Watercolor Explorations Vermeer Still Life

In Friday's Osher class, I asked my students to set up a still life of household items.  I collected items that drew my artist's eye -- the colors and forms of the apples and mango, the pot-bellied, shiny copper pitcher, and the intensely cobalt blue wine bottle all spoke to me.

As I started painting, I enjoyed making shadows by mixing Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, and creating my own black for the backdrop by mixing Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber.  I prefer the liveliness of shadow colors you mix yourself, and varying the amounts of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber in the drape made the wash more varied, just as you see in real life.

The copper pitcher color felt tricky to create, but came about randomly as I mixed Cadmium Yellow and Burnt Sienna to make the bruised marks in the mango.  David looked at my palette and pointed out that I could use the resulting mango color to start my copper pitcher.  It worked beautifully.  As I built up layers and added shadows, I used brush strokes to match the marks the hammer had made as it shaped the copper. 

Every painting teaches you something, and this painting taught me that the still life I set up -- though a beautiful composition with rich colors -- was too complex for the hour and a half of class time I had budgeted for it. I finished the painting later, thinking that a much simpler still life would have been more manageable and inspiring.

I've included a photo of my still life.  It reminded me of something Vermeer would paint.  

Feel free to paint it yourself!

Coffee Shop Fridays: Ink Flow Paintings

In my coffee shop painting project, I have found a voice within myself that steers me towards a particular medium or color, that demands time to create, and that leads me down paths that make my heart happy.   

I actually feel a sensation similar to craving chocolate when this voice says to paint.  And when it's satisfied, there is no regret. I feel fulfilled, delighted, grateful for the time spent. 

Tuesday evening, after a Zoom modeling session, I felt drawn to the vivid colors of Dr. P.H. Martin's Liquid Watercolors. 

I cut a 9" x 11" piece of 140# watercolor paper into strips, then painted clean water over the areas I wanted to bloom color into, and touched droppers full of various colors to the page.  

How fascinating to watch the colors spread onto the wet page, mixing into other colors & evolving. 

I painted the entire page with clean water, then flowed in a single color.  Adding water to the intense blue ink, and sprinkling on table salt created a view into a starry universe:

What if a window of dry paper was left when the colors were dropped in? A rectangle of light within a slice of oceanic blue.

My voice kept guiding me back to Cerulean Blue, even when my brain said Saddle Brown. I am learning to listen to that voice.  When I do, I love what I create. 

I finished up by creating abstract landscapes.

Watercolor Explorations: Still Life with Veggies

My Osher Zoom Watercolor Explorations class has begun.  Each week, we practice watercolor techniques & discuss background information, and then each person sets up their own still life. We paint together via Zoom.  You can see my students' work here.

This week, I selected fruits and vegetables as the subject for our still life.  

I placed the red pepper, onion and eggplant in a roughly triangular composition, then literally tossed the three yellow peppers into the scene to keep the layout looking lively.  

I was drawn to the lusciousness of the bright red pepper against the deep purple eggplant.  After class, I added a little fine Micron pen to define forms & shadows further. 

Why not set up a still life with delectable produce and paint or sketch it?  When you're done, you can always cook your subject up into a tasty stew!

Coffee Shop Fridays: Icelandic Volcano Cards & The 87% Rule

 

I never know what will come out of my Coffee Shop Friday night painting sessions.  Often, I experiment with abstract images, letting colors interact with each other and the brown paper that serves as my canvas.

After the paint dries, I take a viewfinder -- just a piece of cardboard I cut a rectangle out of -- and search my paintings for interesting sections to make into art cards.  

I used to be far more precious about making cards, taking hours to get everything "perfect."  But I know there's no such thing as perfect, and that attempting to create to that standard steals my joy.

So, I've developed The 87% Rule:  get the design to about 87% of what you think ideal is, and glue it down.  Move on.  This approach frees me up, helps me tap into my intuition, and keeps my creative flow going.  

And it's way more fun!

I have been watching videos of the Icelandic volcano, with golden & crimson lava shooting like a geyser, and flowing over the purple-black volcanic rocks.  White clouds of vapor often enshroud the volcano.  

I realized about halfway through creating this series of cards that my paintings expressed the heat and drama of the volcano.

Flames lick. Vapor rises.

Lava coils in the heart of the volcano, ready to explode.

By letting my intuition lead me in choosing paint colors, patterns, and card designs, I allowed my soul this visual discussion of the volcano, the power of nature, and the creation of a new landscape -- a new reality.  

Our minds express themselves in symbols and imagery.  It only makes sense that allowing our intuition to lead us opens the doors to express whatever we are processing internally.  

Spring Nature Journal Update

One of the lovely things about keeping a nature journal is that you get to track the progress of trees leafing out, wildflowers blooming, and migratory birds returning and nesting.  

If you look closely at the drawing below, you can see a Canada Goose sitting on her nest.  

Spring has been busy, and I haven't journaled as much as I usually do.  But I take opportunities when they arise. David & I paddled the Raccoon Creek State Park lake in a canoe recently, and I took my journal aboard.  Quick gestures were all I could capture, but that helped to free me up to observe & draw.

Back on the trail a few days later, the familiar faces of Mayapples on the forest floor charmed me.

I find that in making simple sketches of Mayflowers and Canada Geese, I pause, connect with Creation, and feel calm.  I always come away more grateful and relaxed.

I hope you get the opportunity to sit and feel the healing power of nature in this way.  The world is bursting with new life!

Coffee Shop Fridays

When the third wave of the pandemic reached its worst last winter, I found myself longing to sit in a cafe, to drink tea and sketch or write.  Just to be around people as I used to do was a dream.  

So, I dressed up in an artsy black dress and boots, put on the tea kettle, and poured myself a hot Moroccan Mint Green Tea.  I even used a paper cup -- a relic of holding in-person open studios before the pandemic.  

I found coffee shop music on YouTube, set out my acrylic paints and paper, and embarked on an evening of playing with my paints.  Hours drifted by, and I was surprised by what came out of my paintbrush.  

Some weeks, it was abstract art in black and white.  Sometimes, it was collage pieces.

And, sometimes, it was more colorful or realistic.

With the leftover paint on my palette, I felt free to experiment.

I have heard other artists talk about the process of creating in an art journal, and the way that certain types of images just showed up as if out of nowhere.  I didn't think that would happen for me.  But Coffee Shop Friday Nights made things pop out that I didn't know were inside me.  And I enjoyed every bit of the process.

One day soon, I will be able to return to a coffee shop and spend an hour sketching people or writing, or chatting with a dear friend, even.  But I may just keep having my own Coffee Shop Friday Nights for the sake of self-care, exploration and play. 

Osher Figure Drawing with Models Kathryn & David

 

Our semester of Osher classes finished Friday with a fantastic duo modeling session.  Kathryn and David brought us beautifully interactive poses. We started with 2-minute gesture drawings focused on blind-drawing the negative space between and around Kathryn & David.

When you draw two models at once, the complexity can be overwhelming.  Looking at negative spaces provides an entry point to simplify the process and get you warmed up.

We moved on to 5-minute gesture drawings focused on capturing the two figures in action.  Each pose told a story, expressed emotion, and caught us artists up in the excitement of capturing all we could on paper.

We finished with a lovely tableau for about an hour and a half (with model breaks).  

As an artist, you never know which days you will feel "on" and which days your drawings will fall flat. Friday's class was one of those magical days when the models brought an inspiring performance, and my art came alive.  I still have the drawings propped in my studio for admiration.

Many thanks to Kathryn & David for this amazing session!