Painting and Learning

I wanted to post this painting in black and white and then I will show you in color.  I am a selft taught artist and with that comes a lot of trial and error.  That'spretty much for anything we venture into.  I am very interested in painting simplisticly and to have fun.  Fun is the most important element for me, if I'm not having it, then I put the paint brush down and walk away.  That doesn't mean I give up, it simply means taking a break and come at it a different day.   This painting to the left, "Painting the Roses Red in Elizabeth Park", is my experience of this park as a child.  We would go on Easter every year and take some family photos.  I remember feeling so special and extra pretty for my mom would always sew my sister and I new outfits.  I think she even sewed my brother his outfits.  Anyway it was a time lost in memory and a time in the park that can never be now as it was then.  So with my imagination and an idea, I came up with this.  Seeing my work in black and white I can see if my darks are against the lights and if things pop enough and flow enough.  I think it does.  I think I showed some type of experience without to much information, so you, the viewer can have and experience.  I think my eye travels around the painting.  It works for me.
The most important thing is to have fun.  Not all paintings are bought or hung in museaums.  Not all artist are "famous".  But we are all artist and all of us where kids once.  And kids love to have fun!  That's my mato!

Live Life in Color.

here's the painting in color

Tree of Me

My tree of me.  I'm on a journey as we all are.  Some connect to their journey and some do not.  Many are called but few choosen.  I know that I am choosen to bloom and then share to inspire others to bloom and grow into the perfect being they are.
As I entered the process of this painting, the theme being a tree, the tree of knowledge, I started out with a very abstract representation of what a tree felt like to me.  The feeling and results were exciting and freeing but it left me flat.  There was more for me to unveil and revisit and grow from.  I stuggled with it for some time!  I continually thought, (which is my first mistake) I should be and paint one way and turn my back on truth.  Why is it so hard to face truth?  Why am I not good enough to be strong in my truth and live in it?...Slowly I let go, and I mean slowly!  I fought and fought what was calling me and showing up right infront of me!  I find the answers are always right there for me!  Spirit is always in my work and she (me) shows me in vivid detail what it is I am to do!  How cool is that, right?!!!  It is cool when I listen, most of the time I  don't and continue on MY course of pain and believing the lies which causes more pain!
When I decide and it IS a decision, to let go and let God, or what or whom ever you want to call the higher power, then the magic happens.  Things turn and churn and teach, teach me!  The truth always comes to the surface somehow and some way.  Truth tugs and tugs, gives signs and creates opportunities for us to learn.  She never lets go until we see it and then the ahh moments come in and I laugh because it didnt have to be that difficult, it wouldn't be that difficult if I choose to see and listen in the first place.
This painting sat on my wall for about 2 weeks before I knew how it had to finish.  I looked at it everyday knowing that more needed to be said and revealed but I didnt want to see it.  I didnt want to believe it so I pushed it away.  The swan was the final peice of this lesson, and of course I wasnt going to listen to that lesson.  Here is what I have read about Swans, Grace doesn’t mean only the ability to live a balanced life, it is also being able to be at home in many planes of reality, to see that we are more than we appear to be - we are both physical and spiritual beings. We are souls having a human experience. 

Not only does the swan reveal to you your own inner beauty, but also that of others. A Swans graceful entering into your life signals a time of altered states of awareness and the development of intuitive abilities, for those with this medicine have the inherent ability to see the future, and to accept the healing and change that is starting in their lives. Accept this and it will help you go with the flow. Listen to your inner knowledge and intuitions and Swan will work through you. The Swan's voice teaches the mysteries of song and poetry, for these touch our inner child and also our inner beauty. http://www.shamanicjourney.com/article/6089/swan-power-animal-symbol-of-inner-grace-balance-commitment  You can read more on the link I pasted in.

So the lesson has appeared and now it is time to let it into my roots and come up through my trunk and shoot out from my branches!  Please pick the flowers that grow off of me, they are not mine to keep.  oxoxo

Below I attached images of my painting in process!

