Summer Song

Summer Song, 8x8 oil on canvas.  www.studio54gallery.com

Ahhh, the fleeting days of summer.  Here in the PNW we have been experiencing a few previews of fall.  A little misty, a few short showers, a hazy day.  Currently, as I look out my window, I see a spot of cerulean blue surrounded by wispy strokes of warm grey with dabs of lemon yellow atop.  It's all good.  Change is good.  I probably wouldn't appreciate summer so much if it were here all the time.

I promised myself I would get a portfolio of landscape photos this summer so I would have much to keep me busy this winter in the event I wanted to branch out from my still life.  Unless I get out soon my photos will be lack luster in that they will be lacking luster.  No sunshine, no strong lights against deep shadows.  No heat.  Oh well, I did go to Jackson, WY this summer and got plenty of photos there.  I also got a little plein air in this summer and so have some studies to work with.  All that is in the event I migrate to landscape. 

I have migrated somewhat but not to landscape.  I took a workshop with Michael Maczuga on portraits.  Whatever possessed me to do that???  I can only say that I am mesmerized by his work and wanted to get inside his head if at all possible and see how it ticks in there.  Following the workshop I immediately ordered the Asaro Head and went to work.  So far, I am not a portrait artist.  :(    But I haven't given up.  I did, however, learn a bit from Mr. Maczuga and how he thinks.  One has to be tuned in to pick up subtle clues about the inner workings of others.  It's the inner workings that translate to the canvas, right?  We paint our character - so to speak. 

Okay, enough about that.  With the exit of summer comes the re-entry of Routine, my long time friend.  Routine and I go way back.  We indulge in each other and melt into the studio while the leaves drop and the wind blows.  Just me and Routine.  We have long winters here in the PNW but they are survivable by and large. 

Perhaps I'll squeeze in a trip to Arizona again.  :)

Summer Heat

Summer Heat, 8x8 oil on canvas.  www.studio54gallery.com

I started painting pansies last winter from a photo.  My initial impression was how difficult flowers were going to be compared to my many foodie subjects.  The reality is, it's all the same in that I approach it the same way one would eat an elephant:  One bite at a time!   Rather, one petal at a time. :) 

I became hooked on pansies and did several studies but was limited to the one and only photo I had and superimposed pansy faces to meet my paintings needs as necessary.  Frustrated because no fresh pansies were available at the time.  I waited.. 

Once pansies hit the shelves I purchased several colors and took many (MANY) photos for my next winter paintings.  Finally, I could set up my pansies in my light box and begin painting from life!  Glorious, glorious painting from life!  Woo hoo!

Boy-- did I have a lot to learn about pansies.  Apparently a COOL weather flower, mine didn't last long because once I was done with one painting I set it in the sun to "flourish".  It got leggy and awful.  So I hit the stores once again only to fine out that they are sold out for the summer and wont receive anymore until Fall.  So I wait again... 

Fortunately, I still have my leggy, awful leftovers (now in a cooler locale) and I can set them up in my light box.  And because I'm an artist, ;)   I can enhance them from leggy to squat and from scraggly to abundant.  I can push them and pull them and prop them and you, the viewer, will never know the difference, unless I tell you.  So this is my little secret. 

Don't tell anyone.

Pansies and Tall Creamer

Pansies and Tall Creamer, 6x6 oil on canvas.

It's been quite some time since my last post and for that I apologize.  It's been a bit of a whirlwind around here and I guess my blog took second fiddle to other projects. 

The good news is, I signed a contract with the Cole Gallery in Edmonds WA (my page)!  That was back in March and had my first sale March 30th!  I had my first show (April First Glance Artist) in April and sold 3 more paintings in May!

I've been very busy in the studio and I'm learning to enjoy the whole process of being a gallery artist from finding, growing and purchasing props, developing compositions and self critique to choosing and framing the pieces - a process I used to despise, art shows, art walks, meeting other artists, the list goes on..  The very best part is that the gallery does the marketing.  I get to focus on the creative stuff and I'm really enjoying that. 

They are really good people there and the city of Edmonds is unique to me.  It's artsy.  There are several galleries and an Art Walk every month on the third Thursday.  And it's packed!  Even in April when it was cold and rainy.  People just kept coming in.  Of course Denise, the owner, caters it beautifully and rehangs a new show every month for a fresh visual treat. 

I am in a really good place these days and I think I'm just going to enjoy the ride.  I can hardly believe my art is hanging next to some world class artists like Michael Maczuga and Ilene Gienger-Stanfield!

And on that note, I signed up for a workshop with Michael Maczuga in August.  I'm excited/nervous about it.  I am in such awe of his work.  I hope I can absorb something, anything, from the experience and walk away a little better painter!

