For the last three weeks, I’ve been exploring the idea of artistic style. Week one was about determining if my style was noticeable. Week two explored what elements of style might come easily to me. And in the penultimate post, I discussed what elements of style my paintings displayed. So where is all this taking me?

Earlier this year, I took a great workshop from Jean Pederson. I left inspired and really feeling like maybe I had my artistic mojo back. Life events have proven otherwise. In a few weeks I will be taking another workshop from Linda Kemp, and I’m excited about it. After that, I’m going to have to make some decisions about where to go from here.

For a while, I’ve been threatening to work in a series. I have a variety of ideas: “solid” horses, Oregon restoration work, self-portraits, where I could live when I’m hot, birds, more like the Yellowstone series. And my medium choices have exploded over the last couple of years: acrylic, oil, and pastel in addition to watercolor. But in the context of this series, talking about style, I need to pick a subject that will allow me to emphasize a single style element and make it my own. I’m just not sure what that is yet.

As a conclusion to this series, it seems a little lame; however, I’m tired this evening and it’s this or nothing. I’ll try to post my objectives for the series when I figure them out.

I’m continuing the Strada Challenge. Here are this week’s paintings.

Friday, I took the day off and went whale watching.

There’s another series idea!

As usual, I came up with a plan for this series someplace in the middle of the process. I’ve had the idea for a series on painting style for a while, but my ideas seemed too uncoordinated for a real series. Then I had a week without a topic and… BAM! This series started. To recap, I started with a quiz to see if my readers could tell which of two paintings was created by me or another artist. Anecdotal feedback indicates about a 67% sucess rate. I concluded with the idea that regardless of having a “style”, the differences between me and any other painter were enough to negate any worry about such an ephemeral idea as style. The next week I explored subject as an element of style and ended with the worrying thought that, as the song says, “It’s all been done before.” I asked my readers to complete a survey about why they purchase art. Here are the results (this is not a scientifically designed survey.)

To paraphrase, it’s all about the individual piece for the potential purchaser.

Obviously, having someone purchase a piece is not what drives an artist to create. But if viewers can only occasionally tell my work from someone else’s AND there is no such thing as a new subject… Well, it starts to feel a little hopeless that I’m reaching anyone at all. Can anyone really say their work is unique enough and new enough as to be unmistakable?

Recently, I painted an older couple from a reference photo I took years ago in downtown Portland. This couple was striding along, hand-in-hand with their walking sticks and I thought to myself, “That’s my life goals.” Part of the reason the reference photo has languished so long is because I don’t typically paint either urban scenes or people.

“Life Goals” 2022

I’m pleased with this painting, though since the initial haze of accomplishment and infatuation has worn off, I can see that it’s tentative and clunky. I still like it because I learned so much from it. And I really did think that was a neat couple.

So, does this piece depart from my style?

Snow on the Roof

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Blue Bandana

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Gismo

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Rapt Attention

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A Good Roll

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Walk With a Big Stick

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Fast Friends

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Introducing the Princess

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Serious Player

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All Dressed Up

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Pop Fly

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Grab That Ring

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Above are 12 paintings from “The Dogs of Minto Brown” series. Looking them over, two years since creation, I still see a continuity of style. Or more accurately, a continuity of elements.

Line – An identifiable path created by a point moving in space.

Shape – An enclosed space, a bounded two-dimensional form that has both length and width.

Texture – The perceived surface quality of a work of art.

Form – An element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses; volume; includes height, width AND depth.

Space – Distances or areas around, between, and within components of a piece.

Value – How light or dark something is on a scale of white to black.

According to my own rating of the Minto Brown series, my style runs:

• line – high (lots of hard edges)
• shape – medium (I don’t change the shapes of item much, but there are shapes)
• texture – high (lots of splatter, background)
• form – high (my work is representational)
• space – medium (the focus is not the space between elements)
• color – high (the colors are bright and unmuted)
• value – medium (while there is contrast, it is not the main focus”)

Was “Life Goals” so different? When I rate that painting against the Minto Brown series as a whole, nothing changes. All the elements of “my” style didn’t change at all, though my execution of the subject was problematic.

