Portugal Through My Eyes: Évora #2

Y'know how I always claim that I'm gonna do a series of paintings whenever something captures me? And then I move on to the next exciting image?

Well, not this time. Apparently, this image did captivate me. Not quite sure why - maybe it's the fact I loved Évora so much, maybe these two men and their curious stroll appealed to me, or maybe the fact that my second attempt at buildings since I've started to paint turned out to be so much fun. Add to it the fact that I wasn't overly happy with the composition and format of the previous version - - - I decided to give it another try, and do it bigger.

Took out a half sheet of watercolor paper, changed the composition to be horizontal, being cautious with perspective and all that, and had tons of fun. I changed the men a bit, as they came out a bit too cartoonish in the previous version, and I wanted it to be more of a painting than a sketch. So, I gave the pot-belly guy a quick tummy tuck, changed the clothes for the sake of color consideration, and treated the building a bit differently, going for an even more weathered and peeling look.

At a certain stage, it was a nice watercolor. Fresh colors, hardly any texture, clean washes - like a watercolor should be. The JohnnyB liked it a lot, but I lost all interest in it. To me, it seemed boring; it lacked a story or emotion whatsoever. The JohnnyB said "I've seen paintings with less of a story to them in shows and museums". Well yeah, so have I. Thing is, I did not want to produce this kind of painting.

Which started an interesting discussion: who do we paint for? Are we trying to please our spouses/friends/teaches/critique groups? And if we do produce a painting that makes others happy but we are not satisfied with it, what's the point of creating? Do I want to leave it at the safe stage where it might get compliments but won't make me proud of it, or do I dare taking it a step or two forward?

Frustrated, I took out the white gesso and tried to give some character, breaking the overly-straight lines, adding texture and pretty much molesting the pureness of the colors. Ahhh - that was more like it! As LimaB put it "This is so much more alive!".

I like it much more now. Not sure if there will be a third version of this one, though, as I have other Portugal images that sit in my head and demand to be portrayed.

Plus, I cannot guarantee the man on the right will keep his pose for long... poor guy, he's been waiting waaaaay too long for his friend to move aside and have a peek at that door, I can't help feeling he's just about to explode.

"Évora Stroll #2", Watercolor on W/N CP paper, 21"x14"

Marveling at Marbling

In between preparations for our next upcoming watercolor show (opens this Saturday!), I went to a demo on Monday, at the other organization I belong to. Not the watercolor-only, but one that's open for all media (and whose shows have been quite good to me :-)

They hold a montlhy meeting with a demonstrator (usually) or a speaker (rarely, as the attention span of artists is a bit... um... hey, look! blue car!).

This month, it was a talented and truly sweet artist, named Yoju . She was showing us the art of Suminagashi, translates to 'Spilled Ink', and is a Japanese the Italian marbling technique. Her English wasn't the best - but it didn't matter. At all. She started creating some cool patterns by dripping ink into water mixed with a gelling agent, played the inks with brushes and tooth picks and then laid a sheet of rice paper on top of the water, cleaned around the edges, pulled it up - and we all WOWed appreciatively at the result. The outcome was incredibly beautiful: a flowing pattern of blacks and white, sensuous lines, curvaceous shapes - we all chanted harmoniously with the known "Ohh, if I could do that!".

And as we were standing around with sheer admiration, she took that stuning masterpiece, crumpled the paper and tossed it to the garbage can, as nonchalant as can be.

A gasp passed across the room.

"Ah, this? this no good enough. This just demo" she said joyously and proceeded to create another not-good-enough pattern. Only this time, well prepared protests from a couple of women have prevented her from destroying that second piece. She gave us a "whatever" look and agreed to put it on the table rather that get rid of it.

And then came the best part of the evening!

See, Yoju didn't just show us what she can do. She came bearing a lot materials for us to play with, set four little bathtubs filled with the magic solution, and motioned that it's time for us to have a go at it. Inks, brushes, rice paper - it was all ours to experiment with.

And experiment we did! Ever seen a bunch of kindergarten kids doing finger painting?

