Tag: Paint

Distracting the Distractions

Ideas to distract from distractions to painting can be hard to come by but here are a few possibilities.

In our crazy world today, distractions keeping us from our art making come at us from all sides, physical and digital. Distractions come in all shapes, colors and forms.  Its a daily battle.  What’s an artist to do to stay on track? This is my daily battle. Its not an easy one. For those who have no trouble shutting themselves off for studio time, I aspire to be more like you. Searching for answers from other artists, I came up with a few possibilities.

Belinda Delpesco has several good suggestions. Number 3 on her list is, “Make a date night with your art supplies. Ink in the time on the calendar, plan your pursuit for that slot, make some art, and then write down what you liked about it.” This, to me, is a great idea.  Its harder to give in to distractions when you have planned your time.  The drive is stronger when you are looking at your calendar and it is staring back at you.

In an article for Light Space Time Art Gallery, Carolyn Edlund speaks of the problem of “People Pleasing.”  This can be particularly difficult if you have a family at home or young children. Some of us have a difficult time saying, “No.” Edlund describes people pleasing as, “wanting to make everyone around you happy by doing whatever is asked of you.” Saying no may be easier if you have something specific planned.

My favorite suggestion comes from Vicky Rubin for Skinny Artist. Rubin’s suggestion is “a change of scenery can help you focus.” The article goes on to say, “Taking a walk or a workout is a healthy and inspiring distraction.”  Being Mindful is another recommendation, “enjoy and experience sensations of smell, feel, and touch.” Healthy and inspiring all at once.

All three of these articles articulate why I began putting together the artist’s retreats.  The retreat forces people to make a date on the calendar for the retreat, For one week end, people pleasing comes to a halt. Lastly, and more importantly, the change of scenery connects to nature, with all the sights, sounds, and smells of growing things.Taking a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life may be just what is needed to give your art a new kickstart. I always try to bring back, a leaf, a twig, a pine cone, an acorn or some other artifact to remind me of the sensations of being in nature. Sometimes just looking at that tiny bit of nature is enough to get inspiration flowing.

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Pencils and paint

When looking for a way to cut through hours of practice consider using the watercolor over pencil technique for Botanical style painting.

The technique of watercolor over pencil or graphite is a great way to get fine detail in botanical style painting. The finer points of a flower or leaf can be tricky requiring a good bit of practice to perfect accurate brush strokes. Basic drawing skills are somewhat necessary but patience is not. Patience is a valuable trait in an artist. Not everybody has it. When looking for a way to cut through hours of practice consider using the watercolor over pencil technique. Many hours of frustration can be avoided. Plus you’ll fool lots of people with your eye for detail!

A wonderful book, Botanical Illustration with the Eden Project outlines this technique in an easy to follow instruction with several examples. According to the examples, a detailed drawing of a plant is made including all shading. A beautiful finished drawing will provide the best base for watercolor to be laid over. One of the biggest considerations is the use of the proper pencil.

Knowing which pencil is which is one of the best tips for the watercolor over pencil technique. As Kevin Hayler of the Wildlife Art Store says, “Choosing the wrong pencil for an underdrawing will ruin your watercolor painting.” He has a great article on different pencils that is well worth a read here. Knowing your pencils can make the difference in a successful painting or one that looks like mud!

It was very discouraging, when first looking at this technique without knowing how vital the pencil issue was. My first effort, this delicate peach colored rose, resulted in particles of graphite coming up in the paint. The beautiful color was lost. Back to the drawing board. It looked like a total failure but instead of giving up, a pencil study was in order. And it was revealing. One of the biggest things I discovered was the use of H pencils instead of the standard drawing pencils in the B’s.

The H pencils are more commonly found in mechanical and architectural drawing. In art and office stores, that’s where the widest range can be found. Drawing supply areas in stores will usually just go up as far as 2H or 4H. The higher the number, the lighter the pencil. My experiments led me to stick with 6H up to 9H for most of the drawing. 2-4H pencils were better for the darker details. This technique has become the only one I use for botanical painting. Experiments are ongoing so that could change!

Until then, enjoy this video on watercolor over pencil. Happy Painting!

