My 100th Post

Welcome!

As I logged in to upload some photos for a post I planned to finish some other day, I noticed that this is my 100th post since I began the blog a few years ago. Amazing!

As I upload the following images, I am saying to myself: Don't publish this yet. You haven't even done any painting! Well, I am going to break my own rule this time. The planning process for my upcoming work has taken an interesting turn. It's about to get real, real technical, so hang on to your hard drives.

Last year, I took a series of photos of my Dad teaching my daughter, Brielle, how to paint. That cool, diffused light was what attracted me most to this image I chose to work with:

Not only does the story in this photo have great meaning to me, but I also loved the white canvas on the floor. I think it made the figures look like a still life. The subtle tones of this one also really caught my eye. I could see some potential in it.

Now, in my previous life, I would have made the decision to use this reference and begin work right away. Not this time. I've been studying design a lot lately. I've put myself to sleep at night with my laptop open to the work of Jeremy Lipking, John Singer Sargent, Nancy Guzik and Micheal Klein, studying their paintings with only one thing in mind: composition and questions of why they did what they did.

I realized recently that a large majority of my focus over the last few years has been regarding technique. I'm sure it was the right focus for the time being. Now, I feel that it is time to turn my focus more readily to design. Pure design. Design for the sake of design itself.

I've taken out quite a bit of time to also study more about Phi. There is an amazing website totally devoted to Phi here. At first I thought I'd learn a little more about the Phi-nomenon and then move on to some other principles of design, but I got so intrigued by Phi, I have yet to move on. There is so much to discover about the universal rules of excellent design. The principles of Phi alone do more than just show what good design looks like. They actually prove the existence of Intelligent Design. Nifty.

So here is where we start to get technical. OK, first I must remind us all that while I did not study fine art in college, I did study design. I'm not sure I came away from my college experience with an understanding of design, per se, but I did come away with something that has been invaluable to me ever since: a strong foundation in the TECHNICAL skills needed to fully utilize today's best design software for personal computer use. We're talking about a good computer, a decent camera, photo editing software such as Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and design software such as Adobe Illustrator. While these tools are all extremely helpful to my efforts, they are obviously totally unnecessary (otherwise, we'd have never had any masters of design before a few years ago). Everything I did and will do can always be replaced by a sketch book, a ruler and a good old fashioned pencil.

First things first, I had to make my own Golden Spiral and Golden Section files in Illustrator so that I could have transparent files to open in Photoshop and lay over my photo references. They look great, but are, admittedly, technically very crude. So don't go measuring.

A lot of time and playfulness happened between the time I first opened the photo in Photoshop and took the screen shot below of my workspace. Basically, what I found myself doing was slowly discovering variations of beautiful design within this one image. As my file began to grow many, many layers (so many I had to actually start labeling each one), the design you can see below gradually began to reveal itself. I was amazed. As I worked along, I started adding width and cropping length. I added a shoe, some plastic, a shadow, a roll of tape and I moved the bucket. The addition of the shoe and the tape were thanks to other photos I had in the series. I'm glad I took more than one!

I worked and reworked every section of the composition until I settled on the image below (yet subject to change). Here are some neat things to notice:

The top right corner is the light source. Light represents God and Unity, and according to the Fibonacci Sequence, so does the second row of the Golden Section. Zero (or nothing) plus One (or God/Unity) equals One. Continue this pattern of adding the sum of the first two numbers to the second infinitely, and you have 1.6..., or Phi. The symbol for Phi is beautiful: Φ

Through my experiments, it became obvious to me that the man is not the focal point, but the little girl is. This is how I finally determined the placement of the first and largest Golden Spiral.

Because of the beautiful design that begin to emerge with those lovely spirals, I chose to move the bucket down and add the roll of tape for better balance. I also played with the transparent plastic, using it's value mass to compliment the overall design.

Note the way the following things fall perfectly in line with the lines of the two sections and the six spirals (not all six spirals are seen in their entirety): The man's nose tip and the girl's nose tip, the man's eye, hat top and chin, the architecture of the window and trim, the tiny golden section in the little girl's eye, the man's elbow tip and arm muscle, the tip of the paintbrush, the top of the painting, the shadow at the bottom right, the two feet lined up on the same plane with a third edition of the bucket which is also lined up with the two noses, and last but not least, the Phi symbol found in the opening of the bucket.

Below is the design itself without the distraction of the photo:

I hope my process of discovering design long before any painting has occurred inspires you to push your own design methods a little further. When I do finally get started painting on this one, I'm going to be all wrapped up in technique and thoughts of value and color to remember that without a strong design, my efforts could be in vain. Sometimes we get decent design by accident, I do believe, but AWESOME DESIGN is planned with intelligence and patience.

