How Exciting!

Flowers are blooming, wisdom tooth holes are healing, and I won four ribbons (and some cash!) in an art show!

My drawings took first, second, and third places in the drawing category in an art show. I entered a ceramic piece that won a third place ribbon, too. The money I won takes me over halfway to buy the watercolor set I've been dreaming about!

The only disappointment is that my oil painting didn't place. :( I hate to focus on the negative, but I feel like I need to get this out of my system. This particular painting is a bit of a "landmark" work for me. It symbolizes, to me, what I learned in all of my painting courses and my ability to finally apply that knowledge to a painting.

It means a lot because, after always spending so much time on layering my paint and glaze after glaze after glaze, this painting employs very few layers. The clouds are a single layer of pigment and turp drips over charcoal. I had meant to paint over it, but after letting it dry, I decided I really liked it as it was and simply let it be. This restraint is something that all of my instructors had always tried to get me to practice, but I don't think I ever really understood what they were talking about until now. (Of course, I had another canvas of the same size on which I painted the same image, but spent more time layering and pushing the paint around the way I'm used to doing.)

I don't want to rely on regional art shows for affirmation of my efforts, and I don't. Maybe this painting is more exciting to me than it is to other people who look at art. It was meant, after all, to be a throwaway, moody landscape painting that I painted just to paint a throwaway, moody landscape painting to prove to myself that I could. It has turned out to mean much, much more to me than I ever would have guessed. I thought that it would have at least received a ribbon, if only an honorable mention. The oil painting that won first place and best of show was okay, but the style looked like something out of a North Light Books instructional book. (Please excuse my sour grapes.) I did like the painting that won first place, though, the style was just the sort of style that many painters use now and, though it was well done, it wasn't anything groundbreaking; just a lot of candy-colored paint daubs depicting someone's copied photo of a great aunt. ...I probably sound like an asshole, whining about this and criticizing other paintings after taking all three ribbons in the drawing category. I guess I just needed to get it out of my system, regardless of how it makes me sound. I try so hard and I finally achieve something that I knew I was trying for, but I didn't know what it was until I'd achieved it. It sucks that that sort of personal achievement and growth doesn't always show through in the finished work... I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

In other news, I have some sketches to share:

"Cat Nouveau"
Pencil sketch from 8 1/4"x11 3/4" Moleskine

Pencil sketch from 8 1/4"x11 3/4" Moleskine

Minus Four Teeth

I am recovering from my wisdom teeth removal. I'm sad I couldn't keep them and make some totally badass earrings. At least, I got the very kind nurses at the oral surgeon's office to indulge me and take a photo with my camera.

Auf wiedersehen, my four little friends!

Stymied and Overwhelmed

I feel as though I've hit a bit of a roadblock. I'm having all four of my wisdom teeth taken out on Friday morning and I have a mental block up because I don't know how much and/or for how long I will be out of commission after the procedure. There's a lot to do around here, other than art, too. I feel like there's too much to do.

I'm (hopefully!) going tomorrow evening to the store to get frames for some of my drawings so I can enter them in an art show on the 10th. And, hopefully, I'll be up and around to frame the drawings before the date of entry. I wouldn't be so worried about this particular art show if there weren't cash awards, honestly. I'm dying for this watercolor set ever since I saw that it was on sale and I need to get some money. Last night, I had a second dream in about as many weeks that I got to go to Prague, but I'd forgotten my watercolor set. I'm not one to read a whole hell of a lot into dreams, but I've been pining away for Prague, as usual. So it doesn't seem out of place to be having dreams about visiting. The inclusion of the missing watercolor set recurring again is a bit strange, but obviously reflects my desire for this sweet, sweet $250 Rembrandt set on which I've had my heart set for the past couple of months.

I really want the weather (or, at least, the forecasting) to be more consistent so that I can plan to go out and do some painting and drawing outdoors. I'm really looking forward to a lot of plein air painting this summer... Hopefully, I'll be able to find the tripod for my paintbox and I can really pull out all the stops and break out the oil paints!

