They say practice makes perfect, right? Last year’s #100littleartworks project brought me not only a love of watercolors but also to the appreciation for daily creativity, even on the busiest of days. At the end of last year, I began to cultivate the habit of creating everyday, usually in the morning over my second cup of coffee. And so #watercolorsandcoffee was begun!
Ordering more moleskin sketchbooks today! Follow along on Instagram under the hashtag #watercolorsandcoffee!
Images by me.
Each season, in each place, has its own palette and I find that each informs my work, wherever I happen to be. We’ve spent our spring and summer on the Puget Sound where I’ve been soaking up the way the water glistens, the seagulls call, the foghorns sound.
While here, in addition to the #100littleartworks project, I’ve been painting my VENTERS coastal series. Initially inspired by the wildness of the Oregon Coast and my memories of the beaches and marshes of North Florida, I wanted these paintings to have the palette and reflective transparency of sea glass and sunsets.
top image found here; bottom image by me
As I do for each series, I put together a Pinterest board for my palette inspiration, printing and referencing these images as I worked in the studio.
painting knocking on heaven’s door, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 40x30x1.5
right image found here
painting how she moves, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 15x19x.75
bottom image found here
painting make me an angel, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 30x40x1.5
left image found here
As I look back on the completed series, I see the way the work and the palette shifted the longer we were here on the Sound. I’m looking forward to finding my way through the Fall and the changes it may bring in my palette and my way of seeing.
PS– I’m shipping the last of the VENTERS paintings out to Art & Light Gallery very soon! Then onto the next!
One of the big advantages to our current traveling lifestyle is how many amazing places we are able to see. These adventures are a huge source of inspiration for me as an artist. But seeing so many incredible sights can also lead to a bit of inspiration overload and lead my artsy brain in all sorts of different directions!
With each new location, each new season, comes a whole new set of inspirations! So how does one artist handle so many different sources of inspiration?
For me, I keep my eyes open and take special notice of what inspires me, not just once, but on a continual basis. It’s easy to find one spark, but the trick is finding what will continue to spark over and over and over. Look not for the firecracker, but the forest fire– the spark that leaps and creates more sparks, more fire.
I make note but I don’t necessarily pursue those sparks right away. My sketchbook is full of idea scribbles, some pretty well developed, others simply notes on colors and forms. I also have a folder on my phone where I dump those quick sparks when I don’t have my sketchbook handy. Then, there is my favorite inspiration keeper– Pinterest! I have at least half a dozen boards where I hoard visual inspirations from subject matter to color palettes. I keep them private so they are for my eyes only until I decide I am ready to share them with the world.
I commit myself to what I’m especially inspired by at the moment and concentrate on exploring that inspirational idea fully. Each inspiration exploration becomes a series of work to be revisited again and again as I continue to find new ways to express that initial spark.
Once I feel like I’m done exploring a certain subject for a while, I’m ready to move on to another idea. But how to decide? Sometimes it takes some exploration in the studio to see what is moving me creatively or it could be as simple as how excited about an idea I am! The most exciting prospect wins!
At the moment, I’m exploring beachy and coastal inspiration in my VENTERS series– it is proving to be perfect for the coming summer on Puget Sound!
All images by me.
I’ve never been good at keeping a sketchbook, or even painting daily unless I can block off a few studio hours to really paint. So the idea of creating something every day for 100 days was intimidating, but the idea of pushing myself in that way really excited me.
With a bit of trepidation, on Tuesday, April 19th, I began #the100dayproject, committing to creating every day for 100 days and sharing the results on Instagram.
Working within certain parameters would, I knew, make this process easier to document and control, so I decided to create 100 small artworks on 6×6 vellum ( I’m addicted to these little guys for quick sketches ). I started with acrylics for the first few pieces, whipping out quick little paintings while I worked on bigger canvases in the studio.