So, if I have a style, what’s the next step in my artistic journey?

That’s the final piece of the puzzle, and next week’s topic.

Strada Challenge – Week 2

As I mentioned last week, I signed up for the September STRADA challenge. I’m delighted to report I’m still on track.

Take a simple survey (this link will take you off this site.)

Style is a fairly encompassing term which can refer to several aspects of art. Style can mean the technique(s) used to create the artwork. Pointillism, for example, is a method of creating a painting by using small dots of color and allowing color blending to occur within the viewer’s eye. Style can refer to the basic philosophy behind the artwork, for example, the ‘art for the people’ philosophy behind Arts and Crafts movement. Style can also refer to the form of expression employed by the artist or the characteristic appearance of artworks. Metaphysical Painting, for example, tends to be of classical architecture in distorted perspective, with incongruous objects placed around the image space, and an absence of people.

Post 2 on Style

When submitting to a juried show, it is usual for there to be a prospectus outlining the rules of the of the show. One of the most common phrases in these documents is “work must be original in its concept, composition and design” and/or “work must be the creation of the artist.” In the digital age–where anyone can snap a photo at a moment’s notice, then dress it up with filters–what does that mean? In the context of thousands of years of art, is there anything that’s new? As early as the mid-10th century BC, when Ecclesiastes was written, there was doubt. “Is there a case where one can say, ‘Look, this is new’? It has already existed in the ages before us.” Ecclesiastes 1:10. Yet there can be no doubt that some artists are recognizable at a glance. Why? Or more importantly, how?

It’s been a busy summer, and for the last few weeks painting has taken second (or third) place to a variety of other concerns. To get myself motivated, I signed up for the September STRADA challenge. The goal is to paint (in any media) from life for each of the 30 days of September. “Working from life does NOT include working from TV, Zoom, or a computer screen. It is not necessary to complete your piece in one day; however, there must be a noticeable difference in the work between days and each day must be from life.” I have attempted this challenge in 2013 and 2020, but I have yet to be successful. There is always a lot going on. For this year’s attempt, I assembled a TINY little kit (not including water bottle it fits in a 6″x8″x2″ bag) and grabbed a small (3″x8″) watercolor journal book and resolved to paint between the “after work dog walk” and when I fed the dog. (For the record, Key feels there is FAR too much time between these events. 20-30 WHOLE minutes.) Obviously, these pieces are tiny. They can’t go into an exhibition, and few people would purchase a piece less than 12 square inches. So… why do it?

To be a painter, one must apply paint to a surface. To be a good painter, one must apply soul to your painting. Because I am doing this challenge just for me (unless you could the social media posting, which is part of the rules) I’m not terribly concerned about much except finding something that intrigues me enough to paint it. In this challenge, I am trying to avoid paintings things “because I should.” For example, every time I see a dock with a bunch of sailboats, I feel this compulsion to take a reference photo. I don’t even like boats much. But there are SO many beautiful paintings of water and docs and boats and sails that it’s all I can do not to snap a shot and think, “I should paint that someday.”

Subject is a big part of an artist’s style. Monet and his waterlilies. Georgia O’Keeffe and her flowers. Vermeer and his interior scenes. Style is obviously more than subject, but the artist must find something in the subject to interpret.

An artist friend and I sometimes talk about various shows. In the course of these discussions, it is rare for us not to comment on a piece of work that was “obviously done in a workshop” and/or paintings that were “copied from a photograph.” Neither are hanging offences, but they do seem to violate the prospectus limits mentioned at the beginning of this article. In the photo below, taken at a Bev Jozwiak workshop, the participants were given a photo to work from. You can see differences in color choice and composition, but are any of them really unique?

Similarly, even if someone painstakingly copies a reference photo into watercolor, how is it any different than creating a digitized work and sending it to be mass printed on canvas? (Note: This is NOT to say that digital art is not worthwhile/good/valid; it’s just an extra challenge to make a piece that someone doesn’t think they can do in Photoshop.)

