Art and Found Day

Have you ever found a rock with something painted on it? You know, the ones you are allowed to pick up and take home.  They could be anywhere and you just accidentally come across them. 

Years ago, a local lady who made glass beads, decided to leave little necklaces around town for others to find. I found two but, to be fair, I decided to relocate one in another town.

Now I have discovered we are about to celebrate Art and Found Day on March 12.  Artists all over the world will leave something they created somewhere for someone else to find and take home. I want to take part and have encouraged some of my friends to get in on the fun too. I have been working on a painting of a friend's horse that I will place where, hopefully, it will be found soon. With any luck, the finder will share it on social media. I may drop more than one.  They may be just bookmarks. We'll see....

If this is of interest to you, go to www.artandfoundday.com to learn more.

Inktober

In 2009 a guy named Jake Parker created a challenge for himself to draw something in ink everyday for the entire month of October. He called it Inktober and hoped that it would improve his drawing skills and instill a more positive habit of drawing on a regular basis.  Inktober has since spread throughout the world with thousands of people of all skill levels taking part.  This year I was one of them.  I even enrolled in Jake's course through Sktchy to learn how to handle the pens better.

I've just finished taking part in my first Inktober. It's been quite the experience.  Until recently you would have heard me say, "I can't draw."  Now, though I know I still have a lot to learn, I have gained the confidence to go ahead and at least attempt to draw just about anything.  For the month of October, I pledged to draw something in ink every day, and to post it online, good or bad. Believe me when I tell you there were some really bad ones. I used all sorts of different pens and drew in all kinds of different styles, and not only gained confidence along the way, I also gained a good many Instagram followers from the art community and learned some valuable lessons.

I learned that certain pens don't work well for certain subjects. Though I seem to have accumulated a good number of different types of pens over the past year or two, I have discovered that the plain old ballpoint pen is my best friend. I am totally amazed at what I can accomplish with that one simple tool.
 



 I also learned that though this was supposed to be an exercise in drawing with ink, I frequently reverted to colour rather than the laborious job of shading with pen. Also, I felt that in many cases, the picture would only satisfy me if it was in colour. People used to ask me what I liked to photograph, and though I know they really wanted to know if I liked landscapes, people or extreme closeups, etc, my standard answer was "colour"  It was always the beautiful colours that caused me to point the camera in any particular direction. Well, apparently the same goes for my art. I just need to add colour or in many cases I just don't find the drawing interesting, or finished. In fact, I find colour helps hide things that I might otherwise consider to be flaws.  I learned that trick while urban sketching last year.

I discovered that I can draw a somewhat recognizable portrait better than just about anything. How that happens is beyond me, but it works well in both pencil and ballpoint pen.

I don't do too badly with food either, though that requires colour and comes off more as an illustration.

A lady I have never met liked something I did so much she actually asked me if I'd draw her dog. I told her that I will attempt that if she comes up with a decent photo I can work from. (This one belongs to my neighbour). I would never have even considered such a thing a year ago!  Friends are commenting on how far I've come in such a short period of time. I can't wait to see where it all leads me.

While my Muse is on Vacation

Apparently it's been a month since my last blog post.  Perhaps you have all given up on me.  I thought I'd better pop in to let you know I'm still alive.

Recently I've been watching a series of videos by Koosje Koene on Art Therapy for the creative block she has been experiencing.  It had not occurred to me that I might be suffering from the same problem.  I used to write newspaper columns and really hated having a deadline.  I took up blogging so that I'd have a place to say what was on my mind without the pressure of having to force it. If you look back over my previous posts you'll see that I normally post about once a week. That's not because I sit down to do so, but because something pops into my head that I want to share.  That hasn't been happening lately.

Maybe I have been suffering from creative block and just didn't realize it.  Or perhaps my muse has just gone on vacation for a while. She certainly has not been whispering stories in my ear lately.  But I have not been as upset about it as Koosje. I don't like to force things.