But I soon switched to watercolor, as it just so happened that the beginning of the project coincided with our prep to move from OR to WA, so the watercolors were much easier to whip out while my acrylics were packed away.
And I do believe a love affair with watercolor has begun! A large part of what artists who have participated in #the100dayproject have experienced has been a creative breakthrough or the discovery of a new technique or new palette or approach. I don’t plan to give up acrylics, but I do think I’ll be exploring watercolor on a larger scale very soon!
You can follow my #the100dayproject progress by following me on Instagram or searching the hashtag #100littleartworks. There is also now a #100littleartworks page on my artist site that I’ll be updating periodically.
I’m enjoying this new journey! Have you ever participated in a daily creative challenge? What did it do for you?
Images by me.
When I look at a painting, I always wonder how the artist arrived at its eventual conclusion. How did they begin? How did the painting evolve and what choices did the artist make along the way?
So I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the journey that one of my LATITUDE paintings took. I always begin with covering the canvas in a medium-toned ground. My favorite way to begin is with a creamy salmon pink tone in which I will often work out the basic composition by adding lights and darks.
Then I’ll start mapping in the bigger spaces in the painting.. In this painting, the sky was the first thing I started working. I knew the sky would end up being very light and foggy feeling but I always start with fairly saturated color and just keep pushing it back by painting on light layer after light layer.
I actually posted a photo at the stage above on Instagram & Facebook and lots of folks assumed it was a finished painting! I guess it could have been, there was definitely something about this stage that I really liked.
The next stages involve refining and shaping. The original flatness of the land shape wasn’t working for me, so I extended it up the side of the canvas to create more depth and draw the eye farther up the canvas. More depth and texture was added to the landforms so that they felt less like a marsh and more like the Pacific cliffs I’d intended.
In addition to adding depth in the form of darks and lines, the next stages involved adding light color and expressive marks to the landform shapes while continuing to lighten up and push back the sky.
Looking back, I am really drawn to those expressive marks in the right photo above. Some of that expression was retained, but I do wonder what would have been if I’d been able to retain that feeling but it wasn’t to be this time..
This ^ was the point in which I was really wrestling with this one. I was happy with where that sky section was and I loved the feeling of depth I was getting in the upper section, but the lower 2/3 was a whole other story. Somewhere along the way, I’d lost the expressiveness and definition and while I love misty-softness, it was feeling way too blah. Plus that wandering water shape coming down the middle was losing it’s jagged edges so it looked less like a tributary and more like a sock. Womp womp!!
I kept plugging away and got to this point before needing to leave the studio for dinner with Mr. F.
I try to get as much done as possible in the studio during the day so that we can have our evenings together. But there are nights that I just can’t call it a day, I feel so driven to come to a stopping point I’m happy with for the day, whether that is a finished painting or not. So I went back over to the studio after our dinner. Sometimes those evenings at the easel are just what I need– I crank the music ( something I can’t do during the day in my shared Ashland studio ) and just work until I get to that happy point. Luckily for this painting, the happy point for the night was a finished painting.
tenderness & time (48.53.53 N), acrylic on canvas, 36×36; ScanSource collection
While the music wafted through the studio, I upped the contrast, added more color and texture through transparent washes in rich greens, turquoises and purples. I took back the jagged shape of the water coming through the cliffs and what resulted was a painting that was one of my favorites in the LATITUDE show.
See the step by step progress in the .gif below! Hey ya’ll, I created a gif! I’m so proud.
The process of this painting is pretty typical for me. I wrestled a bit more than usual with this one, but there is always a bit of tussling involved to get to the vision in my head. One day perhaps the process will move a bit more swiftly and easily, but I’m not sure I would get the same amount of satisfaction if it were too easy to accomplish. If it were easy everyone would do it, right?
All images by me.
When I began to put to think about the direction for the LATITUDE paintings, I knew they would be heavily influenced by my past four years in the Northwest. While their style would create a common thread, I wanted them to be cohesive in other ways as well. So I began looking through photos of the moments I wanted to capture, looking for palette commonalities.
