Fire and Ice - The Pandemic and the Painting Process

 

The months between March of 2020 and 2021 have indeed been strange.  I rent a studio space above a wine bar in our town of York, PA.  In mid-March of 2020 everything shut down.  Restaurants were closed.  We were told to stay in lockdown.  This is a painting I completed just prior to that lockdown.  I named it Fire and Ice.  It was the only snowstorm of the winter that ended in March 2020. 

Prior to the lockdown I felt that I was on a roll with my painting.  I tried a new palette.  I was painting large and expressionistic landscapes and loving it.  A year later, I find I'm in a bit of a slump.  This post is an attempt to assess this slump.  

When I learned that lockdown was inevitable, I packed up most of my painting materials and took them home.  I thought the lockdown would last a few weeks, not several months.  I tried painting in my daughter's old bedroom, but my husband was working from home on Zoom meetings all day.  I ended up setting up a studio at my neighbor's empty house.  This worked for a while.  

In the summer I was able to get into the studio again, but noticed I had several unfinished large paintings that were started pre-pandemic and never finished.  I was teaching an on-line college class and was pretty busy with that.  All of my studio classes at local art center were cancelled. In the fall I started teaching a landscape painting class via Zoom. 

For my demo paintings I purchased a bunch of 16x20 canvases from Michaels.  Six canvases for $10.99.  Teaching the basics of landscape painting, I was focusing on painting to help my students.  I produced 6-10 "finished" pieces and felt "at least I'm painting.  The paintings are all decently well executed paintings but I didn't "love" most of them.  

I continued to teach in January at two different Art Centers.  I continued the Landscape Painting with five students in the classroom and four on Zoom.  I started a beginners oil painting class in nearby Gettysburg.  I loved both classes.  I did notice that the biggest issue with adult students is that they get too precious with their work.  They tend to get tight and "tickle" their paintings to death.  I  decided to do a Painting without a Brush session in both classes to help them loosen up.  As a result, I realized my demo paintings were getting a little tight as well.  I created a bunch of small brushless paintings using spatulas, knives, credit cards etc. (See previous post).

Well, I got a little bored of those too.  When I went back into my studio this week, I took a look at my paintings started pre-pandemic and it dawned on me.  Last year I was painting for the joy of the painting process.  Over the months, I lost it somewhat.  Perhaps I am more aware of time and limitations.  Thinking about sales (which I never want to be my focus).  Covid has made things like studio time and teaching time unpredictable.  The restaurant closed again in December through the beginning of February.  February was a blur of snow. Life can get in the way.  Covid has been a huge wet blanket.  

Thursday I decided I was just going to paint what I wanted to paint.  For the first time in a long time, I went in to the studio to do just that.  Hopefully this will be a start to a better year.  

Painting Without a Brush

So during the usual rush before Christmas, I decided to paint a number of small paintings.  In 2019 I sold several of these mini paintings.  I thought I could try painting with acrylics so that they would dry quickly.  I quickly realized that I did not like painting mini landscapes with acrylics.  

For a change I decided to "Paint without a brush".  I had acquired a number of tools...palette knives, spatulas, trowels.  In addition to the purchased tools I knew that I could cut up old credit cards, cardboard and other assorted items to make interesting "marks"

Here is my first attempt.  I am pretty happy with it  It is only an 8"x10" painting which I can price rather inexpensively and also ship out in a priority mail box.  I have started several others, but most are not quite "finished".  I have a studio in downtown York above a restaurant.  The restaurant closed in mid-December due to Covid spikes, so I haven't gotten there very much.  So much for the pre-Christmas sales!

What I did do was introduce this method to my landscape painting class.  I teach at a local art association to adults.  The class was a success.  Most of my students loosened up quite a bit and felt successful. Since I started this method of painting I feel that I prefer it to the traditional brush method.  I am looser and not as nitpicky!  