Well, that's not as half the fun that went on there...

I did one piece, then waited garciouly for the lines to dwindle and went for a second. VallieM just kept going - I think she stopped at three just because Yoju had to go home... "It's fun!" she announced to LimaB and me who were thoroughly enjoying watching her.

I returned home extatic, burst through the door and showed The JohnnyB my breathtakingly straight-to-The-New-York-MOMA pieces of art.

"Amazing, no?", I hinted the need for feedback.

"Nope", was the answer.

Did I mention the Minnesotan ultra-honest breed he's coming from?

Masked Fun

I am not painting these days. Haven't painted for several weeks before we went on the trip to Utah and Arizona, haven't really painted since we came back.

I'm busy and distracted. My one and only sister is coming to visit us for a month (she's landed in New York today for 5 days on the East Coast, and will arrive to our house on Monday), and it got us in a frenzy of house improvement, or at least converting the house from a pigsty (lot of neglect in the past year) to a welcoming cozy home - not just for her, but mainly for us.

And yet - I do have the urge to dip a brush into some paint and go for it. And am in the eternal catch 22: I have so many images I want to work on that I cannot choose any of them. Plus, after not painting for a while, you kinda get into regression, and need to start two steps behind (at least two, that is). Armed with all these lame excuses - no wonder I haven't visited my studio for quite a while.

In the last couple of days I've been browsing through Rhonda Carpenter's Watercolor and Words art blog, and was inspired by her recent work, of going nuts with masking fluid, letting it dry, and then pouring watercolor all over. I decided this might be a good way to loosen up and get over the well known fear of a white paper staring you in the eyes. Plus - I am on a quest for new ways to get away from tight realism, and this process has really appealed to me. Nothing frees you up like making a mess and then creating a painting from it. (Thanks, Rhonda, for the inspiration!!)

I took 3 different color triads, and played with five pieces of paper this way. Without thinking of the subject, I simply tried to create interesting shapes with the masking fluid, smearing it with a scrap piece of foamcore and using spray bottle to move it around a bit (hmm... still need to work on that). Waited for it to completely dry (which wasn't hard, as we're having a heat wave as I write. 94 degrees tomorrow!), and then poured the paint. It was pure fun to see the colors intermingle and become acquaintances without the interruption of the brush. When this dried out too, I removed the mask (which is a very annoying stage - I hate doing that!), and was rewarded with five pieces of paper with interesting colors and patterns.

OK... now what?

I can see things in some of these, but nothing really screams at me yet.

Because it's so much fun to make these, I think I'll just start a pool of poured papers, and use them when the right mood and subject strikes. Some will serve as backgrounds, some as under-paintings, and some will sit in the dark closet until their day comes to be torn and reincarnate as pieces for collage.

Still, they look really cool even as they are now. So, I played with them a bit on my "Picture It!" program (the poor cousin of Photoshop), and - lo and behold, just juxtaposing them together came out as a cool abstract piece! (The JohnnyB claims he likes it more than most pieces of nonobejctive work he's seen).

Sometimes, art can be just for fun - I need to remember this more often.

All Good Things Come to an End

The workshop is over. As always, mixed feelings of "I am finally free to paint on my own!!!" and "Ah, I wish it lasted a bit more".

The last day started with a demonstration of how to paint a reflective surface - in that case, John Salminen painted a quarter sheet of a rainy street scene. He just did his magic, and did a pretty cool little painting.

We then proceeded to work on our paintings, continued to a potluck lunch, in which w'all sang "Happy Birthday" to John, who kept his cool and went for the startled-yet-amused look. He blew out the candles and shared the birthday cake with us.

Then came the last part of the workshop: the dreaded critique session.

Each of us put their painting of the easel. Since there were 18 of us, we had to pick only one painting per artist: either the abstract on which we worked for 3 days (some of us kept working on it until the every last moment today), or the piece we did to incorporate the lessons into our own style.

