Virtually Awarded

In the midst of my diligent and dedicated procrastination (see previous post), I got a comment from Rhonda Carpenter, who's blog Watercolors and Words I visit frequently. Rhonda is one of those fellow artist bloggers who, at times of my not-in-the-painting-mood, kicks my butt via email and comments till I get back into my studio.

Funny, but before I started blogging, I've never met anyone named Rhonda, and now I know two Rhondas (OK, I guess they've never knew someone named Nava either), and I'd love to meet them some day for real, as their warm caring personality shines through their blogs.

Rhonda is one of those artists who will try anything, a trait that appeals to me a lot as her work is always a surprise and a feast to the eyes.

A-n-y-w-a-y...

When I went to visit her blog, I found this fun surprise awaiting me patiently. There's a blog award going around, and as it happens, Rhonda has decided that I am amongst those who deserve it.

Which is absolutely cool and encouraging and flattering and a great compliment and exciting and such a vote of confidence, and.... it also forces me to abide by its name and show that my passion for painting exceeds my inherent passion for procrastinating.

Told ya she's kicking my butt!

THANK YOU, RHONDA!!!

As all blog awards, this award requires that I write down seven things I am passionate about, and then choose seven artists to pass it along to.

OK then...

1. Art (now that was a surprise...)

2. Writing.

3. People. (from family and friends to total strangers that I photograph and/or paint).

4. Justice and fairness. It's naive, it set me up for a lot of disappointments,and yet...

5. Food. Yup. I love food. There, I said it.

6. Sights and smells of the seasons.

7. Everything purple.


Now, seven artist bloggers - and that is tricky, as I've already gotten a virtual award which I passed on, so I am going to avoid using the same pool of artists.

So here they are, in a complete random order, a mix of virtual and in-the-flesh fellow artists:

Bonnie Luria of St. Croix-nicity
Bonnie is an artist living in the beautiful island of Saint Croix. She paints mostly figures, portraying the island life, and I love her use of color, her loose style and the energy that's bursting through her canvases.

Jen Norton of Jen Norton Art Studio
It was said on Jen that English is her second language, 'cause color is her first. Jen has the Midas touch when it comes to color and shapes and fun, which goes well with her personality.

Lisa Towers and W. R. Jones of On Painting
Lisa and Bill share a blog that not only has great paintings and drawings, but is one of the funniest and most outrageous out there, as each of them has a unique writing and painting style.

Ketra Oberlander of Art of Possibility Studios
Ketra began painting at 40 after losing her sight to a rare genetic condition. What she does with color makes me turn green with envy, and I don't look good in green. Ketra is a fellow artist, a friend, and also the founder of Art of Possibility Studios, the only art licensing agency exclusively representing physically disabled artists.

Holly Van Hart of Latest Paintings by Holly Van Hart
Holly is an artist whose productivity puts me to shame. I got to know her through our watercolor society. She quickly transformed to oils, and is one of those artists who can take pretty much any subject and any medium and do their magic, be it a landscape, an abstract or a figure. She is a master in using limited palettes and unique color combinations, and - I get to see her work face to face once a month. Yay!

Dar Presto of Presto
Dar's theme is mostly still lifes in oil (is it still lifes or still lives? I never know!). I personally am not big on still lifes (or lives!), but Dar has a way to put so much personality into what she paints, that her paintings look like portraits of the daily objects. She can tell a fascinating story with three Hershey kisses or with one lonesome pineapple.

Pat Coakley of Single for a Reason
OK, Pat is actually a photographer, but wait!! her photographs are so incredibly lyrical, that she literally paints with her camera.

Whew. That wasn't easy.

And - ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention for one more moment: note that I haven't procrastinated on this task. I can feel those endorphies flowing!

Procrastinate NOW!

That is my all times favorite quote of Ellen DeGeneres: "Procrastinate now, don't put it off".

And I always follow this advice, diligently. As - well, Ellen's gotta be right.

Several months ago, I created this collage that was exhibited in a show at a big-shot hi-tech company. I made it especially for that show, and it ended up with a red label of "Sold". Almost none of my artist friends got to see it, as doing it for that exhibit was a very spontaneous decision, and it was finished at 3am the night before the deadline, hung in the morning and then sold within a week.

