Painting goes on

And here we are like one big WHOOOOSH, at the end of June. I’ve gone a few times now to the OOMS conservation south of me toward Chatham. It’s a nice little spot with different options for parking and sitting not too far from the road.

Last night I drove home from Mom’s in a heavy rain but eventually got ahead of the front and saw this amazing light, definitely beige-not-grey area where the sky was lighter and less heavy ahead. Eventually the front caught up to me at home and it poured there too but I was already painting by then. I was working seriously to get that lighter area and then the darkest part of the silhouetted view. Sure mixed up a lot of DARKS.

I

We The Peoples

From the Norman Rockwell Museum description of this piece, which was shown at the UN in 2015, part of the We the Peoples exhibit of his work. (Click image for larger view)

In 1952, at the height of the cold war and two years into the Korean War, Rockwell conceived an image of the United Nations as the world’s hope for the future. His appreciation for the organization and its mission inspired a complex work portraying members of the Security Council and 65 people representing the nations of the world—a study for an artwork that he originally intended to complete in painted form. Researched and developed to the final drawing stage, the artist’s United Nations never actually made it to canvas.

We saw it yesterday at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge Mass and it grabbed me by the heart – all those hopeful faces behind the men in suits.

What I Learned on My Vacation

There might not have been any lying around on beaches, sipping iced beverages and reading trashy novels but it was a great vacation. As you’ve seen, I spent the week with two other painters and an instructor Tony Conner from Vermont, learning about watercolor while painting scenes found in the Berkshires. This was a class offered through IS183, and if you’re looking to explore a new medium or go deeper in one you know, I highly recommend their offerings.

So what came of the five days spent with paint and a teacher. As with all media most of the work happens between your head and the paper but the process definitely gets a push if there’s a good teacher and you’re open to listening and trying and being open to doing things a different way, at least for the class. Tony is a very good teacher and able to explain the concepts and look at what I was doing to make concrete suggestions on how to proceed or what to try next time. At the end of our time each day we’d have a gentle critique, looking at the work we’d done that day and saying what we liked, where we’d struggled and what might have gone better. On the last day I put all my pieces on the grass and you really could see a progression – a small one – but the one I had worked on.

It’s easy to hear “oh that’s great! that’s beautiful!” when you show your work but it’s not always getting to what you had wanted in the end. That’s why we keep working and trying to learn, do more practice, watch more videos, read more etc etc. So at the end of the week, I could honestly say that I’m at the beginning of learning more about setting myself up to paint a scene – drawing, putting in the light and shadow areas down in washes and planning out and getting in the dark areas etc etc.

What else? As if that wasn’t enough? I already knew I like to paint outdoors. I’ve not always been a very outdoorsy sort of person and lately the whole tick thing really gets to me. This gets me outside, in the sun, soaking up the world and focusing on the beauty of it. Can’t beat that.

As I said Friday, I don’t want my paintings to look like photographs – I have a camera for that. I want to show more about what it was like to be there and let the viewer do some of the work of feeling it.

I used more paint in the five days than I could believe! I learned how to mix greens and only dipped a little into my normal greens that I carry. I learned how to mix real darks. I learned I really like real sable brushes. oh oh…

More to come!

Thursday, Already?

Yes it’s Thursday night and I’ve been super-bad about getting photos on here from the week-long watercolor class I’m taking. I can’t believe tomorrow’s the last day!

The first day was 92F and I think we were all suffering from it. The rest of the week has been “jewel of the summer” a-prime, stupendous weather so I can’t complain at all. Locations were good, teacher was good, learned stuff, did some serious stretching and have that feeling like what I knew has been shook up and will have to settle down again.

If you’re in the area, check out the offerings from IS183 – they have classes for everyone and all ages!

Here are the photos I took (plus a bonus one of me painting, taken by one of the IS183 folks).

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Sunday – Paint, Words and Dad

I got up and out this morning. Forgot about people heading out to brunch for Dad. Bad news: had to wait quite awhile for food (ordered to go because the place was 100% packed). Good news: by the time my food came, on a plate, there were open tables. So it all worked out ok.

Thought I’d do a quick check on the blue herons and stayed to do a painting. Before I’d started on the scene, a father and child showed up, and stayed just long enough for a couple fishing casts and then they were gone again. Made me think about all the happy (and long boring) time spent in our boats fishing over the years. Millions of shiners caught individually by Dad, early in the morning. His time on the lake which let him spend more pleasant time on the lake, catching bigger fish.

This was my bigger painting:

and calling it complete. I was pretty happy with it and hope to do more “less detailed” or looser paintings this week.

I had a couple other visitors too

Still painting and stuff

This morning I stopped at a local park and painted the lake in between rain sprinkles. There was some sort of fishing event going on, the place was packed but as far as I could see I was the only painter.

From this morning:

From the other night at the local pond:

My aim is not to exhibit craft, but rather to submerge it, and make it rightfully the handmaiden of beauty, power and emotional content. — Andrew Wyeth

Sunday at The Clark

I went over to see the new exhibit at the Clark: Women Artists in Paris, 1850-1900 and had a good time looking at the paintings. First off, they are, as a whole, much larger than you might expect. I will have to do more reading about this – maybe it’s what people who’ve been to real painting school do.

I took down this quote, her reflection on being an artist after returning to her homeland of Finland (where she did not exhibit for a decade):

How right you were when you wrote about museum men, critics. They kill everything that is your own, beautiful and alive, and take what is already a success. The little and poor just paint and struggle, they can die unless they love their work, then they live, rather briefly, yet forever.
— Helene Schjerfbeck, 1919

After enjoying the exhibit, I took some paint supplies up the hill and painted awhile.. There were a lot of people around and they came and went frequently. Many people commented on the little bit of trash that someone had left in the sculpture/building we were in, the Crystal, but no one picked it up to carry down the hill; I did though when I left. If there had been a broom handy, it needed a good sweeping out of all the rocks that kids bring with them.

Then it was off to have dinner with Mom and that was the end of my travels for the day.

Geraniums

I’m not a bedding sort of gardener. I used to be a serious gardener, knowing all the real names of things and their growing requirements and all but now… well, I enjoy what I have and take things as they come. Even though I don’t do window boxes or planters I do like a good geranium. Last year I had one that was quite small and bushy and so dark red it was almost black. And it seems to have survived being dormant for the winter. We’ll see what happens to it. This year I got two more traditional pots, meant to hang, of “ivy” type geraniums. One is a darker burgundy color and the other is the standard bright scarlet. And I won’t lie, I got them mainly as things to enjoy and to paint. So here are the first goes at painting geraniums.

and now, the patient and beautiful real geranium.

The Journey, The Journal

https://www.nytimes.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000005773630

What a cool little op-doc piece and what a wonderful gift to give yourself and your family.

So Much Depends…

On a red shopping cart.