Iowa 5" x 7" watercolor on Arches 100% cotton hot press paper |
Each state has its beauty. Iowa, my home state, has plenty of it in skies, fields, and prairies.
I was a nineteen-year-old university student when I met Sally, a white-haired, bandana-wearing woman in her sixties. She was pursuing an MFA in painting. She was so exuberant about creating art that she inspired me to decide I would become an artist, too, once I came closer to retirement. Forty years later, it’s time. As I climb an intentional learning curve in art, I share these posts to keep myself accountable. May my efforts inspire others the way Sally inspired me.
Corner of Morton and San Jose 7" x 10" watercolor on Arches 100% hot press paper |
So this week I took two mornings to drive around our island in search not of subject matter that reaches out and touches me, like travel does, but that at least interests me in terms of light/dark, textural, or color contrasts.
For this painting it was the light/dark contrast of the sun-soaked houses (including that bright white trim of the charcoal-colored house on the right) with the darker trees and the shade they threw on the sides and foreground.
The yellow right-turn sign on the bottom left was the icing on the cake. I left it out of the value study below but decided to keep it in the top painting.
This is not a painting I’ll frame, but painting both the value study below and the full-color painting above did provide me with a couple of hours of transcendent joy as I practiced with lights and darks. And it might make a fun card folded in half to some friend who appreciates my quirky paintings.
Just below is the initial value/color study. For that, I first used just one color, a fun color called "Moonglow" by Daniel Smith that separates into subtle pinks and blues as it dries, to decide where the mediums and darks would go. (I left the lights white.)
Then I added a few pops of color here and there, to begin to experiment with what to use for a color palette.
From there I sketched the composition onto an 10" x 10" format, and painted, trying to stay as loose as possible, and trying not to get caught up in details, especially in the middle ground and back ground. I thought the viewer's eye might first go from tree to tree, but I also thought the diagonal pattern in the foreground might lead the eye to those lighter rocks that go up at an angle just behind the trees.
It's not a perfect painting, but there's some appeal in it for me, both visually and symbolically. In early August I hiked Colorado foothills northwest of Ft. Collins with two long-time friends. We stood by these trees one day; to me, they represent a deepening sisterhood that transcends time and place.
Here's the value/color study, below.
Line of Trees Near Fort Mason 10" x 10" watercolor Arches 100% cotton cold press paper |
I've painted three compositions in the last two days, none of which makes my heart sing. But I've been reviewing wisdom from Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles and Ted Orland, and this passage reminds me that these "blah" paintings are necessary:
"The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars. One of the basic and difficult lessons every artist must learn is that even the failed paintings are essential....[Y]ou learn to make your work by making your work, and a great many of the pieces you make along the way will never stand out as finished art. The best you can do is make art you care about--and lots of it!"
So today a big thank you goes to Howard Jones for new ideas and to Bayles and Orland for inspiration to continue.
Canna Study watercolor and ink on Stonehenge 100% cotton Aqua Hotpress Not satisfied with the last canna painting, I tried this version just to loosen it up. I put a few lines down with a stick dipped in permanent black ink, then sloshed the bright pinks, oranges and yellows for the flower. Probably should have left it at that, as the background got too dark and busy. But will move on to the next one. |
Canna Study 6" x 8" watercolor Arches 100% cotton cold press paper |
Yes, I was reminded yesterday, as I felt this painting going south, that practicing art on a regular basis can sometimes be more frustrating than fun. Once again, I gave in to my perennial temptation to use watercolors like tempera paints. Over four hours' time, I over-worked and over-layered with the paint. Everything got too dark and too defined and I had to go out for a long walk--and for ice cream--to ease the frustration.
Was it all a waste of time? No. Not if I take the lessons forward.
That's why, when someone asks how long it took to do a particular painting, it's reasonable and absolutely correct to say, "Years and years, many failed paintings, and quite a few ice cream cones."
I met Sally forty years ago when I was twenty and she was the one in her sixties. I was a waitress at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant on...