Panic Time
Panic time on what am I really taking to France…..I’ve been thinking it and talking it but haven’t done anything but make a big mess all over the house pulling stuff out….now how much of it will actually fit in the bags??? I already found that the new zoom lens didn’t fit in the camera bag…but I found something else that may work better and will hold the laptop as well.
In the studio……I’m folding/cutting paper to place between foam-core board as I will have to work small on paper. Placing lots of paint in ziploc bags, thinking of what brushes and mark makers, etc I need to take with me…..along with stuff to use when I collage elements I find on the trip.
One of our residency group came up with a good idea today……adding each other’s blog links to our pages so our friends can keep in touch while we’re gone all the month. I’ll set that up if I can bumble around in the template with ruining something. A couple of us don’t have blogs, Raya, Pat Stephens (humm…Pat may have one but I’m not sure if she still has it up). Karen Jacobs, Annette Bush, Robin Walker and our ex-pat group member, Ellie Clemens do have blogs.
Ten days left in the countdown……..
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How could I have forgotten Spring Break?
How could I have forgotten Spring Break? My two grandkids here in town are out for the week with no where to go..holidays and summer. I can hear the video games getting louder and louder in the living room………and scooby doo in the bedroom. All that aside, we love having them here…8 and 5 1/2 years old. They may go somewhere with their parents at then end of the week but will come by every morning through Wednesday.
I did get something accomplished the other day that I could call “art related”….need some of those art related activities every day. I had to unframe a couple of pieces since my publisher, Canadian Art Prints/Encore, wanted me to get some transparencies made………….so I finally got them re-framed. I now have about seven pieces that they may make reproductions of on in the future.
This is one of them, Fields 1 , acrylic on paper.
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Books, books, books
Books, books, books…………..which ones to take on the trip to France? I’ve been saving the highly recommended deKooning by Mark Stevens. Then there is the catalog Heaven and Earth from the Anselm Keifer show I went to in Fort Worth. It certainly deserves more than the cursory glance I’ve had time for lately.
The other day I got my complimentary copy of Paul Dorrell’s book, Living The Artist’s Life. I’ve really enjoyed reading it and getting to know another artist’s personal thoughts about their life and making their living selling and promoting art. Thanks, Hillstead Publishing, for the copy to bloggers.
My friend, Ellie, says she has the DaVinci Code and I never got around to reading it….this is certainly the countryside made famous in the book….right there at Rennes-le-Chateau and the land of the Cathars….then there are the digital art and collage books I bought and haven’t taken the time to really read and absorb. Oh yeah………then it might be fun to have novels to read….oh my, guess I’m gonna have to pare down all the books as I do have a wheeled carry-on but not much room in it after the laptop, etc.
Packing should be interesting………..you know what they say, get all the stuff out you want to take and then put half of it back. Clothes will take a back seat on this trip.
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I’m humbled
Today Dana Reeve died………..I’m humbled in the face of all that life put in front of her. I knew that she had lung cancer but I just thought she would be fighting it for a long time to come…….44 years old and too young to die. I’m not one to pray too much but I pray for her young son…as he’s had to face so much in his life.
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Packing it all in the bag
It’s down to the last 28 days before the trip to France. We have a lot of discussions going on about packing all kinds of stuff………and wondering how much will all this weigh or how much space in the baggage.
I checked yesterday on the AA.com site and checked baggage is limited to 50 lbs per piece. without extra fees at each connection. My plan is to only take one piece of checked luggage. So, off
to the studio to put all the acrylic tubes I ordered (I usually use big jars) into plastic ziplock bags (just in case of leaks) and weigh them….looks like on the scales they could weigh between 6-8 lbs as it’s not exact on the old bathroom scales………….and this is only the paint.
I can see this will be a challenge. I can see no way around working on paper instead of stretched canvas so I will be cutting a lot of watercolor paper in half and then sandwiching it in between foam core board with bulldog clips. Work can always be mounted on panels when I return or matted and framed conventionally behind plexiglas.
This time I’m also taking a lot of electronic gear…..a new small laptop, digital SLR, I-pod and all that with their appropriate cords, cables and chargers mentioned in an earlier post……….so into the old rolling carry-on for that as I will not check this kind of stuff. (sorry about the image of this….black on black with no flash is not easily photogr
aphed and also looks blurred)……..as you can see, this will all take a lot of thought, and precision in placement.
I can see right now that the house and studio will be a big mess while all this arranging, packing and re-arranging goes on over the next few weeks.
Ahhhh, but just think of what fun it will be when we get there!
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Planning for France
Oh my……..Today is March 1 and we all leave for France on the 30th. I know that sounds like a long time but believe me it goes by quickly. Six artists going to the South of France for an art residency for a month. We ran across this link to Photo of the day . It changes every day for the region. We’ll be going to a rural village on the edge of the Aude and Ariege departments……… Sainte-Colombe-sur-l’Hers.
The residency is offered by Cat’Art and I think will certainly be a catalyst for a new art learning experience for all of us. We won’t be under any pressure there and can roam the region, work in our studio or just hang out and talk about what we’re absorbing.
