Filling Time With Happy Pursuits

How is it that I am retired, but have less time than before? I do have good intentions, but they say that the road to (insert your less than favorite place here) is paved with them.

I did take part in the first of my plein air competitions this year. The results were not so bad.
I won the purchase prize for an 8x10 painting of the Blues Festival, here in Silver. Its title is "Just a Sittin and A Waitin", of two over 60 blues enthusiasts waiting for the festivities to begin, seated in the shade and enjoying each other's company. Blues Festival on Memorial Day features more exposed freckled skin than you have ever seen since 1962 in the form of blues aficionados, and some pretty good live music. The place does have talent.
During this festival we had the second in what people are hoping becomes an annual event, in our plein air community. 

Winning the purchase prize means I came home with money and left the painting for them to display or dispose of as they see fit. After all the hoopla was done it occurred to me that I never took a photo of it. Oh well....

But I did take a photo of the second of my paintings to win an award. This one for Artwork of distinction. I titled it "Silver City Women's Club" (a definite nod to my less than stellar titling skills). I should have called it Casa Blanca, as suggested by my good friend Carol, or Casa Azul. This building is one that has captured my attention every time I ever went past it. it's just downright pretty in a territorial kind of way. It features lots of  blocky modules, and a very nice play of light across its face early in the morning. Even better was my vantage point in front of the Chile Bowl Restaurant across the street. Safe, off the main thoroughfare, shady and pretty darned private. And I had the blessing of the manager. Important, that.

Here is SCWomen's Club, or should I change it to Casa Blanca, or Casa Azul?

Silver City Women's Club
11x14 oil on panel
Available

If you would like this painting, go to my website to purchase.

Monet "Creativity takes courage".

Winter In New Mexico - Southern Part

Go to My Website

This February has been more like Tucson than Silver City. We are so very much higher, and cooler. So it is with surprise that we experienced 72 degree days this month!
Perfect for plein air painting! And no snakes yet!

My friend Gay and I went 'sploring on down the road in the Mimbres Valley, just East of Silver City. What we found was an area whose accessibility was determined by the rate of flow of the Mimbres River. Many people live on the far side of that river and rely on four wheel drive, lifted vehicles. Some leave a car on the city side to get out and do routine things like shop or get gas. We didn't have one of the aforementioned vehicles, so we stayed on the tame side. But we still had views that were varied and just downright gorgeous.

The motif

I started my piece by rubbing a tone of a violet all over the board. (I have been watching Shana Kuntz" new video). Its great for making you think and start a little different from your normal starting point and method. Its that thinking differently gives you different results thing. I love the friendship of violet and greens, not to mention the love of yellows for violets, resulting in some of the most rich offsprings possible. We were at riverside and the water was so noisy that we couldn't hear each other talk unless we yelled. Somehow that just was gauche.

The block in

Locals drove their monster tired trucks by ever so slowly so as not to dust us. Who says locals are indifferent to their surroundings? Its so nice to have such a kind and thoughtful welcome.
We painted until we got the sense that we were both starting to dink around with it. For me that is the moment that I think " I can make it better if I just do this", and then the last stroke kills all sense of immediacy - it kills the " I am there" moment. I wish I had a guardian angel who could break my arm before I do that.

In The Shadow Of Cooke's Peak

This was what resulted from one of the nicest days in the sun, with a lovely breeze and friendly people. Mimbres Valley is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to paint.

Broadway Belle - A Beauty Still

Go To Louise Sackett Fine Art

I finally got around to painting a little old lady I met.

She’s a lovely old Victorian house on Broadway, at the top of the hill, below the old County Admin offices in Silver City.  I have wanted to paint her since I first saw her. She is a designated historical building, one that has a for real name. But I call her ‘Broadway Belle”. She’s been on Broadway a long, long time. But she still retains some of her allure.

She has had her porch removed and rebuilt and has survived a whole lot of upgrades since she was first constructed. Right now she is for sale and needs a coat of paint. I was trying to figure out when the light would be most advantageous to her, and finally said ‘to heck with it’, and painted her yesterday morning.

