Wings Over Winecountry, Colleen's place (3 Viewers)

[solitaryVSong]

Enjoying seeing the development. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here. I like the colors in the newest.

 

[colleenc]

Went to Bodega today to study the landscape more for the Brants painting, BTW I've never seen the Brants here since the one day the painting is about, just had to look at blank water and land. Then right at the end a flock of snowy egrets came and I just have to share these.

So hard to believe that lump becomes the outrageous beauty.... this is what the camera does best, it happened so fast my eyes couldn't begin to follow it not to mention a pencil.......enjoy

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Lovely work Colleen and some super shapes to work with the egrets

 

[colleenc]

They are something Arthur, but they are not on my radar to do at the moment...

beginning a study of a single goose, learning to use a new surface, a wonderful linen canvas with an oil primer, not acrylic gesso...I got pads tho it come on rolls but for me the pads are better in my small space. REALLY loving the surface which acts completely different than gesso, and the oil paint is more fluid, and transparent. I brushed the surface with a media to work wet into wet to start, can almost get watercolor effects, and can scratch through to create the grasses.

This is just the block in. Trying to get used to all the new technical stuff. Guess this is just the opposite of Arthur's approach... For me it's useful to break down one large job into smaller more easily handled parts, esp when this is my first major oil painting of birds.

 

[timwootton]

Beautiful arc in the neck there Colleen. I like the look of the medium and the support - working very nicely.

 

[colleenc]

Well lets hope I can get it again on the actual painting

this sketch is done, tho I could go further and make it more finished at some future time. You can see where I scratched into the paint with a color shaper in the grasses. I'm testing to see if when dry I can glaze over and get something nice. Also you can see where I'm trying out grass by the bill this is photoshop roughly painted with the brush tool. This is not on the painting. Also used the color shaper to get the water ripples, this works nicely.

there are lots of things you can do with oils that don't work so well in acrylic, but the new open acrylics would let you do some of them.

tomorrow I'll start on the final oil. Have decided against a full size for now, just don't have the room as I have a larger commission taking space. So I'll lock down my vision( if I'm lucky) on a 7x20 inch work a bit over half size of what I'd like to do eventually.

 

[Woody]

Loving the Brent/Brants Colleen. Coincidentally I was watching a group on Sunday. They're on the move.

There's been some great stuff going on here, I've been watching quietly and enjoying it all.

Mike

 

[colleenc]

2 days ago I bought a beautiful hand woven Thai silk shawl. This stranger than you think, as I shop maybe once or twice a year for a few clothes, I never got the shopping gene most women have, and hate shopping. An only dress up a couple of times a year

Nevertheless I HAD to have this, just obsessed, and fortunately got it at half price, ( still pricey for me, but considering it's beauty a bargain)..... Felt better when I saw it was the product of a women's weaving cooperative in Thailand......

it took a couple of days, then I figured it out......you know the bird I'm working on right now, the one I've spent the last 3 weeks observing???check my last painting post....does the color remind you of anything:-O:-O



I wonder if I wear it sketching if the birds will stay if I get out of the car and get closer......

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

More lovely work Colleen
Just make sure you don't wear it in the hunting season

 

[colleenc]

I never birdwatch where there is hunting....so I guess I'm safe

 

[nickderry]

you move along so quickly - back to your question, podgy means dumpy or carrying a little extra weight, I've recently been upgraded to podgy as my fondness for beer and crisps (chips over your side of the pond) has started to show.

Loving all I've seen on th ethread - just impossible to keep up after a week away!

 

[ChrissyM]

you move along so quickly - back to your question,
Loving all I've seen on the thread - just impossible to keep up after a week away!

Agreed...and your silk scarf is lovely I never got the shopping gene either, until someone lets me loose in an art shop

 

[colleenc]

For the last 2 weeks I cared for my dying 21 yr old Siamese Mau Lau. She finally crossed over 3 days ago. Until then I just gave up everything, and stayed by her side day and night, camped out on the floor in the corner by the woodstove where she had her spot. This may seem over the top, but then you'd have to know her and all she gave to me over the years to really understand. Her descent to death is the first thing that made me stop painting in 5 years. Since I could give her that kind of care, not having a job or family obligations, I did.

