A Different Direction

"Good Morning" 8"x10" oil on panel,Gessobord ©2014

My friend Evelyn here in New Zealand commissioned this painting for her husband's birthday last October.  She wanted a seascape with the boats in Island Bay. I haven't considered landscape painting to be one of my strengths, every time I have tried it in the past, I haven't been completely satisfied with the results. I did, however, want very much to please my friend.

I can never tell if this irresistible pull to please people is a positive or negative thing in my life.  On the plus side, I will face all sorts of fears and resistance to please someone or a cause I care about, but on the other darker side, I will also trample over what is best for myself to achieve this goal. Ouch! Does anyone else struggle with wielding this double-edged sword?

After taking over 200 pictures of Island Bay, stressing mightily over boat arrangements and painting ocean waves, (arrrrgh!) I felt reasonably happy with the result.  More importantly, Evelyn and her husband were happy with the painting!

I am bringing all this up because of my interview with the gallery last week. My darling cats were not a good fit there. After thinking about this situation, I proposed painting a series based around the rock cairns I photographed here last fall in Island Bay. I wouldn't have had the courage to even offer this if I hadn't completed that painting for Evelyn. The owner is interested to see them and now I need to get busy painting.

I am hoping I did the right thing.  I love my cats and I wanted to stay true to my earlier commitment to paint a monthly cat art piece this year.  I'm also excited to try the new series, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I may be putting too much on my plate again, which will result in feelings of overwhelm and anxiety.  (There is also my album of songs about grief that I promised to finish, my regular blog and newsletters to write, plus looking for a part-time job...)

It's a wonderful thing to be able to dream up more projects than I can possibly do.  It's not so fun to have to decide which ones will get to exist in reality.  Wish me luck, I realize am not very good at saying "no."

>^-^<  Tina 

My inspiration for the new painting series

 p.s. If you are not a newsletter subscriber and you would like to read last week's post featuring"The Safety Zone", all about what I learned from my anxiety meltdown in going to approach a gallery, click through to a copy on my facebook fan page here:  Tina Welter's Artist Life Experiment

Night and Day

"Heavenly Night" 6"x 5.5" mixed media, digital ©2015

I wanted to blend together my love of watercolor and the tools of the digital world I have been exploring recently for my newest artwork.  One of the wonderful things about digital artwork is the ability to try out several possibilities without using up so much canvas and paper.  My "scarcity" 'fraidy cat definitely loves this aspect!

This may seem like a new direction for my art to take for some, but it is actually a combination of an older style of my own from art school days and years of designing stained glass art.  

While Utah State University, I had design classes from Prof. Jon Anderson.  His classes were tough and I often despaired of ever learning what he was so passionately trying to teach us.  After a particularly disappointing assignment review, I called my Dad in despair.  I will never forget how he told me to "learn all you can, take advantage of everything your teacher is trying to give you."  I was a little disappointed that he didn't commiserate with me on how difficult the class was, but he did give me a different outlook.  Dad didn't get to finish his college training and in retrospect, I think he would have liked to have had that opportunity again.  

I "girded up my loins" and tried again and again, and eventually I did start to understand the design concepts and my assignment grades improved accordingly.  I am grateful now because those design principles have served me well over the years in so many different ways.

Seeing the same problem in a new way can certainly change the outcome in surprising ways. Sometimes it is like night and day, both beautiful in their own way.

Happy creating!

>^-^< Tina

"Rosy Morning" 8"x 10" mixed media, digital © 2015

  Both of these prints are available at Fine Art America, click here

For this week only, "Happy Mother's Day" is printed in white text on the "Rosy Morning" print.