Presenting a Sayward Rose

"Sayward Rose"  oil on canvas  4-"x16"

detail, "Sayward Rose"

    Another long while since I posted. The winter found me working slowly on a couple of things, including the above painting, currently in a show at the Campbell River Art Gallery. 

   This model is a lady I first noticed working at the gas station/convenience store at the junction where the island hwy. meets our road into Sayward. She has incredible eyes and I knew instantly that I needed to paint her eventually. That was a few years ago but I finally got to know her, and we ended up in the local book club together so I was able to present the idea of posing for me to her. She was, as people generally are, surprised, flattered, and wholly agreeable. There really is no need to be nervous about approaching someone to pose but I always am.

   I am now trying to work through a new idea for using her in an upcoming painting but for the life of me I am unable to sort through the debris in my mind over how to do this. Numerous sketches are taking me nowhere. In my frustration I have turned to some other things, including working in clay! I never thought I would like that medium so when invited by a local artist to come "play in the mud" I decided to try it. I have a piece completed that I am pretty happy with for a first attempt and the final firing will probably be this week. I will wait before posting the image...if it doesn't take me months again to get back here!

   

Back at the easel

           Pulled out a canvas I started last February and decided to see what I can do with it. The hat flowers have taken center stage for the moment. I just want to put paint down and not be too worried about the results. I felt, as I usually do when I've been away from the easel for a while, like I had three left thumbs. It comes back though. 

        The exciting news is that tomorrow I have a model coming over to spend the day posing for me. This is a local woman whom I have wanted to paint since I first saw her several years ago at the junction gas station where she works. Amazing eyes and wonderful, slightly unruly dark to greying hair. I have no specific plans but I found an old colourful shawl that should look good on her and set up my new lighting (the lights I bought for the workshop I gave at Pearl Ellis last February.) I contacted the company to let them know that the light stand, with extension boom arm (always wanted one of those!) did not come with the brass screw/nut on the end with which to attach a light! I had to Mickey Mouse the set up the last time I used it. They sent the screw attachment in a huge box but I didn't get charged for anything even though I was told to expect to pay a duty for it to cross the border! My Mom was right: the squeaking wheel gets the grease.

Pushing the Envelope

                                                         "Pushing the Envelope"  oil  36"x36"

      I think I got lost on the way here way back in April. I have been distracted and now I feel I might actually be getting back on track. 

      The above painting was completed in the summer and won an award in the FCA Painting on the Edge show last month. It is the first time I have been accepted into that show so I figured this piece was "edgy" enough. I also completed three figurative paintings of my model-in-a-box series with Michael Ward posing. None have been accepted in anything. Do I paint the male figure differently? Possibly. 

      For now I am amazed and pleased that I have gotten back to the blog and we'll see how it goes from here. It's that time of year, at least for me, to think about reorganizing and starting fresh. Something about the new school year embedded in my psyche no doubt. This will only work if I do the organizing bit my own way. I am deleting newsletter subscriptions, failing to respond to requests for ongoing support for many worthwhile causes, and generally thinking I have to get more introspective for a time. I am tired. I do not want the woes of the world to implode my brain. I still care but I have to sit back and just watch for a while. And I want to return to painting stuff I really love, like attractive and interesting women wearing attractive and interesting textiles which don't necessarily have any statement to make other than, gee, it feels nice to just look at this. I have pushed the envelope and found it wanting.

Feet in - feet out?

             Another month gone by! It truly does seem like time is moving faster as I get older, but that is a topic for another posting I think.

          The above image is from the four hour workshop I gave last month at the Pearl Ellis Gallery. The model was great but the room, in terms of lighting control, was difficult. It was supposed to be about cast shadows but I couldn't obtain the strength of shadow that I was going for. Still, the day was good and the results not too bad, considering. I would like to go back into this piece and make some changes but I don't know if I will bother. I never seem to have the ideal set up for use with live models. Maybe if I knew what the "ideal" setup might be I could actually make one.