 Hindsight is 2020 - Thoughts on the Year

2020 has certainly been a strange year.  I retired from teaching public school art at the end of the 2018/2019 school year with the goal of making art full time.  I started renting a lovely studio above a wine bar in York, PA.  

I thought I could get a few part-time teaching gigs to help me pay my rent.  I did, but they were not quite what I expected.  I loved the classes I was teaching, but after February, classes cancelled and we went virtual. 

I did have some successes in 2020.  I won an Award of Excellence for Healing Arts
from Manhattan Arts International in February.  I also won Best of Show in the Yorkfest Adult Juried Exhibition over the summer. The painting that won is Living Forest.  It is a painting of what was my neighbor's creek in the woods.  This is 30"x30" oil painting on canvas.  My painting style has changed over the years.  I earned my MFA in visual arts in 2017.  That experienced helped me to think of making art in a different way.  I am no longer trying to "copy" nature.  I am experiencing nature through the process.  

Most of the paintings I will be showing were created in the studio using photos that I took while walking through the woods.  We purchased our neighbor's 24 acre wooded property in December.  It is a magical place.  I also hike at the state park which is five minutes from my home with my dog and my husband.  He also retired this year.  Nature continues to inspire me. 

The Great Falls of the Potomac and "Purple is the New Black"

The Great Falls park in Virginia is an absolutely beautiful place that I visited in early October!  We went for a hike and I took a lot of photos with my phone.  This painting is a result.

What do I mean by "Purple is the New Black?"  We all know the TV series about the women's prison.  This has nothing to do with prison but it has everything to do with color.  So here is the second painting I did in this new series. (See post of December 19th for the first).   I changed my usual format to vertical (36x24).  I did not use any blacks or browns in the paintings.  This is an experiment for me and I am liking it!  One Artist who inspires me is the famed artist and teacher, Robert Henri.  His book The Art Spirit is on my side table.  I have read and re-read the book at least 20-30 times along with Wassily Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art.  Henri recommended using a palette that corresponds with the colors of the rainbow and I tried it.  I start with a red-violet to violet to blue to greens, yellows and ending with a cadmium red.   I mix colors directly on a large paper palette.  White is added for lightening and adding opacity on the second or third day.  I am thoroughly enjoying this new color palette.  I am currently working on the third in this vertical series.  I have a few more that are in square and horizontal formats that I might post soon!

Renewal of Negative Space

So I have not posted on this blog in a while and I'm wondering if there is still a viable audience.  I retired from teaching and I am now working as a full time artist.  I'm not sure if it is sustainable yet, but I love what I'm doing.  I've moved from pure abstract/non-objective painting back to landscapes with a new color palette.  No blacks or browns!  If anyone still follows, let me know.  I will either blog here and connect to my website or start a blog on the website. 

Above it All

I've been blog absent for too long. Primarily because I spent the last two years working on my MFA in visual art through Wilson College. For the first year and a half, I was teaching art full-time in a Pennsylvania public school.  I took a sabbatical leave of absence to finish my thesis exhibit from January 15th until the end of the school year in June.  I am now back to teaching full time and painting part time.

During my sabbatical leave I completed approximately 28 paintings.  I started nine or ten others that are still in process.   I exhibited 25 paintings at my thesis exhibit in York, Pennsylvania.  I worked with five mentors, local artists, who critiqued my work,  inspired me and shared occasionally shared their "trade" secrets.

I intend to post and write about the paintings I created during this amazing time of creative growth and transformation.   The paintings will not likely be posted in chronological order.  Instead I will choose a painting that I want to write about when it suits me.

I noticed a transformation in my work as I moved from purely representational painting to more non-objective painting.  I still do some representational work but it is more abstract.  I will discuss this and some of the other surprises I've found along the way.

The first piece I'm sharing is entitled, "Above it All".  It is large, 48x36.  I used both acrylic and oil.  The painting started as a forest from memory.  I began to add spirals.  I liked the painting in its early stages but felt it incomplete.  After leaving it alone for a while, I came in and added the winged looking shape.  I painted to music and began thinking more about harmony and balance and composition.  I was making marks.  It was a very joyful experience.    Here is the painting in the earlier phase,   I liked that phase, but it sat, unresolved for many weeks.  Perhaps I will revisit this on another occasion.