Creative people have to create, however, and I've been doing that in other ways. I noticed poppies showing up all over Facebook right from the beginning of November.  It made me want to try to paint some of  my own. I had painted poppies in oils in the past but thought it might be fun to experiment a little. 

I've never painted with knives before and thought I'd give them a try.  This quick little acrylic was enough to let me know I will be using knives a lot more often in the future.

 The other thing I've been playing with a lot lately are alcohol inks. (When people hear me say that in person they frequently ask me what I'm doing with alcoholics!) I don't have much experience with the inks yet but I have learned that while I may have an intention, I do not have the control.  Actually, that's what makes them so much fun.  I'm enjoying the experience of being freed up by what the knives and ink produce just as blogging has set me free from deadlines.




This past weekend I was in Hull, Quebec for the 25th anniversary of Capital Conquest.  That's a major martial arts event with instructors from all over the world.  Though I was only there as a spectator while my hubby taught a seminar on self defense using a cane, I was invited to take part in a little calligraphy seminar going on in the hallway. I was introduced to several styles of pens and got to experiment with each one.  I can tell you now that I will be writing again soon, but it might be with a pen created from a pop can.

Artfest Kingston - How I Spent Canada Day

This is the season when all the art shows, studio tours and fairs seem to take place. We like to go exploring, and things like this make for interesting stops along the way.

This past weekend it was time for the the Kingston Artfest.  This is more than your usual outdoor art show.  While it had about 150 assorted artists displaying their work, it also had much more than that.  This is a very interactive event.

One could learn various kinds of drumming, for instance, as there was a different type of drum seminar each hour, all three days.  There was everything from a Beginners Rhythm Workshop, to Taiko Drumming between the hours of 10:30am and 3:00pm.  After that an open community drum circle was held each day of the festival.  I was really interested, but we ran out of time and the sky started to promise rain.  Okay, so I chickened out.

Nearby there was an opportunity to learn to sculpt in rock. That also looked interesting, but I'd want all day to work on something like that and we were only there for a couple of hours.

At one on of the booths, I saw a little girl getting a lesson in how to work a spinning wheel.











 There were also an assortment of art classes available, for both adults and children.  I always seem to miss the timing for the ones I'd be most interested in.  Perhaps I need to get my hands on a schedule ahead of time somehow.

I spotted one of our local artists, Larry Thompson from Greyweathers Press,

and was fascinated by some interesting crafts, like these ukuleles made out of tin cans.

I see a bright future for this young fellow.  I've seen designs cut into metal objects with a plasma cutter before, but he turned some old junk into amazing works of art.

Over in another corner there was the opportunity to paint on a mural.  I remember I was there a lot later during last year's event and it was getting pretty colourful by then.

I understand there were 20 picnic tables that entire families could paint on too. At the end of the weekend there was a silent auction to determine who got to keep them.

Habitat for Humanity was ready to teach you skills while helping to build a playhouse on site too. That was also to be auctioned off at the end of the event.

At the Easel Invasion, one could paint a picture of your own. An artist was on hand to help guide you, if needed.


Nearby was a poetry tent, if that is your sort of thing.  There was also music stage, and a beer tent.

The giant puppets were back too.  Last year I saw them being operated, as they walked through the crowd, towering over us. It's hard enough to work a regular sized puppet. These ones need more than one person each to operate them.

Then there were the stilt walkers.  Some people obviously have been doing this for a long time, but what they were doing there this weekend was teaching others to do it.  I saw kids with their feet tied to the stilts and wondered what would happen if they fell.  The instructors were there to catch, I suppose, but later I saw a group of three kids on stilts walking down one of the pathways toward the food area.  They might as well have been on their own two feet, they seemed so comfortable.

If you have never been to Artfest, you should go at least once.  There truly is something for everyone.  Best of all, it's all free.  It was a great way to spend Canada Day this year.

An Artistic Endevour

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf states. Shortly afterwards lady I know went to New Orleans a help out. There was devastation everywhere. One morning she saw something that summed up her visit. In a tree she saw a large battered birds nest, and a magnolia bud. The magnolia bud promised hope and rebirth for the city while the nest, no longer in good shape, could be rebuilt. She took a photograph so that she would remember.

