Sketchcrawl Saturday

My friends and I met at the Portland Farmers Market Saturday morning to do some sketching. No sooner had we settled down at an outdoor table than it started raining, so we quickly grabbed some coffee and seats at an interior window in the student union where we could watch the action down below. We did lots more talking than making art, of course, and then we took the tram up to the hospital to see the collection of art from Oregon artists that decorates the hallways.

Collage to Painting

I've been experimenting a bit with making a collage and then using that collage as the inspiration for a painting. It's sort of like doing a sketch or composition plan before making the painting. My original collage is 5x7 inches and the painting was done with acrylic on canvas board that's 11 x 14 inches, so the proportions are slightly off for that reason and also because I didn't do the best job of eye-balling my space divisions.

WALKING TO WORK

I overheard someone say “walking to work” recently and my mind did one of those flips that brings an AHA moment. My studio is in my home, in the center of my home in a big loft area that overlooks the living room, foyer, kitchen, and dining room and feels very un-business-like because of the location. Artists who rent space away from home can enter the studio and leave home matters at the door, but of course that has its own set of problems. My situation is right for me at this point in my life but it’s so easy to lose focus on art-making and waste time when the home work is right there in my visual field.

My AHA is all about perception. I can start walking to work and get my daily miles in at the same time. Here’s the thing… get up, shower, breakfast, and then walk to work… put on my jacket and walk my 2 miles, ending up at my studio where I take off my coat, and settle in to work. At noon I give myself permission to check email, have lunch, and even read, but in an hour it’s back to work. At the end of the day, around 4, I can walk home, taking the shortcut which is only 1 mile. I know it’s a game I play with myself but I’m going to try this for the next month and see what happens. I’ll get in 3 miles of walking every day and establish a new summer schedule. Of course I’ll have to fit in a bit of gardening time, perhaps before work. And I can’t answer personal phone calls at work. I start this new job Tuesday... and I hope it pays off.

We were at the coast last week and this one small watercolor sketch is the only one I made all week.

PATTERN

As I walked the coastline and prowled around town I was thinking about pattern, both regular and irregular: foot patterns in the sand that tell their own story (seagulls, cars, people); wave patterns in the sand that create a mini history of tidal action; patterns of trees and grasses in the forest and dunes. There’s so much to see when one takes the time to look carefully at this world of ours.

Self Portrait with Giraffes

Mothers and Daughters Collage Day at Jo's

Paper, glue, scissors, and 11 creative minds got together in my studio Saturday to learn about collage, and did we ever have a good time! My daughter and her oldest daughter each invited 4 friends to see what happens when there's unlimited papers with which to work. They got to take home some art and I trimmed down my collection of papers... though not the painted ones which I use all the time.

The budding artists turned my tidy studio into a big happy messy place and left 3 hours later with several pieces of collage done on 5x7 illustration board.

When they first arrived and settled down I talked about the process of making simple collages and then gave them their first assignment: choose 50 pieces of paper that you like from the boxes which line the center of my big work table.

When the timer dinged after 15 minutes I took away the boxes of paper to give them room to work, and gave their next assignment, to choose 4 pieces of paper from the initial 50 and create a loose 4-square collage which will be the background and glue it down. Then they could work at their own pace to add papers and images to make a collage that tells a story. They had each brought photocopied pictures from home of people, pets, and even a fish or two.

We worked happily for nearly 3 hours and they made some very nice art to decorate their homes.

My daughter it the tall redhead and her daughter is in front of her.

Romans 3

This will be hard to read. If anyone wants to see a larger version let me know your email address and I'll send it privately. As usual, this is 9" x 12", and is number 46 in the series.

Cliff Face at Cannon Beach, Oregon

One recent day at the beach I did a quick sketch of the cliff at the north end of the beach at Cannon Beach and back in my studio I printed the the drawing four-up on heavy paper. Being a woman who like to keep busy, even in front of the TV I took out the drawing and some watercolor pencils and started fiddling with colorways, thinking about doing the piece as an abstracted design to be done as a watercolor. The pencils don't usually appeal to me, though I know that lots of people use them, especially for quick sketches. I prefer the crayons.

Here's the original drawing and my first attempts at adding color. The top two were done with the watercolor pencils as I sat watching TV with half my mind and playing with the other half. I did the bottom ones just now with watercolor paint and water.

Running on Empty

There's nothing like enjoying a few days away to gain some perspective on life and how one lives it. Over the last two weeks my husband and I spent the best part of 10 days at the Oregon coast, doing practically nothing. Oh I had plenty to work with, took so many art supplies that I was informed that I'd be rationed the next time we leave home, but I didn't use much of what I had. I managed to sketch quite a bit but nothing memorable was created. I got away from home and turned into a bit of a slug, and now, looking back, I realize that I wasted a good part of my life with nothing to show for it. I don't like that. All my life I've been She Who Makes Things but something has happened lately that I don't like... I'm not producing much. Believe me, that's going to change. And as I write this I realize that perhaps this was a time of rest that I needed, a time to re-charge, a time to shake myself up and start again. Do you ever feel like that? Do you run out of gas, finding yourself running on empty? I'm sure it's a common condition for all us creative types.

Somewhere in that time I did another of my Sermon Notes, one about Romans 2 where Paul writes about being judgmental. The scan isn't the best, nor is the work (see how self judgmental I can be!), but it'll have to do. I work on a 9" X 12" block of 140# watercolor paper and my scanner bed is 8 1/2 by 11 so it cropped off the left side.


