Tag: Patience

On the Road to Somewhere

….via plane and ship!

In between everything and all the organizing and deciding and packing and griping and whining and worrying and daily stuff, I did manage to start a painting. It’s on a bit of 14×18 inch Fredrix canvas, taped to coroplast, and on the easel. It has been through multiple iterations since its inception, and still has a way to go. I will finish when we return, and I am sure I will see it all with fresh eyes.

This is not a great picture – a photograph rather than a scan – but it does show where it now stands. I thought a painting of a road and building might be fun to do. I still need to put in windows and work a bit on the middle area where the two pinky curvy bits of architecture are, as well as some of the leafy trees on the left. The photo makes it a bit askew, but the roof lines are actually straighter in the painting.

I usually work in watercolor, and that is usually a more immediate event than returning to a painting daily for a few hours. In fact, it is an altogether new experience for this impatient person, and I am finding I rather like the time I have to come and go with a painting. Having it on an easel to look at all the time is also a new experience. It let’s me look at it and review it from where I sit in the studio, typing away about it or other things. I wonder how this newfound taste and appreciation for time and painting will play out on our trip.

Golden Fluid Acrylics, 14×18 Fredrix canvas.

Sketches Amongst the Potted

Today I finally had time to sit down and enjoy this absolutely gorgeous afternoon! The sun broke through the coastal fog and suddenly the world was aglow with light and shadow, not gloom and grey. That is the standard weather along the California coast, May Grey and June Gloom. It is dull and boring and monotonously monochrome.

I have a lot of potted flowers on a side patio – my yard is worthless for any beauty at this point. First up, the bigger sunflower in ink and paint.

And then the smaller of the two.

Sunflowers are far harder to paint than I think – don’t know why! From there, I decided to look at the tulip tree peeping over the fence a few blocks away. Here I tried to focus on masses of light and dark. It was a bit hard, but the idea was there. I am using my Schmincke pan paints, and they need to be worked a bit to get dense colors, which can be frustrating!

Lastly, my beloved lemon verbena bush. Every year I cut it back, every year it comes back. The leaves were half in the sun, half in the shade. I don’t have any of the delicate white flowers it produces, but the leaves always delight, in shape and scent.

It was fun to sit in the sun a bit. I don’t usually do this, so letting things dry between colors and pictures took a bit of patience. Plein air is not something I ordinarily do, but why not practice it along with patience?

More to come!

Morning Sketch 8 – Shapes & Shadows

Negative painting can only go so far as other things in watercolor need attention. Shapes and shadows are very important for both realistic and more abstract things if you want to make them somewhat recognizable! Consequently, I have been painting fruit and vegetables all morning, to the point I am feeling crazy. Some subjects are more successful, others not, but the lesson is to paint shapes directly and with some finesse, as well as to create shadows while the subject is either dry or wet. Click through at your convenience for a trip to the market.

One thing I have realized from painting all these things is that patience, once more, and mindfulness, is necessary to get anywhere with these things! What looks spontaneous often is not. Instead, it is made up of experience and thought and so on. Persistence is my only hope . . .

Summer Path

I was going through some of my Instax photos taken earlier this summer. Here, a path nearby overgrown with mustard. Depending on how much water is available, mustard plants can be very short – or very tall.

I thought this could make a good study with a limited palette, and dryer brushes. Lots of things went through my head, actually. For example, plain batches of color. No pencil lines. Shadows using the underlying color of the ground or plants – i.e. burnt umber and ochre mixed with a bit of blue. Details in dry brush. Patience and wait to let things dry, or add blobs of color to enrich the damp paint. Dry brush over colors already laid in as a wash (like the tree and bush in midground and background).

Maybe I’ll take my Instax out for a walk today. And a dog.

Another Bag – The Rockport Tote

Between Inktober 2018, watercolors, tasks and errands, I have been working on another bag.  This one is in need of massive trimming of threads – so is the Boxy Tote – before it is done.  Then, it will be shipped off to a friend of 45 years “just because”!  It’s not perfect, but then nothing I ever do is, so that’s life, eh?

This bag is done with one piece of material and quilted every half inch on the body.  It’s called the “Rockport Tote” from Aunties Two.  The pattern is clearly written, and even better, there are videos to accompany it.  If you are interested, follow the preceding links and you will find them.  This project took me awhile to do – it spanned about 3 weeks, and in between a lot of stuff, I was champing at the bit to finish it.  I’m going to start another one next week – bags are in the works for Christmas presents.

The bag comes in three sizes – small, medium, large.  The small is tiny, perfect for little gifts and using up scraps of fabric.  I made the medium size.  The large is a bit bigger, but this one is a nice size to carry around.  Also, I was really happy to find this ceramic Celtic knot work button in my button box – it seems perfect for the bag.

 

One thing I am enjoying with my time off is the actual ability to have time.  If I was still working, I would be rushing and feeling pressed to finish this bag, and I think the whole project would have become a point of aggravation.  Slowing down requires having time, and in the time I have, I am finding I am enjoying working on things that would otherwise become frustrations.  My sewing skill is far from good, and my own rather casual approach to things doesn’t help.  Still, I do have time to do handwork (hand sewing) and picking apart seams or other bits that might not please me.  I have time to think about what I want to do, and time to set aside a project with the time to return to it.  All of a sudden the rush-rush-rush of my former daily life is gone.

And thus, another project completed.  I start a 5-week introduction to quilting class at Quilty Pleasures and another 2-day class to make another Rockport Tote.  Yes, you read that last right – I figure I would make one Rockport, and then make another, learning from my own experience, as well as that from Betsy, who taught the Boxy Tote class I took last month.  And, though I profess to dislike quilting, my thought is that learning how to cut and sew precisely, as needed for a good quilt, won’t hurt me or my sewing skills.  I can only improve.  And I know I will have a lot of fun in the process (and probably some frustrations, too.)