I hope you’ve taken the survey at the start of this article. I have no plans to do anything with the information, I just wondered which element of an artist’s style triggered you to make a piece your own.

Quiz: For each line of paintings, choose the painting that was done by me.

“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” by Barney

“ABC” by the Jackson Five

“Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash

Side by Side

The final day of the Jean Pederson workshop (back in May) my table mate, Chris Kondrat, arrived late to the workshop. We were just about to start the morning exercises, so to help out, I offered her my palette so she only had to grab a piece of paper and brush and get to work. The above paintings are a juxtaposition of three exercises we did that morning. After finishing, I asked Chris if I could take a photo of her paintings. I was fascinated that we could create such different paintings with the same inspiration and colors.

Quiz Answer: Tara painted B, A, A; Chris painted A, B, B.

In June and July, Sandra Pearce and I had a show together at Keizer City Hall.

As our paintings went up, Sandra and I reminisced about the various paintings that had started with us painting together and how they had turned out so different. We’ve painted the Willamette Vally Lavender Festival together, as well as Sauvie Island and the Hillsboro Plein Air. And not a single time have our paintings looked anything alike. If she looked east, I looked west. If she used blue, I used orange. It wasn’t that we were trying to be different, we just are.

Difference versus style

Style is a big deal in art circles. One of the more common things I hear in workshops is artists saying they want to work in a “more personal style.” I’ve said it. We are searching for something that says “this is by me”. Even the most casual art aficionado can tell the difference between a Georgia O’Keeffe and a Gustav Klimt.

The paintings above are both, purportedly, about trees. Why are they so different? The artist.

Obviously, art is extremely subjective matter. But that does not stop us from saying something is “good” or “bad.” Artists are notoriously hard on themselves, often engaging in evaluation far beyond a simple critique by a friend or opinion from a teacher.

But lately I’ve been wondering if the simple act of placing paint on paper is enough to claim a style. Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries about forgery and other art crimes. In high-end art, there is this thing called “connoisseurship” where experts who study a particular painter give an opinion about its authenticity. The first episode of “Fake or Fortune?” is particularly informative on this subject. “Real Fake” about Elmyr de Hory is also eye opening. “Made You Look” about the Knoedler Gallery will challenge your ideas about what even makes art valuable.

Four years ago, I wrote a blog post, “Learning to Paint Like Tara Choate“, where I talked about style and voice. It’s a subject still on my mind. But maybe I can ease up about having a personal style; I think the paintings from the quiz showcase above demonstrate differences that are very real, if difficult to put into words.

It continually amazes me. You want to take the tiniest break from something, and suddenly it’s been a month and you can’t figure out how things got so far out of control. Please, folks, forgive me for not updating this blog for a while. I’d like to tell you that amazing things have been going on, but the truth is I’ve just been busy and had a lot on my mind.

Equine Art

July 17 I drove up to Emerald Downs to pick up my art from the Equine Art Show 2022. No awards this year, but I did sell the painting “Trust.” A red dot award is ALWAYS appreciated.

“Trust” (2022)

Obviously, I got a bajillion reference photos while I was up there.

I’ll have lots to paint between trips (as if I didn’t have enough reference photos for three lifetimes.)

In other equine art news, my painting “Transition” was accepted into the American Academy of Equine Art Fall 2022 Juried Exhibition.

“Transition” (2020) – 11″ x 15″ watercolor on paper

I am always THRILLED to get into this highly prestigious show, but the inclusion this year is slightly bittersweet. It’s my third acceptance, but not the third within five years. In fact, I was previously accepted in 2015 (Shoes & Shadows) and 2017 (At Liberty).

There wasn’t an exhibition in 2021, and I don’t think I applied in 2020 (right around the time of my solo show.) So, this inclusion means that my clock starts ticking again. Here to two more between now and the 2026 show! I’m also slightly amused that ths painting was juried in instead of “Patience” or “Pretty Pickup Pony”. I thought both of those were “better” horses, but anything involving just a head shot is a hard sell for an equine art jury. Note: Do more full body horses.

