Sketching What I See (or what I don’t)

I haven’t been in the studio to paint for a few days. My time has been taken with putting together a book on pastel painting and living the life of an artist.

Finishing up the morning’s journaling, I drew a little sketch of the drawing I worked on last night. This is a scene I worked on last year, gave up on, and threw out. In writing about the experience for the book, the scene called to me again, and I am re-inspired.

This morning’s quick little pen sketch showed me something I hadn’t considered: The fence posts are too close to show the grasses in between!

I got out the sketch book and drawing pencils and started a new sketch. Definitely having the fence posts farther apart makes a big difference, and I’m seeing more, especially when I pulled up the photos on the computer (the photos printed on copy paper don’t show good detail or color.)

I continued sketching taking note of individual grasses. Yes, in the painting, most of that will be distance and won’t show clearly, but this close-up drawing will help with the composition of the painting.

I compared this new one to last night’s sketch and what a difference! What was I thinking putting in so many fence posts? There aren’t that many in the original photo. Sometimes I wonder about what I see, or rather, what my mind interprets. I am much happier with this new sketch.

This has also made me think: Maybe I should do the initial sketch work, not upright on the easel, but flat at the table where I can see it at a different angle.

Oh, I so want to tackle the scene on the easel, but I have editing work to do today.

Creativity and Its Emotional Rollercoaster: Part I

These past couple weeks the fires of creativity have been roaring! I’ve been bouncing from one project to another and back in a happy roll. But a fire can only burn so long and I’m starting to get periods of the oxygen being cut off. In the morning I’m on the top of the world in the excitement of writing or painting, and by mid-afternoon, the plug is pulled, and the creative passion drains as fast as the fires roared up.

I started to fear the creative high because of the crash and burn low. Do I want to let myself soar only to be shot down to crash and burn on the rocks? (Oh, the metaphors I could come up with, ha-ha.)

Then I was reminded creativity does have emotional sides and that downtimes are part of the creative process. It’s also important how to handle myself between those highly creative times. I realized I haven’t been hitting the rocks in my falls lately. Somehow, I’ve been finding the strength to get a grip before smashing to the bottom. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even been close. I’m catching myself … the creative lifeline is saving me.

A creative lifeline? Does this have to do with the muses?

I’ve been working with the creative muses for a couple years now, calling on them when I’m working on projects, be it writing, painting, or gardening. For the longest time, it seemed they’d show up on a whim, and if I was being creative, it was amazing. However, if I was busy doing something else and didn’t pay attention to them in that moment, they’d move on.

This year, after reading “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert, I’m working more closely with the muses. I’m now seeing this not as just a visitation, but as a partnership, and surprisingly, they seem to be staying closer, understanding and being patient when I have other work to do.

Is this why I’ve been so on-fire creatively? Is this why my downtimes are not the old crash-and-burns? Are the muses, in their working as partners with me, holding the safety line? And, because I’m showing them more attention, they are showing me the same?

All I know is the creative fires make me feel more alive than I ever have. What joy!

Time to Reorganize

It’s been a gray, gloomy, sleety day. I’m glad I didn’t have to go anywhere. People were saying it was treacherous out there with icy roads and walkways. As I write this, the sleet has changed to snow.

Studio work today occurred when taking a break from my newspaper editing job. I decided to tackle reorganizing my pastels instead of painting. I’d rather paint, but I’ve been putting this project off and now that I have more drawers …

I don’t know where I got my first pastels … someone was throwing them out, so I claimed them. Then, when I moved from charcoal landscapes fully into pastels, I started purchasing Blick brand. I also acquired a set of Yarka pastels from a friend.

I fell in love with pastels and as I got more into it, I next bought Senneliers. I loved the softness of Senneliers. I also got some NuPastels. To store all my new “toys,” I got three wooden, partitioned, two-drawer (trays) cabinets (boxes) which can stack one atop the other. I put Velcro between the boxes so the units wouldn’t slide when opening and closing the drawers. I used Velcro in case I ever wanted to move them around. 

