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Summer Sketch Tour part 1

May 31, 2010 in Plein Air Painting | Permalink

Here I am on the first leg of my Summer Sketch Tour. A month or so ago we bought a Ford Transit that I call the Studiomobile Its fitted as an art studio and for a bit of crashing and relaxing on long trips. That gave us two cars, and we discovered we really didn’t use the old Saturn all that often after getting the Transit.

When my whole family decided to gather on the Sunday before Memorial Day in Connecticut to celebrate my aunts 90th birthday, that provided the basic timing for this trip.

The first day I drove 12 hours and made it deep into North Carolina. The weather was beautiful and the traffic was light so long as it was, the day was pretty enjoyable. Traffic was a little heavier as the holiday weekend approached but I made good time to Reading where I spent an enjoyable afternoon with my sister, Catherine, and her husband, Frank.

Tomorrow, well go to the festivities in Connecticut and, from there, to Vermont. While I’m in Vermont, Ill be joining the Memphremagog Arts Collaborative and I’ve brought some paintings up to exhibit. While I’m there I’ll visit my other sister, Judy, and some other relatives.

Then, I’m taking the train back. I hope to get a lot of photography done while Im doing that but at least Ill get to sit back and enjoy the scenery. Ive never taken a train before so I’m looking forward to the new experience.

Im hoping it will help me in my artistic process. Im finding that my painting process includes a lot of thinking, pondering, and planning. This often takes up four times as time much as the actual painting. This has led me to seek out rich experiences as environments for the preparatory cognition. This was a major reason to take the train back, a rich visual experience without the constant intrusion of need-to-do things.

I may add a big to this blog over the next few days, but because they may be hectic, I decided to write this now so if I’m unable to write, it can serve as a stand-along document.

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Vermont Artist Week at VSC

April 29, 2010 in Plein Air Painting | 1 comment

Bivins House

I’ve gotten all settled in at Vermont Studio Center and it’s a wonderful relaxing feeling.  I arrived yesterday and toured the facility and met some of the people.  After dinner, I was so exhausted that I went to bed about 8:30.

What a wonderful night’s sleep!

My alarm was set for seven, but only about five minutes before that I woke up naturally.

With a hearty Vermont breakfast under my belt, I’m ready to begin this wonderful experience.  It’s wonderful to be with other artists and writers, and the staff go out of their way to make it a very community oriented experience.  After only a single day, I can feel that clearly.  I think this is going to be great.

My first workshop is figure drawing, but before it starts, I plan to wander around a bit and take some pictures.

After returning from making assorted mundane purchases at Grand Union, I decided to paint outside.  It was cool this morning, but the day is warming nicely.  It promises to be a lovely day.

I’ve been thinking about the book I’ve been reading, Visual Intelligence.  Looking at things from the author’s viewpoint, I notice that I can see more things than my camera can capture, and I think that’s what for me about painting outside.

Peripheral images while not distinct are an integral part of the whole picture, so I feel surrounded and involved by the totality of the scene.

One of the reasons why I am here was to explore outside of my comfort zone, so I elected to make my first landscape a bit abstract.  The one I’m working on now is a bit more traditional but I’m drawing on a number of the value studies and putting a bit more detail in the trees.

Of course, there isn’t a lot of detail here, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.  I’m just trying to capture a sense of the place and the darks and lights.  It’s Spring here and things are just beginning to bud.

The trees largely seem grey but they also have that glowing “bud green” sparkling all over them.  To me this is the essence of Spring: just beautiful.  I hope that I can capture that in my painting.  I’m planning to make at least two attempts.  One against the sky and clouds; one against the trees.

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What a way to spend a birthday!

March 4, 2010 in Plein Air Painting | 1 comment

For the last month or so, I’ve been participating in outdoor exhibitions run by The Delray Artist’s League that are called “Artists in the Park.” Usually, it’s a fun and interesting, although particularly unprofitable, experience.  However, on my birthday, February 20th, it got a lot less fun.

Here is where I hit the street to sell my art

I was moving things from the car to my assigned display-spot when my toe was caught by the concrete stop the city had put in place to prevent cars from touching their precious sidewalk.  Because I had my hands full, the first part of my anatomy to reach the ground was my face.  Fortunately, beyond a cut lip, an enormous bruise on my cheek and a broken rib, I was relatively unharmed.

Back in my consulting days, we had the phrase “hit the street running,” this was NOT what we meant; however, it did point out with painful clarity the difference between what I was fearing, “falling flat on my face as an artist” and what had happened, simply “falling flat on my face.”  Obviously, I wasn’t able to vend that weekend, but the next weekend, I was back in my old spot, fired by a new determination.    Up to this,  it had been Sidewalk -1,  No Sales -1,  Donna -0.  It was time for me to get on the scoreboard.