While it would have been nice to get my nonobjective one critiqued, it was more important for me to get feedback on the one that is closer to what I would paint after the workshop. Especially since I was struggling with it. During the morning, I tried to figure out why the portrait does not work. One of the workshop participants came by and commented that it's the colors I used - and she was right. It's true that once you have your value pattern right, it doesn't matter what colors you choose. However, since I was not just going for likeness, but rather tried to capture John's essence and personality, the colors I was using were just wrong; they were too vivid, too sweet, too obvious. in the 5 days we got to know him, I got the impression that John is a complex deep person, which calls for more subtle, neutralized colors. Lime green and orangey pink totally do not describe him! Plus, the background was way too distracting. So, I said G'bye to the intense colors that were in his face (to the horror of a couple of the participants) and started to go over them with more, shall we say, manly colors. I then toned down the garish background that was fighting for attention, and it was starting to look much, much better!

When it was up for critique, after come inevitable self-diminishing comments from John about his looks (mind you, he's quite a looker!), he gave his comments about my painting - and I could finally breathe... It is so intimidating to have someone look at a painting of himself, but since John is an artist, he was not concentrating on the likeness nor sued me for making his face fatter than it is (can you say Ernest Hemingway?...). I was very happy with his comments, especially when he glorified the lost edge of the face in the white shape, complimented me on the rich neutral colors and said - listen to this - that the painting has luminosity.

Luminosity!?

Never, ever, has a painting of mine been connected with this word. (When I shared this bit of his critique with WackieM, she almost fainted laughing - see, she knows my work!). Apparently, these value bridges and shapes had a major impact on me. I usually just blend everything together, and pretty much avoid shape. John Salminen is the first instructor who managed to make me paint shapes rather than a big blur of colors and then lines. And y'know something? shapes are so much fun!!!

So, this is where the painting's at right now. It still needs some work on the face (The JohnnyB demands that I fix his protruding forehead and transplant hair on his bare temple...), it screams for some major work on the background - but I am starting to like it. (go to the buttom of the previous post to see the updated slideshow).

oh, Oh, OH - almost forgot!!! while we were having lunch, John stood up, announcing there's one bit of business that needs to be taken care of. He asked the workshop coordinator to pick a number between 1 and 18.

"16", she said.

"Number 16 gets the demo painting", he smiled, checked the list in his hand, and added, "Number 16 is - - - Nava".

And so, I am the owner of a John Salminen painting!!!

How.
- - - - --- Very.
- - - -- - - - - - - - - - Cool!!!

And now I feel indebted. I promised John that when I manage to paint a good portrait of him, I will send it. Like, painting exchange. OK, OK, so he is John Salminen and I am only Nava, but still!

Of course, when The JohnnyB came home and was promptly asked which of the three paintings is his favorite, he pointed at the painting that I won. Story of my life.

OK then; still a long way to go...

...and yet - as I was hoping in the first day, quite a bit has rubbed off. That was one great workshop - went for it with very high expectations, and - - - they were actually met!

Never Rush!!!

That's what they keep telling us, in so many words. Take the time to think; plan; consider your next step; take breaks; put the painting aside for a while and come back to it - but never rush. Ever.]

Today I did.

Actually, I was rushed, as the workshop ends tomorrow, and the instructor emphasized it's important that we bring the painting to a finished stage. Don't ask me why, and I did ask him why we cannot put it aside so we can have time to decide what should be the final touches. He said he'd rather have us finish it, and - since didn't want to be a troublemaker, I went for the last stage: using acrylics for covering some areas.

"Acrylics in watercolor?", I hear the gasp of some watercolor puritans.

Yes.

When worked into the paper straight from the tube with very even brush strokes, acrylic paint dries flat and dull, emphasizing the transparency and luminosity of watercolors and making them sing and show off all their stunning attributes.

I followed instructions, obeyed the orders (although my poor neighbors got real tired of the complaints galore I chanted the whole time...) and applied acrylics in some areas of the painting. I just couldn't let it be all boring and flat, though (sorry - not my painting style), and as you can see in the bottom right corner, I managed to have some fun strokes with it. Still - rushing it was not wise, and after fulfilling my civil duty to try and bring it to a finished stage, I stopped in time, before I totally screw it up. It really does make the watercolor areas shine! I'll probably come back to this painting in the future - pending the verdict of our critique group (they will be utterly shocked to see me bringing a non-objective painting!).

