My Barn Burned Down

I actually have relatives that are out there in the stores today, Black Friday. I guess it might be worth the hassle to save a few bucks but when places like amazon.com have so many great deals, I just can’t imagine heading out in the fray. Of course I’m prejudiced in that my granddaughter and I have spent the last few weeks building our Christmas shopping sites for this internet marketing course we’re plowing through. Our main hub is at Christmas Shopping Made Easy and then it has about 7 baby sites linked to it with product specific pages. Lots of learning and work but we find it interesting and fun, and are hoping it makes a profit! Another aspect of the internet marketing course is using Squidoo, founded by marketing genius Seth Godin so we’ve begun building sites there as well. I built a Star Wars Toys “lens” (page) yesterday and have ideas for many more. As you can tell, I find the world of e-commerce fascinating. Will post all my Christmas gift paintings soon – 5 done and 2 still to go. Then the dogs!

After Christmas I plan to really promote my pet portrait business as well as build some pet related websites with a big chunk of proceeds donated to Tara’s Babies and Garuda Aviary. I know they are struggling in this economy to care for the dogs and parrots. I also have prints and cards available of my German Shepherd painting, and 100% of all of those proceeds go to the Mid-Atlantic German Shepherd Rescue.

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Raymond Logan's Use of Warm/Cool Yellow

I troll around on a lot of artist’s blogs (for a free education) and one I keep going back to especially is Raymond Logan’s. After attempting the “Whistler style” a few posts back, and in working with color mixing exercises, the use of value and temperature is,  of course, in the forefront of my mind now when looking at artworks. The surprising thing about painting and drawing, to me, is not that we CAN do it, it’s that often the reason we can’t is that we don’t really see what’s there. Nor how to study what is there. This link to Logan’s post on warm/cool use of yellow is a great example. I keep going back to it to study because I know I don’t yet really grok warm/cool in painting and this painting is helping me break through that. Hope it helps you, too.

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Well, I’ve neglected my blog for long enough and wanted to prove that I AM, in fact painting still! Have been doing color mixing studies with the  Learn and Master Painting Course and I won’t post those but they are absolutely fascinating to DO. Had to then turn my attention to Christmas and luckily for me, my grandkids all want paintings! Well, one asked for one, one wondered to his Mom why he couldn’t get one, and the others were suggested by my daughters. Joanna had a great idea: each of her children owns a plush pet (no shedding, no pooping) that is their ‘comfort zone’; can’t sleep without ‘em. She thought, you know, one day these loyal dudes will be in the trash heap and wouldn’t it be great to have a painting of them to remember them by?  They don’t read my blog, so I’m sharing here where I am so far.

Leah owns Jaguar, a well worn floppy guy, and her favorite color is yellow, as is her bedroom, so here is Jaguar:

Little Garrett has Bear (now that I think of it, not sure that’s his name), which is a “blankie” and stuffed toy in one. A marvelous invention if your kids want an animal but love to feeeeeel the satin on a blanket:

Sorry for the glare from the flash. Will get a better photo during the day:

And in progress, Two BooBooBears. Have the background done and the bears are only blocked in. Here it sits on my easel with Bear – working on them both at the same time:

I also finished a ROCK DRUMMER painting for another grandchild and am partially finished with a ROCK GUITAR painting for the other.  I’ll post those when I can get them outside to photograph without flash. When those are done, I will pack up my acrylic paints and set up to work in oils. I have one ocean beach painting for the granddaughter who requested it and two dog portrait commissions to finish in the next month. So I am not slacking off!

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Sorry I’ve been neglecting the blog.  I have been painting, going through this fabulous Learn and Master Painting course (see the box up there on your right?) , and working on some commissions for pet portraits that must be done for the holidays! But honestly, most of my time has been spent the last few weeks on focusing in on my desire to build internet sites for e-commerce: my pension as well as to be able to spend more time painting and practicing my meditations.  The really fun thing about the last two weeks is that my 14 year old granddaughter “gets it” about the internet, is way more savvy than me, and she and I are going through this course together! I’m so proud of her: despite her full school schedule and commitment to volleyball, she has built three sites so far and is constantly researching more products. The goal is to get six sites up and linked together for the Xmas shopping season and then we’ll see how well it’s working. It’s really fun (for us) but for most people, they’re raising an eyebrow and wondering why I wouldn’t rather be painting. Well, I would. That IS the point.  I know it may take a few years to get really successful, since we’re beginning at the very newbie stage, but I do believe it’s possible, and now that she’s doing it, too, I’m so thrilled that she will learn this skill set that will serve her into the future. Wish they taught this in high schools!

Will post some paintings this weekend and update you on how our budding business is going. I read recently that Benetton started over a kitchen table with one knitting loom and now they own two airports not to mention a multi-billion dollar business! Small steps, big dreams. Never too late, I say.

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Van Gogh letters

Came across a fabulous site today that allows us entry into the very personal observations and working life of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, through reading their correspondence and seeing their working sketches. The 120 letters are on exhibition, alongside the works he writes about,  at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam until January 3 next year but this site brings it to us.  I was very moved reading these letters and reminded of the fact that in his lifetime, Van Gogh only sold ONE painting!

The photo above is one example and you can read the full letter online.

That reminded of the quotation I read somewhere that “Art is painting, not painted.” The letters give such a strong example of artists doing the work for the love of the work, the love of the play of light and line and form, and the insistent urge that simply pushes its way out from within. In one of Paul’s letters to Vincent he mentions some sketches he’s working on of something he “glimpses” is important, and to come, but not here yet. I think most creatives will understand that deeply.

Enjoy the Van Gogh letters!

PS-Something I learned recently that I did not know: we always hear Vincent’s name pronounce Van GO. He decided to sign his paintings just Vincent because people (in the south of France) could not pronounce his name correctly. He was Dutch, so it sounds like Van Gough as in ‘cough’.

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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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