Why do I paint?

April 17, 2009

Thanks to everyone who joined me in the studio for the last Second Fridays Studio Walk! You were all so involved, interested, funny and supportive. I love to demonstrate this way and hope that everyone enjoyed the evening as much as John and I did. 

 

On the Easel Sawmill  18 x 24 Oil

This is the initial compositional layout for the painting I demonstrated at the Studio Walk. I did this in the morning so that it would be dry that evening. 

On the Easel Sawmill B  18 x 24 Oil

The most wonderful comment I got at the end of my presentation was that my painting looked so much better than the photo! THANK YOU! Again, I demonstrated how I would be changing the photo. For example, I changed the angles in the foreground, removed a road and fence, placed the foreground trees on different planes, raised the sun just above the mountains to increase the warm light, eventually moved one tree (you can see where it was originally) and placed my foreground shadows correctly for the new placement of the sun. It was all good fun and interesting for me to learn that most guests had no idea an artist could, would or should do those things!

Why do I paint?

Since my last blog, I’ve been thinking – Maybe I need to go back before “Why do I paint what I paint?” to just “Why do I paint?” Here I may find a stumbling block, but to get started, let me take you back to my childhood.

As it is with most kids, I loved to use my crayons, finger paint, draw my family, pets and scenes from vacations.  Lazy summer days were spent with paper, pencils, paint, crayons etc. keeping cool in the shade and creating endless ‘masterpieces’ for my parents and/or grandparents to ooh and ah over. As the years went by, I continued – moved into tempera paint, colored pencils and eventually oils. Not many of my friends made it to oil paints; it seems my desire to draw and paint was deeper than theirs. I knew pretty soon that I had some talent and of course, being a child that needed some ‘stroking’, I continued to paint in hopes of compliments from teachers, parents and even friends. 

 

Cross Country 9 x 12 oil

We are about to head to England and so I casually looked through my photos from other visits over many years and was suddenly compelled to paint some of these delightful scenes. This is in the Midlands – lovely lush rolling hills of farmland and small stone villages. We walked in early morning on a Foot Path across cut fields into the local village then looped around the countryside back to our friend’s home.

Why do I paint? Then, in high school and college where abstract expressionism was popular and expected, my desire to produce works of art instantly disappeared and my interests focused elsewhere. Notice I didn’t say my love for painting and drawing disappeared, just my interest in producing anything for anyone else to see did. Realism seemed to be a thing of the past and my desire to express myself in a traditional way became a banished form of expression. 

Now you might ask what all this has to do with “why I paint”.  What I can tell you is this: I never stopped wanting to paint and draw, never stopped wanting to express myself through art, never completely stopped painting and drawing either. It just wasn’t the way I introduced myself nor the way I made a living. 

 

High Mountain Tarn 9 x 12 Oil

Traveling through Colorado and Montana one crosses the Continental Divide many times. Frequently it is stormy with snow or heavy rain. Sometimes, like this day in late spring, it was sunny with suggestions of a fine summer permeating the cool mountain air.

Why do I paint? In life, as in all things, everything changes with time. To my surprise, I eventually began to find some remarkable traditional western landscape painters showing in museums and galleries. After all those years of ‘keeping the lid on’ my artistic efforts, I knew the time had finally come for me to return to painting. I simply had to paint again to express myself and share all my adventures with everyone. 

Today, as a full time artist, I am pretty much a type A, left brained person; an organized, scheduled, hard working and physically active woman – who needs to engage her right brain to bring herself to center. I read novels, write, cook, listen to music and relax in my right brain. I have talent which needs constant attention to keep it fine tuned and a huge desire to get better at my craft – to get as good as I can in the amount of time I have left in my life to paint. Luckily for me, I found my niche in western representational art and I have been lucky enough to find collectors too. And so I paint to keep myself centered, to keep growing artistically and intellectually and to give you pleasure. 

Thanks for taking time to read this lengthy explanation. Please, add a comment or ask a question.

Snake River Autumn 16 x 20 Oil

I just keep on working on this painting, changing things here and there, letting it ‘rest’, checking it every couple of days, looking for answers and aha moments. I’m just not ready to say, “Done.”

And just for fun, I include some more paintings just completed:

 

Still Surface 6 x 12 Oil

Fog in the Hills 9 x 12 Oil

 

High Water Brookie 10 x 10 Oil

We will be in England for a while so those of you following my blog will have to wait until May for the next chapter! Don’t forget to sign up for the Newsletter by clicking here!

Thanks for your support and interest. Until we return,

Cheerio!

Ginger

Why do I paint what I paint?

April 5, 2009

 

On the Easel Trout and Cottonwoods 10 x 10 oil

I think I painted this for my husband…can you see the brookie in the water? Will finish this one this weekend, if it dries a bit more.

 Thanks, my very special sister, for giving me such joy just being with you. For those of you not in the ‘know’, she lives in North Carolina and cultivates the most amazing 3+acre garden – kind of like some famous botanic garden – all maintained and designed by her (husband and grandkids sometimes help). Talk about creative in three dimensions! I put in a few short hours helping with some of the up-keep chores a couple of weeks ago. More help in spirit than labor, I think, but she was thankful none-the-less. 

