This is the third creative stimulus I’ve found, and perhaps the best of all. Its name is “What’s on Your Easel?” The interaction between artists who are working daily on improving their skills is a delightful invitation to show my work as it develops, and ask for “comment and critique” if I want it.

It’s a forum on a website called “Wet Canvas,” which is a whole world of practicing artists of all levels of development, inspiring each other to greater accomplishments. It ranges from art students to professionals, and from those dipping toes in many areas to those who have settled on one subject or style for artistic development. The membership consists of the entire world of artists. One accomplished Russian painter showed us her techniques for reproducing classical art for her clients through each stage of the painting’s creation. Others from Germany, India, the British Isles, Canada and South America are also helping each other. Membership is free, but the language is English — there are not many artists from other countries represented.

“What’s on Your Easel?” is under the media designation “Oils.” This is where I get needed input from other artists while I’m still working on projects in my home studio. And seeing their skills and creative effort merge into distinctive works over the course of a month pushed me into spending a lot more time at the easel than I had been doing. I even painted a self-portrait (something I had intended to do before I got this old!), above. It’s like having artists at your side, working. But only when you want them there.

Contact them for a tour, at http://www.wetcanvas.com   I think you’ll be as delighted as I was!

Keep your brushes wet!
Nancy

 

If you are like me, sometimes you put your creative work at the last of your list. The War of Art is a wonderful book to keep by your side to light your inner fires again. It applies to all creative people: writers, artists, inventors, crafters, or even people who haven't yet engaged their creative talents -- because we all are born with them. The subtitle says it all: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.

I bought it online through Alibris for about $8.00. It's a paperback.

Every time I start reading this book, it zaps me, and I have to put it down and start painting. I haven’t been allowed a chance to finish it. It's all Pressfield's fault.

It was written by a novelist as advice to other creative people, from insights he had gained through study and experience. It’s a “novel” rendition of your standard self-help book, packed with vivid imagery and humor ― and kick-in-the-pants urgency. Not for children: The imagery is a little too, uh, coarse, and some of the advice is tongue-in-cheek. And don’t start reading this in bed, or you’ll have to get up and do some creative work first. Up all niii-iiight!

Dripping with good-natured irony, the book is the most fun I’ve ever had reading non-fiction. The author, after many wasted years, discovered that his own creative force was being sabotaged by nothing more than his own resistance. After seeing other people saying what they were going to do, and watching them not do it, he realized that our resistance is a widespread plague. Even talented creators actively resist the creative urge. The opposite of creation is resistance, not destruction ― and it’s common in many of us. Read this book for tips on how to fight dawdling and excuses. You’ll love it!

Cheers,
Nancy

Yesterday I went out to Will Rogers Park to paint at 10:30. It was a lovely, sunny day. I ended up coming home with a first-class sunburn. The only time this has ever happened to me (as an adult)  is when I went out to paint at Gloucester, MA. Apparently the problem is to remember to keep applying sun-block when one is deeply engaged in creative work. My powers of concentration focus sharply to the exclusion of other factors, such as feeling "a little warm."

Today I'm suffering for it. I had been planning on going out again today, since it's another nice day, but I'm in so much pain today that the only thing I can wear is a loose silk caftan -- OK for a man, but not for a woman outdoors! Luckily I had my camera, so the whole trip wasn't a waste. The only item I wanted to focus on in the painting is the fountain sculpture that is central to the park, with just a loose background of the colorful fall foliage.

I decided that my main problem was that my cowboy hat was not wide enough to protect me from the sun. When you're concentrating on form, value, color harmony and actual brushwork, you need passive protection such as well-designed hats (my hands would have still gotten sunburned!). This is an engineering problem, and I think some savvy engineer could manage to come up with a painting hat that is a) wide enough to protect your head and shoulders even in winter when the sun is lower in the South; b) curved downward enough on sides and back to prevent a breeze from making off with it; and c) doesn't make you look like a dork.

Here's a rough sketch I just made. Maybe a set-in scarf or bolo under the hat for the wind would add something. And if the design was more masculine, that might help, too.

The other engineering thing I thought would add something to the whole en plein air experience is a better palette. None of the artists I know actually holds a palette in his non-painting hand, but ends up sticking his used brushes between his fingers. At home I use a palette with no holes in it, and ... how would I hold a classic palette outdoors if I had to use my other hand as a brush holder? (This is the "wind comes sweepin' down the plains" state.)

