On the Horizon

Continuing my self-portrait exploration.

Its not what I intended but its a step on the way. I need to think more about the concept before I start instead of just diving in. I'd really like to say more about me, the person I am, my dreams, possibly with a quirk of humour hidden among the messages. Still maybe this says more than I thought ............

Self-portrait exploration

pencil on paper

The self portrait is an exercise that so many artists seem to undertake and much as has been written about the self-portrait. It is said of good portraits that they speak about the sitter in some way. I read recently that there is a bond between artist and his subject yet in many instances they have only just met and at best the artist will only know the person superficially. Yet with the self-portrait, the artist is depicting the one person that he/she knows above all others.

I seem to have spent an excessive amount of time staring at myself in the mirror over the last week. There have been moments when I have been reduced to giggles over features that have been the subject of family legend to moments of wondering whether it would be possible to have other parts of my face surgically altered. Mainly this has been no more than an exercise in drawing from life. Not perfect - more practice required!

I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best. Frida Kahlo

Eggs

Pastel on paper

A small part of our household goods arrived last week including my pastels, some paints, panels and paper. Great delight to be reunited with them, followed by a more than a little trepidation and procrastination. There is only so much alternative living (where you do the alternative rather than doing what you are supposed to be doing) you can do before you have to bite the bullet and get down to it.

Egg studies - to get my feet wet with colour. The deceptively simple shape of eggs provides complex possibilities for colour, shadows and light, reflections, warm and cool tones.

The Eyes have It

Charcoal on Rives

It's been a while since I posted on this blog but 7 months of living in a hotel room was a little stifling of artistic inspiration. We are settled for the next three years in Frankfurt, Germany. Great sigh of relief to be back in Europe and out of harm's way. Still limited in art materials as all my "stuff" is still on route from Pakitan via Bangladesh! Long story! Still I do have charcoal and paper.

I have a couple of ideas brewing for major projects and as I let those take form I am doodling and these eyes are a product of those doodles.

One of the joys of being back in civilisation is finding a wonderful art store and have been told of another that is supposed to be even better. On a short drive out from the city, the landscape already looked promising in terms of subject matter. The brilliant acid yellows of the rape seed flowers were

New Photo Blog

I decided to set myself a project for the new year - though I wasn't really sure what form it would take. The New Year dawned early for me, in time to catch the new dawn and with it came my idea of doing a photo a day blog and at the end of the year I will compile all the photos into a book.

Please stop by to visit my new blog A Photo A Day

Shades of Autumn

Benefits of being stalled in Washington is getting to experience autumn for the first time in several years. Amazing colours everywhere (enhanced by great sunglasses!) - dark reds, dusky pinks, brilliant oranges, acid yellows, purples and many shades of green from lime to darkest evergreens.

Room with a View

Its been a long time since I have posted anything - usual hiatus between postings when I am without my art materials. We are on the move - leaving Islamabad, Pakistan in early August and are currently in the States before going on to our new post.

The extended stay in the States sent me out to the art store to buy some supplies for something to do.

The view from our hotel room is of a street lined with trees and high rise buildings. The sun strikes the buildings on the right side of the street late in the afternoon, with shadows cast across the street from the trees.

Recommended Show

Landscape with a Modern Edge
Group Show

Opening Reception at the Newberry Gallery in Santa Monica

Saturday Evening, Oct 17, 2009
7 - 10 pm


Hefferlin, Fort Apache Reservation, 2009, oil on archival board


Melissa Hefferlin
Robin Purcell
William Wray
Daud Akhriev
Michael Newberry
Cathey Cadieux
David Scherrer



Landscape with a Modern Edge is a show of paintings, watercolors, photos, and pastels by contemporary artists expressing their unique visions through rethinking the landscape. Fresh color harmonies, modern subject matter, and inventive compositions are the themes guiding the selection for the show.

Little Owl

One of the few pleasures here has been the gardens - not only the beautiful trees and bamboo but also the birds that live there. There are dozens of kites (types of eagle/hawk) to be seen daily circling lazily in the sky or perched along the roof, the brilliant lime green parrots who seem to always be in pairs when in flight or up to a dozen at a time perched in the trees. Some tiny little black feathered birds who sing with amazing volume for such a little creature. Crows by the millions and enough to invoke memories of "The Birds". In the spring there were what appeared to be a flock of butterflies - what is the grouping for butterflies? - that turned out to be miniature birds (measuring about an inch in height) by the dozen, flitting between shrubs.

And this little owl that we discovered on one of our after lunch strolls around the gardens. Today I finally remembered to bring in my camera and he posed nicely for me. My lens really wasn't up to the job but even so these came out better than I hoped considering. This little man lives high in a hollow in a tree with his wife and family and usually stands guard against the tree, his feathers so perfectly camouflaging him against the bark that you can only really see him if he moves his head or blinks his big eyes. On tiptoes he might just measure 6 inches!

Backboard

I haven't posted anything for months - been in a hiatus. Working on tweaking a number of pieces by "warping the negative space" and finding the method extremely interesting.

The Backboard is one piece that I have produced - somewhat more graphic than my previous pieces. I was drawn to the shadows and shapes here more than anything.