To capture the look and feel of the Northwest, I knew I wanted to include–
Cool blues and lavenders, echoing the water and overcast skies
Deep greens, for well, the evergreens so prevalent in the Northwest
Pops of pink and orange, to capture the warmth that sneaks in
Creamy whites and creams inspired by the fog and waterfalls
So I began the way I always do when honing in on a project.. with a Pinterest board, of course! It was these images that I hung up on my studio wall, along with the moments that the paintings were to be inspired by. And they informed my color choices each step of the way.
paintings top to bottom | lonely cliffs and waterfalls (41.20.26 N), tenderness and time (48.53.53 N), i get lost in my mind (46.26.84 N)
photo sources top to bottom | found here, here, here, and here
This exercise was invaluable to me as it kept my color choices in check and consistent with the vision I had for the completed series. I’ve begun a new series ( more on that soon! ) and have started this process all over again.
What about you? How do you approach color when working in series?
Image sources linked above.
Being an artist, especially a painter, requires a lot of alone time in the studio. Solitude can be blissfully peaceful and lovely but it can also be a bit lonely. To stave off that feeling ( and to get the creative juices flowing ), I like to choose a studio soundtrack that fits the mood of my work for the day.
My work often begins with the inspiring wild places Mr. F and I visit. Eddie Vedder‘s Into the Wild soundtrack captures the haunting majesty of big mountains and vast landscapes. I even created a Pandora* station based on the soundtrack, filled with wilderness-evoking music by Nirvana, Iron & Wine, Nick Drake, etc. It’s my favorite music for working on large canvases– mellow but full of energy.
*side note– is Pandora still a thing? There is probably a better source for online listening, but I’m still using Pandora. I’m uncool like that.
When working on smaller pieces, I bring the energy down a notch or two. The Innocence Mission provides a dreamy, misty atmosphere that gets me in the mood to settle in and lose myself in creating small beauties.
And then there are times when music just doesn’t fit. Usually when I’m gessoing or at the very beginning of new work, I find myself craving conversation and podcasts fill the bill. My favorite these days is Danielle Krysa‘s ( aka The Jealous Curator ) Art for Your Ear.
Danielle has a relaxed, easy interview style that makes it feel like you’re chatting with friends over cocktails. Seriously fun and such good information. Artists getting real.
I’ve also recently started listening to Cheryl Strayed‘s Dear Sugar Radio. I connected deeply with Strayed’s book, Wild and the ways our journeys parallel– the loss of a beloved mother to cancer, the love of hiking, how we’ve both found ourselves literally and figuratively in the Pacific Northwest.
Fresh Air is also a favorite, along with John Dalton‘s interviews with artists. I like to concentrate visually on the work, so I try not to watch videos in the studio while I paint but during breaks I love the Art Documentaries You Tube channel, especially the What Do Artists Do All Day series– the Tracy Emin episodes are especially wonderful.
What are you listening to these days? Any inspiring podcasts I should know about? Beautiful and beauty-filled music to inspire?
Artists, especially painters, have a secret. Lean in close, now.
We don’t keep everything we create.
Work has often gone through several iterations before it reaches its final conclusion. I can remember in college usually painting over the same canvas three to four times because, a | I didn’t love the first painting or second or third or ( even more likely ) b | I needed a new canvas and was too broke/cheap to buy or stretch a new one.
Mr. F and I are leaving Idaho Falls in just three short weeks, though we’d hoped to stay longer. It’s time to start thinking about packing up. In doing so, I found myself looking to recycle paintings I’ve been carrying around for over a year. As I’ve mentioned before, when we move, space is very tight, so hanging on to work that I’ve evolved away from and no longer love just doesn’t make sense.
Though I felt a tiny pang of guilt, I gathered up the outdated work, poured out some gesso and began anew. I’ll keep you posted on the transformation.
Image by Lesley Frenz.