discussion of the day ahead, paintings, demo, more discussion, dinner and slide lectures. I come back exhausted, head spinning, but somehow recharged. More on the workshop later.

The works I'm posting this morning are all little plein aire pieces. All were completed in a half an hour or less. Just little studies that help to develop visual musculature, color sensibility, and accurate drawing. All foundation work for larger paintings.

Inland Jewel

West of Shore

Arrival

Thornswift Nature Preserve

A couple of recent ones. In August I participated at a paintout in Harbor Springs sponsored by Tvedten Fine Art. Like much of this past summer the conditions that day were less than ideal. O.k., the truth is they were horrendous.  Driving rain, cold. The first part of the morning was spent "car"painting at Angell Farm, trying not to get paint all over the inside of Craig's car.

There was a bit of a break in the clouds right after lunch so I headed down to Thornswift Nature Preserve. About 30 minutes into the painting I could see the rain moving across the lake towards me. Fortunately I had enough time to make a few sketches and some color notes as well as a smallish painting. These two 5x7 paintings were completed last week as a synthesis of that experience. 

Another Day at the End of the Road

This image was painted on site the day after Fall came to Glen Arbor. It's not a large image, something like 6x12 or in that neighborhood. I have the tendency to work small when I'm working on site. Part of it may be a hangover from illustration where size does matter. (too big, takes too long) But also when you work on site everything around you is so rapidly changing. A lot happens that is completely out of the painter's control. The wind might come up, the cloud patterns change, the direction of the sun is continually moving, someone might decide to park their car directly in front of your vista. Working small has its advantage pyschologically as well. The work doesn't become "too precious". When the work becomes precious or the painter becomes too attached to outcome vs. process the work begins to suffer. Its a hard thing to practice detachment in painting. I think it boils down to being able to strike a fine balance between being able to see whats working and what needs more attention.

What a Difference an Hour Can Make

Am back in Grand Rapids again after being gone for the last ten days painting at Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. I can't believe how quickly the time flew by. And its amazing how much painting & foundational work one can get done when there are no distractions, unless you count knitting as a distraction. Though in defense of the knitting, I did manage to knit a hat and 3/4 of a sock. The two paintings I am posting were completed on Sunday, September 27, before and during the shift from summer-like weather to more appropriate fall weather. 

The wind was starting to pick up a bit and the black flies were starting to become a bit fierce as I was completing the painting shown here with the pine trunk. By then, friends & fellow painters Joe and Carol Spaulding had called it a day and headed for home. I started to pack everything up and head in that direction as well, but decided to take a detour to where the-county-road-ends-at-edge-of-the-water. (yes, the sign says that) The atmosphere was so  juicy with the approaching cold front I couldn't resist popping the hatch open and standing under the lift gate and knocking off a little painting. As an aside, I wasn't the only one to take refuge in my car. While I was painting, apparently a swarm of black flies decided that my car was a great refuge from the wind and the rain as well. By the time I packed it all in, there were at least 100 flies, who took me days of swatting and driving with the windows down really fast to rid my car of.

Drawing in the Dunes

These 2 drawings are mixed media on toned paper. Sometimes painting on site can be a little prohibitive - especially if you're hiking your gear up to the top of Sleeping Bear Point (or any distance for that matter) without the benefit of a Sherpa. So in my quest to make things easier, i.e. Lighter, I stripped my painting kit down to the following items: half pans portable watercolor kit, 2 prismacolor pencils, Holbein oil pastels, 1 stiff brush, sm. jar Gamsol, water, birch drawing board, a couple of paper towels, and tape. The two drawings are a combination of everything in my kit. It's my intention to use these drawings as the basis for larger paintings done in the studio.

Rain at the Shoreline in August