Gerbera Daisies, 20x16, oil on canvas.
This dramatic still life was one of the larger works holding up my regular postings of my smaller, 6x6 paintings.  I did most of this painting from a photo and had to manipulate the light a bit in order to put "my spin" on it. 

Thinking a painting through before the brush touches the canvas is becoming a regular part of my repertoire.  You'll find me alone in my studio, sitting my my chair, often without the radio playing, simply looking at my props and/or photos considering possible outcomes.  What do I want from this painting?  How can I play it?  And the big question:  How much Transparent Oxide Red do I have left??? 

Amber Jar

Amber Jar, 6x6, oil on canvas.   Click here to bid.

I'm falling a little behind on my daily paintings due to working on larger projects.  This painting was done using a little jar I bought in Sedona. I cant get away from this color combo:  Transparent Oxide Red/ Prussian Blue.  I guess there is a richness to them that just draws me in.

Pansies and Tin

Pansies & Tin, 16x12 oil on canvas

This recent painting taught me the value of color temperature.  The background was done with prussian blue and transparent oxide red (my two favs).  My first foreground was a cool mix and very light.  I scraped and explored several options until I landed on this one.  Eureka! My intention was to bring attention to the foreground.  BAM!  There she is!  So in fact, the placement of warm and cool colors can play significant roles if you think them through.
To bad I dont use blue in my house...

Candle Snuffer oil Painting

Candle Snuffer, 6x6 oil on canvas.  Click here to bid

Saturdays show at the Auburn Wine and Caviar Company was a good experience and exhausting.  It was so helpful to have so many familiar faces show up for support!  A big fat "thank you!" to all of you who were able to attend!

 This week I'm back to a somewhat normal schedule and I'm looking forward to hiding out in my studio.  I want to continue my quest for capturing space and atmosphere on a small canvas.

Forkful of Blueberries oil painting

Forkful, 6x6, oil on canvas. Click here to bid

I am HAPPY to announce that I will be having a show at the  Auburn Wine and Caviar Company!
I will be there from 4-8 PM Saturday, Jan 26th 2012.  Wish me luck.  I had in my mind a spring show which would give me plenty of time to prepare but the owner surprised us (my husband and I) with this slot. How could we say no??
This will be a new experience for me but I was told this winery has done this before.

As usual, I've let my paintings sit unframed and so had to order several at once and I'm crossing my fingers that they arrive in time.  If not, well, it is what it is, right?  My 6x6's do very well on a table top easel and I can always go that route.  And may have to anyway because I dont think there will be a whole lot of wall space to hang framed paintings.

I think my lesson so far is to always be prepared for a show.  You never know when the opportunity may spring its self on you!

Black Seedless

Black Seedless, 6x6 oil on canvas.  click to bid

I've recently come to the conclusion that after several years of searching I now believe I know who a I am as a painter!  That is, I know what I connect with, what I gravitate to, what I know and most importantly, what I want out of a painting.

I remember the days when I painted anything at all that I could find to paint because I wanted to paint something!  Just get that brush wet!  I still get that way but now I find myself traveling down a frequently traveled road painting much the same way, similar subjects with quite possibly similar messages - whatever that is.   And I'm grateful for that.

I believe this is due to daily research through books, magazines (Southwest Art is a great one), internet and the occasional trips to galleries and museums.  Looking at a lot of really good art and finding myself somewhere in the mix. 

I highly recommend that anyone wanting to become a better anything to immerse themselves and focus on their interest rather than spread themselves over a variety of activities.  Remember the saying,  "A Jack of all trades and a master of none" ?

Well, it may be some time before I master this trade but I've come a long way and now I can finally see where I'm going!

Apple 1

Apple 1, 6x6 oil on canvas.  Click to bid.

Whew!  I dont know about you but the holidays can sometimes feel a bit like a marathon at times!  I'm feeling like I just finished a race and I'm back in the locker room for decompression.  :)

I am putting the finishing touches on a painting I am doing for a Daniel Edmondson online painting workshop and will post it soon.  I have only taken 3 workshops (two of them were out of state and this one being online) and one of the biggest lessons I've learned is that painting is like handwriting.  We paint like we paint.  We can learn a great deal of helpful technical information to get us past difficulties but at the end of the day and away from the instructor, my paintings are a Lori Twiggs.  I see what I see and translate it as such.  That said, I'm learning how to use warm and cool colors to their advantage, light and shadow, hard and soft edges, composition...  and so forth.  I refer to my notes periodically for refreshers.  But, it's still a Lori Twiggs.  Fortunately, I'm okay with that.

