Small Start

"Great oaks from tiny acorns grow"
                                                                                                       --American Proverb

I almost missed seeing this little guy when I was on my walk today.  But Dasher the Dog decided it was time to stop to sniff and snack on a few acorns. I rescued this one and put it in my pocket.  I thought he'd be the perfect model for my daily painting.

1.  I lightly sketch the acorn on a 7 1/2 x 10 1/2 piece of watercolor paper.
2.  I used wet-on-wet underpainting colors of yellow for the acorn and blue for the cap.  I completely dried the paint with a hair dryer.
3.  I added another layer of color using the wet-on-wet 
technique.  I used green for the acorn and brown on the cap (not pictured - guess I was too busy painting to stop and snap.) DRY
4.  I painted another layer of color onto the acorn and cap.  This time I only wet the paper in some areas and dropped colors in to create some textures and lines.  Remember the paint will only move where the paper is already wet.

 5.  With a dry brush and a mixture of blue and brown paint I created texture on the cap.

6.  I used a detail brush to add some sharp lines to some of the edges.




7.  I then painted the background using red, yellow and a little blue for a shadow.

Small Start                          7 1/2 x 10 1/2
Watercolor on Paper

Acorns

The ancient oak has again

birthed a shower of acorns

in the expectation that

one or two of them

will find fertile soil

will plant themselves, grow

become the next generation

of oaks. This is the Way.

One generation, as part of its

process, sows seed

continuity confirmed.

The poet too reaches into his roots

scatters words and thoughts

in the expectation

that one or two

will imbed themselves

in the rich humus

of a hearer's heart

grow there to weave a chain

winding backward and forward

through chapter and verse

of the human story.

Listen carefully then, for you

may be the one,

propelling the poem

singing the song

in an entirely different key

feeding, with your fallen acorns

squirrels and chipmunks and souls.

a poem by Lois Read

Yesterday is gone

Labor Day                        13 x 20
Watercolor on paper

Where does the time go?  I seem to have a "To Do" list a mile long.  And not enough time in the day to complete all the tasks.  I feel like I'm constantly playing catch up.  I wake up in the middle of the night and remember things I was supposed to do.  One of them was to post my daily painting to my blog.  But I forgot.

How do my days get so complicated?  Why do I burden myself with endless lists?  When am I ever going to complete all of these tasks?  All of these are good questions but the most important thing I need to consider is:  Why do I want to complete these things?

I've set two 30 day goals for myself.  One is to complete a painting a day and the other is to write a blog post a day - two challenges I joined.  Well it's only the 3rd day and I'm already behind.  So I could beat myself up and give up or I could catch up and continue on.





I've found that the best way to reach a goal is to  know the why.  Here are my answers:

1.  Why do I want to complete the daily painting challenge?  Because I will set aside time every day to paint, I will improve my skills and I will create a body of work that I can share.

2.  Why do I want to participate in the 30 day blog challenge?  Because I want to continue to develop the habit of writing about the process of making art to encourage my readers to be more creative.

Now I just have to schedule daily actions (or tasks) on my calendar with an alert set at 6:00 am.  I find it's best to write these down the night before so I'm reminded first thing in the morning to focus on my goals.

Today's actions:
1.  Post yesterday's blog and painting - check
2.  Paint - coming soon!
3.  Blog - coming soon!

Grass Shadows

This morning I got up early to take my daily walk.  I could have slept late since it was Sunday but I knew I needed to get moving before the heat set in (it's been close to, is not over, 100 degrees here for months).  I hooked Dasher to his leash and set off. I was going to use this time to think about a 30 Day Blog Challenge and a 30 Day Painting Challenge, both of which I was starting today.  I planned on combining the two and writing about the intuitive painting process I use.  The sun was just starting to rise, promising another scorching day.  But as it rose it also revealed some beautiful images.  Once again my daily walk offered some inspiration.

The angle of the sun and the height of the grass cast this wonderful shadow on the side walk.  I just loved the landscape quality of the image and the cool blueness of the shadow against the sandy colored sidewalk.  It reminded me of the transparent quality of watercolors and inspired me to start my challenge with my favorite medium.

I took this picture with my Iphone and printed a copy when I got home.