           I ended up staying out of my studio for practically the entire month after the show was over. Rain, chill, mild depression, all working to encourage a cleaving to womb-like homebodiness. Lots of reading going on. FaceBooking taking over hours of my day and staring out of windows. The moment arrived when I was sick of it all and I made myself start to think and do things again. First some somewhat serious housecleaning, both physically and mentally. Clear  out the cobwebs! Repairing and revamping stuff;  looking into cookbooks and actually making some interesting meals. A trip to the neglected studio and a day spent rearranging, put away clutter, hanging paintings sitting around on the floor, and scrubbing the bathroom. And then the sun began to appear every so often. Work in the garden! Weeding, pruning, raking. Helping Bob restore the depleted wood pile so we will be ready well ahead of time for next fall. That new, very efficient woodstove in the basement heats almost our whole house and has saved a small fortune in oil heating and electricity bills! We have enough deadfall and aging Alders to give us wood from our own property for a long time to come, and still leave plenty of beautiful trees to enhance the place from all the evergreens. I've been reading about Alders and how beneficial they are to a forest eco system. They are fairly shortlived but they add nutrients and are a catalyst to the growth of many other tree species. And they reproduce and grow quickly, unlike the other trees which need years and years and should be left alone to mature. And they are pretty! I really should consider doing a painting to celebrate this underrated and even maligned tree!

             

         I started to hit the studio again finally this week and started a larger version of "Pushing the Envelope". The show that the small version (12"x12") went to got postponed because several pieces meant to go in the show were held up by customs at the US border. The exhibit, "Raining Women's Voices" will go on in June and this gives me time to reconsider the piece and do the larger version (36"x36") I had initially been planning. Above my semi final drawing/cartoon (as in the Renaissance meaning of "cartoon") is taped to one of my studio windows for appraisal. I had to put several pieces together from the small enlarged sections. I gridded the piece but also used the copier/enlargement machine and managed to calculate the needed size exactly to fit my larger canvas.

           Now the decision about changes (or not) in placement of feet is in process. My first idea was to have hands and feet at the outer edges of the canvas, almost reaching to move out of the canvas, as above. (I know, these images are quite light but I am unable to increase the contrast any more than this). It means straightening and slightly lengthening the legs. I'm not opposed to a little distortion even, to serve the greater purpose:-)

           Here I have only moved one foot out to the edge and allowed the other to remain as in the original pose; I kind of like the bent knee foreshortening.

           This is the original pose with hands near the canvas edges. The feet are away from the edges, along the inside-the-box perspective lines. Placing feet at the edges would interfere with this perspective so I would probably not paint the sides and back of the box - just leave it amorphous, concentrating on the emphasis on the frontal edges of the canvas. Anyway, I know what I mean even if no one else does...

          The decisions are taking some time. Paint the inside light or dark? Utilize the perspective or not? Feet in or out, or one of each? 

           Time to go split some more wood. I think it might be saving me.

          

Pushing the Envelope

"Pushing the Envelope"  oil   12"x12"  

             I have been invited to take part in a show for this month's Women's Day at the Cafe of Contemporary Art in Vancouver, called "Raining Women's Voices". My friends Dianne Buxton and Vone DePorter, of LA, will have poetry and a drawing in the show. I have wanted to do something with this idea for a while and thought this was the right time to at least do a comprehensive study. I would like to do this at a much larger size at some future point but the little piece has its own charm.

              It is good to be feeling more involved, again, with my work, and I think this is going to be a fairly productive time for me. Several ideas are becoming more focused now and having sold some work recently is great incentive to keep at it! I realized that a long time fantasy actually came true when, last month, a couple drove quite some distance to come and find me. They stopped in Sayward village and asked where I lived and I got a call from the village office telling me that these people were looking for me. Once here they ended up purchasing two paintings! They had seen my work two years ago at a show down island and kept me in mind all this time. Having people "beat a path to my door" so to speak! Even if it never happens again I have this memory, a wonderful moment of feeling a success and appreciation.

               This afternoon I drive down to Comox to take down the show that I have shared with Yvonne Maximchuk. The time went by so quickly! Hope I remember how to fit all that work neatly and safely in my hatchback Prius.

Back After a Long Absence

Peek-A-Boo Pink   oil   12"x12"

          I know, I know. It's been a really long time since I last posted. I'm not sure what happened except that I felt the need to pull back and hibernate a bit this winter. I didn't even post a "see you a bit later" message. That was kind of rude, I now realize. 

