Springing 2012

Looks like spring is finally on it's way. It was snowing last weekend when I spent a few days in Maine. But, here in CT, we are enjoying a few warm afternoons. A plein air painting friend and I found this barn along the side of the road that was having a new roof put on and an addition on the back. Several guys were carrying ladders around or climbing on the roof. While my friend (an oil painter) enjoyed painting the red barn to my right, I (a watercolorist) thoroughly enjoyed painting the white barns in front of me. As I look at the painting now, I am disappointed that the proportions of the barn in my painting are not accurate, but the subject was irresistible! When I went back the next day, the new roof was on, so I will return in a week or so when the forsythia may be in bloom.

Life Drawing

My house is being worked on today. Lots of hammering, etc. So, I was very pleased to learn a local art association was this morning offering an open studio life class. It's an event I often attended years ago. The model's poses vary in length . . . usually four different poses held for a very short time, two 20 minute poses, and a final long pose. I never know whether I'm going to draw or paint, but I always can count on the practice being well needed by me. Today was another great example of how wonderful life class can be. The four short poses gave me an opportunity to remind myself that drawing what isn't there (negative space) is as important as drawing what is there. The two twenty minute poses reminded me to be brave, experiment, let the watercolor paint do its own thing. The painting shown here is a twenty minute pose on a paper similar to hot press. And, the final long pose reminded me how easily I mess things up by overworking. Too dark, too fast. My glazes went messy and I thought too much about making the subject perfect. And lastly, after the studio class, several of us sat around and shared art talk over bagged lunches. I'm home now and looking at a painting I should finish today. The paint is lacking life and spontaneity, but the drawing has a spontaneous quality. So, I'm thinking I need to make the same painting in 20 minutes and stop myself. Lay down the paint once and let it be. Maybe try a different surface. Be brave. And put open studio on the calendar in an effort to attend at least twice a month.

It's a New Year!

My big plan for the end of 2011 was to wrap up several projects and start 2012 with a cleaner studio and fewer things on my calendar that take me away from painting. The plan fell apart when we had two bouts of unusually bad weather in CT and then, of course, the holidays which consume some time but are wonderful family events. So today I return to the plan. A week or so ago, I cleaned out a considerable number of digital photos and tossed them away, recovering about 2G of space on my computer. I could easily toss another 2G, but just yesterday I received an e-mail from someone asking me to paint a small piece from his photo (but will reference a photo or fifty that I took years ago). Computers are great! In about a half hour I was able to give him a positive reply and now have a small project to focus my attention on. Among other things accomplished at the beginning of this new year, I have cleaned and burned paintings that were never going to be completed. These watercolors were nice enough for me to keep for reference, but not nice enough that I wanted anyone to see them, and were a storage problem. I have another batch ready to go . . . almost. And, I tossed another giant bag of stuff I picked up at trade shows. Best of all, I went out in the cold twice and painted. The colors were wonderful although muted. It was difficult to settle into a subject, because the more I looked, the more became interesting! I settled on a BIG red, red barn with white trim for the center of interest, patches of green green grass, tree groups tinges with yellow ochre and russets, and periwinkly mauve distant hills. A bit cliche, but always good practice.