Progress is not linear, and some days that is more evident than others. Yesterday, I had two art experiences. First, I listened to Renee Kahn through a presentation by the ISEA, which was excellent and gave me a lot to think about. Second, I started on the second demo of the Lesley Humprey series, which was on charcoal and gouache. While…
Category: Painting
Lesley Humphrey “Workshop” – Day 1
I am not famed for my flexibility. If I have a plan, that’s it. I hate a change. I’m not change resistant; I don’t resist just because something is changing. I resist when MY plans change. Thus, I was not in the best of moods when I found out yesterday that the virtual workshop by Jean Pederson had been cancelled.…
Captious
Captious: ADJECTIVE; formal; (of a person) tending to find fault or raise petty objections. “a captious teacher” synonyms: critical · fault-finding · quibbling · niggling · cavilling · carping · criticizing · disapproving · censorious · judgmental · overcritical · hypercritical · pedantic · hairsplitting · pettifogging · pass-remarkable In a search for the title of today’s post, I went…
No (new) dancing animals
For those of you who were worried about my sanity because of the recent influx of dancing animals, you will be relieved to know that this post does not showcase any NEW dancing animals projects. Yellowstone Dancers – the pause before commitment I am still working through my ideas around Yellowstone Dancers. I think I’ve landed on a plan, but…
More Dancing Animals
I told a friend this week about my latest project and she said, “Tara, do we need to talk about this recent obsession with dancing animals?” No, Gretchen. I’m as sane as I ever was, and yes, I’m aware that is not a high bar. Unfortunately, my sanity or lack thereof was of little import this weekend. The memorial for…
Evolution
I need to announce that there is a vanishingly small chance that I have learned something. This is a red letter day! Let me explain. Back in June, when I went on my great Western Adventure, on Day 6 I went through Yellowstone National Park. I started pretty early in the morning and witnessed a herd of young bachelors tussling…
Moooooo-ving On
After the great cow adventure of a couple weeks ago, I had reference photos of cows sitting around all over my studio. So, obviously, I needed to paint a few to get this cow thing really out of my system. Cows aren’t really my thing; except that cows and horses are a little like peanut butter and jelly. So, a…
Editing
Almost every discipline requires some kind of editing. If you garden, you have (at a minimum) weeds. If you cook, you try substitutions or variations. If you run, you try to better your time or lower your heart rate. With painting, there are a lot of editing opportunities. What to paint? Materials? Colors? Which details should be left out or…
Standard vs. study
This was a big week for art show notifications; I received two acceptances, both of which pleased me to no end. The first was for the Watercolor Society of Oregon fall show. Even though the in-person convention has been cancelled (some digital classes will be available, but it’s not the same), the show will still hang in the Elsinore Gallery…
Well, there goes that plan
This week I was talking to a friend about COVID-19. And I admitted to her that I am finding this “stage” of this–group project?– to be the hardest yet. She agreed and admitted she was struggling, too. As if the gods were listening, the next day the WSO convention–the first in-person convention in two years–was changed to virtual. I’m going…