When she got home, and had the photo printed, what she had was the full tree, and it was hard to even pick out the two objects that had caught her eye. This past year she mentioned what she had seen to me, and said she was going to bring me the photo, to see if I could paint a clearer representation of what she had tried to capture.

Someone kindly cropped the picture for her, so that it showed just the nest and the bud in the tree, but she was still disappointed. Magnolias bloom before their leaves come out, but because there were other trees behind it that were fully leafed out, they created a rather cluttered background.  She brought me the cropped picture, and mentioned that maybe she might have had a better shot if she had taken the picture from the other side of the tree.

Now, I admit that I usually paint from a photograph, painting what I see.  It still amazes me that I actually agreed to see what I could do with this, when clearly I could not paint from the photo on this occasion. She assured me it was just the idea that she was after, and I took on the challenge.

First I did some searching on the internet for pictures of large nests and magnolia buds. I found several that looked like they would be of help to me. I set out to draw how I planned to fit things on the canvas. Originally I intended to do this painting in acrylic, as mistakes can be painted over, numerous times if necessary. I fully expected to need to do that.

In the beginning I still saw what was in the photograph, and pretty well laid the painting out the same way, though I exaggerated the size of the magnolia blossom.  I knew the painting would be pretty ugly if the magnolia blossom only took up a small portion of the canvas so I wasn't happy with that plan. Then I remembered her saying that she should have walked around to the other side of the tree.

In my mind, I started moving bit by bit, like I would if I were the one taking the photo. I didn't have to go to the other side of the tree. I just had to go far enough so that the magnolia was in front of nest.  Yes, that would work.  I had a new plan.  The magnolia bud was in a much better position to make the painting interesting.  The painting was no long horizontal with lots of unneeded space. I now had a vertical plan.

I tested the idea out in watercolour, just to see how it was going to look. Since I had a much clearer picture in my mind of what I wanted the finished painting to look like, I just kept going.

Today, ten years after the worst natural disaster in American history, they are still rebuilding. I thought it was the perfect time to deliver the painting to the kind lady who took the time to try to help out so many years ago.

Have you paid it forward lately?

Grab the Tiger by the Tail

Last year, for the first time since I started painting, I found myself with no specified day and time to go somewhere to paint each week. I knew that no matter how much I planned to just keep that time period to paint in, I'd probably never get around to it on my own at home, even with the best intentions.  I set myself up with a multitude of projects with deadlines, just to make sure I would continue to paint.

Why that worked so well last year, and not this year, I have no idea.  All I know is I've hardly painted anything in 2014. 

One of the first projects I did last year was sent to a lady with small dogs. It was supposed to be one of hers, and it was followed by several others also given to the owners of the animals. She must have missed seeing me share what I had been painting this year, because back at the beginning of July she posted a photo of a tiger on Facebook, and told me I should paint it. I told her since it was neither her photo, nor mine, I'd have to get permission first.  It was not my intention to paint it, but I didn't mention that. A day or so later, she e-mailed me back with a copy of the permission she had acquired, for me to paint from the photograph. The photo was from the BigCatRescue.org and they said, "Sure, send us a photo of the painting. We would love to see it."  

This past month I started gathering with friends again, to paint one morning each week. I needed a project, and remembered this tiger picture.  I figured, why not?  

 I have been informed that this tiger is one called 
 Shere Khan. He was a big boy (weighing in at about 750lb), and  he loved swimming. He just recently passed away and is greatly missed.You can learn more about him and other beautiful felines at http://bigcatrescue.org/
 
I'm out of practice, and this picture presented me with a few challenges, which is always good. The final product isn't at the same level I left off at last year, but that's what I get for not practicing. Still,  I think, when my youngest grandson has outgrown the bunny I painted him in the past, he might like this for his room.

 Someone suggested it might be too scary, but I don't think so.  What say you?