It was a good thing I took a photo of it, as I really liked it. It was one of those pieces you put a price on with the hope it won't sell. Well, that didn't work.

Then, a friend of my niece saw it on my blog, and asked if I would do a collage of her son as a gift for his Bar Mitzvah.

Flattered and optimistic, I said "Sure!".

She sent me photos and information on what he likes, and I sat down, printing a lot of images to use as collage material. Took me a while to select the reference image for the collage. I consulted Myrna, who has done her share of commissions, and she gave me the wise advice to make sure and do something that I will enjoy working on, as otherwise it can get very frustrating. "Find something that will entice your creative juices, and do the best job you can, as if it's for a show".

So I did.

I worked out an image that actually excited me, composed it on the page to make it interesting, design-wise, with tight cropping and some fun negative shapes. I was actually excited and all ready to get started.

Only, it didn't happen. My sister was visiting at the time, and we got absorbed in sightseeing and shopping sprees, then there was that vacation in British Columbia, and then... and then... excuses galore became very handy, while the canvas and materials got neatly stored in my studio cabinet to never see the light of day again.

That was almost 10 months ago...

Earlier this week, that friend emailed me that they've just finished painting her son's room, which now has "a green gray turquoise-ish wall", and she thinks the collage would fit beautifully on that wall. That is, if I am still up to it. Am I?

Um... am I?

Took me a couple of days to decide that yes, I am. I'm a strong believer in serendipity, and if this collage suddenly pops up now, maybe it's happening for a reason. It can get me back into collaging, which I love but haven't done in a while. And tackling a commissioned work can be an important learning experience. And, the commissioner, her son and the green gray turquoise-ish wall are located in Israel, so if I go for it I get to flutter my eyelashes and announce myself as an "artist whose work is internationally collected", which has a nice ring to it.

So what do I do to make all this happen and get eternal fame?

I blog it.

Smart move. Highly efficient and utterly practical.

But I hereby admit my fear. All artists know the dread of facing that white surface, and if you add to it that it's a new image, and then add the fact that it's the face of someone's beloved son, and it being a collage, which is trickier than a painting - well, see what I mean?

So, I'm scared. And hence I procrastinate. And hence I blog it, as it kinda commits me to do it, as I know for sure that some of you will keep bugging me about it.

OK then. That was the first step.

Now I should really start working on it.

But first, let me go rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Anything to not get into the studio...

Of Values and Emotional Value

I know I've made this statement about quite a few paintings, and then got distracted by another image that excited me. But here I go again: this may be the beginning of a new series.

My sister has been going though our parents apartment, and sent me batches of scanned family photos that awash me with waves of nostalgia. One photo in particular had a special compelling effect on me. A photo of my grandfather. It was taken by my father about 50 years ago, which means no Photoshop or any form of cropping was applied. Still, it has a close-to-perfect composition, brilliant division of space, interesting big shapes - and beyond that, it captures a quiet moment of self-indulgent. I fell in love with this photo, and it haunted me for weeks. Being a photo of my grandfather whom I've never met (he passed away before I was born) taken by my father who's also gone, doubles its emotional value, converting trying to turn it into a painting into a daunting task.

And yet, I just had to...

Needless to say, it's caused me to put aside other images I was working on, but - I've decided to stop fighting it. I guess I'm not falling into the disciplined artists category. I'm rather an urge-driven impulsive painter. I paint what excites me, what pushes me to take the brush out and dip it in purple paint (gotta be purple to begin with).

I started with a very quick capturing I did a couple of months ago, responding to the composition of the photo that's impressed me so. I simply went for a wet-into-wet wash of the continuous dark shape, adding some trapped shapes to hint the features. Took me 10 minutes or less and still, I managed to screw up the wash as it dried up on me. Ah well, working on low-grade paper cannot lead to great results. One day I may actually abide by this rule.

Christmas came and went, a visit to the cold north interfered with my painting inertia, but a month ago I sat myself in my studio and went for it again.

