Unfinished Boats on a Dock
What a hot mess! This is based on a previous painting of a more moderate size - 16" x 20" (or smaller, I don't remember) and I re-created it bigger. Much bigger. I don't know if I regret it yet, or not. Obviously it's not done, yet though you can see that there are some areas more complete than others. I wanted to add a gender element into the picture, so there is a "pink" boat snuggled up next to the other boat. It's kind of an obvious ploy, but it may be that if you lock in on the realism, you may initially miss the color coding in the choices. We accept realism, we absorb what is presented in an innocent way, sans the second guessing of design elements. It is what it is.

This is tomorrows project - scanning this is at the proper resolution/quality and uploading it to Fine Art America. I really like this picture, if I do say so myself. I stumble upon it now and again in the archives of my studio and it always surprises me. I look at it and say, "Wow. I'm good." I need to frame it and hang it on the wall where I can see it everyday to remind me that I am a good, competent artist and to keep at it.

I've been cleaning out the studio to make room for other equipment. I've quite an inventory of work, so I'm going through, sorting and re-working certain pieces. It's a mini-retrospective. Sometimes I look at a piece and say, "Why the heck did I frame that old thing!"

In other areas - I've gotten some very positive feedback lately. Thank you all! I am ashamed to say that it helps keep me going. Why? Because otherwise the work you do is something that you leave for future generations, and you never get to receive from that future time. In a perfect world (my critical inner voice is butting in) you should be doing the work for the sake of the work itself. End of story. I'm not convinced the human brain/mind/spirit works that way (I'm feeling some self-justification coming on). There are so many subtle (and not so subtle!) influences on the way we spend our time, talents, money, etc. If there weren't, Madison Avenue would be out of business. I turned off the TV the other morning. I was looking for news and the "shaping" affect of the advertisements and the sheer number of them was overwhelming. Do I want that stuff permeating my psyche? Don't think so, not that I'm in the "off the grid" camp. It's all about balance. So, yes, I appreciate positive input, for better or for worse, and it helps encourage me to work more. Thank you all, again!

I have been busy on the business end of my art life and getting distracted by quilting projects. Yeah, quilting. Its my dirty little secret. I feel like I'm betraying my mission on earth when I quilt, but I do love it. The color play! So addictive. I will just have to find a balance of one more piece of my life.

I am now on Fine Art America. You can buy prints of some of my work. I have been slowly scanning (small scanner! See below.) paintings into my laptop in sections and then Photoshopping them together. It is a long arduous process involving propping things up on books and stools. I just finished scanning "Muscle Shells" in which is 36" x 52" and requires 30 individual scans. My next step is the "knitting" step where I erase and soften those edges. I found it particularly difficult to keep the work square with itself so each piece isn't tilting just a tiny bit. I also find it useful to do this on a cloudy day. Nothing like a bright blast of sunshine right on the scanner to skew the color balance.

Spent the weekend struggling with photoshop and signing up for online print services. You will soon be able to get prints of my art work at an affordable price. But first I have to scan the pieces in, in sections because my scanner is the size of cereal box and then "stitch" them together. That's the part that's proving difficult. It's a learning curve, figuring out how masks, clipping layers work. I'm disapointed in the delay, but staying positive. It's that or the day job!

Toggle City

I just figured out how to toggle back and forth between my personal Facebook which has a different name than mine and my Facebook, Victoria Haskell, the artist. Phew! This shouldn't have been this hard. Now to start "liking" things as me, the artist and get some positive marketing vibe going.

Four days left to my vaca week. I'm excited about doing some painting again. I have some new ideas to work out. I usually just rough things out and go for it, but I think I want to do some drawings first this time, work out the masses, the lights and darks, the aura of the piece a bit ahead of time. I also want to eliminate some pitfalls and errors before I start painting. The problem with a planned approach is that it can end up feeling like a straight jacket, like paint by number forced labor. Can't have that. We'll see how I make out.

Blue Water

I have this week off from work, so I am painting and working on a variety of projects. I don't know if you can see a whole lot of difference between this and my last post, but I did re-paint the water and it is an improvement. I added more color to the dark reflections so they are not as flat and I softened those edges so they are not as jarring. Sharp edges can be distracting, they make lines for the eye to follow. I want the attention on the boats and the water.

I'm still debating whether to add the reflection of clouds or not. It could make the painting too busy,  but the symbolism of the clouds passing and the empty boats is hard to resist. I may try to make the cloud colors kind of grey and make the edges very fuzzy, so the clouds stay put in the water. I can always paint them out, as long as I scrape down some of the thickening layers so those pesky brushstrokes don't show as much. If I don't include the clouds, or at least some water ripples, there is the danger that the water could be too flat and look like a blue parking lot.

Every part of a painting project has risk associated with it. We must always make a decision about whether to go forward and try something risky and stretch a little, or play it safe. It may be a technique we are perfecting or a design element that we are struggling with. In this picture, what initially attracted me was the water, I need to keep that focus there without confusing the structure of the whole. That is the challenge.