The Painting Tube

Here’s the book: https://www.amazon.com/Botanical-Illustration-Course-Eden-Project/dp/0713490748?crid=15XN3ZBEJODUF&keywords=botanical+illustration+course+with+the+eden+project&qid=1685996672&sprefix=eden+project+botanical%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=marygwynsart-20&linkId=268cf1671e7e422b5f486504f2df5c73&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il" target="_blank">""Eden Project

Learn more about The Eden Project

Accidental Artistic Assistance

Safety in artistic practice is vital. Are we paying attention?

The dangers of cadmiums and other paints are one of those topics artists don’t always pay attention to. Recently the issue became front and center for me when my  5 month old puppy decided to give me a hand with the painting by licking the paint off of a wet oil painting of cardinals. Safety in artistic practice should be our first priority but is it always?  If you’re like me you can get in the zone and forget what’s going on around you. I set this painting on a side table to go to something else and was not looking when my puppy decided she liked the taste of oil paint! Thankfully, she suffered no ill effects.

There is a wealth of information out there on the dangers of artist’s materials.  A teacher I had in school was adamant that no solvents be used with oil paint.  But its not just the solvents. It’s also the paint pigments themselves. Renee Phillips, in her blog, says Rubens and Renoir suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and Paul Klee from scleroderma that could possibly be linked to heavy metals, such as cadmium in the their paint.

Many artists have taken up acrylic paint for a number of reasons but one is that acrylics don’t require solvents.  However Artsy.net has a great article on this subject and says acrylics release chemicals into the air as they dry, such as propylene glycol and ammonia.  And for those who use acrylic medium with their paints, they could also be releasing formaldehyde.

Art-Is-Fun lists some of the known toxic chemicals in paint as cadmium, cobalt, manganese, chromium and lead.  All accounts say the main harm is inhalation or ingesting large amounts.  Minimal safety procedures can eliminate or reduce the risk of most of these dangers.  Read labels and follow all precautions.  Adequate ventilation is a must.

Consider Plein-Air painting if you must use solvents. Don’t eat your paint and keep it out of the reach of helpful wanna be artists. 

Breaking the Artistic Stalemate

Breaking an art-making stalemate can be difficult. Oil pastels are a great trick to have up your sleeve.

Stalemates can be lethal for any artist. It’s imperative to have a few experimental tricks up your sleeve. Oil pastels are one of the many fun things you can play with to smash the stalemate hold. Because of the physical nature of painting with oil pastels, they have a tendency to break brain blocks.

With the vibrant colors and malleable textures of oil pastels, you can get creative with your painting and explore new techniques. The character of oil pastels forces you to use your hands in place of the usual brushes. Cast aside any needs for fine detail with oil pastels and go for the painterly look which can be freeing in itself. Not only will the adventure be fun, but it can also pull you out of a rut when art making becomes stale.

Oil pastels are a must have for any painter. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, oil pastels can be used to create vibrant and unique looks. They may break some barriers in your art-making. The vibrancy of the colors is amazing, and the feel of the oil pastel in your hand is addicting. That’s an addiction I can live with!

Pental makes a good starting set of oil pastels. Check it out here

Find a professional set here

Anticipating Joy

Hope! New Life! Survival! Beauty! Signs are pointing toward spring popping out all over. The Anticipation is overwhelming!

Hope! New life! Winter is passing. Survival. Spring is on the way. We made it past that week of horrible cold. And here is the proof. Life goes on. We do what we have to do and we go on. As do all living things. And we look for signs than we have survived another harsh and gloomy winter. Here’s my sign.

As I was planting my iris bed last fall, this little guy must have fallen out of the bag. He popped up just off the patio so I know I didn’t put him there. I don’t even know which variety he is. I won’t find out until May. Anticipation. In the meantime, I am doing my best to guard him from the extremely large paws of my 5 month old puppy. He has survived the odds so far. I’ll do my best to keep that going. He’s my joyful sign of hope!

Iris, miniature oil

In her blog, “Filling the Jars” Julie Hage gives 21 beautiful quotes about Spring. By far, my favorite is from Henry David Thoreau, ““One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in.” Not all of us can take time out from life like Thoreau did so we find our opportunities to see spring where ever we can.

What does that have to do with art? Art is what we do to express the wonder of life. If we can’t take off to the woods, we paint it. And we share it. Thoreau couldn’t take his woods to people so he wrote about it. The woods came alive through his words. That’s what we do with paint.

