NC had another snow and I didn't miss it this time. Last Saturday I spent the day mostly outside painting snow and watching snowflakes melt on my palette and canvas. Exhilarating!
It was a race, for sure, as the sun was up and the temperature rising, but it was great fun. I was especially thankful for some “hand warmers” that I stuck in the toes of my socks.
I was tired on the last one at the creek, so it will have to wait until I finish by photos. But all of these are just practice, a means of stuffing my brain with material for the real compositions I hope will come later.
This weekend we finally had a 3-inch snow. I know that doesn’t sound like much for those further north, but I was excited when I heard the prediction. I wanted to paint snow, plein air! But, despair. I learned I needed to be out of town for the whole weekend.
remnants of a once great snow
I returned home late last night and anxiously looked at the white crunch left in the dark after 2 days of sun. I checked the email that had come in from the weekend and found a note from Scott Boyle, artist friend and plein air painter extraordinaire, asking if I were going to paint the snow this weekend and sending me great ideas on painting snow from Staple Kearns. By that time, I was really feeling sorry for me.
But this morning, there was some snow left so I bundled up to race the sun, the shadows, and the clock to see what I could do to capture this white wonderland before it disappeared. Finally! Not the experience I hoped, but enough to make me thankful that I’m privileged to paint.
Although it has been a few weeks since I’ve blogged, I have been busy with brush and pastels and teaching classes.
I finished two oil pastel pieces in November and December and then spent the holidays traveling to see family and collecting ideas through photography and plein aire to use for later inspiration.
Christmas Candy Jar, 5X7 acrylic
Right now I have a new oil painting going that I’m very excited about and hope to share it with you if it goes as planned---I never know for sure---what is in the head must make it to canvas.
I have been invited to do an oil pasteldemo presentation for the Stanly Arts Guild on February 4, at 6:45 p.m. at the Falling Rivers Gallery on Main St. in Albemarle, N.C. I’m looking making new friends in the arts and sharing about a medium that I’m excited about.
The Christmas season always makes me contemplative. The incarnation of the Divine is more than I can really comprehend. And tonight I read something that gave me another “aha” moment--Martin Cothran’s article, “The Classical Idea of Nature.” Cothran reflects on the effects of Darwinism in our understanding of nature and how radically different our modern view is from the Classical view of nature. In the art world, I hear much about the “process” of making art. Some even seem to infer that the process is what is important, more important than the ends. That view has always bothered me a bit and Cothran has made me see why. I’m going to ponder his article and wrestle with ideas with the goal of reaching a meaningful result, not just a process of wrestling with ideas.
Yesterday I met with a group of plein air artists in Marshville, NC, at Mary Erickson’s large, beautiful farm. I find such an experience extremely challenging, delightful, and thought provoking.
I am also reading Gene Edward Veith’s Painter’s of Faith. He focuses on the Hudson River School but also upon the state of mind that led those artists to create the masterpieces that they did. I feel like I’ve been hearing the same voice they heard affirming my faith in the Creator.
Is is interesting that John Ruskin who also wrote from a decidedly Protestant Reformed perspective and who, too, describes his philosophy of art in many of the same terms as the Hudson River School found little to draw him to their work. He preferred to promote J.M.W. Turner and had little regard for many of the Old Masters whom they respected. But as Turner was writing, his theories first published in 1843, the early American artists were coming to the same critical theories as Ruskin “because they both grew out of the same theological persuasion”(p. 31).
An agreement in theory then, does not produce mindless repetition of style, but rather an appreciation of underlying principles , in this case, as Thomas Cole says, “That which the artist should aim at is the perfect perception of the Divine Beauty, the witness and seal of the hand of God in all his works” (p. 31)
I’ve often mentioned reading Harold Speed’s The Practice and Science of Drawing, as a pivotal point for me. It was at that point I began to see why the visual arts draw me to God. It is not a religious book, but every page confirmed the glory of God revealed in principles of beauty. Painter’s of Faith brings more clarity to my reaction to Speed.
On Aug 27 -30 I had the great privilege of going to Leatherwood in the Blue Ridge Mountains to spend a few days immersed in beauty and in the creative atmosphere of some of the best plein air painters that I’ve ever met. Although I was not able to attend the workshops---next year, I hope!--I gleaned a lot just being around these dedicated and generous artists.