The plastic painting box with the blue lid that is ubiquitous in art supply stores is designed to hold disposable paper palettes. But what if someone designed a substantial palette that would fit edge to edge inside it -- without a thumb hole and curves in it? The box is equipped with pegs that fit down snugly all the way around the edge of the paper palettes. If a non-hole wooden palette that size were placed inside, the paint would still be held away from the lid. We could come in from outdoors without having to scrape off the palette while sunburned (I got Prussian blue on my sunburnt hands).

People are always trying to sell us new art products. I'm sure some of the rest of you have ideas on how to make the painting experience easier. I would love to hear about them, and maybe the art supply industry would like that, too!

Oh, one other thing I thought of...

Cheers,
Nancy

I've been having a difficult time getting my schedule back on track this month. It started out with my eldest sister's death on the 29th of Sept.. Her name was Lois Steiger Mercer and she was a teenager when I was born. She was an inspiration for me to develop my talent, because all during my childhood, she would paint beautiful, dramatic oils. I still love them and cannot view them with an unbiased eye. I'm including some here for you to see. She never followed her gift, but called me, "the artist in the family." I felt it was higher praise than I deserved from someone so gifted.




I also attended a workshop given by Mike Wimmer, an artist who is well-known for his professional and commercial art, especially here in his home, Oklahoma. The workshop was "How to Paint Portraits like a Master," and he showed us how to use the limited palettes of the Renaissance. I think I've been converted to the limited palette (for at least a while) because of the automatic color harmony it creates within the painting. It also gives you a lot more space on your palette for experimenting with color mixtures!

The WIP below shows how I accidentally arrived at a harmonious color scheme in "Myana," befpre I went to the workshop. And the work in progress next to it, "The Master Touch," represents two days of painting at the  workshop. I can't finish it yet because one of the colors is not available locally. I had yellow ocher, raw sienna, prussian blue, transparent red oxide and titanium white.



Mike is giving another workshop in January 2010, and I'm tempted to enroll in that one, too. It includes figurative painting. This workshop was overbooked, so I keep wondering if I shouldn't back off and let the others who didn't get into it enroll. Or maybe the Cowboy Hall of Fame could give us a bigger work space?

Cheers,
Nancy

I met with my client, who gave me the opportunity to meet and take photos of my own of each child, and she optimized my starting materials by lending me photographs collected of each one, some by her daughter-in-law, who is on a professional level when it comes to photography.

We discussed the positioning of each child, and the setting for the group portrait. My client loved the idea of having them around a campfire. I would need to imagine the sculpturing shaping of each face but one. The smallest boy was already lit from beneath his face. We agreed on canvas size, who would provide the framing, and the price.



The first sketch is rather cartoon-like, but served only as an arrangement of the children for my client's approval. I emailed it to her. She was enthused, so I continued with the second sketch in a larger size, and with tighter relationships between each child. Shown here, the paper is laid out on the canvas so that I can see how I will change the relationships a little on the painting, and enlarge the children so they approach about 75% of life size.

You can see from the 6" x 8" painting below the sketch, that the 30" x 40" size was right for the project.

Using the sketch and photos as a guide, I rendered the faces carefully on the canvas to keep a good balance going, using small brushes and thinned burnt sienna. Then came the big brushes and the sweep of sky across the top to unify each child into the same values. I taped each photo to an untouched (or dried) segment of the canvas, with non-residue tape, and started painting the portraits from left to right, reserving a period of time at the end of the project for correcting mistakes.

I usually left the eyes until I had shaped and painted the face and let it dry, so that the clear gray-blue of the whites and the brilliance of the irises and pupils do not pick up flesh or eyelash colors. I also did not re-shape the girl's face, but formed the intention of moving the fire away from her. I felt that bottom-lighting would have flattened her lower face in the position it was in. The closest I came to alla prima with this group was in the smallest boy's face, which was already bottom-lighted.

The almost finished image in this last photo shows how I corrected the leftward girl's waistcoat to the actual article of clothing, and added some detail work to her brother's tee shirt. clothing details were also added to the three on the right. I made some additional improvements to the faces and painted the boy's hand. Now I was ready for fire!

This is the finished product, also shown in "works/portraits and people" on my homepage. As usual, I didn't want to let go of it, but my client was eager to get it onto her wall, and it's now where it belongs!

— Nancy

I hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend. I know I did, because I actually got some work done — and really feel good about it.

You say that's not what Labor Day is for? Well, if your "work" is actually a combination of play and work, as art is, you can get away with saying that. 

This photograph of my own not-for-sale work has earned the title of "The Wall." It's likely that nickname applied because the first painting on the left is lightly called "Hole in the Wall."

I'm going back to "work." Just dropped a line to say Hi!

