Artful Thinking

Anticipation

The first iris blooms are swelling and preparing to open.  It fills me with such a sweet sense of anticipation when the garden reaches this stage every year.  I don't know about you, but when spring truly arrives I always experience a renewed sense of purpose and vitality.  Each morning I walk the garden checking on the progress of the buds.  One day soon I'll open the back door and the color will be there greeting me.  I can't wait!

Potential...

I'm forever collecting seed pods.  What ever started me on this journey I cannot say.   An implied "possibility" is there when you look at the pods in their various states.  In the beginning they are just forming, tiny, tight and holding on to their potential.  As they begin to break open it is as if they are filled with anticipation, anxious to greet what may be ahead.  When they open and the seeds are still within, full and round and heady with life, the ripeness of it all is intoxicating.  So much potential and so many opportunities.  Even when the pod lies spent, empty of its contents, I am fascinated.  Just the pod alone speaks to a job well done, a beautiful vessel for the potential it carried.

As you begin each composition, think of it in terms of the life cycle of the seed pod.  An idea forms tight and unformed.  With nurturing it will ripen and reveal itself to you.  Keep developing it and it will burst forth and complete itself.  The pod that remains is your emblem of completion.  A job well done.

What inspires you?

Turning images inside out...

Playing with images in a photo-editing program like Be Funky really let's you see things from many perspectives.  It is really helpful to imagine a photograph in another set of colors,  broken up and put back together,  or reduced to lines.  Don't be afraid to give these programs a try.  I went looking for a program after I learned that one of my favorite sites, picnik.com was being discontinued after being consumed by Google.  What a disappointment that was.  Some of the features are being added to Picasa, but it's not the same.  So I'm experimenting with others.  Give them a try for yourself! 

Bursting out all over

I'm back in a "do-over" frame of mind.  I'm pulling pieces off the wall and taking them back into the studio for a few days of R & R.  I'm so happy with this lively and fun piece that I may not ever take it back for a do over!  Just goes to show, the more layers the better the piece.  No matter what is going on now, things can always get better.  Good advice for art, good advice for life!  Big plans brewing.  Sending some pieces off to a gallery, planning a workshop in West Virginia for September.  Gearing up to finish the final leg of the book.  Congrats to Julie Prichard for her work featured in Seth Apter's new book.  Read all about it here on his blog.  I've been working with Julie very closely these past couple of years and she is a powerhouse.  Watch out world, here she comes!

Experimentation: Unlocking the key to your artistic self

When I first finished my training with Golden Artist Colors I was so overwhelmed by the number of products and the amount of information that I had to absorb.  I knew if I was ever going to be able to share things with others I really had to know what I was talking about.  The boxes of product arrived and I began to play and experiment.  I quickly learned that I had to lose the fear of making a mistake and go ahead and try whatever came to mind.  Not long after I had the opportunity to write my first book, ALTERED SURFACES which was the result of putting  all that experimentation and fancy technical information through the seive of my mind and sharing it on paper.  I found that people responded to technical information if you could translate it into useful language.  Since that time there have been two more books, my online partnership with Julie Prichard and another book in the works, along with hundreds of students in workshops. I love teaching and am always looking for the opportunity to share what I know with others, especially the part about experimenting.  Never be afraid to try something different it may lead you to your true artistic self!

Nuance

When I bought this house a wonderful old gentle man was tending its garden.  For years, each Tuesday we would take a few moments to visit and over time I learned of his long life, his family and his point of view.  He had been born to parents who crossed the US-Mexican border long before this act became illegal.  He told me that all his parents did to legally enter the US was put a dime into a bucket.  Santos shared stories of Pasadena that most history books don't record.  Living in restricted housing, playing baseball with the late great Jackie Robinson when he was a kid, fighting in the war as part of the "other" soldiers.  But he was not bitter at all.  He reflected a positive point of view always.  In the last few years Santos lost his sight and could no longer tend the garden.  He had trained his crew to carry on and when he could no longer help he gave his crew the business.  Santos saw the nuances in every plant in the garden.  He knew when something needed iron and he recognized when a fruit tree was being strangled by a stray root.  He was my friend and I will miss him.  Rest in Peace, Santos.

Plein Air in the sunshine with Golden's OPEN Acrylics

I spent the morning yesterday at a Plein Air event at the Riverside Art Museum.  The artists were gearing up for their annual "paint-out" and I manned a table demonstrating Golden's OPEN acrylics.  This was a true test of the extended working time in outdoor conditions  as the table was set up in the brilliant morning sunlight and there was a brisk breeze all day. We started out cool but by early afternoon it was distinctly warm!   For 3 1/2 hours we painted and explored how versatile and workable the paint is.  The artists were amazed and created little landscape gems right in front of me.  I love spontaneous painting so I played for a bit myself while chatting with the other artists.  My landscapes are a bit more creative than the traditional type but the colors are fabulous!  If you haven't jumped onto the OPEN Acrylics bandwagon, you should give it a try! Layer Love V.2.0 is an online Class that I teach with Julie Prichard on her network.  It will give you a great intro to OPEN and its many possibilities.  You'll just need to take your laptop outside if you want to learn it plein air!

Signs of spring...

The flowering plum burst into bloom this past week.  It is a riot of  bright pink flowers and is always a signal that the earth is getting warmed up.  Not that SoCal has had any winter to speak of, but it has been resting.  I took a few personal days this week and it was nice.  Went into the desert where the mountains were lavender and gray and the sunsets were magnificent oranges and fuschia.  I'm prepping for some classes coming up and today I made this little layered collage using hand cut stamps and OPEN acrylics.  I love cutting the stamps and then playing with them! 

Just a little color to think about...

 

Enjoy!

Mixing the old with the new

I spent last weekend at Venus Art Studios and Supply in Palm Desert, CA.  The desert in winter is glorious. Each time I visit I think to myself, I could live here.  There is an energy there that is contagious and I so enjoy the artists I meet.  I taught for two days straight and it felt like I was amongst friends the whole time.  There is nothing more exciting for me than to be with other artists and see the ideas literally fly from one person to the next as the enthusiasm mounts throughout the day.  We revisited collage in a contemporary way and in this piece which started as a sample board for techniques the ending was a faux encaustic.  Whenever I can capture a tecnique or a look from another medium and translate it into acrylic products I am happy.  I'm on the road again this week, in fact, a lot of the month ahead, so I'll touch base as I can.