With Camera In Hand

Today is my last blog for several weeks. I will be traveling, but I will be traveling with camera in hand. I will be observing and thinking and gathering lots of material to come back and paint again. This is a necessary process to take from time to time to recharge and get inspired. I plan to make changes to my blog when I return. Perhaps a slide show of artwork? So, stay inspired, keep observing the world around you and we will continue on this artist's journey very soon.

A Little Validation

I had family at the condo/studio last night. The walls are covered with my art, the ones that haven't sold, that is. Some of my latest paintings were still on my work table. Out of all the paintings in my studio, when my nephew saw one of the graphic paintings I had recently done he remarked, "I like this." It was the lighthouse painting. I saw this as a validation that I am going in the right direction, at least at this particular point in time.

Traveling and Taking A Break

In a few days I leave for a two week vacation. I am really looking forward to clearing my mind from the usual things and seeing what inspiration brings to me. I will bring a camera of course. With a fresh mind you start to see things differently. You start to see different patterns and colors and view what others are doing and just get inspired all over again. I am looking forward to spending time with friends and family.

Finished At Last!

After painting and repainting, I am finally satisfied and finished with my latest painting. The light blue calm sky is a nice contrast to the graphic elements and wavy lines of the lavender fields. See finished painting below.

Finally, A Productive Day!

The painting is finally getting done. I will possibly finish today. I still need to paint the buildings and add details. Felt good to paint for more than a few minutes at a time.

Progress is Slow

Progress has been slow in my painting. This could be for multiple reasons. I have not spent as much time in my studio. I am getting ready for a trip in a week. And lots and lots of other things have gotten in the way of my completing my painting. I can assure you, it will get finished. With only having 30 minutes here and another 30 minutes later makes progress super slow. I will manage to finish this painting before my trip. I possibly should not have started this project at this time. But, no matter how chaotic scheduling work time has been, the time working on the painting is still a pleasure. The foreground of the painting is quite dramatic. I still need to add mountains and other graphic elements to the painting. See below.

Finally, A Painting Day

There have been lots of interruptions lately. Today, at least the afternoon, is dedicated to painting. No more interruptions, please! I need to paint. I love to paint. I get crabby when I don't paint.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Paint Over It!

Sometimes a painting just magically evolves and is no struggle at all. Then again there are times that you struggle and struggle and never quite get what you have in your mind onto canvas. While I was painting on my lavender field painting in my graphic painting series I looked at the painting and noticed it really wasn't very graphic. I had reverted back to a more impressionist style. The painting lacked "pop". So, with brush in hand I painted over the work I had done earlier. The lavender field is now a bold solid red violet without all the individual plant shapes painted in. It is now more abstracted and graphic. Hopefully, I won't revert back to the impressionist style and can continue my exploration of this more graphic style. If not, we paint over it and start again.

A Little Help From My Friends

Today I thought about the song lyrics "I'll get by with a little help from my friends." And that is true. We all need support from friends. I recently became a member of some of the shop owner's circles on etsy.com. Several of those shop owners have looked at my paintings and featured them in treasury lists. People can view these lists to give them ideas of items for sale in the shops. I've been featured in several recently but the treasury I was featured in today listed one of my paintings as the first item and was getting a lot of activity. It had over 300 views when I looked at it this morning. It is drawing a lot more people to my shop. I am thankful for these friends whom I have never met but who are interested in helping fellow artists promote their art. Thank you, my friends.

Painting in the Rain

It is raining here. I was thinking of the song, "Singing in the Rain." Well, I am painting in the rain. Well, actually I'm not out in the rain. I am indoors. I prefer better light for painting, but today I am stuck indoors and making the best of things. So I'm singing and painting in the rain. See yesterday's painting progress below.

Starting Over

Today I intend to spend most of the afternoon working. I just put another painting online in my etsy shop. Hopefully I will start generating some sales. I will now turn my attention to painting. I will continue working  on my new graphic lavender field painting. The only thing that happened yesterday was a quick sketch on the canvas and I painted the sky in the background. I did not like the way it was looking, so I painted over it with a solid blue. Today hopefully I will at least get the sky painted and be satisfied with the result. Oh well, some days are like that. We don't like it, so we start over. It's a good thing that we can do that.

Painting An Old Subject In A Different Style

When I am between paintings, I sometimes have to wait for inspiration for what to paint next. I had several ideas going for the last three paintings in this graphic series and then could not think of what I wanted to paint. Then, like a flash, inspiration hit me. I would take a subject, a scene, that I had painted previously using impressionism and paint it again but in a more graphic style. I think it would be fun to see how the same thing turns out differently. So, that is what I am working on today. I am painting one of my earlier lavender field scenes but changing the way that I paint it.

Networking

Today I became reminded of the necessity to network, to interact and talk and show my work to people. I would rather focus on the creative end but I still must consider selling my art. I have an online shop in etsy.com. Etsy is a website that sells handmade and vintage items and there is a large art presence there. During the time I am looking for another brick and mortar shop or gallery to display my art, I thought it smart to place those paintings online. I am getting quite a bit of exposure. I have had people marking my shop and my some of my paintings as favorites. I have also had several paintings listed in treasury lists. A treasury list on etsy is a 16 item list made by other shop owners of some of their favorite items. People can browse these treasury lists and connect to your shop and make purchases that way. So, I am happy to say that this week I have been listed in 3 different treasury lists. Sometimes, if enough people view and like the items in the list, the items are listed on the home page and viewed by anyone who happens to log on to the website at that time. So, it is definitely a good thing. I have had several shop owners add me to their circle and that also increases my exposure. So, I am happy that the online shop is growing in viewers and that my art is being seen an appreciated. As of yet, I have not seen an increase in sales, but you have to get your art out to the public as a first step. So, today I am concentrating on the networking aspect of my art.

