watercolor painting Archives - Page 19 of 19

Process Painting

A good lesson I learned from The Artist’s Way was that it’s acceptable to go into the studio with no idea what will happen once I get there, if anything. I used to think I had to have a plan, execute that plan, and end up with a pleasing outcome. Honestly, I think I set myself up for failure with that thought because I’d end up doing everything else except go to my desk. In my head I rebelled against it because I just wanted to fool around with the paint, doodle, and do “nothing”. Now I know I’m better off doing “nothing” and maybe I’ll come out with “something”. I know, wacky artist in the house!

The thing is when I doodled and did what I thought was nothing, I’d be happier. It was fun and didn’t feel like working. That’s one thing about doing The Artist’s Way course is it makes you become aware and steers you towards the process of art which could lead to exciting ideas. It makes you feel like playing again another day and see what happens next.

I’ve been playing with watercolors for a while so they’re readily available to me. I love oil painting, but since I cleaned my palette a few years ago I haven’t been able to start up again. I bought a couple of small stretched canvases recently so maybe something will happen with them soon. For now, it’s watercolor. I just thought I’d see how the paint reacts with different brushes, wet paper or dry, what will happen to the paint when I add one color next to previously applied colors. Playing with the medium to see how controllable, or not, it is.

Beach at Dusk ©2000 Dora Sislian Themelis
11×14 Watercolor

With no agenda, painting was a pleasure. I let the watercolors dry and went back to look at what I painted. When I saw some little idea of a landscape I went in with more paint and pulled out small ideas of the sand, shore and dunes. I painted beach fencing with small brush strokes and defined the beach a bit.

It was a good session in the studio. If I had thought ahead what I was going to do there I might not have felt so comfortable. Lesson learned: process, play.

At the End

Day’s End, Watercolor on paper, 11×14″

Here I am at the last week in The Artist’s Way 12 week course. And I’m not happy about it. I enjoyed reading each chapter and trying to do all the tasks. I looked forward to writing the three Morning Pages of long-hand, stream of consciousness thoughts. I had started a journal anyway, but this gave my writing a purpose and a direction. Never mind that I called myself stupid, you idiot, and jerk most days in those pages. The writing habit emptied my brain of nonsense and helped keep a tidy space all up in there!

The weekly tasks were difficult for me to keep up with though. I plan go back to various weeks and complete them. I know they were there to help, but somehow I managed to avoid many tasks. I don’t know why. Did I resist doing them? It seems it’s normal for creative people to throw obstacles in our own path because doing the task is scary. Moving ahead puts us off sometimes, so we resist.

Anyway, I’m thinking I won’t really be done with the course just yet. And the Artist’s Date. Time to play all by myself! That was an absolute pleasure when I pinned myself self down to indulge in it. At each week’s end was a check-in that asked if we did the Morning Pages every day, did we do the self-pampering Artist’s Date, if so, what? These two things will have to become a “must do”.

At a gathering this weekend someone asked me what I did. I said I was an artist and talked about my paintings and handmade items. The woman I was speaking to was awestruck and began planning for me to show at some venue. I found myself saying Yes! I gave out my handy business card. I was so ready! The Artist’s Way talks about synchronicity and there it was. Things were just falling into place as if it were meant to be. Before reading this book I may not have been so bold or so ready.

If I stick with it, art will easily become a larger part of my day, every day. Art as process, art as play. The course says creativity requires faith, which means we give up control. But giving up control is scary and we resist. The resistance is the block on the path to creativity. That quiet internal Yes! is what leads us on the right path. So I’m sticking with the Artist’s Way plan and I’m just going to keep on saying Yes!

Back In the Studio

Playing in the studio again the other day trying to make it a daily habit. Eventually, I’ll get in there for a couple hours each day. Until that habit kicks in I’m thankful for the times I do find myself at my desk instead of in the kitchen.

I’ve been wanting to visit the local art supply store to look over some new watercolor paints. The old tubes I had were dried up. The new ones I had didn’t have the range of colors I really wanted. I don’t want to resort to my travel set because then I’d need to replace those pans, too.

When you buy an introductory set of five tubes they don’t always offer the colors you want. Strange colors I would never buy are included. So I need to supplement the sets with more paints. Some how I can’t get to the store! Is it a block? Am I putting other things in my way so I never get there? I don’t know, but the great thing is that I painted anyway in spite of the weird colors.

Five large tubes of MamieriBlu and twelve tiny tubes of Holbein paints is what I have. The MamieriBlu are wonderfully creamy and hold up nice while painting. The Holbein are also nice to work with. I had my eyes on a set of Russian Yarka paints.

