Posts Tagged ‘Oil Painting’
Lychee Tea
It was more shopping today for Mary and me, but first we had to become beautiful! We stopped at the beautician’s shop for a manicure and pedicure, and then we were off. At the end of the day, we had completed our lists, including stops for lunch and tea. By the way, if you have the chance to try lychee green tea, hot or iced, give it a go! It’s a real treat! A lychee is a Chinese fruit, a small round fruit, much like a large grape, with a reddish skin, sweet whitish translucent pulp eaten fresh or dried, and a smooth hard seed. When I found one, peeled and seeded at the bottom of my cup, it was wonderful – a perfect ending to a great cup of tea!
No oil painting today for me, but I continue to admire all these beautiful trees. They are so different from my usual variety. By the way, did you know that the redwoods are cypress trees?
Christmas Vacation
Tomorrow, Saturday, I’m off to San Francisco, one of my favorite cities. Two of my children and a grandson live south of there.
One of the highlights of the season for me will be when our family goes to see the Rockettes on Sunday. I saw them once many years ago when I lived in New York, but seeing their show again will be a treat.
Then on Thursday, I’ll be in Solvang, near Santa Barbara. My son has a time-share there and he invited me to spend Christmas there with him and his family. I’m looking forward to being in that beautiful area for a week and hope to visit some galleries and do some oil painting. I was in Santa Barbara once, also, but that was many years ago. It will be a joy to return.
Fighting the Blues – Part 1
Yesterday Brian Crawford Young of Inverness, Scotland, wrote to Robert Genn, Canadian artist, “I’ve been having a crisis since I got back from a wonderful residency at the Art Students’ League, in Rockland County, New York. The ambience was great, the staff helpful, the scenery brilliant, and the quick access to Manhattan exciting. But when I got home to the Highlands of Scotland everything crunched to a halt. All my fears and self-doubts emerged and creativity stopped. Any thoughts on this sort of blues?”
Robert Genn replies: “Thanks, Brian. You can get it after a residency, a show, a workshop, an art museum, or even going to a high-energy art center. Just living in New York has put many fine [oil] painters into gridlock. The ‘What’s the use?’ attitude can come from too much excitement, influence, competitive talent, or the disorientation of commerce. One is confused, disheartened and jaded.”
“The good news is that artists can come out of this if they really want to. There are cures. Here are three:” which I will include in tomorrow’s blog.
Diane
Diane is a very special friend. She has been painting since 1982. Her first workshop was painting in acrylics with Bill Gerhold in West Virginia, the “Wilderness Painter of West Virginia“. The next several years she painted in watercolors and oils with Bill. Later, she attended Wild Acres in North Carolina, painting in oils with Bob Osborne and watercolors with Herbie Rose, both from Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL. She met Cassandra James in 2004 in a plein air painting class at Wild Acres. Diane and Cassandra have been good friends ever since. I met Diane in one of those plein air classes.
Diane has had a long career in nursing. Just before her retirement in 1984 from Duke University Pediatric Nursing Service, she was supervisor of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Nursery. Diane looks and acts as though she is in her 60s, but this lady is 91 years old!
Off to Austin
Today I leave for Durham, NC. I will spend tomorrow with my friend, Diane, and on Saturday we fly to Austin, Texas, home of my former teacher, Cassandra James.
Diane and I were both students of Cassandra, well-known Austin painter who taught at Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL. for several years. We met her when she was teaching a summer plein air class at Wild Acres, a retreat near Little Switzerland on the Blue Ridge Parkway, about 40 miles east of Asheville, NC.
Five or more years ago Cassandra began falling. At first, it was occasionally, then more often. It took a long time for the doctors to determine her problem. I can vividly remember when her husband said to me, “We hope it is Parkinson’s”. I was dismayed! I thought, “That’s terrible! But what if it’s not?”
It was worse. When we visited last year, Diane and I helped her everywhere holding her arm or pushing the wheelchair. Today she has care 24/7. I feel better going with Diane because she was a nurse, now retired. Otherwise, I think I would be overwhelmed. Yet I feel close to Cassandra and compelled to go because she is the one who started my art in a new direction.