Supplies:
140 lb watercolor paper
pencil & eraser
watercolor paint*
assorted brushes
rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle
water & paper towels





1.   I lightly drew the basic shapes on the paper.  I drew the line a little more diagonal than the photo.

2.  I covered the paper with clear water then dropped in yellow paint covering the surface.  Dry completely.





3.  Next I mixed up a puddle of pthalo blue and a puddle of alizarin crimson.  I painted clear water over the area that represents the shadow then I dropped in blue, alizarin crimson and their purple mixture.  I let the paint move into the wet areas.






4.  For the green grass I mixed puddles of sap green, pthalo blue and yellow.  I wet the area with clear water and dropped in the colors.  I covered the purple area with a piece of paper and sprayed rubbing alcohol on the green area creating some textures.










5.  I completely dried the paper then repeated steps 3 and 4 twice.

Grass Shadows
Watercolor on paper

6.  After looking at my image I felt it need a "surprise" color so I painted a stripe of opera pink on the line between the shadow and the green.







When do I know that a painting is complete? It all depends on the subject matter and media I use. With this particular painting I stopped when I found that I'd created a nice balance with the contrast of line, value, color, shape and texture.


I wonder what I'll find on my walk tomorrow to inspire me.


*My palette usually consists of 2 yellows (cadmium yellow light & cadmium yellow medium), 2 reds (alizarin crimson & cadmium red medium), 2 blues (ultramarine & pthalo), burnt sienna & sap green.  Now and then I add other colors like opera pink, peacock blue and spring green.


 p.s.  My work that will be completed during the 30 Day Painting Challenge will be available for purchase by October 1st.

Reflections of a teacher/mother

Peter's 1st day of kindergarten
1991

The first week of school has come and gone.  And I'm still in one piece.  I think teaching school is kind of like having a baby.  Your 9 month school year starts off with excitement, anticipation and a little nausea. You go to endless meetings about how to do your job better. You meet your students, deal will new policies, and end your last week with teacher laryngitis.  By the middle of October you should be getting over your morning sickness and anxiety as you settle in for the long haul. Your first trimester is over.

Now you begin the fun part of your pregnancy, I mean school year. Change of season and wardrobe gets you excited about the future. You cruise through the holidays because they break up the work week.  Lots of parties, seasonal cheer and winter break!  You forget what's ahead.

January.

The end of the school year seems so far away, almost an unattainable goal.  You trudge through the endless days between winter and spring feeling swollen with work and responsibilities. You're tired of the sleepless nights and backaches from being on your feet all day in the classroom.

Then you get Spring Break!.  That perfect vacation that gives you a chance to rest for the coming events.  Or if you have a burst of energy you'll take some exciting trip knowing that the coming weeks will be brutal.

Eric's graduation
from CNU
2010

Peter when he
graduated from UVA
2008.  That's Sarah, the
girl he married in June.

Toward the middle of May you become nostalgic. You see the changes in your students, how much they've grown.  You see the body of work which you inspired and nurtured. You know the end is near and changes will be happening. You almost wish you had more time to enjoy the fun things you did the past year.

Or you may just want this thing to be over

Pop

It's the wonderful birth of summer.  Full of endless possibilities and new beginnings.  It's during that time when teachers remember the three reasons they love their careers:

June----------July-----------August

And yet we keep coming back in the fall full of excitement and anticipation.  

Kind of like the pregnancy amnesia. We remember the good and forget about the uncomfortable parts. 

Peter, Eric and Johnny
I think around 1995?

I'm going to write a weekly post about each week of school this year. It may be my ramblings (like today) or maybe I'll teach you the lessons I taught the past week.  

Join me in creating a "School Year Journal."  Or call it whatever you want.  Keep track of your weekly thoughts and the images you create for the next nine months.  Feel free to share with me!

Painting Experiments

When I was a little girl I always enjoyed going back to school.  It wasn't just because of my friends and teachers, but is was all the great art supplies.  My favorite thing was the big wooden easel with the roll of white paper, cups of tempera paint and fat brushes.  I loved to experiment with paint. I would smear on a large blob of color, then another and another.  I would mix and move the paint all over the paper. The smell and gooey, glistening consistency of wet paint always made me happy.  And it still does.  I love the process of squeezing paint out of a tube or bottle, mixing colors and painting on a surface.  I don't always know where I'm going.  I just love the trip.

I reuse a lot of art surfaces.  I don't like to waste a thing.  So I covered the drawing I did the other day with a layer of gesso.  I could see the ghost of the drawing through the gesso so I doodled on it for a little while with some colored markers.