The Unfinished Work

I recently saw a picture of a lovely vase online that really got me thinking.  It had graceful lines but the potter had taken it a step further and made marks in the clay to enhance it.  I took a pottery course way back, and looking at that picture I couldn't help thinking that I would have been afraid to wreck such a perfect piece by intentionally making marks on it.  Why take the chance of ruining something that has worked out so well? Yet, those marks were exactly what made the vase special.

I've been told, on several occasions, that I'm brave to attempt some of the things I do, whether it be by writing for publication or simply trying to paint something I've never tried before.  There always seems to come a point when I stop fiddling with what I'm working on. I become afraid that I will destroy what I have already created. That's when I usually decide something is finished and move on to something else.

I do, however, have a painting underway that I put aside and have not worked on for more than a year. I liked how it was going, but felt it needed something in the lower right hand corner. I don't know what that something is, as there is nothing there in the photo I took. I just know it will not be finished until I do something with that corner.  I have been afraid I will ruin what I've done so far by adding the wrong thing.  I have never stepped away from a painting this long before. At this point, I'm even afraid my style will be so different after all this time that whatever I do add will be entirely too noticeable.

I like what I've done so far.  Instead of adding something that doesn't exist, maybe I just need to make some marks.  Soon.

Merry Christmas To You All

Yes, I still say Merry Christmas. I even have a hat that clearly has Merry Christmas Eh embroidered on the front of it. Nobody seems to mind. In fact, I've even been thanked for showing my Christmas spirit.  I believe it's only the politicians who want us to switch to saying things like Happy Holidays.  I also think those politicians should learn to listen to the people, because, clearly, we don't agree.  Last time I checked, I lived in a country where we still had both freedom of speech and religion. 

Recently I painted two successful portraits, and then got over confident and tried to do one of someone I know in one of her many costumes. It is just a small painting and I discovered that if you are off by even the tiniest fraction of an inch on the features, you end up with someone else. I couldn't give it to her, as I had planned to. I liked the painting anyway, so I came up with this alternative use for it.  It makes a lovely card, don't you think?

Artistic Challenges Are Always Good

As I said earlier this year, I'm trying to push myself a little further into the world of art, and hopefully improve as I go along.

This month I discovered a forum called Florals and Botanical on Wet Canvas. They host something called the Plant Parade. Each month they put forth some photos of a specific plant, and everyone paints that plant, either from those photo references, or one of their own. Then, on a specific date, everyone reveals their painting.  Any medium can be used, and all sorts of artistic license is taken. On the reveal date, everyone posts their finished work, for the rest of us to see.  I'm glad I didn't look at the posted pictures before I uploaded my painting as I may have chickened out. Some of them were amazing. This past year I have painted a couple of flowers in acrylic, but this particular project was a Parrot Tulip, and I just felt I'd have more fun trying it in watercolour.  I don't normally paint this quickly, or under a deadline either, so I wasn't sure if it was going to be finished on time, or how it would turn out.  It does seem to have been well received by the group there though, and also on Paintings I Love, where I often post what I've been working on.  I don't know if I'll have time next month to take part again, but I will certainly be back to play with these people again sometime soon.

The Art of Progression

I seem to be a bit more serious about my art this year. Instead of working on it for a couple of hours once a week, I'm doing something at least 3 times a week now...sometimes more.  I have some good newsletters, and bloggers to follow, and I discovered a site that inspires me to try new things.

Though I have been attending art classes for a number of years, I wasn't progressing very fast. I guess I don't have any natural talent, but I do enjoy playing with the paint so I just keep going.  Last year a couple of things happened. First a friend asked me to bring some of my stuff to a church hall where it would be displayed along with hers over the winter months. Then I was asked to sit and paint in a garden that was part of a tour.  I don't know where I found the nerve, but I did it, and greatly enjoyed the experience.  The resulting paintings  were among the best I'd ever produced to that point, so that boosted my confidence. 

More than one of the blogs I follow mentioned art journals, so I went and bought myself a multimedia journal, and have been enjoying having that space where I can create and experiment without fear of failure. Sometimes I can't seem to leave that little book alone!

