Month: November 2011

To Beat Resistance: The Timer Is My Friend

©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis

Here is the last of the sunflower photographs I took during the vegetable share season. It’s kind of Vincent van Gogh-ish. When I get a chance to buy larger watercolor paper I will be painting from this photo. Did you see I said “when.” And “when” will that be?

I could see these sunflowers in oils, too. The oil paints have sat for so long I can’t even think about getting them out and painting with them. Yeah, I know, I need a bit of time to look them over, set them up around the palette, but then there’s the medium to deal with, a large enough canvas to work on. These are the distractions that stop me in my tracks.

Maybe I will do a small and quick twenty minute watercolor? Well, let’s see where it goes.

These are the things I grapple with during my day. The road blocks are my own. Mr. Resistance can wreak havoc on plans.

Watercolor paints are so easy to get out, paint, clean up, and put away. The oils are out, the painting sits wet for days, the air needs to be well ventilated because of the chemicals in the paints and the medium. Unless I sketch quick with plenty of turpentine so the paints dry faster, this could take time.

Do people still use turpentine any more? That’s how long I haven’t painted in oils, don’t tell on me.

Am I making excuses not to paint at all? Gee, let’s see: no watercolor paper large enough, the oils are a pain, I might not have enough time to paint. Sound familiar? Resistance is stepping out into view here.

Now we are on the verge of December, and all that comes with the holidays. How can painting be a priority if there are so many other things to get done?

The thought running through my head right now is this: The timer is my friend. The timer is my friend.

No Thanksgiving Hype, Great

Thanksgiving is one holiday that really doesn’t get much hype. Unless, of course, you fall into that set of people who must shop. I am definitely NOT one of those people. The powers that be can’t sell anything big for this particular holiday except the food items that are needed.

The focus is on Christmas, Hanukkah, maybe New Year’s Eve. However, many stores opened at 9PM on Thanksgiving day this year. In the past, this was unheard of. I think it’s ridiculous. Can’t people go one day without shopping? It’s bad enough the stores open their doors at 5AM.

What? Do people have to throw out their company because they are going shopping at 9PM? Do they say “Sorry, hurry and finish that piece of pie because I am out of here in an hour”?

I like a leisurely holiday. I enjoy the preparations, the dinner, whether in my own house or at family. Here in NY, the Macy’s Parade is televised so if you’re not there you can still see it.

My habit is to catch glimpses of the parade while preparing things for the dinner. It’s Christmas theme makes it the precursor to the big holiday to come. If you think about it, Thanksgiving is not the focus at all. Too bad.

The end of the parade signals the big curtain call, Santa Claus on his sleigh with all the reindeer and elves. It’s really a sight, and he’s usually great. It’s as if he’s a real person, very natural.

I get misty eyed seeing the Santa at the end. Something about him catches me by surprise. Good thing I don’t have a TV in my kitchen since I had it done over, or I’d be all choked up watching him.

I’m sure holidays are heavy for most people. The present is heavy, as well as the past. Is it the traditions, the anticipation, the expectations, conscious and subconscious? The things we used to do, things we still do, things that are new to do, things we must do, the people we did those things with, the stories we remember, and the people we’re doing them with today.

Heavy.

There are things we do and remember a time doing these same things, but the clothes, the era, were different, are different. I’m not that nostalgic, nor do I want to go back in time. I am just aware that things are different and changing.

Am I different? I supposed I am, but in many ways, no, I am not. I am still who I always was. Santa at the end of the parade made me misty eyed as a little kid, too.

Photos for Friday

Here is a small sample of items handmade by me! Visit my Etsy shop and my Facebook page for more items and contact information if you are interested in purchasing anything you fancy.

Hand Knit Baby Bonnet in Red from 6 months and up
$12

Hand Knit Baby Bonnet in Soft Yellow from 6 months and up
$12

Unisex Knotted Bracelet with various Greek Mykonos beads
$15

Women’s Strung Bead Bracelet with Turquoise and Glass beads
$20

Latest bracelets for Men and Women

The Shell Has Company!

Shell Has Company 7×10 Watercolor on Arches paper
©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis

Isn’t it nice that my beach shell has found itself in another painting with company? I don’t know what it is about that shell that I seem to paint it so often.

Maybe it reminds me of the day at the beach when I found it? Maybe it’s because of the little bit of seaweed that clings to the underside? Is it because it’s cracked?

Then there’s the apple. I’m intrigued by the different colors I find in every apple I paint. The veggie share gave me this pumpkin-type thing. I like the color of it.

