Coffee And Paint Drips Blog - Page 77 of 79

I’m Stuck, Where’s my Crayons?

Did you ever get stuck? I don’t mean stuck by the monotony of everyday life and looking for an adventure. What I’m talking about is the stuck in the middle of too many things on my need-to-do list and no time for what I like doing. I get paralyzed when I can’t decide.

Play with the paints or vacuum the carpets. Doodle at my desk or do the food shopping. As a home-based artist I always have the little nagging feeling that the family and house comes first. The distraction of deciding could take up the day leaving no time for playing! I want to play all day and I can’t and it makes me angry! (Stomping my foot and holding my breath until I’m blue.)

So I’m reading The Artist’s Way, still. There it is in black and white, that the inner-child artist needs to play, or else. The “or else” could become self destruction! And play is less scary than work. Artist’s use distractions as excuses not to work because the idea of the resulting outcome is a scary idea.

It’s fear. We’re afraid the outcome won’t be any good. Will anyone like it? And if they don’t like it, will I question my talent? It’s all so scary that we avoid doing everything but art. If I don’t keep at it some one else with less talent than me will get ahead because they know how to talk it up and they keep at it. Sure, those kind of people have no fear! Arggh!

The book says it’s the job of the artist-adult to allow the inner-child artist to rant and gently turn the situation around, a creative U-turn. Just hand that “child” crayons and paper. Ignore the tantrum.

It’s the process that is important, not the outcome remember? Yeah, I remember. It’s the dream of the artist to be painting all day, but it’s not a reality I guess. Ok, I’ll find some time between laundry loads to doodle. Sorry, I forgot. Okay, I had my tantrum, I feel better now.

Into the Woods

Last month I visited The Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, New York. It’s a lovely old mansion on the north shore of Long Island in and around the areas known as the Gold Coast. That nickname was made popular by F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel The Great Gatsby. Many of these homes were built and owned by millionaires all living the good life here.

This particular estate was owned by Henry Clay Frick, co-founder of U.S. Steel Corporation, in 1919. The Georgian mansion was a wedding gift for his son, Childs. The mansion home was built on land owned by William Cullen Bryant, and named Clayton. In 1969, the estate was purchased by Nassau County to be converted to the Museum of Art.

It was my first time at this museum and I wanted to see the current exhibit of original paintings by Norman Rockwell, the noted illustrator of the Saturday Evening Post and other periodicals. He liked to represent the everyday basic human experience in his art. “I paint life as I would like it to be,” he once said.

Seeing the oil paintings close up, I was able to detect his brush strokes and get a feel for how he prepared his works. They showed oil sketches that Rockwell used to develop the final paintings. It was a very large, involved exhibition and filled the whole museum.

Spanning the decades of his career through several wars and painting styles. His realistic, painterly approach finally met up with the more modernistic styles of other artists in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The paintings were larger than I expected and utterly beautiful.

After viewing the exhibit I took my time looking at the museum building and surrounding grounds. The garden leading to and from the mansion was full of different sculptures scattered around the acreage. On my way back to my car I found hiking trails and several formal gardens, each with it’s own design and flavor. I decided to take a quick walk through one of the trails just to see what was there.

As I walked I was thinking that my heeled shoes were all wrong for a hike, but I kept going. The trees grew taller, the underbrush denser, and the sky was hidden the further I walked. It was beautiful and quiet. The sun sent it’s rays down through the trees to settle on fallen branches in the path. Serene and wonderful. Did I bring my sketchbook with me? Of course not!

Suddenly, it dawned on me that I was all alone on a path in the woods! It was time to head back. I took a few photos of some spots that were too beautiful not to record and walked a little faster. When I came out of the trail I saw a sign that said, “Use trails at your own risk.” Oh oh.

I’m glad I had my museum adventure, but next time I need to be prepared.

Photos for Friday

Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York

Visited the museum in October. The grand mansion, with 41 rooms including a ballroom, was Brookwood Hall, built in 1903 by Harry K. Knapp. What a grand place this must have been on Long Island. Not too many of these left in good condition, unfortunately.

http://www.eastislip.org/Pages/Estates/BrookWood%20Hall%20History/Thorne%20Estate/Knapp&Thorne.htm

Trying to Step Forward

“Trying is all that matters. Everything else is just not our business” T.S. Eliot, poet

Today is my father’s birthday. He’s been gone 4 years and every day I wonder how did that happen? I know how, but it’s just unbelievable to me. He was the strong, tall, dark and handsome type they wrote stories about. A “Rat Pack” type of guy. With wavy black hair and a big moustache, he resembled the actor Omar Shariff. A talented fine artist and commercial graphics art director, he encouraged my own talent. He would critique my work, offer suggestions, and supply me with the best art supplies!