And then, my dear readers, THEN I finally got to the part of the workshop that I've been waiting for: doing our own thing, and apply what we've learned to our own style.

I browsed through several photos yesterday, trying to decide which one to do, but I knew that once the instructor lets go of the leash, I'll probably cheerfully gallop back to my comfort zone: no white, neutral colors and very close values all over. But I wanted to kick myself out of my comfort zone (otherwise, what was the point of struggling for these last days!?).

What would make me actually try and incorporate what I've learned in this workshop?

This morning, I had the revelation in the shower, the modern times Eureka! As I told you, I kept taking photos of John Salminen, the instructor of the workshop. He has a great expressive face, wonderful hair, beard - what more can you ask for? (OK, I would ask for a hat, but I'm not pushing it). So - if I do a portrait of him, it will kinda inspire (even force!) me to use his ideas, as the subject sometimes dictates the style. Just like I could not do FergieJ in neutral colors.

Now - painting someone's portrait is always intimidating. Doing it when the someone is an esteemed workshop instructor, during the workshop itself, while he is walking around and critiquing the work, and all the participants keep coming to look at the progress and check for likeness... that is just - what: crazy? Ambitious? Insane? challenge? stressful? bound to fail?

I'd say all of the above - - -

- - - obviously, I went for it!

Took a reference photo, did my drawing upside down (thank you WackieM), found my white shape (mouse included), surrounded it with light values, added darks, started to develop value bridges, and got very close to tears, as the first stages are always hideous and discouraging... As WackieM says, every painting has its teenage stages, which you really don't want anyone to witness.

But - it's starting to come along. I got several comments that if I am after likeness, then it's quite successful. I know, I know - right now it looks like last night John had a bit too much to drink (see the red nose?) and got into a pub fight that gave him a nice shiner. Well, don't jump to conclusions - wait till it's finished.

In the meantime, enjoy the slideshow:

One more day to go!!!

Closing In

John Salminen's workshop, Day 3.

As BearGal likes to say, the first day of a workshop always start with an ecstatic "ah, this is going to be the best workshop ever!". The second day, you keep your optimisim with "well, let's wait and see". Then comes the breakdown, "what the hell am I doin' here!?". The next day is "hmm... I may still be able to save the painting", and the last day it's pretty much "I am soooooooooo outta here!".

Well, I jumped ahead: I wanted to be outta there on the first day, and what-the-hell was yesterday, big time! But - today was in fact really fun - we introduced collage into the painting. Some were appalled by the idea, pondering "Why would I want to cover parts of my painting with printed material!?".

As the instructor put it, "so you can say you did it!".

Honestly, I admire his patience. I guess one just has to adapt some serious survival skills when delivering many workshops to many people. Most of those who take workshops (and I know I'm optimistic here!) are open-minded and have a genuine desire learn; but there are always those who pay a bunch of money, dedicate days, energy and materials, schlep themselves to wherever the workshop is taking place - just to sit and do their thing, without paying attention to what the instructor says. Well, to each his own. It's quite amusing to look at the workshop participants and see how the same types keep occurring: the whiner, the rebel, the follower, the attention grabber, the one who never bothers to listen (but then bothers everyone around), the talkative (I am grateful to WebbieM for suggesting the use of an iPod, or in my case, an MP3!), the conqueror who keeps sneaking into your space - - - Ah, the joy...

So, after 2 days of gnashing my teeth and curbing the mutineer Aries in me that kept alluring me to throw everything to the wind (yup - I'm usually the rebel!), today came the reward.

I did a few collages with tissue papers I have dyed (one of them is The JohnnyB's favorite!), but never used magazines for that, so today was a very new experience.

