Biggest sigh. Another art camp wrapped up. Of course, the art doesn't stop and neither does the fun. Yet it remains one of my favorite events of the year. And yes, we're all worn out!
Years ago, I did this version of a gate in Giverny near Monet's house. I did three in gouache and one in color pencil and thought "maybe I'm better now," so I did it in watercolor. Here they are in my journal from 2016.
Today is Nicole's Friday Face-Off portrait challenge, in which we share portraits we have done of another. Now, if I was really doing this right, it would be something more recent than these. But, as they say, "it's been a month" (or two). So a couple of oldies. I'll kick it off with Rick. (All of these were done in watercolor on paper.)
I subscribe to an art newsletter from the delightful Lucia Leyfield, who offers online classes and work-alongs. In a recent issue she posted the quote above and boy, did that resonate.
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| From my art journal, a good 10 or more years ago. |
Sketchbook Revival 2023, hosted by Karen Abend, wrapped up in late April and it was a good one! For the uninitiated, it is a collection of two daily workshops (archived for a month) focusing on various art-related practice -- painting, urban sketching, breaking down your own creative barriers, collage and more. Finally, I'm sharing some of the things I painted during that time.
I chose to do mostly the painting/drawing sessions, though I did watch a couple of the collage pieces. Even though I've done enough of it that I don't really want to do it anymore, you can still learn about color, design and placement regardless of media.
Thank you, dear blog friends, for your words of encouragement and support on my last post. I think the cardioversion was successful -- at least, it was that day. Whether it sticks or not we'll see. But I'm very behind on life in general, so please forgive me if I don't reply to your last comments or am slow to visit. Doing my best to catch up!
As I was pulling together things for next week's art sale, I realized I hadn't shared a lot of art from this summer or fall. Some of these are will be included in inventory for the November sale, others are for fun and a few are pieces from the Este MacLeod color challenges, which means they are really out of my comfort zone!
Here we go!
A year or two ago, a blogger friend gave me several partially used and very lovely sketchbooks that had been passed on to her. There was a hitch to it -- She said, "you must use them and fill them up!"
It has taken awhile. The paper is beautiful and the artist who started them was very good and I didn't want to just doodle in them! But I've finally filled the first of them (and worked in others as well)! And I've been rather pleased to open them up and see progress and diversity within.
Yes, I have been painting a bit! I decided I need to finally fill my practice book, and since I had done Sketchbook Revival and then a few things during Workshop Week, I'd just keep at it. Soon I'll pull out the good paper and get back to animal portraits and other images but for now, this has been fine!
Rick diligently practices his classical guitar every day. And guess what? He gets better and better. In the summer, I paint every day. And guess what? I get better and better too.
Then I put everything away for months at a time and when I go to start again, I realize how far I've fallen. So when the Sketchbook Revival free workshops began, I decided to jumpstart my creativity!
I'm home for a few days and it will be time to check out the Ditch again. But I have a feeling I won't see the terrific sight I saw on one of my last visits before taking off! As you know, every now and then when I go to the Ditch I see something different. Sometimes it's an animal or bird I've not spotted. This time it was artists!
Although I haven't shared much in the art line of late, it hasn't been a summer devoid of creativity. It seems that the season has been a little topsy turvy in a lot of ways, between Rick's stuff, a trip back home for me, cousin visits -- all good (well, not Rick's stuff!) but meaning less time at the art table. But I do have a few things to share, starting with my cousin Bonnie's birthday gift!
I haven't done an art post in awhile so I thought I'd catch up with a few things I've been working on. As you know, I'm very fond of doing pet portraits and I've had a couple of lovely models to work with lately.
For whatever reason (and you can probably spell that reason "W-I-N-T-E-R") I've felt somewhat listless lately, though I had to admit, I have a list of to-do things as long as your arm! I'm chalking some of this up to my sinus infection and adjusting to my new a-fib meds, but the polar vortex isn't helping.
