Only me, popping my head round to say hello again after another eon away. I finally have some time on my hands, just in time for uni to start up again after Easter, and thought I’d been neglecting my shops for quite some time. I decided to have a look round Folksy again, see what my fellow sellers have been up to. I’m currently working on a painting(!) of sunflowers. It’s going to be a giant one. I guess I was in the mood for some YELLOW. After the initial background was filled in mostly, I kind of lost steam, so have decided to look around for inspiration. So this week’s Folksy Friday – my first in quite some time – is on all things sunflowery. All that yellow will have to do to cheer me up for now, in lieu of the springy/summery weather we really SHOULD be having this time of the year… grrr.
Enjoy!
Large Sunflower Wet Felted Flower Brooch by Eve Marshall
Sunflower Leaves Watercolour Print by Botanics
Swarovski sunflower bracelet by Bessie loves
(Made to order) Mosaic Sunflower Bowl by Mosaics by Jan
Sunflower Poster print by Omorfia Photography
Sunflower & Calendula Soap by The Little Cornish Soap Company
It never rains but it pours. Today has proven prolific – three paintings! I didn’t sleep much or well last night, so woke up feeling rather low and felt in need of some soul nourishment, so decided to take today off just to do some painting, and it has done me the world of good. I feel so much better… You can take the girl out of the art, but you can’t take the art out of the girl. Or something. Shush up, I’m tired…
Colorado Wood
I started out with this watercolor sketch, using a Google streetview that I originally found for last month’s Virtual Paintout – the theme was Colorado. Again, I had intended to take part, but just didn’t get around to it in time. Story of my life these days… Grad school’s FUN!!!! (This month is Elba; I had a look and couldn’t find anything inspiring about it. No wonder they exiled Napolean there…) Anyway, I’m not terribly happy with it – the forest looks like it’s floating, and I gave up and moved on to something else out of sheer frustration…
This (in watercolor and ink).
Jellyfish
Sticking with the nautical theme, I decided to do an acrylic painting as well, of another underwater scene. There’s something really calming about doing underwater scenes.
Shipwreck
And to finish off this (mostly) underwater-themed day of painting, here’s an underwater video by a recent music obsession of mine, Warpaint. Enjoy.
Happy New Year! Yes, it is I, the prodigal blogger, back for one night only to wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous, peaceful 2012 free of all asteroids, pole switches, super volcanoes or whatever disaster it was the Mayans thought we had coming this year…
This past autumn and winter have been busy busy busy for me with the onset of grad school madness, hence the complete and utter death of my artistic life, sadly. That’s not entirely true… I did enter a couple paintings in one more – the fourth of the year! – exhibition, at Peacock Visual Arts here in Aberdeen, for their enormous 500+ strong Winter Exhibition. It was an excellent if slightly overwhelming show and an honour to be included amongst so many talented local artists.
But other than that, it wasn’t until today that I finally had some time to do some painting. That too isn’t entirely true… I actually ought to be reading and doing all manner of things for my psych experiments and literature reviews due in January, but I figured it being New Years Day, I could take the day off guilt-free and hit the salt mines again tomorrow…
I had really wanted to take part in the Virtual Paintout challenge for December, the location for which was Eureka, California. Given that December is holiday month, and given that I always get horrifically homesick this time of the year, I was relishing sitting down and browsing through Google Streetviews of good ol’ northern California. But there were final projects for grad school, there was Christmas shopping, and I just didn’t get to it until today… when it’s too late to enter it in VP. But that’s okay, I still got the pleasure of a virtual trip home(ish), and the sight of sunshine and redwoods did this California girl’s homesick heart the world of good.
I ended up doing a painting of a road lined with redwoods. My camera just could not get a decent shot of this painting tonight, I’m afraid, and no amount of Photoshopping seemed to help, sorry.