However, some wonderful fellow artists on the Etsy shop forums gave me great info on them and I decided to stick with what I have. I don’t feel like spending good money on inferior quality paint.

Off to the studio to look at the disaster of a painting I did last week. The Artist Way course says bad paintings point the way to a different style. Ok, so I did a junky painting. I felt like thowing paint on the paper in an effort to abstract the marigold work.

Well, let’s say it looked like a mess of color. Instead of ditching it, I went back to it and tried adding line, blotching some color out and generally playing with it. Just a play date in the studio.

Maybe it wasn’t what I had in mind, but a good effort anyway. I’m not that embarrassed to show it. Thankfully, things sometimes work out in the end if you try again.

Photos Friday

Enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Apple and Pear 9×10 Watercolor ©2000 Dora Sislian Themelis
SOLD

It’s Play Time

I’m so happy I had my little tantrum yesterday. I told myself I was just going to do the things that needed doing and get over it! Whatever time it took to clear the table, so to speak, I was going to set aside one hour to play. One hour to just fool around at my desk.

The other day I had taken a few more photographs in my garden. I decided to just upload them from the camera and see what I had. Some photos looked good enough to paint from. I prefer painting from life, but it was okay for now.

I chose a photo and took it to my drawing table, squeezed out the colors I was going to use and just got to it. Without any rhyme or reason I sketched with color on the paper. No objective other than playing with the brush and the paint.

Can you guess that I ended up spending two and a half hours painting? By the time I looked up from the watercolor paper, it was already dark outside and I had no idea what time it was. I was amazed. Yesterday I was having a hissy fit about not painting and today I was painting! Talk about a creative u-turn!

Fall Marigold 14×20″ Watercolor on 140lb coldpress paper

I was Right, it’s the Process, Stupid

As I mentioned before, I’m working toward more art and less housework by reading The Artist’s Way. Remembering to do the tasks is an effort. It’s not that the tasks are difficult, not in any way. I just can’t remember to do them. I think about it while I’m writing the Morning Pages, which is 3 pages of journaling and has become a habit I’m enjoying.

Being able to empty my thoughts on paper has helped declutter my brain-junk. You know all that yapping that goes on in there? Well, I’ve got alot of it. Do this, did you do that, why, is it, isn’t it, you idiot, and on. Journaling helps that, but somehow the tasks escape me.

This week I allowed myself time and now I’m in Week 8, “Recovering a Sense of Strength.” As I read yesterday I was having “Aha!” moments. The author writes, “Creativity occurs in the moment..” She suggests that we not pay attention to the final form and don’t ignore the fact that “creativity lies not in the done, but in the doing.”

So I’m reading this thinking about my post yesterday and how I wrote the point of my painting was the process not the result! I really didn’t care about the painting I ended up with. The objective was the action of painting, using the materials and tools, getting the thoughts on the paper in color.

The idea that you need to have something to show for your effort stops that excitement to create. Focusing on the process allows that little sense of adventure. If I let myself think I have to come up with a masterpiece, I’m done. Just playing with the paint or cleaning the desk area helped me to take a small step rather than a scary leap!

To read these ideas in a book that just yesterday were my thoughts was a revelation to me. I feel like I’m on the right track. Another painting session is on the horizon, as long as I’m not distracted by laundry, which is a whole other ball of wax.

Doodles at my Desk

It’s a miserable, rainy day again, but I’m spending time at my desk in my little studio! I decided to straighten up the desk and surrounding area and ended up day dreaming and drawing.

I’m so proud of my productivity. I started doodling with the conte crayons first. Once I was over that, I remembered some photos I took of flowers in my garden. I have been wanting to try a technique in watercolor where tube paints are used straight, no thinning with water. The paint is applied with bristle brushes instead of sable hair. The marigold photographs might work for this technique since I took good close-up shots with alot of color. I paint big, even on a small support and this flower was going to be big!

Luckily, the watercolor paper I’m going to use is just large enough to handle the size of my drawing without being crazy big. I sketched out the petals and planned how I’m going to start applying paint. If the rest of my day was free I’d plow right into painting, but I have to stop here.

Tomorrow is another day.

Painting, and Knitting, and Beading, Oh My!

Some people have a hobby or two that they like to indulge in now and then. Others do one thing very well and have fun doing just that. When one enjoys their “thing”, whether a creative outlet or sports related, it’s a go-to activity that gives pleasure in the down time.

Having too many enjoyable pursuits becomes a burden. I am one of those people. As an artist I really need to paint. My favorite medium is oil paint and I paint BIG. What am I painting right now? Nothing. I’m not oil painting, not right now anyway. Right now I’m knitting! And I’m knitting five items at once. And I’m making bead/wire jewelry. And I’m pastel drawing. And I’m sketching with watercolors, which is painting, ok. Did I say I’m knitting?