I drug the old rolling carry-on bag to the computer room last night to start fitting in all the electronics I’ll be taking……..laptop, camera, all the adapters, cables, etc. for the ipod and other stuff that may suddenly crop up. I’ll take one change of clothes (if they fit in) and toiletries/personal stuff. Everything else will go in the checked bag. …….including the art supplies. This isn’t a fancy place so no fancy clothes are needed, thankfully.
We won’t have daily access to the internet but I hope to add to the posts frequently while we’re there. Guess we’ll have to travel over to an internet connection now and then and see how that works out.
This is gonna be so much fun…………
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Mini-Art Exchange
I knew I’d better get my rear in gear as the saying goes if I am to get the work done for the International Mini-Art exchange exhibit this year. So I went into the studio last night and got the substrates cut, gessoed and toned to start on today. This work has to be 20 x 20cm as the largest size and not any depth at all since they have to hang on a wall with velcro. I decided that 7.9 inches is about as close as I can figure for the size so I cut three pieces from rag mat board thinking I might do collage. I gessoed the fronts and backs to help equalize the pull of the moisture and prevent curling. I just love that color of acrylic………Golden Quinacridone Gold and used it for the toned background.
I started today with charcoal just fooling around with mark-making…….hum…………more landscapes emerged. I took pictures of these first steps but for some reason I can’t get them out of my old digital camera……….the computer can’t access the drive with the card. Oh well, I took another one with my Canon but I can’t go back to the beginning steps now.
These are the three at the moment…………I may not do anything else. I can’t believe how fast they went together as small stuff usually takes me forever comparatively speaking. I’ll have to sleep on them overnight to decide for sure.
Hum……….and which one will go to the Mini-Art exchange in Queen Charlotte City, BC in May?? they only take one.
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Somtimes nothing works
Some time ago I painted a small painting for someone and then the commission fell through due to a scam. The painting was okay but just not right
somehow….somewhat pedestrian (or that was my thought that day)….whatever happened to being able to critique your own work.
This is what I ended up with ….first stage. Robin wanted to see the painting so here it is.
Hum……maybe I should have left well enough alone and just put it away for some time in the future. But no, I started fooling with adding more to the layers and before you know it, there was a whole ‘nother painting here. It was just such a gorgeous day that day that the title, On A Clear Day, came to mind. (Painting below in previous post)
Now, after more time to stare at this painting, I just don’t know what to do with it. It may be okay but I’m not after okay. This also might just be me and my mood for the day…or should I say many days. I’m just not pleased with much of what I’m doing lately. Others will say this is due to growth. I certainly hope so but I wish this spurt of growth would end for awhile and let me be pleased with some of what I’m doing. I’m thinking what I don’t like (today, anyway) is that there is a tentativeness in this painting that I don’t like to see. That might not be what others see………….
Why in the world am I showing all these paintings to anyone who happens upon them??? I have no real idea except it might be a good thing for anyone who is just beginning to paint to know that no matter how long you do art, you go through these conflicts about your work. They don’t all turn out as you’d like. ……….but I just keep on working on them until I finally like them well enough to ship them away…..just put them back in the closet for another day.
Another day, another painting……..or on to something else entirely.
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On A Clear Day
Some days ago, my friend Robin, said……..show me the painting. I put it off for a long time since my commission fell through (a scam…long story). Anyway, I did go back to the painting again and worked on it twice more so it turned into a whole ‘nother painting, of course. Seems like all my paintings lately cry for more layers.
I still don’t know what to think about it as it seems like my critique skills for my own work have walked off the job lately. Just now as I photographed and cropped out the background, a title for it came to mind…..On A Clear Day. What else could it be as that’s what we’re having here today………clear and cool.
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Here it is
Well… here it is…………I can finally see what my painting on the cover of Nita Leland’s new book The New Creative Artist looks like (scroll down to the entry). It will be on sale around the middle of July. I can’t wait to get my copy as Nita has totally revamped it and added another chapter and a lot more imagery. This link will go to the picture right now but will be changed on down the line as Nita makes more entries in her blog. Needless to say, I feel ten feet tall. The first edition of this wonderful book had a part of one of my heroes, Edward Betts, paintings depicted on the cover.
Here’s the link to the painting on my website. …Little Pieces of Land 23
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Wow Oh Wow!
I just got an email from Nita Leland www.nitaleland.com that one of my paintings will grace the cover of the new edition of her popular book, The Creative Artist. I just can’t say how excited I am about this news. She says it looks wonderful …………of course :>)
I knew when she asked me for images that they might not even be used. Then I found out that one of mine was being considered for the cover……….blew me away.
This is just so much fun……….as one friend exclaims all the time, “I’m jazzed”.
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Spoke too soon
Well………..so much for speaking too soon. Just as I thought things were going along swimmingly with the new painting last night. This morning after doing some errands, I got back to work in the studio and it wasn’t today. Not that it didn’t work out, it’s just that it’s ….well, pedestrian is the word that comes to mind. I can do better than that; it has to have zing.
I should have remembered that just because a work is small does not mean it will be finished any faster than a large one. One hour to two weeks is more like it. I have plenty of time so …not to worry although one thing is easier, you can paint lots of layers a lot easier on a small canvas!
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