Now I'm just about out of the grief woods, and will post soon. I did spend the last 3 days drawing her from photos over the years, remembering her in happier healthy times. I found it healing to get the heap of bones and fur she became at the end out of my visual memory. What a cat she was, and what an amazing time we had together. When the paintings are done of her in the next couple of days I'll put up a link. Then it's back to the Brants

I get Painters Keys from RobertGlenn, and thought this was really good and sure hits some of the points we have discussed. It's one of the most worthwhile and inspiring things on the web for the working artist IMHO, it's free and comes to my email 2x a week. you can sign up here. http://clicks.robertgenn.com/default-mode.php I think Nick must be painting from the "further back" part of his brain as noted below, but he has 'em both to get his fabulous paintings done.

When you paint you are using two distinct areas of your brain. One is the up front, active brain known to neurologists as "task positive." This is where you try to paint well, get the anatomy right, master colour, achieve a decent design as well as other practicalities of the moment.

The second area is farther back in the cortex and is more the resting brain--what is known as "task negative." Neurologists also call this the "default mode network." This is where attention wanders when the task-positive brain is not being fully used. Here are daydreams, memories, fantasies, fictitious conversations and even thoughts about things that have nothing to do with the job at hand. To their surprise, neurologists found that this wandering mind uses almost as much energy as the one that gives the appearance of getting things done.

Average people are in their task-negative brains more than a third of their waking hours. Apparently, artistic and inventive folk are even more into it. As such, the default mode network is thought to be the buzzing beehive of creativity.

I'm not a neurologist, but I've knocked about in a few artists' brains. Beginners tend to favor the task positive--fairly obviously because they are figuring out how to do things. Mature artists, on the other hand, can often slip into task negative for entire works. Having mastered the nuts and bolts, they now trust the felicitous takeover of default mode. Their paintings paint themselves. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu figured it out 2400 years ago. He called it "Doing without trying to do."

Here's the rub: Some artists stay permanently stuck in task positive. "Without wandering minds," says psychologist Jonathan Schooler, "they stay shackled to what they're doing at the time." On the other hand, there are artists who are all wandering mind and show little evidence of practical technique or self-managed application.

Left on its own, neither mode works properly. Working together, they are like a couple of characters in an old silent movie--they can't help but make interesting things happen.

If there is a secret, it may lie in achieving a balance and teaching yourself to switch back and forth. Constant stopping just to think won't fix a work that is already over-thought. Over-thinking leads to one of our most vexing goof-ups--overworking. Conversely, a persistent state of wandering mind can turn fine work into a fine mess. You need 'em both.

Best regards,

Robert


Esoterica: Now here's the interesting part: Apparently, boredom is a significant springboard to creativity. Neuroscientists have also found boredom to be a source of feelings of well being and a strong sense of self. In boredom, the brain continues to fire away in those regions that conjure hypothetical events and new possibilities. The wandering mind, the dream world, can be a better world than the real nuts-and-bolts world and for the artist, with the addition of task-positive skills, it can transform into the joyful business of making it happen.

 

[nickderry]

Hope you're doing OK, Colleen, there's nothing strange or over the top about caring for something you care about. Your cat was a companion in life and the loss is as hard to come to terms with as any great loss. You seem to know how to come through the grief though, hopefully soon you'll just remember the happier times and find comfort in the fact that she is no longer suffering.

Interesting link you post too, I think I'm going to have to keep a diary of headaches and paintings to see if there is any correlation in there!

 

[timwootton]

Good luck Colleen - they do become members of the family and are grieved for as such.

 

[solitaryVSong]

Hi Colleen,

My condolences and sympathies. As Nick and Tim say they do become like part of the family, appreciated and missed just as much. Some people don't see their pets this way and those of us who do are lucky I think. They add a lot to our lives and we have a lot to be thankful for to have had them.

 

[Woody]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved pet Colleen.

Mike

 

[Strandman]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved pet Colleen.

Mike

Condolences from here too- its a sad thing.

 

[jacquot]

I send my sympathy, too. I had two Siamese that didn't make it to their teens (almost) but know how terrifically connected and special they can be. I look forward to your drawings. She will remain with you forever in kind ways. We built a family of 3 dogs, a couple of parrots and two cats. One very dear dog remains with us, but they all live on supportively. David

 

[ARTHUR BISHOP]

Sorry to hear of your loss Colleen