           Depression is something I have dealt with most of my life and there are times when it is worse than other times. I wasn't in the depths that I have suffered in the past but just down enough that I didn't even want to look for some light. It made working in the studio quite hard so I had to make myself go out there, at least once in a while, to justify to myself the whole point of having that beautiful building out there, made specifically for the purpose of making art. 

           In early December I was asked to show with another woman who lives in a remote area (much more remote than where I live), Yvonne Maximchuck. She paints in watercolour and acrylic and since I paint in oil we decided to simply call our show "Oil & Water". (I sneaked in a couple of pastels at her suggestion at the last minute!) 

           The Pearl Ellis Gallery in Comox, BC, is a volunteer run gallery and has been around for thirty years, a remarkable length of time for this kind of operation. They used to be housed in the downstairs and around the back by the parking lot room of the building where the Comox Library was. Two years ago a beautiful new library, facing toward the Comox bay, was built and the upstairs space of the old library became available. The town decided to lease the space to the Pearl Ellis Gallery and it has made the fortunes of the gallery so much better. Now they are right on the street for anyone to see and bring it many more people. I had originally not thought much of the gallery, especially being so out-of-the-way; I didn't even know about it for the first few years I lived out here. Then I exhibited in a couple of group shows there and to my surprise I sold some things! That's what I get for turning my snobby nose up at a so-called lesser venue! It taught me a good lesson, the one we all learn as children which is to not judge a book by its cover. I am now a proud ongoing member of the Pearl Ellis and happy to be in this show right now, which goes on until March 3rd. Last weekend we had a reception, meet-n-greet the artists afternoon and had a very good turnout. Yvonne sold a piece and now so have I (see painting above). 

         Below are some photos taken at the meet-n-greet of me and Yvonne, plus from the workshop I gave in the downstairs space last saturday. I called it "The Magic of Cast Shadow" and sent away for a professional type lamp to light the model. Unfortunately there was a lot of ambient light also in the room so my cast shadow was not as strong as I had hoped, but it served the purpose and the eleven students seemed pleased with the class in any case. The only unfortunate occurrence was when one quite elderly lady (who has been a longtime watercolour artist in the Comox area) accidently fell and had to be taken to hospital. She had fractured her pelvis it turns out and that saddened all of us. She is going to be ok according to her friend's report. It gives one pause to consider what growing old will mean for any of us as working artists and all we can do is keep at it with joy in whatever capacity we can and not let infirmity dictate the love of making art if at all possible. I give Dorothy so much credit for signing up for my workshop even though she is old and frail. I took her hand before she had to leave with paramedics and expressed my happiness that she had come and my sorrow that she was leaving early. She said she was also sorry she had to leave early and I could see it in her eyes. I am going to make an art card for her and send it next week.

            Thanks to those of you who have followed me and will continue to do so in spite of my hasty retreat last November. I have missed everyone and I need to return to some discipline regarding this blog. Looking forward to future interactions with you all again!

            

Me and Yvonne in front of my work

caught offguard at the gallery:-)

some of the students at the workshop

Yvonne and me in front of her work

model for the workshop

my demo painting for the workshop

All but the feet...

              All week I told myself to get out to the studio and work more on this painting. All week I stayed in the house doing other stuff. Finally went out there yesterday. Now the feet are left to finish. This painting has actually required very little work and something about that makes it seem less important. Stupid. The length of time worked on a piece is irrelevant to its value. I should be thrilled that I have experienced no real pain in doing this painting. The colours come to me, the brushes lay it on, and the session lasts maybe two hours. Still I am very tired at the end of the session so I suppose I must be working harder than I thought. I have decided, also, to keep this plain and simple. No extraneous do-dads or fussing with anything. Kind of goes against my grain:-)

On Being Outside of Myself

           I can scarcely believe a whole month has gone by since I last posted! I was fairly tired after the workshop and spent a week cleaning up, reorganizing, and just resting. The beautiful Autumn weather was not to be missed by spending too much time in the house so apples were picked, wood stacked,   grass raked, walks were taken and time just standing in the waning sunlight, soaking up warmth was enjoyed. Then the rains came as they always do up here this time of year, and we have been preparing for winter. A new, very efficient woodstove in the basement is heating up the house so well we are finding we only need to use it once every couple of days and what a savings on the expensive oil furnace!  