Redwoods & Sunshine
But you get the gist. Everyone always thinks of palm trees when they think of California, but if you grew up in northern California as I did, the redwood tree is another staple tree. This particular image reminded me of a camping trip I went on with a friend about a decade ago. We went up to Canada and I remember mainly how incredibly cold, even in the middle of summer, it was the whole time. At one point I think I was wearing every item of clothing I’d brought with me + some of my friend’s, and I was STILL frozen. On our last night, back in California at last, we stayed the night in a redwood forest somewhere near where this Google Streetview source photo was taken. For the first time on that trip, I was actually pleasantly warm, and I remember lying in the tent listening to the redwoods creaking as they swayed gently in the breeze. It was heaven. The rest of the trip convinced me that I am definitely not a camper; but that night is a pleasant memory – and I was so happy to be back on California soil…
In other news, I have finished the Mermaid painting I showed as a work in progress earlier. It’s one of the paintings that went into the Peacock Exhibition. I’m quite pleased with how it looked in the frame too. Prints of this painting are also available for sale on my various shops (see sidebar for links).
2011 was a good year for me artistically – my first exhibitions, I started up virtual shopfronts, I have sold paintings and prints and made friends in the local art scene. 2012 will unfortunately have to be spent focusing on my psychology degree instead. However, I am determined that I will find time in the coming year to do some painting – for my own sanity!
A lot of people have asked me about the TBC exhibition, how it was going, when they could see the finished pieces. I have been keeping things under wraps until after the actual exhibition to encourage as many local readers as possible to visit the exhibition itself. Now that NEOS is over, I can share the finished paintings with you guilt-free. In the end, Limousine Bull ended up hanging only three of the five paintings I did for this exhibition due to curatorial factors. I only got out to see the exhibition once, as I was away on holiday in the far north of Scotland for most of the week. I just got an email from LB saying turnout was good and people seemed to enjoy the booklets. Judging from the weather during the NEOS week, anyone who did make it out probably should receive a medal for battling through the rain and wind to see art. A huge thank-you goes to my hubby, and friends Shona, Drew, Mike and Louisa, for coming out to the opening with me; the support was very much appreciated. And once more for good measure, thank you so much to all of you who contributed such great ideas in the beginning stages of this project. Those of you whose ideas I picked to paint have been contacted, and as soon as I sort out my printing/computer issues, you’ll be receiving your free prints, I promise.
One of the most gratifying parts of the exhibition for me was reading the comments people had written in the booklets afterwards. I was delighted to see people getting into the spirit of it and adding their thoughts to the mix. I’m not usually one to go in for the whole conceptual/interactive artwork thing, so it was a new and interesting experience for me, and I really liked reading what people saw in my paintings, and how their thought processes and memories triggered were sometimes quite different to my own.
Since two of my paintings (TBC1 and TBC4) didn’t get to make their debut at this exhibition, I thought perhaps I could do my own little virtual version of the TBC exhibition with all five of my paintings together, here on my blog. Feel free to add your comments to the virtual booklets… What do these paintings make you think of? Do you see how the TBC theme relates to them?
TBC1
TBC2
TBC3
TBC4
TBC5
In other news, I am just returned from a whirlwind of a trip up to the far northern “mainland” parts of Scotland (Ullapool/Thurso/Wick area). The weather could have been better (to say the least), but we still had a great time and saw some amazing sights. Scotland luckily can be beautiful even in inclement weather, and all the fog, wind and rain actually just made the isolated, lonely, dramatic highlands look really atmospheric and moody. I drank a LOT of hot tea, fell in mud twice, wore two wooly sweaters non-stop and took millions of photographs of mountains, lochs and heather and overall had a lovely time. Also, I’d like to give a shout-out to the absolutely fantastic holiday lodge we rented for the week, at Highland Glen Lodges. Highly recommended if you’re ever in the area! Speaking of which, I did do one painting while away on our soggy adventures – of the stellar view from our lodge. It isn’t the greatest painting, but given it was done in about 20 minutes over morning coffee, it’s not bad, I think.