This is the beginning, where I block in the darks, planning
the shapes.

Perfect light is not worth trying to plan. The light never takes a painter’s needs into account. I can paint a location all morning and never have that shaft of light happen that Richard Robinson says is God’s finger saying “PAINT THIS”. So why wait? You might as well do it when you can, and forget the desirable light. In any case this house was fairly well lit, off and on, with a cool light in the early a.m. that made for a lot of interesting angles with that complex Victorian roof line. I learned a lot painting this piece, like why I don’t paint buildings very well. I guess I get lost in the puzzle-like character of the shapes. People like Lori Putnam, Shelby Keefe and Greg LaRock make it look so easy. I wish that it were. It’s not for me. So I trudge on, painting buildings in the hope that they sooner or later will start to look more plausible. At least not look like they are on borrowed time, unless they actually are.

At this stage I am playing with the colors and determining the foreground.

 I was playing with a burnt red oxide and ultramarine violet this time. I actually thought that the ultra violet couldn’t be that far off the mixing properties of ultramarine blue. Man can pre-conceived notions be wrong. I really liked the softening qualities of the violet, how it subdues strident chroma when using it in a mix. It’s very different from the blue. And I tried their crimson. It’s a softer more controllable color than alizarin crimson, yet it has deepening attributes when combined with a Cad red light. It’s actually a lot like a carmine pigment. Actual color matching was not what I was mostly concerned with in this painting. I was actually more into getting the light and architecture right, than the color accuracy. With all the downed leaves, the only real natural color, other than the sky, was the yellowed grass and the evergreen spruce. There were no flowers, and the bushes all had that 1920s dun and beige color thing going on.

Broadway Belle
11x14 Oil on board
Available

The good thing about getting out there to paint regardless of the conditions,  is that sooner or later you will find something that is stunning. Like the alley I ran across at 9a.m., downtown. I mean to go back there and see if I can find that light again. Lots of trashcans, lots of kitties, cars, and lots of light. I need practice with cars too. If I remember correctly, it was just down the street from the Broadway painting site.

Maybe that finger of God was there after all.

Favorite quote:
"Don't be afraid to let a good painting go in the pursuit of a great painting."
Rick Howell

To learn about a plein air competition for the benefit of the Wounded Warrior Project, and to win cash prizes and a chance for a two person show,  click here and go to Downloads. 

Changes Are Coming - And Not Just The Weather

Go To My Website

Those of you who do follow this blog may have noticed a change in its format. You are correct. The format HAS changed. I did this in response to my blog having issues with the interactivity disappearing and re-appearing at will.  Nothing I did caused it and it was intermittent.  I was frustrated. So I can only imagine what it was like on the reader side. Now people should find it easier to comment and otherwise send me an electronic raspberry if you don’t like what I posted, either verbal or visual.

As anyone who has troubleshot a computer or a program knows, an intermittent problem is the worse kind to find and fix. So I opted to not try and to throw in the towel. I have other things on the burner that are for me more important. I have actually traded in a car rather than try and find a computer/electrical problem in an otherwise just fine car. Life is too short to be frustrated. (And I paint???)

On the painting side, I find I am that way about my problem paintings en plein air too. I will take them in the house, especially if something is hiding about the edges of my consciousness, telling me something needs fixed. Especially if I do not know what the heck that thing is that needs fixing. I live with them a while until the goblin pops out at me. And I do know that goblins were for last month, but they hang around here some times, way beyond their welcome date.

Hillsboro Arroyo
6x5 oil linen on board
Available

That was the case with this little painting. I did it a few weeks ago and something really bothered me about it. So it sat in the living room, a 6x6 itch I couldn’t figure out how to scratch. Every time I turned on the TV, sat down with a cup of coffee, tried to catch up on my phone missives, there it sat, staring back at me.

