The first is capturing the colors as a background for a later work.  My current thoughts are to combine the New England landscape colors with a tropical element.  I have a few ideas for this, but experimenting is ahead.

At [...]]]> As I’ve been painting this week, I can see my sketches moving in two directions.

The first is capturing the colors as a background for a later work.  My current thoughts are to combine the New England landscape colors with a tropical element.  I have a few ideas for this, but experimenting is ahead.

At right is one of this week’s small sketches for this dichotomy kind of work… contrast and similarities between natural elements from very different locations.

This sketch was painted in New Hampshire as the snow from the Halloween 2011 blizzard was beginning to melt.

The second sketch — also 8″ x 10″ — is a direction I’m even more enthusiastic about.  Simply, I’m realizing that it’s good to push myself into Impressionism.  By choosing scenes that I can’t possibly capture realistically, I’m rushed into conveying with color… and only color.

This sketch (at left) shows the impression of the sunset, seen through a thick cluster of trees.

Though there are limits to this, I have the feeling it’s going to take me in interesting new directions.  After a few more of these (see the last sketches I posted in my April Art 2011 post), I’m eager to work much larger and with more clearly planned designs.

Note: Until I upgrade my new computer’s Win7 system so I can use my older version of Adobe Photoshop, I’m working with Paint.net.

In general, the latter program is good enough for my online work.  Alas, it’s not great for posting my paintings with correct colors.  But… it’s good enough.  I think you can get the general idea of what I’m doing.

I’m rather pleased that, after a few months of being mostly away from my easel, I’m still in this painting mode.  I think of it as swatches of color, which form the general impression of the sunset colors I’m seeing from my living room window.

This has been a gradual process.

Since my April 2011 update, I’ve been experimenting with the boat painting I mentioned in that post.

I’m [...]]]> Once again, my non-art work has kept me very busy. I’ve almost reached the point where it can be managed without compromising my time for art.

This has been a gradual process.

Since my April 2011 update, I’ve been experimenting with the boat painting I mentioned in that post.

I’m complacent but not happy with it yet.  I photographed it this morning so you can see what it looks like at this moment.

I’m experimenting with the colors of the water, especially the ways I’m conveying depth.

In addition, I’ve just added red to the trim of the boats.  That’s what the actual boats had.  (I’m working from a photo I took when we were in Rockport, MA, a couple of summers ago.)

The painting is improving, but it still has a significant distance to cover.

This is a large painting, for me.  It’s 24″ x 30″ so, when I decide something isn’t quite working, I need to cover a lot of ground to change it.

Frankly, I like the challenge.  It keeps me focused.

When I paint, I lose all sense of time.  I’m immersed in the creative process, and the sensory experience of working with color and texture.

Much of my work with this painting has been about “thinking time.”  It’s like I park my intellectual processes to the side while I paint, and my left brain keeps turning the gears, processing whatever is on my mind.  My attention is on the painting during this process, as I sink into the colors and impressions on an intuitive level.

It’s sort of like an active form of “sleeping on it,” to sort out certain challenges.  The biggest challenge has been to understand the parallel paths I’ve been following in recent years, and the purpose that helps them converge for greater personal fulfillment.

So, that’s what’s been happening at my easel and away from it.  The upcoming month will be busy, preparing for my oldest daughter’s wedding in Florida.

I’m hoping to make time for far more painting, but… well, we’ll see what happens.

I’ve been wrestling with a lot of nostalgia and ennui this summer, and now — with many old project concluding — my energy is rebounding.  I’m looking forward to what’s next, and how I can bring more creative & artistic expression to the center stage in my life.

More details:  In April, I resolved to focus more on art, phasing out most (but not all) of what I do that’s not really art-related.  I realized that I’d accomplished most of my initial goals in that field, and throwing more time into it… well, it wasn’t returning the personal fulfillment it once did.

By distilling that work to what I most enjoy — the research and my books — I could recover more time & focus, while still finding satisfaction in that field.

Gracefully stepping back from that work… it’s taken most of my time, this summer.  There were a lot of loose ends I wanted to conclude.  To me, it was important to do it “just so,” but I’m not sure if anyone noticed.

In retrospect, I wish I’d read Steve Pavlina’s Living Congruently essay, sooner.  I have had too many plates spinning at the same time.

Following his advice to articulate a purpose, I’ve spent a couple of days this week, considering what’s important to me… what brings me such delight,  I sing in the shower (literally and figuratively).

Here’s what I’ve realized:

My life definitely focuses on people, especially those close to me.  My husband and children bring me joy, daily.  So do my friends, personal associates, clients & collectors, fans… and even the strangers I talk to when I’m in line at the grocery store.

In addition to the people in my life, here’s what lends continuity to all that I do, and what I aspire to:

• To illuminate the past for inspiration.
• To live a life of transcendent elegance and simplicity.
• To savor the ever-changing magnificence of nature.
• To share a reverence for the abundant beauty in everyday life.

That list ties together my love of travel, history and selective research, my passion for theatre, my artistic expressions in visual arts and writing, my urge to inspire others, and — last but not least — my spirituality.