He used to like to say “Confusious says: A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. So with this in mind, and my father’s spirit pushing me, I press on with the art. Trying to make the time, trying to ignore the procrastination, the “What’s the use so why bother”, and all the other excuses that hinder my creativity.

Happy Birthday to you, Pop.

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.

The Energy of Art

After working at straightening up my desk and studio area last week I had that idea for a painting, remember? The painting tools were available and so was I. A good block of time with nothing else to do was before me. At least I had planned from the day before with the sketch, the technique, and the tools. Somehow the synchronicity was there and I took advantage of it.

The instruction in watercolor I had was a disaster, but I’ve been playing with the medium for a while now and whatever I’m doing seems to please me. It may not be how it’s supposed to be used, but hey, I’m allowed to change it up! The technique of just applying the paint to the paper without thinning sounded interesting enough to try. Oil painting is what I’m used to and this seemed close to how I worked in the past. I mixed color on the palette, but then I would mix again on the canvas. It worked for me.

I used a limited palette of basic colors from two different paint companies, Holbein and Maimieri Blu, in tubes. I think I liked the Holbein better, but I’ll have to experiment again in other techniques.

Without wetting the paper first, I dipped into the paint with a large brush. I began to shape the petals of the flower adding color where I felt like it belonged. The photo I used was just a guide for where the light and shadows fell, and for the basic colors. After that I was on my own.

The act of painting was energizing. I could feel the electricity of the connection with the painting surface through the brush, to my fingers holding it, up my arm with my body and mind totally engaged. There was no talking in my head which usually has a hundred conversations going on at once. Delicious silence and all the attention was on the painting process!

The end product was not the agenda. I wasn’t sure what art my painting time would produce and I really didn’t care. To be able to move into that realm of daydream/energy/action was the focus. The means was the medium and the technique, which would justify the end, so to speak.

And the result wasn’t bad either.

The Dream Corner

Everyone has a space in their house that feels the most comfortable to them. Maybe it’s a cozy chair by a window, a favorite spot in a kitchen, or a seat in the garden. This space is a place that makes you feel really at home. At least I think everyone has a comfy spot and if you don’t have one, you need to make room for it.

My cozy spot is a corner of a love seat on one end of my living room. The living and dining room is the typical L-shaped area of the 1950’s ranch house. The little sofa sits on a small wall opposite the main seating area in a corner of the “L”. Since I decided to place this piece of furniture in it’s spot, it has become “the” seating of the room. Besides me, everyone who visits likes to sit there. This seat has a view of everything: the conversation area and fireplace, the dining table, the corner TV, the view out the window, and a tiny bit of the kitchen, but it’s out of the way. Sitting there is like hiding from the goings-on.

This little spot is my dream corner. My favorite books are across from the sofa on a shelf where I keep a few family photos. A small CD player sits on the shelf with the books. Knitting supplies are in a neat Asian-style box next to the sofa, with yarn and beading supplies in a basket on the floor. A small sketchbook is within easy reach. I can look outside the windows of the french door and see the garden flowers in the summer and snow in the winter.

At breaks in my day and in the evening I sit in my cozy corner. I can see what’s on the television, but I don’t have to be involved in it. My husband is in charge of the the remote anyway. I can be sitting in the room, but be far away in my own little world reading, knitting or dreaming.

Photo for Friday

On the way to a museum jaunt, my son and I spotted this license plate and had a good laugh! Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Tune in, Drop Down

“Art is an act of tuning in and dropping down the well. It is as though all the stories, painting, music, performances in the world live just under the surface of our normal consciousness. Like an underground river, they flow through us as a stream of ideas that we can tap down into. As artists, we drop down the well into the stream. We hear what’s down there and we act on it — more like taking dictation than anything fancy having to do with art.”

-Julia Cameron, Week 7 in The Artist’s Way

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.