"Corinthian"

Work in progress:
“Corinthian”
Stippling on paper (14”x17”)

Tons and tons of new work!

In the time I've been neglecting blog updates, I've been working on a whole lot of new work. Since there's so much, I'll be posting it gradually.

Here are some owls I've been working on in ballpoint pen:

"Owl I"

"Owl II"
Ballpoint pen on Stonehenge Bristol. (11"x14")

Backlog

So, the bad news is that I've been a little lazy with updates. However, the good news is, I haven't been wasting all of my time and I actually have some art to show.



This is a tree in a park across the street from my house. I worked on this over a couple of evenings because I'm not familiar with the watercolor paper in this sketchbook and I wanted to "get to know" it, so I tested to see how it took to masking fluid and repeated washes. It stood up fairly well, but I still wasn't too sure how much I liked the paper, so I went on to paint this:



This is a second shot at one of the peonies in my backyard. The paper stood up all right to the layering of colors, so I got to be a little more comfortable with it.

The next day, I went out in front of my house to where some Echinacea grows and decided to do a quick sketch of those flowers.



The paper took well to the light wash and I'm pleased with the result.

Then, this past week, I went to Chicago to visit my brother who lives in Hyde Park. I wanted to draw and/or paint some of the beautiful Gothic architecture at the University of Chicago (his alma mater) so I went out walking the first day I was there and found a nice shady spot south of the quad with a good view and started to draw. I wanted to use some of the water-soluble Derwent colored pencils I'd gotten recently, so after I sketched everything out and added the colored pencil, I went to wash over it with water. I'd learned in my color swatch tests of the pencils that I needed to "scrub" a little to get all of the pigment mobile in the water, so I scrubbed gently on my drawing that the paper started balling up right away. I was very disappointed that the paper "bruised" so easily, (but when I'd worked on the tree, I'd come close to having a similar problem.)

So, the uncooperative paper threw me off a little. (Yes, that's right, I'm blaming my materials.) I stopped using the Derwent pencils and used my field watercolor set instead, and that worked better with the paper but I was still put off. The part that had balled up was right in the middle of the drawing, so I kept working because, what the hell, I'm not going to "ruin" a "masterpiece," so I might aw well keep plugging along. This is what I ended up with:



I'm thinking about going in and adding more detail with my pen, because when I'm outdoors, I can't concentrate on the fine details as much as I'd like to.

Across the Street

Instead of going to Chicago, I had to stay home with the pets to keep them from fighting. I did, however, get a chance to get out and make some art yesterday. I sat on my porch and drew the house across the street, thereby christening my first watercolor sketchbook.



I've done watercolors before, but I've never had a watercolor sketchbook. The one I'm using now is one I've had for a while now but, as it cost about seventeen dollars, I've been skittish about using it. I'm used to using a book-bound sketchbook (my Moleskine) and, since I like to share my sketchbooks with people, I am petrified of screwing up and being stuck with it. I know it's stupid and that the fear stunts my creativity, but I'm a perfectionist, which is something of a double-edged sword: when I'm good, I'm good and when I'm afraid that I'm not going to be good, I'm nothing. I'm trying to get over it.

I told myself that as far as this sketchbook is concerned, it's spiral-bound and if I really, irrevocably, and unforgivably screw up royally, I can just tear out the page and no one will ever have to see it. Of course, I could just not show my sketchbooks to anybody, but, even though I would like to claim that I only make art for myself, I really do enjoy the little ego-boost I get from showing my work to other people, non-artists who marvel at someone's ability to stare down a blank page and create something recognizable with a little graphite, ink, and pigment. I suppose, when it comes down to it, if I were a hermit living in the middle of nowhere, I would make art to stave off insanity even if there were not a soul for miles with whom I might share my work. But, I do derive an additional thrill from sharing my work with non-artists and other artists alike.