Category: Sources of inspiration

Equal time

This is Perkins. I am showing him to you because I love him as much as Zeke. He isn’t as showy as Zeke; the first year he lived here I had to carefully study him for distinctive markings because he is so common looking. If he were dead on the side of the road, I might not know it was my cat. (If you must know, he has pink toes, but he is NOT a girly-man cat – he is Mighty Hunter!) He has yellow eyes, a pink nose, a black and gray checkerboard patterned tail and the tiniest wussiest little meow you ever heard in a such a fierce hunter. Perkins is kind and gentle and loving, unless you are a gopher. He is the only cat in my life that has never turned teeth-and-claws on me – you know how they do when they have had enough of whatever it is that they get enough of. What does this have to do with art? There is beauty everywhere I look!

Gathering wood and ideas

Every place I go is an opportunity to find painting and drawing subjects. Today we went to a pretty place for a load of firewood. It involves lots of gates to open and close, and the road requires a slow speed. This means there is much time for looking around.

If the air were more clear, you could see better color on the distant slopes. Black oak and chamese (which I have no idea how to spell!) are showing. Also, there is a clue where we are in the distance. . . I know, you are thinking, “what is it with this chick and Mineral King??” But I’m not telling where we went, so there.

Nice, hunh?

This is what black oaks do in the fall. Don’t worry, we didn’t cut anything down. We only cut wood that is already dead on the ground, promise!

Inspiration through change of scenery

We snuck off to a different place for the weekend, and it was beautiful. There was almost more time on the road than at our destination, but it is better to view that as an abundance of knitting time. Artists are told to see new places for fresh inspiration and then come home with “new eyes” (I could use a bit more distance in my vision, but I don’t think this is what “new eyes” means.) Here is some of what we saw: This is Kokanee Salmon, swimming upstream to spawn (that means to lay eggs). Nice color – the shockingly brilliant red against the duller greens, complementary colors.

It snowed up high. The orangey-yellow and blue are good together, almost complementary colors.

Tahoe means “big water” – it is! And in this shot the mountains are bluer than the lake, although there were other views that showed the reverse.

The aspens are changing more slowly than in Mineral King, even though the elevation is the same here. I saw a tree with orangey-red leaves at the top and it was still green at the bottom! There were cars pulled over all along the highway – lots of cameras out there!

Borrowed camera

My friend, whom I shall refer to as (the other) JB (she says that brings to mind images of someone chewing on a cigar!), expressed a desire to hike to a lake out of Mineral King. Because we would be driving up from the flatlands and hiking on the same day, I chose Monarch Lake for its well graded trail. That is a lake I rarely visit. It has no trees, and in my memory it isn’t as attractive as other lakes up there. So, it seemed like a good time to compare my mind’s image to reality. Wow! If this is ugly, a pretty lake would strike me blind! So here we were in this beautiful place with its fall colors coming on and I HAD NO CAMERA! Fortunately, JB had her point and shoot (forgot to ask how many megapixels!) and she was more than willing to share. I’m sure her generosity was not affected in the slightest by the slightly wild look in my eye and bulging vein in my forehead. I confess: I filled her memory card and drained her battery. She continued to be gracious about it all, because that is the kind of person JB is. It was a wonderful time together, and an altogether terrific hike!

Why?

There are four main reasons for choosing the subjects I do: 1. Someone pays me. 2. This will most likely sell. 3. A show is coming. 4. OH! How Beautiful!

Someone Pays Me: this is called a commission. It is good to please people, to create for them with their input. It is almost a guarantee of happiness all the way around, and that is too good to turn down. Besides, I love to draw and paint, and if you have been reading my blog, you know that I would rather draw something ugly than be a secretary or waitress!

(No, this is not ugly!!)

This Might Sell: oranges are the best example I have. Since learning to oil paint, I have painted at least 34 still life orange pictures! This makes me wonder if all the practice at painting oranges has caused them to be better than any other subject, which increases the sales, which provides more practice, around and around and around.

There’s Nothing Like A Navel, oil, 18×24, framed, $495

A Show Is Coming: People like to have choices, like to see new inventory, and like to do business with businesses that are successful (i.e. selling!). We all like to see variety in colors, styles and prices. I know that the little things sell, but I also know that the big things make my displays look more impressive. This means I have to paint like a machine to create all these choices. I can do this.

These 3 oil paintings are patiently waiting for me to continue, now that The Mural is finished!

OH! How Beautiful!: Almost everywhere I go, I take my camera. There is beauty everywhere, and I have learned (the hard way, of course) that if something is looks good, TAKE THE PHOTO NOW! These aren’t always subjects that sell, but they are irresistible to me.