I'm writing about my process in painting in preparation for my MFA thesis.  This paint was one of the first I started in the fall.  It began as en plein air and morphed several times in the studio.  This was the painting about a month ago.  At any rate, I kept fussing with it and it became very over-worked.  I hung it up on the wall for a few weeks and I revisited today.  I have completely changed my style from this.  While I haven't totally abandoned landscape, my landscapes have changed.  I have also been making a lot more non-representational work.  Stay tuned. I'll be updating soon.

Chicago Visit - Journal Entry

I am in Chicago for my nephew's wedding.  I was not really thrilled about spending my Christmas break in Chicago but it is turning out to be a good thing.

Today we visited the famed Art Institute.  I was able to immerse myself in amazing art, visit with family and get lost in the process. The AIC is huge.  Their collection is at least equal to if not better than the MET in my opinion.    I could have spent at least another day there but the family was done.

My focus today was on the structure and composition of the great painters starting from around the mid-19th century.  I was not particularly interested in the Impressionists today although I thoroughly enjoyed Monet's London scenes and Irises.  I wanted to focus primarily on the structures and composition of post-impressionist painters.  I have decided that I want my thesis to more fully explore the lesser known painting movements such as Symbolism along with some of the  American and Canadian painters that I feel were neglected from the annals of Art History.

I was struck, literally boiled over by the huge canvasses of Vuilliard.  While researching them I learned that they were created to be "painted tapestries".  I am the painting nerd who takes photos of the details to see how they handled foliage.  Vuilliard did lots of foliage.

I am also interested in the symbolists, the Klimts, the Munchs, the art Nouveau of Mucha and the similarity of these artists to the Group of Seven.  There is a stylized method which these artists employ that I think is beautiful.

I will always have a sweet spot for Van Gogh.  I was astonished to find two paintings of his that I had never seen...the Drinkers and the Poet's Garden.

I studied Cezanne's compositions and gradations as well as Inness, under the recommendation of Bob.  I think I get it now.

I am also quite intrigued by the art that is hanging in our little Airbnb.  The textures are great.  Mostly non-representational but they are giving me ideas.  I thought they might be encaustics at first but alas I believe they are acrylic with the help of some texture gels and such.  Something I want to explore when I begin my practice at the studio.

I took photos.  I want to revisit some old paintings with a squeegee or some other such tool.  The oils I will have to top with more oils but I have that great set that Annelise gave me.

I have ordered some acrylics but I was disappointed in the size.  I  am ordering some student grade acrylics in at least quart sizes for quick studies.  I don't think they will be a problem with the integrity of the surface as long as they are the base layers.

Orange and Blue

This is Orange and Blue.  I painted this large 28x28 close-up of marigolds that were growing in my garden.  I am intrigued by marigolds because they are overlooked and considered "common".  I don't think the average person pays much attention to them.  

I planted them because they are a natural type of pest control.  At the time I didn't think they were particularly beautiful until I tried to paint one.  This painting was a labor of love and observation. I started with direct observation in the garden.  I picked them before the first heavy frost.  I photographed them before they wilted.   It took months.  The yellow-orange color was elusive.  I couldn't quite get-it right.  I finished it with a Thio violet glaze. 

I am intrigued by the symbolism and spirituality associated with the humble marigold.  It was named for "Mary's gold", implying most likely the blessed mother.  The Mexican people use them for El dia de los Muertos.  They decorate shrines and graves with marigolds which are in peak season in late October and early November.   They are celebrated in India.  

The exploration of certain flowers and plants has lead to more exploration.  I find myself researching symbolism in flowers and trees.  I think I'm going to continue on this path awhile. 