Cheers,
Nancy

After sending out my newsletter yesterday, I was getting ready to re-frame the two paintings I showed in it  They were older paintings. I noticed that "Oklahoma Symphony" had mold on the back of the cotton canvas. I removed most of it with vinegar, but I think the canvas is still not reliable. I want my paintings to hang in people's homes for at least a few generations, so I've taken this painting off the website, and I will destroy it.

Too much time as an "amateur" artist can fool you into thinking of your work as always being there. Just as you would assume your talent and skills will always be there. When you start selling it full-time, you realize that your reputation as a professional hinges on using the best materials and the best substrates for your work.

That moldy canvas was one of the prepackaged three-fers that I should only have used for studies, not finished work. I have no complaint about cotton canvas if it's high-quality. I started some works on linen canvas this summer, and I like it even better. But I should have thought about the organic qualities of paint and canvas, whether cotton or linen.  Both the oil colors and mediums I use  have individual qualities. For instance, Titanium White  was what I used before I started using Permalba White. Titanium White is wonderful for its softness and non-yellowing quality. But Permalba's richness and creaminess dries to a luscious finish and is great for knife painting.

The second assumption is that I would always be a terrific artist. Too much praise, and too many awards, given too early, can convince anyone of this. By the time I retired from my commercial art career, I thought I would just leap into being a professional artist without further training. After all, I had finished a life of marketing my art -- although it's much easier when your client pays you for work that will make him money. I had a surprise in store for me -- If people are buying art for love, for decor, to impress, or for personal reasons, it's a whole different kind of marketing.

I was surprised to see that, while I was doing still doing fashion art and designing ads, my gift for art had been overtaken by quite a few absolutely fantastic professional artists, who obviously had worked on their skills in order to enhance their natural talents. I've also seen those with little talent, and much hard work, excel as much as those born with it.

Not only that, but these artists with a capital "A" had taken further training and workshops from even more celebrated artists, in order to keep their education and skills current. My conclusion was:

1. Use only the best materials for your painting, just as you use quality frames to enhance it.
2. Work every day on your art, even if it's just to steal a few moments sketching. The housework will wait for you!
3. Invest in continuing education with the best teachers possible.
4. Take time to learn the newer marketing skills of this age. Word of mouth may be the best advertising, but your reach, and impact, is enhanced with a web presence.

I've enrolled in a workshop this fall with an excellent portrait artist. I will be all eyes and ears! I've found a source for linen canvas, pre-stretched, and I've ordered a book on learning HTML, so that I won't be left behind in newer communication skills. I'm my worst critic, so I hope I brush up enough to impress ... myself!

Nancy Park
http://nancyparkfineart.com

Cats, among other things

Cats do not believe in work, whether you are doing it, or futilely trying to get them to do some. One thing they excel at is sleeping, sometimes at full alert. It's necessary for them to be at full alert because you might start to use the fact that you are trapped as the cat's bed to actually do something like sketch them.

They never sleep quite as long anyplace else as on a lap. Trying to turn this to advantage, I used some of my "down" time in August to sketch two of them, shown herewith. The first is Nova, or as we sometimes call cats here, a meatloaf.



This one below is my tortoise-shell cat, Twinkle. We call this sketch "Lapwarmer."

What these critters do is eat and sleep, which is why their little white tummies puff out when they lie down. I think they call that fat. We try to encourage them to exercise, but you can't really put them on a leash and walk them around the block. You're reduced to running around the house with various cat toys, which actually has them up and interested for about 5 minutes, after which they start giving you that cat-look that says, "Why is this human acting like an utter idiot?" Later, sometime around two a.m., they start racing around the place and chasing each other as if they'll never get another chance to run. I think people like cats because, possibly, they are the only creature stranger than humans, and they're definitely from another planet.

Links to other Artists

I'm putting some new links up on my Links category, and I would love to share these other artists and their talented writing and artistry with you. Many of them give helpful tips on their blogs, which is really terrific, because I'm always needing help. As a matter of handiness, I'll give them to you right here, because they're not up yet.

---

Every time I'm urged to add yet another social networking site to my lists of thing to do, my blood pressure goes up.

For every online hour I spend is another hour not spent painting. I like social networking, but many of the "friends" on my FaceBook page are not really friends, but additional conversationalists to drag my attention away from my main purpose. I joined Twitter and found that I couldn't seem to learn to use it. Now I don't know how to quit Twitter. Three followers were posted as "following" my tweets, but the fact is, I have no tweets. And I have two "yahoogroups" and a professional editing group. These often stray from the topic into controversial subjects, rather than art. If I'm going to engage my emotions, I want it to be about art!

Let's face it: Life is short, art is long.