twenty minute challenge Archives - Page 3 of 4

I Will Beat the Crazymaker

Have I mentioned that I have a stalker? What’s up with that? People turn into some kind of crazy here and there.

Friendships are strange. It’s nice to have friends, but not when they become out of control monster-like. Think of the Hulk. He’s such a nice guy, right? Then something clicks inside his head and he turns into this wild, green monstrosity. There’s no putting that thing back in his box. Nope.

When I was reading The Artist’s Way trying to reign in Mr. Resistance, I read about the Crazymaker. Everyone has one of those people in their life now and then. They make it hard for us to do our own stuff by distracting us with their stuff. The bad thing about it is that sometimes you don’t know you have a Crazymaker on your hands until they jump out of the box like the Hulk!

I made my peace with my Crazymaker, in my head. I ignored. It worked, for a while.

Now they’re circling in the waters like a shark trying to fool it’s prey. I think I’m the prey. I will try to ignore, again. But the thing is this: they know what they’re doing. They make it hard to ignore.

People around me tell me things related to the Crazymaker. These managers of mayhem are smart. They know how to worm themselves in my direction, by using others I’m close to or friendly with.

Lately it’s been by cyberspying. That’s my definition because I can’t think of anything else to call it that will convey my meaning. Sly and calculating, they are. But guess what? I catch the drift. I’m not a fool. I’m outside because I identified the Crazymaker for who they are and I slowly stepped back. Anyone remember that skit from the ’60’s with actors I can’t think of right now, “Slowly I turn, step by step…”

That’s me, backing out of the driveway! But wait! Who’s that shadowy figure trying to get my attention? Nah, not fooling me. Still I ignore. How long will they lurk?

Anyway, I painted a twenty minute piece the end of last week which helped me drive thoughts of that Crazymaker out of my head. Now that I’ve committed myself to the 100 Paintings Challenge, twenty minutes of work is going to help me keep going. Quick and done!

Broken Shell (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
8×12 Watercolor on Arches paper

That will show the Crazymaker and Mr. Resistance who’s boss! Nyah-ha-ha-ha!

I’m In

I did it. I took the plunge. I made the commitment. Got on the band wagon. I took the first step of a long journey. Can’t think of any other analogies to convey what I’ve decided to take on with all the other stuff I do.

For a year or so I’ve been trying to beat Mr. Resistance at his game. I read The Artist’s Way, The War of Art, Walking in This World, looking for ways to get around the blahs of going to the studio to paint. Reading The Artist’s Way was my jump off point. The tasks were do-able most of the time. The most beneficial step forward was the daily writing of Morning Pages. Thank goodness for those Pages! The constant blabbing going on in my head has moved to the written page, leaving my brain pretty clear and babble free.

The thing is I wanted to be painting on a regular schedule. In the past year I have moved well along, but, alas, no schedule. I thought that, maybe, I’m not a good schedule person-type. I thought, maybe, I’m not organized enough to make myself walk down the steps to my studio area, in my house, at a set time each day to work. Try as I might, I couldn’t seem to act as if I have a job in an office, to which I had to show up every day and get paid at the end of the week. Where was the payment, the cash, the moola? Not in my basement studio it seems. And not anywhere else either. It just wasn’t happening on that regular basis I was looking for.

It was happening alright, just not how I expected it. Yes, I painted some solid work. Yes, I learned things about watercolors and materials. I learned how to find inspiration, when to give myself a break, how to lighten up and when. Live life, ignore some stupid stuff, much of it my own, pay attention to nice stuff, smile and move on. Yes, learning lots of stuff. Good stuff and not so good stuff.

I knew that spending a small amount of time in the studio looking through my things, sorting, cleaning, could lead to doing. For fifteen minutes I could do something and it worked, for a while. Planning to show up for fifteen minutes would turn into a new project. Process, process, process.

One day while floating around the internet I stumbled onto The Twenty Minute Challenge blog by Teri Casper, and things suddenly started to happen. I learned that I couldn’t fool around all day long with watercolors because I wasn’t getting what I thought I wanted with all the water, the sloshing paint, the fuzzy-ness developing on my paper. But in twenty minutes I could have a finished painting! What a concept! Smack me in the head!