If this painting of mine fails, it won't be because my design was poor. It will likely be that I tried way too hard to paint a copy of a photograph rather than a real life experience. It will be a challenge for me to not fall into that temptation. Wish me luck!

The website I am using for most of my research on Phi so far, is courtesy of http://www.goldennumber.net, Gary B. Meisner, Copyright 2001-2013.  As background, Gary holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing and BS in Accountancy from two top-ranked business schools.

Three Cheers for the Underdog!

I have news!!!!!

Take a look at the captions for these paintings...

"Free Fun"
Chosen as a finalist in Brian Neher's You Be the Judge painting competition!
Vote for your favorite painting here until March 3rd, 2013

"Building Blocks"
Chosen as a finalist in the January 2013 BoldBrush painting competition!
See all the winners here

"Free Range"
Juried into the 22nd Annual Exhibition of Traditional Oils by Oil Painters of America!
Acceptance list here

Also, I've been doing a little series of paintings of my children and wanted to share the most recent...

"Great Big Hug"
8" x 6"
Oil on Belgian linen

"Sad"
10" x 8"
Oil on Belgian linen

"Brand New Day"
10" x 8"
Oil on Belgian linen

Have a wonderful week!

For the Wife, Mother and Artist Who Must Make a Choice

There is a little nook of space in the universe occupied by a special kind of person. This interesting woman is a creator, a maker of art. Her work may be in literature or music, photography or dance. Today I focus my thoughts on the kind of artist I know best: the painter.

"Brielle at Three (detail)"

Her story is mostly unknown and unacknowledged. She is a wife and mother first, a cook, a laundress, and an all around servant second. She lives in most countries of the world. She wakes up every morning to a giant list of important things to do. These tasks do not engage her brain intellectually, nor her body in an exhilarating way. She does not receive a paycheck for this work. She does not enjoy praise or awards for her endurance, but she is not missing those perks either. Her reward is the personal fulfillment that is born of the hard work and dedication that comes from caring for her family. And she has much love around her.

"Carnations (detail)"

The stage is set for a creative soul to have a near secret life as an artist. Without the self discipline required to endure as an invisible slave to her family, she would not possess the strength she needs to pursue her own passions so tirelessly.

Though she has the will to work at her craft daily, her to do list chips away at her time until there is barely enough left to make her efforts worth it. When she is able to work, the disturbances are endless: someone is hungry, someone is calling, something is broken, her attention is required. Though she may feel frustrated, she knows deep in her heart where her priorities must lie.

Then a day comes along and she can paint! In all the spare moments leading up to this one, she has been thinking and planning and studying and reading. She is excited and she is ready! She remembers days long ago when her responsibilities were so much less than they are now and her artistic productivity was also less. How can that be, she wonders. She decides that somehow this lack of time and resources has drawn a line in the sand for her. Either she is passionate about her work and she will find a way to do it, or her passions lie elsewhere and she will put this one aside for another time. She knows that the kids and the chores, though seemingly unrelated to the art, shape her work and her style and her tastes and her message. Though it is emotionally painful and fearfully frustrating, this woman continues to paint.

She is no Sargent. No Zorn. No Sorolla. No Michelangelo. No Monet. No Van Gogh. No Aspevig, Schmid, Lipking, Klein or Christiansen.

No, she is not like those great men of skill and fame. She is a woman; unknown and underestimated.

"Summer's Last Call (detail)"

She pours her eyes over the imagery of these past and present artists. She studies them, learns from them, dreams of working as brilliantly as they. Once in while she falls into the trap of self pity for her lack of education, time and resources. Surely these men have wives to care for the children and wash the dishes and do the laundry. Certainly they are taken more seriously by the art world simply because of their gender. Though the thoughts creep into her mind now and again, she knows they are rubbish. She throws them out with the baby’s bath water and gets on with it.

She remembers painting so pregnant that she couldn’t even get her body close enough to the easel for detail work. She remembers the months, even years that went by without a single stroke of her brush because the babies were so demanding. She remembers stirring the oatmeal with her right hand and nursing a little boy in her left arm and wondering if there was any way in the world that day she might sneak out the charcoal pencils and draw a bit. Many nights she lay in bed dreaming of what it would be like to realize her potential and become a famous artist. But first things first, she needs to get good at it. She knows it is going to take her quite a bit more time than she’d like it to. Still, she perseveres.