         Michael Ward, the intrepid male model from Victoria, arrived for a day of  conversation, eating, (homemade vegan treats) and posing. He was to have been accompanied by the beautiful Tegan  but she was not able to come at the last minute. Too bad as I had dug into my stash and found fabrics to drape her with that would match her currently dyed pink hair! Another time, although the hair will likely be a different colour by then. That's ok too. 

         Michael posed for me so I could just draw but mentioned feeling a little sad that I am not as inspired by the male figure as I am the female, and that is true. I think I understand the female form so much better, physically and psychologically, plus one can seem to play more with the subject, poses, dressing up, hair styles, backgrounds, etc. I always feel more constricted by the male form - more serious? Less bendable and twistable! Michael does have a collection of marvelous costumes and I am thinking I should look into this, see what he has, and work from there. He presented two quite large, beautiful photographs to me, taken by well known photographers who often use him as a model. In one he was dressed in full medieval armour and in the other he was posed with Tegan, both body painted and set in a dramatic, futuristic, apocalyptic  setting.

          Having Michael here provoked my conscience and I pulled out the drawing I had done of him months ago with intentions of starting a painting and I did just that. I am sticking to the 16"x40" canvas size that is my current favorite and got paint on the surface this week. After the preliminary background work and a bit of value placement on the figure I started in on skin tones yesterday. I was not in the mood to fuss. I had no powers of concentration available for itsy bitsy paint-every-square-inch-precisely as I tend to do. I kept the palette limited: quick dry white, naples yellow, cad yellow medium, cad red medium, burnt sienna, brown pink, indian red, permanent rose, and indigo. I looked at my photo reference and mixed some colours and kind of slapped them on. I had NO patience. I was irritated and feeling restless. I kept looking out my window and asking myself if I really want to continue painting for the rest of my life (I know, I know...what kind of a question is THAT??). It is such hard work painting and I find myself feeling fed up and tired of it all sometimes these days. Part of me seems to want to just rest, to retire I guess. Another part rebels at such a notion. I will never stop. I know that, but I think I may slow down. I am actually liking the days I spend going over recipes and pulling together interesting foods. The act of keeping the house clean (at least on SOME days) feels like a prayer to living and honouring that privilege. I take a lot of time with books and I am a shamelessly promiscuous reader. I am constantly discovering new authors (new to me) who open doors in my mind and allow me to travel on the beauty and skill of their amazing craftsmanship. How do they find the right words and the way to put them together just so? Look for A Message for the Emperor by Mark Frutkin to sample harmonious ideas and structure; simplicity and complexity woven seamlessly. Some painters can do that too. 

          This I painted in that outside-of-myself mood of no patience and realized after the strokes were down that I had found where I truly reside. My hands know and I let them off the leash. The rest of the painting may not match this. I won't know until I return to the canvas. I don't mind either way as I am happy with what I discovered.

               Michael is scheduled to come visit again at the end of the month and bring another lovely female model whom he knows. He is very devoted to the needs of his favorite artists and photographers! I've never known another quite like him. I posed him for more photo references while he was here and had intended to use Tegan with the fabric full of stars, but I posed Michael there and think I know what my next long, skinny canvas will be, only horizontal this time. Michael is a star in his own right:-)

A Weekend to Remember

              

              The workshop went really well! Six were scheduled to come for the weekend sessions and at the last minute I received a call from another person who had heard about it and wanted to know if I could squeeze them in. I decided the more the merrier. While we were, indeed, kind of "cozy" all in one space I found that this little group was very attentive and serious about improving their skills, taking what I talked about and demonstrated to heart. It is so hard to put it all into a mere two days, the things I want to show people and have them understand, things it has taken me so many years to develop in my own head. 

               We started the first morning with drawing from a skull replica that I set up on a table. I wanted to emphasize the underlying structure of a head/portrait, which I happen to think is important for understanding the process of portrait painting. 