Those quick paintings I did on the beach in October were finished works. Why couldn’t I do the same thing here? Well, it worked and I did it.

Fast forward through to the present. Through Teri’s challenge I found the 100 Paintings Challenge. Sounded daunting, but other artists were working through it, why not I? (I, me, which one is it? Forget it.)

If I had found out about this idea months ago I’d have plenty of work under my belt by now. The thing is, I don’t think I would have had the guts to do it. Don’t think I have the guts right now, just that I’m afraid if I don’t jump in with both feet Mr. Resistance will grab me from behind and beat me up. So I threw down the gauntlet and said YES, before I backed out. Remember- YES is the operative word?

Here I am, making a commitment to do 100 paintings in the year ahead. I said yes so it’s done. The wonderful, kind Laure, administrator of The 100 Painting Challenge was lovely with her encouragement, as was Teri and the other artists over there. Laure asked me if I wanted to begin right away or wait. I replied that I needed to begin as soon as possible to keep the momentum going. I even had the latest painting ready to go.

What’s Left of Fall (c)2011Dora Sislian Themelis
8×12 Watercolor 140lb Arches cold press paper

This still life started out as a twenty minute loosely painted work. I knew I would go back to it to define the areas needing work and decided to make this #1 of the challenge.

I did it. I’m ready. I made the commitment and I’m peeking around the corner for Mr. Resistance. If he shows up I’m going to deck him!

Late Today, but I Made it

Oh boy, this is being posted late today. Dinner is done and I’m finally here. The day just flew by and there was no chance of posting earlier. I’m certainly enjoying myself, but time is limited before I conk out tired as a brick. By the time the house is set right again, I don’t feel like doing anything except plopping in front of the television for an hour and I don’t even want to knit. And yes, just an hour, because that’s all I can handle before I fall asleep. I am not one of those people that has the TV on all day, unless there’s some catastrophe or blizzard going on.

One time, years ago, I was painting my basement/den area, rearranging furniture, being really busy. My mom called to ask me how I felt about some big thing that happened. I had no idea what she was talking about. She said “Don’t you have the news on? Don’t you know what’s going on?” Well I didn’t. Now and then I check in just to make sure some building didn’t fall down, or some other disaster wasn’t happening. Sometimes no news is good news.

Well, as I said, I’m busy. Some days more than others. I wish I could wake up really early and get the day started, but I can’t. I already wake at 6 A.M., before the others here. I wrote in my Morning Pages that if I could be up an hour earlier I could run to the studio and paint, just to get it in. Then write the Pages, start the coffee, read my newspaper and do the crossword puzzle, dress, make the bed, run a laundry, decide on dinner, check the calendar, check the refrigerator, etc. It’s just not going to happen.

Can’t get to it early in the morning and too tired to do it at the end of the day. That means trying to find time during the day, in fits and starts, bits and pieces, minutes at a time. Lately, 20 minutes. Baby must be asleep, no one better call me on the phone, or visit me. I can’t really work while talking, I can’t think.

When I was in school and painting during our studio time, we would yap, but that was different. Everyone was an artist, each of us working on our own paintings. We talked about our progress, or lack thereof, the professor, the model or the still life, our supplies, our vision. We had large easels and maybe a small taboret to hold our stuff which acted like a barrier, creating a kind of wall. I’m in my space, and you’re in your own space, but we can exchange ideas around the comfort of our huge canvases.

It’s not like that now. I’m painting on the dining room table while my granddaughter sleeps in a nearby bedroom. Not enough sleeping time for me to paint in the basement studio. Not yet. And I’m using watercolors so there’s no fumes for anyone to breathe.

Quiet Leaf (c)2011 Dora Sislian Themelis
8×12 Watercolor

This is one of the latest watercolor paintings I’ve just worked on in twenty minutes. There isn’t much detail because I keep using too much water and have to get it dry before I can continue. The interesting thing is the more times I get to paint, the more antsy I am to do it again. It’s exciting. I wake up wondering if I will get to it and think about painting every minute until I do. If I don’t paint I get cranky like a whiny brat. Bad inner artist child! Behave before I count to three!

