This is my 300th post: I am so pleased with my commitment to this blog, as it truly has been an online journal for me to see where I've been, where I am now, and also,where I'm headed. I too, appreciate
all those who have stopped by, and thanks you for all comments. It means so much to me to be part of this wonderful and inspiring community of fellow artists. This was painted plein air in Provincetown, 8x10.
Stuart Shils is a big advocate of drawing, telling us that for over a year he didn't paint at all, just took pictures and drew. So the morning after his lecture I set out to do just that, wandering about the streets of Provincetown, not letting the grey overcast skies say anything about the day not being "pretty." As we look at things through the eyes of abstraction, everything can become grist for the mill, Shils points out. Drawing helps us to see the lights and the darks, by assigning a value to a color. Squinting always is the answer!
Stuart Shils gave a wonderful, insightful lecture which I had the good fortune to hear this past Thursday night at the Truro Center for the Arts. One of the things he spoke about was how before we make paintings, we need to develop a passion for looking at things. He uses his iPhone extensively to take pictures of what he calls "accessible images," that are found everywhere.When I wandered out later to the area we had been in for the reception, I noticed the chairs had been all grouped together, then I noticed the pattern and shapes and colours of that grouping. He spoke not about using these images to paint from, but more about " spending conscious time to enhance appreciation of what's in front of you."
I can't believe almost a month has gone by since my last post. This plein air view of the rocks at the end of Bailey's Beach in Newport is 5x7. Why haven't I been posting? I got involved with making a book, experimenting with different ideas, it didn't get accepted into the juried show I had tried for. I should know better to be affected, I thought I had a tougher skin, but it was of images of my grandchildren and I think I was too close to the whole project to have even entered it into a show. So I'm in a space with no particular direction.What will I paint next? What am I trying to say anyway? Maybe I'm just thinking too much? I'm going out to Truro tonight to hear Stuart Shils lecture and see his new work. I know I will be inspired.
Another image from the evolving book. It will be entered into a juried show called "The Art of the Book". I can't wait to get it all put together. Have a great weekend everyone!
The vantage point here usually includes St Georges chapel with its beautiful tower, but I was attracted to the complementary barn and field just to the left. We painted under a gazebo usually manned by beach employees monitoring parking; no one there this past Saturday with the rain was coming down hard as we finished our paintings for Wet Paint, the annual Newport Art Museum Event.
Thrilled that this painting was among 50 to head to the live auction "under the tent" at the culmination of the Wet Paint event at the Newport Art Museum. I was sitting under an umbrella with the rain coming down hard all around and was so absorbed in painting that it wasn't until I got up that I realized I was soaked to the skin.Talk about being in the zone. My motto for the weekend: Live life and paint often!