But I didn't want to doodle any more so I squeezed out some paint. Primary colors plus white.  I started painting over the tree blending the colors as I moved ,the brush around.


I put blue and pink on the large tree.






I spread purple on the small trees. Green on the ground and yellow in the sky.

These were under colors but I didn't like the way they looked.  So I began to cover everything with gesso again.  But this time I left a little edge of color showing.

This is where I stopped for the day.  I kind of like the ghosts of the under painting showing through.  Tomorrow I might add some new colors and see what happens.

See, painting doesn't have to end with a perfect picture.  It's just fun to spread it on!

Enjoy.

Realism vs. Abstraction

I believe that many people are afraid to make art because they haven't mastered realism. Two of my favorite artists Andrew Wyeth & Chuck Close are known for their realistic paintings.   When you view their work from a distance the realism is striking.  But when you get really close you'll see that their images are very abstract in some areas.  It took them many years of practice and experimentation to develop their individual styles.  They also spent a lot of time exploring different ways to represent their subjects.  One day I'll write a blog about different methods to capture realism.  But for now we're just going to play around with images and media. And we'll let a little serendipity help us out.

Last week I wrote a blog post about being inspired by trees. These images are still in my mind so I'm moving on from sketching in pencil to creating a mixed media piece on a large Gesso Board.  I'm not going to finish this lesson in one blog post.  There are too many steps and I'll need some drying time between layers.

Supplies:
Gesso Board, canvas board or 140 lb. watercolor paper whatever size you'd like I'm working on 24x36
Pencil
Sharpie - dark color (I used navy because that's the one I picked up!)
Gesso
Brushes




Steps:

1.  Choose you're image (You're welcome to use one of my photos from: trees)
2.  Lightly sketch your image onto the surface with a pencil.  Draw large and fill the surface from top to bottom. Go over all the lines with a dark Sharpie marker.
3.  Add some trees in the background



4.  Add a pattern to the ground.  I used small circles close to the horizon line and larger ones as I got to the bottom.
5.  On the background trees I used closely spaced hatched lines.

The finished drawing is another abstraction of my tree photo.   But I'm not finished yet.  Tomorrow I think I'll add some acrylic paint.      

Serendipity

As I've stumbled through the years I've had the good luck to discover people, places and things that are helpful and bring me great joy.  That doesn't mean I haven't hit many rough patches. I've had to pick myself up and brush off several times. But it seems, quite often, when I fall into a rabbit hole I find a little piece of wonderland.

I'd like to tell you a little story about what happened to me today.  I'd promised to bring items to a yard sale at my friend's house.  She'd even set the date based on my preference.  But last week was full of work and complications so I didn't get a chance to go to our storage unit to sort and gather.  I'd figured I could take care of it Friday night.  At the last minute my husband decided to go to a golf tournament so I knew I'd be on my own for the sorting and loading.

When I got home from work I took Dasher, the dog, for a walk.  It was so hot and when I got home I had a terrible headache and decided to go to bed early.  I planned on sorting and loading the items in the morning.  I'm usually an early riser (6:00 am) and didn't thing to set my alarm.  When I woke up at 8:45 I jumped out of bed, feeling guilty about being late.  I threw on come clothes and grabbed the spare set of truck keys because I couldn't find the regular ones. Looking outside I realized that my husband hadn't left the truck at home.  So I headed to the storage unit in my smaller car.

 I started to work in the storage unit I by moving a mattress outside.  As I was digging through the shelves I heard a voice behind me.  I turned around to see a woman with a little girl standing in the doorway.  She asked, "are you selling this mattress? Because my daughter and I getting our stuff out of storage to move into an apartment nearby."

"No, I'm not going to sell it," I said, "I'm going to give it to you."

After I helped her tie the mattress to the top of her car I asked if she'd like any of the items I'd pulled out for the yard sale.  Soon all of the boxes were loaded in her car.  She tried to hand me some money but I refused to take it.  My goal was to declutter my storage unit, not make money.  And I knew the items were going to make a difference for the mother and daughter as they embark on their fresh start. When I showed up at my friend's house empty handed we laughed.

Being an artist I rely on serendipity every time I begin a new work.  So today I have a blank gesso board a tree picture and some acrylic paint.  I'm going put on some music, pour some iced tea and see what kind of "happy accidents" I can get into!

Want to come along?