It worked.  I sold a print.  A total stranger walked up, loved my work, and bought it.  The print was of one of my favorite paintings, an underwater view of a coral reef with all the delightful wildlife that is so much a part of it.  What a head trip to be recognized as an artist!

Of course, I haven’t been wasting my time.  While I sat outside of my tent painting, I have been taking careful note what people seemed to like about my work, what things were appealing to them and what my colleagues were selling.

Another thing that takes place quite a bit when I’ve vending is because my sign announces my orientation as a Remodernist Painter.  While I do have a short explanation of what this means as part of my personal display, many people come by and ask me to expand on it.  This has led me to consider creating “an elevator speech,” something that is short, compelling and memorable.

When I asked the assistance of my friends on the artists’ website RedBubble, it spawned what is called “a challenge,” wherein the contributor on a particular board engage in the cooperative effort of refining a statement to its essence.  (You can view all the responses at http://www.redbubble.com/groups/remodernist-painters/challenges )     My personal response is Remodernism is an alternative to the established High Art hegemony, known as Post-Modernism.   The movement  is a response to the distance from meaning, beauty, and emotion that Post-Modernism has traveled and favors instead the intent of the artist communicated through the spirituality or emotional impact of their work.

The other big news is that I’ve been accepted for Vermont Artists Week at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and I will be going up there the last week in April through the first week of May for an intensive week of studio work.  All of the participants live at the Studio Center and share time, space and meals.  I will have a private studio and have a chance to meet with other artists.  I’m really excited about the opportunity.

Oh, and another thing, I’ve discovered that Dunkin Donuts and I are celebrating the same number to years, not sure if that is good or not.

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Vermont musings #3

August 22, 2009 in Plein Air Painting | 1 comment

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As the end of my last week in Vermont comes to a close, I’ve been thinking of my approach and motivation as an artist and how my sketch tour has played into that.

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For example, John and I were at the Orleans Country Agricultural Fair, and it was wonderful.  I’ve never been to an event like this and I was delighted to see all the handcrafts, the prize winning vegetables and pies, and to watch the children petting and grooming horses and other livestock.  I was amazed at how inspirational the experience was for the artist in me.  I can’t wait to translate the feelings and images into paintings and share this little piece of Americana, to show others what life is like up here.

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The sketch tour, not to mention my broken ankle, has forced me into a pace, a schedule and rhythm so I have a nice schedule as to when to read, when to paint, when to study as well as ample time to practice which has just been wonderful.  I’ve painted every single day.

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I’ve found that Turner used to do a summer sketch tour every year of his life and that led to an enormous output.   I felt a great nostalgia or connection when I read that.

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The approach I’ve taken is first to master the technique while trying not being a slave to it.  When I go to paint something I want to be able to use technique as a tool and not be frustrated by my inability to do that.

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I’ve focused my attention and practice to water color techniques.  I was reminded of this fact when I recently used acrylic to create postcard for someone who has been wonderful and supportive about the new direction my life is taking.  However, despite the acrylic medium, I found myself painting with water color techniques and aiming for a watercolor feel and look.  Obviously, I couldn’t send an actual watercolor postcard because the image was unlikely to survive to its destination.

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I like to interact with the subject.  Up to now, that has largely been nature.  What I mean by “interacting” in a sense of wonderment, joy or whatever it is I feel when I see my subject.  Even the most mundane things can create this feeling.  For example, Verizon’s cell phone service is extremely spotty in this area.  To put it in their own terms, most of the time they can’t “hear me now.”  Perforce, I regularly find myself in the middle of a cornfield about a half mile from where we are staying in order to keep in touch.  But still, that cornfield is inspirational.

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Also, there are so many butterflies here.  Every time I’m sitting outside there are usually two or three.  To watch them flittering about, gives me, brush in hand, a delightful feeling.

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Once I develop that response, I try to communicate it in my painting.

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I’m still not sure how I would categorize my style.  I was quite young when the modern abstract movement was reaching its crest.  While I didn’t understand it at the time, now, with it as part of my cultural environment, I’m becoming more appreciative.

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However, My style seems largely influenced by the impressionists.  I don’t want to be a “mere recorder” as some of the post-impressionist artists criticized the earlier movement, and tried to move beyond.  I want part of myself to be part of each work.

