Thoughts on Traveling South

I am heading south, way south, to South America, specifically Argentina, Chile and Uruguay this Sunday.  I have never been where I am going and in a sense I feel as if it were a marvelous and uncertain adventure.  I go knowing only a little Spanish, so although I go with my husband, who knows a great deal more, the lack of understanding of the people around me is, in itself, is a bit daunting.

I had never thought to go here. In fact, I had never thought much about these places until my husband set up the trip. So I feel it has G-d written all over it, just because it is not on my "bucket list".  I do not know what I will find, or who I will meet or how it will change the way I look at things.  I do know that it is one more step on the journey, one more rung on the ladder leading Home. It is a place I must go and a thing I must do. So it has prayer written all over it too.

And this part of South America is a beautiful place.  I have seen some pictures and I am taking new journals full of watercolor paper, and new drawing pens, watercolor pencils and hope that, after a month and a half of artists' block, I will be able to free things enough to create--something, even if it is just a new friend.  It is funny how opening a sketch pad seems to open people up to conversation.   There is a certain fascination people have with art-in-progress--and in this case, I may be at a disadvantage with my remedial Spanish, so the art may just have to speak for itself.

It is now Autumn....

Even though I have been absent from this spot for several months, I have not been absent from my studio.  It is Labor Day, and since we were using this day as a "staycation", I thought I would work in the studio on a piece for my daughter.  She had wanted a pastel like Degas.  She didn't get it, but I managed to pull off a good picture and although I am reluctant to show it, it represents another milestone.

In other words, I was please with the whole piece this time.

And that is rare.

We will take it in tomorrow for framing. Now, I will think more about pastels to supplement my watercolors.
 

Offering for Ash Wednesday

Usually, trips are a great catalyst for me and I come back, if not brimming with ideas, then at least having a few pop into my head.  In this case, I went to an art fair in Boca Raton, and met a very nice (and I might say from his paintings, accomplished) artist who had a piece which was charcoal done on canvas and fixed with the usual fixative.  I had not heard of such a thing (being  ignorant and at the beginning of a steep learning curve) and so decided when I got home to try it.

This was the result.  It is called "Are you so sure?"  I really like the charcoal on the canvas idea, but not sure yet if it is durable enough.  I have put fixative on it and will see how it holds.

 

Sometimes Bigger is Better

I just finished a watercolor, a much bigger version of one I have hanging in my dining room.  The one there is a favorite of my husband's and it was his idea to enlarge it.  I hadn't done it for two reasons.  First, could I pull it off again?  Second, it would require an expensive frame and matting if I did pull it off.

However, everyone is gone and I decided to take paint in hands.  After a trip to the local craft store for a ginormous piece of paper this was the result, and the effect I sought in the first picture actually came to life in this one.

 So, sometimes bigger IS better!

In Praise of the Slow.

I have always, always been what you might call a slow person, who likes to take the time to deliberate before doing.  Indeed, if you rush me, as my mother always (many times rightly) tried to, I will misplace or lose or forget something.  It is one of those limitations I live with;  I can "rev" up, so to speak, but it always makes me tense and nervous.  Needless to say, in this country where the premium virtue is haste even in places of contemplation (!), I have often been the slower car--you know the one--who is taking their time while everyone else is rushing to the fire. 

So imagine my delight in finding this link called Slow Painting.

http://slowpainting.wordpress.com/

It isn't just about "slow art", but slow architecture, slow cooking, slow living.  I hope you slow people out there will enjoy it as much as I have.

And take your time.

Christmas Card

I really was going to try another technique and still may this am before I have to start cooking (and cooking and cooking--artist in the kitchen today!).   But instead, the brush had different ideas;  I went with them, and offer you a Christmas card this morning.  May you have a blest Christmas filled with light and beauty and peace.

From Small to Large

Here's the latest. Its unfortunate shadow at the top is due to a) it is a watercolor sadly in need of a frame, so I have it pinned to my wall but b) I ran out of pins so c) because I stole some from the picture above, d) the picture above is casting a shadow.

I did a lot (17)  of sketches the last time I was in NM, but this is the first I have tried to enlarge.  It is outside of the town of Abiqu, along the Chama River, not far from the Christ in the Desert Benedictine Monastery which I was fortunate enough to visit for the first time. This is Georgia's country all the way.  I think it is the best kept secret in the United States, because the cliffs are colorful, moody and grand, the silence palpable, and the sky incredibly, unblinkingly New Mexico blue.  And the painting itself is technically much better, not overworked, not saved from the grave like my last offing.

From time to time, I start wondering why I do this--paint, I mean--and why I am so passionate about it.  After all, I am not going to be making millions in the wild New York (yes, I read the WSJ) art market.
And I am not sure my paintings say anything anyone else's don't.

The anwer is simple:  freedom to express what I see, as one of G-d's creatures. And I am blessed by G-d to have the option.  As a notebook I have says, "Pretending to be a Normal Person day after day is Exhausting".  Hmmm, and what IS normal, anyway??