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.