Hi Everyone!
I wrote the Sudden Insights part of this post a couple of week ago but for some reason it only showed up on my Facebook page. I’m adding to it this week. My apologies for the wonkyness.
May 26, 2017: Sudden Insights
Who else is living through monsoon season? We had tornados yesterday in three counties including where my family lives and where we live. We are all safe and unscathed, but there were places with extensive damage. I have not heard of any injuries, but I would be not be surprised if there were some. Most bad weather you have some time to prepare, but tornadoes are not so kind. I once had a tree go through my bedroom. I still get edgy during a storm thirty years later.
Thanks to a combination of monsoon weather (no gardening can be done in this relentless rain), a holiday week (before the long Memorial Day weekend) and one of my major suppliers moving their location (closed all week) I have had some extra time on my hands. Nope, as tempting as it is, I have not been napping. I have been painting and drawing.
After last week’s post about working on portraits I found myself very stressed and frustrated with the progress on those. In the wee hours of the night (my usual insomnia) I asked myself, “What do you REALLY like to do?”. I looked at my past work and my Pinterest boards where I save artwork by other people that I like and am inspired by.
Here is what I discovered:
I definitely do not like doing landscapes. I couldn’t find a single FINISHED landscape in all my past piles of work. Sketches, yes. Started paintings, yes. Other artists’ landscapes, yes. Finished work of my own? No. I have done buildings and house portraits but landscapes of sweeping vistas. No. Clearly I need to just let that one go unless somewhere in the future I get struck with some sudden change in direction. I will just enjoy the views I see and the beautiful work by other people.
Portraits of people cause me a great deal of stress. Commissions especially, but even painting my own kids was stressful. Human faces are so subtle in their detail. A slight deviation of an eyebrow or curve of a lip changes a person into someone else. It is especially hard to work from photos. So much detail is lost with bad lighting. Kudos to portrait painters who can do a true likeness from photos alone. If I were a portrait artist I would have to require in person sittings at least during part of the process. The fact that my portraits have all been children or pets compounds the problem. It is a waste of time to try and get either to sit still! All of my work has had to be with photographs, thus the stress to get it right.
I won’t say that I will stop doing portraits because they make me dig deep to see, test and hone my skills and work on my patience level, but I think I will limit what I take on knowing how much stress they cause. There have been times when I have had several right before Christmas and that was not fun.
So what the heck do I like? THINGS! Seems I might be a still life painter. Looking at past work and picking out the ones I got the most joy out of were things. Things in nature to be exact. Seashells, gourds, deer skulls, etc. I like animals too and odd manmade things, particularly with rust involved. I knew I had hit on something when my brain started popping out ideas like popcorn. 
I guess that all these years I never stopped to analyze what I really enjoyed. My time with pencils or paint was so limited I just jumped at the chance to do SOMETHING. If you do creative stuff, you know there is such a joy to the process that you crave the time to spend doing it. Music, art, sewing, pottery, etc. is all an encompassing process that takes you out of normal life and into some other realm. Now that I have some insight I can work accordingly. I can’t say plan accordingly because I rarely plan what my next project will be. They seem to choose themselves!
Here are a couple of things I have been working on this rainy week. My first horse painting is finished! Trust me, that is a big leap.
I need to get back to the easel. Next week the weather clears up and we will probably have to use machetes to weed the garden. There will also be new additions to the farm this coming week that I will introduce you to. Wouldn’t it be horrible to get bored?! Not going to happen around here anytime soon!
June 9, 2017: This and That
This week is one of those weeks that is hard to describe. We have enjoyed several lovely evenings outside watching crazy chicken antics, various and assorted wildlife and birds and fun visits with the neighbors. On the other hand it has involved either learning of the passing of friends’ parents or knowing that several are friends are in the final days or hours with a parent. Days of alternating joy and sadness.
My son is in his second week of his Iceland trip and currently offline in the wilderness there. My daughter finished her last year of teaching and is transitioning to a new career. Danny and I will celebrate our 1st anniversary. The ebb and flow of life.
I sought the comfort of my pencils this week with this fish drawing. After the intensity of my Bob painting last week I needed the meditative process of drawing to ponder life’s changes.
My thoughts and prayers are with my friends and children as they navigate endings and new beginnings. My thoughts and prayers are with any of you going through the same turbulent waters.
Peace be with you this week.
Pencils, Paint & Paper 