"Yorick," the studio skull

            I drew these two versions very quickly to show the basic elements to be looking for and how to avoid getting hung up on extraneous details. After an hour or so of drawing "Yorick" we moved on to Planes of the Head:

         Last year,before I got this "Planes of the Head" figure, I debated for some time about whether or not to invest in it...the head is not inexpensive. It has turned out to be one of the best purchases I ever made for my studio. "Planes" is wonderful to set up in a variety of lighting, to test angles and to see if a proposed pose is going to work. One of my students this weekend is a talented woodcarver who would like to do more portraits and he spent most of his time with "Planes", drawing and redrawing it. One side is carved very simply and the other side has more detail. Moving from the skull to "Planes" was a smooth transition showing how bone and muscle shapes work together to form a head and face. We spent a couple of hours with "Planes." From there to the living model was an easy step, and spent the afternoon and all day sunday working with Mary Ann, our living model.

             Apologies to MaryAnn, as I should have spent some time taking a better photo of her! She has good bone structure and is very attractive! I will try to get a better photo of her when I see her again and vindicate myself!  At least this shows the transition between skull, Planes of the Head and drawing and painting from life, (see top photo of my painting demo). I was more engrossed in drawing and painting her and seeing to the needs of the class than I was in photographing things; all to the good as far as the workshop went!

               Bob, as always, played chief cook and bottle washer, and amazing host to all our guests. Lunches were tasty and satisfying, as was dinner for the three students who stayed overnight with us, after first taking a leisurely walk up the old logging road on the mountain we live on. We spent the evening over wine and nibblies, talking at length about art, telling each other funny stories,  and never got around to kicking back to watch NetFlix. Could it get any better? It is a weekend I can relive in my mind over the upcoming long winter when we may be snowed in and hoping the power comes back on soon. 

Pre Workshop Efforts

                 With the Portrait Workshop coming up in a couple of days I have decided to put this painting away for a bit and give my brain a chance to work on it incognito so to speak. It looks very close to completion but I know something is missing and quite possibly I'll understand what that is later next week when I return to it. The good news is that it does not have to be ready until late October so I have some breathing time.

                   I am doing a lot of cleaning and straightening and rearranging to get ready for the workshop, especially as some of the participants are staying with us overnight on saturday. Certain things, not necessarily the SAME things, are priorities for Bob and for me.  How clean does the tiny furnace room really have to be? Is anybody going to look in there? What about the area of carpet on the other side of our bed that our dog Gabe owns, which you can't even see from the doorway? Did the reverse osmosis water filters really have to be changed TODAY? and take all morning? Bob, you aren't seriously going to make a Mexican Chili for lunch to serve these people...we have to be together for two whole days! 

                  I have to move things around in the studio to make more space available. I hope this computer will pick up the router signal from the other side of the room. I love this large desktop but so many times I have wished I had opted for a laptop when I was computer shopping five years ago. This iMac works perfectly and does everything I need it too so I have absolutely no excuse (or budget) to get a new one. I was secretly considering a refurbished mini laptop - I can get a nice one for under $300 - with the money I make this weekend from the workshop. However, my car insurance renewal bill arrived in the mail yesterday, which will eat up the whole works and then some. I am trying very hard to appreciate being able to pay my insurance bill, which would be more difficult without this weekend's income, but somehow the excitement is missing.

Continuing in the Forest

             Feeling a bit better about this now. I have to wrap my head around the idea that it's ok to let shapes and colours just kind of land on the surface and not worry if it isn't perfect or is completely correct in proportion, etc. It would be too easy to get lost for weeks on end in all the little leaf shapes for instance; a recipe for insanity. This is what I ended up with today. 

                This was yesterday's work with closeups below. I am allowing one small figure in the piece. This was a little girl who was part of our group who sat working on paintings of her own. I think it's appropriate since this IS The Children's Forest!

              The figure is so tiny in the painting that there is no way I can add any facial detail, but that's ok. I just like having her there.

              Bruce, am I getting the hang of slapping it on yet?

Losing the "big picture"

          Coming along, coming along, and nail biting being avoided. Yesterday I made the mistake of losing the "big picture" and spent too much time picking away at a very small area:

          Studying the work of a few landscape artists whose work I admire is helping me to get back on track; artists like Bruce Sherman and Brian Buckrell.

We'll see what today's session brings.

Taking Advantage of Perfect Weather

Day Two

          The weather has been so beautiful I decided to pretend to be a plein aire painter and took all my gear outside (but I'm working from sketches and photos so it isn't really plein aire:-) I meant to take a photo of my outdoor setup and then forgot, so I'll try to do it tomorrow if the weather persists in being so perfect! 

