Using critique to improve a painting

I took this large painting to critique yesterday. I hadn't seen the painting in several months, and as soon as I looked at it with fresh eyes, I knew what was wrong. I still waited to hear what the group had to say about the piece. Pretty much what I already knew. The area of dark/dull green at the top of the painting does not read right.

So, I brushed off the pastel in the green area (outside, in the yard) and then sprayed it with water. As you see in the photo, I turned the painting upside down to preserve the parts I like and consider finished. I brought it inside to dry. Most of the tooth of the paper will be recovered and I can put in the right sky for this painting. I'm excited. At 36" x 48", it's one of the largest paintings I've ever attempted.

Countdown continues ... only 9 days to go!

For the birds

As you have gathered, I love wildlife refuges and birding. One of my all-time favorite places to go is the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Because it is close to my home, I go there often. Today the weather was changeable and the rain discouraged me from painting, but I was thrilled to go to the Refuge.

How different it is for me to go to a park where for a quarter, anyone can buy a sack of breadcrumbs and seed and the once-wild birds come close to the sack-holders in an unnatural way.

Birds in the Park

Natural caution lost

you pursue grain filled hands

lazy, survival sure

and greed

I walk among you

whispering fly north

to the Wildlife Refuge

where you can live secure and free

Ignorance is taking comfort

in captivity and bondage

calling it a good life.

Fresh

8 x 8, BFK

A sun break lured me from my preparations to the wildlife refuge. Today it was all about the sky and I simplified the land mass. Now it's back to overcast with no blue holes for light to flood the landscape, but the moments are etched forever in my memory.

Countdown ... 13!

Countdowns are exciting! I have entered a countdown of my own and I feel the same giddiness that I remember feeling when I watched space-bound launches on television. When things all go right, everyone cheered and wept and whooped and celebrated. Sometimes, as with the Space Shuttle Challenger, things went wrong and we shook our heads and wept and wondered and watched again and again and again...

Right now, in my countdown, preparation is key. I'm trying not to be overwhelmed, only take on one thing at a time, and get things ready so that when we get down to single digit numbers, I'm ready. There is much more to do, but I've made a start, as you can see!

There's a fountain in my sketchbook!

My body ached from all of the lifting and packing, sorting and sifting at Dad's place. I took a walk with my sketchpad and hoped to ease some of my stress by slowing things down to sketch. Nothing fancy, but the burbling of the water and the splashes and ripples on the surface calmed me. A quick break and then back to work.

We're on our way home now and Dad is in Florida. Life is good!

The hill behind Dad's house

I made Dad cry

Today I gave my father this painting. It is of the foothills in California, like the ones that he has climbed since 1957 when he moved to the Golden State. He was a University of Illinois graduate, an engineer off to seek his fortune. And he made California his home.

I have been working with my brother and husband to pack up Dad's house. Tomorrow he will board a plane with my brother and move to Florida to live closer to my brother and his family.

And so, I told my father that I wanted him to take his beloved hill with him to Florida, where hills are hard to come by. When he saw the painting, he cried. Then he held my hand for a very long time.

Sometimes art gets to say "I love you." Today was a day like that.

Not for the timid

Talk about gestural sketches and using your imagination! These sketches were done from a moving vehicle. Admittedly, I was the passenger, but traveling at 60+mph and sketching is not for the timid. I call these quick gestures with lots of stuff made up. The bottom sketch was done at a five minute stop in a rest area.

Abbey of New Clairvaux

I have never painted a successful vineyard painting. I feel lost among the vines and unsure about how to work a composition to make it interesting. But, after touring the New Clairvaux Abbey and Vineyard, after touching the limestone blocks and admiring the Sacred Stones Gothic structure that is being reconstructed from materials that once made up a 12th century church, after listening to the monks chanting, ... I walked among the orchards and vineyards and thought I might be able to paint something next time.

For now, I am content, oddly content after this quiet day. And I wonder how it is that this 600 acre California monastery feels like France.

Road Trip

Before heading out on a trip, I try to allow time to clean up my studio. Not because I am such a "neat freak," but because I hate to come home to a mess. Okay, maybe because I am a little too neat, too.

The studio is clean and empty, almost sterile! When I return home, I will have a blank slate on which to write my new ideas.