Landscapes, Oh My...

I finished my Canyon Sunrise painting and sent it to the art director at the resort in hopes it would fit the southwest theme that her General Manager would prefer. She wrote me back and said that the GM liked my flowers and not Jeff's churches!

Joy for me, but disappointing news for Jeff. She wondered if he could send in some landscapes. At first Jeff thought he could, but after a week of thinking it over, he found that he just wasn't that excited about painting them. I understood exactly how he felt. Painting is actually quite demanding work, and it is hard to do when you are not inspired by the subject matter. He has completed two more paintings of churches with a different color palette, which he hopes they might like better. If they do, great. But if not, he is not going to worry about it.

I really appreciated the comments on the last two blogs. It helped me realized that I am in charge and that I don't have to immediately try to please everyone. It's also important that I feel happy with the arrangements when I show my art work. Thanks so much!

Jeff's Corner: "It's alright now, I've learned my lesson well. You see you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself..." Garden Party by Ricky Nelson, 1972

Shifting Gears!

What a week. We sent a sample of three paintings each to the art director at Ojo Caliente where we are hoping to show our work this spring. We received a nice e-mail back where she explained that she loved my flowers, but she knew the General Manager almost always went with southwest landscapes or themes. !!!

I called her and said I could try to have an example of my landscape work in a week. She did apologize for not getting back to me sooner. I had sent an e-mail in December explaining my intention to paint floral subjects, but I didn't get a response. Anyway, I have been scrambling through my photo collection to find suitable landscapes and generally freaking out.

I was so looking forward to having two finished paintings to post this week and I had chosen the rest of my flower subjects and canvases. I could picture the whole show, and now I am completely turned upside down. Poor Jeff has been very patient with my stress, although he says I am like a cat with her tail poofed out. Unfortunately, that is a pretty good description of me right now!

Working like crazy all weekend has yielded one 11"x14" painting, "Taos Canyon Sunrise" that still doesn't feel quite right. I am not posting it because I am not happy with it yet. I really had my hopes on doing that show, and all I can do is try my best. I wish I had time to paint another subject this week, but if I can get the sunset to work, it will be really impressive. Crossing my fingers...

Jeff Corner: If you get her cornered and her tail poufs out- leave her cornered!

Tool Kit

Now that January is here, I really feel the necessity to get to work on my goal to have at least twelve paintings ready for the spring to show at Ojo Caliente. That means completing at least one painting a week for the next three months. I decided to focus on flowers and have researched all my photos from last summer to choose my best subjects. I am glad I took so many pictures!

I debated whether to try the grey scale underpainting with the flowers. The last time I tried it, I was very frustrated with the results. I have learned since that the key to success with the underpainting is to have a more complete image with all the darks and lights where I want them. My frustration from before was trying to change dark areas to light. If I changed my mind, those areas took more time to fix.

With the dramatic results of the Petra cat painting, I decided to give it another try. This time I did very detailed drawings of my subject before I even started the underpaintings. I used a technique that I never liked to use in the past, because it always seemed to take forever and I wanted to get to the painting, but I think it helps save time in the long run. I created a pencil drawn grid of squares on my canvas and then made a small grid of the same proportions. One useful thing I learned from art school, is that if it looks good small, it will look good big. I drew my desired image on the small grid and then I could transfer my drawing to the larger canvas grid. While I was drawing, I kept hearing the voice of a dear friend of mine who once told me that "real artist's don't use grids, they can just create from their heads directly to the canvas".

This statement has always bothered me, and Jeff and I had a discussion about artwork and tools. Essentially the grey scale underpainting is also another tool. Is the artwork created using these helpful ideas somehow less than artwork just painted spontaneously with no pre-thought? I like the results of using these tools, I spend less time re-painting because it feels right the first time. I was feeling badly about not being a "real artist" and Jeff said he would like to see an example of "fake-art". Laughing made me feel better, that is why I keep him around.

Jeff's Corner: Would the statue of "David" been any less beautiful if Michangelo had used power tools?

The Lilies Of The Field

I entered a floral painting for a call for entries this fall for the LDS church. I have had this on my goal list for at least ten years and I finally did it. The subject for the art show is "The Great Things of God" At first I was contemplating a complex still life, but then I thought "what can I reasonably do with the skills I have so far?"

