Just another day in paradiso!

It's like a buffet: the sights, the sounds, and the smells...my senses are over-fed and yet constantly hungering just the same.  I'm not used to trying to get it all down on paper while still digesting and sorting it all out.  Processing will come later, at a more leisurely pace, time to sit and ponder all I am tasting for the first time.  Then, and only then will I be able to make artistic music with the notes I am trying desperately to capture quickly here.  Meanwhile, odds and ends from the road:

Cappuccino and water colors, perched on a wall over the beach...just me and the sea gulls...

The beach where scenes from "El Postino" was filmed.

My oil paints did not arrive (in my checked and thus lost luggage) so I was using my tiny travel water colors....

Can't wait to paint that sky....

Simplifying....trying to anyway, back side of the church....

Colorful waterfront at the fisherman's marina.....

Enough for one day...time for a vino!

Ciao, ciao,

Cindy

Naked Beauty

There is something so very appealing to me about trees in the wintertime. Stripped of all the accouterments of color, leaf and blossom, they stand naked to the world showing an elegance of line and shape that can only be appreciated when they are bare.  It is as if they dare to exhibit their bones during this season and without any clothing as a distraction they bravely reveal their age, their shape and their past.  I never tire of studying them.

Of course there are evergreens and hardy pines.  This is the season in which they take the center stage and use the spotlight for all it is worth.  They are lovely, they receive the snow graciously and they become the darling of the Christmas card industry.  But I prefer the maples and oaks and all of those brave enough to winter over without flash or fanfare.

So a peek into my sketchbook this week shares some of the notes I made as I observed the naked beauty.

pencil notes made here reference how a cluster of trees seem to make their their lace-like branch tips into perfect shapes...

 I  played with ways of illustrating the shape and movement of the limbs, not trying to capture the realism but getting the feeling of movement they had, the ballet...

fascination by the shapes of the trees individually as well as en mass made me wonder if they sent out a memo as to the exact length to grow so that an elegant shape could be maintained without any pruning or cutting...

... finding symmetry as .....well as asymmetry within a single tree shape...

Finally, a rough attempt to lay out the gorgeous interplay of three branches outside my bedroom window.  I would wake to their dark shapes back lit by a pink rising sun...moving my head just the tiniest bit would change the entire pattern.  I made many pencil sketches of the limbs, this one is rather same ole same ole....but I am betting there will be a painting or two based on a final, more interesting layout.

Another view on winter trees is expressed by poet Jeffry McDaniel, "I realize there's something incredibly honest about trees in winter; they're experts at letting things go."

GraceFULLY yours,
Cindy

Feeling Sketchy

Hopefully while you are reading this I am pausing on a mountain trail high above Zion National Park, sketchpad in hand, recording important details for a future painting.  Hopefully....but no guarantees.
Why am I so sketchy about sketching?  Lots of reasons I'm sure but a few include the embarrassment of someone peeking over my shoulder at a less than perfect drawing, the pressure to execute a finished piece regardless of time, and the fear that without the help of paint I cannot achieve the depth I desire.  Excuses all....and all to my own detriment.

Sketching is the foundation for good art work, sketching is what helps you record impressions and fleeting moments, sketching is what gives you artistic license over the composition.  And yet many of us find it difficult and challenging to do. 

To conquer that fear I have really tried to use my sketchbook more often.  To take away the fear, I have pushed the results bar very low...so low that if all I do is get a few lines down then I have met my goal.  I took the pad hiking, I took it picnicing and I took it to the winery.  Things are getting better:  I am losing the fear of drawing in public and I am happy that marks are on the page...

very simple line drawing of some things I saw on a waterfall hike

 

these are quick drawings of a couple of scenes I might later want to paint

and a written reminder about the wonderful smell of pine

 

finally, some easy renderings of faces in a Modigliani-esque fashion

for an idea I am squirreling away for a future series...

 

 

Now that I have stated this fear/goal (and put it in black and white!) I do feel an obligation to give it even more emphasis in my continuing study.  So, cross your fingers that my fingers will grip a pen or pencil for some of next week and make sketches, no matter how simplistic, of the western canyons we are about to visit.  oh my......

Sketchy...but in a Good Way!

Maybe I'm maturing...maybe I'm actually starting to listen to those whose workshops I take, whatever the reason the fact is that I find myself using my sketch book more and more these days.  Teachers preach the wisdom of doing mintature value studies before diving in with the paints.  World-savvy artists swear by the notes they keep in their sketchbooks and the very best at drawing claim to always have their s'book close at hand.

I won't tell you how long this stubborn student resisted their advice.

Lately however I have seen the light!

Remember those quilt pieces all over my studio floor?  I had a little time to burn and my s'book handy and I think I now have a plan!  You can't read the details but here it is, forever, I'll never forget one creative detail whether I start in 5 days or 5 years.  And I know where to find it.

Here's some photos I took (the g'hopper is with permission of the photographer) and I am playing with ideas on how to proceed.  Not ready to select the paper or the media yet I settled in with my pencils, s'book (and a glass of wine?) and proceeded to play.

A few thumbnails later I realize the back lit trees will need to be horizontal, not vertical, to accomplish what I want, and I found a few (many) details on the head of the hopper that I might have missed if I had just dived in with the paint.  Drawing is seeing, they say in the art world.

And I have learned to agree.