The Operative Word is Yes

I’ve been thinking of entering the 100 Paintings Challenge. I won’t lie, I’m scared to begin and I don’t know why. This year I have fought with resistance to creating art and been winning most of the time. Reading The Artist’s Way helped quite a lot. Doing the tasks, writing Morning Pages without fail, pushing myself to be a parent to my inner child artist helped me to find inspiration and motivation. Another book, The War of Art, had more ideas and thoughtful quips for finding the muse and working on creativity. I’ve just found The Creative Spirit, by Twyla Tharp which is supposed to be good, too, but haven’t read it yet. I will let you know how it is when I do.

Finding the blog, The Twenty Minute Challenge, nudged me to find twenty minutes in a busy day to paint. A while back I was playing with just fifteen minutes in the studio which was productive. Doing 20 minutes, to begin and finish a work, was even better. Ding! and you have to stop. I was usually finished with my work by the time the timer rang. Fifteen minutes a day, or twenty for that matter, can help push along a larger project, which I have done. Much can be accomplished in small chunks of time as long as I don’t have to have a wrestling match with resistance, which could derail my efforts for a lot longer.

In comes the latest push, nudge, dangling carrot on a stick, the 100 Paintings, and I’m tempted. That little bad boy on my shoulder says “Why do you want to do that? People are going to have things to say. You’re busy as can be lately and you will never have the time to do 10 pieces, never mind 100” and on. Then again, the good girl on the other shoulder tells me “Why not? If you had taken up the challenge a long while ago you would already have 25 or more paintings in the mix and be excited to keep going.” So goes my discourse in the Morning Pages. Thank goodness I write those pages. Who wants to hear all this stuff that goes on in my head? Why this, why that, why not?

So why don’t I just jump in and sign up? What’s with the commitment phobia? The lovely fellow artists/bloggers are so nice at encouraging me to do it and I’m hedging.

But this being a Monday, and I love Mondays, I am tempted to just say yes. I read something in the past that said whenever there is a question, the answer, the operative word, should be Yes. So I think, hedge-hedge, the answer is Yes. I will. I accept the challenge. Now all I have to do is go over to the blog and begin. It’s still scary.

Snow Day, Sort of

The big blowout snowstorm we were supposed to experience looked like this by 6A.M. Okay, so around six inches fell. After the last blizzard two weeks ago, this was nothing. All the hoopla of the unplowed streets in NYC, the stranded drivers and mass transit riders, the cancelled air flights, and whatever else was not evident in this latest storm. Every one got so excited that schools were being closed before the storm even began, except for the city schools. No vacation for the city schools. Nope.

I had a couple of items to pick up at the supermarket and it was as if we were going to be snowed in for two weeks. People stripped the shelves of all milk, eggs, meats, and bread. Come on people, what’s going to happen that you need that much food? This is a snow storm not the end of the world as we know it. Get a grip! What’s wrong with people? Anyone ever hear about keeping a stocked pantry for such occasions when getting out of the house might be impossible for a day? Please.

This kind of stuff makes my head hurt. I had no idea we were even going to have any snow. I usually don’t watch television during the day. It’s bad enough I get distracted by things that keep me from painting. When I saw the long lines at the supermarket I was in shock.

Gorgeous is a teacher in the NYC school system and had to go to work this morning. Son #1 was told by his office to work from home so he is watching The Princess, and Son #2 was notified his office was opening later. Of course, adventure seeker that he is, The Mr. was out there at 6 A.M. shoveling the cars out of the snow so he could get to work. By hook or by crook, he was going! He’s a little nutty like that. To him, this is an adventure. He’ll return tonight to tell us how the roads were, who was stuck, if there were accidents, alot of excitement to be found out there.

I will be staying in. Yeah, I peeked out to snap the picture, but other than that I plan to get some things done. Hopefully, painting will be one of them. I trying to decide if I should take up a challenge some other artists/bloggers are doing called 100 Paintings. If I do, today might be #1. I’ll let you know what happens with that.

Photos for Friday and the Latest Work

Back at the dining room table again. This time I decided to use three small rocks as my subjects. I had to laugh because I sent the last still life to the blog of The Twenty Minute Challenge and one commenter thought I could finish that painting with line around the egg. So I was thinking, what egg?Then I realized that one of the rocks I painted certainly did look like an egg! I had such a good laugh that day.