When I read something said by Harley Brown, in a recent interview, the light went on. Harley said (not quoting here) that you should never put the same amount of detail in the background as in the foreground. Imagine that simple a solution! I had gotten to the point where I knew that it was the background that haunted me. I had painted this tiny thing with smaller brushes. I should have kept the bigger ones handy. Once I simplified the background, a few judicious lights were added and suddenly it bordered on the acceptable. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still in the living room. Is it a still plein air? You betcha. I figure it only needed about 5-10% modifications, so according to my criteria, it’s still a plein air. But those pesky goblins are gone for a bit. They were probably afraid I’d mistake them for the turkey. 

Right.

Favorite quote:

·“The painting is finished before the artist knows it is.”

Harley Brown

To learn about a plein air competition for the benefit of the Wounded Warrior Project, and to win cash prizes and a chance for a two person show,  click here and go to Downloads. 

In 2010 we experienced a major upheaval in our rather predictable lives. We decided, in 10 days, to sell our home in California (after 34 years there), buy a new one in New Mexico and set up my painting studio. WOW. We shocked our kids, our friends, and ourselves. Not to mention our bosses!


My main thought was to gain a studio and time to do what I had always dreamed about - paint full time. Hubby wanted to ride his motorcycle and not work. Man, was he wrong. I have managed to keep him ever so busy, setting up my studio, and trust me, he has worked. My dream became his as we worked to make it a reality. It has been a herculean task, one that never could have happened without my husband's support.

Big White Fire Truck, in hubby's garage

I found our dream home online - all 10 acres of it, complete with rough outbuildings. But there was a catch, - we had a firetruck in one of the outbuildings! Living in the country, as we were to learn, has its own little idiosyncrasies. The big white truck stayed with us almost a year as the local volunteer firefighters put up their new home on Truck By-Pass. As a side benefit we got to know some of our neighbors and listen to the sirens every week as they made inspections. Talk about shock the first time we heard it, right outside the bedroom window! 


The rest of the time we worked on the studio when we wanted to, when the weather permitted, (new concept for southern Californians), and when the local hardware store had what we needed. We made a lot of trips to Tucson, and we bought winter coats and boots. And we have been riding New Mexico on our BMW, learning what beauty this great state has.


We are into the second year of this new phase of our lives - the payoff for all the hard work and faith over the years. The studio is nearing completion and becomes more real each month.
Problems are becoming memories and the future dream is becoming reality.

Studio before the transformation

As the studio is now workable, (though not finished) I am painting almost every day. I love schlepping all my painting stuff out to the field and coming home to my studio to study and finish the resulting pieces. I am beginning to learn the area and have future paintouts planned. I have established a local paintout group that is open to area artists (and I mean a large area). It works with an online notification available at www.meetup.com  Simply put in your area code and look for the Grant County Plein Air Painters. Join us if you care to. We are a supportive group.

Bridge Over Big Ditch - 8x10 Oil
For Sale - email me

Studio Transformation In Progress

The studio odyssey continues. How do we put in a washroom? Where does the sink go? I love my new skylights! (Thanks, Honey) And, can we still get rid of that huge, big , whale-sized center door???

Obstinacy - A Prerequisite for Plein Air

There are those among us plein air painters that think just painting out of doors is challenge enough. I say - you wusses! Never do I start to paint, that I do not ask myself what I am going to try to learn here today. Am I going to learn about design when I go about composing this new study? Or will I give myself color limitations to  narrow my options. Will I increase those options by newly acquired color discoveries? Or will I learn new brush skills by limiting myself to just a few brushes, or horrors, only ONE? (I've tried that last one, and its just not me. There's a reason why I drive an SUV.) 