Passion

The word passion comes from the Latin patior, meaning to suffer or to endure. These days, losing its uncomfortable roots, passion is a feeling of unusual excitement, enthusiasm or compelling emotion toward a subject, idea, person or object. Here's how to get it:

Revisit and repossess your core dreams and fantasies.

Consider your dreams to be private, unique and sacred.

Get help from and watch the actions of the already passionate.

Indulge, honour and live in your own imagination.

Don't talk about it, do it.

See your passion manifested into action or production.

This is direct from The Painter's Key.

This got me thinking that I wanted to speak about this subject too.  I post my paintings, which are captured moments in time of my passion!  My passion towards color, shapes, line and form all combined telling either a story or showing how my imagination translates a subject.  Passion is the "permission" slip to exploration and the discovery of our true self.  To find what it is I and all of us really want.

I want to be a full time artist and give up my day job.  Passion is the key that will eventually get me there.  With my passion or anyone else's there are sacrifices.  I am usually in the studio early hours of the morning when everyone is still asleep.  My weekends consist of hours devoted to my work.  I have to give up a lot to pursue my passions.  To me it's no sacrifice for my art is my life line.  It is the fuel that keeps me alive! 

 When in the passion of process I have no idea what is going on around me!  I am beeming with excitement.  Energy is endless as though I am not even of this world.  When the passion dies down, as does the flames in a fire, I can be still and reflect and listen.

I share this passion in the form of paint because it excites me so much that I want others to feel the same excitement.  It's contagious.  

Passion is like for those who have children, we would do ANYtHINg for them.  Climb a mountain if we had to, and some of us do figuratively.  Sacrificing everything if need be for the happiness and well being of them.  This passion towards our children is the same passion we have inside us for ourselves.  The compass that will lead you to find true happiness. 

Still Keeping On

I have about 30 or so paintings in this God's Grandeur series and the more I painted the more I did learn.  The main thing for me was when I let go even in the scary parts something interesting happened with my paintings, they are more alive and something I could have never imagined.  When I would try and duplicate that process I would get nothing.  So I think the key is to let go and have fun, see what happens, be scared and then go back and refine later.  Makes for a much more interesting painting.  Going to my edge and then jumping off is where the growth is.


Live Life In Color!

Still Showing Up!

Still showing up everyday in the studio!  Still discovering my "what if's".  I'm also learning that when I bump up against fear (i dont want to mess this up) I take my biggest and fatest brush and a deep breath and go anyway!  It's only paint right? How does "it" have so much control over artist?
oxoxo

Process Showing Messy Parts

I tried to do a video but I seem to be stumped on how to make my camera do video and then post it…so I have to figure that out.  Above is a start on a primed 6"x6" board.  The "blue" is my focal point and then I put some other places which will be covered up anyway but will reintroduce it again but greyed down.  Adding my yellows and then my supporting colors, I start to play with my composition which is still meandering.  And Im still working on my God series so the theme is still constant.  All this is done with out too much thought or concern about a finished painting, just playing.  There are some really cool things happening here which I would like to keep.  I love the grey greens along the edges so I might add more of that type of color which will be great for those are more midtones and I need a few more in here.  I will go back in here today and play a little with the yellows greyed down and my pink greyed down, and bringing back a bit more of the focal color the blue.  Let's see what happens.

                                   

My Process

Another layer…so I am playing and forgetting everything but play and opening myself up to the "what if".  Everything I do in the studio is a direct reflection of me in life.  If I am willing to not be perfect here then I can allow myself the gift out in my real life.  Plus what is perfect anyway?  I think it's an illusion.  :)  Play and live life in COLOR

