Sunday Sketching - Ideas Flying at Me

When I was on a plane last week, I was reading Stephen Pressfield's new book Do the Work (free on Kindle! Pressfield is great at helping with all the "resistance" that inhibits artists of any kind from producing well) and at one point I just felt compelled to stop and take out a pencil and start sketching. 

All kinds of ideas flying my way. (As always double-clicking shows off pencil work better.)

I'm not sure what more I'm going to do with this but I suspect I will redo it in my journal and paint it. (I drew it in my travelling moleskine journal and I really don't like the paper quality.) And then I will likely write thoughts on it too.

Hope you all had a great few weeks of Sunday Sketches while I was away! Happy Mother's Day!!

Paint Party Friday - Week 8 - Inspired in Houston

I'm back from my busy 10 days of travels and while I am still not caught up, life will soon be back to normal, (I hope). No painting has been done on my WIPs as I haven't had time or energy (yucky cold/throat thing) to do much. What they need would take more than the time I had available, so instead - to ensure I painted - I started something new.

My flight back was later in the day last Friday, so I had a little extra time on my hands in Houston and decided to put it to suitable Paint Party Friday use. I went to see the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston! With limited time before my flight, I focused on the Impressionists special and regular exhibits. There were many fabulous pieces but this time what fascinated me the most was Seurat's work and that of several other pointillist artists (whose names unfortunately I did not write down  - which leads to one of my biggest pet peeves with galleries/museums.*)

I decided to start a pointillist piece this week. I have done ink versions but never before in paint. I was a bit surprised by the size of the Seurat's dots, they were larger than I'd imagined.

Camera 2 View

First I decided to gesso the canvas adding a little background colour to the gesso:

Then I started with dots and got this far:

Camera 1 View

I think I may be halfway there....  Hopefully by next PPF I will have finished one of these WIPs!!

I'm looking forward to seeing all of your painting efforts AND in a much more timely fashion than the past two weeks! My daughter wants me to thank you all for your lovely comments on her portrait of my father as a young man. My Dad was also very flattered and appreciative. Thank you!!

* Museum/Gallery Pet Peeve - No more photos in galleries, it seems.  :(   So I think to myself, okay I will buy postcards of the pieces I like when I leave. But while they have some, they are only for what someone else perceives to be the most interesting pieces.   :(   None for the pieces I like.  :(   So I think to myself next, I will look online when I get home. The National Gallery in Ottawa has almost everything online (though remembering the name of the artist helps.) The Museum of Fine Arts however has their 100 "most popular" (or famous) and so the creator of the beautiful pointillist tree that inspired me remains unknown.  :( 

Why do Galleries/Museums not have postcards for ALL pieces? Or show ALL pieces on their websites?? Sigh. Okay, my rant is over. What do you think? Do you share my pet peeve?

Have a great Paint Party Friday!

Paint Party Friday - Week 7 - Not Mine, but...

I haven't been around much this week. Last weekend I was on Vancouver Island for my Dad's 90th Birthday Party (and Family Reunion). Most of this week, I have been on a business trip to Texas returning late Friday, so I haven't painted all week. (Pout.)

But I love PPF and wanted to participate in the party, so I thought I would (cheat and) show you what my youngest daughter did for her grandfather for his birthday. (Proud Mom.) A portrait of him as a young man. 

Grandpa by Ruth

And here he is, after blowing out 90 candles! (Proud daughter.)

Many of you wished him Happy Birthday last week and he passes on his thanks for your best wishes. 

Birthday cake anyone?

Paint Party Friday - Week 6 - Something New

Happy Easter and Paint Party Friday everyone! I am in B.C., on Vancouver Island, for Easter weekend for my Dad's 90th birthday, a family reunion and to bring my daughter home from her first year at University of Victoria. Busy! I can't promise I will visit you in a timely fashion but visit you, I eventually will!

Last week's poll on inspiration oddly inspired me and I have started a new piece because of it. Potentially a new series, if it works out. You'll see more what I am talking about when it's done but for now I am just hinting at what it will be (if my execution comes anywhere close to my vision, that is).

(WIP - except for a few brush slips, I actually think it looks pretty like this even though this is far from finished!))

