Regina Calton Burchett – Drawings & Pastels

I’ve spent too much of my life telling myself that I will give myself a reward and finally paint or create some other type of art “after I finish… …cleaning house AND getting everything put away, working on taxes, organizing my office, filing all my papers, answering old emails, losing 20 pounds… and I know darn well I will never get all of those things done.

Why do I wait to do what I enjoy so much? Why do I believe that creating art is less of an obligation than the more mundane jobs of my life? Because it’s not a practical part of life? I don’t know.

Because art is a part of my every day existence. Seeing the blue of the sky when I first go out in the morning – a blue that seems to promise a cooler day (regrettably, the blue just flat-out lied). Re-aligning the Tang horse on my mantle. Matching my earrings to my mood. Arranging tangerine sections on a plate for my husband (and on other days, he does for me). Enjoying the mirror image of roof slats on the rear window of a car in front of me at Starbucks. Our daily art is made up of little things, but always there, waiting to be done, to be enjoyed, to be noticed.

Art is in every part of our day and helps us to not only make it through each day, but adds beauty, joy and ornamentation to the cinder blocks of our lives.

roof slat reflections

I took just a little time today to work on this more and like the change on the pathways – more yet to be done though.

Pathways

Over the last few months, I’ve been curious about the history – evolution – style – trend of artists to paint in increasingly less detail and use fewer strokes in their pastels or oils.   I haven’t had a lot of time to research this or to experiment myself, but there was a good post today by Sara Winters – who does beautiful work – and she was referencing a written piece by Armand Cabrera on “The Superiority of Simplicity”. I read his piece several times, because for me, this is like trying to understand abstract art in a way, and appreciated a guideline about ‘putting in no more detail than can be seen from two feet away, because paintings aren’t meant to be seen closer than that’.  I think that’s all my brain can absorb for today on painting in a more simple manner.

And now that I’ve actually looked at Armand Cabrera’s work on his website (in addition to reading the article), I’m completely depressed and inspired.  It is breathtaking.

We had our neighborhood ladies afternoon drawing and painting club today, and I painted a pastel of these apples, working to keep my strokes to a minimum. It was very hard, because I was a drafter for twenty years. But here is my first attempt.

Apple and slices, (s)paringly

(and if you put the word “apple” in the search box to the right, all apple-related posts will show up.)

Not having much time right now to put into painting, I can steal a few minutes here and there to check out my favorite blogs…  and those artist’s favorite blogs.

Here is one I found today –

Andrea Joseph’s sketchblog

Wonderful, wonderful sketches.

And I found Andrea through

Rose Welty

who also loves to paint, draw and figured out how to combine her blog, website and newsletter!

One of my friends from the Austin Pastel Society has a new blog – mikeetieart.blogspot.com – and a very nice art website

www.mikeetie.com

It will be well worth your time to visit and see his great landscapes.

This is a photo I  took last year.  I love it so much, I had to post it again.  It makes me think of a ballet without gravity.

Cardinal in flight

Which is also what I was thinking of about many years ago when I drew this:

All I can find the time for this month are short sketches.  But that fills a need, too.  Drawing is very much like meditation for me, and I have always enjoyed it.

Except for ellipses.  They are so hard and even after drawing all this time, they still give me fits. I do them right side up, upside down, and they often remain catawampus or skewed.  So when I am drawing something with an ellipse, I start with that.  If I can’t get that part right, I’m not going to waste time on the rest.

We had our afternoon drawing and painting club today, and all took a shot at this group of bowls. We had a strong light on one side to get some good shadows and a large piece of white paper underneath.  When I do the shadows, I lightly hatch with a mechanical pencil, in three directions until most of the lines are blended together.  And on the cast shadows, I went back in with a kneaded eraser and smudged the edge just a bit to subdue it.

The front bowl was done in more detail, the stacked bowls in the rear just to show the basic drawing and beginning of the shading.  I think strong darks and lights really help to set off a drawing.

pencil sketch of a neighbor's goat

Practice, practice. Decided to just enjoy myself at our Thursday Afternoon Ladie’s Drawing and Painting Club. I did this pencil sketch, using as a reference a greyscale photo I had taken of a neighbor’s goat, and employing a mechanical pencil, white card stock, kneaded eraser, magnifying glass, and an erasing shield left over from my drafting days.

We discussed drawing and painting things in your comfort zone – which, as your skill improves, can give you a degree of confidence as an artist that becomes evident in your work. And developing that (merited) confidence can help you as you step out of your comfort zone and try new mediums or new subjects.

A fellow artist – Sandy Askey Adams – posted this tonight from “The Business of Art”, and I loved this contemplation of what art is, to artists.

“Do make art; do make good art; and do make it all through your life, because, really, that is the only reward you can expect.  Selling your art is nice; public acclaim is nice; but it’s like the warmth of sunburn.  It can be superficial and shortlived.  Expect a lot from yourself, because finally your relationship with the art you make will be the major source of joy and sorrow in your life.”

I don’t think art could ever be a major source of sorrow for me, but I associate a wide range of feelings with art.  The core feeling for me is when I am painting, and I’m starting to like the piece, I get excited…  and sometimes, when I really start to like it – I feel like I’m dancing inside.

And since it’s been an extremely busy month for me, I haven’t been able to paint for almost four weeks. But after reading this, I decided a few hours wouldn’t hurt anything, and I worked on this pastel and it made me feel wonderful!

Clouds, skies and light are very ethereal subjects to attempt to capture on paper or canvas. The expectant atmosphere of an impending storm or the welcome feel of a cool breeze just after sunset don’t easily translate into two dimensions. But I love to attempt that, and now have a large number of sky photos on my computer that I’ve taken over the last five years – and I hope to be able to paint many of them over the next decade or two. Here are some of my sky paintings to this point in time (this blog adjusts the h x w ratio):

(To see larger images in a slide show, go to this FLICKR page.)