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Radiant Sunset

Recently I noticed a problem with one of my paintings. This painting had received an honor so it was highlighted for all to see. When I looked at it in this new setting, I saw that it needed a color correction…. a big one, I thought. How did I miss that? I had looked at this painting in a mirror, which is how I catch most of my mistakes. Seeing the reversed image usually lets me catch proportion and perspective errors. I took digital pictures of it and looked at them on my computer. Seeing a much smaller image of a painting often shows me color problems. Putting a painting in the studio in a spot where I can casually observe it lets my subconscious work, which often leads to an “ah ha” moment and I see something wrong. That obviously did not work this time. These actions are usually all that it takes for me to see needed corrections. Why didn’t they work this time? Was it creative fatigue?

Occasionally, I have brought paintings back from shows or galleries and have made changes to them. Sometimes I feel embarrassed that I had not caught the mistake before they left my studio. I guess I feel as if people will not think of me as a professional if I allow my paintings to be in public when I have not caught all of my errors. Being self-taught creates self-doubt in my abilities. However, my past experience has been that most people did not notice my changes to my work after I have made them in paintings that I felt weren’t quite right.

Not all paintings qualify for extra work. All current pieces are allowed a 5% change, meaning that I give myself the right to tweak it after I sign it. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, sometimes I will sign a piece when it gets very close to being finished to get over the “is it finished?” syndrome. Over the years, I almost always notice a small detail to change after my signature is in place, so why fight it?

Fixing an older piece isn’t an option, unless is has been in my studio in an unfinished state. Seeing mistakes in older finished paintings is not a problem for me, because they show me how I am growing as an artist. If I never saw mistakes in my past work, then I would have a problem, for I would think that I wasn’t getting better at creating my work. I don’t mind plateaus in my abilities to create art, as long as I break through them. Since I paint in many modes, if I start to feel stale in one style, I start to work in another one. What I learn from one way of painting transfers, somehow in some way, to my other types of painting. Many people blog that artists should focus on one way of creating art, for branding, for excellence and for whatever other reasons they give. Inspiration for me comes from the Great Masters. Was Michelangelo told he should not take on sculpture but stick to painting? Did Di Vinci hear he was too diverse? Don’t get me wrong, I have no delusions of being a great artist, I just want to be the best that I can be. I think having the ability to create artwork in many styles will do that. I may be alone in that way of thinking, but that’s OK.

At an international exhibition, many years ago, a very famous artist saw me closely examining his work. He came over to talk to me after his “groupies” left him. He mentioned that I must be an artist. I told him that I was trying to teach myself how to paint, so I didn’t know if I was qualified yet to call myself an artist. He began to tell me what he would like to do to change his painting. He said that he would love another month, then week, then said he would like even a couple of hours to take the painting to the museums basement to make a few changes. Years later, at that same museum, when another honored master artist gave his speech, he presented a PowerPoint where he showed the various changes he made in one piece. I don’t remember how many iterations, exactly, but it seemed like it was close to twenty! Wow… I guess I am not alone in feeling the need to make changes in my artwork. [P.S. I have had the honor of having my paintings accepted into this exhibition several times since that first encounter many years ago. At one of the exhibitions that my work was accepted, I told that first master artist how meaningful his words to me as a new artist.]

“Radiant Sunset” is my painting that needed to be changed. I have made those changes, so you can check back to my website in the near future if you would like to see them.

Painting the ocean was a change for me. I live in the Midwest, so the view of waves coming in is not something that I see. The water that I paint does not have waves. We were visiting California, so I decided to change things up a bit by trying to capture the feeling I got when looking at the sparkling waves of the ocean water. This was a little change, but a change nonetheless.

I recently emailed someone the words that compose the title of this blog, “you do have a lot of choices, but they are adventures not necessities, so they should be fun”.  The words made me think that maybe I could make a blog out of it. You see, sometimes we get so caught up with thinking about all of the things that can go wrong, of all of the unknowns that might frighten us and we see the risks as scary that we forget to have fun while we go on the ride of life.

This person has had some new career changes presented to her. She doesn’t have to change jobs, but some new positions were presented to her as options. She is very talented in her career and she would be a wonderful addition to any group that she would choose to join. Since she doesn’t need to make a change, she has the luxury to explore, try new options and have some fun. Sounds like what artists go through, doesn’t it?

