Category: Thoughts

Things I’m learning in Artworld.

How Long??

One of the most frequently asked questions about my art is “How long did it take you to do that?”

I, who am usually honest to a fault, dance around the answer to that question. There isn’t a straightforward answer, and when there is, I don’t like it!

Here are some of my answers:
1. Why? do you want to calculate my hourly wage?
2. It went really quickly this time.
3. I can’t believe how long this took!
4. Who has time to calculate hours?
5. The side of my brain that makes art isn’t the side of my brain that can tell time.

The plain truth is that I don’t keep track of my time. Most of my work is produced in fits and starts rather than sitting down in the a.m. and getting up at the end of the day to check off the 8 hour box.

When a commission customer asks about how long, I assume (usually correctly) that the question has to do with when the piece will be ready. I ask when he would like it. Then I do my very best to finish it by that time, and I haven’t missed a deadline or promise yet! (except for the time I was in a big fat car wreck, but that’s for another post. . . or maybe not.)

Say what??

In drawing lessons, sometimes it is difficult to articulate my thoughts. A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes a thousand words still can’t explain the picture. Often, I can’t find the right word, so I will make one up. The funny part is that my students understand the meaning!

This morning a woman was working on some boulders but something wasn’t looking believable. The problem was that she had inadvertantly made potatoes and an oversized pinto bean! Once we had that figured out, she asked how to draw some grass behind the boulders. I was trying to keep her from making a lot of little lines all in a perfect row. The instructions came out, “You need to sort of bounce your clumpage along – that’s it, just horizontalize it a bit more”. She got it.

No potatoes allowed in my river!! The title of the piece is “Spring Run-off” and it is one of the few pieces I can’t bear to part with.

inspiration, part 5 (open mind)

Sweet Seat II – 8×10 – oil on wrapped canvas – $80

My friend Lisa inspires me with her hard work, determination, and encouraging helpful criticism. We met the first semester of our freshman year at Redwood High School in an art class. She has been teaching junior high art for a number of years, and is now working on her master of fine arts degree in an online course. This adds about 30 hours to her work week, a killer schedule.

Lisa is an abstract painter, and has opened my eyes and mind to this style of art. Most abstract “art” leaves me scratching my head with wonder and amazement not only at the mess on the canvas, but at how it passes for art, enters a gallery and gets sold! I used to think it was nothing but an emotional outburst in a 2-dimensional form, but watching Lisa plan and create her work has changed my mind. Good abstract art does exist, and it is a result of hard work without the usual benefit of a scene, object or photo to guide the artist.

So now my mind is a bit more open, but I exercise caution in this area, lest my brains leak out.

Inspiration, part 4

There is an art newsletter called Robert Genn Twice Weekly Letter. Sometimes I don’t read it for weeks, then slam through a bunch of them at once. His writing reminds me a bit of the way the water keeps charging full force over the dam in a seemingly endless supply. The man never runs out of ideas, and he really makes me think!

Here are some of his subjects: pushing oneself through mediocrity, 14 points for jurying art, 16 ways to keep yourself working, attitudes necessary when working en plein air (French for on site), kalopsia (the condition of things appearing more beautiful than they actually are), works on paper versus works on canvas, and the way one artist creates caricatures. These short letters come 2 times a week, on and on and on! And, they are free!

www.painterskeys.com/subscribe/

First things first

Washington Navels – graphite – 11×14 framed – $175

A man sent me some photos of his paintings and asked my opinion. It was unchanged from the last time he asked, which was unchanged from the previous time, which hadn’t changed since he quit drawing lessons to learn to paint!

My opinion is that one must learn to draw before learning to paint, IF one wants paintings to look believable. My point was not to badger him into returning to drawing lessons; it was to let him know that until he learned to draw accurately, his paintings would not be satisfying to him.

When I began painting, I chose subjects that were too difficult for my skill level. When I figured this out, I backed up to what I always tell my beginning drawing students: pick a simple single object, one with which you are already familiar. That object for me is oranges. (There is that series idea again!) At last count, I think I was on Oranges XXXIII. (for those of you in Rio Linda, that means number 33)

In no way do I mean to criticize this eager man who really really really wants to learn to paint! Au contraire – I understand him completely! When I was learning to knit, my attitude was “Scarves? We don’t need no stinkin’ scarves!!”, and my first project was a sweater. Not just a simple pullover, but a cardigan, complete with button bands and button holes! Needless to say, I am the proud owner of many weird sweaters. But, after 3 years of knitting, I now own quite a few not-so-weird ones also. So, one can probably learn to paint IF one is learning to see and understand shapes, proportions, perspective and values in the process.

And, the illustration above is not a simple single object. If a beginner chose this picture, I’d advise cropping it to a single orange with part of one leaf. Get the idea?