Well, I think it’s safe to say that was the end of our summer… if you can even call it that. I feel a bit cheated by the horrid weather we’ve had this year, and although autumn is usually a time of the year that I welcome with open arms, this year I just feel a bit annoyed that I didn’t have the chance to get sick of blue skies and long daylight. However, one of the things I do still like about the encroaching autumnal weather and darkening days is what I like to call my ‘Victorian kitchen garden harvest’ tradition. It’s hardly a big harvest, before you get that idea, because we don’t have a garden of our own, and my little windowsill herb garden attempts have failed spectacularly, aside from my hardy little chives. However, luckily my mother-in-law has a very green thumb and a lovely, big Victorian garden which still has some of the original heirloom Victorian plants growing in it, and thanks to her, I can take home any excess she doesn’t need. She has a lovely apple tree that every year produces a gigantic crop of little, blushing, tart-sweet apples – I forget the name of the variety, but it’s an old, old variety that starts with a W. And every year I take a bucket or two (or three!) of apples back with me and make a huge batch of apple butter, which goes out as Christmas gifts to all my friends and family. It’s a really satisfying thing to do – turning a lovely old variety of fruit that has been growing for over a hundred years into a homemade-with-love, spiced preserve that’s perfect for warming up those cold, dark days ahead. Every year, this tradition is one of my favourite things about the changing of the seasons. In honor of that time coming up again soon, my Folksy Friday theme for today is the old Victorian kitchen garden.
Victorian Romance Flower Lariat - Knitted Textiles by Victoria Jackman
Shabby Chic Gift Tags - PollyKrafts
Gothic inspired purple rose key charm / Secrets - onesunnyafternoon
I’m a bit late this week – fri£$^”*&@in’ transcription work has kept me busy most of today – at least until the carpal tunnel started to set in. I started listening to music after I was finished with work – it’s how I unwind – and was reminded of a song I haven’t listened to for a while, but which is an all-time favorite. It never gets old and is so quiet and lovely and melodic, perfect for the end of a rather busy week…
It has inspired this week’s Folksy Friday – all things hidden or hard to find. Enjoy!
Ninja Beads - Lilley's
Trefoil Napkin Rings - JC Middlebrook
Summer Shells Hidden Pearl Necklace - Nanuk Jewellery
I really really should be working on the TBC paintings. But I have made a little bit of headway, and am now pretty much done with two and have another two about halfway done, with only one more to start from scratch, so I’m on the way – at least that’s my justification for taking some time off to procrastinate and do some other artwork just for fun . August sure is zipping by very fast though, and the September 5th hand-in date is looming!
I miss doing art for art’s sake though, I must admit. It might be a while again before I decide to do a show where I have to work on anything specific – I don’t like the pressure I feel like it puts on me – makes it feel too much like work! So I took a break and decided to finish up the koi painting. Before doing the bubble background on the koi, I decided to test the technique out first on a sheet of blank paper, so I ended up with a blank sheet of paper with a bubble background. The shadows under the koi were bugging me – too dark – so I scraped off a layer of the crayon. I’d left the other sheet of blank/bubble background paper underneath my koi drawing while I was scraping off the dark crayon on the shadows, and afterwards I discovered that a bunch of the crayon shavings had stuck to the paper underneath. The serendipitous little black flecks on the blue background got me thinking that I could do something with silhouettes with that piece of paper, and I ended up deciding to do a drawing. I haven’t done much drawing over the years, but I’ve been inspired lately by the lovely ink drawings of some of the Forecourt Art Group members – Anita Inverarity and Esther Green – to try my hand at some drawing. I know it’s still not my forte, but I enjoyed doing something other than my usual painting, even when I found it a bit frustrating.
Murder
I suppose a red or violet sky would have worked better than this sort of cheerful blue, but part of me thinks that makes it creepier somehow, heh!
Here’s the koi picture finished. I’m still not really happy with the shadows, but I don’t think there’s anything else I can do to salvage it.
Koi (Finished)
In other news, my first exhibition since school is up and running with the Forecourt Art Group, and apparently off to a good start (although sadly I missed out on the opening night – though I hear it was very busy! – because I was away in Glasgow). I have yet to get out to see it myself, but I was told that my Sheepies painting sold the first night ! I have a sort of invigilating shift this Sunday the 14th, so if anyone’s interested in dropping by when I’m there to say hello, if you’re in the area, I’ll be there 12-2pm. The Forecourt Summer Exhibition is on at the Peterculter Heritage Hall every Sat & Sun afternoon this month, ending the 28th.
I had a little cottage industry going, making up box sets of greeting cards and prints.
