Another Challenge

I’m about to challenge myself to a painting a day for 30 days again. It is one of my favorite challenges to do. I’ve been very busy in the studio everyday this past month anyway and I’ve been enjoying putting my nose to the grindstone. I will be working on my own stuff, but also to produce pieces for an upcoming show of JAG’s at the library, called “Naturally”. Nature is a constant subject in my art and a show calls for an autumnal feel is right up my alley. Autumn has always been my favorite season. As I went through my photos for subjects I came up with 54! I’ve narrowed it down to 39. Hence, a painting a day for at least a month is warranted. I’m hoping I have another challenge at the end of this one. I’m hoping I create so many wonderful works of art, that it is a challenge to pick which ones to enter. These are some of my possibilities…

Studio Work vs Website Work

I’m pretty sure most of us artists prefer one over the other. I’ve been a busy bee. There are three shows coming up I want to enter. The deadlines are all within 4 days of each other, the last being the 30th. One show is : “Roses, Roses” at Wehner’s School of Music. One is “View from my Window” at the Art Center Cooperative and one is at FSCJ Kent Campus and is a Jacksonville Artist Guild show called “Express Yourself” (I haven’t decided yet what I’m entering in that one). Here are my entries for the other two… You will recognize one of them. I like the fact that my three for the roses show are all very different (a mixed media, a traditional watercolor and a combo mono print and watercolor with pearlescent paints). That one is not really even my style, but I like it.

It’s Done!!!!

Sometimes that’s a happy moment, but there are different reasons for it to be a happy time. This time I’m happy because it’s been such a long drawn out process with many difficult moments. I like the results and am glad that I stuck with it.

Take a Break Take a Breath

I thought it wise for me to take a break from Interior Construct II. I’m almost done with it; I don’t want to screw it up.

So today I worked on an organizational project, that’s been on my list for a while. I researched various watercolor brands and which of their pigments are transparent or semi-transparent. I’ve been painting with watercolors for decades, but I’m not one to really pay attention to the technical details. However, I’ve decided I really want to paint with only transparent colors if possible. I also got a new palette in May and needed to fill it! Turns out most of my tubes on hand were transparent. I already know some of my own favorite hues and how they interact with others I use. I want to fine tune things while exploring the different brands versions of the colors I like. Over the next year, I hope to settle on a single palette of limited colors- a warm and cool of the primaries and some earth tones. There were probably 2 or 3 other simply because I’ve fallen in love with them. My new palette will probably be made up of my 3 favorite brands: Danielle Smith, Holbein, and Sennelier.

Royal Pain in the . . .

This particular piece has been an enormous pain. Not only has it been 3 years since I started it, but up until now every step of the way has frustrated me. I suspect that non-artists think we never feel this way. They think it’s all fun and games. We are our own boss so how can we get frustrated? Everything is in our control. Well that’s wrong! I say that with sarcasm not anger. Why not just give up? Because challenges are good for you. Plus I’m attached to it. This piece has definitely taught me a thing or two. I will be trying to plan better on the next one, as well as doing measurements to help things go more smoothly. I had to reprint the elements so many time. I had to pull things up and replace them more than once. I also took well over 50 photos of the various phases to see how the elements were working together. That part is okay. It helps move things along. The work isn’t done yet. But it will be. It will be. The piece “Interior Construct II” and two detail views (the kitchen and what’s behind the curtain):

Going National Again

I am so excited and honored to have been accepted into the Sumi-e Society of America’s 64th annual exhibition. This will be an online only exhibit. The link will be  sumieshow.org but it won’t be active until next month sometime. My piece is of the Jacksonville Zoo’s Asian garden. I used a technique that I learned about in the Sumi-e Society’s quarterly newsletter. You can use milk as a resist! I keep meaning to try it as a mask in my regular watercolors.

Organized Chaos of Ideas

Part of my putting things straight included organizing various bits I collected for different ideas. It is important to organize your ideas. I write some down, but also gather things for them. Either way, I won’t forget them. But I think the gathering keeps them fresher and also makes the piece easier to begin. I now have two Idea Boxes that contain various sizes of plastic zip lock bags for each idea. The first large box got filled quickly.

Some of the Ideas Inside the Boxes

A handmade paper heart book, A Pocket full of Posies, From the Cradle to the Grave, They Get You Coming and Going, Got a Match? My Ass Your Face, A history of Bathing beauties. There’s no subject for the cradled board with the pink ribbon – yet. I do know it will be a summery girl centric piece.

How Does a Piece Begin?

While organizing I found a bunch of “beginnings” stashed in various parts of the studio. The origins of art are so varied – especially in mixed media. Sometimes a pieces starts with an idea, but sometimes it simply starts with a palette of colors or interesting materials. For a mixed media artist a piece might start in one medium, but begs for a mixture.

These two are starts with bits of similar colors. I’m going to love the 1st one for its different textures when it’s done.

The second will be be loved for its rich and vibrant colors. It’s hard to tell but the substrate is a rich burgundy paisley patterned fabric stretched like a canvas. It had been used before but the piece never sold, so… Destroy and recreate was the only option. This will have lots of rich reds and golds along with the burgundy.

Months of Work to make Work Easier

I’ve spent many many months doing a deep dive into cleaning and organizing my studio. This has been an every 3 months chore for years now. This time, I’ve gotten down to the nitty gritty and I hope this means that the cleaning will have to be done less often and will be easier. I’ve worked very hard to make sure that everything has a place and that I know where that place is. I know it’s working because when I’ve purchased new things and bring them home, I know exactly where they go. The same has been true of when I finish a piece and have to return some items their place.

In the process, I stumbled upon some things that may be of interest and taken pictures along the way. I will be posting about these things on Thursdays and Sundays. Even a clean and organized studio doesn’t necessarily look like any other clean and organized room:

ATCs

Artist Trading Cards are both fun and instructional. They are a great way to work out ideas on a small scale. They are also a great way to get Free art! Unfortunately I am not part of a group that trades them anymore, since our wonderful Society of Mixed Media Artists (SoMMA) disbanded several years ago (due to Covid mostly). However, I did finally get around to framing the many wonderful ones I had collected (or most of them). 27 + 5 = 32 great pieces of Art!

There were some that I was not able to frame at this time….eventually….