Invitation: to Appreciate

I thought I would give you a sneak preview into my upcoming show in November. The two paintings I have used to teach a few watercolour pointers over the last little while are “Invitation: to Appreciate” and “Invitation: to Commune”. Part of the process in completing a painting for me is determining when to stop. Sometimes I bring my work to a small group of artists whom I trust and who have the distance from the work to see small adjustments which improve the image immeasurably. Following the critique I consider the suggestions and make the changes I think appropriate. Of late, that means retaking the photos of my work and reinstalling them on my computer so they are ready for advertising and submission purposes. During the last session I dropped my camera. Always a good thing to do with a camera! I continued taking pictures as a little spark accompanied the press of the button and the image showed up differently on the viewfinder. This morning I put them on my computer and discovered each photo needed more tweeking than usual. I am thankful for digital images. Life is so good.

Invitation: To Appreciate

Appreciation

requires time, awareness, peace.

Open hearts behold.

Invitation: apprécier

Être présent avec

le coeur ouvert est la base

d’appréciation.

A Little Piece of Heaven

In the midst of renovations, building a garden shed, insulating the crawl space, building a retaining wall around the plumbing in the crawl space and ignoring the finishing work (filling and painting) on the gallery and shed, we decided to go camping. Having taken a six or seven year hiatus from camping we found our supplies in disarray. Several things were missing. Fortunately our now adult children did manage to fill in the gaps and we left for a little piece of heaven late on Friday. The tents and food arrived well before we did so we parked the car, dropped our belongings in the cabin and discovered the bed had been made for us. Lovely. We grabbed a couple of already cooked hamburgers and sat down. So easy! A little later the boys figured out how to cut the massive chunks of tree into more useable pieces while I sipped on my beer. I must say I enjoy being older! Watching the embers glow and flicker amid the dance of flames my body relaxed and an attitude of profound gratitude pervaded my being. It is so good to be alive.

The Second Coat

More watercolour expertise coming your way! Watercolour often needs a second coat. It dries quite a bit lighter than the initial wash no matter how strong it might be. The first layer of colour is a lot of fun. When I am doing a large block of dark I mix a base wash as intense as I can without it becoming cream which tends to sit on the surface instead of being absorbed into the paper. To this intensity I add even stronger colour straight out of the pan, again with enough liquid to be absorbed. The colours run together and I have minimal control. I let it dry in interesting patterns. The first photo shows the result of such a powerful first round. For the second coat it is all about negative space and creating the illusion of complexity. As you can see, I am very selective about where I place the darker shapes and how they are formed. There does not have to be a complete inventory of every leaf, rather a suggestion is much more pleasing to the eye. In fact I left the top leaves alone. Letting the eye imagine the complexity within the first patterning beckons the viewer into participation. Life is so good.

The Great Yellow Pipe

I should have known… Not everyone is aware neither of what a gallery consists, nor for what it might be used. I did tell all those involved that although it looks like a garage it is really a studio/gallery. Sigh. I wish I could say I handled this with “quiet conviction” as Richard Rohr would suggest. I am not quite at the peaceful heart part that would have avoided the tirade. The contractor and I had just put on the finishing touches to my magnificent space the day before. I came home to see my new heater installed in my workshop and then I saw the neon yellow snake crawling up the gallery wall, across the ceiling and through the wall… I managed to ask, “Can I paint it?” The answer was ‘no’. By the next day, when I phoned the man in charge of the plumbing company, I was no longer thinking of paint. The fateful words, “It’s just a garage,” triggered an avalanche of words about putting such monstrosities through living rooms, etc. I apologized the next day for dumping forty years of frustration on him… Sigh again… Indeed, the pipe will be removed. I will patch up the holes and repaint. Life is still good.