Since I haven't really painting for such a long time, I went for the most forgiving surface: Yupo.

In the first version, everything but the face was a disaster: the cup was way too big, the hand holding it seemed awfully tiny and deformed, the coat turned to be a big lumpy blue shape, and the walking cane became so dominant it looked as if it's trying to take a sip from the HUGE cup of tea.

Apparently, during these many months of not painting, I forgot the first rule of "step away from the painting and evaluate it from far away".

And so it happened that the first time I did that step-away-from-the-painting was when I showed it to a group of fellow artists... Ahhh, the shame!

In such cases, it's very tempting to give up and toss the brush aside. That's the easy way. And since I never go for easy, I decided I can - and have to - do better than that.

Back to the drawing table, I said a short blessing on the kindness of Yupo that enables you to erase undesired areas with a damp paper towel. Following that step, I put a few more hours into it, fixing proportions, improving the drawing, adding color, variety, unity, balance, rhythm - hmm... actually thinking. Oh, and I have learned so much about hands from this painting!

It's finally at a postable stage; still needs some tweaking (I know, I know, the hands...), but I am starting to be quite pleased with it. Only now I think it's too much on the realistic side. Typical for the first of a series, which is usually a representational rendering of the reference - be it a photo or a live model. Now that I got that out of my system I want to move on and take it beyond, towards abstraction.

That is, unless another image comes along and captures my heart.

Attitude Named Wenda

There are days when you have zero motivation to go to class. The weather's gray, you are late and in a rush, morning started bad, as you went to your critique group meeting after weeks of missing it, but since you've arrived last, by the time it was your turn it was also time for the parking police to come after the money of those who did arrive in time, plus you have to rush to class. So you don't get to show your art. Which sucks, as you know it was one of those days when you'd have gotten good inputs.

Yet you make yourself go. Because it's the last session with a model. Because the model might be the legendary Crow and you don't wanna miss on him. Because you finally got a decent armband for listening your iPod while drawing. Because you know that when you really resent going, it can turn out to be a great class.

So I dragged myself into the car, loaded it with the drawing supplies (that were left at home, needless to say), and whined my way there.

But all my bitching came to a halt when I set eyes on the model.

She was all attitude, in the best way. That is, attitude and long fiery red curls.

And her name was Wenda.

And she brought accessories and different hats.

And she went for poses just long enough to capture her without overworking.

And she didn't just sit there. Oh no, she was posing with all her might, pouring her personality into it.

She was the clothed model from the dreams, and you could tell she was having fun.

So was I.

That new iPod armband?

Haven't even taken it out of my purse. Now, that's what I call inspiration.

Need a Hand?

We had the figure drawing class today. Yes, the one with the talkative teacher, who's driving me nuts with his endless talking and taletelling, mostly since what he says doesn't always have much to do with art.

There are artists who manage to block everything out when they draw or paint. Not me, alas. I'm more the kind who needs the whole world to come to a halt in order to concentrate. And so, this drawing class used to send me home with a headache and murderous thoughts.

The JohnnyB kept telling me "why don't you take your iPod?".

Because.

I avoided this for weeks and months, but last week, after a session that was spent resisting a violent urge to go on a killing spree (and apparently I was not the only one with such aspirations...) I brought my iPod.

As did LimaB.

As did MembieK.

And for the last couple of sessions, the only injuries were the two birds I killed with one iPod: enjoying music while drawing - and blocking out the babbling and the background noise.

Works like magic.

Today we had a great model who showed up with a long dress and a big straw hat. As always, I started with the figure, but then got bored of doing the same thing. I decided to follow the teacher's recurring advice "don't show me what you know to do. Show me what you don't know!". (see - I hear the good stuff despite the earphones!).

Now, what do I not know to do?

A lot of things, But when it comes to the figure, the answer is simple: HANDS!

And our model was doing those graceful hand gestures, which intrigued me much more than the rest of her.

Yes, hands are tough, and I keep avoiding them, but if I never try, I'll go on doing the same thing over and over again and stay in my comfort zone forever.


Too easy, too comfy, and way too boring.

I gave it a go.

Yup, I have a lot more to learn and practice, but hey - it feels good to start facing your demons.

