The sketch - tbd if it’s right…

I’ve been asked to create a large piece of work and oh my, it is an honor to make a piece of artwork on commission.

My brother asked me how long it takes to make a big watercolor.  
Well, that depends on the subject and how well the planning works out, right?
 I make sketches until I really like one, then do a value sketch.

I may make a small mock-up in color before I launch into the actual piece of art.
That way, I can work out the lights/darks, colors, focal point and see if all 
seems to balance, to draw in the eye,   to make the viewer sigh with delight!  

Then….I will need to cut a big ‘ol piece of watercolor off the roll since this beauty
is far bigger than my usual Arches blocks or even my ‘full sheets’ of wc paper.  I’ll    tape or clip it onto a big board and launch into it, 

building up the colors and darks,

leaving the lights and brights to lead the eye into the place I want the viewer to 
dwell for minutes, maybe hours?

AND I recently had the delight of watching master oil painter Tim Horn paint en
PleinAir at a local Tecumseh Land Trust protected farm…

so fun to watch him 

select his scene and build from tones 

to values and colors 

and beauty on canvas. 

Pleinair Painting is Delightful!

Painting Outside - challenging yet fresh!

I've helped the Tecumseh Land Trust set up 4 Pleinair Paint Outs at properties that they have preserved. We've painted at Howell Farm (I taught a mini-workshop there too!), at Praires's Edge Studio near Springfield and will be at the Glen Helen property 'Camp Greene' in October. Another paintout at a wetland prairie had to be cancelled due to weather. Today's painting is from the Prairie's Edge property....I painted a beautiful old Oak Tree. It had the remains of an old swing that I decided needed to be put in. It was a challenge to capture the colors of the prairie, the tree and the shadows/sun spots beneath the tree. We hope to put together an exhibit with work from the artists that have participated in the paint-outs. If you'd like to paint with us, sign up with Tecumseh Land Trust to come paint on October 16! Are you a beginner or need a refresher? I'm teaching a mini-workshop "Give it a Try" at 9:30. See you there! ❤

Painting: A way of connecting with 'the Potency of Life'

I'm reading The Library Book by Susan Orlean...a wonderful book about the huge fire at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1987 that devastated the collection, the back story, reflection of books, etc.

Here's a quote from her chapter of how difficult it is to set about to light a book on fire.  She wanted to see how it would feel to do so since the fire was believed to be arson.  Susan can't throw a book away because 'books have souls ... feels like a thing alive in this moment, alive on a continuum, from the moment the thoughts about it first percolated in the writer's mind to the moment it sprang off the printing press - a lifeline tha continues as someone sits with it and marvels over it...'

Susan continues 'Once words and thoughts are poured into them, books are no longer just paper and ink and glue: They take on a kind of human vitality.  She quotes Milton regarding this quality: books take on the 'the potency of life'.

Actually - sometimes, I feel like that about a painting....sometimes I feel I come close to making a painting that has this quality - the potency of life - that speaks to more than a good likeness or a good rendition of light coming through a woodland.  I hope that I can do this more - impart life into works of art...spark a delight or bring a memory of place or thing or person to life in art.

Art show at the Winds Cafe - Thoughts onTeaching

May and June, I will host a show at the Winds Cafe in Yellow Springs for the months of May and June with friend and artist Pam Geisel.  We're working on a title...Color and Light - Brush and Needle.  Pam creates art quilts and I mainly work in watercolor.  I am musing, dreaming up my next paintings to include, exploring themes....

    I've been painting my whole life but concentrating on it for about 15 years.  Yesterday, I taught a private lesson and thoroughly enjoyed working with an artist to help her realize her vision.  So often, watercolor is difficult for artists because they fear to make a mistake.  They often use tiny amounts of paint and great quantities of water.
 
   There are certain skills that will help along the path to a successful painting such as wet-into-wet painting but paying attention to the timing and wetness of the paper....  If you don't have sufficient pigment on your brush, the color will simply disappear as it dries.  Of course you can continue to glaze or add layers.  I think I helped her paint more freely and wield the brush more assertively.

   I truly love to help inspire confidence, freeing people from inhibition of the creative process.  Here is a photo from a mini-workshop I taught last winter - helping people go wild w/color!  Joy  Joy Joy

Christmas Greetings!

a tiny portion of a recent acrylic painting....

Merry Christmas to All!

Hope, Happiness and wishing you a creative New Year...

Libby