After seeing my husband off to work this morning, I slowly got myself together to get out to the lake. The sun had been coming in and out behind the cloud banks; the green in the patches of light was brilliant from the several inches of rain last week. But I had to go out to see if there were any sailboats on the lake.
I was trying a new park this morning and drove up with my year's pass, only to discover at the gate that my pass was for day use and this was a campground. As I looked in around the gatehouse, I saw it was a very full to overflowing campground, and, this being a weekend, probably not the best place to set up anyway. I thanked the kind lady and turned around to go to my secondary location, only to find, it too was a camp ground. By the time all that transpired, the light was gone, the clouds were gone and the morning was gone.
So, I am sitting in my living room wondering why on earth I didn' t get my stuff together last night, pack up the car and just go when he did this morning. Live and learn they say, but I was also feeling the quiet peacefulness of the day, the slower and less driven rhythm. After last week, maybe I needed the relaxation more than the painting. And I did get some scouting done. Now I know where NOT to go.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Plein Aire Weekend
There is rain threatening on Sunday. I keep hearing the weatherman say a "massive storm" is headed in our direciton with all of the threats that come to a springtime in Texas. I had thought to go out today, and indeed, the skyscape had many cool moments of eerie, majestic and awe-inspiring clouds billowing up in all directions. it is amazing what G-d does with a little dust, water and sunlight.
But the clouds also sent me to housework (boo) and books (yes!). I had already doen a landscape on a cloudy day but was thirsting for a bit more strong light and shadow to make a more interesting landscape.
Or skyscape. Texas drama is usually more in the air than on the ground/
But the clouds also sent me to housework (boo) and books (yes!). I had already doen a landscape on a cloudy day but was thirsting for a bit more strong light and shadow to make a more interesting landscape.
Or skyscape. Texas drama is usually more in the air than on the ground/
On Reflecting on Interconnectedness
Before I begin my reflection on a homily I heard this morning, first let me say that I am one of those people whose religion was twisted hard by the past--not the distant past, but the past of my grandparents and my mother. My grandparents were Jews born outside of Kiev but ending up in the United States by way of Lithuania and Canada; my mother did not remain Jewish but converted to Christianity as a young adult. I was raised Christian, but, oddly with Jewish overtones.
This dichotomy, this pull in two directions has been with me all of my life. As a child, I could not understand why I and my family were different from my classmates; as an adult, I found my heritage impossible then irresistible to avoid. Now, I am in an uneasy, if not unsteady truce between Judaism and Chrisitanity which mostly enriches my life, but sometime causes me trouble.
That was the case of the homily this morning. I have, of late, been struggling with the idea of justice. If there is anything the present age seems to hate it is stopping evil with anything more than persuasion; I find this at best ineffectual and at worst, a sort of appeasement which leads evil to become bolder and good to uneasily look the other way as if giving silent assent. This, of course, for any Jew has reverberations of the reaction of the common German to "discovering" that his Jewish neighbors were disappearing into the ovens of Auschwitz. So, some causes now, just as then, are okay to discuss if not yell at the top of one's lungs. It is not that there was no cause either then or now; it was that some issues are the cause du jour (voter ID as racism) and others are not spoken of by anyone (firebombing of a synagogue in New Jersery a month or so ago).
Enter today's homily. It was based the verse "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Father talked at length of how we were all of the same family of man. We were descended from Adam. Therefore, I am not only related to those in my family as we commonly think of it; no, I am related to those who are far away, who speak different languages and practice different cultures and religions. Some of these people may irritate me and some I irritate. "And," Father said, warming to his theme," You are even related to Hitler and Stalin. We are all part of the hunan family."
Undoubtedly,but I was still aghast. I might in some far away siense be related to them as part of the human family, but to say let's kumbya with the dictators who so were so driven to eradicate every Jew on the planet was a step too far. Exactly where does evil enter into that equation? Is there not evil for which men are truly culpable? Why are we so slow to say that anyone deserves hell?
Is it wrong to say evil is evil? Is it so bad to believe I am related to Hitler in that we both harken from Noah, but that is where the connectedness ceases? Do the children of light have anything at all to do with the children of darkness? I think not.
This dichotomy, this pull in two directions has been with me all of my life. As a child, I could not understand why I and my family were different from my classmates; as an adult, I found my heritage impossible then irresistible to avoid. Now, I am in an uneasy, if not unsteady truce between Judaism and Chrisitanity which mostly enriches my life, but sometime causes me trouble.
That was the case of the homily this morning. I have, of late, been struggling with the idea of justice. If there is anything the present age seems to hate it is stopping evil with anything more than persuasion; I find this at best ineffectual and at worst, a sort of appeasement which leads evil to become bolder and good to uneasily look the other way as if giving silent assent. This, of course, for any Jew has reverberations of the reaction of the common German to "discovering" that his Jewish neighbors were disappearing into the ovens of Auschwitz. So, some causes now, just as then, are okay to discuss if not yell at the top of one's lungs. It is not that there was no cause either then or now; it was that some issues are the cause du jour (voter ID as racism) and others are not spoken of by anyone (firebombing of a synagogue in New Jersery a month or so ago).
Enter today's homily. It was based the verse "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Father talked at length of how we were all of the same family of man. We were descended from Adam. Therefore, I am not only related to those in my family as we commonly think of it; no, I am related to those who are far away, who speak different languages and practice different cultures and religions. Some of these people may irritate me and some I irritate. "And," Father said, warming to his theme," You are even related to Hitler and Stalin. We are all part of the hunan family."