Through the Fire

OK, OK, so I've been absent from the blogosphere for a while. A couple of weeks, perhpas; no - actually a whole month!

Whoa - has it really been that long?

To those of you who wonder (to the extent of emailing me or leaving concerned comments, pondering whether I have escaped to Aruba or broke my painting arm): No Caribbean escape for me, nor a broken arm. Just been going through some down time, artistically and motivationally and younameit-lly, y'know, the tortured spirit of the artist and all that. Not fun, but - it's sometimes essential to go through the fire in order to regenerate. Just call me Phoenix.

Needless to say, I haven't been painting much during that time, except for a couple of attempts that turned out, hmm... shall we say not overly presentable to my distinguished blog readers.

Even the results from our figure drawing class show my lack of inspiration.

Don't believe me?

OK then - here's my attempt at painting The JohnnyB's niece. She's this real cool teenager who's very deep into her Goth era. No, she does not have purple skin nor a flat face. Told you I'm lame these days!!

But - last week I snuck into my studio and started a major spree of tidying up and organizing and shuffling things around, which is always a good way to enhance the creative appetite and cleanse the soul.

I'll be back - hopefully sooner than later. And yeah, much better.

Nationally Exposed

The Palette Magazine is my favorite art magazine. Written by two wonderful artists, Skip Lawrence and Christopher Schink, it is aimed at helping fellow artists push the envelope . As opposed to many art magazines out there, reading it does not entail getting attacked by countless renewal leaflets, and it has zero ads. (Yup. Zero).

Each issue is dedicated to a different subject, written in a fun cynical humor of the two authors, focusing on design, color, expressiveness and everything good about art.

So, the previous issue called for artists to send their self portraits. Several of us submitted our self portraits, and awaited the verdict with bated breath. The other submitters I know got an acceptance reply very fast, while I became an obsessive compulsive clicker of the "Send/Receive" button, checking my email every day, every hour. . .

. . . after two weeks, I've had it. with trembling fingers, I typed a polite question to one of the editors, asking him whatever happened to the four images I've submitted. He replied promptly, saying he is so glad I wrote, as somehow the portraits I submitted got misdirected. He then added "I've found your 4 images and captions—exactly what I need. Good paintings. At least one of them will be in Issue #28, due out around the end of December or the first of January.".

Good news, right?

And yet - due to my natural skepticism on such matters, I thought to myself "Ah, he must be saying that to all the girls", and kept my expectations on a cautious level. You live, you get rejected, you learn.

The busy holidays season came and went. A new year has cometh, and no magazine.

Last week, WackieM told me with excitement that her well-known painting has made the cover of the magazine (I am highly amused that she is still surprised by its success; what part of 'this is a very unique painting' is not clear?). I kept waiting. And waiting. And watching in disbelief as the postman was passing our house without approaching.

And suddenly, on Monday night, I see a message from a friend on my Facebook page, telling me how excited she was to see my painting in that magazine.

The next day, LimaB emailed me happily, informing me that mine indeed made it. A similar email followed from MembieK.

Cool, so I'm in.

But which of my four images made it? I called her for a thorough investigation, and was ecstatic to hear that it's my collage, which is one of my favorite pieces and definitely my favorite self-portrait.

Needless to say, the magazine hasn't arrived yet to our humble premises, so it was still all a hearsay - until MembieK brought the magazine to class today (thank you Thank You THANK YOU!) and I finally got to see it with my own eyes - and document it with LumiB's lens. This is the time to mention that MembieK also has a wonderfully expressive self-portrait in this issue.

Still no sign of the magazine. I am starting to suspect that the postman is boycotting our house (no mail whatsoever for 2 days now!). So I am still waiting. Who knows, one of these days the magazine may actually appear on our doorstep (or, more likely, in the mailbox). Hope springs eternal.

Oh, for the record: the quote underneath my self-portrait (the one at the top-left), stating "I loathe my face" is not mine. It's by Francis Bacon. I happen to live with my face quite peacefully, thankyouverymuch. Don't know why they decided to juxtapose it the way they did. Better check what quote they posted under MembieK's face...