As the kids grow and, magically, so does the chore list, she begins to understand that being famous is definitely NOT her goal. No, her goals are to realize her potential (which she is acutely aware of), to make a little mark, to inspire others, to leave something behind for her children. She knows God put this passion inside her for a reason and she isn’t going to let up. Ever. Though the work she is able to eek out hardly grabs the attention of anyone, she keeps doing it! She gets better every time and on and on she goes.

"Sheets (detail)"

She never becomes famous. She sells a bit of work. Her hair turns gray and the kids grow up. She paints and she paints. Her body shifts a little and that youthful glow begins to fade. Whatever chance she had at charming the art world surely disappeared with her muscle tone. No, the reverence so many artists find from admirers the world over has eluded her. But she is still working. She is still painting. She has given her children a great gift: the imagery of their childhood brushed onto linen and tacked to pine stretcher bars. She is glad and she is proud.

She is fulfilled.

* * *

Can a woman ever be as successful as a man in the art world while also taking on the traditional roles of wife, mother, homemaker and even co-breadwinner? I'm measuring "success" not by true measures such as personal fulfillment, but by industry standards such as gallery representation, market value of the work, fame, competition wins, etc. Do women artists receive the same kind of reverence that many successful men of the past and present enjoy? If not, how can we support and encourage this special kind of woman?

"Blush (detail)"

This post is not meant to be anti-man. I’m getting close to making my point, so hang with me. Almost all my favorite artists are men -- which is why I wrote this post in the first place! With a handful of exceptions, my teachers and artistic influences have always been men. Though I seek out (and sometimes find) women in the arts who have achieved artistic greatness, the industry is clearly dominated by men. Their work sets the standards, the price points and rules the collections of patrons, galleries and museums.

One of my favorite women artists is Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), probably the most well known female painters during the height of the Impressionist movement. In my studies, I have learned that Ms. Cassatt chose not to marry or have children so that she could become successful at painting images of women and children, especially those that described the bond of motherhood. Her tender paintings are a window into a special part of life that can only be understood fully from the inside. In order to do it right, she had to chose: to paint or to be one of those women in her paintings. I’m glad she made the choice to paint, but was she? Why did she have to chose? Why could she not have both?

"Breakfast in Bed"
Mary Cassatt

Times have changed, but then again, they have not. Opportunities for women are greater today in some areas of the world, but I see that women still must chose. And if one chooses both as Mary Cassatt did not, can she ever realize her potential as a great painter?

These questions have been swirling around inside my head for years. Have they been pestering you, as well? If so, know you are not alone.

One comforting thought I have to share could be the only worthwhile thing from this entire post. If the rest of the space has been wasted, maybe this won’t be:

You can find an astonishing amount of detail in the Bible about life after this life: Heaven. You don’t fit quite right into this world because you were made for the next. But Heaven fits you perfectly. What are your passions that will go partially unrealized in this life because your priorities are family first, self second? Those passions were given to you, by God, for a purpose. Maybe the purpose is not for this world. Maybe this is practice. After much intense study, I now believe that I’ll be painting in Heaven. Painting - with a real brush in my actual hand. With real paint and linen. I will have a body, a beautiful body, with eternity to do my work which will satisfy me in the most intense way I can imagine and will also be my worship of the Great Artist who gave me life and talent.

This is not me trying to make myself feel better. This is real. And it has given me much comfort.

Don’t take my word for it. Study it for yourself. Even if you are not a believer, this topic is worth your time. I recommend the most amazing book you may ever read written by a mere mortal. The book is called “Heaven,” and the author is Randy Alcorn. For your passion and your dedication, for your spirit and your soul, read this book. You will not regret it.

A New Work & Thought Process

Greetings!

I'd like to say hi to those of you who take time out of your day to stop by my little blog. Today I have a few neat things to share, including a new painting...

"Building Blocks"
14.5" x 24"
Oil on Belgian linen

As we all know, paintings like this don't usually materialize out of a moment of inspiration or a successful direct painting session (I wish they did). Something that has taken me many years to learn is that good, solid paintings take careful planning and patience. I used to wake up and say, "I'm inspired! Ooooh, I want to paint something awesome today!" Then, I would spend the rest of the day trying to come up with an idea. Often, I'd set up my easel and squeeze out my paint and sit there with a blank canvas. Later, I'd go to bed disappointed, keenly aware of my potential and terribly disappointed in my lack of creativity. I didn't know then what I know now: that creativity does not exist without effort, that I should do the work first and allow the inspiration to follow, that true inspiration is born of hard work.