Sharing What I know

Sharing what I know is a way also to learn.  That's why I love to teach my process classes because it helps me see in a different way.  I study art all the time, day in and day out.  Inbetween conversations, when it's not busy at work, and in my own imagination.  I think about it 24 hours a day.  With out looking at our Masters and other artists I can't see where I can go and beyond.  Most importantly I actually have to make marks on my canvas to learn it, so I thought I would share more of how my process looks.
Right now I am in the middle of my God Series.  A poem called "God's Grandeur, by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89).   So this poem is my starting point, the theme of this body of work.  I have journal that I have jotted down notes on what I want to convey and how, also my color choices.  This way all the is in my head as far as words and intention are written down so I can focus on play and not on what it is that I am doing.  If I get lost, I have my notes to refer to.  This painting is what would be called my first layer.  I have my "main" color and my focal point.  Come along for the ride and see how this painting turns out!

ox

God Series #3

Staying committed to the 3 C's, concept, composition and color choices.

God's Dream 2

The more I paint the more I know it's not really ME that is painting…ox

God's Dream1

So I decided to stop thinking so much and just do and see what happens.  I was so sick of being stuck and thinking I didn't know what I was doing when actually "I" don't.  It's not up to me what or how to paint and create.  I surrendered to my higher power and just abandoned all the "rules" and painted from my heart and experience.  Deep down inside we got it down.  Our job, my job is to trust and let it come out!

Live Life In COLOR!!!!

March 25th

These are all part of the series Im working on in various stages.  Some don't even look like this anymore.  I will post as I go along!

March 24th

So I am really expanding myself and in my new series my goal is to paint something I've never done or seen before.  This is just a start but the importance of a series is the learning along the way, whether I learn more about composition or color or simply how paint works.  These little pieces are only 11x11 on watercolor paper and this weekend I started about a dozen of them.  Just warm ups so that I am loose to paint on a larger surface.  So each time I enter the studio I am creating a new habit of WARMing up!
I figure you can't just start to workout without warming your muscles up first.  An artist I learn lots from  Bob Burridge always says that and for some strange reason I never did this…why?  Also with all these warm ups consisting of the same subject I now will have a series.  So all the paintings will be cohesive and if I have a show it will hang with consistency.  So try doing warm ups each time your in your studio…it doesn't even have to be paint.  You can warm up with big news print paper and charcoal, or big fat magic markers.  Anything to get you moving and out of your left brain and into your creative brain the right side!

Live Life in Color

March 11 2014

Another start…what I like about this on so far is the passionate strokes I put down and didn't see any of it til i  stood back and looked at it again..this one Im excited about going back into and seeing what happens

Live Life in Color

My groove is Back!

This is not done just at the very beginning stages but I'm excited because my groove is back and I'm not turning back.  I've been on this journey of paint and for a while I was studying color theory and honestly getting quite frustrated and depressed.  Then after not having fun in the studio and almost giving up my passion I decided that, "what if" I pretend I understood how to apply color theory and see what happens.  Guess what happened, I had fun again!  I do understand color and how it works, I just fully understand how to apply it and the only way anything will ever happen is if I just play with the paint like I love to and then see…..She's not done but I see more of myself in this piece then I have for a long time…
Lesson for me is it's to learn and try new things but don;t loose myself in the process.  I can never become who I am not…oxoxox

Live Life in Color

Magical Journeys with Paint-Art Therapy - The UConn Daily Campus - University of Connecticut

Magical Journeys with Paint-Art Therapy - The UConn Daily Campus - University of Connecticut

March 3r 2014

Ok, this picture will have to be side ways!  I was spending too much time trying to figure out how to rotate it…i did on the computer and then I couldn't find it…lol, i have a mac for about a year now and I still dont' know how to use it good.  Any who, these are 3 different paintings, the series i started this weekend.  Each one i kept saying the words, "what if", and this is what i came up with so far.  I thought i found the second one more interesting but looking at them today I think I like the feel of the bottom one the best and can build on that!…  So I'm going to keep going and find out what i can learn.
Series are not just a collection of paintings but and exploration of the same subject to grow and learn from, to see what really works and does not.  So we'll see!

Live Life in Color!

