Life interrupts...

Several years ago when I began this blog, I set a goal of posting twice a month. In the past, I sometimes met that goal... Lately, not so much. All by way of saying, "Oops...Life interrupts. It's been since mid April that I last posted."

And, life interrupting means that I haven't painted much recently. However, at a recent art league meeting we had a demonstration by a watercolor painter who does interesting things with yupo paper. Yupo is a synthetic paper...very smooth 'plastic'. Watercolor paint goes where it wants to go...sort of. The paint is not absorbed into the paper - it just sits on top.

Our demonstrator, Kathy Daywalt, took advantage of that property and covered the paper with paint. Actually she threw it around in what seemed to be a rather haphazard fashion. She let it dry and then looked at it. It's a little like looking at clouds and seeing images. Since she began as a portrait painter, she mostly 'sees' a face somewhere. She indicated that if we usually paint flowers, we would probably see flowers. If we paint birds or trees, we would see those images.

She defines her image with a watercolor crayon, wets the area with a brush and then lifts the paint with a crushed tissue. Amazing! She then uses other ways of defining and comes up with some very interesting textures and designs. see https://www.kathydaywalt.com/carousel.php?galleryID=180151

Well, anyway, it looked like fun. So I have been experimenting with yupo. What I realize is that my imagination (finding something in the 'clouds') needs work!

I brushed on and threw color at the paper.  See anything?

      

Maybe like this?

I couldn't come up with anything. So, I got out my spray bottle and played with it...creating interesting textures. I threw some more color at it. I added more texture by using a wadded up, wet paper towel and did some blotting. It still didn't look like any 'thing', but was getting more interesting. I set it aside to dry.

Eh, maybe I'll go back and visit it again. Any ideas?

I have three more that I am playing with. They are drying. Maybe I can catch up with my 2x monthly goal...

Inspiration...and then what?

I haven't been very inspired to paint lately...but then, as I was coming out of church last Sunday I looked down and saw these!

Beautiful red tulips! We usually see tulips from the side - we recognize their familiar shape. Looking down their throats gives a much different view. Maybe I would paint them like this!

I sketched out a few of these flowers.
I wanted to try to paint loosely so I began with 'wet on wet.' That is, I wet the paper and began to drop on color. A few dashes of yellow to highlight the centers and it's a mess.

Recently I have been looking at ink and watercolor sketches on line  - the line defining shapes and the color washes adding zip.  I tried adding some ink lines...

With all that messiness I could barely see the lines. I thought they needed to be more prominent. I got out my matchstick and ink and made the lines heavier. (Explanation of matchstick and ink - take a wooden matchstick, shave the end into a point and use it like a pen, dipping it into ink and draw with it. It's a heavier and uneven line - kind of interesting.)

I also added a little more color to it. I love red and blue together, but tried to go greener. It's not getting any better.

However, I carry a phrase in my head that repeats itself when I get this far in an experiment... "It's only paper!"

The next step was to just wash some of that mess off... and then I literally threw some paint at it!

Okay, so now it's really getting horrible... I put a few darks back in...

...and decided that I had played with it enough.

So, I stepped back and really looked at it. Was there anything I liked about it? Maybe that one tulip at the top on the left hand side.

SIMPLIFY!

I sketched one tulip...

I inked one tulip...

I painted one tulip...

I finished one tulip...

What I learned...sometimes I just have to get all that preliminary 'stuff' out of my system so I can paint the thing that inspired me...

An addendum: I took photos of this process to class. One suggestion was to add more darks to the original 'mess'...

It still doesn't work... I'm framing the single tulip!

From my sketchbook...

I find sketching so relaxing... Several years ago I took a two-day sketchbook workshop. One of the best 'rules' that I learned was that there is NEVER anything wrong with whatever you draw in your sketchbook. It's so OK to make 'mistakes'... actually, they are not really mistakes, Each one has taught me something.  Yeah, some of them are embarrassingly awful! But, I never rip/cut anything out of the book.

I have filled several books over the past few years. It has been fun to look back at some of the places and things I have sketched.

So, here are a few more of the sketches from this winter.

Occasionally, a friend and I sketch/paint together. Her terrace is filled with plants. One corner had several different pots. I liked the idea. This sketch is a composite of several plants that were in different places. I put them all together. My own little arrangement.

There were other plants sitting around. I did them individually.

We went out for dinner on Valentine's Day. All the women at the restaurant were given a rose. Our rental unit did not have a bud vase, so I improvised with a lovely green bottle. (It may look suspiciously like a discarded Heineken bottle...)

At the end of our trip we had a bit of a surprise. We were on our way to the airport when I received a text that our flight was cancelled! I guess there are worse things than having to stay two extra days on a lovely island rather than return to winter in Maryland!

We found a small inn near the airport. It had lots of little comfy nooks filled with plants and a lovely rooftop view of the ocean. I didn't get out my paints there...just sketched away...

Interestingly, I had a conversation with another artist today. We both commented that sketching is so freeing...  gotta do more of it!

Puerto Rico...

We have returned from our winter break in Puerto Rico. For the first year in a long time, I had no commitments - nothing that I had to do while I was there. Last year I was working on sketches for a book - was busy every afternoon.

What a blessing this year to swim every morning, relax and read... and then just sketch a bit here and there. Here are a few pages from my sketch book.

In September of 2017, the island was devastated by hurricane Maria. It was heartening to fly into San Juan and see fewer blue tarps on the rooftops. Puerto Rico will be recovering for years, but it's good to see that the vegetation is coming back. 