The Big Project (continues)

As I mentioned in my last (long ago) post, I am working on a big project. I have set my syllabus and recorded the necessary paint sessions. In addition to teaching the class “live”, I am putting together a video so people who don’t want to come to the convention can take part. The entire project has eaten up a lot of my painting time, whether painting or putting together the video.

WSO Entry

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would get done. Tomorrow I’m taking Key to a nosework trial, and the deadline to submit entries into WSO is August 1. So, my big goal for the weekend was to sit down and finish the last two paintings on the easel.

These paintings are a departure for me, and I have limited hopes for their success. But while I’ve done a lot of painting in the last six months, I haven’t done a lot of good painting. It’s a phase. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

NWWS Entry

On that note, I’m only a couple of weeks out from the NWWS entry deadline. I’ve decided to submit paintings that are a little older, but within the two-year cap. After all it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel every time. Right? I’ve decided to submit three entries. “Fleet”, “OSIFS”, and “Yellowstone Dancers.” These are all three paintings I am exceptionally proud of and that I don’t think have been “around” much. In fact, “YD” has yet to be in any show.

Volunteer Out

In less artistic news, but definitely art adjacent, I am looking forward to having more free time after the WSO convention. Over the last few years, I’ve really let myself get over-enmeshed into the WSO volunteer scene. As the webmaster, it was all too easy to see a task and just decide to do it. Almost a year ago, I told the WSO board that I wanted to retire in October of 2021. A variety of factors led to my bad decision to stay another year and try to work through some necessary changes. Fortunately, a replacement webmaster has been found and will start “full time” in October. I’m training him, and he’s doing a great job, but almost every time we talk, there is some job that he’s been asked to do because I used to do it, but it’s not really a webmaster thing. The phenomenon is creating a lot of tension as well as underscoring what I’ve been saying for years about needing more people helping with digital tasks. While words cannot overstate how excited I am about handing over the responsibility for all the “WSO stuff”, it’s another thing that is bittersweet because I don’t feel like I’ve always handled the last 18 months with “language befitting a knitter” (if you know what I mean.)

I bring this up mostly to emphasize October is becoming something of a “finish line” and I’m getting impatient to reach it.

And All the Rest

With all of this going on, you’d think I would be sufficiently challenged. Ha! I’m not content until my hair is on fire.

A few weeks ago, I woke up from a vivid dream and what I remembered was being at the beach house and being happy. Since changing medications in April, I’ve been having a lot of these vivid dreams. I remember the colors and the emotions, but little else. To recap my recent housing history, when Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she moved in with me at the Salem house until she died (Dec. 31, 2018). After a year of mourning, I decided to sell the Salem house and move to something a little more upscale but also one story. I put the Salem house on the market the same day as the original COVID lockdown order. Then purchased the Keizer house during the following ten weeks. During the period between the two houses, I lived at the beach house. In the last two years, I’ve said many times that if I had known how COVID was going to turn out, I would have skipped buying the Keizer house and just moved to the beach full time. I have really loved the Keizer house, but it’s always been in my thoughts to retired at the coast when the time is right.

After the dream, I pondered a few things. Everything, including my job, is going to hybrid workspace. While there has been some discussion about having more people come more regularly to the office, such significant changes have been made that being physically present is just not necessary. I was having a quarterly check in with my boss soon, and I resolved to ask her what it would mean if I did move to the coast. Essentially, she told me that if I was willing to come in once a month, there was no reason it couldn’t work. I mulled it all around for a few more days, looked at my calendar, and realized that I had virtually nothing happening in the month of August. If I spent that month moving out and fixing up, I could list the house in September and probably be out by 2023. Anyone who knows me knows that I am incapable of doing anything slowly. This process “officially” started on July 21, and I’m starting to turn off utilities, arrange for furniture donations, and other things necessary to consolidate the households. I’m going to try not to push, but no one should hold their breath.

I hope you all are enjoying your summer. Does anyone else find it wrong that they are already advertising back-to-school?

This weekend something unusual happened. I suddenly became interesting finishing all the things. This almost never happens. It’s much more common to get “startitis” where you want to do all the things. For once, my location and available interest coincided with this passion for finishing, so I have been quietly chugging through the items on my desk, getting up every so often to take the dog for a walk. Here’s a progress report to date.