March 2nd 2014

Reconnection is my "title", my going back place when I get lost in why I am doing this in the first place.  So I started some quick and i mean quick playing with this series I want to do.  I wanted to be big just to loosen up and not be serious.  I am actually using tempra paint just to play around with shape and values and composition.  After having fun with that I did pull out my canvas board and started my series of what is possible with Reconnection!  I actually had more fun playing and the idea of the what if's on my play paper then I did with my canvas board.  I became too involved with the outcome that I forgot to enjoy the process.  I stopped before I wanted to so I could go for a walk and shake that mind set of product and come back refreshed.
Try that next time something "isn't working"  just stop and jump around or shake your body to some music.  Go outside, go for a brisk walk, just something to get you out of left brain thinking and back over to right brain fun!

Live Life in Color!

February OOPS!

LOL!  I forgot today was March 1st!  This whole week has been a blur with the new job and all.  I usually look at big calendars all day everyday, scheduling and such so I really lost track of my days.
So week 1 is under my belt!  I turn to my studio this morning and still feel the remnants of the week and my head still spinning from learning so much!  I too am learning things in my studio from theory books….OVER LOAD!  I need to chill!  I spun around on my chair and saw my tutu hanging in my closet and took it as a sign to just play today and be free in my studio and not concern myself with "rules".  I have to loosen up!  So much fun and so thankful I saw the sign from the universe on the direction to take…thanks!
Look for signs you are given through out your day and see the direction universe is telling you to go, it's very interesting!
I also wanted to share another artist and website I get loads of tips and instruction.  Robert Burridge is one of my favs!  I took classes with Bob and he is loaded with lots of informative information to loosen up and be free in your studio.  Go check him out!  He has a news letter he does and this month like all the others has loads of info and books to add to your library.  I have read most of the ones he recommends and I also recommend!  

Free Play Improvisation

Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

by Stephen Nachmanovitch

G.P. Putnam's Sons publisher

ISBN-10: 0874776317

ISBN-13: 978-0874776317

(buy at Amazon)

I just checked this out at the library so I can't wait to go through it!

A tip from me!  I have a new goal this year to NOT buy more books!  ( I am a book addict!)  So I made a packed with self to get them from the library and if they are a MUST have then I will put it in my eventually to buy list!  Keeps my pocket book in a little more of a check and balance, it's SOOOOO easy to click and buy!

Live Life in Color!!!

February 27th 2014

 I just read a fantastic reminder over at Dreama Tolle Perry's blog to start exactly where you are right now!  I so forgot this!  It's comforting to read those words again to remind me in my new job that I can only (have no choice) to start where I am now?!  I do not know all the equipment I have at work but I will.  And what I do know about other equipment I can really serve customers and my coworkers!  

Same with everything in life, we have to just start where we are and use what we have.  With time and faith it will grow and over flow to help others  start on their path.

To the left is a picture of some of my millions of paint brushes.  I have all kinds from really cheap, like $1.00 up to you name it in $'s….and a lot of times I try and find other ways to apply paint, either my hands or sticks, pallet knives to spoons and forks.  What ever I have on hand and right now and most of the time if im in the grove, it's what I can find right away around me to create the effects I want.  If you want to paint or draw or any new adventure, just start right where you are now with what you have on hand.  We don't have to wait til something or another happens til we start. I have a few tips about one of my tools, the paint brush.  I have learned over the years a few ways to help keep a brush no matter the quality of it.  Routinely I wash my brushes with ivory soap, I have a plastic bowl I place at the bottom of the sink and while the water is running I scrub them on the soap til clean.  If I really want to give them an extra clean or have to revive them a bit, I soak them over night in some straight Murphy's Oil Soap, then rinse the next morning.  Another good one and eco friendly is Citra Solve.  Those three products you can always find under my counter.  I can't tell you how many years I have gotten out of an inexpensive brush.  Some of my favorite one's are the cheapos!  Share these few tips with your friends!

P.S.  I did my forklift training and actually picked a pallet of tables of the scaffolding and put it on the floor.  Boring to some I know but it was WAY cool! 