           

             This piece is 20"x30" which is a decent size to be attempting this landscape. I need to get it done within a couple of weeks so I intend to keep at this daily if I can.

                

Day Three

          This is interesting for me because I am so accustomed to working with the figure or portrait and knowing just what steps I need to take, whereas here I am stumbling along trying to figure out the best procedure. As it turns out the steps I'm taking are similar to my approach to portraiture, laying in basic values and building up layers of colour. I guess painting is just painting, eh? I have to admit I'm not entirely unhappy with it so far but the ol' "what if I ruin it?" syndrome is in the back of my mind. I have to keep telling myself, "it's only paint, it's only paint," but I have the same fears no matter what I'm working on, and I am fairly good at ignoring them.

           Working outdoors on such  gorgeous days is such a treat. All of us here on the north island are taking advantage because we know that the rainy season, (rainy, chilly, windy, there-goes-the-power-out-again season), will soon be upon us. On the other hand, that means it will be time to fire up the woodstove and enjoy cuddling under blankets, reading good books, lighting candles and oil lamps, and making wonderful dishes from the fruits of our garden put up in jars or the freezer. I need to get back to that afghan I started last year when I broke my ankle...it's only about half finished. Simple pleasures really are the best.

Delving back into the fray

              I am the champion procrastinator at times but finally I started on the painting for the Cortes Children's Forest fund a couple of days ago. My start is ok but now what? Landscape painting is not my cup of tea and so I will probably be struggling with this as I add more layers. Just looking at things as shapes and values is helping so I need to plunge in and get some real colour on this baby.

              My week has not been a total waste of time,however. I caught up on paperwork, housework, laundry, and cleaning up the studio. After the weeks I spent silk painting my dress I returned to find stuff everywhere! I am normally a fairly neat worker but my frenzy to complete the outfit in time overcame my natural tendency to clean up as I go along. Now all is in reasonable order again and that provides peace of mind for me to at last delve back into painting. I even rearranged paintings on the walls.

              There is good news regarding my upcoming Portrait Workshop...so far I have five students! There was a sixth but she backed out yesterday because she realized some of us (including me) will be using oil paint and she has a very strong allergy to oils, even when working outdoors anywhere near an oil painter. I have looked at her work and I know I could  help her with what she is doing, but I also completely understand her problem. I have allergies to many strong odors, although not as bad now as when I was younger so she has to do what is best for her health. Maybe I could work out a future workshop for portraits in acrylics, since so many people use those. I used to paint with acrylics but don't really think they are as wonderful for subtle shifts, blending, and luminosity as oil paints. What about water soluble oils? I have some that I bought a few years ago when they first came on the market and hated them. I am told there are better ones out there now that really are much closer to the feel of regular oils. Perhaps I should try a few colours, just primaries and black and white, and see how I feel about them now. I wouldn't mind a bit if I could put solvents, even the pretty good odorless ones, (my favorite being Gamsol), out of my studio permanently.

September Portrait Workshop

detail from "Tristan Traveling Through Time" oil, 36"x36"

          I am giving a portrait workshop the last weekend of September here at my Sayward Valley Studio. Several people have asked me about when I would do this again as it has been quite a while, so I decided early Autumn was a good time. Here are the details:

September 29th & 30th

Cost: $125 

model fee 

&

organic vegetarian lunches included

Basic structure of the skull and planes of the head will be first morning; drawing in graphite

Afternoon work from live model and begin to discuss skin tones, hair rendering, lighting, poses

Second day continue colour work from model

in Oil, Pastel, Color Pencil, or Acrylic

 graphite sketch

colored pencil

pastel (finished)

pastel sketch

oil sketch

I can put up four people and there is a very nice B&B and a hostel nearby; also dinner available at Cyprus Tree Inn; breakfast available at Cable House.

As I stated previously lunches are part of my fee, made with loving care by my wonderful husband, Bob:-)

I have two signed on so far and need at least two more, but four to eight students would be ideal. Anyone interested should call 

250-282-0134

or email:

karen@karenmartinarts.ca

        I understand completely that this is not going to be possible for most who read this blog but just thought I'd mention it anyway; I also know it is a bit short notice. I think I have to get better at long term planning for these things!