Saying Goodbye

Lower entrance, Wellington Botanic garden

September 2014, I met Barbara at the botanic garden in Wellington, New Zealand.  We were both attending a free class on how to photograph flowers and struck up a conversation before the class started.  Since we are both from America and share a real passion for flowers, we found a lot to talk about.

 We had a good time playing hide and seek with the clouds and the waiting for the breezes to settle down so that we could snap some good pictures. Our flower subjects kept insisting on dancing with the wind!  We spent a good deal of time around the beautiful beds of poppies and tulips. September is springtime in the southern hemisphere.

A pause between dances.

Springtime lemons!

The magnolia trees were also in bloom and it was wonderful to walk through all that lacy loveliness of shadow and color.  I had so much fun taking photos of these twisty trees and their blossoms.

We continued talking after the class and ended up having lunch together.  It was a good beginning to such a nice friendship.  During the next year, Barbara took the time to show me around downtown Wellington and later, she and her husband Dave generously invited us to go on several excellent day hikes around the local area.  We experienced the mysterious trails and stunning views that they loved to share, beauty we would have missed seeing since we didn't have a car to get to these trail heads.

Looking towards Wellington, Butterfly Creek trail.

Beech and fern forest, Butterfly Creek trail.

Sunset on the hills above Makara beach.

I love going to different parts of the world and making new friends.  You never know what great people you are going to meet and how they will affect your life.  The down side of this is that when we move again, we have to say "good-bye" and it is so hard. 

"Radiant One" 5"x 7" watercolor on Aquabord ©2015

When I was packing to leave in July, I knew I had to do one last painting.  I wanted to give something to Barbara in honor of the day we met and I decided there might be just enough time to complete one small watercolor painting.  I got my wish and had one last day to paint, "Radiant One" was the result.  I haven't painted flowers in watercolor for a long time, but this day reminded me why I love painting them.  Sometimes it is so satisfying to revisit a past love. It can be so joyful if you get to meet again and say "hello".

Cairns of Personality

A big thank you to everyone who expressed your support and interest in seeing the new painting subjects I am contemplating.  Here are five preliminary watercolor sketches to give you an idea of what I have in mind for this series.

"The Watcher"

I tested my ideas out on sketchbook paper, this is why you are seeing the buckles and ripples of the paper.  The nice heavy watercolor paper that I use for my finished paintings doesn't do this.  For me, working small and testing an idea in my sketchbook takes away some of the anxiety of making mistakes.  Plus, painting landscapes in a small format makes learning about this new subject seem more manageable to me.

"World on a Platter"

All last winter when I was photographing these, I kept wondering about the artist who was creating these outdoor temporary sculptures.  I decided I needed to photograph them because depending on the weather, they could change completely from day to day.

"Front Row Seat"

Two weeks ago, we went out to see the huge waves that arise from the winter storms.  One of the locals we have met a few times before when hiking around the beachfront, noticed me taking pictures of a cairn sculpture with a log balanced carefully on it.  He walked over and took the log off and showed me how he balanced the rock and the log.  I was so excited, I finally knew who the mystery beach artist was!  He was just as surprised to find that his work had been inspiring me. 

"Skyline"

 

I find myself intrigued by the way these figures and forms almost seem to have personalities and stories.  The stories seem to shift depending on what angle I photograph them from and which cairn groups I include in the photo.  I wonder if that is why we humans make monuments, they create a kind of accent to the sky and natural surroundings. Like adding a new spice to a well known dish.  

"Grandmother"

I am fairly pleased with these little sketches.  I kind of wish I had tried them out on good watercolor paper so that they would be finished little pieces of work in their own right.  My plan is to create the final paintings on canvas with oil paints.  I am curious to try simplifying the lines and color blocks even more to see if the painting would still have personality.

What do you think? Do you like the rocks?  Do I "Rock on" or am I "off my rocker?" ;)

>^-^<  Tina

Jeff catching the big waves.

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

Meet Kirk...

"Kirk" 7"x 5" watercolor on paper ©2014

Say "hello" to Kirk, he is hoping with intensity for his supper to be ready.  Who could resist that face?  He looks pretty spry and full of energy, but he is 12 years old and having some health troubles.  My friend Evelyn commissioned me to paint Kirk for her brother's birthday.   She knows how much her brother and his wife enjoy Kirk as part of their lives and she wanted to do something special for them.

I was just delighted she felt confident to ask me.  It was fun to go and meet Kirk try to capture something of his personality with my photographs.  The intense work starts when I have to decide how to get that special "something" into a painting.   I do put a lot of pressure on myself to get it right, but it is worth it all when I get to read delighted responses like this...

"Thank you very much for the beautiful painting. Kirky’s eyes are so life-like. And you captured the expression on his face perfectly. This is exactly how he looks when he knows that something is cooking on the stove, but also wants to keep me in sight in case there is something tasty in my hand and he tries to look in both directions.

George says "thank you" too. He is delighted with his birthday present. We’ll get it framed this weekend according to your instructions."   ... that kind of review completely makes my day!

This was my first "pet-portrait" painted in New Zealand, I hope I will be able to do more in the future.  I really like creating something that means so much to other people.