Richard OversmithDee Beard Dean
I was especially impressed with Dee Beard Dean, Richard Oversmith, Larry Moore, and L. Diane Johnson. My friend and very accomplished artist, Scott Boyle, was also there and I’m always inspired by his work. But I really want to say how much I enjoyed watching Rich Nelson. His loose, yet realistic style and his seemingly effortless use of color made me want to press on to know more.
Rich Nelson -in the hat
I returned home to a busy fall schedule and feel like I’ve barely had time to digest what I learned in those few days, but today I finally got outdoors (with the yellow jackets) and put paint to canvas. It felt like artistic breathing again.
I feel like my artistic pulse is about to pop! I just spent a week on Lake Russell in SC, my skin drinking in the healthy sunlight, all my senses soaring with the cranes and eagles as I flew with them across the glassy green water on my little Yamaha wave runner, they soaring high, me cruising low but swift as the wind, then settling in a still little cove where pine and hard wood cast mighty reflections on the lake, and geese and ducks glided by as fish periodically sent bubbles to the surface. I wanted to breathe in everything but a bit of paint or pastel was my only hope of really recording any of the sensations. Oh how inadequate! God paints in light and truth.
But every day I painted something, sometimes a water color sketch, because water color was the easiest medium to pack on a wave runner, but most often in oils or pastels. My brother-in-law let me ride his pontoon over to an island where I was dropped off for a morning of plein air. It was the fasted morning ever and I could have stayed all day without a regret.
I’m really looking forward to the end of the month when I join the Plein Air Painters of the Southeast at Leatherwood Mountains vacation resort for” some unprecedented painting and artist networking opportunities.” I’ll be camping in our little trailer among beautiful scenery and maybe even see some trail riders. I’ll give you an update soon!
Sometimes I carry a painting around in my head long before my brush ever hits the canvas or my pastel strokes the paper. Such is the case with this pastel. I have been watching the late afternoon sunlight through the trees for weeks, longing for the right moment to get it from my head to the painting. I've also watched the cows as they follow their fence route every day. On this day lighting and cow were just right. The painting seemed to pop from eye to head to hand almost effortlessly. The experience is quite addictive. I'm glad it's an addiction that produces instead of destroys. I feel blessed.
It seems I've been slow on the blog these past few weeks. Summer is never as orderly as my regular schedule, but I've determined to use what time I have to paint, paint, paint to improve. There's no other way to get better, so I'm making these next few months my "education" time. I'm immersing myself in good art books and putting paint and pastel to work. I'm getting ready for a solo show in October and I want to be at my best. I'll give the details later.
Somewhere along the trail of good web resources an artist (and I can’t remember who) mentioned a classic book on composition. I love books. I love classic books. I love art. I couldn’t resist. I found Arthur Wesley Dow’s Composition: Understanding Line, Notan, and Color from Dover Publishing and have had one of those great reads that will change the way I think art, do art, teach art.
Dow has strong views on the order in which the elements of visual art should be taught.
He says,“Good drawing results from trained judgement, not from the making of facsimiles or maps. Train the judgement, and ability to draw grows naturally. . . .design [is] a preparation for drawing.”
He is not discounting the great value of learning to draw accurately and doing the tedious study required to master the tools and to learn to see, but he makes the point that “ The whole fabric of art education should be based upon a training in appreciation.“Design, or composition, is of first importance so that the student gains an appreciation of beauty, which he says may be defined “as consisting of elements of difference harmonized by elements of unity. “
He goes on to say, “Art is not produced by principles of composition unless they are used in combination with the principle of good spacing. One must strive for the best, the most harmonious, result. THE MYSTERY OF SPACING WILL BE REVEALED TO THE MIND THAT HAS DEVELOPED APPRECIATION (emphasis mine).Then he gives examples of line, notan, and color exercises that teach students to appreciate and recognize beauty.
As I read Dow’s book, I reflected on my own experience. When I was first struggling to “be an artist” I would spend my time copying both nature and pictures, and even though I could copy what I saw, I still knew that my work was greatly lacking something important. It was not until I began to study design principles that I saw how composition is the key to creating that harmony of elements that are beautiful. Now my art begins with the design first.
Years ago when I lived in Taiwan, I studied Chinese watercolor painting. But even then, I was mimicking the teacher and the craft and not being taught to see that the beauty was in the design first. Dow uses Oriental Art to illustrate his lessons on design. I wish I had read his book before I picked up that bamboo brush. Now I am seeing that experience with new eyes and enjoying the feel of black ink and rice paper again.
Dee Beard Dean
Rich Nelson -in the hat
