From #1 to #56 in One Year

What’s Left of Fall ©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
7×10 Watercolor on Arches

Last year I posted this watercolor still life of rocks, a favorite shell and leaves I kept in my copy of the Artist’s Way as one of the tasks of abundance. They served me very well at the time. I was already painting twenty minute works. When I decided to join in the 100 Paintings Challenge this was #1.

Four Shells with Rock ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
7×10 Watercolor on Arches

This watercolor painting with more of my favorite broken shells and rocks is #56 in the challenge. It will seem as if these items were the only subjects I painted, but that would be the wrong assumption.

Plenty of challenges were met in between these two paintings.

This weekend I also had time to go through all 56 paintings I did this year. Some works were twenty minute pieces. Others took a couple of days to complete. How I used the medium seems to me to be tighter on this last work than the first. My handling of watercolor evolved to where I’m more at ease with it. I learned a lot and still have far to go.
The 56 works evolved into different series of pieces, mostly still life work in watercolor. When I looked at each painting I could relive the past year. I can remember my days with every work, how I felt, what I was thinking, where I was and how I got myself to paint. It was a moment in time. A lesson of life.
Feel free to drop in some comments. 

The Finish Line, or Not

I spent the weekend in reflection. January 31 was my first post to the 100 Paintings Challenge. A year ago I found out I could paint finished work in twenty minutes and I would post my paintings to the Twenty Minute Challenge. That’s where I found out about 100 Paintings.

Well, I will not make it to the required 100 pieces of art in this year. There is always next year to try my best. What else can I say? As of today I painted 56 watercolor paintings, with a few pen and ink drawings thrown in that mix to keep at it.

In my opinion, I accomplished plenty. As I said in another post, I am good for another go. See what happens this time.

Yesterday I went into the studio to survey my space. What is it that keeps me from doing better work there than at the dining room table? For one thing, the dining room table is lower than my drawing board allowing me to stand while I paint. I can move around, look at my work from a distance, keep some energy going. The drawing board is high and I can’t get away from it. Need to change it.

The dining room table has great north facing light, the studio is in the basement. Can’t do much about that, but make sure I have good light in the studio.

Most paintings took twenty minutes or so to complete. The larger works took a couple of days of work, and then I was a slacker some days. And I was working in the dining room because I needed to be near my granddaughter while she napped. A year later she’s not napping much, so there goes that.

Then I was also battling with Mr. Resistance. It’s been easier to beat the demon after all the work I’ve been doing since the Artist’s Way, Alyson Stanfield’s book and workshops, and my own lazy brain.

So I will forgive myself for not painting the requisite 100 works. It’s okay. I’m not looking to excuse myself because I did agree to the challenge, just didn’t pass the finish line on time.

We are all a work in progress. The Blast Off class I am taking online with Alyson is a huge help and I am working on my curriculum for the year ahead.

Painting will be regularly scheduled on the calendar of to-do list items at #1.
Reading artists bios, looking into documentaries of artists and museum visits is on the item list.

I’m already reading this great biography of Vincent van Gogh and it’s been very interesting to learn how he came to paint.

And there’s been knitting. Knitting socks at that. While I knit I daydream as I watch the stitches or color fly by on my needles. As I watch my brain is planning the next painting.

Not a bad start to another year of paintings. Wish me luck, again!

Quick Self Portrait Can be Scary

Free Outside ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
7×10 Watercolor on Arches

Last week I wanted to paint something quick so I made a print of my photograph and hurriedly sketched this self portrait on a small block of Arches watercolor paper. Seeing these photos together helps me to see how squishy I drew my head, my eye isn’t looking in the same direction, and it’s too wide open. Scary.

On the trail at the museum visit

Drawing while sitting isn’t a smart thing to do. I end up with weird perspective. Would have been better if I stood up so I could see what I was doing. I made my head too long and the angle is wrong, but hey, it’s the process! This painting is an elongated me. The product was not the goal, it was to just work.

Since I figured out that my year of 100 paintings is coming to a close next week or so, I’ve been trying to paint more twenty minutes pieces. Each of my affirmation cards for the Blast Off class count as a painting, right? Add this one and I was up to #53. Still, not getting near 100. Why not just go ahead and paint anything? I might do this again on larger paper to get the proportions right. Hope I don’t scare myself.

It’s okay to take liberties in art. Does it really matter if the likeness is exact? Don’t think it is. The way Picasso painted his subjects nobody could really look like any of his abstract figures. So I can make believe this is a kind of abstract. Yeah, that sounds good.

Process people! Move it. Paint. Work. Try. Try it again.

Sunflower Painting is Finished, and What I Learned

It’s Friday and time to show you photos of the latest finished watercolor painting. I had some other fun news to share, but you will have to wait. Painting is happening and the sooner I get this one out of here the easier it will be to get the next one working and I will tell you what was so much fun.
First twenty minutes

There were a few things I learned while painting this work. Firstly, the height of my art table is too high. The dining room table is lower when I painted there, waist level while standing. This was not comfortable and I felt as if I couldn’t get away from it by standing or sitting on a stool. It will need to be lowered if I’m going to paint there.

