Tag: Painting

The Studio

I’ve had a room I call “The Studio” for years now – but somehow it has never felt especially complete until yesterday.  Why?  I bought a sewing table.  For the last 30 years I have had to clear off the drafting table or take over the dining table to sew.  It’s a nuisance for someone who really enjoys sewing but hates clutter.  Take things out.  Put things away.  Hate the mess of clutter.  Hate the urgency to put things away.  Thus, on a whim, when I saw this table, I bought it.  Because it was a floor model, it was marked down, but even better, it was already assembled!  At last, my sewing urges can be allowed to stay out in the open, at my whim and will.

Sewing has its corner.

Painting has its own corner.

Computer has its own corner.

Cameras and supplies are on the shelves, as are books and paper and paint and thread.

All is right with the world.

Mornings

I love mornings!  They are the time of day when everything is new and fresh, and each day is a gift.  Add to that I fall asleep at 9, and you can tell I am a morning person for sure.  Usually I spend my mornings reading the news – but that is becoming less interesting as I change my usual morning habits to spending anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour sketching or doing some form of watercolor, structured, unstructured, from an object, a picture, or my imagination.  Hopeful that I don’t dump my paint brush into my morning coffee (believe me, it has happened more than once!), here are some pieces from the past few weeks.

Doing these paintings and drawings every day is resulting in some good experiences and increased confidence in what I can do.  There are times everything sucks – no perspective, no contrast, whatever – and then there are times when it comes together.  And times when that proverbial “ah ha!” moment hits, and what has been intellectually clear is now clear in the mind-muscle-eye coordination when rendering paint.  Occasionally I use line, other times I don’t and just paint, thinking ahead to figure out what goes where.  Stepping back to critique things is also a worthwhile endeavor – fresh eyes after a few days.

In a couple of weeks – no school!  I’ll be free until I pick up 3 weeks of ESL at the end of July.  Until then, painting, continued cleaning up and unpacking after the flood, and a trip or two here or there.  Summer awaits!

On the Way Out the Door

I am heading out this morning at 8 a.m. to a watercolor workshop down toward L.A.  With so many things in boxes, waiting to be placed somewhere in the studio, I’m lucky to have anything to take with me.  It’s amazing how simple the flood was (we had a pipe break, FYI), how long it took to repair all the damage and do the upgrades (why not since the whole house was torn up), and how much longer it seems it will take to put our lives back together.  Like finding a specific brush or some paper or whatever.  I did some unpacking yesterday, and today, no . . . watercolor instead.  We were joking that it will probably take longer to unpack than any other part of this home repair adventure!

It’s been a nutty week.  Crazy end-of-the-school-year stuff.  Testing.  Stressed out kids.  I can hardly wait to be done with it all, and even more so, done with working and having a life during retirement.  To make life productive on a personal level, I’ve tried to draw or paint every morning before heading out to work.  Simple sketches, no lines, using watercolors as the way to do things.  Nothing really exciting is being produced, but what is good is the daily practice.  It does make things work better and it adds to a store of knowledge that comes only with practice.  Here are some of the things I did this week.

Bush Anemone
Lavender
Red Bud Leaves
Morning Coffee Cup
Reflections in the Cell Phone
Pens & Crumpled Paper

As well as putting my art supplies and books back together, my photography stuff is slowly getting straightened out.  I picked up some film I had processed.  I took both my Nikon Df and my Oly OM4-T with me to the botanical gardens down the road.  Film always has a quality to it which digital lacks.  I was excited to see how the auto exposure feature worked on the Oly as I only recently acquired the camera and had a test batch of Kodak Ultramax 400 in it.  I used a 35-70mm zoom, and was really pleased with a number of the photos.  Everything was in bloom – or ready to bloom – so I tried to catch as many colors as possible, from deep reds to pink to yellow and white.   I am really glad to have space now to keep my Pakon 135 set up, and the laptop I use exclusively with it, in its own space, plugged in and ready to roll.

Bearded Iris
Bottle Brush
California LIlac
Hummingbird Sage
Penstemon

Now, look at my check list and get on with the day!  While I am gone, J is gonna be brewing.  What happy little campers we will be at the end of the day!

 

 

Redbud in the Morning, and I’ve Been Thinking

Today, Marc Taro Homes announced a 30-day direct painting challenge, and started a Facebook group dedicated to it.  I’ve also been reviewing the work of an artist I admire, and who paints everything, from weird objects to seascapes to people.  It made me think about watercolor painting in general.  It becomes something of a sacred cow – so sacred you never experience it!  So, just do it and do it and do it.  Morning sketches are helpful, and so will the days of direct painting.

Outside my studio window is a small redbud tree.  The leaves are heart-shaped and vary in color from pale green-yellow to a rusty red, depending on the way the light hits.  This is my homage to starting direct watercoloring.  I didn’t catch the transparency of the leaves this morning, but I did paint.  Maybe I will paint it again tomorrow morning.

Painted Flowers

The bathrooms are nearly done.  All that remains to do is hang the mirrors, towel racks, toilet paper holder, and place the drawer pulls.  The baseboards can wait!  At noon, we will officially be able to use the sinks, the faucets, and the second toilet.  Who thought that could be so exciting?

And in between the chaos of repairs and work, I have tried to do some painting.  I pulled out my watercolor pencils and started a picture that will be mixed media in the end.  It’s complicated.  I have been scanning every step.

To kick back, I have been looking at the flower pictures I took last weekend at the botanical garden – so many!  I have painted a few of them, with ink and pen, with watercolor pencil and pen, with watercolor.  I really like flowers and wish I had a better yard for a garden . . . that will come, though; meanwhile, I wander in one I don’t have to maintain.