Challenges of Plein Air Painting
When a group of plein air painters were asked about the challenges of painting, they unanimously agreed that one of the greatest challenges is the changing light. Many artists use an 8” x 10” or similar sized board on which to paint, but the painting must be finished in 2 hours, else the shadows have changed.
Another challenge is hearing things rustle in the bushes and the wild life scurrying by. One artist in Rocky Mountain National Park just walked backwards toward her car when a bear sauntered by, apparently not seeing her, more interested in the smell of the paint. Another time she hopped the fence just as six horses came charging down the mountain.
The weather is also a challenge. Whether it is too hot, too cold, possibly rainy, or just right, the artist must find a way to be comfortable and have her easel in the shade. Plein air painting is not really about going to exotic locations, It’s really about painting what is around you and making it beautiful.
Caring for Brushes
Recently, I read an article from Artists’ Magazine about caring for your brushes. Two watercolorists and two oil painters described their methods.
First the watercolorists: Frank Francese said he just washed them in soft soap and water, blotted them dry with cloth or paper towel and reshaped the points to dry. Carolyn Lord emphasized that to be sure they always dry straight, she puts “up” arrows on the lid of her brush storage area.
Chris Saper cleans his oil painting brushes with Goop, found in large grocery and hardware stores. The other thing he likes is Jack’s Linseed Oil from Jack Richeson and Co. Sometimes he just drenches his brushes in the soap or Goop, wraps them in plastic wrap overnight and rinses and blots dry. Robert Liberace uses Gamsol to clean his oil brushes and occasionally washes them in soap and water to keep them from getting hard.
I soak mine a short time in Turpenoid Natural (non-toxic) and wash them in Dawn detergent. Sometimes I also use “The Masters” Soap and Brush Cleaner, which can be found in an art suppply store, and which will also restore hardened brushes.
Art not for the Faint of Heart
Robert Genn, the Canadian painter, wrote in his newsletter recently about having gone with a group of artists to the Bugaboo Mountains in British Columbia. They were helicoptered up 11,000 feet to the top of a mountain and left to paint for the day in the ice and snow. By the end of the workshop they were the Bonded Bugaboo 10.
It reminded me of painting in Montana a few years ago. Eash day we rode our horses almost to the top of a mountain and walked the rest of the way. Lunch was brought to us, but we had all day to do a landscape painting in an environment meant to inspire. If you paint the way you usually do, your way of painting will get new dimensions.
We artists went there not knowing each other, but at the end of the week we, too, were bonded by a wonderful shared experience. It is said that the mind once expanded never regains its original shape. I believe it!
Chesapeake College
Chesapeake College is a small college about 1 ½ hours north of me, and it is having an art show. I entered my oil painting, “Turtle Island,” a few weeks ago and today I took it to the college to be hung for the opening on Thursday afternoon.
Along the way, I picked up my Easton friend and her painting. Because many paintings were brought in yesterday, we were able to preview the show and enjoy works in oil, acrylics, watercolor, pastels, photography, graphics, computer generated art and mixed media. The computer generated work was new to me and very unusual, but I liked it!
Today was another of those beautiful days that occur in the fall and was a great day for doing whatever one wanted to do. I especially enjoyed my visit with my friend as I don’t see her very often.
Chrisfield, Maryland
Chrisfield, Maryland, must have been a thriving metropolis in its heyday. It is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay not far from the Virginia state line. In its day, the boats of the watermen were full of crabs, oysters, clams and all sorts of fish. Today, it is but a ghost of its former self.
Today, my friends and I went to Chrisfield to paint. While they were doing small 8” x 10” renderings of a building with boat and grasses, I did a large (20” x 20”) oil painting of that same old building and its surrounding walkways. I like doing large paintings… I have room to move around, to breathe, however, painting a building was a stretch for me because I usually don’t do construction. We all enjoyed a perfectly beautiful day with temps in the mid 70s, such a relief from the hot summer!