It occured to me that you might be interested in my process for creating these pieces and let me say first that they are difficult and take a long time and hours of thought and prayer, but they are the most personally rewarding work I've ever done. A friend commented on how nice it is for me that I've found a niche... yes, a niche, and also a calling, a focus, and even an obsession of sorts. I'm rather scatterbrained about my work, wanting to try every technique, to work in many ways and themes, and most of my life I've sought a focus in my work, something to say and a way to say it, without ever finding what it is that I'm to do that is mine alone. With these Notes I've finally been shown the way I'm to work, at least for now. So I'll keep with it until, well until it's clear that I'm done.

PROCESS

So here's how I approach doing a piece... this is what I will be doing this morning as soon as I publish this post. The first thing I do is pray... mostly it's asking for God's help as I work.

1. gather my handwritten notes from the sermon/sermons. (I'll insert a scan at the end of this post.)
2. read the chapter in the Bible and read my notes
3. do a mind map about all elements... design, composition, color, materials, drawings, techniques, text
4. get out collage papers and play with them as I
5. listen to the sermon on my iPod, downloaded from iTunes.
6. determine which scripture to use, choose a main statement, choose supportive statements.
7. type out all text on the computer.
8. print some of text on Thai Kozo paper and spray with a fixative. Print some onto painted papers.
9. Sometimes I start by journaling directly on the white paper, private words which will be hidden with collage papers.
10. Make the art work (collage or painting).
11. Add the text using my own handwriting/printing, alphabet stamps and stencils, or printed text.
12. Sign the work. Scan it. On the back write about the work with scripture references and date. Post to Flickr and take it to my photographer. Say thank you to the real Creator.

That's what it takes to do the work and the same hold with other artwork I do... lots of planning and thinking and prayer. Sometimes the piece comes together quickly but usually I'm at it for about a week. Often the work is spread out over several weeks, and sometimes it lies fallow for a period of time until I'm ready to begin again.


This stack of paper on the right represents what I take away from church ... printed and handwritten pages of notes that remind me of the message. We don't have preaching, we enjoy listening to an excellent Bible teacher.

Journals and Journaling

I'd like to talk about journals and journaling and encourage those of you who do journal to keep on doing it and those who don't to start. As a child I kept a diary, a little red leather book with a lock, and in it I wrote such silliness, like "today Bobby winked at me", "I hate piano and I don't know why Mother makes me take lessons and practice", and "I wish I could draw a person's face that really looks like her". I don't know what happened to that first little book but I sure do wish I had it today as I'm attempting to remember my childhood days in order to write a journal of my childhood for my oldest granddaughter. I cannot for the life of me remember who I was in the 6th grade! I don't even have a picture.

But I'm really not talking about keeping a diary of events, though those are interesting in later years. I'm addicted to big girl stuff... keeping a journal or even several. I have a computer program for my PC called The Journal, and although I don't write in it every day that's where I keep health records and the more personal stuff, password protected. And I have a Garden Journal that's been many years in the making. And then there's my little Moleskine that stays in my handbag. But the journal that is an extension of my body is my art journal. It isn't the kind that has gorgeous art on every page like Teesha Moore, but it's the repository of my studio plans, where I do mind maps as a way of planning art and life.

My journal contains gallery announcements of artists whose work I like with some comments on the show. Its pages are full of sketches, ideas, photos that inspire me, lists of all kinds... it's the sort of journal that Gilbert K. Chesterton was talking about when he said "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." My books aren't sensational but people find them fascinating. By the time I fill a book it's half worn out and then it becomes more dog-eared as I go back into it time and again seeking inspiration.

The journal pictured at the top of this post is my current one, started in January. There's not much in it yet but I'm working in it frequently. I made the book. I have a clunky machine called a Rubi-Coil that punches holes for spiral binding... a splurge when I was teaching art journaling. For the last two journals I've used a medium weight tan paper that I buy locally by the ream. The covers are 140# watercolor paper that's gessoed on both sides. I'm an ex-quilter and for this journal I cut paper squares and made a patchwork design on the cover, but I didn't like it so I troweled on a thin coat of gesso and then racked through it while it was still wet to form texture and pattern. I find that if the cover of my journal is attractive to me I'm more apt to pick it up and work in it than if it's plain.

textures shapes and color: Notebooks and Pens

Leslie Avon Miller's collage work and writing continues to bring a breath of fresh air into my art day. For an interesting take on art notebooks see her latest post at textures shapes and color: Notebooks and Pens.
The journals to the left are some of my own old ones, created by gutting old hardback books and sewing in signatures of blank paper onto which I wrote, drew, collaged and painted. These 4 date back to 2000 and 2001 and my journals are a bit different now, not so pretty but even more useful.

Sketchcrawl by Streetcar

We 4 friends met Saturday morning for our monthly Sketchcrawl, this time by streetcar. We started across from the library and rode the entire loop, up to Good Samaritan hospital and down to the new riverfront development, getting off along the way to sketch or photograph. The day was so cold (33 degrees) that we were discouraged from sitting out on a convenient bench so we took images as they came to us. I drew the buildings from the edge of the sidewalk and didn't take out my watercolors until I return home and by then I had forgotten what the colors were except for the one red brick building.

I did the little sketches on the left as I rode MAX, our local light rail, to downtown. Everyone was bundled up in black... a very Portland winter look. I've found that once people are settled they usually return to one relaxed pose, making it easier to finish a quick sketch. And of course drawing someone from the back when riding on public transportation is the easiest of all. That's Jan's head.

And drawing people as they wait in line for coffee give me lots of opportunity for quick gestural drawings.

I recently discovered the blog of a talented London artist who draws people on his long commutes across the city. He's sometimes on the bus for 3 1/2 hours and he uses his time to sketch. Have a look at Adebanji Aladi's incredible work.

These sketches are in my little Moleskine sketchbook that I carry everywhere. There are other small sketchbooks available but I prefer this one for its overall quality and durability.