New Year, New Focus, New Painting, Great Cause

Artists often get asked, "How long did that painting take you?". It's not our favorite question to answer. Every painting builds on our former paintings and experiences. Some paintings go quickly and feel like they paint themselves, others take a lot time and are a challenge to bring to completion, some land in the middle of this battle. Usually the ones I am most pleased with are either the quick "painted itself" variety, or the ones that presented multiple challenges to complete and finally come together. 

In the past I have sometimes put images of paintings in progress out for the world to see. However it is a frightening proposition to do so. Sometimes the painting as started takes another direction and changes completely. Other times I get complementary comments about the painting that add a certain weight or expectation to the painting (in my mind) that I can not shake in order to execute the painting in a free and creative manner. 

All this leads up to my first completed painting of 2016! Yay! It is an encaustic painting, 18"x18", titled "Standing Together". I took a photo of the painting each time I worked on it, and I'm now ready to reveal how I developed this painting. 

First we need to look out my studio window and see my muses, they saunter through our yard often in the winter and I think they must be curious about the smell of beeswax, as sometimes they come right to my window.

So-on to the painting, I started something new with this painting. I often have ideas, words-typically emotions flying around my head when I decide on a subject for a painting. This time I decided to make them more concrete and see how that would guide my painting process. So I first wrote them down on the reference photos (my own) I was starting from. Then I decided they needed to be part of the painting, so I wrote them on the wood panel. Next time I will write them again, but might use graphite instead of a big black marker, for a little while I was worried they might show up in the painting, and not in a good way.

Above is another painting I started at the same time, I don't think I had decided on the daily process photos yet. But you can see what I am talking about, my encaustic paintings are on birch wood panels, and I wrote the words boldly on the surface.

First day in the life of a painting. Laying in colors and basic shapes. Trying to follow the patterns of darks and lights. I always am really excited at this stage, everything is exciting and possible.

More defining shapes and colors, still pretty exciting at this point to me.

More layers, colors getting more intense, building a good base to work from.

Painting is starting to become an awkward teenager. Somethings working well, some not so much, but too early to make serious changes, gotta let it develop a bit more first.

More layers and subtle color shifts. 

And more layers and color and shape shifts. Tree trunks are getting some great texture now, but the white, which I was quite fond of, is starting to glare. Now time to make some new decisions.

Dropping some blues and lavenders in to the tree trunks, oh-not so sure about that. And did I mention this painting has a deadline? Usually at this point I might stop and set it somewhere I see out of the corner of my eye and wait until one day the answer to what it needs hits me suddenly, and I wonder why I didn't see it right away. But this one is now due in about a week and I am not a good procrastinator-it scares me too much when it involves my creativity. So I spent some time researching; past paintings of mine,  as well as looking to other artists works, and studying every group of trees I see while out on hikes, trying to find a way to translate the 3d world into a cohesive and exciting interpretation in my 2d painting.

I'm still not happy with it, more research and study. Hum... send an image to a good artist friend in AK. Confirmed it "needs something", but not what.

More changes, oh it's getting better now. I'm liking the way the trees seem to relate to each other. It's starting to live up to it's working title "Standing Together" now.

After a carefully chosen "fill" color-a deep earthy red called Mars Red, it's done and I'm happy with it. This is a quick shot with my iPhone in some dim studio lighting. It's a big challenge with encaustic, photos just don't show the nuances.

Standing Together, 18x18 encaustic painting

Now to see what it will look like in the frame I have chosen for it. 

Whee-happy! 

So I'm calculating this painting has taken 16-18 hours of direct time in the studio. + all the time leading up to it and the times it floated through my mind while not in the studio. Well I'm not guessing time to paint as much as I used to, one of my requirements for the MAP (Montana Artrepenuer Program) I am working on completing is to log studio hours and be able to figure out costs and time to more accurately price artwork and possibly make a living, or part of a living from Art. 

"Standing Together"  is my 2016 donation for our wonderful local nonprofit Reach, Inc. They provide services to adults with disabilities and empower them to reach their highest potential. They have an annual fundraiser the "Have a Heart  Art Auction" next month. It is a great event either to attend or donate to, or both. You can donate to this great nonprofit and come home with some great Art by attending their event!