Secondly, the desk lamp is not natural even though I have a daylight bulb and an incandescent one. It’s just way to bright and also too close to the work to gauge paint colors the way I wanted. I persevered.

Second twenty minutes
The third thing I learned is about the paper. After using Lanaquarelle, then Arches, I can tell the difference in quality. I bought this Canson tablet on sale, it was larger than I was using, and figured it’d come in handy when I was ready to work larger. 
Also it’s a pad, not a block, and if not affixed to a surface it curls and rolls when wet. The painting surface is not that great either, leaving weird brush strokes. Well, I guess it’s okay if you want those brush strokes to show. 
I’m using two different paint companies, MaimeriBlue and Windsor&Newton. When I painted a layer over an area previously painted, the layer beaded up. Was it the paint? Was it the paper? Or does that happen? I thought it was strange.
Blue Vase With Sunflowers ©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
15×20 Watercolor on Canson paper
After I finished I took photographs while the work was still attached to the table. My problems were the same I had while painting: unnatural and too bright light, too close to get a good shot. I took the painting off the table, went to the dining room table and the nice northern exposure picture window to take a photo. See the difference? Washed out color in artificial light, more true to the paints in natural light.
The fourth thing I learned is that I’m getting comfortable using my photos to paint from. I don’t want to get too cozy because then it’ll take time to get back to painting from life.
I’ll figure it out one of these days. In the meanwhile I’m still in the game. 

Two More Sunflowers

Two Sunflowers (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
14×20 Watercolor on Lanaquarelle paperr
Motivation comes in strange ways. I need to have my painting implements staring me in the face to be able to feel like working on the art. After reading everything I have, and taken the great workshop last weekend, what is it with the resistance?
I must admit making painting a daily habit is working more than not working. At least I know in the back of my mind I have painting to do. At some point in my day it will happen. There is no such thing as painting all day long. No such thing. You just have to try to go to the studio, or the dining room table, and get to work.
There are a few more sunflower photographs I have at the ready. This is another that I started painting. Here is the progression from sketch to dropping in color. I allowed myself those precious twenty minutes of time and stopped.

Twenty minutes of painting time is the best thing I ever started doing. I get to paint every day, sort of, and stop myself before I make a mess of things. Rather than get bogged down in detail, which was my hallmark, I know I don’t have too much time so I am use brush strokes and color to say what I need to say.

I could have stopped at this session, but I felt that the work needed just one more go to make me feel as if the painting was finished. Each time after the paint dried I felt different about my work. Something about how the paper flattened back down, how the colors looked, gave me confidence I was on the right track.

If I had kept on going past the twenty minutes I might have had to throw it out, as I have done before. I am master of my domain! Yeah, right.

Got it Together? Check!

There’s not enough time to do everything I have on my to-do list and the day is not over yet. The workshop weekend is here and what I need to bring is ready. Item by item, I crossed things off my list. I have not been sleeping well, waking at 4:30A.M. every morning, wide eyed and thinking. It’s not the workshop, just a sleep cycle changing I guess.

I had my usual Friday of things and there is no way I can paint today. I had the fleeting thought I could play with some beads and cord, but decided there is just no time after my busy morning. After lunch I went back to review what I need for the weekend. Good thing I don’t have to pack clothes and get on a plane, I’d be dizzy.

Portfolio? Check. Artist statement? Check. Directions? Check. GPS in the car? Check. My brain? Oops!

Alyson the Art Biz Coach, who is leading the workshop, commented on my post to bring only new, up to date work. That’s what I thought, too. What it is that I am working on now rather than three years ago, makes sense.

Taking this workshop at this time is the next step. Everything I’ve been doing the last few years has led me here. I am thankful to have taken the big step to blogging, facebook and twitter, or I would have to get up to speed with it. I found the Twenty Minute Challenge, and the 100 Paintings Challenge, two great sites that help me build a new body of work and try to find an art habit. Reading the Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, allowed me to tap into that inner child artist, try to fight off resistance, and rediscover the artist voice. Step by small step.

Friends always said I should have an art show. I always answered that I needed a body of work to show. Yes, college work was great, but people want to see today, not all those many years ago. And anyway, that’s not who I am now. Even work from a couple of years back is not me today.

Yesterday I realized I have been blogging since September 16, 2009, and I could not believe it’s been that long ago that I got my feet wet here. Who I was then, what kind of art I was making, if at all, compared to today, is like another person, but the same person. Just more awake, aware, in tune.

The rest of my day is not over. I have a kids dance class to teach tonight. After that let’s hope I sleep.