(WIP - stage 1 Pencil Outline)

 (WIP - stage 2 adding texture)

Since I have "advance knowledge" of this week's PPF poll and questions, I wanted to mention two recent posts which I found to be very helpful for my own largely self-taught learning. The first is a video by Alisa Burke about her sketchbook. I have often admired her sketchbook when she shows glimpses of it but until I watched this video tutorial, I had everything backwards! I figured one did the ink outline first and then added watercolour  - not vice versa! Her explanation has made a real difference to my Mexican Sketchbook which I started shortly after viewing that post.

(Ink and watercolour influenced by Alisa)

Earlier this week I was trying to figure out the blue in my painting and knew I didn't really have a good handle on the shades in my paint kit so I created this "legend" to see which was the  just right shade of blue. 

(I ended up mixing it myself as no blue was close to what I had in mind.)

Then yesterday I saw this idea at Elvie Studio (someone else whose journaling I love). Fun and practical! I will at some point try that for both my acrylics and watercolours.

So much to learn and so many incredible ideas out there in the blogosphere!

Help yourself to an Easter egg while you're here and have a super long weekend!

xox

EVA

Sisterhood of the Travelling Sketchbook

For the next year and a bit, I am participating in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Sketchbook. It is a sketchbook round robin - our books travel monthly to the next participant and then we get our original book back at the end. Each month the "theme" is that month so it will be easy to remember! But the first spread is about one's self and a colour that has meaning at the moment. 

I thought I would show you my page spread and my sign-in page for this week's Sunday Sketches with Blue Chair Diary before it leaves for Australia to meet Nicola!

Sign in page (inspired by my favourite book!)

My colour page spread - purple inspired

Close-up views:

Page 2 (hat related to Word of the Year)

 Page 3 - A quote I love and favourite friend

Looking forward to seeing everyone's efforts for Sunday Sketches!

Paint Party Friday - Week 5 LIVE at Diana's

Late last Friday (and continuing Saturday morning), a few girlfriends and I held a LIVE paint party! We all headed up to Diana's house after work and stayed overnight. She lives on a beautiful stretch of beach on the river and has a huge dining room table with an incredible view. The snow is almost gone though we discovered there is still a bit left when we went for a walk along the beach. All my friends hadn't painted in years but were ready, willing and able to try! I brought a great sampler set of paints and both Diana and I bought canvas boards and canvases. It was an excellent time!

My favourite of my two little paintings is this simple one:

We played with paints at her dining room window with an incredible view:

Spread out and painting away

The view post-winter

The beach and river inspired several efforts:

Teresa playing with watercolours

My riverscape

Loraine's beach morphed into one much further south!

Deborah focused in much closer:

Her spring-like version

Her model

Abstracts were also part of the party:

Diana's dots

Diana has the blues

Teresa geometrically and vibrantly inspired

We had a wonderful time. It reminded me very much of doing jigsaw puzzles with my girlfriends. There was something incredibly calm and relaxing as we worked away on our own little projects yet worked together. Sharing the comradery and the experience. I loved it! (As did they!) Great creativity and conversation.  Aren't girlfriends wonderful!

The rest of the week hasn't been terribly productive for art and it took me until Wednesday to visit all the PPF players. (Sorry about that.) The next two Fridays, I will be out of town so I'm unsure what my ability to visit or participate will be like, but I will try to get around to seeing everyone's efforts when I can. I so LOVE seeing your work!!



Paint Party Friday - Week 4 - Coffee Painting #3

Slow progress this week, but progress! I started the week off well - painting a self-portrait on a new Sketchbook cover and sketching out an idea for the third of my "coffee" paintings. I started the painting, doing the background. And there it sat. I wasn't sure I'd get much further but knowing it was almost time for Paint Party Friday check-in spurred me on! (Yay - it's working!) Here is my new little painting:

Espresso for Two

(6x6 Acrylics)

I had a hard time with this - especially with the shadows and outline definition. Not sure if it is done or if I will try to improve it.

So please have a cup of espresso while you're here during the party!

I have a question - what do you do with excess paint? I hesitate to always throw it out or wash it away. So this is what I've been doing lately (still a WIP).

I'm looking forward to visiting you all! And tonight, some of my girlfriends and I are going to get out the paints, canvases, brushes (and the wine!) and take Paint Party Friday LIVE!!