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Monthly Archives: February 2012
Yay! new theme up and running
Finally found a theme that is really user friendly and looks good + it has a gallery. I still have some tweaking to do, and more pics to add, but I think this theme will work for some time to come!
Here’s the link: http://www.photocrati.com/
Here is a bonus poodle pic!
Bridget:
painting progress
Well, if my goal was to get lots of paint on the canvas, I’ve done that. This is from my Tuesday night painting session:
This if what happened to Tuesday’s painting tonight. I call it “wild abandon”.
I really wonder what this will look like when I’m done.
fiasco!!
Please excuse my disappearing website !! I had to change the nameservers to point to wordpress.org instead of .com. I did it wrong the first time so my site may not have been available for a few days. Then I decided to switch to a theme I purchased a while back- took me a while to figure that out, didn’t work at first. Then I didn’t like the new theme. Now I am back to the old theme but lost part of my widgets, will have to reinstall. Anyway, no more changes for a while! This whole site redo and undo has been very traumatic.
Here is something to make you smile: This is a pic of my toy poodle Buddy taking a snooze in the sun. He loves to sit in the window and bake himself.
A Painter and Her Poodle
Today is the third painting session for Bloom True, the online painting class I am taking from Flora Bowley. This is harder than I thought it would be. I have no trouble “being in the flow” when I’m painting and my paintings usually just naturally evolve into what they want to be. With this technique we use different tools besides brushes, including our hands and just start painting, I feel sort of out of control, which is think is probably the point of the whole exercise. Not to be in control. It’s supposed to be very free and fun. I mainly felt anxious at first, it was like painting “without a safety net”. I felt as if I was making a big mess. I started to enjoy it more as time passed, it did get better. This is just one layer out of many, but I still feel uncomfortable not having any idea at all where I am heading with this painting. At the same time it’s exciting to consider the possibilities. I think this is going to be a good thing in the long run.
This is Bill-she kept me company tonight. We are working on 2 painting at a time, I still have one more painting to work on before our next painting session later this week.
first painting session for painting class
Today was our first day to paint for our online painting class, Bloom True. We basically just put down an under-painting to cover the blank white canvas. Learned some new techniques-can’t wait to see what comes next. We have a great group of painters, it’s so much fun to begin to meet them all and see their work. Have also seen some of their really sweet dogs too. This is too much fun.
This is what I did tonight:
junk walk: what I found today
This is what I found today on my midday stroll. Good stuff!
Junk Walk and Bill-Bill story.
found junk
Just got back from a walk around campus junk finding expedition. I am getting ready for a show in Istanbul in the spring. The focus of the show will be fiber art. I don’t have anything suitable right now, the piece has to be 12″x12″ or less, so I’m making something. I’m using a process from an artist whose work I saw at Penland some years ago. Unfortunately I can’t remember her name. She sewed found things and also objects from nature onto pieces of cloth-the object was sewn with many stitches crossing over the object to hold it in place. She used beautiful bits of fabric. It is a very obsessive process, very painstaking, but very effective. I made a piece like this before from pieces of broken glass I found while walking around campus. I sold the work, now I wish I hadn’t.
I will never be a successful artist until I get over wishing I hadn’t sold the pieces that I sell! I’m also running out of places to hang my art in my home and in my office. I can’t put art on tables or anywhere my dog Bill(we call her Bill Bill) can get at it. She will take anything she finds outside and put it in her favorite hiding place, a big flower pot. I always check there for missing items, I’ve found vacuum cleaner parts, framed pics of the grandkids and many other things in that pot. Another favorite place to hide things is in the sofa cushions. Once I got a bunch of cans of tomato soup for a great price. I left them where she could get them and went to work(I’m not as smart as Bill is). I came home and found all the cans carefully stuffed all around the edges of one of the sofa cushions. Wish I had thought to take a photo of that! (Sorry I digress but I love to tell Billy stories. There are so many!)
bill vs squirrel
Final Version?
final version?
After letting the painting sit for a while, some parts of the painting started to look unfinished after all. It’s always hard for me to work on a painting after I think it’s done, I’m afraid I will mess it up, make it worse. But finally I have to do it, after I realize something is not right.
I was thinking today as I was reworking the painting, that using the right brush seems to be as important as choosing the right color. The wrong shape brush can totally ruin the effect I am trying to create. And as always, changing one part of the painting means the other parts change too, so I had to redo the ocean part, boat and sky today. I think the water still needs more work. There isn’t enough detail towards the front of the painting now.
I was hoping to finish up with this one today because Flora Bowley’s painting class, “Bloom True” starts tomorrow. I cleaned my studio and organized all my paints so I would be ready. I’m really looking forward to this, hoping to meet some interesting people and learn some new techniques. It is a 5 or 6 day a week class I think so I am a little concerned about keeping up-I don’t get home until 6 many days. Will report in and let you know how it goes! Can’t wait!
2nd Dream Painting Finished
Finished the 2nd in my dream series of paintings yesterday. At least I think it’s finished.
trouble on the deep blue sea
The longer I look at it the more I see small things that I need to correct. I also don’t know whether to sign the front of the painting. In my last formal painting class, I was taught that it was old school to sign one’s paintings, but now I’m noticing other artists who are signing their paintings.
I am especially happy with this painting because it presented so many challenges: perspective (never my strong suite, and I didn’t get it exactly right), a figure in the painting, and water. In spite of my fears I was able to finish it without too much of a struggle. I did do more advance planning for this one, I did a drawing on the canvas before I started painting this one. Usually I just begin painting and let the work inform my next step.
Now I’m thinking of my next painting, I have another dream, this one from at least 15 years ago, that I want to use. On Feb. 6, my painting class with Flora Bowley “Bloom True” will start. I am really looking forward to that!
I also started reading Kelly Rae Roberts‘ E Book: “Flying Lessons: Tips and Tricks to Help Your Creative Business Soar”. I’m on the second book right now-the first was really helpful and inspirational. Then work got really busy and I started loosing steam. By the time I get home at night it’s late and I have a hard time coming up with a blog post or tweet-I just want to sit and watch stupid TV. I know many people working full-time struggle with this issue. I have to remind myself how important it is for me to pursue my dream of being a full time artist. I don’t want to wake up one morning when I’m really old and wonder why I never even tried to pursue my dreams. I’ve been given so many opportunities already and have turned my back on most of them. I don’t want to be like that anymore.
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