When I was a kid, no one could get me to read a book or draw something unless it was about horses. I had a huge Breyer horse collection. My Little Ponies would do in a pinch. Barbie had a horse (Dallas) and I could be talked into a game if we were playing something with a ranch or other horse-related activity. But understand, that was a far second choice. Childhood, as it relates to painting, has been on my mind a lot over the last few weeks. I got a new printer cartridge, so I printed out some reference photos and spent the week playing with my love for all things equine.

This painting was developed from a squiggle that was the result of spilling some paint. I am attempting to play with lost and found edges, similar to Benedicte Gele.

For these paintings I was deliberately not trying to produce a “perfect” horse painting. I was trying to let myself sketch and work through draftsmanship. The painting below has good drawing on the horse, but the human needs some work. As I take it further, I will have to resolve that and the color issues.

“Did You Get My Good Side?” (unfinished)

On this work, the left front leg and head are out of scale. That may be fixable, though I’m not sure if I will push forward.

This was done with my watercolor markers on a previously colored piece of paper.

And then this piece. This piece was done either in 2014 or 2015 during an ice painting “window.” It has been sitting in a pile with masking fluid on it ever since. This week, I spent some time taking the masking off. The result is so pretty that I can hardly think about painting on it. But I think I might have an idea.

A start from my 2015 ice painting.

Don’t hold your breath to see it!

I’ll give you three guesses to my state of mind. Here they are.

There’s a Cat on My Faberge

The Women

Karl, the Rugby Kelpie

There’s a Cat on My Faberge

I’m still in a bit of painting funk. I want to paint, but I don’t necessarily want to paint something. So, I was swirling things around and… a cat came and sat on my paper.

Emotion: Frustration

The Women

My sincere apologies, but this painting has a lot of references to Christianity. If that is something that triggers you, please feel free not to read.

Tired of twiring paint around aimlessly, I decided to work with a piece of pre-aimlessly-painted paper. As I was twirling the paper around on my desk, I kept seeing the figure on the lower right. As I kept developing, I saw more figures. And started to tell myself stories. There is Mary, mother of Jesus (i.e. unwed mother), the Woman at the Well (i.e. prostitute), and the sisters, Martha and Mary (Martha who does the spiritual and Mary who does the practical and they just can’t seem to work it out.) All of these figures have head coverings. Then there is… someone on the left. You can figure out who for yourself (not necessarily Jesus, but that is one interpretation.) In my view, it is someone who can listen and soothe and tell these women that they are valued.

Emotion: Discouraged.

Karl, the Rugby Kelpie

I am not sure where Karl came from. I was working to finish another aimless start and he emerged. Strong. Playful. Confident.

Emotion: Wishful.

When I was a kid, my dad would bring home tins of watercolor paint at the end of the school year (he was a middle school industrial arts teacher.) You know the type I’m talking about?

Initially, I would have a blast. I’d put down paint and that was so satisfying. And so, I’d put down another color. And another. Before long, I’d have a soggy mess of a muddy paper. It was SO frustrating! To have all your dreams and visions come crashing down because… well, because…

I am not sure I ever figured out “because.”

Applying paint is about as far as my emotional state is letting me go right now. As I mentioned last week, I have a bunch of colors in jars, and so applying color is a breeze. What to do about the paint, I’m not so sure.

Because orange has the least amount of color, I have been playing with orange pain this week. Two paintings emerged.

“Nigel” – 14″ 11″ – watercolor on paper

He is fun and bright.

And I painted a wash of orange over this painting.

It doesn’t matter how bright the spring if the winter is too long

Thus creating this painting.

“Fruit” – 14″ x 11″ – watercolor on paper

The color is a little off here. It’s brighter in person. But I think you get the idea.

I’m making mud. I’ll let you know when I’ve made it through the spectrum.

In his book “Creativity“, John Cleese posits the importance of play as a creative element. I’ve heard other creatives express some version of the sentiment, usually coupled with a variation on inspiration has to find you working.

For whatever reason, play is proving elusive. I want to paint, but it feels like all my emotional space is filled up with other things. This long holiday weekend, I did quite a bit of painting. Almost none if it is worth looking at.