Giant Ass

So during my summer Intensive I created this giant ass.  It was inspired by a woman I saw at the Dollar General Store.  She had a disproportionate derriere.  I was working with spray foam insulation and it reminded me of cellulite.  I had to experiment with paint as many did not adhere properly.  I finally chose spray enamel.  I entered it in a show called "Instinct".  The dimensions are about 3' wide by 2' high and about 2' deep.

I am back to painting for the moment.

MFA

So I am going to blog again.

This time it is about my MFA.  Yes.  I enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts Program this past summer.   I have been looking for a low residency MFA and one afternoon I heard an ad on my Public Radio Station.   "...Wilson College's new MFA for visual artists and choreographers."  What?   Visual Artists and Choreographers?

I emailed them.

I am a crazy person.

I commuted to a four week summer intensive and I loved it.   I was uncomfortable being a middle aged, chubby mom.    I got torn down.  I was humiliated by the professors.  We all were.  The six of us.  Three visual artists and three dancers.

I was put completely out of my comfort zone.  Most of our classes took place in the dance studio.  We started with body/mind centering or meditation.  We learned about performance, systems theory, abject art, uncanny art.

Then we were set loose in our studios.  We were told to drop the familiar materials and try something completely different.  I did.

I started sculpting.  I created things with spray foam insulation.  I made a giant ass.  I took silk and shredded it, dyed it, draped it, painted it.  I made tits and weird faces out of the spray foam.  I learned how to build armatures out of paper and cardboard.

At the end of the four week intensive, I was all about world domination.  I felt badass.


So I will soldier on.  I only have a few more weeks of the online class.  I have another one in the spring.

Hungry Tulips

So my latest painting in progress.  It needs a few fixes.  I like to post these on here because I can see the glitches better.  Some of it is oil paint shine.  I also need to tweak that flower on the right.  I will also go over the darks in the back.  Some of the streaking is caused by glare, however.

So I'm in this Old Masters' Style Flower phase.  I am studying with a painter who studied at the Schuler School of Art in Baltimore.  She is very knowledgeable and a good friend.  She makes home made Maroger medium and her husband hand crafts weighted wooden palettes.  It is very old school but I am enjoying the process.  I find it very meditative.

I started this painting in March when I picked up a pot of Parrot Tulips at the garden center.  Their color and shape intrigued me.    Of course, they looked nothing like they did the following week so I used photos that I took.  I also borrowed some photos of leaves and buds.  The flower on the right is purely manufactured from my imagination so I will have to revisit it.  I have been using Monarch and Sable brushes, Maroger medium and Grumbacher Paint.  I'm thinking of just painting my mutant Rhubarb plant next. 

The Yellow Iris Painting

In my painting life, I've decided to slow down a bit.  Exhibiting became exhausting and I didn't feel that I was "growing" so much in my art.  I find that it is very easy to become focused on selling rather than investigating.  I did not like that and I do not like that about the art "scene".  At the Lancaster gallery I was required to produce several new paintings for each month I exhibted while trying to work full time and raise teenagers.  While I did sell a few paintings, I felt that the quality began to suffer as I tried to meet deadlines.  I enjoyed several invitational exhibits over the last few years and now I just want to focus on the painting process. 

I've considered pursuing my MFA through one of the many low-residency programs, but the cost and the committment seemed prohibitive.  So I enrolled in a low-cost oil painting class at our local York Art Association with an instructor who taught me watercolor painting almost twenty years ago.  Nancy Wiseman is a fine artist, trained in the classical old masters' style.  I was a bit hesitant as I have been known for my loose style, but thought, "I like Nancy, so what the heck?"

I came in to a room set up with the typical still life arrangements of fruits and pots. I confess that I felt underwhelmed, having painted many of these arrangements in college.  I took my spot among many middle aged women and began to paint.  I was almost immediately chastised by Nancy.  She is quite the regimented instructor and I have a lot of sloppy habits.  Eventually I caved and bought the paint and the brushes that she recommended.  I also bought a balanced hardwood palette, handcrafted by her husband and her hand-blended maroger medium.  I toyed with her fruits and pots but confess that I did not really like the process or products.   