Dancing Cranes

Sometimes flawless painting ideas are hobbled by the talents of their originator. Such is the case with this pair of paintings. They have been hanging around for a couple of months, and no brilliant ideas were making themselves known. So, I sat down and decided move forward.

“Shall We Dance”

“Sometimes You Gotta Dance”

It’s possible that “Shall We Dance?” could work out with a few more steps, but I’m leaning toward just recycling the paper. There are just too many awkward and uninspired shapes.

Finishing Touches

I put the finishing touches on “Patience”. I’d like to go ahead and enter the AAEA show and have that crossed off my list, but I’m still struggling with what the entry should include. Based on feedback, “Pretty Pickup Pony” should go, but I’m not sure about that final spot.

Decisions

Speaking of making decisions, I’ve decided that “No Dumping” is going to be my final submission to accompany Lauren Mallett‘s  poem for the Hoffman Gallery‘s October show “Word & Image”.

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To do list

It may sound like a small thing, but I checked off viewing a YouTube video by Kimberly Santini. That had been sitting around in my to-do pile for ages. Here’s the page.

The big project

This isn’t a sequential list, but you can see I’m making progress on my list. So that gave me some time to work on “the big project.”

I have volunteered to teach a break-out session at the Watercolor Society of Oregon’s Fall Convention. The title is “Dynamic value studies with liquid charcoal.” And the next time I volunteer for something like this, I’m going to know what I’m doing BEFORE volunteering.

All this is to say that I’ve on a bit of a steep learning curve to figure out not just how to use liquid charcoal (not terribly different than any other watercolor) but also to teach an interesting class on value studies. I need to fill up 90 minutes, so hear me out on my proposed schedule.

Minute 0-10 – Getting everyone settled an “there”

Minute 10-15 – Show examples of cool charcoal things.

Minute 15-25 – Do a 4-minute warm up exercise with goal of feeling how paint goes on.

Minute 25-45 – Exercise 1: Ombre and Lifting (1 painting)

Minute 45-60 – Exercise 2: Heron (rejected) (the drawing made me anxious, so I am assuming it will make others anxious)

Exercise 2 – Ribbon (rejected) (Lifting, too similar to #1)

Exercise 2 – Reversing (rejected) (I like the results, but the drawing is too complex) (see more about this later)

Exercise 2: Reversing (see more about this later)

Minute 60-75 – Exercise 3: Combining Shapes (rejected) (I’m not good enough to explain how it’s cool)

Exercise 3: TBA

Minute 75-90 – Assume things won’t go to schedule? Lengthen everything? Add a critique option?

So, as you can see, I need to identify one more segment. I think I have a winner, but that’s my next step.

In addition to simply sorting out what I’m going to present, I’ve also agreed to make a video of this so WSO members who might feel anxious about coming to the convention can participate. So, each of these demos has been recorded on my Iphone and will need to be edited into something approaching coherence.

But wait, there’s more

In spite of this being a BIG project, I’m actually learning a lot and enjoying myself. I’m finding myself wanting to explore ideas that come up during painting. “Patience” (shown above) is one such example.

Another example is this, still unfinished painting.

“Life Goals” – unfinished

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve painted humans, and there is a reason for that. However, the value study got me going and I decided to give this a whirl. The walking sticks are still masked, and I am still working on the values. And I’m not sure about those red shoes. But there are some kind of fun things about this painting. It’s not how I envisioned it, but it’s definitely stretching my skills.

This final painting was a consequence of the value exercises as well.

“Losing My Rights” – unfinished

As you can see, I’ve flipped the painting over. I may change the orientation again. And I’m still working on the values. But this painting is definitely not like others I’ve done.

Goodbye

I said goodbye yesterday to my two hawk babies. Here is the final video.

Conclusion

Tomorrow is the fourth of July, and I hope everyone (or technically, all Americans who celebrate) stays safe and has the opportunity to spend time with those important to them. And that your pets remain safe and calm. I’m not sure about my plans. I may goof off, as this seems like a lot of work for a single week. On the other hand, I feel like I’m on a roll, so we’ll see.