Live Life in Color!

February 26 2014

LOL!  Look how mess my space is!  I knew it was but till i was taking pictures to show you I didn't realize….i need to make time to clean. Hehehehe…I won't.  It's only Wednesday and I am ready to sleep for a year!  Starting a new job is so straining.  But as with everything new it will all come with time.  I was in the products department most of yesterday learning about concrete assessories and pipe, it was wicked fun!  Today I think it's a bit more and in-depth, then to the rental counter on equipment!
   I have all over my studio bits and pieces of inspiration and "rules" to help me along the way when I am stuck.  A good rule of thumb for all artists is to always have a journal going with creative ideas and little studies on those ideas.  I am not good at this concept but I do give it attention.  My series about the poem I have notes and colors and little tiny abstracts for my jumping off points and when I find that I am lost in my painting I can always refer back to my notes and then I am on my way again.  Speaking for myself but I do know alot of artist struggle with this, being so excited about an idea and along the way forgot something and get kinda lost in the process.  So notes are good!  Another idea which I think is awesome, I read it off Carol Marine's blog, put a few sticky notes around your work for little reminders as to what you wanted to do in your work.  Thanks Carol!  I've already told my daughter this trick the other day when she felt lost in her painting and it helped her a lot!  Ok off to make my lunch and to work!  As always….

Live Life in Color!

February 25th 2014

I thought I would show you parts of my studio this week.  I'm not painting this week.   Way to much going on with the new job to focus on my work.  That how ever does not mean I don't do anything related!  I either read about art or study paintings of the masters.  I can sketch or do more research on a subject that I am trying to learn or understand.  Never a day goes by that I am not involved in art some way or another.  On my table you see some small studies, which will either turn out or not and since its acrylic I can just paint over it anyway, how cool is that!  I'm a big slob when I'm working so I don't have one of those to die for looking studios.   I would like one but then I would never paint in it for fear of making a mess and I WANT to make a mess!
Speaking of mess, I thought I'd be a mess on my first day but I actually was calm and cool!  Today I am finally getting my forklift license!   WOOT!  Only waited for ever to get this!  Watch out everyone!  A crazy woman on a forklift!  LOL
Keep on creating!!!!

Live Life in Color!

Feburary 24 2014

I'm just playing in the studio…well actually here is a start of a series i have been working on from a poem i read.  The poem is "God's Grandeur", by Gerard Manley Hopkins.  So i will post my progresses and paintings.  This is just a quick wash of colors, acrylic on panel.  My main color is yellow..we will see what happens!
I start my new job today and really nervous but I know I will be fine.  Wish me luck!

M i A

It's 2014 and I, like lots of other people created my yearly to do list and created my goal lists and on and on as we routinely do in a new year.  Then I got up and threw it all away!  After going over my list and seeing most of my goals where about being "better" i got really sad as if I am not good enough now?!  I am on a journey of self love and accepting me for who I am and if creating lists or goals that emphasize that I am not already good, then that list does not match my self love.  

My art is also changing and evolving as I am digging deeper into self to find out what is there.  Scary?  Absolutely, for I am not going for end results of sellable works, I am noticing the process and the steps of process to bring me to the other side.  I am allowing myself to be in process, (which is wicked scary) and I am not defining myself as a good artist or bad, just that I am an artist.  Artist expand and grow and go threw many stages and changes through out their careers and I am no exception.  I am doing things that scare me instead of what is comfortable.  And as art mimics life this is as happening in my day to day living.

Next week I start a new job and I am nervous as hell!  Same field but and entirely different aspect of it. For those of you who don't know, I am in the construction equipment industry, selling and renting of equipment.  

So even in the change of a job I will allow my self to just be me, and after all that is why they hired me in the first place!  LOL

So with a new blog a new job and a different outlook on life and self I hope you will find something to keep you coming back on over to see what I am up to!

I will post sketches and paintings and tell about my process along the way!  

As always,

Live LIfe in Color!