Cottage Industry (Forecourt Summer Exhibition)
Paintings framed and ready to go…
Sheepies/Highland Autumn Framed
Autumn Walk Framed
I also will be doing a third exhibition this summer at the Belmont Picturehouse Cinema here in Aberdeen, beginning August 25th. I’ll only have about six small paintings in there (likely my sky series and some water ones). Here’s a poster (opens a PDF) – if you wanted to print it out and stick it up on your noticeboards at work or wherever (if you’re in the Aberdeen area), that would be gratefully appreciated .
And now, I’d better get back to that procrastination…
I have been waking up in the middle of the night lately in a bit of a panic about all the things I really ought to be doing instead of wasting time sleeping. I really should be painting those TBC paintings. I really should be reading more for my upcoming masters project. I really should be finishing up that transcription work I took on to make some extra money. I really should be exercising. I should, should, should… nag, nag, nag…lather, rinse, repeat. Anyway, yesterday I went into a bit of a fevered painting frenzy and painted all morning and then did some more art (something not TBC-related) when I got home from my day job. Sadly, I still don’t think I’m very far along, but at least I feel I’m making a start.
So, I give you a sneak preview at three of my TBC paintings on the go…
TBC 1 & 2 (WIP)
TBC3 (WIP)
That last one looks a bit unappealing just now I know, but that’s just because it’s preparatory work, the white things at the bottom will be painted once they’ve dried.
About the announcing of the TBC ideas I’ve chosen… I hope you’ll bear with me a little while longer and allow me to wait until the paintings are all finished to announce the finalists for the print prizes. It’s probably cheating a bit, but I’m still vascillating about the last two ideas to paint and will probably need to see how it goes with trying to paint them before I settle – hope you understand!
The last sneak peek I have to share is a work-in-progress artwork I started last night just for fun.
Koi (WIP)
It’s based on a photograph in my inspiration folder. I liked the color of the blue fish in the front and thought that it might work well using a technique that was a favorite of mine when I was a child – crayon-on-crayon scrapework. I think you all know what I’m talking about – drawing something in bright colors and then covering over it in black or dark crayon and then scraping away the dark layer to reveal the bright colors below. I used to LOVE doing that as a kid. It didn’t work quite the way I’d hoped on this one, but I had fun working with a different medium than usual. I love the smell of crayons and also looking through all the interesting color names, tearing off the paper around the top edge to give you more crayon access. Ah… nostalgic kiddie art materials. I have great plans for watercoloring the background eventually. I want to try out an effect I haven’t used (correctly) in decades – watercolor bubbles – but the last time I tried it kind of recently it failed miserably, so need to do some more research on how to get it to turn out right, first. Any watercolorists out there who want to give me some pointers? Thanks.
I came across a simple little song the other day by Malcolm Middleton, one half of the now defunct Scottish band Arab Strap, called ‘Devil and the Angel’. (For those with sensitive ears, I should warn you there’s a little bit of swearing in this, but it’s super duper Scottish swearing, and therefore quite amusing )
It’s nothing fancy, but it’s about something that all artists except the super conceited can, I think, relate to. I certainly can. And that is the ever ongoing battle with self-confidence.
As I think anyone who’s been following this blog knows, I’ve got quite a few new things on the go just now, and honestly, I’m quite nervous about all of it. There are my first two art exhibitions coming up this summer, I’m attempting to finish a novel, and I start grad school in October after 9 years out of school. Self-confidence has never been my strong suit, but lately I’m struggling even more than usual.
For every artist (and indeed most people, but art is an introspective sort of field, so is particularly plagued I think) there are always two voices competing inside the mind – Middleton calls them the devil and the angel, which is apt, but I prefer to call them the Optimism and Pessimism Fairies. Now, there is a (rather interesting and entertaining) case to be made for pessimism, but in my case, it tends to be a paralytic, which is not ideal for getting anything done.
As the song above nicely demonstrates, the Pessimism Fairy whispers evil, nasty, cruel things into your ear about how you are the world’s most useless human being, in fact, that you only excel at being truly terrible at everything you put your hand to, and you might as well just give up, become a wino or jump off a cliff, and spare yourself further humiliation. The other, the Optimism Fairy, tries to buck you up and feebly pipes up in the background going, ‘Don’t listen! Lalalalaa, we can’t hear you, Pessimism Fairy! You have some talent, you have brains, you have something to offer the world, however small.’ (She’s good buds with my Muse.)