I’ll close with this. As you go about your celebrations, think about the document that was sent to King George of England on this day 246 years ago.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Consent seems like an interesting word to me.

opprobrious [uh-proh-bree-uhs]  (adjective): outrageously disgraceful or shameful.

There are many reasons why this seems like a good title for today’s post. Whatever your guess, you probably aren’t wrong. (Seriously? We are here again?) But the introduction I meant to start had to do with my travels over the last week.

A week ago Saturday, Key and I went to a nosework trial. He did wonderful, and though we missed one hide, it was good enough to earn a leg toward the three qualifying scores we need to move out of NW3. Sunday, I headed down to the beach house with the intention of staying down for a couple of weeks. Monday was a holiday, and the July 4th holiday isn’t far away; I thought it would be a good time to spend some time getting some vitamin sea. I packed up in something of a hurry, taking only the bare necessities. I was tired and I knew I’d have to come back to be in the office on Tuesday (because that is the day I am required to come into the office now.) I figured I could pack up more thoroughly after work and head down for good. Once at the coast, I couldn’t seem to settle, and I ended up returning to Keizer Monday night.

After work Tuesday, I packed up the car much more thoroughly and headed back down to the coast. Everything would have been fine this time, except I forgot the power cord to my work laptop. By 1pm on Wednesday, I was out of power and all my ideas were not panning out. The nearest retailer I could find was 1 hour away. So, I decided to drive the 1.5 hours back home to get the cord and drive back.

Probably, at this point, I should have given up. But you know me and a plan. I got back Wednesday and with power in place, worked Thursday and Friday. But Saturday I just couldn’t settle. A package had been delivered the day before, and I knew I’d have to come back to Salem on Tuesday. The dentist had (finally) called back with an appointment on Friday for my crown, so I couldn’t stay down for a stretch of time. A few days at best. So, I loaded up the kids (and the other requirements) and returned to Keizer. Miracle of miracles, once back home, I have actually made some progress on art stuff.

The package that was delivered was full of frames for the art that is headed up to the Emerald Downs Equine Art Show! I spent a couple of hours getting all the mats and framed assembled (and fending of the animal hair that wants to stick to the white mats). So, that’s one little task done. I’ll ship that off in about a week.

I also spent some time actually drawing and painting. I am working on a project (actually, several…) and there isn’t much to show right now. But this is one item I am willing to show.

tentatively titled “Patience”

I can still see a few places that need some adjustment, but it always takes a while to get there.

I’m toying with the idea of sending this to the American Academy of Equine Art show, even though it’s monochrome. What do you think? With COVID, the AAEA has not had many shows for the last couple of years, so I have a few possibles to choose from. Three of my current best are going up to Emerald Downs, and I frequently make a sale from that show. With the deadline on the 17th, I don’t want to enter something that is potentially sold. Here are a few options.

It’s pretty competitive, so even a few of these won’t make my final cut. In addition, I really don’t want to ship a couple of my large pieces across the country, so I’m trying to limit it to smaller pieces.

Saturday

5:00 am – Wake up due to back pain. Roll around a little trying to get comfortable, ignoring the hopeful panting of the dog. Finally, I give up and feed the crew, then get dressed, etc.

6:00 am – Arrive at the park. Check on the red-tailed hawk (RTH) nest. I see a baby today!

7:00 am – On way back from park get groceries.

8:00 am – Food stowed, begin downloading photos of RTH nest to see if I really did see a baby. Spend far too long creating the above video.

10:00 am – Must get serious. Clean off art table area.

11:00 am – Now I can work. Eye the various projects. Not appealing. I’ll start something new.

12:00 pm – Lunch.

1:00 pm – Return to work. Accidently pick up an in-progress piece and finish. This is a first draft of my piece for the Hoffman Gallery‘s October show “Word & Image”.  Lauren Mallett has provided a poem worthy of a thousand ideas, and this is just the first one.

2:00 pm -I can’t possibly paint. The dog needs a walk.