Most of the house is put back together after Christmas (though I still have to put it all neatly away in the basement -- at least it is down there!). Yesterday I washed the floors in the kitchen and bathroom and felt I deserved a medal. (The painting below isn't new but it does capture winter's feel, even though this spot is near Bath, England.)
I'm in a creative dry spell, having only turned out one poem for Rick's book and considering a gear-switch on his project. But I did spend a little time at the art table. Apart from a few sketch drawings in my Covid journal, I hadn't really touched the paints since October and it felt good to play with my watercolors again. This is my friend Kirk's dog, who had center stage on his holiday card this year. I'm very pleased with this one.
This was another version from a different photo. It's much looser and captures the feeling but not as detailed and I don't think as good as the solo-pup.
Here's Carson at the science museum. It doesn't look like Carson (Toddler #1) at all but not a half-bad illustration of a little boy having fun in a space suit.
And finally, my cousin's cottage at the lake. I spent a lot of time in my first 12 summers in this wonderful spot, where my mom and her sisters spent their childhoods beginning in 1923. I don't think this is done yet, but it captures the idea. I have a feeling I'll do this one over and over till I get it right.
I leave you with an older painting but one I had printed for some valentines.
It just seems to fit the week! Keep cozy, wear your mask and fill the world with love!
Sharing with: Tuesday Turn About / Let's Keep in Touch / Pink Saturday / Love Your Creativity / Meraki Link Party
Powell served in the British Army but for others around the world he is best known as the founder of the world-wide Scouting movement, first the Boy Scouts and then with his sister Agnes, of the Girl Guide and Girl Scout movement. He also wrote the first editions of "Scouting for Boys."
What people may not realize about Baden-Powell was that he was a remarkable artist who painted almost every day from his childhood. His father was an amateur artist as was his grandmother and he came by it naturally and with support.
He had an interesting style, shifting his brush from one hand to the other with little change in style or skill. He worked in pen and ink doing advance sketches for his paintings. He spent many of is later years in Africa and many of his paintings reflect this.
Baden-Powell's first British Army commission sent him to India.
His letters home included stories of the people and sites he observed and they were liberally illustrated with images describing the scenes. He was also an avid art journalist -- long before art journaling became a "thing."
He also received an invitation from The Graphic, a newspaper offering payment for his sketches from the front.
Baden-Powell was an avid traveler, both through his Army commissions and independently. His travels took him to Switzerland...
Greece...
....and to Canada.
Some of his work was done while touring Tunis and Algeria. He wrote many books and often his later works focused on African themes.
In 1910, he retired from the army organized the scouting movement. When girls appeared at the first Scout rally in 1909, they told him they were "Girl Scouts." He and his sister then formed the Girl Guides, which evolved into Girl Scouts in some areas of the world.
When Baden-Powell retired in 1937, he and his wife, Olave, whom he had married in 1912, moved to Nyeri, Kenya, where he died and was buried in 1941.
I wonder what he would think of recent controversies in the Scouting world. I know that being an Eagle Scout was a big part of Rick's growth and development and always spoke highly of the movement.
...and certainly an inspiration.
Sharing with: Pink Saturday / Timeless Thursdays
I can't count the number of times I've had comments like "I wish I was creative like you." Or, "I just can't do art at all." Big mistake -- linking art with creativity. Yes, it is creative, but it's also technical, too, or can be. There are so many things that are creative that we don't always put in that category.
Then there is labeling -- one child is labeled "The Artist" and the other, "Susie Homemaker." I've seen this happen more than once. But when I was a child, it happened to me.
We should never allow ourselves (or others) to be labeled. It holds us back. Or maybe it makes us fight back harder.
My cousin Patty -- my three-years-younger cousin -- is indeed a natural. From the time she was seven or eight, she was drawing remarkable things -- chubby babies, horses (beginning at the tail and working up) and more. I drew stick people with round heads and triangles for dresses.
I tried so hard to be an artist like Patty. I was nine or ten and my mom did her best to help, making sure I had books and materials to help me learn. She encouraged me in every way possible. But one day, hoping to build my esteem in other talents, she said, "You know, everyone has a gift. Patty is an artist. You write. That's just as important."
