My new website and being published

I invite you to take a look at my new website and help me celebrate in being included in the new publication Encaustic Revelations by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. There are many topics discussed in this book and my contribution focuses on keeping your palette simple for control on color mixing and creating a cohesive color palette, and on the use of Hot Tools by Enkaustikos.
It is exciting to be a part of the ever growing interest in encaustic. Stay tuned for my next posting where I will discuss my approach to working with this fascinating medium.

The Value of Repetition

For reasons I will contemplate on later, and maybe it was just my nature at the time, I was never known to sketch out a scene or plan a painting. Even further from my nature was to paint the same thing twice, let alone three or four times. 

Consequently, I learned on the first and final piece, and in all it’s glory, my struggle was clear and evident. Dull, overworked and muddy washes next to clear vibrant passages, areas wiped and repainted several times not relating to areas I refused to retouch because something magical had happened. I was never quite sure how the magic happened, how I had achieved that one stroke of genius, and knew with utmost certainty I was not going to have that happy accident again. 

In art school, my instructors would encourage a few sketches to “work out” my composition. That was painful. I didn’t like the look of the marks I made, they certainly didn’t inform me the way I thought they should.  Even after I got practiced at the sketch, I didn’t seem to translate it well. Sort of like the reading of a book and then watching the movie. Pencil to paint were too different for me to bridge. I just wanted to paint, or more to the point, wanted to paint better than I was. Fixed on the goal and not the process. 

I’m fortunate to have had tremendous teachers in my life, and I suppose there is always that one teacher that actually makes you stand in your own shoes. For me, I’ve been fortunate to have had a few, but for the sake of this story I want to bring up a day in Peter Zallinger’s portrait class. I was starting to feel a little competent with the portrait I was painting at the time, when Peter came to me and remarked that my portrait was coming along really well. That felt amazing. Then, he said in a matter of fact way, “too bad the ear is in the wrong place”. To that I inquired in horror, what am I to do?  Wipe it off and paint it where it belongs, was his once again, matter of fact reply. 

I know I’m sounding juvenile right now, but I honestly didn’t think I could repaint that ear as well as I had done the first time, let alone move the whole thing on what at this point was what I considered close to being a finished painting. Actually, I was lacking confidence that the happy accident would happen again, but I did wipe it off, and I painted it again. Unfortunately, in the same place, so I had to repaint it a third time. What I learned from that experience was way more than how to repaint an ear or anything else for that matter. I learned the importance and the benefits of repeating something over and over again until I have a solid understanding of what it is I am repeating, because in that repetition, I am learning what is most important. I am learning the basics, the root, the fundamental core, muscle memory, and my own alphabet, the uniqueness of seeing through these eyes. 

As it turns out after years having passed, I can look at that painting and say all the areas where I thought I nailed it, are not so holy to me now. Really, all I see is the ear and the story behind it. Thank you Peter, for that gift. 

I have chosen these images for this journal entry because this is a place that I have painted many times and hope to paint many more. In it’s simplicity, there is so much to discover about the actual place, the materials I use, and about how I see things. Each time I paint this scene, a little more of that magic seems to show up. 

Pink Field
Pastel

The Grassy Field
Pastel

Linwood Meadow, Orange Field
Pastel

Art is a Language

Ever since the new year began I seem to have a tremendous drive towards getting organized. Thankfully, I have Isabel, my very supportive daughter who is willing to help me with this daunting, but at this point exhilarating project. I would say that I border on being prolific in my art making only because I have discarded so few things over the decades, and this includes anything from a sketch on note paper to a finished piece framed and on the wall. 

I have enjoyed being able to talk with her about when and where I painted this and that. It is nice to share art with another person, even when it is your own art, and maybe particularly when it is your own and with someone who means so much to me. 

It is also a pretty neat thing to look at how my personal art language has all these tangents and yet there seems to be a sliver of connectedness from the first “real” pieces I did and the ones I am working on at this present time. 

I’ve not been one to step out onto the diving board and show off my stuff, but 2014 finds me being a little more open and I’m looking forward to this venture. So, again with the help of Isabel, I’m starting this blog. 

Art is a language that I want to know and when my own art starts talking to me, I know it is not just me creating anymore. 

Here are two pieces that I painted several years ago using oil and cold wax. These represent to me a time when I got out of my own way to paint something purely for my own self. I understood the language I spoke that day. 

Genesee Brewery I

Oil and Cold Wax

Genesee Brewery II

Oil and Cold Wax