March 8, 2015
“Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box” -Twyla Tharp
Drawings
“Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.” – Saul Bellow
March 1, 2015
“Fairy tales are more than true…
February 23
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” G. K. Chesterton
“Art is art-as-art. Everything else is everything else.” – Ad Reinhardt
February 16, 2015
Quote courtesy of Robert Genn’s website Art Quotes. Painting courtesy of my long weekend, drawings courtesy of my determination to draw every day – even if it’s nothing to be proud of…
“Do something instead of killing time.”
February 8, 2015
“Do something instead of killing time. Because time is killing you.” Paulo Coelho
“Art is long, life is short.” – Hippocrates
February 1, 2015
One small painting and three drawings from this week.
Your Life Goals are Not Your Habits…
January 25, 2015
“Your audacious life goals are fabulous. We’re proud of you for having them. But it’s possible that those goals are designed to distract you from the thing that’s really frightening you—the shift in daily habits that would mean a re–invention of how you see yourself.”
– Seth Godin
It’s almost the end of January and I am already behind. I have more items on my list than I have time to do them. That’s ok though. Good things are still happening regardless of my lists.
In an effort to improve my drawing skills, I am building the habit of drawing every day. I’m also trying to paint every week, although that just isn’t going to work out all the time. As much as I may have liked to, taking my easel and paints to Canmore last weekend to fit in a few strokes here and there between ski runs just didn’t seem all that practical. I did paint this weekend with the evidence below (still not finished…). And I have been drawing. Evidence of that below as well.
The first four hours.
July 13, 2014
Having recently read “The First 20 Hours”, I decided to put it into practice. I have studied colour theory before, so it’s not a topic that is entirely new to me, but I figured that I have a lot to gain by re-educating myself on colour theory and colour mixing. Right now it’s not a skill I can brag about. So I’m getting to know my friend Betty Edwards a bit better with her book “Color A course in mastering the art of mixing colors” and besides the fact that she continually leaves out the U in COLOUR, I am finding it very helpful. Some of what I have learned so far:
- Betty firmly believes (and I agree) that artists should be trained sequentially in, FIRST, drawing – learning to use line and then to add VALUE, SECOND, colour theory and LASTLY, the combination of these skills to create paintings. This is very logical in my mind. not absolutely necessary, but it appeals to my methodical side. In fact this reminds me very much of a particular post by Robert Genn that informs my personal educational mission to improve my skills as an artist.
- Betty has a three step algorithm for mixing colour – again, how can this NOT be cool? Now if she could only break down the painting of the Sistine Chapel into three similarly straight-forward steps, life would be truly good. Steps are: 1. Identify the colour wheel HUE that is the base of the colour. 2. Identify the VALUE of the colour and 3. Idenitify the INTENSITY of the colour. And mix the colour. Very helpful.
College Artwork
February 25, 2014
Having had no opportunity to paint this past week I have no new artwork for my blog. Instead I am posting artwork that I created in college while I was studying graphic design. After storing these pieces for years, moving from one place to another, about ten years ago I decided to photograph the ones I liked and to toss the originals. Sadly, what I thought were good photos at the time were very mediocre. And some of the dates are best guesses – as are most of the dimensions. Most of these were done as specific assignments – some quite obviously. Other’s not so much. Clearly I preferred some mediums far more than others. And maybe one day I’ll gain some rudimentary skill with watercolour – or not. And that’s ok. It is what it is.
susanne semchuk 