The instructor told us the secrets to combining collage with a painting: start subtle, going with pieces that have the same value and color scheme as your painting. Avoid recognized symbols, words and objects. As tempting as they might be to use, they will distract from the painting itself. You want to enhance your painting, not let collage take over it - unless you want to turn it into a full blown collage. John delighted us with a story about a woman who took his workshop, did a great abstract painting, and then collaged an image of Snoopy in the center of interest. Why? 'cause her granddaughter loves Snoopy, and she wanted to give her a painting.
As a homage to that little tale, when my time came to get final OK on how I placed my collaged pieces, I found a pair of tacky green parrots in one of the magazines, and planned to put them in my focal area, just to see the reaction. But - we had to rush it, as a photographer from a local newspaper came to take some photos of the workshop for a cover story about our organization, so I had to give up on that, and just told the highly amused John about my vicious plan. Sometimes, it sucks when duty calls.

Anyway - I thoroughly enjoyed the collage part. I brought a bunch of magazines, and found a welath of pieces that had colors and textures that were just made for my painting - it was almost creepy how well they fit in, and added incredible touches.

Here's the current stage of the painting. There are quite a few pieces of collage in it - can you distinguish them from the watercolor paint? The JohnnyB could hardly tell most of them, even in close inspection.

Tomorrow the workshop is taking a turn: we can choose to work on our own thing, and the instructor will walk amongst his admirers and advise how to incorporate what we've learned into our work - which is the real challenge. I am extremely curious about this part!

Year of The Mouse

Do not trap the mouse - that was the big challenge today, the second day of the workshop with John Salminen.

Remember the big white shape we each found yesterday? One of the requirements was that it is continuous, as the eye needs to see white as a continuous shape. Scattered whites will cause the eye to jump all over the painting, rather than smoothly follow. To make sure we do not forget that, the instructor told us to think of the white shape as a maze with a mouse that's running inside it. the mouse has to be able to run around without bumping into any obstacles or having to jump.
OK, we all tried our best to keep that in mind.

Now that we all had a nice white shape, we were to come up with a dark shape. As opposed to white, a dark shape can be broken, and the brain will connect the parts and see it as one shape that's underneath the white. John warned us that blocking in the dark shape will immediately make the painting look terrible. The extreme contrast is so striking it seems almost garish and makes the white shape seems to float on top and the darks are way underneath.

Yup - he is right.

The next stage was to go for linkage - create value passages that will tie the white and the darks. This is done by gradually building up from white to light to middle values (and the same for the darks), making sure to keep our shapes interesting and - - - yup, to not cause any distress to the mouse.

We spent the rest of the day doing that, grunting and muttering the whole time. At one point, TreasieJ asked when would be the right time to burst into tears... indeed, like in all workshops, this was much, much harder and bewildering than it looks when the instructor does it. They always come with gorgeous results, and we... we end up gazing with horror at what our hands produce!

But very slowly, things started to shape up. More important: the paintings are beginning to look different, and the style and personality of each artist is coming through. Each of us had a private session with John, in which we put the painting on an easel, and he would look at it, silently, for a frightening while, and then give his critique and ideas for improvement.

I've got to tell ya - this is one exhausting workshop! Which is my excuse for this dry post.

That is the stage my painting is at right now. Tomorrow we'll be incorporating collage and acrylics to our painting - and THAT should be fun!!!

What's that you're askin'? Do I like my painting??

Well, to be honest: not really.

This is so not the way I paint, and every right brain cell of mine is protesting against this process and the subject. But I keep telling myself that this is a workshop. It does not mean I need to start painting like this from now on. It's about coming out of it with some valuable lessons that I can - hopefully - incorporate in what I love to do.

So no, this week is not going to turn me into a non-objective painter. I still am very much into figures and faces, and spontaneous expressiveness. And yet - would be interesting to see how I paint when I get to paint again in my studio.

The Quest for the Perfect Shape

It's been almost a year since the last time I took a workshop.

Interesting thing, workshops. Some artists attend every workshop available, some hardly ever take any. I am closer to the second kind. In my short time as an artist, I have found that technique-related workshops confuse the hell out of me. I guess I am a self-taught kinda gal, as I learn best from my own experience, exploring what appeals to me at the time.

