My Barn Burned Down

Archive for October, 2009

Landscape a la Whistlers limited palette

Making art is such a great lesson in how to live life. On about.com:painting, the October project was to use a limited palette, mixing neutral grays and in the style of Whistler create a landscape, urban scene, whatever. It was an interesting project to work on because in the Legacy painting tutorials I am also working on mixing grayscales, color value charts, complementary value charts, etc. and so translating those skills into an actual painting, I thought, would be fun. Fun does not describe it. It got darker and darker and I couldn’t seem to mix the proper gradations of value to maintain some semblance of a scene that I could see in my mind, but was unable to translate to the canvas.  “Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em” kept going through my mind until, AT LAST, the deadline came (today) and I had to force myself to fold ‘em on this one. But I did like the practice it gave me and plan to try again at some point. I learned that sometimes the simplest looking paintings are actually very difficult to execute! More importantly I am learning how many value jumps happen within a small space that translates through our eyes to our mind to discriminate ‘form’. I now understand why we must observe nature directly, not just photographs. So many gradations are lost in photographs.

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I was sent this link today to watch something on YouTube. I had to watch it three times to believe what I was seeing. Talent, soul and message about war done so amazingly: with SAND. to MUSIC. You just have to see it to be moved.

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Buddy on his ATV

Got to play Grandma last night with four of my six grandchildren, ages 9,9,5 and 3. I went to the store and got Xmas ornaments to paint and we had a blast. The  3 year old dips the brush in every color without rinsing in between and ends up with a gorgeous muddy purple that he thinks is da bomb. So it is. Then he squeezed gloppy glitter glue on the Xmas Tree and announced, “It looks like an octopus!” And it did. He very firmly announced he wanted to hang THAT one in his room! Such unbridled creativity and joy in what was created was a thing to behold. The 5 year old is, in fact, extremely talented artistically and blew through five ornaments (well done) to everyone else’s one. She has absolutely no low self-esteem issues and her announcement was something along the lines of being the best artist of everyone there. The two nine year olds were thrilled to learn a new technique of transferring an image from a printout reference photo to the painting surface (scribbling graphite to the back and making a transfer) and then made some wonderful paintings in that free, “the photo doesn’t have this but I want a tree THERE”, creative spirit children possess. I learned that Jack wants to be an architect (!yay!) and toiled away at a very detailed painting of his grandparents’ home.  Brooke, also 9, ended up with a beautiful waterfall painting that had fabulous balance of lights and darks. Kids do that naturally somehow. Was great fun and in another life I think I would have enjoyed being an art teacher. After painting ornaments, I took a photo printout of one of their friends’ dogs, Buddy, on the ATV and did this photo in kids tempera paints on photocopy paper. It was very liberating to paint like a kid again and hope to have many more sessions of it.

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Painting and Drawing Lower Stress
As an artist, you probably already know that after just an hour of working on one of your creations you usually feel better and are more relaxed. Scientists have now confirmed that tapping into your creativity on a regular, concentrated basis helps lower cortisol, an unhealthy key indicator of stress.

This arrived in my inbox this AM from Michael’s Art Supply (along with a 40% discount coupon! That’ll lower stress!). No wonder I love to paint and to meditate. I’m a high strung Virgo/Scorpio/Aries type (Sun/Ascendant/Moon) and the only thing I really need to do much more of is exercise and meditation.  I know so many people who are so stressed these days for so many reasons, but have not recognized or given themselves ways to de-stress. (Oh, I don’t have time for that: THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO). I am reminded of Anwar Sadat’s approach: “I have so much to do today I’d better spend an extra hour in prayer” (paraphrased). I think he had the right idea. Time is more fluid than we think and actually slowing down the mind, de-stressing, allows space for more to get done in the same amount of time.

Even if we don’t want to become a great painter, simply sketching, especially outdoors, focuses the mind and relaxes it. As long as you don’t judge yourself for your drawing, that is! Writing, creative cooking, dancing, listening to or making music all do it as well. I can’t speak about the “runner’s zone” I’ve heard of, unfortunately, but it sounds the same. The left brain finally shuts up.

I’m watching Lesson 10 of the Legacy course and it is a couple of hours long of color theory, value and chroma studies, and am simultaneously watching a voice in my mind tapping its nails on a formica countertop and wondering when we get to the painting the masterpiece part? For me, this is where stress comes in: not being able to be in the moment, wanting the desired result without doing the foundational work. Once I DO it, this voice shuts up and I do get into the artist’s zone, relaxed and loving the colors just as they are; so I guess the lesson is, yes, read about it, listen about it, but the benefits only come when you do it.

Like meditation.

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For one year I have been on the internet ISO painting instruction. There is lots and lots of stuff available, lots of great free stuff, and lots more expensive (not to say not worth the money, just out of my budget).  I have picked up great tips on artists blogs, wished I had the time and money to go take some of the workshops offered, and even looked into local college courses — again, time and money. During the summer I was saving to purchase The Carder Method, based on some recommendations on some forums and one artist I respect talked about how it showed her how off her color mixing was. My wonderful step-mom gifted me with The Carder Method and I must say, it blew my mind. As I watched him mix the colors and match them using his special tool, I actually had something SHIFT in my mind and I could see the colors differently than before. I definitely think that is worth the $120 plus $15 for the color tool. I was really helped by his method.  However, it is based on setting up an elaborate still life, with special lighting, black everywhere else, and using oil paints with a medium that I would not be able to tolerate. The advantage is one pass painting, and a very smooth Old Masters look. So I am using much of what he taught but was still thinking, why isn’t there a course for the complete buffoon? The complete newbie where they assume you know absolutely nothing and walk you through how to paint in oils?

VOILA! You guessed it! In my stumbling and fumbling I found the Legacy Learning System and as it had JUST come out (late August) it was on sale and had a three payment plan, and I went for it.

The package arrived and whoever designed their packaging deserves a medal. The immediate impression was: Wow, class act! I hope the meal is as great as the presentation. I am on lesson 5 (of 26!) and I am now so impressed I could not wait to blog about it.  Gayle Levee is a marvelous teacher, takes her time, tells you every little step without making you feel stupid (now, wipe your brush, then pick up more paint). I would have been insulted at that level of detail of instruction had I not had my disastrous first experience with oils en plein air at Walney Pond! I did NOT wipe my brush before each stroke and guess what?! MUD.

Anyway, this post is for you out there who has said a gazillion times, “Oh I wish I could paint but I can’t”. You can. You just need training, and in the comfort of your own home, with no one WATCHING, it’s the BEST. The other really great thing they have thought of is to put together a kit of paints and tools so you don’t even have to enter into an art supply store and freak out when you see all the millions of things you know nothing about!

And the biggest, greatest secret I learned about (being super sensitive to solvents of any kind) is good old fashioned Baby Oil! It’s a secret. You’ll have to get the course to find out about it.

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