Here is the beginning of the latest work. I thought I could try to make these rocks look like rocks instead of eggs! I am still laughing, can you tell? Anyway, this is what my start looks like. I am still using too much water on this Arches paper. Rats! I’m not going to get twenty minutes out of this. More like two days! (Still laughing!)

After a little bit of drying time, I try again. I don’t know how I remembered to take photos of this! Besides, my granddaughter was asleep and I wanted to work quickly so I could be done by the time she woke up. Not a twenty minute deal. Nope.You can see how I try to sketch out the subjects. When I work, I try to move around the whole surface so that most of the painting is moving together and evolving at the same time. I usually work this way so I’m not surprised by having one element fully developed before the rest comes together. Because if I do that, it never works for me. That one element ends up standing out or floating in space. It’s very action oriented even though I’m stationary. My painting arm is moving around alot and sometimes I stand, then I sit. If I do one or the other too long, I lose my focus. But then I lose my perspective, I can’t help it.

How did Monet paint the same scene at different times of the day? Did he paint a quick twenty minutes, an hour, and do another one of the same scene a few hours later? Or did he come back the next day, but later, or earlier? If you sit there and paint a landscape on the scene the light and shadows change with the hours. This is what I was pondering as the afternoon slipped away.

By this stage in the painting I had very little natural light left. The whole painting time was maybe about an hour. I began later than I wanted, mainly for the light. Drying takes time and I couldn’t move on until it dried. My mantra was ‘Less water’. I wouldn’t listen.

I must figure out this water thing. The longer I take on my work, the more details I see and want to add. It’s my opinion but, I think the paintings lose spontaneity if I go too long. Not good, not bad, I don’t know. This is not the finished work. It looks done, but that’s just because it got really dark when I took this photo and I had to edit it to see anything! Do these rocks look like eggs?

Some Time in the Morning

While my granddaughter was fast asleep after her bottle this morning, I headed to my watercolor paints at the dining room table. Like I have mentioned before, the light from the window at this spot is great. Even thought it’s a rainy, windy morning the light is still good, north facing light. The basement studio hasn’t seen any action in a while because it’s easier to keep an eye on my charge if I paint nearby. I set up the usual suspects and painted for twenty minutes.

I haven’t had the chance to get a smaller block of paper for these quick works so, as suggested by a fellow artist and blogger friend Pat, I cut larger paper down to the size I need. The way I paint, the bigger the paper, the bigger I go so I have to pencil in a dot to limit the area.

The paper I am using is Arches. The small notebook was Canson, and I’m noticing a difference. The Arches paper block stays wet longer, not so the Canson notebook pages. I’m also finding that I can’t paint as fast with the Arches because it’s still wet when I want to add color and then it gets muddy. I have to pay attention. Learning how to use the tools is part of the process, so it’s all good.

This is how the painting looks after twenty minutes. It’s not exactly how I’d like it to be so later on, if I get the chance, I will go back to clean it up.

On impulse yesterday, I purchased a 10 pack of small stretched canvas for almost no money at, gasp, Michael’s Crafts. I do hope there will be some oil painting in my future, meaning this winter. How does twenty minutes of oil painting sound? Can it be done with any success? Can I do it with a modicum of success? I guess I will have to try it and see.

Painting on Sunday

The weekend was pretty quiet around here and I had hoped to get many things done. The Mr. had planned a fishing trip with his buddies so I planned to be home getting the house ready for holiday decorating. My Sunday was set! I even hoped to take time out to paint something for twenty minutes.

The fishing trip was leaving from Freeport, NY, on Long Island. Freeport is on the way to Jones Beach and very close, which was a plus to The Mr. He’s gone fishing out of Montauk on the south fork and Greenport on the north fork, and every where in between. This trip was a short drive to the boat, but then the captain takes the fishermen out in the Atlantic Ocean for three hours to the spot. Gear, food, and men were ready for a full day. The boat was leaving the dock at 3A.M. Sunday morning and expected to return by 7P.M. Sunday night. All day.

I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Usually I’m the pancake lady on Sundays. Now I could sit with my little breakfast, my hot coffee and my newspaper. A quiet morning is one of my best times. If I’m pancake lady I’m so busy making them that my coffee gets cold before I can enjoy it. This time, nice hot coffee! I daydreamed of the day ahead, what I would get done, and what I was interested in painting.