It’s all a distraction, you see. No, not multi-tasking like people want to call it. I’m working on one thing until I suddenly am very interested in another thing. Then I stop doing the first activity and fluidly move on to the other. No multi-tasking involved. There’s a good excuse for this and it’s not ADD. Since I haven’t used the oil paints in a while first I need to set them up on my palette. This takes time. This takes energy. So I go to the next easy-to-get-to thing which is the pastels. Just open the box of pastels, draw, and clean up the dust, and I’m done! But I have to pull out the boxes from the shelf. As I start for the shelf I see the half done knit socks I’m working on. I head for the knitting. I’m at a juncture in the knitting where I have to count rows and I spy another pair on other needles. I pick them up and knit on them for a few rows. Behind this project is the beading bag full of jewelry goodies. I stop knitting and look through the bag for something I thought of. Do you see where this is going?

Wouldn’t it be smart to get the oil paints out and just do that? Yes, it would be a good thing unless the half knit sock is in the way.

Watercolor Class

The opportunity to work with watercolors never came up while I was studying art in college. However, the town I live in was offering beginner watercolor classes and a friend pushed me into attending. She wanted to try the class and needed me to be the “wing man”, side-kick, buddy. I went along thinking, “Ok, I never worked with watercolors before. Maybe I will learn something.”

We signed up and received a list of all the supplies we needed to bring to the first class. They described the class as a guide in the use and application of watercolor and “other water media.” I’m thinking this is going to be good.

The classroom was a big space with a long line-up of tables and chairs. We found a spot and set up our supplies. Other students filed in and set-up, too. Most of the students were retirement age, we were the youngest in the group. That doesn’t bother me in the least, I’m there for the lessons as well as meeting other artists.

The instructor began the demonstration. He pulled out a magazine clipping of a painting someone did of a ballerina in a pose. With his pencil he sketched out the lines of the painting on his stretched watercolor paper. At this point we didn’t receive any instruction in how to lay out the paints, how to stretch the paper and if we should or not, which brush does what, how to manipulate the paint on wet or dry paper, and he’s advocating the piracy of another artist’s art! I am floored!

Compounding my rage at this guy, the other students were all copying his painting of a painting. They were actually taking photographs of his painting of a painting so that they could duplicate it at home! My friend loved the class, socializing with the others, taking phone numbers, emails, and having a ball doing that. I’m flipping out.

I finally asked the instructor when was he going to teach us something. He didn’t answer. When I asked why he was demonstrating on someone’s painting, he had no answer. I asked if he was going to set up a still life or have a model to paint from, he still had no answer, except to say these students want a demonstration each week. Well, I thought, let me teach that class and we’d have some quality art work to show for the time we’re there!

He did not like me and chose to ignore me the rest of the 6 weeks in the class. I decided then, that I was going to paint him and the rest of the students, like it or not. He definately did not. And the students definately did not, as they glared at me while I painted them.

I taught myself how to use watercolor and loved every minute of my rebellion.

Last Chance at a Beach Day

Before the winter begins to chill my bones, I took the opportunity to visit the beach one last time. A couple of weeks ago we had some beautiful, warm weather. The sun was out and putting out some nice, hot rays. The air temperature was perfect and there was really no wind, which was definately a plus. Wind can be bad!

Living on Long Island, New York, offers a quick trip to the beach any time you feel like going. I can be at the beach in fifteen minutes, barring any traffic. After the summer is over, a beach jaunt is so much more relaxing. Everyone else is back at school and work. Most people have had it with the summer activities by now. Not me.

I packed up a quick lunch, ice coffee and off I went! My travel bag of watercolor paints was already in the car. I decided that I was going to paint whatever I found when I got there.

The parking lot was practically empty and so was the beach. Maybe thirty people were scattered along the shoreline. Another plus: no kids. Yes! Heaven is an empty beach on a nice day. I set up my chair and put the paints near me. Along the shore I collected some objects for my painting. I found some nice shells of different sizes and colors, and an interesting branch of driftwood.

With my camera I photographed the scenery. Who knows? Maybe I’ll paint from the photographs during the winter. I usually like to paint from life, but sometimes it’s not possible. The photos will help motivate my creativity at a time when I can’t get outside.

Settling down with my still life items, I got myself to work. I sketched a small collection of interesting shells. The inside of the shells were so colorful I decided to paint them upside down. Bits of seaweed clung to the undersides along with some hardened sand. Would my watercolor sketch do them justice? I don’t know, but the point of the day was to get my inner artist to have the chance to play with colors on a nice day.

I think it worked.