Lighthouse Painting

The lighthouse painting is finally finished! Hurrah! It was a fun project. Should painting be that much fun? Yes! I enjoyed all the bold graphic elements and the unexpected use of color. Experimenting with the shapes and color has been a good exercise for me. I am pleased with the effect. See the finished painting below.

SOLD

Graphic and Dramatic

My painting of the lighthouse is slowly progressing. It is very graphic and dramatic. The cliff side rocks are bold and are using colors you would not expect. I am not finished but am quite happy with it so far. Today I should be able to finish this project. Funny that the painting is of a lighthouse and I have chosen to paint the actual lighthouse last, preferring to concentrate on the background sky and water and then the foreground rocks and leaving the focal point to the very last. Oh well, that's the artist's prerogative. Below is a photo of my progress.

Slowly Taking Shape

Yesterday was a day of interruptions. There were two doctor appointments. One appointment in the morning and another right after lunch but at two different locations, thirty minutes apart. So to say the least, the day did not give me a lot of opportunity to paint. But, I did paint. Late afternoon I worked on putting down some of the graphic shapes of the rocky cliff side on which the lighthouse stands. I used unexpected color but will work more today on defining shapes and working in some more color. Below is the progress thus far.

A Good Start

Yesterday was a good day. It was a Mother's Day and altogether a very nice day. We went out to eat brunch. I heard from my children. I had the afternoon free to paint. I started painting on my new project which had been sketched in the day before. I worked on the sky and water areas. I am pleased with the painting so far. See the photo below.

Sketch for New Painting

It's Mother's Day. Yes, I am enjoying the day. I will paint only a little today since it's a holiday. I'm ready to start the third painting in my graphic series. I have not put brush to canvas, but have put pencil to canvas. The sketch is included below.

Busy, Busy

Today is one of those days filled with lots of busywork. I am trying to have more of an online presence. I have had an eBay shop in the past and sold quite a few paintings over the years. For the past year I've concentrated more on selling my smaller paintings on etsy.com. My larger paintings were mainly sold in some local shops. Now I have only one shop in Carmel Valley, California selling my art. I thought that until the economy picks up again, I would put more effort into my etsy shop. I have purchased a promo slot which starts at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow morning and ends at 11:59 tomorrow night. I have had quite a few lookers lately and people marking my shop or my paintings as favorites, but no recent sales from the website. I am hoping that tomorrow will bring even more exposure and activity in my shop. I have added several paintings of France in my promo showcase which had formerly been available in the local shops. I just added more paintings to my etsy site. The painting below is one that was added today.
Besides working on the website store, I also am starting my third painting in my graphic series. So, today I am busy, busy.

The Planning Stage

Not enough is said about the planning stage of a painting. Sure, some artists don't plan or put much forethought into a painting, they just express themselves. That works great with expressionist style paintings, but many paintings must go through a planning stage. You need to find the right photo and composition and see what lends itself best to the particular style of painting you have in mind. Since I am experimenting with a more graphic style of painting, I am putting a little more time into planning a painting. I've selected my next project and it will be a painting of a lighthouse. It has a lot of dramatic shapes and lends itself well to this style of painting. I had a multitude of photos from which to select and decided on one that my sister sent to me. I'll have a print made and then rough in a sketch, select my color palette and start the fun part, the actual process of painting.

Second Painting In Graphic Series

My second painting in my new graphic series is finished. At least for now, I am satisfied with the result. It lent itself to a different graphic treatment than the first painting in the series. This painting is more linear in nature. Though the painting was of redwoods, the trees where painted in purples and oranges which gave the illusion of brown. No brown pigment was used painting this piece. The painting evolved into something different and that made the process so much more enjoyable for me.

Interruptions

It seems most days when you are trying to paint that you end up dealing with interruptions. They can be pleasant or they can be annoying. I normally get out and walk and get a little exercise most mornings. When I return from walking, I do whatever business needs to be done online (this blog for one thing) and then after lunch I paint. Yesterday was a day of interruptions. Both interruptions turned out to be pleasant. One interruption was finding out that a painting had sold at a shop over the weekend. When I found out I delayed painting to do an invoice and take down to the shop to leave for the shop owner so that I would be paid. Another interruption came when we received a call and were having visitors drop by to see us. Yes, an interruption, but pleasant. Hopefully today will be more productive. If not, then no worries. Life is full of interruptions and you just try again the next day to get the work done. Working as a freelance artist and having no commissioned work at this moment, interruptions are not a problem. There is no deadline to meet, just the deadline that you have set for yourself.

Painting, Like Laughter, Is Good Medicine

Yesterday I had one of those awful sinus headaches. I wasn't very productive. I took medication and I then had a nap. Upon waking I was feeling a little better. There were a couple good hours of daylight left. I decided that even though I didn't feel 100% I would work on my painting. I added more graphic lines to the tree trunks of the redwoods. The trees are slowly taking shape. By the time I finished working on the painting yesterday, I was feeling better. So I have concluded that painting, just like laughter, is good medicine.

Playing With Color

Just a few quick words about use of color. You do not have to use the color you would normally think of using in painting an object, for instance a tree trunk. I started my painting of redwood trees. The tree trunks so far do not have brown in them. Yes, that's what I said. I painted the dark areas in deep purples and used an orange to create the lighter areas. It's not what you would normally think to do, but somehow it works. From a distance there is the illusion of browns. The painting below is still a work in progress, so the finished product will look much different. Notice the effects of the unexpected color.