Watercolor Versus Oil

"On the Rocks" 7"x 5" oil on gessobord © 2014

Watercolor versus oil paint.  Sometimes it's a challenge to decide which medium I want to use to paint a subject.  After painting so much with oils, it was a nice break to try the last three paintings in watercolor.  I was curious to see if the watercolor would be faster.  The result, the watercolor of this same seal and rocks was faster.  My "Farewell" seal took five and a half hours, this same baby seal in oils took me almost three times longer, a total of sixteen hours!  I was really surprised.  I have had other watercolor paintings take almost as long as an oil painting of the same size and subject.  I think I must have been "in the zone" with that first seal painting.

The next question is, which one do you like better? (Scroll down three posts to see the "Farewell" seal)  Team watercolor or team oil?  I like both of them for different reasons, but I do feel like my seal in the oil looks better to me.  What is your vote?  If you were buying one of them, which one would you choose? 

Kaikoura Coast Inspiration

"Farewell" 7"x 5" watercolor ©2014

Part of our journey when we were traveling north from Christchurch to catch the ferry at Picton, involved driving along the Kaikoura coast.  It was a grey day, but the steep rocks on one side and the ocean on the other kept it quite interesting visually.

I don't remember if we saw the signs for seals or just saw the people gathered at one of the pull-offs at the side of the road, but we decided to stop and take a look too.  Looking down the steep embankment, we could see and hear mother seals and their pups on the rocks below.  So exciting!  I didn't know if I could get a good picture with a grey day and such a long distance, but I saw this young one looking up at us just before he turned to go down the rocks.

The look in that little seal's eyes captured me!  I knew if the picture was any good at all, I wanted it to be my first painting inspired by New Zealand.  Similar to how the swans captured my attention in Germany.  Since I had been painting so much in watercolor lately, I thought it would be interesting to try a watercolor painting before tried one with my oil paints.

This painting also gets the honor of being the first item I listed in my Etsy shop I just opened on-line.  Setting up an Etsy shop has been a goal for me for at least a year.  Thanks little seal for your inspiration!

My "farewell" baby seal turns to go.

"Farewell" at my Etsy shop

Thanks Again!

"In the Pink" 7"x 5" watercolor ©2014

One more post about the kind folks here in New Zealand.  Our landlady, Patsy, is next on the list.  After so many weeks of searching, we were so excited to finally move into our own apartment.  One of the things we definitely depend on is a good internet connection.  Everything seemed in order when we moved in, until we tried to sign up with an internet service provider.

One after another,  the different companies we chose sent their service people out here and couldn't locate the cable to hook us up!  Somewhere it was buried and possibly broken under a very long cement driveway. !!!  Patsy was so kind to let us come over and use her computer several times while we tried to figure out the puzzle.   She even shared with us "tea & biscuits" as they call it here.  Tenants before us had had internet and the apartment above us had internet, so there had to be a solution.

Patsy also lent us chairs when we needed extra ones and took us to the second hand shop to search for shelves for the used refrigerator we had recently bought.  She introduced us to some of her favorite places in the neighborhood like the local historic movie theater and the pie shop.

After several weeks, we finally found the one internet service provider that had a line to our apartment.  We were so relieved!  We were thinking we would have to move again if we couldn't sort this out.  This is why soon after I was back into the swing of painting I created a card for Patsy.

"Rose for Carol" 7"x 5" watercolor © 2009

You may have noticed a similarity to my "Rose for Carol" from 2009.  It is from the same photo in my files.  It is very fascinating to me to see how the same photo can evoke different interpretations of the same subject, that is why I sometimes paint the same subject over again.  I am also curious to see what I have learned over time.

Welcome Home

"A New Home" 7"x 5" watercolor ©2014

This week's post is another watercolor "thank you" card.  Yes, we have met some wonderful people here in New Zealand.

I mentioned last week the understanding of Paul and Gemma who we rented the room from while we were apartment hunting.   This week, it is their next door neighbor, Evelyn, that gets our thanks.

Due to all the stress, Jeff and I were having a rather heated discussion about why the oven wasn't cooking our pizza.  We were in the house alone at the time and didn't think anyone would hear us.  Of course, it really wasn't about the pizza, but that doesn't stop a good argument to blow off some general frustration.

Imagine our chagrin when we hear a gentle little knock at the kitchen door and a ladies voice asking "are you ok?...would you like some tomatoes & cucumbers for your lunch?"   Embarrassed, we opened the door and met Evelyn, who regularly does some yard work for her neighbors Paul & Gemma.

We introduced ourselves and apologized for being so loud.  She bravely invited us for dinner the next evening.  I'm not certain I would want to invite unknown people who had just been loudly arguing into my home!  We had a lovely dinner and met her husband and daughter.  Over the next few weeks, she introduced us to the wonderful Te Papa museum, took us for a drive up Mount Victoria, and then saved us a bunch of money and stress by helping us move all our luggage to our apartment.  What a gem!

The cat is Puggles, the family pet, and we happened to catch her napping at the house one afternoon.  I had Jeff get a snapshot of her on his iPod.  I thought she represented how we felt, we had finally found a box in New Zealand to call our home!