Since I was invited to join a new blog The Little Art Club, I thought I would try the theme “Candy” in a twenty minute time slot. It would be just enough time to paint something as a start. Ideas floated around in my head while I sipped my coffee. When I was ready I headed off to paint for twenty minutes. Heaven, and it was still morning! Later in the day I worked on this another twenty minutes.

(I tried linking to the blog for this post, but it seems it’s unavailable. I wonder what happened?)

Around 11 A.M., The Mr. called to say they were already back from the trip. It seemed that another fisherman collapsed as they started casting their lines. Frantically, the captain, his mates, and the other guys performed CPR to try and revive the man. The Coast Guard was alerted and they tried to help, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful. When the boat returned to the dock three hours later, they were met by the police, detectives, fire personnel, and ambulances. The Mr. and his buddies had to give their names and statements. Needless to say he was home early.

Back to the Future

When I was in college studying for my BFA in painting, my professor threw it out there that women very rarely become full time artists because they end up getting married and having children. Oh great, thanks alot. But really, when the time came that’s what happened to me.

In the field of study I chose, I was able to do studio art, commercial art and art education. I had worked for a studio doing paste-up work on fashion catalogs and electronics magazines, so I had that knowledge. I liked the idea of art education, but hated the high school kids I did student teaching for. Real cocky kids, not my cup of tea. After I graduated I landed a full time position as a paste-up/layout artist where I stayed for a few years up until I had my first son.

Those days most women were still at home with the children and that’s what I did. Even if I had the idea to keep working there was no one I could trust to leave my son with, every family member I had was working. Let me say I was thrilled to be at home with him. No more jealous bosses, crazy co-workers and wild fashion magazine overtime. No thanks! I’ll take my chances being at home raising my kid. I marveled at how he grew and changed every day. We played, sang, took walks, drew pictures and it was all fun for me. When he slept I painted or did pastels, knit, sewed little outfits, cooked, cleaned, and did the things to keep the house. I ran the roost. I was the boss. My son was my side-kick, my little helper.

Art had to take a back seat like my professor said. Over the years I made my art in fits and starts, while my babies slept and later, when they were at school. And as the time passed the field of commercial art changed so much that I couldn’t go back. The paste-up artists’ bull pen had been reduced to one artist and the computer. I missed that boat. So it was back to painting.

Now I’m home having a ball watching my granddaughter. Thank goodness I’m an artist at home or I wouldn’t have this precious opportunity. I am back to the beginning, painting while baby sleeps! This time around I have more experience under my belt and I know how to get more art in. That great idea of twenty minutes of painting was unheard of in my college days, but now it’s how I roll. Twenty minutes is working. Even though I hit the brick wall of resistance a little bit ago, I’m back in it.

I am back to the future. Life is amazing.

Friday Fun

Yes, Friday is sometimes fun. It’s a busy day for me with lots of things to be done before the weekend. One thing is food shopping. Why do I always have to visit the fruit market or the big super market? Why do we have to do all this eating, and cooking, and shopping? It’s too much.

So I did my running around and came home exhausted. By the time I got myself together at home it was already afternoon! Where does the time go? I should, at least, be having a blast doing something I like to do. And even that doesn’t get a whole day!

Yesterday the town where we live had trucks out vacuuming the fallen leaves for mulch. When I came home from my errands I found that one of my neighbors had blown all my leaves into the street for the trucks. He’s a nice guy, very energetic. In the winter he plows the whole block with his snow plow in the driving snow. Like I said, energetic.

A small, bright red Japanese maple leaf was poking itself up over the mounds of leaves as if to say Hi! Over here! I took it out of the leaf pile and put it in my Artist’s Way notebook to dry.

This afternoon I arranged it with my favorite rocks and painted it. I did the twenty minute challenge thing so when the time was up I stopped painting. I got a little watery with the rocks, which I didn’t want to do, but the leaf looks good to me. I will go back and work on the rocks after this dries so I can better define that area.

I’m happy to say I’ve kept up with these twenty minute paintings. It’s never boring. I like the process and I’m even comfortable with the outcome most times. The challenge is helping me produce more finished work besides.

The hydrangea painting is waiting in the studio. I think it hates me.