Since I was focusing on flowers this summer, I decided to see if I could incorporate that subject to fit into that theme. I kept thinking about the scripture that talks about the lilies of the field and how they were more beautifully arrayed than King Solomon.

I did some research on what those "lilies" in Jerusalem might have looked like. It turns out that they are a Red Corn Poppy that grows wild in the fields in that part of the world. I found some good references to work from, but again I had to create my own arrangement and use some of my own photos of poppies to get a better sense of light. My pictures of poppies were of the California variety, and the Red Corn Poppy has a similar center, but fewer and less frilly petals. Like the fox painting, not having my own perfect reference photos makes things more difficult and time consuming.

Finally, I did get a painting done on time for the submission deadline and I sent it in. I didn't like the way the shadows looked on the middle poppy, but I couldn't seem to do any better and I decided to just let it go, after getting Jeff's reassuring opinion of course.

I just recently heard from the art selection committee, and they didn't choose my piece for the show. That is O.K., because my main goal was just to submit something and now I can share it with all of you on the blog.

Jeff's Corner: I think Toto and I will just lie down here and take a little nap...

Jeff's Turn To Shine

The week before Christmas, Jeff received a commission for a southwestern church painted in his dramatic style to be given as a gift. Of course his friend wondered if he could finish it in time for Christmas! So, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but an amazingly bold painting as the end of the week drew near.

Jeff chose acrylics because he knew they would dry lightning fast, and they were what he used on his other church paintings. It really helps to be familiar with your media and the color palette. Jeff painted for years with acrylics before he tried the oils. His art loving friend actually wanted to buy the "Zuni Pueblo Church" painting, but Jeff wasn't ready to part with that particular piece. Jeff reassured him that he could do something very similar and his friend was very happy with the result.

I was impressed that he has such a distinctive style. Some people love it and others don't, but it is something they always told us in art school you must have so that people could instantly recognize your work. He has held back for a lot of years because he got an initial response from someone that he respected that was somewhat negative. (I believe the term used was "horror show".) Lately, he has had some more positive responses, and this commission has been the best of all. I am incredibly proud of him and hope he will continue to paint more great paintings.

Jeff's Corner: "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."

Under The Surface

I made good progress on the second Petra painting, but I realized that in between all the cookie baking, snow shoveling, and other holiday commitments, I didn't enter a blog last week! Hopefully, everyone else has been just as busy and didn't notice.

I am coming near completion of this painting, and I feel like the color balance is much better. I had a friend comment that it must be just like paint by number once you get the black and white values in place. It might seem that way, but I still had to make a lot of choices to get the right colors. I tried an idea I read about recently where you cut a small square out of a white piece of paper and look through the square to really see the color you are looking at. This was especially helpful on the ground color because last time I kept seeing it as too brown and didn't get enough gray, blue and green.

The black and white underpainting does help a bunch for placement and it is kind of magical how all the colors seem to have the right value now and don't seem so overly bright and unnatural. Eventually, I may learn to do this by mixing the colors with enough black in the first place, but for now, I am really glad to have a tool that I know will work.

Some positive results from my fixation with painting cats is that I may have two more commissions from other folks who love their feline friends. I am delighted with the opportunity to keep on learning and provide people with something they will enjoy.

Jeff's Corner: You should see my paint-by-number Mark Rothko...

Cats and Dogs

This fall I had a successful animal portrait titled "Cheech Puppy". At the time, I was experimenting with not doing a black and white underpainting first, and I thought this particular painting worked very well.

Because of that portrait, I received a commission to paint a cat named Petra. I started this painting without an underpainting before we left for Greece, so it was waiting for me half-finished when I returned home.

I had a goal to have this commission finished early in December and I went straight to work. Imagine my dismay when I was getting near completion and everything with the color just felt unconnected and "off". The leaves seemed too bright, the ground too chocolate brown, and Petra's eyes too green.

While we were in Greece, I did one painting of a black and white kitten I titled "Who, Me?", and I did use a black and white underpainting which really was helpful in getting a successful painting. Reluctantly, I came to the conclusion that I would have to start over with Petra. Even though it would mean an extra week of drying time, I did do the underpainting with black and white aqua- oils instead of acrylics just to see if the painting would have even more depth.

Thankfully, I already feel the painting is more unified, and I hope that when I add the color this week, it will maintain this unity. Stay tuned until next week...

Jeff's Corner: Underpainting? I thought she said black and white underpants!