The lesson now is being completely satisfied with NOT being Richard Schmid, David Leffel and a myriad of other high level painters that I've studied.  BUT I have learned a great deal from them and by comparing some of my earlier works to my more recent works, I believe I've been able to apply much of what I've learned and enhanced, albeit  improved, my painting.  See examples below:

The differences being a better use of all of the a fore mentioned issues.  At first glance the biggest differences I see here are composition (spacial), warms vs. cools and edge control.   I wonder if, in a couple of years, I'll be using my 'More Recent' painting here as an example of my 'Early Stuff'  that I will have then learned and grown from.   But until then I will continue to read my books and magazines, watch my DVD's and attend a workshop or two then wander to my studio for practical application.  I suppose only time will tell.

Pear 2

Pear 2,  6x6 oil on canvas.  Click here to bid

I lied.  Here is the third painting up for grabs.  I decided not to wait until after the holidays (as I mentioned in my last post) to post again.  So here is number 3 of the 4 shown below:

 

The top apple is also currently being auctioned.  

I've become a serial painting killer in my studio.  Lately, I find myself picking up 'finished' paintings to re-work or make changes just for the heck of it.  Just yesterday, I had a cute little painting but I just couldnt leave it alone.  I wonder what would happen if I took out the green leaf and put in red grapes??  Well, you dont know if you dont try, right?  And so it goes.  More on that later...    :)

Apple 2 Auction

Apple 2, 6x6 oil on canvas.  click here to bid

Second painting up for grabs, so to speak.  I think I will wait until after Christmas to post the others.  I dont know about you but get a little taxed about now with the upcoming holidays. 

Black Grapes

Black Grapes 10x8, oil on canvas.

Now I have a dilemma.  I wanted to begin posting my paintings to the Daily Paintworks auctions as I finish them but I'm back logged ...  and it's the Christmas season.  Both are good things but experience tells me not to start an auction that will end on a holiday - or the Super Bowl Game.  Yeah, I didnt really think that through last year.   :(

At any rate, this painting was an attempt to paint a little more atmospheric than I usually do.  I think the image may be a bit darker than the painting.  For future paintings I think I will just sit and look at the set up for a while and work out the problems BEFORE dipping into paint!

Pear Auction

Pear 1, 6x6 oil on canvas.  Click here to bid in DailyPaintworks Auction!

I'm back from my workshop and I'm back in the game! After a several month sabbatical following my mothers passing I have regrouped and I'm re-directed!  I'm back in the auction game but this time around I'm not starting at one cent or one dollar.  I've upped the starting bid to $29 and I'm hoping for the best.

I also have a few other plans for 2013 simmering on the back burner that I am excited about.  It appears that the new theme for 2013 is taking risks!  I have a solo show in the works but no details to share at the moment.   But I can say that I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and taking a leap of faith! 

The workshop I attended was with Qiang Huang in Sedona AZ.  It was an amazing experience. He was organized, informative and very approachable and a bit of a comedian!  I'm really looking forward to getting into my studio tomorrow to begin applying my new found knowledge!  Thank you Qiang!

Apple Pear Quad, 4 6x6's oil on canvas.
So I had this idea.  Do something small.  Something easy.  Something with instant gratification.  Well, I got the small part right.  It started with a single pear on a 6x6.  But in truth, nothing is ever easy.  If it were I would get horribly bored, almost immediately, and go eat soup.

My last painting, which I refuse to post online, was a good idea in the beginning but grew into the incredible Hulk.  I got lost in the zone and my pears grew to abnormally large proportions and thus the whole painting took on an Amazon, grotesque, disfigurement.  So I thought, lets start over. This time in baby steps.  And thus, my little quad.

My newest epiphany:  never go larger than life. :(

The easy part got lost in translation.  Sure, it's just a pear.  But it's a pear with several colorations each in light and shadow.  Meaning each coloration must have a light, shadow, and varying degrees of each in order to produce the orbital or pearish shape.  The leaves I veered from reality and pushed the color from blue-greens towards orange-green.  And then I set it all back, hopefully giving it some depth on a little 6x6, by using a darker version of the foreground in the background. 

Then the small part was sacrificed when I decided to do a tiny series.  Yikes.  One of the apples originally had apple blossoms which were executed beautifully but looked horrible in context so I scraped and re-painted.  Thus, the instant gratification was sacrificed altogether.

So my idea morphed.   Happily, into a better idea!  :)

Oh well, so much for that.  Now I have another idea...

Another Geranium Painting

Red Geraniums 2.

Last Geranium painting, I promise... maybe.  I'm preparing for my workshop by painting hot and dirty all week.  Something I should be doing every week but continually found myself distracted by errands and tasks that, for whatever reason, came first.  Not so this week though.  I'm out in the studio early and take few breaks.