There was a tall palm just outside off our balcony that had been left to see if it would survive. It had some sad looking fronds hanging down. One morning as we were having breakfast, its top just fell to the ground.

Other places, the trees continue to struggle and are making it. I love seeing this new growth!

Other reflections...there is resilience about the Puerto Rican people. They are survivors and look for ways to convey this. The town of Humacao, near where we stay, now displays amazing murals on many of its buildings. To read more about this project click on this link  https://www.elegel.com/grita
We took a walking tour  - here is a quick sample of some of what we saw.

It's worth seeing in person...or at least visit one of the websites! Enjoy...

Sketches...

It's early March and it's cold and rainy. The forecast calls for a "mixed mess," (my term). I am wishing I had my lazy February back!

We are back from a very relaxing time in sunny Puerto Rico. In looking back at my blogs, I see that I haven't written anything for over a month. I really was in 'slug mode.'

I need a 'kick-start.' So, as a way of catching up, I am just going to post some random drawings from my sketchbook...with a few simple stories. 

1. "What washes up..."
This past year we have had many storms and high tides. We live on a cove of Broad Creek and have discovered lots of 'stuff' that washes up on our shorefront. One unusual thing recently was a piece of picket fencing. Actually, another piece just like the first one washed up as a result of a second storm a few weeks later. We have no idea who lost their fence. It's leaning against a tree in our yard!

2. "Charlie Boy"
My mother was born in 1906. I inherited her doll. Charlie Boy is dressed in his original clothing - a dress - looking suspiciously like a girl. A some point Charlie Boy's skull got cracked. I put a hat (that my mother had brought back from one of her trips) on him to cover the crack.

Charlie Boy sits in an antique rocker that belonged to my mother. I was told that she used to sit in it as a little girl.  There are things that we cherish - the stories handed from generation to generation.

3. "What's a Bable?" (It rhymes with table)
Last summer we had our dock replaced. It had been repaired several times over the years and it was now time for major work. The old dock had a bench that we used a lot when the grandchildren came and we went crabbing and fishing. That would need to be replaced also.

When we talked to the dock guys, they gave us a price to replace the bench. What they proposed was pricey and much more elaborate than we thought we needed. They would have scrap lumber left over. We would make our new bench from the leftovers.

Much measuring, sawing, hole drilling and screwing it together... voila, we had a new bench. Well, sort of. We discovered it was really tall - more like a table. Thus, we are calling it our "Bable."

4. "Candycorn Candle"
I friend gifted us with a bag of goodies for Halloween. Among the goodies was a candle in the shape of a candycorn. I loved these candies as a kid! It was fun watching the candle burn.

The un-ugly hat

Last fall my dermatologist discovered a suspicious, small lump on my forehead. A biopsy confirmed basal cell carcinoma and two surgeries later, I seem to be in good shape. However, it means I need to be sure to wear a hat when I am to be in the sun,

I have a much loved floppy hat that I have worn for years - however, it is so old and floppy that it's sometimes difficult to see out from under it. That won't do. There are lots of baseball type hats around our house...maybe one of them.

I rediscovered one that I had had for years (I have a photograph of a granddaughter wearing it when she was 2 - she is now 19).

I never really liked that hat. It was so plain white and had a very large bill. At this point, not liking it is not the issue. Wearing it is... Ugh!

So, I had this idea that I have nothing to lose...why not decorate the hat? I did some pencil sketches on the hat and then got out some permanent ink pens.

The only paints I had available at the time were watercolors, but what the heck...give it a try!

So far, so good...

Voila, the once ugly hat is now 'un-ugly.'  If anyone has any ideas about how to make the colors more permanent, I'd be happy to hear them!

It's almost banner time again...

Since 2010 the St Michaels Art League has sponsored an annual banner program. Members paint something relating to the theme "Celebrate St. Michaels" and the banners are hung along our main street from April - November. (For more on the history of this program see last years's January blog "Newest Member of SMAL.")

I have painted a playful crab almost every year - a friend named him "Mikey" since he is a St. Michaels crab. It's an annual challenge for me to decide what Mikey is up to each year. I began thinking about Mikey last summer as I watched our main street fill with tourists - all shopping in the quaint stores in our village. Thinking that many of the shoppers are women, I decided that Mikey needed a shopping friend.

This year I am introducing 'Michaela.'

Keeping with the theme of celebrating our town...I thought of all the events that are offered throughout the year: the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Daffodil Festival, Wine Festival, ArtHunt with its ice cream treats, Fall into St Michaels and Christmas in St Michaels.

Michaela would have her hands full of shopping bags!

I did a quick sketch and played with different size bags.

This was the basic idea...a happy shopper.
Then I started to obsess about the bags...size, color, logo...

I just painted the hat on this one and then tried various bags...

OK, why even paint the hat? Just need to try bags... (although, I did have fun painting the ribbon) Several tries later...

Getting closer to what I want although that purple bag is pretty bad and that Halloween bag needs some work, too!

Now the thing is...I had painted this so many times (probably 8 or 9) that I am not sure if this next one is the final one! I had so many on my computer... and I have already turned over the final version to a friend so I don't even have it to see which one it was!

Is this the final answer? The original artwork will be on display at the library in St. Michaels for the month of April and the banners will be hung on the poles along Talbot Street by mid-April. Hope I'm not too surprised!