Nancy however, would not let me quit that easily.  She called me at home to remind me to register for her classes.  On the third round of sessions I began painting Nancy's flowers.  She is a wonderful gardener and brought in irisis.  She also photographed the irises because they would not last through the completion of the painting.  I began with a purple iris.  I worked on a second purple iris over the summer in my own studio.   One class, I forgot my reference photo for the purple and started on the yellow.  This was my third, and only completed iris at this point. I absolutely loved painting this.  I learned so much about this delicate process.  It took almost the entire ten week session (3 hours a week) but I think I can say that I am finished with this one. 

Where's the Hookah?

I think this guy should have a hookah up there on my tomato plant.  He certainly has the munchies. This is the dude who has been eating my zucchini flowers, my sunflowers and my tomato flowers.  I also removed found three of his buddies. The first I captured for observation.  He did not survive.   Two were covered with eggs.  I mistakenly thought they were Tomato Hornworm eggs and destroyed them.  Later I found out they were the eggs of a beneficial parasitic wasp that would have protected my garden.    Of course caterpillars would not be the ones laying eggs.  What was I thinking?

Increments

As I stand upon the precipice of this new phase in my life, I have been full of strange thoughts.  I'm dividing up the past into increments.

It occurred to me that come September, I will have known my husband for thirty years.  We started working together and then began dating.  We were both twenty-four.  

It was a time when I left one lifestyle to begin another.  It was a time when I consciously abandoned an oppressive religious belief system.   I had to forcibly remove my self from a repressive lifestyle to do this.  

It took months of planning and soul searching  and reading  and praying.  I knew I wanted this but after years of indoctrination I was finally able to break away.

It was probably the single most important decision in my life.

It just happened that I was being wooed by my husband to be at the same time.  It was not considered acceptable  for me to "date" someone outside of this particular church.

I consciously defied them.  I was empowered with a belief in my self that was beyond anything I could have imagined.    I found the power to become independent, go to college and become a partner in this relationship.  We moved to a different town , got married and got to know each other for seven years before having children.

Now my youngest child will be moving away to attend college.  The last 21 years have been a blur of band concerts, science fairs, parent/teacher conferences, school board meetings, road trips and you name its.  I've tried to maintain my artistic life despite everything.

I can't divide my life into halves, but thirds are seeming to make sense.  My first 23 years were turbulent and troubled.

I think I actually began my adult life at 24.

I will be 54 in September.  I have no idea how much longer I will be around but I  am anticipating this new phase, whether it's a third, or a quarter, or an eighth.  Life doesn't occur in smooth even increments.  I just know I'm looking forward to this adventure.

I think I want to blog again.  I have so much going on at the moment. My youngest daughter graduated and we will soon be empty-nesters.  I will be starting a new job in the fall teaching younger students.  I keep finding myself at this weird intersection in life.  Beginnings.  Endings.  The beginning of a my daughter's college experience.  The ending of my "job" as a parent.  (The full-time kids at home part). The ending of my existence as a high school art teacher.  The beginning of my life as an elementary art teacher.

It is the beginning of a new kind of life without kids around.  It is the beginning of a sort of freedom.  Husband and I can run around naked if we want.  We can make love without being self-conscious when the kids are awake.

I will have more time to paint.  We will have time to do things.  Fridays and Saturdays will not be filled with Football games and concerts.  No more band boosters meetings.

I would like to immerse myself in painting.  I'm thinking of going for my MFA.  I have lots of ideas.

I would like to "reopen" this blog perhaps as a place to record what happens next.

Still Hibernating

Will this winter ever end?  I have decided to stay in hibernation for another week or so.  This was the view of my little bird feeding station outside of my rear window today.  My school closed so I had no reason whatsoever to venture outside.  I prefer to "look" outside on days like this  Even the birds were hiding.