I also learned to stay away from instructors who teach their technique and style, rather than help you grow. Which is why am limiting myself to those who are more about providing you with the infrastructure of design, composition and color. Those are hard to come by, but they do exist. One exquisite example is Mike Bailey's Watercolor Beyond The Obvious class (yup, the one in which you paint 20 paintings of the same thing and curse the day you started...). That is, by far, the best thing an artist can go through, as it changes forever the way you approach painting! Another one is WackieM's class, where she pushes you to explore and experiment without trying to make you paint like her (Ha! if I only could!!!).

And this week, I am taking what seems like another such workshop, with John Salminen - an incredible artist whose work I admire. He does a lot of urban scapes and some figurative work, and as he attests, he is somewhere in between obsessive compulsive and anal retentive painter. Y'see, you don't just look at his paintings - you get mesmerized by them, as they are a wealth of interesting tiny shapes and little surprises and colors that pop up unexpectedly for your eyes to feast on. You just wanna to stand there and savor it forever.

His paintings have such strong design to them, that I decided I just have to take this workshop and bask in his greatness. Maybe some of that would rub off. There's always hope, eh?

At the very beginning of the workshop, he said is going to have us do only one painting during the first 3 days, and I thought it would be neat to post the stages and share the wisdom I am getting, so you see how something that starts from what-the-hell-is-that gradually becomes a masterpiece - or a complete disaster: we'll know in 3 days.

The process he is taking us through is as far as can be from the way I paint, and I keep fighting my inclination to rebel against it with all my might - which is a good sign, as it means I'm gonna learn a lot. Today was the first day. He gave a short talk (while I kept taking photos of him - he has a great face!) and then had us begin the labor. First, we did simple drawings of four objects he that chose:
1. Empty paper bag
2. Head of a spray bottle
3. Tape dispenser
4. Piece of plastic with a clip.

Yeah, I know... v-e-r-y inspiring.

Then, we took a tracing paper, and started tracing the four drawings on top of each other, so the objects got totally lost and became one big random jumble of shapes. Oh yeah, it looked like a terrible mess!

Next thing was to transfer this grand drawing to a full-sheet of watercolor paper. Aghast, we looked at each other and at him... I mean, this is one complicated arbitrary drawing! But, with a blue-eyed smile, he suggested that we fold the tracing paper to get 16 rectangles, then draw 16 rectangles on the sheet of watercolor paper, and transfer the bits of that jigsaw puzzle, one rectangle at a time. Well, that was perhaps the most boring thing I did since I started painting. Excruciating would be an understatement...

...an hour or so later, when we all looked 10 years older, we were then sent on a quest to find "one big white shape" in our drawing. Not just a shape, mind you, but a good one. What's a good shape? Ah - it should be irregular, unpredictable, oblique, connected - and touch the edges of the paper (at least 3 times). And it needs to occupy a third of the space. How do we find it? by connecting lines from the shapes galore on our paper. Oh, and make sure it has a dominance of either geometric or curvilinear lines.

We each worked on finding our big white shape and went to get it critiqued by him (I got mine approved without any corrections - yay!). I went for a curvalinear dominance (not a big surprise for a figurative painter) and proceeded to the next step: surround my shape by painting a light value in the negative spaces around it.

Finally - color gets in the picture!!! we get to use our brushes!! But wait - we have to consider temperature dominance: do we want the painting to be cool or warm?

And right then and there I stopped whining, as I saw where he was going with this torture. Y'see, it's one thing for an instructor to lecture about design and have the students sit and nod with glazy eyes. But - when the students are forced to work hard and incorporate all the design considerations into the process, in a way that is laborious and annoying, well, that makes sure it will stick! A similar method to Mike Bailey with his 20 paintings: they make you suffer and curse and bitch and moan - and from that comes greater art, as MembieK told me (would have been more convincing if she was not so totally gloating about the fact that I am the one taking this workshop and not her!).

From that also comes significant exhaustion, especially after a week of last-minute arrangements for our annual party and the grand event on Saturday, which has left me highly adrenalized but tired beyond belief.

Time to get some sleep - another workshop day awaits tomorrow!