(This photo is of my original boxes of two-drawers each.)

However, I found the drawers tended to stick. Eventually my neighbor planed down the drawer dividers which was where the drawers were catching on the upper. This helped much better than trying to rub soap on the drawers which the website comments suggested.

I can never have too many pastels and I started to experiment with other brands. (Hard to get away from those Senneliers, though.) One of the first new ones were Diane Townsend … and I found those pastels were bigger in diameter and would not fit in the current drawers. That led me to purchasing a different brand, five drawers per box, but deeper drawers.

The next problem was trying to figure out a way to keep all like colors together which led me to purchase another five-drawer box because, with more pastel purchases, I now need two drawers for blues and two for greens, etc. (This was today’s project and only as far as I’ve gotten.)

There was another challenge, though. How to organize the different shades of blue: light blue, turquoise, darker blues, gray-blues, purple blues … Oh, my! Greens, too, with all their various shades. And would a gray-blue or gray-green go in the blue and green trays or with the gray and black trays?

(Photo  is of the new five drawer box with the blues and greens taking up two drawers each.)

And that’s where I stand at this moment. There’s still room in the blue and green trays … oooh, I always seem to be missing shades. What can I get next? ‘Course, I have to finish organizing all the other colors first, ha-ha.

Inspired by Great Conversations

Soft snow continues to fall, and everything exposed outside is covered with a clean, fresh blanket. Water in the brook wends a dark path between ice shelves and around snow-covered ice formations. Chandelier-looking crystals hang from the bottom of some of the ice shelves with the bottoms of those resting on the flowing water.

Neighbor kitty Leo is visiting and watches from the back of the couch as Pele plays her new game of pink ping pong balls in an 8 x 10 x 4-inch box. Oh, those little balls rattle and bounce so nicely.

Words today continue to bubble out of me; a continuation of yesterday’s wonderful conversations. I don’t remember when I talked so much! Have I ever talked so much? I know I often have writing words gushing forth, but now it’s not just topics to write about but also to discuss.

The creative fires still burn brightly. Yesterday was first a breakfast with my very good friend and artist, Nan. There are not too many people I can talk art with, and even though our mediums, styles, and techniques are so very different, we still have the best discussions and share tips and suggestions. There are always opportunities to learn and grow.

Next stop was Tatewell Gallery in New London. I brought five pastel paintings to be matted and framed (four for me and one I’d sold to someone else.) Don and I discussed pastels and some of the other painters. He said pastels don’t seem to sell as easily as oils and acrylics.

I know the masters also painted in pastels sometimes. I wondered if people in general don’t see pastel as real art … believe me, it’s not easy! Then, too, how many people really care about original artwork. Is it that most people are happy enough to buy a cheap Walmart print to hang on their walls?

Another good friend, Annette Vogel, came in to see the painting she purchased. She said it was more beautiful than the photos showed on Facebook. Yes, the real thing always looks better! We discussed matting and framing colors with Don as this painting would look better with a colored mat.

We headed off to lunch, both of us excited to see how our paintings will look in a few weeks when they’ve been matted and framed. That finishing touch to the paintings brings them to an amazing level.

We settled at the Flying Goose Pub at a corner table overlooking the mountains. The scene out over the valley and up Mount Kearsarge was breathtaking and peaceful. We ordered sandwiches, then she pulled out her computer to show me the cover design she’s working on for my poetry book. I pulled out the manuscript I printed out on regular copy paper, and we discussed initial plans for the layout which she will be doing.

Then I pulled out copies of two other manuscripts for pastel painting memoir books I’ve started (one to cover last year and the other for this year.) These are in process and only at a show ‘n’ tell stage.

We enjoyed lunch, had delicious desserts and chatted about life and future plans.

Today my mind is on fire again. It’s hard to decide whether to work on the writing projects or go in the studio to work on the newest painting. Both muses are whispering, “Me, me; choose me!” in my ear.