Preparing and Painting

Peppers on a Platter (c)2011Dora Sislian Themelis
 11×16 Watercolor

With the workshop weekend looming, I wanted to spend the day preparing myself and my stuff. We are to bring a portfolio of work. I’ve been throwing it around in my head which work to bring. The obvious thing would be to show recent pieces. Although I do work in other media, I guess I will bring the watercolors. And maybe my little pen and inks done while waiting at the allergist’s office.

I printed out my artist’s statement, such as it is. It’s for my eyes only, but my eyes are pretty critical. It’s a loosey goosey art language statement. In college, art majors needed to take English for Art Majors Only. They expected us to be able to discuss our work to regular people, as well as other artists. We wrote papers reviewing the masters works, museum pieces, and each other’s work. It wasn’t easy, but helped us to develop an art speak that normal people understood.

Every paper I wrote, my professor would ask if I wrote it. She’d say my language on paper was not the same thing that came out of my mouth. What could I say? I’m from Queens and what comes from my lips is not how I think or write. Ugh.

So yes, artist statement is ready. I also printed out the directions. Believe me, I’m not leaving home without a GPS thing.

I had a small bit of time yesterday and today, before getting involved in other things, to paint. Working from some photos I took a while ago I just went to it. Yes, I said from photos! No pencil, just paint. I didn’t get a chance to take a photo at the twenty minute mark and what you see is well past that. I just wanted colors, shapes, and values. I was going to continue to add to the lower left corner, but I think it’s balanced just as it is. Heavy with color on the upper right, and void of it at the lower left. Weird composition, but I’m going with it.

Besides, I’m out of time. Tomorrow is another day.

Back in the Saddle Again

Peach Pebble Pepper (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
Watercolor 9×12 Lanaquarelle

So you see, a little moping around can sometimes lead to good things. Write it and it will come, sort of. I was out of it, but it pulled me back in. There’s only so long a slump can last. Mr. Resistance, I am rid of you for the time being.

Shhhhh. I don’t want him to hear me too loudly for fear he’ll show up and bother me again.

As I was saying. The veggie haul was “fruitful” and ended up being quite productive. I don’t know what it was that lured me to paint. The shapes of the produce, the colors, the combinations looking very interesting? What?

I felt bad I ate my still-life subject at the beach that day of the earthquake. Maybe that was it? The peaches in the veggie haul were really pretty. I don’t know, but I found myself reaching for the peach, then I grabbed an interesting looking pepper, and one of those pebbles I was painting a while ago.

After arranging these items in a way that felt good to me, I filled my water contained and started in on this. No pencil sketching, just drawing in the items in watercolor paint. I must admit that when I work this way I sometimes fail to place the painting in the center of the paper. I’ll fix that with a matte when the time comes.

For now I did it. A breakthrough, and the best part is I painted for only twenty minutes. Just enough time to get it together and back on track.

“Back in the saddle again,
Out where a friend is a friend.
Where the longhorn cattle feed, 
On the lowly gypsum weed,
Back in the saddle again.”
by Gene Autry, songwriter 

It’s Finished When My Brain Says STOP

Yesterday afternoon, after the plumbers had left me with their bit of a mess, after I cleaned up their mess, put my things away, straightened out the areas they were in, I finished the watercolor painting I was working on.
I went back to it, but something inside me said This Is Done, STOP! So I signed it and declared it finished. So here it is. The top photo was taken yesterday at about 4PM. The bottom photo I took this morning by 9AM. The light of day seems to have changed the colors: the top is warmer, the bottom is cooler toned.

Pepper Stem (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
12×16 Watercolor on Lanaquarell

Either way I am pleased with this painting. I have been using watercolors for some time now and I don’t think I am using them in the traditional way. The books I’ve looked at seem to manipulate the paints different than I am. Maybe we all have our own way of getting paint on the surface in a pleasing manner.

Whatever works for you, do it. Must there be only one way to paint with whatever medium? I think not.

Hot Day at the Easel

The weather in New York has been really hot. It’s not that unusual, in fact if it’s going to be hot here it better be hot in July. I don’t want to hear anything from the people who like the cold weather. If anyone complains about the heat I remind them that if they wait we will have snow soon enough. And it would be too soon for me. Guaranteed.

With my babysitting over, and the heat outside reaching the real feel temperature of 110F, I planned on staying in with the air conditioning on and painting. Since I’ve been pushing myself to work from photographs lately, I looked through some of the latest and decided to keep going with the sunflowers.

Twenty minutes at a time was my plan. I thought I would work on this for the allotted time and stop. I sketched in the composition and went in with paint as you can see here.

Another twenty minutes later and I’m at this not quite done stage. I tried to walk away from painting rather than look at it with a critical eye. I see way too much in photos so this is hard work for me.

Sunflowers on the Table (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
12×16 Watercolor on Lanaquarelle paper

This is the finished painting. I have thoughts on this that I will not air out loud. I will leave the critique to you readers. Sometimes I think I should stop painting all together at the first twenty minutes, but that’s just my opinion.