And which do you believe? When there is a world just full to bursting with talented people – some infinitely more talented than you – who are struggling to get anyone at all to notice them? And what is this talent that I supposedly posses worth? I paint pretty pictures that hang on a wall and at the very most make someone smile, but at the worst, just clutter up space. I can write some words, but it will never be a classic or say anything terribly profound. I can do some psych studies on mental imagery and flow that are interesting but ultimately useless, practically speaking. I don’t save lives. Oscar Wilde said it best, ‘All art is useless.’ What kind of a pointless gift is this art talent, IF that’s even what it is?
And then I swing the other way. Art = civilisation; when art dies, a civilisation crumbles. For all the people calling it arty-farty frivolous nonsense, that I should buckle down and get a REAL job as a lawyer or an engineer or a ‘real’ scientist, they would miss it if all art was suddenly taken away, if all the slightly softer edges were taken off the world and all that was left was the stark, hard stuff. As Gandhi said, “Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.”
First of all, a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have jumped in and given me your TBC ideas, it is so gratefully appreciated! Of course, it’s dawned on me slowly but surely that I now have to find a way to make some of these into paintings, which is harder than it first seemed! Eek! But, it’s a challenge, and I’m looking forward to it. Something a little different for me…
Although I really ought to be working on stuff for my upcoming shows, I have taken a little break to take part in the Virtual Paintout competition again, after skipping a couple months. This month’s location is the Brit/French Channel isle of Jersey. My first impression of Jersey is that it has a lot of very pretty tree-lined drives, which you might recall I am awfully partial to. However, I did a tree-lined drive for the Ireland challenge, so thought I should do something different this time. After a lot of searching, I finally settled on a slightly minimalist/abstract view of a beach scene. I was struck by the shape and colour of the wall in the mid-ground particularly, the little S-shaped curve and the stark blue shadows. I just thought I’d do a really tiny little painting and it would take me no time…
How wrong I was! It took me HOURS. I don’t know why I keep thinking that small paintings are easy and quick. They almost never are. I think it’s the fact that such fine detail is required in such limited surface space that makes it fiddly and tedious, like trying to draw a portrait on the head of a nail or something. All I can say is that I was not meant to be a miniaturist, nor was I meant to be an architect or anything else that requires the ability and desire to draw straight lines. I ended up having to go for a soak in a hot bath to soothe my crooked, screaming spine after sitting hunched over a tiny canvas all evening. But I’m pleased enough with the result. I am considering doing at least another Jersey painting, as there were a couple interesting scenes that I wanted to try and paint. Here’s the Google Streetview reference.
Jersey Shore
That was not my only creative endeavour last night, oh no! I have a bunch of over-ripe bananas in my kitchen and have been wondering what to do with them for a few days now… I didn’t want to make traditional banana bread, because that’s boring. But I remembered the old vegan challah bread recipe I tried a while ago, and thought that might be nice. So I made a loaf (just half this recipe). At first I thought it was going to be a disaster. The only dried active yeast I had was… erm… so past its best before date that I’d probably give health & safety officers a heart attack if they knew. I doctored it a bit with a sprinkle of new fast action yeast, to hopefully give it a little kick, and just prayed for a minor miracle, that my yeast still had some oomph left in it yet. So I kneaded and got it in a bowl and waited an hour for the first rise. When I finally checked it, it hadn’t risen… at all. Well, it was kind of too late now, so I just decided to soldier on. I punched it down and braided it and got it on the baking tray and left it for its second rise cycle. When I checked it… same thing. Hadn’t budged. I nearly cried. But then I figured, well, it might come out as hard as rock, but I can use it as a doorstop or something. So I baked it. And it came out beautifully! The yeast gods were looking favourably on me that day, I guess. Or at least with pity, in the end… Mmm. I’m looking forward to trying it out as French toast this weekend!
. August sure is zipping by very fast though, and the September 5th hand-in date is looming! 
