I didn’t work on my painting Monday. My hour and a half/four cart loads just wore me out. By the time I cooled off, showered, and had lunch it was mid afternoon so we sat down and watched the last episode of Outer Range and the the first episode of Fall Out, also on Amazon. Fall Out is a post apocalyptic sci-fi series. It starts out with a rich kid’s birthday party with the world on the brink of nuclear war and as they are serving the birthday cake mushroom clouds start blossoming across the landscape, then jumps to 216 years later.
I have not worked out in the yard since Monday because we’ve been having high 90s temps and it is just too damn hot even in the morning, besides Tuesday was grocery shop day and my night to fix dinner. Plus I was still contemplating the next step, how I want to add the skeletal trees in the distance, thinking I may work on the overcast part of the sky a little first so that it’s not so stark white. And adding the trees will be something that I can’t really change or fudge a bit if I don’t like what I’ve done. I did work on the sky, adding some gray tones, though it’s very subtle, and lightly penciled in the trees. Jade was here Wednesday so I only got one or two of the trees done and today I added the rest. May add more after I get the big dead branch, the main focus of the painting, put in next. The colors come out a little darker in the picture than on the actual painting.
So about painting…in my late teens and early 20s I made an attempt to become a painter because that’s what artists did, right? I had oils and acrylics, stretched my own canvasses, but it never really grabbed me. I had never taken any instruction in oils or mixing colors or shading, I wasn’t inspired, I had no skills, and I wasn’t very good and eventually gave it up altogether. I only have three paintings from that period that I kept because I like them regardless of lack of skill.
In college I took drawing, color/shape/form, ceramics, sculpture, textile design, etc., but never a painting class. I liked to draw but then I got married and had to go to work and really stopped doing art at all. After my divorce and being unemployed at the time, my nude modeling phase, I stumbled on etched and carved glass which captivated me and launched my career as an artist. It allowed me to use my drawing skills, I didn’t have to worry with color, and I could translate my drawings into a large and light filled medium. I considered myself a sculptor even though the third dimension was very shallow and then years later when we started doing the pate de verre cast glass I was working fully in three dimensions and it also forced me to deal with color.
After we retired the etched/carved glass studio I had the opportunity to take two watercolor classes from a local woman so now, nearly 50 years after I stopped any attempt at painting here is where I find myself. Perhaps if I had been introduced to watercolor back then I might have become a traditional artist, or not, who knows. I find it kind of ironic really that here at the end I’m back to a medium I rejected so long ago, not oils or acrylics, but still painting.
Life and art do seem to work that way, long dormant skills suddenly return. I'm glad you're working on painting now.
ReplyDeleteit's new and maybe I guess that's what I needed, something new.
DeleteI am very fond of watercolours and your painting seems to be coming along splendidly. I am very much looking forward to seeing it finished.
ReplyDeletedo you recognise this picture as it is developing yet?
DeleteI had a friend who was paralyzed for fear that whatever path she chose would be the wrong one. I had never considered that philosophy because to me, it seemed that we don't go down paths already laid, we make our own. Bring your machete!
ReplyDeleteI still believe that. You are living proof.
way back when I was newly divorced, had no interest in any kind of office work, floating around back living with my parents I met a self employed artisan doing whatever he could to make a living. this is the same guy who was sandblasting a crudely stenciled rose on a piece of window glass one day when I dropped in that sparked forging my own path. it wasn't just the etched glass he was doing but what he told me when I expressed admiration for his self employed self determined life. anyone can do it he said. It was like a light bulb going off in my head and when I saw him sandblasting the rose on a piece of glass (he was remodeling a bathroom for a woman who had a sliding glass door in the bathroom and she didn't want a tacky decal on it, this was back when they were new and people were walking into them, and this was a test) another light bulb went off in my head and I could see the possibilities. I grabbed that ball and ran.
DeleteI think it's cool that your art has evolved as your life as evolved, but you always find a way to express your artistic skills. We watched "Fallout" and it is a very peculiar show -- I ultimately loved it, but it's very surreal. The important thing to remember is that it's based on a video game, and that explains a lot of the weirdness.
ReplyDeleteI did spend the bulk of my life in one medium and it afforded me a self employed life but I was glad to let it go. It's fun to try something new. Fall Out is sort of like Mad Max on acid. We've seen 3, maybe 4 episodes now. I just realized that the Ghoul is the cowboy actor from the first episode.
DeleteCyndy Oliver here… Yay for finding that you like to paint! I finished school and started to do glass—but mostly because I am a bit of a crow and like sparkly things. But Glass was so expensive and when I started to make a successful business, I had started to lose interest. Painting and Drawing have always been my first love. I get in this zone or flow state much of the time that I never got into while making glass things. I love what you are doing. Welcome to the world of 2D. The ability to tell stories is endless here. 💕
ReplyDeleteI like to draw and I loved doing the carved glass because it was basically drawing and I would get in that zone you mention when I was doing the full size drawings. Fused glass never really interested me. But I did/do love the pate de verre even though I do less and less and am maybe even done, mostly because my equipment is old and barely functioning and new is expensive, not wanting to invest in a new kiln or cold work equipment at this point. But I would get in that same zone doing the model making in wax. I'm liking the watercolor a lot so maybe that's where I go from here.
DeleteYour artistic talents have shown throughout your life, Ellen, just expressed in different ways. You are so talented and I like how you are showing your process with this painting.
ReplyDeletethank you Ellen. explaining it as I go along helps me figure out what I'm doing or needs to be done.
DeleteThis just a fascinating process to watch! And yes it it interesting to think about your life trajectory to this point. I love that you're still learning, yet drawing on something you might have been if your path had been different.
ReplyDeletefor my father, artists were painters and he was a little disappointed that I chose basically a glass craft for my medium regardless of how successful I was at it. he wanted me to be a painter with shows in a gallery so he could brag about it. so now here I am testing the waters of painting and he's not around to see though I will probably never show my paintings in a gallery.
DeleteYour whole life has been about art, it seems. I like the painting and look forward to seeing what happens from here!
ReplyDeletePretty much true. I could just never see myself, had no interest in any kind of office or sales work or college career. I liked to work with my hands too much plus all those art classes I took growing up.
DeleteI quite like your watercolor. The trees so far remind me of sycamores. Do they grow in Texas?
ReplyDeletewe do have sycamores. in fact my friend gave me a volunteer sycamore sapling about 18" tall and I gave it to Pam who planted it behind her house and it's about 10' tall now.
DeleteIt's interesting how one interest can fade while another begins to emerge. For years I was so deeply involved in sailing that was all I did, read about, taught, enjoyed. Then, I moved into a boat-related occupation, and (as so often happens) turning a hobby into a business began to change my feelings about sailing. Now, I don't, and I don't regret it at all. I've found photography and casual writing, and I'm as satisfied as can be. I suppose age has something to do with it, since sailing requires physical effort, but it's more than that. I loved nature as a kid, and my mom always was trying to pull me away from it: all that dirt and all those bugs, you know. In some ways, my new immersion in nature is a bit of a return, too. It's fun, like your watercolors.
ReplyDeleteI think some of the reason our interest fades from an activity that we love is because after a while it's no longer challenging, we've done it all, learned everything there is to learn, had all the experiences over and over. I know the last 10 years of doing commission carved glass, it had become just a job and if it hadn't been my only, mostly, reliable income I might have quit sooner. so now I'm once again moving into something that challenges me and piques my interest.
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