As I wait for May to arrive, I will anticipate how I will paint this little iris guy. I’ll imagine what color the petals will be and how tall he’ll grow. How many blooms will he put out? Will I paint in oil or watercolor? Maybe some more silverpoint iris.

Spring is an amazing time of expectation. New life is arriving. The signs are popping out all around. Spring is a wonderful time for artists. Anticipating so much inspiration surrounding everything, every day. How joyful is spring!

Shining the Artistic Light

One of the most rewarding things about teaching art workshops is the wonder of how unique artistic talent is to each individual. I don’t teach workshops where everybody expects to paint the same thing and have them all come out looking like a row of cookie cutter canvases. The freedom for each artist to express what is inside themselves makes for constant surprises. It is truly rewarding to watch personal expression reveal itself through art. It is like a window into the soul what might otherwise stay hidden from the outside world. The cookie cutter can’t unmask the heart. The heart of all art is in the freedom of allowing each individual to bring out their own personal inner light.

Changeable artistic expression is a great way to experiment with what is inside working its way out. One day the feeling may be one of quiet, of solitude and the art that is made will reflect that. A maple leaf painted with slow, painstaking detail comes from the still quiet heart. Another day when the fall wind is crisp but the sun is breaking through the clouds bringing a light heartedness depicted with a few quick swishes of bright color on the page. Instantly, joy pops out for the world to see. (Let’s Make Art can show you how to do these!) There are as many ways to depict maple leaves as there are artists ready to depict. And as many maple leaves as there are ways to capture their essence through art.

One artist chooses the softness and gentle color changes of a sweet gum leaf with its starfish-like structure. She expresses silence and an inner choice of order and attention to structure. God’s amazing creation in fine detail. While another artist decides to go for bold bright color in a “larger than life” oak leaf hydrangea. Two different artists, two different leaves, two different approaches. We would never see this beautiful expression of uniqueness if we were all painting the same exact thing, exactly alike.

Last Saturday at Watkins College of Art at Belmont University, in Nashville, Tennessee, our workshop focused on painting fall leaves and flowers. We decided to go foraging around the campus to see what sparked our imaginations. Oprah Winfrey is quoted as saying, “You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world.” Giving artists the freedom to let the sparks be lit is a wondrous thing. You never know what might be expressed. Every little bit of expressed light means that much less darkness. While I am there to give direction and impart knowledge of skills to use, my biggest job is to stand back out of the way when the light starts shining! And that is a thing of beauty!

Gotta Start Somewhere

Botanical Style painting is what I return to over and over when I’m in need of soothing and stress relief. Even painting broccoli can be soothing.

Me? I started with broccoli. Yep! That’s the first Botanical Style watercolor I did in the first week of Botanical painting at The Corcoran College of Art of George Washington University. I was really getting into those little florets, painting every little circle when the teacher stopped by my desk and asked if I wasn’t getting tired of the repetition. I wasn’t until she burst my little bubble. It was very soothing progressing slowly through each meticulous green sprig on each bigger sprig. I made a discovery that day with my friend, the stalk of broccoli. This botanical style painting thing was very soothing. I couldn’t wait to get to the next painting. At the time I was in need of some serious soothing and this type of painting was doing it for me. I did progress beyond the broccoli fairly quickly and moved on to tulip bulbs, then tulips and beyond. I shoved the broccoli painting into a file in the filing cabinet and forgot about it until this week.

I the found the broccoli painting while cleaning out old files. The memories came flooding back. That particular class was held at The Corcoran’s Georgetown campus in a beautiful old restored school house building similar to the elementary school I went to in Dyersburg, TN. The building had big old pane glass windows that went to the top of the high ceilinged classroom flooding the room with light. The downtown Washington campus was in the basement of the museum with only fluorescent lighting and a few stingy windows at sidewalk level so we could see feet going by outside. I loved the Georgetown campus even though it meant longer travel time and a bus ride on top of the usual train ride to get to campus. The botanical painting class got me started in what has become a teaching passion. I love to see other people discover how soothing this style of painting is. My final painting in that class was of a tulip through the stages of growth from bulb to flower. That painting hangs over my fireplace to this day.