A challenge from the Northwest Watercolor Society‘s (NWWS) monthly critique tickled my fancy enough that I pumped out two paintings for critique from the reference photos that were to be used. The idea was to work on values, doing a small version, then a larger version.

Dale Laitinen will be critiquing the images of his selection on January 8, 2024.

In related news, I received a notification from NWWS that I was accepted for signature status. This is VERY exciting for me and, I feel, a goal attained with much hard work.

After these paintings, the most useful thing I did was clean out a variety of watercolor palettes, putting the gooey color residue into these jars.

Nothing I painted seemed to “sit right”, though some work is needed for any of these to be finished.

I may go back to the “apply paint” stage if this keeps up. At least that was fun.

This weekend I pulled out my sumi ink and pastels to do some exercises as learned by the fabulous Dawn Emerson. I have been thinking a lot about how representational I want to be and my future painting direction. This seemed to be a way to have a lot of options without a lot of planning.

The issue of planning and layers looms large in my life. As I sat down to craft this blog, I simultaneously realized how large these issues are… and how much I don’t want to commit those issues to “paper.”

Please forgive me for another short post. A lot is going on.

And for those who celebrate, happy Thanksgiving!

In the interest of getting a post out, this is going to be a random post.

• How can it be November and just a week or so to Thanksgiving?
• I think that means December and then January, which is a new year. I don’t remember doing a single goal this year.
• Oh, good. I just looked at the list. I have done a few goal things.
• My piece, “Leif, Lord of the Flickers” was accepted into the ISEA Member Only Juried Online Exhibition “Utterly Profound 2023”. It’s an online show. The link to this year’s show is scheduled to go live on November 15.
• I painted more this week. I even broke out the pastels.

• My gooddness. It’s really raining here.
• I agreed to do a break-out session at the Spring WSO Convention. Working title: “Paris Tricks to Get Unstuck.”
• I’m already tired from “the holidays.”
• A favorite artist, Kate Dardine of Painted Wind Studio, is putting out a 20 days of Gratitude newsletter right now. In day 8, she put in this beautiful quote: “A stranger is a person in whom we have not yet found a part of ourselves.” – Luigina Sgarro, il confine di ghiaccio
• I need to get a move on and enter Western Fed. November 27. Lots of time…
• Maybe a goal for next year will be less procrastinating.

Coming back to real life after my exciting PARIS! trip took a couple of weeks. Last weekend I finished up my planned blog posts and looked around. “I guess I should paint?” I thought, rather weakly. So, I sketched out my favorite Paris photos. And then I froze. “I can’t paint this,” I thought. “I’m not good enough.” Regardless of whether or not I am “good enough”, I will certainly never get any better unless I actually apply paint. But I couldn’t get past the idea that spreading paint was too complicated. So, I dithered last weekend. It’s a great tool if you want to get nothing done.

If you have ever looked for anything vaguely art-related on YouTube, I am sure a video about neurographic art has come up for you. Basically, it’s where you make squiggles, then make them ovals, then apply paint. Or some variation of things in some order. The key words: apply paint. I sometimes do the same thing and “paint dragons”. I will say the exercise of neurographic art is oddly addictive. I’d do a painting (or two) then go to bed and pass right out.

A gray neurographic art start.

When I got up this morning, a strong weather system with masses of wind and rain was passing through. I was also wearing my worst shirt, so I decided to break out the acrylic paints and see what I could do with these starts. There have been oodles of mushrooms coming up with the increasing rain.

Inspiration solved.

Just like riding a bike, it started coming back to me.

Asian Pears

The “gray” start at the start of this had a lot of paint on it. So, while I was waiting for that to dry, I pressed another piece of paper to it, soaking up some of the extra paint. As I looked at it, I saw this emerge.

Ghost

I don’t think it’s finished yet, but it’s close.

Another item that emerged was this imaginary landscape. I’m still trying to figure out a finish plan.

After fooling around with a bunch of projects, I finally got the courage to apply paint to some of my “real” paintings.

Finally, I applied a wash to this drawing. This wash is still VERY wet when the photo was taken. I’m hoping it will dry a little more evenly. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to decide if I want to continue or start over.

And so, eight paintings have begun. Not bad for someone who was agonizing seven days ago about “not being able to paint.”