February 2020 Round-up

Mixed Media: "Little Sparrow" for #TAE20

Mixed media, mixed weather patterns, mixed tasks at the day job: it's been one of those crazy, up-and-down chaotic months that in retrospect has been incredibly productive. Looking back over the past few weeks I'm astonished at what I've been able to do in spite of my constant feeling of "having no time." Which makes me think that even if we only have a spare fifteen minutes a day (like I have right now to write this post) it's amazing how much we can do. 

Here's a quick run-down of my month so far:  

1. I entered this year's Twitter Art Exhibit, #TAE20, for the very first time. Every year the exhibit selects a local charity to benefit from sales of postcard-size artwork donated from people with Twitter and/or Instagram accounts from all around the world. This year the recipient is Horry County Disabilities and Special Needs located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a wonderful program using art classes for emotional, physical, and intellectual growth and healing. My entry, Little Sparrow, was painted, drawn, and scratched onto Arches 140-lb cold press watercolor and it was scary! First, I had never painted anything that small, and second, by having a deadline (February 17 to be included in the catalog) I had to work sure and steady with no comparing myself to other, much better artists, and no giving up! It was an excellent lesson for me on many levels and I'm so glad I participated. (With many thanks to watercolor artist Rita Squier for inviting me to take the challenge. Please be sure to check out her website!)

2. As part of my "make 2020 the year of art!" I've started attending a weekly drawing group at Albuquerque's OFFCenter Community Arts Project. It's a great group with the emphasis on gesture drawing and finding the "energy" in our subjects. In contrast to the tiny dimensions of Little Sparrow we often end up drawing on endless rolls of paper that cover not just one but several art tables placed together! 

3. Thanks to all this work with gesture drawing, I've also started attending life drawing sessions at the New Mexico Art League on Sunday afternoons. Talk about terrifying. Despite my attempts to "draw every day" I am way out of my comfort zone here, surrounded by master painters each creating work worthy of any fine art gallery or museum. It's awful! And I am learning so much! Very humbling, humiliating, and often (semi) humorous, I intend to stick with this truly ghastly experience until I can confidently say, "Look what I drew!" and be (semi) proud of my work.  

4. On a completely different note and going back to what will always be my primary focus--writing--I have officially finished the second draft of my work-in-progress novel, Ghazal. Whew. The entire project has taken me much, much longer than I ever imagined (e.g., I thought I'd actually have a third and final draft completed by now), but here we are at last. My plans for "what to do now" are to a) put the manuscript in a drawer until May (when I'm sure to incessantly complain about the challenges of writing a third and final draft), and b) throw my energies into ever more artwork, including my beading which has been a bit neglected while I've struggled to make sense of my WIP. In other words, I'm going to be busy sketching, drawing, painting, and designing while I let the manuscript (as well as myself) take a rest from the red ink. Yay! 

Tip of the Day: Never turn down a creative challenge or opportunity because you don't think your work is "good enough" or "ready" to be seen and shared. The only person who can ever stop you from growing, learning, and participating is you! Never give up, never say "no" to any opportunity, large or small. For more encouragement, be sure to check out my post on Never Give Up: 12 Reasons Why. Happy creating!

Watercolors for Everyone--Writers, Too!

Tomorrow morning I start a new watercolor class, which I thought was the perfect excuse to write about: Watercolors!

The idea to post about painting has been with me for awhile, thanks to watercolor artist, Rita Squier, one of the winners from my blog giveaway last November. I had asked followers for some suggestions on what I should blog about, and Rita asked what it was I enjoyed about watercolors. Great question! And it was one I wanted to give some thought to, not just write any old thing from off the top of my head. 

It may seem that I waited rather long, however, to answer Rita, but I have a good excuse: at the time of Rita's question, I had taken a small break from watercolor painting. November in Albuquerque was SO cold that watercolors seemed too thin, too bright and summery for the way I was feeling. Instead, I found myself turning to oil pastels for creative inspiration, especially the more muted tones of gray, olive green, and brown. Just the thought of watercolor back then made me want to shiver and put on an extra sweater.

But now it's summer again, and I'm back to sandals, T-shirts, and open windows. Once again I'm craving the brilliant light and sparkle only watercolor can produce on a pristine sheet of white paper. (Oh, that scary white paper . . . no, not really!)

My interest in watercolors started about twelve years ago, but it took a while for me to get up the nerve to try them myself. For years I had heard so many people say that watercolor was a difficult, even impossible, medium to work with (something I still hear) that I was afraid to make a serious start. Especially when most of the instruction books and magazines I read concentrated on super-realism; beautiful to look at, but the time, the talent needed to achieve such results! Whew. How could I ever reach that pinnacle of perfectionism? My own meager attempts seemed like messy blobs of . . . well, mess. Then one day I had an epiphany: the watercolor paintings I loved best were messy. And they were beautiful. There was room for everyone.

Once I started using watercolors on a regular basis, I learned that yes, they could be frustrating, no two ways about it--those nay-sayers had a point. But more often than not the paints were pure magic: the transparency they can give to light and shadow alike; the meditative dreaminess of the wet colors and soft edges flowing across a damp surface; the mystery of "what will it be?" allowing for a constant sense of new direction; the bright intense color which can match my mood whether it be somber and reflective, or happy and playful. I can't think of any other medium that can provide all that at the same time.

One of my favorite things about watercolor, though, has to be its similarity to ink.  In the same way I prefer to use a gel or fountain pen when I freewrite, each time I start a new watercolor I can simply let the images "flow." A single drop of color can spread into an entire design, leading to yet another choice of color, and another new doorway into my imagination. Happy accidents abound, and sometimes I can almost say the painting painted itself. When that happens I can barely remember even holding the paintbrush.

Another wonderful aspect of watercolors is that they come in a variety of forms now--not just little pans or tubes of paint. Watercolor pencils, pens, and crayons are perfect for writers! Whether I use them for  journaling or perhaps to add some loose sketches to my manuscript notes, they're as easy to use as any other pen or pencil, like the time I went into my backyard looking for haiku subjects:

In this next example I wanted to illustrate a poem about my cats and I used a brush and traditional tube colors instead of the pencils. I experimented with using just three colors:

Here I simply took a break from editing to capture another of my cats as he dozed on the couch in my office. I had to work fast before he woke up!

Painting people is almost as fun as painting cats (almost). This next picture was done with a single watercolor crayon. (I also think this model would be a great character to write about):

Now it's your turn . . .

Tip of the Day: Visit Rita's blog as well as her Etsy store.  And while you're at it, why not buy yourself a watercolor pad or journal, as well as a little set of Prang Watercolors? (Amazing value and excellent quality for beginners and professionals alike.) Just be sure to throw away the accompanying brush that comes with the set however, or keep it for spreading glue in your art journal. In its place I recommend buying 2 synthetic brushes: a flat and a round, size 8 or 10 is just about right for anything. If you've never tried watercolors at all, a good place to start is by watching beginner's how-to videos online and following along with the step-by-step lessons. Paint your world beautiful!