Inspiring Reading

I am also inspired by things I read and often I just enjoy sitting and reading about other artists and how they work and what inspires them.

Last week I received a couple of books I had ordered and I've already finished one of them. The first book is by the artist, Danny Gregory, who started "Everyday Matters" which is the sketch a day that I blogged about a few weeks ago and it is also the title of his illustrated memoir.  I was intrigued by his sketches and journals and wanted to know more about him.

This is written on the back of his book, "the Creative License, Giving yourself permission to be the artist you truly are": Do you dare to be creative? Somewhere deep inside, we all have a longing to make things -- be they drawings, music, hand-knit sweaters, or loaves of bread. Then why do so few of us consider ourselves creative?
For years, author Danny Gregory told himself he wasn't, couldn't be an artist. But when a crisis made him re-examine his priorities, he saw he'd been speeding through life and missing the view. So, in his late thirties, he picked up a ballpoint and taught himself to draw. The result was a whole new perspective on life.

In this book, he goes through all the excuses we give ourselves that keep us from being creative. He believes everyone can be creative and even needs to be creative. He touches on how we are our own worst critics. I can identify with that. I am always second-guessing myself and being overly critical of my work. He gives us permission to draw badly and not worry about it. Really creativity has nothing to do with the result, it has everything to do with the process.

The book is full of wonderful illustrations and has inspired me to do more illustrating  and journaling.
He is the author of several books, all of which are illustrated, and I hope to purchase a few of his other books for some light and inspiring reading.

I am a huge fan of " The Group of Seven Painters" who painted together in the 1920's and 30's here in Ontario. So I love to read anything about them. The second book I bought is the first complete biography ever published about the artist and group spokesman Lawren Harris. It is called "Inward Journey" and it is a little heavier reading than Danny Gregory's book but also very interesting. Lawren Harris also painted in Algonquin Park which is where I'll be canoeing again this summer so the book has double appeal for me.

It turns out Harris also struggled with becoming an artist and his style changed drastically over the years until at the end of his life he was creating totally abstract work. I prefer his earlier work such as this painting on the cover of his book. Years ago I copied one of his paintings as practice. Below is the original and below that is my copy.

 

 

As I was preparing this post, I remembered another painting of Harris's that I copied and this one was for a colour theory class project. It is interesting that I chose to copy Lawren Harris of all the Group of Seven Painters because he is my least favourite. I have never been a real fan of abstract art however, perhaps I copied him because he paints totally different from me and maybe I thought I could learn something from his style. Below is Lawren Harris's painting called Abstraction and below that is my copy.

 

 

In reading about these two artists, I noticed that they were plagued by the same self-doubt as I am but I have come to the conclusion that all artists are plagued with this and I believe there is good reason. If we didn't doubt ourselves, we wouldn't have the desire to improve. It is the push we need to continue learning and experimenting and in the process we are also very much enjoying the journey.

Update on the Commissions

I thought you'd like to see the result of the portrait commission. It has been finished and delivered.

This was framed very simply with a double mat, outside mat
cream and inside black with a thin black metallic frame.

The cottage property commission is also done and has been delivered. I've posted a couple a details and the finished painting below.

 

 

 

"Peaceful Dwelling Place"

Building Layers in Fabric

I have always loved photographs of hills that go off into the distance. You can see the atmospheric perspective very well in them. Atmospheric perspective is when the closer objects (hills) are crisp and clear and brighter in colour and as the further hills recede into the background they become less distinct and a little greyer or bluer in colour.

I recreated this effect with watercolour on paper by layering the colours. Starting first with one colour and letting it dry completely before placing another colour overlapping it. Because the watercolour is transparent you can still see the layer of paint underneath the second application.

I then wanted to take my experimentation further and try to reproduce the effect with fabric. Many retailers were handing out their products in organza bags around Christmas time and I had saved them to use in my fabric creations. Organza has a beautiful sheen to it and is transparent and it comes in a large variety of colours. I thought these bags would be perfect for this experiment.

This was my first attempt and I like the effect.

After experimenting some more, I ended up making some
fabric cards out of them. This one has a watery feel to it.

This one could be used for Valentine's Day

I was happy with the result of the experiment and so I will try to use this technique in different ways in the future. Perhaps I'll use it in a larger piece of work sometime.

Painting Donations

Every once in a while I paint something that is donated to a good cause. This week we had a Golf Tournament in support of our local Christian School. The tournament always also has a silent auction during the dinner. So for the last couple of weeks, along with the other stuff I was working on, I was also painting something to place in the silent auction.
I decided it should be a piece that would evoke happy memories of summertime in Northern Ontario. So I painted a scene from photographs I took last year when I was in the Georgian Bay area of the Thirty Thousand Islands. It is an acrylic painting on canvas.

Laying down shapes and basic colours

Putting some detail into the water and rocks

Putting some colour into the trees

I added seagulls to give it some life but removed the bird
that was flying in front of the rocks because it wasn't reading
correctly and was a bit of a distraction

When the painting was almost done I sent a copy of it to my daughter to ask for some feedback. Often when I've been working on something for some length of time, I can't be discerning and I need another pair of eyes to look at it. Luckily she was honest enough to tell me the bird in front of the rock didn't look right. So I removed it. She was right, it looks much better with out it.

