September 1, 2014
“The artist never entirely knows — We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark” ~Agnes de Mille
The artist never entirely knows…
Still Life
“Being an artist means…”
August 24, 2014
“Being an artist means ceasing to take seriously that very serious person we are when we are not an artist.” ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset
I think this is finished. I’m debating about fixing a few things that are bugging me yet. I’m kind of feeling done with it though and may just walk away and start something new.
“Of all lies, art is the least untrue.” – Gustave Flaubert
August 17, 2014
In the end it all comes down to this…
August 10, 2014
“In the end it all comes down to this: you have a choice (or more accurately a rolling tangle of choices) between giving your work your best shot and risking that it will not make you happy, or not giving it your best shot – and thereby guaranteeing that it will not make you happy. It becomes a choice between certainty and uncertainty. And curiously, uncertainty is the comforting choice.”
– Art & Fear, David Bayles & Ted Orland
Here’s the beginning of a larger painting that may take some time to complete…
That night…
Aug 4, 2014
“That night, the dream was better than reality… and she chose not to wake up.”
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.
A new space
July 8, 2014
Having moved my painting materials and set up a new space to work in, I kind of liked the look of some of my supplies on the work bench. So here they are… and then seeing how badly the jar of stand oil went, I made a second attempt – a little better, but still off. Perhaps I will take another shot at it down the road.
“It’s a new breakthrough, it’s an old breakdown.” ~ Round of Blues, Shawn Colvin
July 2, 2014
To commemorate Canada Day I stayed up late working on this bit of paint on canvas. Visited the Art Gallery of Alberta as they had free admission for the holiday and felt creatively inspired seeing the exhibition commemorating 90 years of the Art Gallery’s existence in Edmonton. I was feeling patriotic and proud to see such amazing works of Canadian artists on display.
As I’m on vacation from work I figured I had better take advantage of the opportunity and paint as much as I can. I’ve been feeling too comfortable (read: bored) with the monochromatic pears on squares, so although I was intimidated by this image, I decided that risk equals return and although I may fail big, I had better step outside my comfort zone and try something new. Here’s my lovely little curly bamboo stalk. I brought this little guy home from his surrogate home at Ikea pretty much two years ago – although it feels like yesterday. He’s been diligently growing new leaves and continuing his spiral journey towards the sky (aka the ceiling of our office/studio/bonus room – but let’s not rain on his parade just yet…). I’m not sure if the yellow leaves are normal or a sign that I’m a negligent caretaker… If my memory serves me, I believe I have watered him at least once since he came home…
Pretending
June 22, 2014
Sitting at my computer tired – mindlessly going through OneNote pages from 2011, blindly transferring them to Evernote. I committed to painting tonight, but I’m very tired and not looking forward to it. I procrastinate. It’s 10 pm and the house is asleep. I wash my face hoping it will make me alert. I begin. It doesn’t exactly flow, but I sip my red wine and engage in my painting ritual. I’m no longer sleepy.
susanne semchuk 