This year I found the Art House Co Op online and took part in a couple of their projects. First I did the 4x6 exchange project. We were instructed to create a piece of art just 4x6 inches in size, and mail it, along with a self addressed stamped envelope to the Art House Co Op by a certain deadline. They sent the artwork on to someone else who participated.  I created  a painting of a local church, and got back a card with a little motorcycle riding along a thin red line.  Another friend got back a truly beautiful card with a leaf pattern on it.

The second, and most recent project I got involved in was called Mystery Project. Everyone who signed up was sent a Prismacolor Pen and an little card with a theme on it.  The idea was to create something with whatever colour arrived to match the theme presented.  I got a Red Prismacolor pen, which has a thin nib at one end and a truly thick one at the other.  My theme was The Future of the Year.  Well, that instantly made me think of two things. The first was about being In the Red, and the other was more to do with fire. We are told there will be some major sunspots later this year and the long range weather forecast also tells us we will have hotter and dryer conditions than usual.  Either way, there will be flares or flames.  I decided to go with that one. 

The second part of that project was to leave it anonymously, in a public place, for someone else to find. I've just left it in the perfect spot. I can't tell you where  it is though I did leave mention of the Art House Co Op Mystery Project on it so the finder might be able to look that up and discover what it's all about. 

It was a fun project and I do hope they offer some more of these little creativity kick starters real soon.  Right now they are busy with the annual Sketchbook Project. I'm not involved in that , but am actually thinking about it for next year. I think that would be another major step forward.

Hats and Hosta updates

You may remember that during the summer I got invited to sit and paint in a  beautiful hosta garden as part of a fund raiser. People who would also be going for a lovely tea in a local church basement toured the garden throughout the afternoon.  I had never tried to paint in public before, and decided, since acrylics dry much too fast for me outdoors, that I'd work in watercolour.  Well, I didn't think it would be very interesting to have others watching paint dry, so I got three different hosta paintings started before I arrived, and then worked on which ever ones were dry enough to proceed.  It was an interesting day for me, and I hope those wandering through enjoyed it too. 

I never would have had the courage though, if it had not been for the fact that we were supposed to wear hats, since the event was called Hats and Hostas.  I have a hat that I thought would get more attention than anything I was painting, so that gave me courage. 

Summer is over, but I thought I should share those paintings, now that they are finished.  Tell me, do you like one better than the rest? 

Fair Results

I recently mentioned I was asked to sit in a garden full of hostas and paint for the afternoon.  Well, this was certainly an new experience. I've never painted hostas before, and I've certainly never painting where others could watch me before either. 

I just finished the first of 3 hosta paintings I started for that event.  It was rather an ambitious undertaking, and since I finished it just in time for the fair, I decided to enter it to see how it would do.  Usually I win something for my paintings, and that's always a great way for me to get the encouragement I need to continue. I've never pretended to be an artist, but I do like to paint.

Well, this one didn't win anything at the fair. 

Actually, the acrylic one didn't either. I was more surprised by that as I really thought it would catch someone's attention.  Oh well. Maybe there was a lot more competion this year.  That's not a bad thing, since when I first started entering paintings in the fair, it was because the quality of what I was seeing there was such that I figured these people just slapped some paint on some paper at the last minute, just so they could enter something.  It made me feel like I had a chance, and I did well.

Now, I know that I'm a lot better now than I was then, so it's not that I've gone downhill, but rather that the competition has gotten better. That's certainly okay with me.  It makes for a much better show.

Taking Another Step Forward

The local United Church was going to hold a fund raiser they decided to call Hats & Hostas.  There is a  man in this village that grows over 100 different kinds of hostas, and he said that visitors could come and view his garden.  He would sit in the shade and play his keyboard and various local artists would sit in the garden and paint.  There would be a lovely tea held in the church hall, and the public could go there either before or after visiting the garden. 

I was asked if I'd like to sit in the garden and paint.  I thought they had to be kidding.  I live in a village full of artists, but I'm certainly don't consider myself to be one of them.  I have been taking painting classes for numerous years though, and my instructor encouraged me to take part.  No one else in the class would accept this challenge though. 