I had a goal. Have a goal.  My goal is to have a goal.  That is, I've allowed myself to tread water until the end of Dec but by the end of Dec I will have a plan.  I have several pots simmering on the stove but only for a little while longer.  Then I will have to choose one and go with it. 

Funny thing about goals.  They resemble ambition.  And ambition is only a faint memory to me these days.  It's easy to be ambitious in my big comfy chair curled up with a Seth Godin book but putting it into action means taking risks and I'm plum out of risk.  But that doesnt matter anymore because I'm also plum out of status quo.   So this is kind of an exciting time for me.  I'll be turning  a corner, trying something new, taking risks, so on and so forth.

Remember the definition of insanity:  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

ERGO - I'll be jumping off the insanity swing.  It's entirely possible I'll fall a few times.  Scratch my knees or whatever but having a goal will mean getting back up and trying it again - differently.  Hopefully with fewer falls.  But whatever, the falls are part of the ride, right?

Red Geraniums 16x12, oil on canvas.
Flowers can be a daunting subject for me.  I always seem to start off painting every petal then, after stepping back, I realize I've just sabotaged my entire concept by doing so.  

But enough red geraniums.  I picked the last of the wilted blooms and the final brown leaf.  My "Pink Room" is beginning to look like a retirement home for half dead potted plants.  :(  
   
( Pink Room - acquired the name when we laid pink carpet 18 years ago but has long since been replaced by laminate flooring.  Still goes by the name Pink Room though.  It's what we do.)

Onward and forward.  Something small today so I can feel good about myself before I leave for my workshop this weekend!

Rose Spray

 Clay Pot #, 9x12 oil on canvas.
Like I said in the last post, I'm all about flowers now.  I've been painting so much that my studio wall is full and I'm running out of room to hang wet paintings.  I'm also getting a little stingy with my canvas so I'm painting over old paintings for my studies.  This painting was done on a matte board scrap.  I have no idea what will happen to it over time since I didnt even take the time to gesso it!  However, it served it's purpose.  I got to practice roses in various blooming stages and determine what needs changing before using up a good canvas!  :)

Geraniums And Grapes

Geraniums And Grapes 18x18 oil on canvas.

I'm "branching out" now into florals (pun intended!).  Bear with me while I get a feel for these multifaceted props.    I've toyed with flowers in the past but this time I'm approaching them from a different perspective, so to speak; or better said, a different concept.  The painting above is clearly a light and shadow or chiaroscuro painting.  My idea was to have the light drift up from the table, travel up the planter and splash the geraniums on the left with the right side almost fully engulfed in shadow.  Lost edges with only a very few crisp and light edges against darks for contrast.  It's a quiet dance.  May I go so far as to say "sexy"?

12x16 oil on canvas.I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be an artist.  Just in case there was any question about it.  I've always seen the world a little differently.  That is - different from those who would not consider themselves artistically inclined.  Perhaps not so different from other "artists" though.  I'm not sure I'm extraordinarily unique in any approach, technique or vision but I can say for sure that it's a big part of who I am and always has been.

So what does one do with that information??  Once you can finally say, 'yep, I'm an artist', what's next?  Had I made this revelation 10 years ago, I may have had an easier time at gallery representation.  I was younger with more ambition and there were more galleries around.  Unfortunately, my conclusion came just after an economy collapse affecting galleries nationally and causing many to shut their doors.   As well as the death of both of my parents and a SLEW of to many life changing events to mention here.  I'm a little fried in the ambition department.   :( 

So now what?  There are still a bazillion galleries out there toughing out the economic climate.  I've been through many of them myself and my conclusion is, the economy is not to blame for my lack of representation.  There are still avid collectors out there purchasing art.   If representation is what I want then I have to go out and get it.  Do I want it?

What I really need to do is have some concrete goals in mind that I can focus on and take the appropriate paths to get there.  The hard part is determining those goals.  Where do I really want to go with my artwork?  And how much energy am I willing to spend to get there?

I realize I've been in survival mode for some time now and getting off that carousel can be daunting indeed.  In fact, when I stop to analyze my future, I end up exhausted, pick up one of my art magazines and float into my happy place.  It may be time for a heart to heart with a good friend who can help me get on track. 

In a perfect world I would paint to my hearts content, ship my painting to a gallery who would then sell the painting and request another which would be standing by in my studio.  Lather, rinse, repeat. 

That sounds good, doesn't it?  It's not fame and fortune I'm after but identity, purpose, contentment.  And let's face it... legacy.    It would be nice if my boys had something other than sloppy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and peanut butter banana milkshakes to remember me for.  I am, after all, more than a mom, wife and sister.  I am much more complex than that.   I am an artist.