I actually try to learn something new with each plein air study. John Cosby, an acclaimed artist, in his blog addressed something that I had found very disturbing, given that my hair is now more silver than it has ever been. Most 'in the know' artists say that it takes miles and miles of canvas to learn to paint. That practice makes perfect. Knowing that miles and miles may be more than I can do this lifetime around, I found this totally disturbing. Then I ran across John's posting. He says Every Stroke Is Important.  The thrust of John's post was that intelligent painting decisions make for far greater strides in painting. To quote him; "To my horror "Practice Makes Perfect" is incorrect.  Now I know that someone wrote that down wrong.  It should have been

 "PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT". 

That means to me, that I resolve to not paint something simply because it is before me, but to make decisions in composition, in value and color in the here and now. To know why I am painting a painting in a certain way. Its like a light went on when I read that on his blog. I know that there are painters who seem to go off on automatic pilot when they paint and get great results. Perhaps they have already painted those miles and miles of canvas. I need a shortcut. I need a conscious direction. Self imposed challenges give me that direction.

Apache Plume
Available

Knowing that I tend to dive off the deep end with darks in a painting, I tried consciously to limit the amount of darks and their intensity in this painting I executed this week. The subject of Apache Plume and mare's tail clouds seemed to dictate a lighter touch than other things I have painted in the past. I really tried to keep a lighter touch in the painting as a whole. The green in the river valley really was that acid green of new Spring growth, and the sky really was that soft but bright blue. The challenge was not in keeping the wind from blowing down the easel for the third time.....it was in keeping true to my self-imposed limitations. Nobody really cares what the physical reality was like - they care about the work itself.  And this was challenge enough for me this particular morning.  I care about the learning, about the journey. Did I succeed? Maybe after a few more efforts with this same challenge I will be better able to tell.


So at the end of a painting session, I ask myself - Did I get what I was after? Its not always yes. Though the viewer may have no idea what went on in my mind. I will try again, I will try better.


Art without passion is not art. Likewise, to go about painting a thing in the same way time after time and expect a different result is idiocy. Passion and intellect is what Ken Auster says is painting. Some days it is too much one or the other. Its that balance that keeps the edge of interest. That is why painting is a constant challenge. Its not the 'right' green, its the right concept.

Priorities - Its Always Priorities

When  I decided to set up a studio there were things that had to be done first. Everyone is different, and every artist has different needs. I always thought that one must plan, or maybe have a vision. I'm the visionary - then I plan. It had to be inviting, and one capable of sustaining prolonged periods of time spent developing my art, whatever the medium. It was only after having this mental picture that all efforts were directed to the making of the space.


My proposition is this; Your studio does not exist only in the real world - it exists primarily and more concretely in your mind before it ever takes shape in wood, tile, concrete and plumbing. Your 'studio concept' is what goes on in the time prior to the building time, in the pre-execution, in how, and what order you direct your efforts to the making of your studio and by extension your art. 


We put in the walls of my studio before we put in the floor. We secured a water source before we put in the sink. We plastered before we painted. All this seems obvious. But how does an artist plan a painting? A work of art? It is even more critical in plein air. We are assaulted by a barrage of input. All demand the same attention. We must distill, create a mental image, discard the flotsam and solidify the concept, the plan to build upon.

Creative time is precious. As you get older it becomes more precious. Those of us over 60 are ever more painfully aware that if we are to succeed, we must plan more audaciously, execute more unerringly and promote more unabashedly. Wow - did I say that?


So why do I need a studio if I paint 'en plein air'? Well to paint plein air is to learn to distill, to study and to execute. Does the musician study only to study? Of course not, he performs, to the delight (he hopes) of his audience. An artist performs by enlarging his studies into larger canvasses. By the building of my actual studio, I will have the space to build upon my plein air studies. But I will always be doing plein air, because that is the spark for the concept.


Below are 2 new pieces that I did two weeks ago when I went to the Plein Air Convention in Las Vegas. That could be a blog entry all on its own. Two days spent painting and two extremes in environment. From squalling rain and wind to extreme sunshine and wild burros.


If you are interested in either oil, please let me know. Both are 11x14 and are framed.

Rainy Day at Red Rocks

Red Rocks at Spring Valley

 "A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art."Paul Cezanne