Hillside in Sapphire

Keep Painting Until the Mother Ship Returns How do you get to be a better painter?  H.C Dodd, artist and juror, responded: "Paint, paint and paint some more -  all day, every day.  In due time you'll find the special language that's yours alone."    Asked what his goals were, young artist Jess Woods replied  " To keep painting until the Mother Ship returns!"  I love that. Press on, brave hearts!

I'm continuing my Hillside series here.  Trying to stick with blues and near-blues.

 

Hillside in Sapphire is 8x8" acrylic media and collage on panel.

Sanctuary

Frustration is Your Friend - Danny McCaw recalls his famous dad Dan telling him this. Now first of all, it's pretty hard to believe Dan McCaw Sr. has any idea what frustration even is!   But assuming he does, and assuming he's right, I have a passel of friends in my studio.  I started this painting about 2 months ago.  I just couldn't figure out what to do with it.  I knew I wanted to try a dome, because I've been using a lot of angular elements lately.  But where is the dome? Since I've been working on the "through the trees" theme, I planted some birches around it.  I think it was one solution.  Again, I'm trying to stick with The Blues! 

Through the Trees; Sanctuary is 6x6" acrylic media and collage on panel.

Through the Birches

Where is my Tiger Mother?  Amy Chua has stirred up a delicious controversy with her new book about tough-love child-raising, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother."  In one scene, she's insisting her 7-year old daughter master a piano piece.  She won't let her leave the piano until she gets it right.  Mom sits at the piano next to child, and they work through dinner, late into the night, no breaks for water or bathroom.  Chua says the house became a war zone.  The child was hysterical, and she herself got hoarse from yelling.  But, she says, she believed in her daughter, and they weren't getting up until that piece was perfect.   Deep in the night, her daughter finally mastered it.  Delighted and triumphant, tears barely dry, the little child played the song over and over, not wanting to leave the piano!  Tiger Mom's faith was vindicated.

Now, okay.  I've never done that with my children.  But part of me looks wistfully at Chua's daughter and thinks: "Where is my Tiger Mother?"  Don't you sometimes wish someone believed in you, so much, that they weren't letting you out of the studio until you had a beautiful painting?  You can't go get the tires rotated.  You can't start making dinner.  You have to stay here until you've got it.  But maybe we just got lucky.  Maybe Daily Painters Project (and the Believing Spirit who started it - you know who you are!) is like our own Tiger Mother now.  And doesn't she exhaust us!  She relentlessly pushes us beyond what we would have stuck out alone.  What would we do without her?

Through the Birches just did not come together easily.  I struggled, re-layered, tried another thing. How could something so small take so long?   I imagined Tiger Mom looking over my shoulder.  She had to be tough here.

Through the Birches is 6x6", acrylic media and collage on panel.

Tumbling Garden

The Hithering Spill:  This enchanting term denotes a compositional expression sometimes attributed to Cezanne.  Isn't it a delicious way to describe the luxuriant foreground, falling right out of the picture frame? I have attempted the Hithering Spill here.  I wanted to evoke the abundance of an overgrown hillside garden near the coast. Come hither!

Tumbling Garden is 8x8" acrylic media and collage on panel.

Days of Birds and Flowers

Are We There Yet?  One question I have is; When you're painting more abstractly, how do you know you're done?  How much is enough, and how do you know?  When you paint plein-air, you decide to paint the barn, and when it looks more or less like a barn, you stop.  But what about when you're painting Springtime Romance?  And at the same time your technical challenge is space allocation.  Earthbound and reaching for the stars.  How do you decide it's right? Here I have tried to paint the spring in Valentine's wishes. I've tried to make the red-green combo bounce, and compose elements to express the vivacity, the mystery of joy.  Are we there yet?  A puzzle.

Days of Birds and Flowers is 8x8" acrylic media, collage and charcoal on panel.