Most of my oil paintings are completely different from the botanical style paintings. I love those too. The oil paintings provoke more emotion and energetic feelings. The botanical style paintings are calming and comforting, invoking memories of quiet garden walks and the smell of flowers. That was the last broccoli I painted. Even though it was soothing, it did not remind me of the smell of flowers! But those little florets gave me time to stop, take a breath and do something slow and methodical. Botanical Style painting is something I return to over and over when I’m in need of stress relief. It is the perfect antidote to the crazy world out there. Now I’m more likely to paint an iris than broccoli. But Hey! Gotta start somewhere! And we can all use a little stress relief.

Art and Soul

Realizing all art came from a Creator much bigger than us little humans forced me to look at art in a way I never had before.

The title of a recent workshop I taught spurred me to do some soul searching. More and more information has come out lately about art’s benefit to the soul. All the information now has really been around for years. Arguably, it can be said it all started with Julian Cameron‘s ground breaking book, “The Artist’s Way.” I first read and worked the book over 20 years ago and to say it changed my life is putting it mildly. Realizing all art came from a Creator much bigger than us little humans forced me to look at art in a way I never had before.

You would think that once the light goes on and you realize that all art is much more spiritual than it is cerebral, you could sit back and let the Spirit takeover. “Bingo” you are creating on a higher level and don’t have to think any more. It is actually the opposite. You think more, not less. How can that be, you ask? A wrestling begins between your two warring factions, your heart and your brain. That battle must be fought meaning the ability to sit back and let Spirit takeover doesn’t happen naturally.

For many of us, the reality that art comes from the heart has been known for some time. To allow the Spirit to takeover is to allow the heart to open up. The heart is a lot more vulnerable than the brain. The heart is easily wounded and the artist’s heart even more so. Our soul is contained in the heart. For the soul of the heart to be set free, trust in the Spirit must begin. Trust begins in baby steps.

The Captivating Amaryllis

Symbolic of success, strength and determination, the Amaryllis’ name means “to sparkle” and so it does!

Symbolic of success, strength and determination, the Amaryllis’ name means “to sparkle” and so it does!

Pink Amaryllis, colored pencil

Symbolic of success, strength, and determination according to FTD.com, the amaryllis is a captivating flowering bulb. Gardener’s Supply says the Greek meaning of the word, “Amaryllis” means “to sparkle” and details the mythological love story Amaryllis and Alteo.  Gardener’s Supply also states that an amaryllis bulb can live for 75 years!

The exotic winter blooming amaryllis has become a part of the Christmas tradition for many people.  For me it began in my grandmother’s last years. She was mostly housebound in those years and my mother decided watching a beautiful flower grow would bring her joy.  My mother was right.  Both my grandmother and her caretaker, Betty, quickly became enthusiastic about the fast-growing bulb.  They kept the yard stick near the pot and made daily measurements of the growth, delightedly reporting every inch. Each year we gave her a different variety and each year the enthusiasm would build as the amaryllis came closer and closer to bloom time. What color would it be? How big would the bloom be? When the bloom day finally arrived friends and family made a visit to observe the amaryllis in all its glory. My grandmother and Betty would show off their gorgeous flower like proud parents whose child had just won the spelling bee.

Those memories came flooding back this year when my dear friend, Celeste, gave both me and another friend, Caroljeanne, amaryllis bulbs for Christmas.  Celeste works with the University of Tennessee Agriculture Center which has an amaryllis yearly sale where she was able to get some wonderful varieties.  The three of us made regular text message reports on the progress of each bulb. Caroljeanne’s delicate pink flower arrived first.  I realized immediately I would have to begin a painting to mark the three bulbs. Celeste’s gorgeous variegated red and white flower arrived second. And finally, my beautiful salmon-colored double petal variety, “Double Dream” made its dramatic presentation.

Instead of replicating my grandmother and Betty with their yardstick, I recorded the rapid growth with my camara. The preliminary work has begun for a painting of the three beauties with a colored pencil drawing of Caroljeanne’s lovely pink flower pictures above.  Next will come Celeste’s variegated beauty. “Double Dream” will bring up the rear as it did with its blooming.  In the meantime, I couldn’t resist showing off the progress of the growth in a slideshow.

For more about buying, growing and caring for Amaryllis bulbs follow these links:

Gardener’s Supply

FTD.com

University of Tennessee Agricultural Center, Jackson, TN

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