We are back to that time of year with another move looming - 22 days till we get out of here and I can't wait. The summer has been very hot with temperatures ranging from 100 to 116 degrees. The monsoon was supposed to arrive last week and as yet has not shown itself. Its like nature is waiting for it to arrive - all the trees are stressed beyond belief, the leaves are curling and grass has shriveled and burnt ochre in the sun. News from India is of only 25% of the normal rainfall and the fear is that the rain just wont get here.

Vertical Limits - Charcoal

I've been rather tied up with a lot of stuff lately but have been working away slowly at this charcoal - a version of Vertical Limits that I did in pastels when we were in Saudi Arabia. Its been nice getting back to the subtlety of tonal values.

Seeing Red

Still playing with the red paper and reflections in the glass topped table. Using red paper has been a real test for me, pushes your way of thinking way of center and away from what you thought stood true.

I've just ordered some other coloured papers and it will be interesting to see how they are to work with. I am particularly looking forward to using the green.

Shadowy Corners

pastel on paper
I have been in an artistic ditch for a while but hoping that is past now and that I am back into the groove.
This was quite fun to do and I limited myself just to catching the way the light fell and not letting myself get too caught up in the extraneous details outside of the light.
The time off since my last post has given me space to think about artwork in general. Some decisions made about what I am aiming for and my enjoyment in creating which I was in danger of losing.

Red Paper

I haven't posted for quite a while - suffering with daily headaches has dammed my artistic flow somewhat.

I fell in love with some pastels that Michael Newberry did on red paper and as I had some in store its been kind of lurking out there that I might play with this a little. This is my first attempt. It was really hard to think of red as being my darkest colour when the objects I was using had no red in them at all. Definitely a new way of thinking. I really liked the way this came together and the abstract forms in the composition.

Rear View Mirror

Core of a Rose, graphite on paper, 4" x 4"

Its funny how when you look back at work you did years ago a lot of it makes you cringe but other pieces still feel right. This piece leaped out at me recently because I have been thinking about abstracts and expressionism increasingly. I have to admit I am now really enjoying colour but monochrome still has a real magic for me - especially in photography.

Determined to get back to some serious work over the next couple of days after suffering a block in my creative urge.

Pansies

Had a great time early one morning when I arrived at work taking photos of these pansies. I think pansies are the most endearing flowers, they seem to have little faces. Pansies are typically only about 4 - 8 inches tall which meant grovelling at ground level on very heavily dew-laden grass (I had muddy knees all day!). Fortunately not many people arrive at work as early as I do or I would have been very embarrassed! The last picture was an accident but I love the way it came out - extremely overexposed. It's almost like a watercolour. The second last is the same flower at the correct exposure. Now I would like to try and get this sort of effect on purpose.

Jeanette in Watercolour

My second try at Jeanette in watercolour (the first while I was happy with the my application of paint was not quite right proportionally) - I am a total novice with this medium and find its unpredictablity both delightful and confounding at the same time. This is only my third portrait in watercolour (the first is here) if you include my first attempt on this particular one and I'm quite pleased with how I am getting on with the medium.

I'd love to have a go at pours as mentioned by Billie Crain and demonstrated by Nick Simmons. One thing that really appeals to me about this kind of use of the medium is the freedom and dynamic quality to painting. I find myself leaning more and more to a more expressionistic way of painting.

Happy to say that I sold "Strawberry Cheesecake" this week. Interesting that I had just had some notecards printed and was showing them to a colleague and she bought the painting from seeing it on a notecard. A marketing technique?

Springtime

As promised some spring photos - didn't spend much time taking these, would have liked to have much longer but was lucky enough to catch the bumble bee making his rounds. The blossom is just about to come out on the citrus trees so there will be more pictures of that when it opens. I need to take a telephoto lens in too because there is one tree that I can't get close enough to take photos of the flowers but with the telephoto lens I might be able to get some closer shots.

Jeanette

March's offering to the portrait group to which I belong is a portrait of Jeanette, wonderful and talented artist, printmaker and maker of delicious jewellery. Not sure how much more I will do to this, maybe a little tweaking. Seeing it here I wonder if I have her nose at the right angle. Trying to decide if I might experiment a little and try a watercolour version.

Spring is well underway here in Pakistan - I'm taking my camera with me tomorrow to take pictures of the lovely flowers and blossom that is bursting out all over. I even have sweet peas flowering in my garden which seems very odd to me as in England they are a summer flower. The bottle brush trees are starting to bloom and I expect that next week they will be totally covered in flowers.

Finding a Path

7ft x 4ft, ink on paper

February was a bad month for me - shoulder injury stopped me in my creative tracks and I have been finding it hard to get back in the groove now that I have some mobility back. I am determined though that March will see me back in full production and experimenting with new ideas, direction and projects.

One thing that came to me in the quiet moments this month was that I was in danger of forgetting why I was doing art - and that is because I love it and its fun. I really don't want to lose the fun of it and I think I need to get the play and experimentation back to get the joy back.

Robin Neudorfer has been feeding me sites that have lots on how to get the creative mojo flowing (thank you Robin) and many have amused me as they are me to a T.

Here are a couple of them - worth a read if you are in not leaping out of bed in the morning ready to be creative.

Get off your butt - 16 ways to get motivated when you are in a slump

7 tried and true ways to stifle your creativity

I have one lovely thing to keep me going for the next few months and that is being part of a sketchbook exchange. I am really excited to be a part of this with 8 other artists from around the world. More of that in days to come, I am sure.

The Road not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost