Keeping the Momentum Going

Moving along on this watercolor painting of the vegetable share photos and enjoying the work. And yes, it is work. It’s been work just to get to the studio, in my house! Good thing I don’t have far to go, or maybe I’d never get there.

Next phase..

I decided to ditch the pricey brush in favor of others I was already using. Still, I’d like to have a nice sized brush to work with. I need to investigate other brushes. And I still need to write a letter to that brush company to complain. Not yet, no time for that. Lucky I’m even preparing this post!

Let’s see how far I get on this work. Finished product, or not?

Finished Product Day

Ta-da! Finished product! The latest watercolor painting is done. I am shocked at how quickly I was able to finish this large work. It has to be a record for me. Maybe I’ve figured out how to make the process work for me.

Yellow Tomato ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
15×20 Watercolor on Canson paper

The trick is to start the next one right away. If I could get away from all the other things that need my attention I could sketch out the next work and get to it at a free moment. When will that happen?

Fortunately, I am prepared. If I hadn’t taken these photos I’d be looking for something to paint. Really, I never thought I’d paint from these photos at the time. I just liked how the colors and shapes looked, enough to take pictures of everything.

Too bad I’m not doing the CSA share this year. It was pricey, I didn’t always like the produce I received, and it was too out of my way to pick up my share. The sunflowers I got were the spark, though. Amazing sunflowers! And now, the produce. Who knew produce could look so beautiful?

So, I have a plan! Farmer’s Market photos! Buy sunflowers! Arrange and photograph, or paint live. Keeping the momentum high will keep Mr. Resistance at bay.

At least that’s the plan.

Forgot Photo for Friday, Almost

This time I blew my week. There’s something in the air that is going around and people are catching it. Except me. I get to have the worst allergic sinus headache I ever had. So debilitating I thought it was a virus. No, my allergist said, it was an allergy reaction. Oh great. 
So, yeah. Blew painting, blew the class, blew it all. All because of allergies. Massive, nausea producing headache. Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. 
Ok, can we move past it now? Please? Yes, let’s look at what I did Monday afternoon before my blowout.
I chose another photograph of the famous veggie haul days. This one had a sunflower poking in. I am so grateful to the Universe for telling me to take photos of the colorful produce. Great color and shapes. Still working in watercolor and using the large Canson paper I have, I sketched the subjects and put down color.

I had an idea while working on this, to sketch in paint. Similar to how I was painting smaller 20 minute works, more color on the brush than water. I don’t know how well this idea will pan out, but it’s an idea.

It’s annoying because I was on a roll up until the end of last week with the Daytona 500 thing. Monday I worked all afternoon and woke up Tuesday miserable. Hello! I’m on a schedule here! 100 paintings are not going to paint themselves!

Time to regroup. I’ve fallen behind in everything, but I’m getting up. You’ll see!

Planning Works Wonders

Now for more color..

Hip hopping on the process, baby! Just coasting on this latest watercolor and having such a good time I hope I keep going. Better not crash land, or it will be a bad thing.

Friday was a lovely day here in New York, for February. When do you get 52F in February? If the weather stays like this (which it probably won’t) I will be happy. Last year this time we were over our heads in snow with no where to put a shovel full.

Plan in hand, I went over my to-do list. At #1 was Painting. I drew a line underneath that and wrote out the rest of my list. As I finished each one I crossed it off. House neat? Done. Read emails all dressed and ready, instead of in pajamas? Done. Online class? Done. Out the door!

Errands checked off as I continued with painting in my head. Made it home before noon. Set up my iPad, got my lunch, read my snail mail and email, then off to the studio.

I will mention one item on my gratitude list for today: I can see the sunny day out my basement studio window. That helps.

With the painting ready and waiting I got to work, adding more color, defining other areas, trying out how to work all those berries. Now I need another tube of paint I ran out of so I marked it on my list.

Honestly, I don’t know how long I worked on this. Before I knew it the day was gone and it was late in the afternoon.

Heaven is a quiet day of work. Process!

Photo Friday with Art

Keep going!

My photos for Friday seem to be about paintings lately. It used to be about fun things I’d see during my day. Is it me or is it that “fun” things aren’t happening? Could it be that my brain is in the clouds, thinking about painting? Maybe.

Moving along now. I started adding in some shadow on this painting to keep it interesting. Darks against lights make me want to continue. There’s something about the contrasts that I like.

Those little blueberries are going to give me trouble if I pay too much attention to them. You know what happens next, right? Too much attention, too much working it, ends up in the trash.

The plan is to take my time, work all around the piece, let things dry and keep going. Work it.

Process, baby! Process.

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.

Vegetable Share Haul

The vegetable share has been interesting. Every time I pick up my share there’s new and different items to try. Things I never saw before and things I’d heard of but had no idea what to do with.

This last pick up had more familiar fruits and vegetables: peaches, yellow zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, a couple of ears of corn, a couple of carrots, different colors of long thin peppers, a small yellow mellon, eggs and flowers.

I am not so sure it’s all been top notch. Yes it’s straight from the farm and I guess that’s the main idea, but if I was choosing my produce I would have chosen better. One ear of corn was half eaten by some animal, the tomatoes were over ripe, as were the peaches. Tasty, but over ripe. The two carrots were huge, as if they were left in the ground a little too long, forgotten maybe.

When I had a small vegetable patch I carefully watched for ripening. I know, this is from a cooperative farm, not my own backyard garden. I get what they grow, etc.

My tomato plants were not very productive this year, neither were the cucumbers, or the peppers. The backyard garden is all shade now that the trees on the property line have ground so tall. There is a little patch of hot sun, but it fades by 1PM. The front garden however, is all sun all day. I am growing some things in pots, but it’s not ideal.

Next year I may give up more front yard to vegetables rather than all flowers. Might also be interesting.

Veggie Haul and Something Extra

The veggie haul last week was plentiful. I found a baby watermelon, 15 apricots, 3 peaches, peppers, purple basil, 2 onions, one green and one yellow zucchini, purslane, and cherry tomatoes. Very nice, and smelled great.

And another bunch of nice, big sunflowers. I have been busy with those sunflowers!
Another distraction from painting was happening too. I made this knotted bracelet of ceramic round beads, chalk turquoise, and a couple of metal beads. The knotting takes time, but it’s great to get my mind on something other than the waiting painting. And I knew it was waiting for me.

I like the colors of beads that I used. They are calming blues and greens that remind me of the ocean. Like I said, it was a distraction.