Practice Makes Perfect!

I was looking through my computer at the images I have taken of my paintings over the past 8 years. It was a little surprising to me to find I had so done so many paintings. Looking through all the old paintings was a good thing to do in that it helped show me that over the past several years, I have improved quite a bit. Though I went to art school, I had a job at a printing company. It required different skills than those needed to create a painting. I was mainly doing page layout and design on a computer. Definitely not as creative as putting your paint brush to canvas. At any rate, when I was looking over the photos in iPhoto on my MacBook I was able to see that I had done quite a lot of paintings. The end result was that the more I painted, the more my work improved. You know what they say, "Practice makes perfect." Well, I'm still practicing. Maybe one day I can look at something I painted and say, "That's perfect!"

Use What You Have and Share What You No Longer Need

Today I've been thinking of a friend of mine who is an artist in Santa Fe. She has been very good at stretching her resources and making do with what little she has. In order to be able to support herself she works in the evenings two days a week. She started out working in pastels. She did absolutely gorgeous cloud paintings in pastel. Then one day she went to a yard sale. An artist was moving out of the area and she was selling canvas and acrylic paints. My friend bought those supplies and changed her medium from pastel to acrylics. One of my last visits back to Santa Fe I noticed that her paintings were getting less colorful. She was painting using lots of browns and oranges and the scenes were more muted. Right before I packed up my things and moved from New Mexico I called my struggling artist friend and gave her all my canvas and acrylics I had there. I had plenty of art supplies in California and did not need these art supplies. She was so excited. I use a lot of bright cheerful colors normally in my paintings. So now my friend can paint away and not have to limit herself to the few remaining paints she had. She has lots of canvas and paint to last her for many, many months. It was a good feeling. My canvas and paint were not wasted. They went to a friend who really works hard and appreciates the gift.

Changing Your Color Palette

Have you ever noticed certain artists using the same basic color palette consistently? I can sometimes pick out an artist whose work I am following just by their color palette. I think that lately with the particular subject matter I was painting that my color palette became very predictable. I was painting a lot of lavender fields so the color palette was various purples and blues and greens with yellow to contrast the purple fields. Now that I have started a new series of paintings I can change my color palette and that makes me extremely happy. I enjoy experimenting with color and seeing what works in each particular situation. For example, my new painting of redwoods will still use some purple, but it will be used in the dark areas of the trees and shadow areas. I am using a very subdued tint of blue for the sky in the background in order for the redwood trees to dramatically stand out. It is fun to see other colors in my color palette. I am no longer being predictable in what colors I choose to use in my paintings. Changing your color palette is a good thing!

My New Series of Paintings

Today I start a new painting, the second in my graphic series of landscapes. Starting a new series has given me a new zeal and I have the next painting in mind before I actually finish my current project. It is like that at times. The ideas just seem to rush at me. Then again at other times I stare at a blank canvas and seem to reach the proverbial "brick wall", no ideas even though I have lots of photos and clippings and magazines. At times like these when the inspiration won't come, it is good to get out of the studio and just take a walk in the park. Visiting a gallery helps as well. It always helps to see what other artists are doing. Of course you do not want to exactly copy what they are doing, but you can examine the technique or get an idea of a different way to express yourself. Thus far the painting I have done in this new series has not turned out exactly as I envisioned, but I am exploring and learning a different way to express myself and that is a wonderful feeling.

An Artist's Prerogative

I have finished the first of several new paintings using a different painting style. I am painting in layers and using more graphic elements in my paintings. The plan is to do a series of about 5 or 6 paintings to try and perfect this technique. It has been fun painting in a different manner, thinking about how to compose and how to build each layer. At the moment, I think my first painting in this series is finished. The reason I say "at the moment" is that I reserve the artist's right to change his work at a later time if I so choose. In other words, I may learn something along this journey and want to go back and apply to this painting. That is an artist's prerogative.

Layer By Layer

My current painting experiment using graphic elements is steadying taking form, layer by layer. I worked on the clouds in the background first, knowing that they would be partially covered by the trees in the foreground. The next layer to be painted was the green trees in the distance. Yesterday I worked on the trees in the foreground. I painted some of the darker leaf areas and today hopefully will finish the painting with the lighter leaf colors, patterns and details. It is a fun experiment. I plan to do a series of paintings exploring this style of painting.

Holiday? Day Off? Vacation From Work?

When you do what you love you seldom ever take any time off. You have no time schedule. You have no time card to punch. You work at the hours that work best for you. You basically work all the time but it doesn't feel like it. Today is a holiday, but to me everyday feels that way. When I am able to sit on my stool behind my easel, I feel like truly alive. It brings me pleasure. It gives me such joy that I don't feel like taking a day off from work. Everyday is a holiday. Everyday is a vacation from work. Painting isn't work, it's my enjoyment. When it turns into a job or becomes restrictive or doesn't satisfy those longings and passions within me, that is the day I will find another passion to explore and enjoy. No more work for me. When I am painting, everyday is a holiday.