3:00 pm – Okay. Focus. I volunteered to teach an exploratory seminar at the fall WSO convention titled “Dynamic value studies with liquid charcoal”. Maybe I should learn something about it? Spend the rest of my day applying washes, watching videos, creating my presentation, and sorting through reference photos.

6:00 pm – Dinner, then movie.

Sunday

5:00 am – Wake up due to back pain. I’m tired of this. My alarm is at 6:00.

6:00 am – Arrive at the park. I see two babies today!

7:00 am – Begin weekly food prep. Trying to work on eating just a little better. (Secret goal – to loose 10 pounds by Labor Day.)

8:00 am – Play a computer game. Eye my art pile guiltily.

9:00 am – Leave for dog nosework practice.

1:00 pm – Return home. Finish food prep.

2:00 pm – Work more on my presentation. Already a bunch of ideas haven’t worked out. If I ever do this again, I’m going to make sure I know what I’m doing BEFORE I volunteer.

My plan is to do an intro, do a warm up, then provide three exercises on pre-loaded paper. Pears seem like a good way to start. Simple, but lots of room for lights and darks.

Second exercise is something with a figure. Heron? This isn’t bad, but I think the drawing element might freak out some people. Back to drawing board (ha!)

Finally, I want to end with something that plays with adding color for excitement. A landscape?

Well, I have until September to get it right.

4:00 pm – A little sound goes off in my head. I have deadlines coming up. I look through the pile. The Emerald Downs Equine Art Show! I spend too much money at American Frame picking out simple frames for my three selected pieces. The paintings will need to be shipped in mid July, but my experience is that it’s better to order sooner rather than later. I write out a check and fill out the entries forms for the show. In the mail tomorrow.

Which pieces you wonder?

“Trust”

“Warm Hands”

“Three Rings”

5:00 pm – That reminds me, I need to send in an entry for the American Academy of Equine Art. When is that deadline again? (July 17.)

And now I’m writing my weekly blog before I settle down for a Sunday evening. Oh, wait. Laundry… that’s right.

I’m tired. Can I go back to my day job?

Addendum

I hit post and then remembered I wanted to tell a pair of friends my thoughts are with them.

The amazing “L”, hero of weeks past, lost her father this week. It was not unexpected, but it’s always hard.

And I heard a couple of days ago that an instructor I know lost her husband this week to a COVID-related illness. My heart goes out to the family.

Be safe, my friends.

It’s been a busy week. The Jean Pederson workshop is still very much on my mind, but other artistic ventures have crept into my available time.

First, and most excitingly, the dual show between Sandra Pearce and myself went up on Wednesday. We put together this little preview, hoping to entice a few people to come see it.

For those who can’t come see the show, or simply want to ponder their options, I have created a page with all my available paintings listed. Sandra put out a newsletter with all her happenings. I did as well, but I’m hoping you have already signed up for that; if not, it’s easy! Just sign up to the right of this post.

Saturday I was planning to drive down to Eugene to pick up “Glisten”, but the gallery sold it, saving me the trip. It’s always so exciting to get that red dot award.

Glisten

Having been saved a three-hour round trip, I actually put the time to use sketching out some ideas for a show that’s happening in October. A few weeks ago, I was notified that I had been accepted into the Hoffman Gallery‘s October show “Word & Image”. Twelve writer and twelve artists are randomly paired to engage in.Ekphrasis (the art of responding to work in different media.) Friday night I attended an online “Pariing Party” and learned my partner is the incredibly talented Lauren Mallett. I have a choice of three poems to choose from and then I must create a work of art in response to the piece. I have chosen a poem called “Drains to River”, but I haven’t decided just what to do with all my ideas. I have until the end of July, which really isn’t much time at all! Lauren also has been provided with three of my paintings (see below) and must create a writing about one of them.

A few other random art things surface now and then, but I think that covers at least this week.

If you’ve read this far, I wanted to provide a little update on my mental health. It’s good. The new drug regimen seems to be working a treat. I’m back to working full time and even caught myself singing along to a favorite song in the car the other day. It just feels good.