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!

One of my favorite places

Yesterday I got to tag along with my husband and go up to Helena (he had to go for work).
My main priority was to go to the Archie Bray Center Clay shop and look for tools for encaustic painting. Many clay tools work well for scraping and shaping wax as the are metal and can be cleaned with heat.

I also stopped in at Aizada Imports, as the owner Paula had seen my greeting cards and was interest in carrying some in her shop. She imports wonderful woolen and felted good from women in Krygyzstan, I need to go back when I have some time and peruse her lovely shop. I may need a pair of slippers at the least. 

Back to the Bray-I wandered the grounds and Galleries in addition to the clay shop. I did find some great new tools, as well as some duplicates to add to my class supplies.

Happily it was not too smokey and not windy. I attempted to capture a bit of light on some of the pieces. Just quick snaps with my point and shoot on auto-need to step up my game in the photo department.

There is so much history here and all the untold (to me) stories that the art all around holds. It is truly magical for any creative person to experience. 

Stay tuned for studio tour part 2, I will be working on it in the next few weeks, in between keeping busy painting for some upcoming shows. More info later on that too!

studio tour, part one

It's been almost a year since I moved my studio to our house. We had hoped to find a place with an out building that would be my studio, but that was not to happen. I still have some dreams-depending on building codes...we did end up with a nice large yard.

My studio is really great and it is well removed from the rest of the house, which decreases the interruptions that having a studio in your home can cause. It is great just to walk down the stairs and be there. I find I often can make use of a small bit of time, instead of a 15-20 minute commute to a studio. Most of the time I relish the solitude of my studio and feel I produce best when alone. I've got two rooms that connect with an open doorway, they both face our backyard at ground level with large windows. The windows face north and maybe a little west, so usually the light is soft and indirect. Bliss!

I didn't straighten up and took these pictures in the midst of a small working frenzy. This is my encaustic studio, it's hard to get a good feel for it without a proper lens for interior pictures. The dimensions are roughly 12' x 14'. It is the smaller of my two rooms, but I chose it for encaustics due to it having a door to the outside, so it has really good ventilation in the warmer months. I find I am able to have 3 encaustic students for classes, it seems to work well with space and equipment needs.

modified drafting table

work space

cart of all things encaustic

storage, storage

my usual work space, end of a painting day

rhythms of the studio

First attempt at plain air hay bales

I have been attempting to set studio schedules and focus on making art really happen on a more consistent basis. In doing this, I am realizing that summer is not the time to buckle down and paint in the studio. Besides the distractions of summer hiking, camping and floating, and the never ending yard and garden upkeep-summer is time to focus on plain air. As I write my new art goals and structure my studio time, I am finding I need to have a different time plan for each season.

Summer's focus on getting out and plain air painting will carry over into fall, anticipating the golden hues of that season. Winter will be class time and using photos and observations from the summer and fall in the studio. I am still developing my strategy for Spring/Fall times.

First draft, getting to know the hay bales, second hay bale painting

Great subject, right in town

It helps having a friend to make sure I get out. Once you are committed, then you stick with the plan I find. I went out myself, but it was chilly that day, and it was easy to stop and go home. At least I did get out.

Quick start on a stormy morning

A little rain shower action

The goal currently is to get out once a week whenever possible and paint. Also to challenge myself and paint out of my comfort zone. As if plain air itself and getting used to oil paints again isn't enough challenge! Trying new subjects-rainy skies, hay bales, water and trying to figure out how to portray the golden yellow of the lower surrounding mountains are on the list.

Getting started at Cherry Creek Ponds

Partway through painting

Today's attempt, partway finished. Some good things, some learning and motivation to study my favorite painting book, "Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting". And to finish today's post-just another amazing Montana Big Sky.

back to the blog

The plan is to pick this blog back up and run with it again. I realize writing about my art is a  helpful tool and plays in to making successful paintings. It's something related to the time spent in reflection on my painting and it's flow-I believe. After a false start last year getting this blog back up and going, I am committed to trying again.

It's Plein Air season again, I have a new friend and painting partner and we are making it happen!

We are constantly on the search for places to paint now. We have found a couple great places already. Above are pictures from our first outing. The Gallatin Valley has almost non-stop vistas, if you can just find a place to park and set up your easel.

untitled, 8" x 16"

After loosening up and getting re-aquainted with oil paints, I was pretty happy with my first plain air painting in a while.

Welcome back to my Art blog-here's to a successful resurrection and many more posts.

Summers end-2014

Moving to Montana upset my writing rhythm for sure. I have been busy and active, just not writing here. But upon reflecting I realize that writing and posting pictures is a part of my creative process and I need to return to it!

I feel I am still absorbing the Montana landscape and figuring out what and why I want to paint here. The last few months have been spent exploring non representational art, portraying feelings and movement with colors and shapes. It has been a good exercise and I now think I am ready to try to return to reality or as close to reality as my art gets. Figuring out what I want to say in the language of painting is even more important in non representational art, I am still searching a bit for that piece.

Here is a quick photo journey with a few highlights of this summer.

Ah....Red Ants Pants, White Sulpher Springs, MT

Really loving the antlers!

Strings of lights and tent-so fun

sort of a crown, Butte, MT

Inspiration for a painting composition

Archie Bray Center fun in clay, Helena, MT

Near Sedan, MT

Wilsall, MT

Always finding patterns in unexpected places