So Cool

Right now I'm sitting at the computer and enjoying the cool air. Yes it is very humid outside but my air conditioner is keeping up with the temp and humidity inside very well. So many days it has been too hot to work but of course I have anyway. Firing up the grill on those 90 degree days, not something to look forward to but on the other hand fusing the wax was faster or it seemed so.

I just finished the accompanying painting yesterday and love it. The photographs of the apples were transferred to the encaustic surface and then I had fun doing my usual creating and destroying as I make the painting. The apple tree is right outside my apartment and I've been taking photos for a few weeks now in anticipation of doing something with them. The finished product says what I wanted to say. What more can you ask?

Art Forger

For the past three weeks I have been working on a commission for one of my favorite galleries. The assignment sounded impossible but I agree to it! A client loved two of my paintings so she decided she would take them home on approval. The next day she brought them back and requested that the artist (that would be me) create for her two paintings that were almost identical but much much larger...I'm talking about very big. The original paintings are created in a multitude of layers and frankly I don't remember how long it took me to finish them. The other stumbling block was the fact that the client mentioned a month deadline which was shorter than that by the time I got the necessary photographs of her daughters. Oh did I mention she wanted the figures to represent her daughters.

Well I did it. The paintings are finished and photographed and now are drying..oil paint of course. But I had the strangest sensation on one of the painting days that I was an art forger as I studied the originals and did my best to recreate the touch, color, and feel of those paintings. I think this may be the most complicated commission that I've ever done. I will await the client's response coming next week.

Oil in the Studio

After so many months working in encaustic I am working in oil this week. I have a request for a number of paintings large and small and have spent the week immersed in those images. It was hard to get started, very hard in fact. Unlike working in encaustic it is so fast, unbelievably fast. That's the part that I like right now. Finishing seven paintings in a week. Woohoo! Almost ready to return to the grill and torch. The one thing that I especially liked this week was the cool studio. The air conditioner actually kept up with the heat not having to fight with all the heating tools.

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Playing

I am playing tonight. Bought a new computer for our home and wow is it fun to use. Of course there is a learning curve with a new operating system but it's a piece of cake compared to our first computer, a Comodore 64. I'm sure there are many people who don't even know what that is. The most fun must be the Webcam. I'm positively giddy using that feature. Really makes me laugh. Especially creating a avatar. Always wanted one. The graphics have to be the best feature of this computer and of course I've tried all the games available.

This computer will be a breeze to use when I'm working on my website or editing photos of my artwork. Can't wait.

Paintings This Week

This morning I'm taking stock of the past week which was creatively fun and successful. I finished the last of the paintings that were started earlier in the spring and found inspiration in unexpected places. I'm not a gardener at least not for many years but since moving into the apartment where I live now I have a renewed interest in everything growing. The grounds are simply beautiful with so many flowering shrubs, flowers, and trees, including fruit trees of every variety. I enjoy without actually working to maintain them. I almost feel guilty but not really. The grounds crew is far more knowledgeable and efficient than I would be now. The studio and painting really chew up everyday very nicely. The center courtyard this year was a sea of azaleas of many varieties. I've never been a big fan of azaleas but have been converted this year.

The painting pictured here was inspired by the beautiful spring. "Essence".

New Art Start

Last evening I had to admit to myself that I am experiencing disappointment. Whenever that happens I have to reach back and find my optimism again. I also pull out a copy of "Finding Water" because Julia Cameron articulates better than I can myself what happens when you lose your optimism and how to balance yourself again to regain that very important quality which keeps me going. How else could I continue to make art?

One side of the "art business" is going very well and that is the teaching or mentoring side. I have been very blessed and grateful for the wonderful people that I work with. Yesterday a raw beginning adult student drew for two hours straight completing the exercises I gave her. Her passion to learn how to draw was a revelation to me as I don't see that kind of eagerness to start at the beginning. Seems everyone wants to start at the end. Not that I don't understand for the discipline to draw everyday is sometimes elusive.

Saturday Morning

This morning I was awake at 5:30am thinking about the paintings I want to start today. After handling a family affair for the past five years, I am now able to wake up and think only about art if I want to. What a rare and wonderful privilege. I feel so free and it has taken a while for it to happen. But finally so much imaging time! During the past week, my visualizing has really taken off and sitting on the easel in the studio is a painting that is the result of uninterrupted time to work. May I say, I am grateful.