My first question was, "Will there be members of the local arts guild involved in this project?"  The answer was no. I felt somewhat better about that, as I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable working among them. I mean, I'm just not at that level, and I had no wish to totally embarrass myself. 

Then someone asked me if I had a hat, as you were supposed to wear one while sitting among the hostas.  The event was called, "Hats & Hostas" after all.  Well, hey, I have a hat!  I have a hat that is so grand, I'll likely never get a place to wear it.  I mean, where could I ever wear this thing?  If I wore it to a wedding, I'd outshine the bride!  So, I said I'd do it.  Nobody would ever notice what I was painting as they would all be so fascinated with the hat, they wouldn't be looking at what I was doing.  I decided to do it.

The event took place this past Saturday.  It was great fun actually.  It was very peaceful sitting among the hostas, painting hostas (of course).  I was working in watercolour, and since I didn't want to have to sit around waiting for paint to dry all afternoon, I got 3 underway before the event started.  I thought it would be more interesting for the people who came early in the day  not to find us all with blank paper.  My  instructor also thought that was a good idea and got hers started ahead of time too.
Mostly, I think the people were more interested in the hostas than in us, but we each had a few people comment on what we were doing.  One lady noticed I was using frisket, and said she always had difficulty with that.  The variegated hosta with the white around the edge required me to use that though, as the lines are too thin for me to have been sure I could preserve them any other way.  Since I was working on more than one painting at a time, none of them are anywhere near finished yet. 

It was an entirely new experience for me, and I think I've taken a step forward by doing this.  Would I do it again?  Sure, if someone had enough confidence in me to ask.

Painting the Naked Truth

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m taking an online webinar on how to paint from photographs. It took me a long time to learn to paint what I saw in photos, though I discovered that even some very good photos don’t translate well into paintings. Now I’m learning how to redesign the photo so it will work better as a painting. I’m told I should just use the photo for inspiration, but not try to copy it. Don’t let it dictate what the painting will look like, the instructor, Johannes Vloothuis says.


Well, I must say that I have learned all kinds of helpful tidbits over the past 11 weeks, and will likely miss sitting in on these lessons after the course is over. Next week is our 12^th and final weekend of classes. I will try to apply as much as I can into my paintings in the future, but right now I’m afraid I just don’t have the skill set to do that.

I was just starting to get some confidence as I had a display at a local church recently and it was well received. People were even asking if I wanted to sell some of the paintings I had there. And then I tried to do some of the recent homework for this webinar, and discovered that while I can reinvent a scene, I cannot produce an even half decent rendering of it with my paints. I need to paint what I see, not what I imagine, or wish was in front of me. Suddenly what I paint looks like something a child would do. My confidence has gone right out the window.

Now, I do remember, when I was trying to switch from decorative arts to fine arts, I had the same problem. But as time went on I got much better, so I suspect this will happen again. I’ll get the hang of it someday, hopefully. But it does remind me that I don’t happen to have one ounce of natural talent.

Nothing Natural About Art

In the old days, when I was in a photography forum for many years, the helpful people there would sometimes give me advise that was impossible to follow. They would try to tell me one of my photos would be better if such and such a thing wasn't in the picture, even if it was something that couldn't be avoided. Or they would suggest it might have been better if I had stepped a couple of feet to the left. In such cases I would have fallen off a cliff, or gone over some waterfall. One thing I like about painting is that I can solve some of these problems with a little artistic license.

Last month I mentioned that I was taking an online course to learn how to turn my photographs into paintings, since I had already learned that even the best photo didn't necessarily translate into a successful painting. We have just finished week 3 of 12 today.

Last week we had homework. We were supposed to post a photograph, both before and after cropping it to demonstrate that we have understood what had been taught so far. Now this was a difficult assignment for me since I generally crop in camera, so I had to really look for something that I had forced me to stand in the wrong place in order to take any picture at all.