A Thinking Place, colored pencil, 14×18, framed, $350

Photography

When I was a kid and liked to draw, I collected a folder of pictures that I liked. Some were photographs, some were drawings, and all were interesting to me for various reasons. In college I took photography and learned to develop and print my own photos. Wow! My real collection of photos began at that point. They were mostly slides back then, the most inconvenient method of viewing photos ever invented. I took them because they cost less than prints and took up less room. If something seemed particularly great, I could have a print made. Then, I switched to prints for more immediate gratification. Everywhere I go, my camera is with me and I am looking for anything interesting, anything at all that might become a painting or a drawing. I have tons and tons of photos, more than I can possibly keep organized in their alloted space. Each time I file the stacks that accumulate, I toss those that I know will never be useful. The stacks accumulate because I am continually going through the categories, seeking visual aids for whatever is in progress. The point here is that if you are planning to be an artist, particularly if you are like me and need to see it in order to draw it, LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY!!! This skill has been one of the most necessary of my career, and those photos have helped me out time after time. Here are some examples: in planning the collage drawing for C&P, they asked me to put in bits and pieces from calendar pictures. That is breaking copyright law, so I only work from my own photos. No problem – I have photos of everything they requested! In working on the 6-panel mural that has no photos and is supposed to be generic, my photos have helped me out over and over. Sequoia groves, oak groves, trees and shrubs along a river, rocks on a hillside, rocks up close, rocks by the river, mountains in the distance, hills in the distance, hills up close. . . I have them! Of course, there is the continual problem that no matter how often I take these sorts of photos, the light always needs to be on the other side or it needs to be in a different season. So, I continue to take photos!

The Best Source

Do you remember being given art assignments in grammar school, high school, or even college? They were generally focused on ways to use different media, and somehow we were expected to be instinctively creative enough to come up with an idea to illustrate the teacher’s vague instructions. “Show transparency” “Design a container for air” “Make a self-portrait but don’t draw your face” (as if we could draw our own faces at that point!) Those assignments instantly caused the problem of WHAT to draw or paint or sculpt. Endless thumbing through magazines provided by the teacher only occasionally solved the problem of WHAT (never mind the copyright issues!) Now, I hear similar woes from my drawing students. “Oh no, I’m almost finished and I don’t know what to draw next!” I remember that awful feeling of lostness and a blank mind. I watch them struggle through the binder of (copyrighted, but explained) photos and my own envelope of photos to find an image to draw. Part of the struggle comes from something I tell everyone who draws with me: Pick something you LOVE because you will be staring at it for a long long time. How do you pick something you love from a pile of other people’s pictures?? Other people’s pictures represent other people’s experiences. (Reminds me of one of the many things I learned from That Shirley Who Can Do Anything. When she owned a store, she would never buy a product to sell unless she had “held it, smelled it and felt it”. Pretty hard to love a view or an item if we haven’t “held it, smelled it and felt it”!) The point is that the older we get, the more we experience, and it is precisely this experience that gives us the ideas! Now that I am pushing 50 with an ever-shorter stick, the ideas are overwhelming me! Everything I see, every place I go, ideas are flooding into my brain! Nothing in my life is exempt from consideration for a drawing or painting! (The only necessary filter is the consideration whether or not anyone else will like it, because if my art doesn’t sell, I will have to get a job.)

A Good Yarn – colored pencil – SOLD

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

After careful consideration, I decided to not take my paints with me to the land of no electricity. Instead, I gathered new experiences and information (and photos, of course) so that the time would truly feel like a vacation. (Why does one need a vacation from a wonderful life? I dunno. . . because that’s the way it’s done??) So here are some images from that time for you to enjoy:

This is a flower I have never seen before – it is called Western Monkshood

This might be my favorite wildflower – the color isn’t right here, but it is still fabulous! It is some sort of Gentian – Explorer’s? Hiker’s?

Here is the yellow flower that seems to stand out more than any other – it has the unfortunate name of Bigelow Sneezeweed!

Here it is in its setting – doesn’t it pop??

I was graciously shown a wonderful new place – this is a view looking OUT of a cave! (No I can’t tell you where – very very top secret!)

This is a view as we were leaving the spot – despite the rain, it was a fantastic hike, an invigorating 12 miles of new visuals!

One morning I actually got up early and went in search of sunshine.

Inspiration, Part 8

Central Coast Pier – sold

My friend Debbie and I have known each other since high school. She returned to college a few years ago after raising her children. She had a desire to be an art major, and she has absorbed knowledge like a sponge. We have attended workshops, shows and seminars together, and bounce art ideas off one another without stopping the entire time we are together. Before I was a painter, she used to remind me over and over, “black is my friend”. This was to encourage me to get my darks as dark as possible in my drawings. That was inspiring, because it showed me how to make better art. HOW is big with me. . . anyone can spout criticism, but it takes an insightful and knowledgable person to have a way to fix the problem and to be able to articulate the solution. Debbie also inspired me by encouraging me when I was wavering on the decision of learning to oil paint. She told me exactly what to buy, answered many basic technical questions, and never let on how shocked she was at my total ignorance!

Angels in the Wilderness

Today I had the privilege of hearing author Amy Racina speak about her 4 days of survival alone with 2 broken legs in a remote part of the Sierra. I used to be a backpacker and was always taught to NEVER NEVER NEVER go backpacking alone (not that I wanted to!) Amy is far more adventurous (reckless?), brave (foolish?) and strong (incredibly!) than I have ever been, and her survival story is remarkable, using extraordinary physical strength, rational thought and mental determination. She is a captivating speaker, and when she told of seeing someone after 4 days of dragging herself along, it brought tears to my eyes. I bought a copy of her book, Angels in the Wilderness. I hope I can put it down sometime before midnight tonight! http://www.angelsinthewilderness.com/