I think that all too often, artists would like to try something new, but that old fear of failure raises its ugly head and gets in the way. The “if only”, “how will I” and “what if” doubts start to invade their thoughts: what if the new technique doesn’t work, if only I would have started creating my artwork at a younger age, if only I had been accepted into galleries before the art market dropped, or what if my work isn’t considered to be good? You can waste time worrying about what might materialize or what might have been, or you can move on and make changes and have fun doing so.

Mentoring students was a common occurrence for me when I was teaching; for me, it went with the territory. One of the students that came to see me wanted to talk about a very poor choice she had made in her life some years before. She was beside herself in embarrassment and greatly regretted her choice. What could I say to help her? I told her that we all make mistakes…. that’s part of life. The choice in how she handles her mistakes was up to her, and only she could make it. She could worry about it, regret it and feel embarrassed, or she could move on. I told her that we can’t change our past, but we can change our future by the choices that we make. It seemed so obvious to me, but it was an epiphany to her. She couldn’t think clearly because the problem was her own. If she had listened to a friend describe her problem as their own, she would have seen the answer for herself. The look in her eyes was wonderful to see. I could tell that she got my point. Moving on, trying something new and daring to take the plunge of change hadn’t occurred to her. She was focused on her past. Why should she worry about what she couldn’t change? The past is the past. Instead, she needed to focus on what she might be able to alter in her life for the better. Of course she will make mistakes, we all do, but learning from our mistakes is our choice.

Sometimes you point out something that can really have a profound effect on someone, but you don’t realize it at the time. It happens often in teaching, however, you usually don’t find out that it has happened until years after the fact. This time I knew right away.

Are there some issues about your art career that are holding you back? Are you taking the chances that you can handle? Are you wishing for something different but are afraid to make the change? Make a list, if it helps, and write out the pros and cons of the choices that you need to make. Are you making excuses because of fear? Try looking at your choices as if a friend has your options to make. What would you tell them? Your choices may be easier than you think.

Since my last two blogs dealt with blue cheese, I thought I would transition over to blue flowers, an awkward transition, I’ll grant you. Blue flowers of any type are my favorites; delphiniums, bachelor’s buttons, wild indigo, blue bells, forget-me-nots, flax, love-in-the-mist, plumbago, the list lit goes on. Let’s face it… I like the color blue.

When I was visiting a zoo in Minnesota, I saw the most incredible blue vining flowers growing down to the surface of a pond in an exhibit. The clear blue of these tropical flowers was simply breathtaking. I looked online and found that these flowers are Thunbergia grandiflora, called by their common name of blue sky flowers. However, it was the reflections in the ripples of the water of these cobalt cuties that intrigued me the most.  Wanting to capture the moment of my first impression of these trailing sapphires was my goal for this piece.

My first attempt was a realistic painting of these flowers that was to become a favorite of my husband's. Wanting to push my limits, I thought that an impressionistic painting would best lend itself to my colorist approach for capturing my feelings of seeing those flowers for the first time. My first try at the impressionistic piece was to have the flowers by the water completed, with the flowers at the top of the painting roughly sketched in and fading into the primed canvas, with a gradual transition between them. I set the painting aside for a while in a place where I could see it in a casual way. After a few weeks, I realized that the painting just didn’t look finished to me. I took it back to the studio and worked on it until if felt right. Have you set aside a painting where it becomes a part of the surroundings, not the star of the easel? I will look at a painting in the mirror as a lot of artists do, but when I put it in a place for casual viewing, it enters my sub consciousness where it percolates. If I am not actively trying to “fix” a painting, often times my mind will come up with a solution on its own. Adding some warm colors to the background to complement the blues and adding more details to the upper flowers, while keeping the painting very impressionistic felt right.

Working hard to make paintings “right” sometimes takes a long time for me. Of course I am happy to have a painting come together quickly because it frees up my time to create something new. However, I am willing to take the time and effort to get things right. Painting is hard work. What do you do when a painting doesn’t seem to work? I have a few paintings that took years of sitting on the back burner before I had my “eureka” moment. I don’t mind reworking a piece if it has strong possibilities, but I won’t keep working a piece over and over again. If it needs that much overhauling, then I feel like I am trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Don’t be afraid of making changes. It is only through change that growth can occur.