Inspiration, part 3

A few years ago, Jack White (see Inspiration, part 2) referred to someone named Diana Botkin, and in the next issue there was an article by her! She wrote beautifully, and was clearly a wonderful person. (Yes, you CAN tell that by reading someone’s work!)

So, I contacted her to see if perhaps we are related. We married men who have the same last name, but, alas, we can’t find a connection. Meanwhile, I have learned so much from her – asking her technical questions, watching her market her work, admiring her discipline, loving her good character.

This woman is just incredible and her paintings of Northern Idaho and mothers with children are very very beautiful.

Here is her website: http://www.DianaMosesBotkin.com, her Daily Painters Gallery page: http://www.dailypainters.com/artist_gallery.php?artist_id=817 and her A Painting a Day blog: http://DianaMosesBotkin.blogspot.com

Why am I telling you this? Because Diana inspires me, and I hope that you too will be inspired by seeing her work!

Summer?

This weekend we went to Mineral King to open the cabin for the season. We were all excited to begin summer. It snowed on the way up, snowed in the afternoon, and more snow is predicted for this afternoon and evening. So, I guess more summer will be revealed in the fullness of time. . .

Check out this photo; it is the same view as the painting beneath it!

Eagle/Mosquito Trailhead – 8×10 – $80

Inspiration, part 2

Uncle Roger, private collection

When beauty appears, inspiratioin is spontaneous, easy and instant. The harder part of inspiration is motivation: what keeps me going, prevents me from quitting, answers my many questions, and pulls me through the dry spells? Most often it is people; they inspire me through encouragement, helpful criticism, and written materials. (And, I firmly believe that one must be an optimist to be self-employed!)

Art Calendar is the best magazine for professional artists that I have ever seen. Its focus is the business end of art. It is full of information by and about artists who are earning their livings solely by their art. Through it I have “met” several people who have changed the course of my career, from a pencilhead to an oil painter.

When each issue arrives, I immediately look for the article by Jack White, artist and author of books on marketing art. His wife is quite a successful artist also, probably because she is good (duh) and because Jack promotes her! Jack isn’t a highly educated man or a smooth writer but he is a great communicator. He writes sort of like President Bush talks – Texas is the common denominator there.

www.jackwhiteartist.com and www.senkarik.com are where you can find Jack White and his wife Mikki’s artwork.

Inspiration, part 1

Sometimes people ask what my sources of inspiration are. Most are probably asking about what gives me ideas for drawing – that is simple. My life experiences give me those ideas. When I was a kid, a teen and even a young adult, it was a challenge to decide what to draw. As I aged, the number of choices grew, and now, by the time I have sorted through all my ideas, there is hardly any time left to draw or paint!!

So often I have read biographies and artist’s statements that say “I have always been fascinated by light and shadow” or perhaps by “reflection” or “movement” or “textures” or “shapes”.

For me, the answer is simpler, and perhaps a bit of a cliche. It is BEAUTY! I am inspired by beauty! Sometimes it is natural and other times man-made, sometimes it is rustic simplicity, the way colors look together or the patina of age. Most often it is the way sunlight makes a normal object look beautiful. Once I had a job in a kitchen at a summer camp, and my coworkers would laugh at me when I would notice the beautiful color of iced tea, or the way the colors in the salad complimented one another. (But I am not scarred by the ridicule, so there!)

Now I think back to how I noticed colors, and wonder why I chose graphite pencil as my medium? Life might be full of surprises, but it definitely is full of questions!

Primary Colors

This is my palette for oil painting. It consists of 2 reds, 2 blues, 1 yellow and white, and all the colors I use are mixed with these 6. Before I started painting, I read articles, looked at books, and quizzed painters I knew. The ones that made the most sense to me were working from the primaries, mixing all their own colors. Several reasons are given: 1. Colors are cleaner, rather than the dreaded “muddy” look; 2. It keeps the palette less crowded; 3. It requires a greater understanding of colors and how they interact in mixing. 4. Less things to buy is a reason seldom given, but it certainly matters to me, because the more stuff I own, the more stuff breaks (or gets lost.)

I think there is a bit of an unspoken snob factor here. There is some pride in being able to turn those basic colors into any color one wants. However, there is a color I cannot mix! So, I gave in and today on the Seatrain mural I used carbazole dioxazine violet. It sounds like something for killing cockroaches, but it was the most wonderful purple in the world!! My friend working on her Master’s of Fine Arts insists the proper word for purple is “violet”, but I am a bit of a DBO. . . after all, I grew up in Ivanhoe! It looks rather blue here, but in reality it is the purplish-blue of lupine and was a great relief from all the orange.

(in case you are wondering – Ditch-Bank-Okie)