Whatever pulls me, I must oblige.

I had planned to paint this still life set up larger, but guess what? No paper! The small Arches block I was saving to take with me on painting excursions was ready and waiting, so that’s what I used instead. A trip to the art supply store will have to happen sooner rather than later.

Twenty minutes of painting this and I was finished. Damp brush, not a lot of water, and sketching is possible. I used two brushes, a medium large round and a small outline type brush, to paint with. We all have many different brushes, but lately it’s been these two. Funny how we can pare down to get the most out of a minimum of items to work with.

It’s like having a closet full of clothes, and I only wear the same ten or so items all the time.

The same thing with painting. All the colors on the palette and I keep using the same five colors, and these two brushes.

Anyway, I painted. It’s a reason to cheer! Except I won’t because I never know when Mr. Resistance will turn the corner. Shhhhhh.

Art is Loved

When I signed onto the vegetable CSA for the season I planned to receive flowers and eggs as well as the fruits and vegetables they offered. It’s been interesting to see the different produce I brought home. Some things I never saw before and never want to see again, to be really honest. Let’s say it’s been an experience.
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the flowers. Those sunflowers had an effect on me from the start. I liked the jaunty way they sat in my vase and I just had to photograph them. The life of fresh flowers is fleeting, so to preserve their beauty I had to take photos. Did I think I would paint them? Yeah, the idea came across. Did I think I would be enamored of sunflowers? Nope.
SOLD Sunflowers Outside ©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
This painting was the first of the bunch and it was memorable because I painted it in great weather in my backyard garden. It just happened to be a beautiful day with painting happening.
At the end of the summer I added it to my portfolio of work that I brought to the workshop I attended. Did I think it would be purchased during that weekend? Not at all, but that’s exactly what happened, as I said in the post about the workshop. Crazy.
Me, my painting, and happy new owner Grace!

Grace, my table-mate fell in love with my painting and had to have it (her words)! Of course I sold it to her, and we took photographs of the moment. It was a lot of fun. (By the way, Grace makes beautiful pottery and owns her own pottery studio The Potter’s Wheel. Visit her site and Etsy shop when you can.)

Sunflowers Outside hanging in Grace’s home

Just this week Grace posted to Facebook a photograph of the newly matted, framed and hung painting in it’s place of honor in her home. It was a wonderful feeling to know that painting is loved by someone other than me, it’s maker. Doesn’t it look happy? I think it does. And so am I.

Process Leads to Finished

Four Sunflowers 14×20 Watercolor on Lanaquarelle paper
©2011 Dora Sislian Themelis

You see, the process, when implemented by the twenty minute time slots, leads to finished product. It’s a coincidence that I just read something to the effect that artists with a day job should fit creativity time in their day just like this. They should set a timer for twenty minutes and push headlong into painting, or whatever.

Amazing!

I finished this today. Believe me, if I don’t put it away right now I will find some other spot to play with on this work. After I took this photograph I made a small area of the background darker to pop the yellow flower petals a little bit more.

That is my downfall. I tell myself I’m finished and then after I clean the brushes and my palette I spy an area I think needs a flick of the brush. Many a work has been ruined by such impulsiveness.

Forget it, I’ve already uploaded this photo and that’s it. The little brush stuff I just did will have to be discovered by someone else, hopefully a happy art collector.

Just putting it out there into the Universe, hoping the Universe hears that little plea for a buyer to show up and give a nice painting a new home. That’s all.

The Process Works, Baby

As it turns out, I was extremely out of the loop for a few days. The good part of it was that I found twenty minutes to paint on this latest work each day. Imagine that? I know, I know, you’re probably saying to yourself “this girl doesn’t knock it off with the twenty minutes thing.” 

Really, if I hadn’t discovered I could paint and keep the process going in short amounts of time I’d be under the table by now, completely out of the scene. But here I am. Everyday I’m shuffling, chugging away, Process, baby!

Every day I dipped the brush in the paints and scribbled a little here, threw some paint over there. I am so thankful to the inner-artist in me who decided to take a lot of photos of these sunflowers when they came with my vegetable share. To tell the truth-this was the best part of the CSA share. The veggies? Eh.

When the baby slept I painted. When I came in from errands, I painted. While I cooked dinner, I painted. Before I ran out of the house in the morning, I painted. Twenty minutes, ten minutes, whatever little iota of time I could afford, I worked on my process. 
I might have to buy myself some sunflowers after these photos are all used for paintings. Either that or I may paint them all over again, but using oil paints, and painting really big. It’s an idea.