Undoubtedly,but I was still aghast. I might in some far away siense be related to them as part of the human family, but to say let's kumbya with the dictators who so were so driven to eradicate every Jew on the planet was a step too far. Exactly where does evil enter into that equation? Is there not evil for which men are truly culpable? Why are we so slow to say that anyone deserves hell?
Is it wrong to say evil is evil? Is it so bad to believe I am related to Hitler in that we both harken from Noah, but that is where the connectedness ceases? Do the children of light have anything at all to do with the children of darkness? I think not.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Update on Palette Experiment
Well, after a semi-disasterous week of one majorly bad thing after another (I wasn't the only one either--was it some infrasonar storm? A full moon?), I finally got to try the idea I had read about on location.
The idea was that after the thumbnail is drawn and the values shaded in, that I should try to mix all my colors first then apply them to the canvas.
For the most part it gave me a successful piece which I think was closer to the real colors of nature than I had heretofore been able to do. And it helped me to see the colors more clearly. I had thought the small stream had a rosy tint in it from the cloudy sky, but my mind kept arguing with what I was seeing. Rose?, my mind said, incredulously. How can that be? You know that rose is only found at dawn and dusk. Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead and mix the color carefully and infuse some rose into my mix. And did you know, that water was rose and the sky, too! That taught me to believe my eyes and not what my brain was telliing me was "impossible".
The problem with this way of doing things was that I was slow and by the time I had gotten the rosy water color all done, the light was changiung. I decided not to let that bother me, though and went ahead as if the light hadn' t changed; I figured it was close, even if not right on, and I can always check and correct before applying it. Plus, I wll get faster with practice.
Then I figured out was that my brushes, especially the small flats will need to be replaced. Unfortunately.
Finally, I discovered that an underpainting can really give the picture a special glow.
The idea was that after the thumbnail is drawn and the values shaded in, that I should try to mix all my colors first then apply them to the canvas.
For the most part it gave me a successful piece which I think was closer to the real colors of nature than I had heretofore been able to do. And it helped me to see the colors more clearly. I had thought the small stream had a rosy tint in it from the cloudy sky, but my mind kept arguing with what I was seeing. Rose?, my mind said, incredulously. How can that be? You know that rose is only found at dawn and dusk. Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead and mix the color carefully and infuse some rose into my mix. And did you know, that water was rose and the sky, too! That taught me to believe my eyes and not what my brain was telliing me was "impossible".
The problem with this way of doing things was that I was slow and by the time I had gotten the rosy water color all done, the light was changiung. I decided not to let that bother me, though and went ahead as if the light hadn' t changed; I figured it was close, even if not right on, and I can always check and correct before applying it. Plus, I wll get faster with practice.
Then I figured out was that my brushes, especially the small flats will need to be replaced. Unfortunately.
Finally, I discovered that an underpainting can really give the picture a special glow.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Creative Process 1--organizing the palette
I have decided to start journaling through my love affair with artistic media of all kinds. I think it is helpful (though how helpful, I cannot say at this point) to write down new ideas and tips I come across from time to time, plus outlines of the creative process. As much as I would like to be a free spirit madly skipping around a snowy canvas, I find the process confining rather than exhilarating and, to my annoyance, usually wrestle the paint or charcoal around until I get the desired effect. This trial by error approach may be admirable in some respects; after all I am trying different ways of doing things. But I find that some order is necessary along with a record what I am doing wrong as well as what I am doing right.
Thus, putting this on my blog. This blog will then live up to its title.
When I took a workshop last summer out in Colorado, my teacher told me I was way too free with where I put the paint on the palette. I really didn' t didn't think it made any difference But given the short time one has to paint outside in changeing light and colors, this advice made sense. Now I am trying to think through two ideas on how to organize.
1. Putting the same paint in the same place each time and making it circular. I would start, say at 8 o'clock with my blues, then at 12 o'clock with yellows then at 4 o'clock with my reds. Between blue and yellow would be my greens and between yellow and red would be a slough of browns and neutrals. At 6 o'clock, I could put my white.
This palette would be the unmixed colors. Which brings me to idea number 2.
2. When I am plen air painting I will do a thumbnail to emphasize values, then mix the colors I will use quickly and in enough quantity. Then, the idea goes, I can concentrate the brush on canvas confident I have the right hues and can (with more abandon) paint what I am seeing before the light changes yet again.
Anyway, that 's the idea. I will let you know if it works..
Thus, putting this on my blog. This blog will then live up to its title.
When I took a workshop last summer out in Colorado, my teacher told me I was way too free with where I put the paint on the palette. I really didn' t didn't think it made any difference But given the short time one has to paint outside in changeing light and colors, this advice made sense. Now I am trying to think through two ideas on how to organize.
1. Putting the same paint in the same place each time and making it circular. I would start, say at 8 o'clock with my blues, then at 12 o'clock with yellows then at 4 o'clock with my reds. Between blue and yellow would be my greens and between yellow and red would be a slough of browns and neutrals. At 6 o'clock, I could put my white.
This palette would be the unmixed colors. Which brings me to idea number 2.
2. When I am plen air painting I will do a thumbnail to emphasize values, then mix the colors I will use quickly and in enough quantity. Then, the idea goes, I can concentrate the brush on canvas confident I have the right hues and can (with more abandon) paint what I am seeing before the light changes yet again.
Anyway, that 's the idea. I will let you know if it works..
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