 

 

 As promised here are a few photos of the progress on my commissioned painting. So far I have just been laying in colour to establish a sense of place and determine where I want my lights and darks.

 

 

Due to the busyness of the time of year for me, I haven't been able to keep up my daily sketches but I did do two more this week. I think I'll give the daily sketches a rest for the month of June.

 

Draw a pitcher or jug

Draw something from a pet's perspective

 

 

Commissioned and Daily Drawings

For an artist, there is nothing as affirming as being commissioned. This means the artist is asked to create something for someone. I have been commissioned twice in the last few weeks.

One commission is for one of my baby portraits. I thoroughly enjoy doing these portraits, which are done totally in graphite on paper. I have done several of these for family members but have now also been asked to do them to be given to people I've never met. Quite affirming.

The other commission is one that will be done from various photographs of someone's cottage property. This one will be a challenge because most of my landscapes are freeform trees, rocks and water but this has a building in it and that means straight lines and precision.
I have already done a few sketches of the property from different angles and sent them to my "commissioner" to view and choose which setup they prefer and get an idea of what aspects they would like in the final painting. Do they just want the cottage with little of the surrounding trees in it? Do they want the view from the back of the cottage so you can also see the lake? Do they want mainly the surroundings depicted? Together we decided on a view from the lake towards the cottage property.

 

Above are the rough sketches made to get a feel of the composition and values. We decided to go with the second view adding the lake in the foreground and a few other details. This will be set in the summer time so there will be a  lot of green surrounding the cottage.

This is the preliminary sketch on canvas. The sketch is done
with watercolour pencil which is my habit so that it will
disappear as I paint. I can already see certain details that I
will have to alter a bit.

I will keep you posted on the progress of this painting so check in next Thursday.

Below are the daily drawings I've done this week:

Draw a summer joy

Draw something that makes you laugh.
It's not a great likeness but can you guess who?

Draw a tote bag

Draw a screw

Draw something sticky

I'm a little behind in my drawings so I'll have to catch up today. Enjoy!

A Drawing Each Day

In the last little while I have been exploring other artist's blogs and I came across one of an artist who draws everyday. She directed me to a blog called Every Day Matters which is a blog about drawing daily. The title of the blog is a play on words meaning "the matters of every day". This is evidenced in the types of drawings that are done every day. The drawings are of normal every day things. However, when I first read the title I thought it meant that every day should matter which got me thinking about how we can make every day matter. Often we go through life routinely, not thinking much about the day. One way to make each day matter is to do something unexpectedly nice for someone else even if it is a small thing. Another would be to encourage those you meet with a smile or a note or saying something nice to them. Every day is a gift and we should make the most of each one.
Back to art. I was intrigued that someone could find time every day to draw something and I always have a hard time thinking of something to draw when I have time. On this blog there is a list of things already made up and I also found a list of "things to draw in May 2013". Although it is more than half way through May, I thought I would challenge myself to draw everyday following the list. So far so good. Below are the drawings I've done so far.

Draw something that belongs to someone else

Draw your favourite drink

Draw the last thing you bought

Draw a map

I'm going to try to keep the "draw a day" up until the end of May. If it goes well, I'll continue into June and I will also try to make every day matter.

Pen Pal Painting Challenge and Great Weather

I always hesitate to take on projects that have deadlines. Deadlines stress me out and I'm paranoid that I will not have the work ready on time. I know that this fear is unfounded because I always try to get things done way ahead of time. By nature, I am not a procrastinator. My philosophy is if I get it done right away, it's not taking up precious space in my head.

So as you might imagine, I'm already finished my Pen Pal Painting Challenge which isn't due until August. I pondered what I could paint on such a small canvas. I don't have paint brushes small enough to paint a landscape on it so I went with my idea of insects figuring they were small enough to fit onto this tiny space. I decided I wouldn't paint the whole thing but I would do a collage with various media. The canvas was roughly painted brown. I had just finished a small cross-stitch of a butterfly and I wanted to use that image. As I thought of the butterfly and it's life cycle the word transform came to me. There are many Bible verses that talk about transforming ourselves. And we know that through our whole lives God is transforming us through the Holy Spirit. It made me think about the anger, hatred and violence that we read about in the news each day and how only God can change hearts and how much we need that today.

My piece became about metamorphosis; how the caterpillar changes to become a beautiful butterfly.

I collaged a drawing of a caterpillar I had done and the cross-stitch on to the painted canvas. Then, using a which gel pen, I wrote metamorphosis on the front and "change for better" and "transform" on the sides of the canvas. I draped a blue organza fabric across it to signify the silk cocoon inside which all this transformation takes place and pulled a piece of stitched suede across that. To finish, I glued a cardboard flower on the front. I'm hoping that the artist who receives my canvas will embrace it's message.

Today the weather is fantastic and I just couldn't bear to spend it in my basement studio so I carted all my supplies and my easel upstairs and out the back door on to my deck. How inspiring it was to paint outside. My grandson spent a couple of hours with me and we painted together out there.  It was a wonderful time for us both.

This is my grandson's art. I think they are wonderful! Expressive and colourful! He took one home to show daddy and I kept the other.