Patience is not my strongest virtue. I must force myself to have a little. It's worth it.

So, my painting above began with an exciting Facebook post by one of my favorite artists, Nancy Guzik. I'm blessed to have found Nancy's work because she has inspired me to renew my focus on the imagery of childhood as well as keep my work loose and colorful. Her paintings move me because of their messages combined with dreamy, rich color and brush work. Her technique inspires me and makes me want to jump up and down when I see her work!

Nancy took a few moments of her time to send me some encouraging notes over Christmas vacation about painting children from life. I took her advice seriously and spent every moment I had making my kids model for me. Nothing I did turned out to be a masterpiece (which was difficult for me to accept), but when I consider what I learned each time I tried, the painting sessions became more important to me than the painted results.

Things I learned:

- Kids don't like to hold still. The younger, they are the more this applies.
- Kids do like to be models. On their terms.
- Kids needs treats, snacks, fun music and breaks every 10 seconds.
- Burnt Umber and Titanium White are a very nice base color for plain, brown hair.
- I do not like Yellow Ochre in hair.
- Terra Rosa plus Transparent Oxide Red plus Titanium White make a nice base for white skin. Add Viridian to cool or Yellow Ochre to warm.
- Have a nice Violet mixed and ready to go for anything. Cobalt plus Alizarin Crimson plus White.
- Measure slowly, paint fast.
- There is NO REASON to attempt to paint corner to corner.
- Think "gestural."
- Less is more. Less detail. Less detail. Less detail.

Some painted results:

During this process and because of Nancy's influence, suddenly something became very clear:

I was meant for this.

My strongest motivation is really simple. I want to paint memories of my children, for my children. Our life out here in the country with small farm animals and wood floors and musical instruments and amazing food is incredibly special. My husband and I have worked so hard to create this life for our kids and even though they are young, they really get it. They understand that their lives are special and blessed. They are learning to appreciate the things we've given them. They notice that our home is different in a good way.

I imagine that when they are adults raising their own children, these memories will be important to draw upon. I can think of no better way to help them remember than developing paintings which preserve these moments with layers and layers of meaning.

The thought process behind Building Blocks went something like this:

First, I noticed a neat moment. In our music room (which was a dining room, but we play music a lot more often than we eat formally), I found Emmelyn quietly building a castle with her blocks. I always have my camera ready for times like this. I took about 20 shots before I felt like I had exhausted all angles without disturbing Emme's creative session.

All the photos came out terrible. The lights were over exposed and the shadows were pretty much black. No problem! I knew that would help me to paint using a photographic reference without being "married" to the photo.

The photo below made the cut.

I've been studying and playing around with the Golden Ratio, a shape developed using the Fibonacci Sequence. There is so much to write about here, that it is too much! Check out this website if you want to know more: www.goldennumber.net

I found quite a few golden spirals in this image.

Next, I had to overcome my own frugal nature. I wasn't about to waste a piece of linen from my Christmas Vacation Direct Painting Extravaganza, so I turned one of the paintings upside down and decided to paint over it. This required a dark outline of shapes for me to even see what was going on. It played tricks on my mind a lot. It was hard.

It also limited me to painting only opaquely in the areas where there was already an image. Tricky.

I went for the focal point first. Maybe it was a mistake, or maybe it wasn't. I ended up completely repainting the face and hair once the rest of the painting was finished. Had I been unwilling to scrape it off and start again after this point, starting with the focal point would have been a wrong choice. I suppose that since I am willing to DO WHATEVER IT TAKES to paint something worth looking at, there are not necessarily any mistakes, only learning opportunities.

I think it is cool to know the thought processes of other artists and get to see some process shots of the work it took to get to a finished painting. I hope my half baked, less than ideal processes inspire you, too!

Click on the image for a nice, big photo:

"Building Blocks"

We Laughed, We Cried, We Puked

Happy 2013! I hope everyone made it through the holidays! We made it, despite the stomach flu being passed around the family. We laughed, we cried, we puked...we grew. Togetherness was on our minds this time. At the end of that full two week vacation for all six of us, I had a moment cleaning up dinner. The quiet rhythms of Ray LaMontagne keeping me company, I just happened to look around and notice something. Something cool: my values were reflected in the "mess" of things around me. Like still life set up in every corner, these little collections told a story of our family. I quickly snapped a few photos to document this memory for myself. I hope you enjoy them.

Toys and Christmas

Always music and almost always pajamas

Together games

More music

Build your own terrarium

Tomorrow's dinner from last summer's garden (that's sauerkraut)

Tonight's after-the-kids-go-bed snack (that's no bake cookies)

Life gets better and life gets harder. I am grateful for insightful moments like this that refuel me and give me the strength to go on doing my best.