I found one that fit the bill because there was water where I would likely have preferred to stand. Then I decided afterwards that it wasn't much of a picture anyway, and I certainly never considered painting it.

So I did the cropping, just to show that I understood the various principals that had been introduced the previous week.

I got rid of the excess sky, and anything else that wasn't necessary. This put the centre of interest in the upper left hand intersection of thirds, which is a good spot for a center of interest to be.

I also fixed it so the lead in grass didn't start in the corner, as that's not a good thing for it to do.

Saturday, during class, the instructor pulled up my photo from among those submitted, and after agreeing with the cropping, as far as I had taken it, proceeded to stick it in his Photoshop and use it to illustrate what would need to be done to the picture to make a decent painting out of it.


Firstly off, I know he doesn't like triangles, so I had already said I would deal with that while painting. He showed us all how, and did it for a totally different reason. My crop had the foreground grasses stopping in the wrong place, he said. They should stop at either 1/3 or 2/3 of the way across the bottom of the picture.

He pushed it back to the 1/3 position.

Oh hey, he told us to crop the picture, but never mentioned we could manipulate it.

He also pointed out that the background trees didn't have a very interesting line. I had already noticed that too, and would have stuck some taller ones in there if I had been inclined to paint it.

Then, of course, he didn't like the metal bridge, with all it's straight lines, and suggested I google for some stone bridge and stick that in the painting instead. Oh, and it would be good if I made it taller, so that it overlapped more of the background.

Oh hey wait, this useless photo might make a decent painting yet. It won't in any way resemble the original scene, but apparently it doesn't have to.

I've just learned that if you want to create art, it's best not to let nature get in the way.

A Step Forward

Once upon a time I belonged to an arts guild. I was their only photographer, and the painters all insisted that I should try to paint since, they said, I already had a good eye.  After much protesting about not being able to draw, and hearing the time old expression that you don't have to be able to draw to paint, I thought I'd prove them wrong and give it a try. I was, however, surprised that what I produced that day was actually recognizable, and so I set about finding someone who could teach me the basics about handling a brush.
For a time I painted from books, using traceable patterns and following the written instructions. Every once in a while I'd dig out a photo of my own, and try to paint that, with less success.  After a while, I came to the conclusion that the problem wasn't all in my brush skills. I mentioned to my teacher something about how not all great photos make good paintings, and she agreed, but didn't tell me why that was true.  Not even a hint.

This weekend I started a free online course through Wet Canvas, with Johannes Vloothuis, that is all about how to convert photos into good paintings.  After several years of frustration, this man may take the mystery out of what I've been doing wrong.   I spent 2 hours on both Saturday and Sunday taking in what he had to say as I watched while he moved lines and instantly improved pictures. This was just the first of the 12 week program, and already I'm excited, and will be looking at my photos with fresh eyes. I may become an artist yet.

What's Stopping You?

Once upon a time I belonged to an arts guild. I was the only photographer in the group, and several of the painters there kept saying I needed to learn to paint. Actually that mostly happened if I turned my camera towards them, which means they didn't like that much, I guess. Anyway, I never could draw and I told them that. They insisted, as artists always do, that you don't need to be able to draw to paint.

One day, when I was home alone, I decided to paint something, just to prove them wrong.  The problem was, I ended up surprising myself, and the resulting painting was more recognizable than I expected. So, I looked around for someone who could teach me how to work with brushes and I found a decorative artist within walking distance of my house.

I painted patterns from books with acrylics, and every once in a while I would bring in a photograph, and try to copy it.  The paintings never turned out the way I intended, so I'd say, "not yet" and go back to the patterns and the instructions in the books.  As time went on though, I did notice some improvement.

Then one day I was  introduced to watercolour and my world changed.  I still tried to trace around what I wanted to paint, but my paintings had more freedom. I was no longer trying to make the paintings look like the photographs. 

 Recently I decided to try painting without drawing any lines on the paper first.  Once again, I amazed myself.  You just never know what you can do until you quit worrying about failing and just try. 

I'm still no great artist, but I do love to paint, and I know I've come a long way.