So, as the agricultural year is concluding, I feel very pleased with the decisions I’ve made and where I am right now.  The paths are converging nicely, and I have a focus and confidence that was lacking.

I understand what what motivates me, and what I hope to accomplish. With this clarity, life simply makes more sense to me.

I’m smiling as I write this, and getting ready to work on this and a few other paintings in progress.

I may talk about some of these works in more detail, later.  For now, this is a catch-up post.  A long one.

I completely revised the [...]]]> It’s been awhile since I posted my recent art.  Oh, I’ve been creating art; I just haven’t had time to post it here.  It’s been a busy six weeks+.

I may talk about some of these works in more detail, later.  For now, this is a catch-up post.  A long one.

I completely revised the colors in the Anasazi scene, and that painting is now ready to ship.  I like it.

Similar to my Spalding Inn painting, this isn’t in my usual style.

However, the Anasazi painting was painted from an inspiration and some photos, while the Spalding was an exercise in a deliberately different style… more  Tomie de Paola, I guess.

I also took out a painting that I’d started a couple of years ago, featuring three boats in the water.  I’m working from a photo that I took along coastal Maine.

Initially, the painting had a dock in it and the painting was heading in a very realistic direction.  That means it bored me out of my mind in a matter of days, so I parked the canvas in a corner in my studio.

Last month, I painted over almost all the water.  That’s how the painting looks now, at right.

It’s less than halfway completed.  For example, the boats are still just a few paint strokes.  I’ll work on them more, next.

Then, I think I want the water to have a lot of variety, but… well, I’ll see when I get to that point.

Pandorica series

I also experimented with some Pandorica paintings.  I’ve learned two big things:

1. Oil paint takes far too long to dry, when working with stencils, and…
2. Even with acrylics, this concept takes far too long to complete.

I need to do a lot more work on this painting.  Oh, it’s about 70% finished, but it needs a lot of touch-ups.

I cut the stencils myself, to get the exact level of irregularity that I wanted.  And, laying this out, I used the stencils within a bigger, circular stencil that was cut into wedges.

It was one of those things that sounded wonderfully fast & simple in my head — and terribly organized — but in reality it wasn’t fast or simple.  (However, it was very organized.)

Some of the rectangles, especially the yellow & orange-ish ones, were overpainted with interference gold. That’s a translucent, metallic paint.  Until I added that, some of the colors were far too subdued.

This painting, above on the left, will probably be the only Pandorica painting of its kind.  It’s also the only acrylic painting on this page.  It’s 16″ x 20″.

I may come up with a different approach for Pandorica-themed paintings, later, but — for now anyway — this will be a one-of-a-kind work.

Oh, I’m pleased with it, but the hours that have gone into this… wow! And, it’s not even finished yet.

Meanwhile…

Sunrises and sunsets

I’ve continued painting sunrises and sunsets as the mood strikes me.  They’ve gone through a radical change, and that fascinates me.  I’m never sure why my works turn out as they do.  It’s like they have their own energy and voice.

It wasn’t an overnight change, but close enough.

The first “different” painting was one where I did a lot more work with the light & shadows in the clouds.

That’s it on the left.  It’s 11″ x 14″, and the colors & style are very calm.

Perceptions series

The next painting after that… well, it’s not calm. I’m calling these my Perceptions series.  Each of them works with perceived color and with a very lyrical approach.

I was looking through a crop of trees, in the direction of the sunset.  The light shining through the evergreens was almost blindingly bright for awhile, and the colors of the sky were sort of all over the place… blue here, pink there, and so on.

All in all, it looked like a crazy quilt of colors peering through the tree branches.  So, that’s exactly what I painted.

It’s oil paint on 8″ x 10″ canvasboard.

A few days later, another interesting sunset caught my attention. Same crop of trees, and same crazy-quilt effect.  However, I was especially intrigued by the different shades of green.

Amid the trees, the colors seemed very yellow-green.  At the foot of them, everything was far bluer and more veridian green.

This one has such odd colors, it was particularly difficult to photograph accurately.

What really makes these paintings are the brushstrokes and thick paint.  I’m using soft, sable brushes, and they really lay the paint on in thick, juicy globs.  The whole thing is very sensual.

At right, you can see a full-sized section of the canvas, and it shows the texture of the paint I’m using.

There’s an interesting balance of urgency and serenity in these paintings.

I like them.  They’re odd, but I like them anyway.

So, last night I tried a more organized approach to these kinds of works.  (It’s a Virgo thing, I’m sure!)

The sunset was lovely, and the colors were once again all over the place.

However, that simpler & more organized approach was far too left-brained.  The painting ended up taking over an hour… for a 9″ x 12″ sketch on canvas.  So, I won’t do that again; I’ll go back to my impressionistic/urgent approach, just glopping paint here & there to mimic the wild range of colors outside my window.

(Yes, I’m still calling them “sketches” though they’re finished paintings.  I plan to use them as studies for much larger works based on the same concepts.)

So, those are my paintings for the past six weeks or so.  Not a whole lot of them, but I’m pleased with the results.

And really, I can hardly wait to see where I go with this new patchwork & perceptions approach to my work.