I did snap a photo of a downy woodpecker who was not eating, but hiding from the snow under this little arbor   There were at least one dozen red cardinals out in the back fence row a little later.

I found that the zoom on my phone was no worse than the one on my Canon DSLR (from the doorway at least).  I had no desire to get my toes wet.

Excruciating Realism

Just For Fun I took a class in painting using the techniques of the "Old Masters".  This is not my typical style at all.

So why did I do it?

There are several reasons.

Reason #1   To see if I could do it.
Reason #2   To correct some of my bad painting habits.
Reason #3   To get out of my cave and paint with other people
Reason #4   To get out of my comfort zone.
Reason #5   The teacher is an old friend of mine.
Reason #6    To spend lots of money on fine sable brushes.
Reason #7    I secretly have a need for people to yell at me
Reason #8    To learn some fun "trade secrets"
Reason #9    To learn how to properly use a mahl stick
Reason #10  To drive myself absolutely crazy

Yes.   Sometimes I do crazy things.  This is my first attempt at this excruciating realism down to the water drops.   (I kind of like the water drops).   I did enjoy rendering the metal bucket but I despised  painting those lady apples.

This process is much more like drawing and less like painting to me.  I am used to large canvasses, large brushes, wild colors and thick layers of paint.   This method is quiet and meditative.  I suppose it is therapeutic to a degree.

I subscribe to the belief that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger so I am continuing this class for another session.  I'm actually learning a bit.  You can leave your love/hate comments.  I've already heard them from my children.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

The last painting I "completed" was given as a  Christmas gift.  My daughter's private flute instructor of the past nine years is also the head of the York County Wild Bird Refuge   She has made it her  mission to protect the Yellow Crowned Night Herons who have made an artificial lake in the middle of York City their home.

It is quite an experience to attend the annual Spring Garden Recital surrounded by fledgling herons and other birds who are being nursed to health by Mrs. Deckard.   Her wonderful backyard garden in transformed into a hospital for injured and rescued birds.  While the young ladies are playing their flutes in the gazebo, wrens and robins and finches fly about, oblivious to the commotion taking place in the garden.

I had to research the heron that she loves, borrowing reference photos from birdwatchers along the mid-Atlantic seaboard.  The swamp flora  was partially my own garden and partially borrowed from another photo, but largely invented as Vincent Van Vogh seemed to visit me while painting this.  I was inspired by my visit to the Van Gogh: Up Close exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I painted this over a discarded painting of my own garden which I attempted to paint en plein air.  The painting was abandoned after I was attacked by hordes of Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs who kept flying into me and my canvas.  I could not find any sandpaper so the ridges and textures remain from the abandoned painting.  (I like doing this, but I've often received criticism for it).  Please click on the picture for a better view!

This is quite a contrast to the style I have been studying.  I am taking a class using Old Masters techniques.  It is a lot of blending and smoothing and sanding, small brushes and discipline which I am not used to.   Not my typical style, but I am learning a lot.  I think it is always good to challenge oneself as an artist by exploring as many genres as we can.

What's New in 2013

Nothing much to post about.  Last postable painting was the Yellow Crowned Night Heron. I gave it to my daughter's flute teacher.  I did post it on Facebook in it's not quite finished form.  If any one is interested, I will post it here.

I have been taking a painting class at the local Art Association.  I felt I needed to be in a class to get out of my "slump".  So I am taking this Old Masters painting class and it is a love/hate thing.  It is much tighter than I usually paint and I must say that I suck.

Nancy, was a watercolor teacher of mine some 15-18 years ago.  She is very good at this but it is not my thing.  Still I find the challenge enticing.   I've learned some nifty things and I might do a little more of this.
If nothing else, it will help me to teach my students.

On another note, I am going to start a new blog for my Photo 2 students.  I will post some photos for them to look at and critique.  (I might be visiting some blogs for these).  I will also be requiring them to create their own photo blogs to post and critique each other.   So please visit them if you think about it.  More details to follow.