God bless.
Mara

The Evolution of an Idea

Greetings! I'm revealing a bit of my soul in this blog post because I feel like I have something meaningful to share by being open and honest about the evolution of my latest idea. This process has deeply inspired me. I truly hope that it may inspire you, as well.

The journey began with our move to the country and the planting of our first big garden. My husband, Ryan, carefully planted and tended a row of Mammoth Sunflowers at the back of the garden. The tallest one grew to be at least 12 feet high. They were beautiful! Just as Autumn came knocking and the seeds began to ripen, a giant flock of blackbirds found our sunflowers and began devouring the seeds. Day after day, these birds visited our backyard and Ryan's brow furrowed more.

"Not to worry," I told him. "I'll make a painting about it."

The imagery was incredible: chilly air, autumn color, shiny black birds, wind, sunflowers. It was the most unique story I had imagined as a painting to date.

For what seemed to be several weeks, I watched those birds out my studio windows every day. The weather was unusually Wintery, despite it being early Fall. The story of the birds and the flowers moved me, but the sky did not. It was so...dull. I watched and watched and thought and thought about how to turn this story into a painting.

One day, I believe I whispered something to God about the sky. Not so much a formal prayer, but a wish. Right then, the clouds broke and this gorgeous blue sky emerged. It lasted for no more than 5 seconds, but I was right there in my studio, camera on hand. I snapped a few photos.

The day I set about turning this idea into a painting was another gray day. I love gray days! I really do. The cool, diffused light makes color more saturated. Cool light yields warm shadows - my favorite. I sat up my easel looking out the back window and painted the above painting from life adding that beautiful sky I had witnessed earlier. It was breezy that day, not windy. You can see that my sunflowers are gently swaying. The birds were there doing their thing, of course. The above image is that direct painting as it stood on the easel. As I noodled over it, I felt the need to crop it down to the essentials. Since I paint on un-stretched linen, this was an easy choice to make and one crop in Photoshop did the deed for the time being:

If you know me at all, you know that music is as important to me as art. I am so influenced by music of all kinds. It comes as no surprise, then, that the Beatles' Blackbird was in my thoughts constantly as I worked on this idea. I borrowed a line from that song and titled this painting, You Were Only Waiting for this Moment to be Free. And I didn't know it at the time, but this painting would become the study.

I hadn't had enough, so the very next day, I set up the easel inside and painted from life again. I wanted to paint that WIND! My husband suggested I have another go at it, but this time he suggested I paint the image sort of like those vignette style florals I like to do. Great idea, Ryan!

Using the two reference paintings, I spent the next couple weeks assembling the final image in my mind. I knew that to achieve the depth of color I wanted in the clouds by layering dry brushed color, this painting needed to be pretty good sized. Honestly, I chose this size because I have a frame this size and I thought I might like to frame this one. Haha.

And here is the beginning. I cannot stress enough how this seemingly simple and carefree layer of paint was the make it or break it step in the process.  I don't know how to write about it, just that without this step, I'd have failed.

I knew I was planning to paint in layers, so once I had the basic colors and values blocked in, I went right for the birds. Each bird I painted with just a couple strokes. I knew that layering the clouds and trees around them would further vary their edges. It was exciting.

Next, I planned the placement of the sunflowers. It took me several days of working when I could squeeze it in to get myself to the next stage...

The HARD stage. This is the end game phase where even though I know the work is what I intended, it does not yet feel finished and fully resolved.

The air around the largest sunflower bothered me. I decided to add in a smaller, autumn aspen behind the pine to help that beautiful orange glow carry through the painting. I painted it from life and really love how it has less leaves and more branches showing through because the season was quickly changing. That helped, but still, the sunflower was not quite right. Finally, I darkened the lower leaves on the flower and dry brushed in even more color to the air around them. I added in leaves flying through the air and finally the painting felt complete.

"You Were Only Waiting for this Moment to be Free"
22" x 40" ~ Oil on Belgian Linen

Detail Images:

I am confident that as this idea evolved, God was walking with me, teaching me how to see and what to look for. Had I been married to a single idea, or a photograph, I'd have missed this whole process. The painting spoke to me as I worked, calling for a branch here, a bird there. It was weird. I tried to listen and respond. I may be more excited about the process than the painting! Anyway, I hope that this story inspires joy in the process of working as an artist. For it is the work itself that creates inspiration.

-Mara