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Part of me sees the process of creation as much like part of the scientific method, collecting data.  I feel that when I’m studying, photographing or looking at various subjects.  I’m now seeing them in a different way.  The images, even of the minutest object, have an enormity, an immenseness, that calls for a reduction, a distilling, to allow the uncovering of aspects that have been hidden by the sheer mass.

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When I synthesizing a painting and communicate my response, I feel I am summarizing the data in much the same way the report of an experiment or study has a conclusion wherein readers are invited to comment.

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In the final construction, I’m continually amazed that individuals have such different responses.  It’s gratifying to know that there is something intangible yet quite real that goes on in the process of creation.  Being part of the process is one of the major things that has drawn me to art.

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My motivation is related to my approach, responding to the subject and then communicating that response.  The entire work, both seen and unseen, evokes a very mystical and spiritual response, and that is what I’m trying to convey.

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Art of any generation is a reflection of its surroundings and culture.  I see myself as an East Coast Remodernist artist.  I try to paint in a representational manner, but in a manner that creates a spiritual feeling in the work.  These four weeks in Vermont have certainly clarified much of that for me.

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As this stay in Vermont comes to a close, I’m looking forward to the trip home during which I’ll stopping to try to capture some of the Appalachian atmosphere.

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Vermont Musings #1

August 7, 2009 in Plein Air Painting | 1 comment

Donnas Blog 80609Today, I find myself in the beautiful NorthEast Kingdom, to be specific, just outside the village of Barton in northern Vermont, looking out over the incredible horizon dominated by Jay Peak in the distance.  My broken ankle has proved a blessing in some ways.  It’s forced me to take on a more measured pace, for one thing.

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In this retreat-like setting, I have been thinking of my education as an artist. I’ve been deeply influenced by The Art Spirit by Robert Henri.  A font of inspiring philosophy and practical counsel, he advises that regardless of the quality of the school, artists’ educations are, at base, in their own hand.  Basically all education must be self-taught.

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This is deeply reassuring since so far, I’ve been largely self-taught.  I’ve read a number of books and have taken some courses at the Delray Beach Cultural Center, including basic and landscape drawing.  I found the outdoor class to be most beneficial.  One of the primary benefits was the opportunity to work with other artists and to get feedback from Ralph Papa, a fine artist and dedicated educator.

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Another book I’ve been reading is Juliette Aristide’s Classical Drawing Atelier.  She discusses the resurgence of the classical tradition of  students going into the studio of a successful artist and “learning from the hand of a master.”  However, while I find the philosophy attractive, it doesn’t seem something that I can do in the here and now.  It must have been wonderful for a Venetian youth, but I’m a married American woman.  It’s just not practical.  Taking courses or having the opportunity to be in a studio seems to be much more “do-able.”  This has led me to explore artist’s residencies.  Indeed one of the reasons for this trip was to visit the Vermont Studio Center, which is less than an hour’s drive from where we are staying.

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The Center offers four-or-more week residencies for visual artists and writers and is the largest artist-in-residence program in the country.   The founders’ original hope was for a few summer residencies, but now they host upward of 50 residents a week and 600 a year.  A single fee includes room and board in a semi-retreat-like setting with a private, 24-hour-a-day studio.  What seems most valuable to me is the opportunity to interact with the many other artists-in-residence as well as the many visiting artists.  They have a burgeoning calendar of well-known artists who give talks and consult with the students.

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When we visited the Studio Center, the experience really reverberated with me.  Both staff and temporary residents seemed very happy and relaxed and were certainly very welcoming.   We were shown some of the galleries and visited the communal dining hall.

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The Center has taken over much of what was “down-town” Johnson.  Beginning with an old mill, 25 years ago, a husband-wife team of an architect and a painter expanded through both what were private and public buildings while retaining the rural Vermont ambiance.  For example, when the town replaced the aging fire station with a newer one, the original one, underwent a renaissance as “The Fire Station Studio.”  The town just bustles with artistic energy.  Adding to this delightful atmosphere is a plethora of outside art and sculpture in almost every park and open-space.

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This was an inspiring visit for me, particularly because John and I have spoken often about escaping the boiler-room heat and humidity of Florida’s summer.  I will certainly be applying for next year’s admissions. Also because Johnson State College is nearby, I’ll be looking forward to interacting with the students and faculty there.  I hold a B.S. and an M.S. in the sciences so I’m certainly a fan of formal education and have occasionally considered an M.F.A., one of which is offered by JSC.  However, for now, The Center seems to offer just for what I’m looking.

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A lovely drive over scenic roads, wonderful welcoming people and a glimpse at an artistic heaven, a perfect day.

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