Oh, did that make me mad. And more determined. I studied fashion ads in the newspaper, Millie the Model comic books. I learned how to draw a profile. When I was in sixth grade, the teacher called my mom in for a conference to ask if I was "all right." For my art project, I drew probably a dozen floating profiles in a sea of blue that I titled "Heaven." No deep psychological issue or loss -- I just hadn't learned learned how to draw good bodies yet.
I copied things. All kinds of things. You couldn't tell my Charlie Brown and Lucy from Charles Schulz's! I wouldn't call it art, but I would call it trying. And that's how you get to Carnegie Hall -- practice, practice, practice.
Every summer at the lake, Patty and I would paint, quite often the smooth rocks we would pull from the water.
I would paint little children in the style of Joan Walsh Anglund. Patty would paint clever, original things. But by then it didn't matter if it was original or not. I was painting. (I still use those rocks as door stops at the lake!)
When I left the office, I volunteered in my community, did some freelance writing and lots of crafty things. I made jewelry and ornaments, knit, needlepointed, worked on my photography and painted sweatshirts (which really isn't the kind of painting I had in mind.) I started doing some art shows. They wouldn't pay the rent, but I was being creative.
Meanwhile, four hours away, Patty was involved in her work doing direct sales and marketing. She was good at it, she had "the knack." But she didn't have time for painting anymore.
Flash forward several decades. I rediscovered art, this time with collage and art journaling, joining groups and going to workshops where I largely did mixed media work. No drawing required.
Then about five or six years ago, I fell in love with watercolor. Who would imagine that I would be doing commissions for pet portraits and paintings of homes? And yes, I still write.
Patty? Well, she started painting again, maybe ten or fifteen years ago, focusing on wildlife and landscapes.
She's had work in shops but mostly does it for the love of it.
And you'll never guess. She is writing. Her poetry is magnificent -- it flows from her, almost unbidden and as a series her poems weave a magical, otherworldly story.
Our Greg is a remarkable artist and somehow is making a living from it in a competitive world, working in large form. From the time he was six or seven and drew a figure of a guitar player -- in proportion -- we knew he had a gift.
His younger brother Kevin was "the athlete." More than once when they were growing up, Kevin would say "Greg is the artist, I can't do that." (The art teacher they shared in high school several years apart did nothing to help build esteem or skill, either.) Yet even when Kevin was about eleven, when we went to a museum, he could look at art and seemed to have an understanding of it. Not of the techniques used, but the thought behind it.
Yes, Greg is still doing his art and making a career of it. Today, Kevin spends the time he isn't working or playing with the boys making furniture and home accessories, carefully working a board of wood into tables and wine racks. And, when it comes to household things, like building a pergola or a home reno thing, Kevin's your guy. I would call his work art.
I believe we all are creative in our own way. It's how our universe survives. Some of us paint or draw, knit or build, sew or work with intricate miniatures. Others of us create gorgeous tablescapes, have remarkable gardens or develop fabulous recipes. And don't try to convince me that computer programmers who can master code well beyond me or scientists who combine elements that can create vaccines and medications aren't creative. It's just a different way of thinking and I'm grateful they can do that!
We all have the ability to create. To think out of the box one way or another and come up with something meaningful. My art will never be in a museum but that's not why I do it. I do it for love, for fun, and because when I do, I feel better, more at peace.
And we all need our own peace.
I haven't shared much in the line of art lately, but I have been doing a bit, especially when I've been north. And I've been taking advantage of the season!
I love painting leaves. Just trying to match the paint color is a good exercise.
There's no shortage of natural subjects. I'm very fond of the acorns!
I've been doing a few online watercolor classes, including a flower painting class.
I loved it so much, I made a bunch of bookmarks in the style! They just need to be cut.
I'm thinking ahead to the holidays with this small painting.
But I'll leave you with the next holiday on our schedule -- a vintage style piece, based on an old postcard from my collection.
'Tis the season!
Sharing with Rain's Art Date