Devoted

Are We There Yet? II :  For Valentine's,  a meditation on Devotion.  How do you put that on a 6x6" panel??  Sometimes painting in this small format seems like trying to write the entire play "Hamlet" on a postage stamp.  You want to express many facets, but you have to realize that leaving quiet space is important.  Nuance without clutter.  Not easy.   So... Another springy thought. 

Devotion is 6x6" acrylic media, collage and charcoal on panel.

Hillside in Red and Blue

Here I tried a red/blue harmony in a modified cruciform composition.  Red melts into orange and blue melts into violet.  The magnificent watercolorist Ratindra Das composes very exciting paintings using one rule : No parallel lines!  It’s hard to do.  But it makes for a dynamic surface.  If you then add some parallel lines, it’s a discord.  Interesting.

Hillside in Red and Blue is 6×6″ Acrylic media and collage on panel.

Love the Coastal Fog

Love the Coastal Fog - January 28, 2011 

Quoth the Sage : “At the end of this Challenge, if you have a stack of paintings that look like your pre-Challenge paintings, you have failed.  If, instead, at the end of this Challenge you have a stack of exciting new stuff – along with a stack of lousy paintings, too — you WIN!!  Living in your comfort zone isn’t what this is about.”

The gauntlet is cast.  So…my challenge is threefold.

1) Try a new medium.  All these years I’ve painted in oil.  Now I will try acrylic and mixed media.  2) Work on Design.  Instead of painting stuff, design an interesting use of space.  3) Create mysterious texture.  Use layering, scraping, collage; whatever it takes to make expressive texture.

That clicking sound…is my knees knocking!

So off I go, groping in the murk.  I will suspend for now the usual judgment calls on my paintings, and see what emerges.  Let the fun begin! 

Love the Coastal Fog 8″x8″ acrylic media and collage

Valentine to Winter

Valentine to Winter   I took some lovely walks after the December snowstorm in the East.  I’ve painted the gorgeous bare trees, snow and barns before – in oil.  And bigger.  In honor of the challenge, though, this is done with acrylic, collage, ink and charcoal.  I sure love the texture you can get from layering all these media.  And it’s just a little nugget of winter. 

Valentine to Winter is 6×6″ acrylic media, collage and charcoal on panel.

Love Reading Dogs

Love Reading Dogs 



Cross Training Many wonderful artists cross-train.  That is, they switch between oil and watermedia, for example.  John Singer Sargent painted in oil and watercolor.  So does the wonderful Ken Howard.  The magnificent Frank Webb paints primarily in watercolor, but has also painted in oil.  And the ever-curious Robert Burridge uses any water media or support that intrigues him.  Maybe cross-training helps us move to another level by preventing comfort from setting in.

Love Reading Dogs is 8x8" acrylic media and collage on panel.

Polpero Harbor

Polpero Harbor is 11x14" Acrylic media and collage on paper.

Path to the Sun

Path to the Sun is 12x16" acrylic media and collage on panel.

Ode to Istanbul

Ode to Istanbul is 12x16" Acrylic media and collage on canvas.

Moon Over Sorrento

I've experimented with a number of paint applications here.  As a wonderful artist once said: Layer, layer, layer!  If it's not fascinating yet, try something else on top.  It goes pretty slowly.  But so far I can't find a better way to end up with intriguing texture.

Moonrise Over Sorrento is 11x15" acrylic media and collage on illustration board.

Beach Day

Thanksgiving at the beach is a tradition with us. The sun casts long shadows at this time of year and gives an early sunset!  Everyone watches for the green flash.

Exuberance 1

Thanksgiving Day at the beach is a tradition.  This time I got  the girls to don white dresses and dance along the line of day. 

Exuberance 1 is 10x10" Oil on canvas.

Exuberance 2

Exuberance 2 is 10x 10" oil on canvas.

Meet at the Prado

Meet at the Prado is 8x8" oil on canvas.

Sundrenched Alleyway

Sundrenched Alleyway is 11x14" oil on canvas.

Rome in Heels

Rome in Heels is 9x12" oil on canvas.