Sketch Watercolor in Strathmore Mixed Media Journal
Coming clean here: For the last couple days I’ve been painting like crazy to finish a painting for the art show Animalscapes (More about this show in another blog post). Up against the deadline? Yep.
But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been painting my 30 paintings in 30 days. Just not blogging about them.
Two days ago I painted the tiny study you see at the top of this post. I painted while the fiddler drove. The painting is just a small block of color in my sketchbook of a photo I took at Christmas. The photo is dreadful; I think I dropped the camera and accidentally snapped the picture. But there was something about it that intrigued me. Maybe it’s the angles of the large green carpeted space.
In a class taught by one of my favorite artists, Felicia Forte, I learned to look at these blurry, awkward photos in a different way. Can they be cropped to create an interesting composition? Are there interesting shape or color combinations? Is there something of use?
There is something in the original photo that makes me want to keep playing with this image, and give it a bit more time.
The only baby at Christmas Watercolor sketch on 9″ x 12″ Ampersand Aquabord
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While the fiddler drives, I like to paint. Problem is, the car is moving so fast through the landscape that all I capture are fleeting shapes and color. So rather than write a wordy blog post, dear reader, I give you some classic 5-7-5 haiku with my little sketches. Happy Tuesday afternoon!
Traveling, I paint
wet brown hills fading away
from town cloaked in trees.
The yellow grass, wet
but not yet green, dreams like birds
of El Niño rains.
Two rocks rear above
the road. Wet, the big rock’s head
bleeds to meet the rain
The last pass. Fly down
fast past a parked black-and-white.
Play invisible.
Dry furrows cross fields
newly plowed with hopes of rain
that falls on cities
How to paint a tree?
Edges, texture, size and form.
What’s seen disappears.
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Deer in landscape study Watercolor on Ampersand Aquabord
Lately I’ve been working on Ampersand Aquabord. I don’t totally love it the way I love Arches #300 hot press, but I’m fond of the idea that I don’t have to frame it behind glass. That makes it far cheaper, even considering the cost of the board. And I also like that I can rub the paint away more easily to correct mistakes (although it’s surprisingly simple to blot out errors on the Arches).
For today’s painting, I experimented on this 9″ x 12″ Aquabord with some tried and true watercolor cheats techniques: Salt, alcohol, and masking fluid.
Detail: Watercolor with salt on Aquabord
Paint doesn’t really soak into the Aquabord, so it was difficult to rub off the salt without rubbing off the paint. But it does make an interesting dark texture.
Detail: Watercolor with masking fluid on Aquabord
I don’t normally use masking fluid, but occasionally I find a use for it. The texture of the board makes it hard to apply the mastic in an even stroke, and the rubber cement pickup picked up the paint too.
Detail: Watercolor with alcohol on Aquabord
I’ve never been happy with spraying alcohol on paper, but on the board I liked the random, irregular marks it made in the paint. It bears more experimentation.
I like these quick little studies. I try not to think about the end result, but rather try many different things. If you’re participating in Leslie Saeta’s daily paint project in January, I hope on some days you’ll just have a fling with your paint. Who knows what you’ll discover?
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I’m challenging myself (yes, once again) to make and post a painting a day for the month of January, and to participate in Leslie Saeta’s annual January Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days. I usually paint everyday (with the exception of Christmas holidays, when painting is bumped off by what seems like round-the-clock cooking), but I don’t post to my blog everyday. We’ll see how I do for the month of January.
I’ve got no theme, other than to try to limit how much time I spend on these daily paintings, so I don’t take away time from larger projects. Today’s painting is a study for a larger painting that involves deer. If you follow me on Instagram (@Margaret.Sloan), I’m posting small bits of this bigger painting as I make them. I have to be finished by the 8th of January (the submission date for the Animalscapes show) so that is when I’ll unveil the whole painting.
I’m working on Aquaboard, a rather new surface for me, and painting a deer is a rather new subject matter, so I’m feeling my way through, making lots of studies.
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The last few days have been clear and cold leading up to the calendar roll over. Today I drew a wonderful model, then had a long chat with a good friend. Tonight we played for a contra dance, then drove home under Orion wheeling through the sky. A satisfying New Year ‘s Eve.
I am grateful for my life. For good food, heat, peace. For sable brushes, burnt sienna and Mayan blue. For music, dancers, and silly jokes. But most of all grateful for friends, my wonderful family, and my most excellent fiddler.