 Why do I paint what I paint? Recently, I’ve been contemplating what to paint as demonstration for the next Second Fridays Studio Walk – thinking, “How can I better communicate with words what I am trying to say in my paintings.” Sometimes, I think I ‘teach’ too much and perhaps that isn’t what the audience wants to hear. Do they really care about redesigning the composition from the photo, or even want to know about value (the hardest thing in the world to get absolutely right) or whether I use hard or soft edges and why? I wonder if they would prefer to know what drives me to paint, why I choose the subjects I do, what am I trying to share with them and why is that important?

On the Easel Teton Fall b 16 x 20 Oil

This was the painting I did at the last Studio Walk….just the thin color value washes showing my notations of where dark shapes are located and how the shafts of sun wash across the scene from right to left and hit the tops of cottonwoods along the creek. 

 

On the Easel Teton Fall c 16 x 20 Oil

A week away from the studio, a few days to play catch-up, guests staying with us and this is as far as I have come on the painting.  I’m now waiting for it to get tacky before I can continue:

 Back to the subject at hand: Why do I paint what I paint? I take all my own photos from which I paint, obviously, and most of them are lousy at best – taken in haste usually. I have a pretty good memory and certainly remember what caught my eye when I was photographing. Needless to say, every photo needs cropping, rearranging of shapes and items, adjusting the lighting, values, time of day and even sometimes the season. But just what am I trying to say?

Good question and one that I answer in my head all the time – after all, that is how I choose which photo I will paint from today…, but I don’t often put it into words very well.

 I always choose to paint something that is directly understandable – no confusion for the viewer as to what is going on or what something is or where it goes etc. As I contemplate the process of the painting, I think about how I will make it come to life, provide a place for the viewer to ‘go’ into the painting thereby allowing you to join me in the journey and convey to the you a sense of peace, tranquility and hope. 

 

On the Easel Blue River 6 x 12 Oil

Just started this small one as a break from other more complex works. I need that kind of break once in a while.

 Back to the subject at hand: Why do I paint what I paint? I don’t paint storms or ugly anything. If there are clouds in my paintings they are either beautiful white billowy things, forecast wanted rain or reveal a scene refreshed by the passing storm – the storm is over in my paintings and we have reason to hope for a fine day ahead. 

 You’re right, many photos I take are of cloudy, dull days full of storms and hurried dashes back to the car for protection, but I just change the atmosphere when I paint from these photos. We all suffer through too many days of discomfort and terrific conditions (weather or personal) so I want to give pleasure, hope, love, beauty and protection. 

 Aha!  Now there is another word which grabs me – PROTECTION. Many times I paint because some wonderful landscape is threatened with extinction – development, either commercial or residential wipes out miles of beautiful landscape every year. In some ways, though I don’t intend to chronicle this, but I will paint to help protect the places I love.

 

On the Easel Aspen Glade B  11 x 14 Oil

Here is where I left you in the last blog. I completed a plein air painting of this scene last fall but didn’t feel I had done this wonderful moment in time adequately. Early morning sun had just crested the mountains sending shafts of light into the aspen grove. Night time darkness still hung in the undergrowth and the aspen seemed to take on life one by one as the sun hit their trunks and dangling leaves. 

 

On the Easel Aspen Glade C 11 x 14 Oil

This is nearly complete…just a few added notes here and there. The painting is ‘resting’ and I’m just waiting and watching. 

 Back to the subject at hand: Why do I paint what I paint? Are you beginning to get the picture of why I paint? Oh sure, I also paint because I love to make the landscape appear three dimensional on a two dimensional surface. But I also cook (a creative direction which satisfies another of the senses) and garden (creative in 3 dimensions), listen to music of all kinds (again one of the senses) and read everything I come in contact with that has words. And I write.

 I have a collector who says my paintings are the “gift that keeps on giving”. Every day, over morning coffee he contemplates one of my paintings. He says it prepares him for the day in a pleasant mood and a positive attitude. Obviously, he knows why I paint what I paint!

 Do you understand better now? I will continue to work on this so keep tuned in.

 Don’t forget:

SECOND FRIDAYS STUDIO WALK AND TGIF

Friday April 10

4 to 9 pm

891 Good Hope Drive

Castle Pines Village, Colorado

303-660-1458

Please bring your friends and stop by for a while to see the latest paintings up close and personal. Once again I will be painting during the evening. You can ask questions if you wish or just watch. We provide some light snacks and pretty cheap wine.  BYOB if you prefer. See you there! Contact me for directions.

 John and I are headed to England in mid-April for two weeks – first in South London, then off to Herefordshire for about a week. I will bother everyone with my desire to photo the entirety of England – making our travels slow for all but me. John’s amazing parents, Reg at 95 (nearly) and Doreen, a bit younger, will join us for most of the time. Pauline will join us from the Cotswold’s for a few days too. Thanks to Barry and Lynne for the use of Perch and for everything you are to us! We will get to see nearly all of our English friends, which give us more pleasure than anyone knows. So, see you soon Marilyn and Chris. Sorry about Florida, but we will see you, Sandie and Mike, in Herefordshire anyway. Can’t wait!

 Keep your topknot, everyone

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 Thanks for your support and interest….

 Ciao,

 Ginger