Barely outside

The light outside didn't seem too good today (too much sand blowing around) and the most dramatic shadows and nicest light were just outside my front door. My poor mangy palm tree! We transplanted it a few months ago and its only just beginning to recover, not that you can tell by looking at it! Still it is a refreshing dash of green in an otherwise drab and dusty world.

"Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams"
St. Augustine

“I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.”
Vincent van Gogh

On the Threshold

I've been longing to get out to do plein aire work but have several things conspiring against me - the incredible heat (working in the sun with temperatures over 110 degrees F (44 degrees C) and also with the restrictions imposed here so I decided that the next best thing was just to open my front door and the door to the street and draw what I could see from there. Of course, this then becomes somewhat symbollic too of my life here.

“Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”
Andrew Carnegie

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
Kahlil Gilbran

Across the room

Looking across the living room to the patio window. Feeling quite happy about this pastel. The light was interesting as it was coming from three directions. The window in the background, from a window behind my left shoulder and also very diffuse light from the skylight windows above the chair and table.

Sunny Side Out

View out of the window from my breakfast table. Fun doing this pastel and feel particularly happy with the light showing through the cloth on the table. Begin to feel more at ease with this medium.

"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."
William Shakespeare

“Sunlight is painting.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne quotes

Developing a theme

Working with "Comfort Zone" has become rather like working with an old friend. I begin to know this chair so well that I can imagine the feel of its curves as I work. Developing the colour studies - not quite there with the chair yet but feel much happier with the background colours now.

The grisaille is an ongoing work ........ everyday another step forward. One blessing to living here is that the oil paint I put on one day is dry by the next! I knew there had to be an upside to living in the desert!

“Shades of grey wherever I go,
The more I find out the less that I know
Black and white is how it should be
But shades of grey are the colors I see.”
Billy Joel

The Harem - pastel

I'm beginning to enjoy the pastels. Having to fight the temptation to use the same colours in every orange - have to think of each one as a separate object and not that they are all identical.

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.”
Vincent van Gogh

"Champagne and orange juice is a great drink. The orange improves the champagne. The champagne definitely improves the orange."
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Pastel "Comfort Zone"

Trying to pinpoint the colours in the walls - not sure that these are right yet but an exercise in pastels none the less.

Comfort Zone - Oils

Started the grisaille of Comfort Zone this week. This is the first pass.

Painting is a refound pleasure!

Brief glimpse of colour

Interesting lesson learned doing this on how colour moves objects within the visual plane.

Refreshed and Invigorated

Its been too long - but I am freshly returned from rainy Spain and ready to pick up my brushes.

A couple of photos from the trip - I have a passion for doors and windows and this pair from the Bullring in Ronda particularly attracted my attention. Super blue shadows!

The flowers were just from playing with learning how to use my complex camera on manual settings rather than entirely from the automatic ones. Of all the pictures I took of flowers I like this one the most.

“Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday humor, and like enough to consent”
William Shakespeare

Jarhead

"Jarhead" - graphite on paper

It was a pleasure to do this for a friend.

“The devil is in the details, and everything we do in the military is a detail”
Hyman George Rickover

Just a snippet

I've been very bad at posting lately - mainly because I really didn't feel I had anything to show. However, I've been told that I need to post something so I am doing so (and may even post more in the next day or two!).

I've cut this section out of a pastel that I did (its the best section) and I was pleased with the glassiness of the bottle and the reflected coloured light on the bowl.

Working with pastels is a huge learning curve. I've been without colour in my life for a while and just getting my head back round that is huge! The new medium is another challenge all together! Just figuring out how to hold the pastel took hours! Still each one I do puts together another piece of the puzzle.

"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity".
Doug Horton

Solitary Vision and Comfort Zone

Comfort Zone


Solitary Vision

I think I am finished with these, at long last!
I'm starting to work with pastels with my mentor, Michael Newberry, and am finding using colour again an enormous but pleasant challenge. I hope to post some of these soon.

Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Oh, this would be so much easier if I wasn't color-blind!”
Donkey from Shrek

“Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.”
Jules Feiffer

Freedom of Speech

I've been unable to post for the past few days as for some reason Blogger was being censored here! Thrilled to find today that I could log in!

Continued work on "Solitary Vision" - nearing completion.

Also "Study of a chair" which is preparation for another piece.

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to
conscience, above all liberties." John Milton (1608-1674)

"Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself." Salman Rushdie (1947-)

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778)

Solitary vision

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone." Paul Tillich

“I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind” Albert Einstein

Happy New Year!

I'm late with posting my resolutions - there are, as usual, many. From using handcream more often and taking my vitamins more regularly to creating a serious amount of artwork.

"May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window
open to great possibility." - Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey 1995

"We all need to have a creative outlet - a window, a space - so we don't lose
track of ourselves." - Norman Fischer

"Neutral Zone" Complete

Neutral zone

I've spent this week neutralizing the greys, working on heightening the highlights and deepening the dark areas. Interesting process that involves a great deal of squinting which makes bright and dark areas stand out. Still working on really getting that neutral area in the greys.

Limited Vision

I've been working with Michael Newberry for the last few weeks and this is almost the end of my first full piece as a result of his mentorship. I'm trying to sum up my experience of being in a country where women are very much second class citizens, and where, as westerners, we are extremely limited in what we can do and see.

So here is "Limited Vision" (working title).

Charcoal on Rives Paper, full sheet.

Too long

Life has been getting in the way but some events lately have made me rethink my life and that it is time to get back to work artwise.

I did join in and do the portrait swap on WetCanvas this month which was a nice break. I hope my partner, Sonja, likes what I did when she receives her portrait next month (mail willing!)

Started a large piece today in charcoal of the doorway in the last post - starting with a medium ground and erasing back to lights and adding in the darkest darks. Having trouble with the paper which I don't like at all. I hope its just a case of getting used to it as it cost a fortune and I have 24 more sheets of it.

'Pain is temporary, quitting lasts for ever.'
- Lance Armstrong, 5 time Winner of Tour De France