And I’m grateful that you, dear reader, choose to spend some moments with me in cyberspace.
Happy New Year to you all.
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There are only a few days remaining to see my paintings at the Atherton Library (They are closed New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day). I’ll be taking down the show on Tuesday, January 5. So if you have time and are in the Bay Area, I hope you’ll stop by and see them before they get boxed up.
I want to thank Betty Ullman of the Atherton Arts Foundation, for suggesting me as an exhibiting artist for the library, and for always being so supportive of my art career. She rocks, big time!
I also want to thank Mara Cota and the library staff for putting up with the disruption as my dad and I rather animatedly hung the show.
And last, but never least, I want to thank my dad for always helping out by lending not just his height, strength, and handyman knowledge, but also his excellent aesthetics when hanging my artwork.
The day darkens and I can no longer see well enough to paint. On the longest night of the year I will sit by the fire and draw while the fiddler reads to me.
Keep your hearth fires burning bright.
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Saturday night the fiddler had a gig in Columbia State Historic Park playing tunes for the annual Lamplight Tours. Docents dressed like they stepped out of 1849 give tours of Columbia, and players perform skits so that you can see what it might have been like when the West was still wild. Afterwards in Angelo’s Hall there was dancing, cake, and merriment. And beautiful costumes.
Waiting to be asked
I am always amazed at the time and effort the docents take in creating their costumes. Corsets and collars, tucks and pleats, hand-crocheted lace and yards of trim: All the details are researched and historically accurate, I’m told. Right down to what’s under the crinolines. The ladies looked like flowers spinning on the dance floor.
I always covet these dresses. Someday, when I learn to sew…
Of course I had to sketch the dance (when I wasn’t playing tunes).
The Sailor’s Dance
I was off my game, though, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine. The previous day I’d had a procedure that would have been unimaginable during the Gold Rush. Thankfully the doctor gave me a two-year pass until the next time I need the test. I’m certified cancer-free! Yippeee! No wasting sickness for me. If I’d had a long dress, I’d have been spinning with the other girls.
But the drugs block the signal between my brain and hand. I could remember tunes, but my fingers wouldn’t play them. While drawing, I fumbled and erased a lot. But it was still fun to capture an older entertainment with an even older technology.
Dance teacher
Really, more people should get out and dance. It’s a lot of fun.
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Music party After Hours Graphite sketch with watercolor Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal
How in the world do non-musicians spend their time? The day after Thanksgiving, I attended a music party where tunes raged, fueled by left-over turkey, cranberry sauce, and chocolate-pudding pie.
I knew there were going to be a lot of American Old-Time tunes, which I don’t usually play (I’m more of an Irish-jig-and-reel girl). But I didn’t want to be left behind while the fiddler had fun, so I brought my trusty sketchbook and practiced portraits on the fly.
Three musicians Graphite sketch Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art JournalDetail of Three Musicians Graphite sketch Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal
Drawing a moving target is tough. You can see in these sketches lines that have been partially erased because my subject shifted or stopped playing and I had to start again. Drawing at a musical house party means waiting for a waltzing couple to stop dancing into my line of vision. It means paying attention to the tune so that I know how much longer I have before the musicians stop playing and take a break to drink, eat, or simply gab. It means that I might suddenly have to stop drawing because Hey! I know that tune!
Three musicians Graphite sketch Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal
Often, when I teach life drawing, students complain when the model moves. Indeed, that is frustrating, and I used to whine about it too. But then I realized that humans aren’t statues; we twitch and wiggle and shift. We move.
So if you can’t count on the model being still, what do you do?
Draw fast Sketch really fast to try to get as much information on the page as possible.
Give up on details Don’t worry about things like faces until you’ve blocked in the big shapes. Block in the big planes of the face before zeroing in on each feature.
Remember Life drawing exercises your memory, but only if you pay attention. Keep track of the position, because it’s likely the model will move back into it.
Observe It’s why you’re drawing, ‘ent it?
Mountain Dulcimer Player Graphite sketch Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal
Fiddler Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal
I wish everybody would find the joy in music, and not just as consumers, but as participants. I especially wish for everyone the joy of playing these folk traditions, where people play together, having musical conversations rather than performances. If you’re interested in learning more and live in the Bay Area, please check out the following links.
Mockingbirds at midnight 