Creation and Destruction

For the first time in many weeks I was able to drag myself into the studio and work on a painting yesterday. It shouldn’t be that hard to get myself in there, but somehow it always is unless I’m already immersed in a new painting. Just like going to the barn, I procrastinate and find more urgent things to do but always enjoy myself once I’m there. But, that’s a topic for another day.

I’ve had an inquiry about the Belgian painting and need to get it finished, but I also need to warm up for it by working on less crucial works. So, I decided to take one of my more successful quickie paintings from last winter and rework it to more completion. This, you may remember, is Yuri the German Shepherd who lives at the barn where I board my horse. 

The basic painting was okay, but I never liked the background. The dog needed more finishing as well, giving him more depth and a hair coat. After about four more hours of painting on this little 8x10 inch canvas board, this is what I came up with (Above). It still needs work, namely a toned down background and a few corrections here and there, but those will have to wait until it’s dry again.

Here are the two versions together so that you can see the difference.

On the other end of the creative spectrum, I made the big decision to destroy a few of my less successful works. Some had been hanging around for years with no one expressing any interest in them, and others were works that were just not very good. This may seem like a really drastic step to take, but I found it incredibly freeing. For one thing, I no longer have to look at these failures and wonder what on earth I’m going to do with them for the rest of eternity. For another, it frees up storage space for new works of art. And thirdly I don’t have reminders hanging around of my current failures or of how less skilled I was in the past.

Now, mind you, there are still a few older paintings hanging around that I will keep for a while longer because they represent milestones in my artistic advancement.

Yesterday I visited my hairdresser who also happens to be a neighbor and friend. She clued me in on why none of the neighbors visited during the studio tour. It seems that my own sign which I put out two days ahead of the event gave them the impression that I was going to have regular Sunday open studio hours from now on, and they planned to visit on another Sunday. None of them were aware of the studio tour, which is a good indication that advertising for the event needs to be improved next year.

It was nice to find out that my neighbors weren’t ignoring me after all and is incentive to do something on my own this fall. Now I can look forward to that and concentrate on getting new paintings done.

A Busy Summer Ahead

Well, I don’t have any art to show you yet, but I do have a bit of exciting news to share.

Last week I was asked to be one of the artists in a studio tour to be held in July and sponsored by the Parkside Arts Council. I’ve wanted to do one of these things for a long time, but there’s never been one in our area. After getting the okay from my husband (because my studio is in our home) I agreed to do it. I’m very excited about this although it will mean a lot of work and preparation: paintings and drawings to finish, mat and frame and new works to begin and hopefully finish. My display walls and other display equipment will augment our meager wall space for hanging prints and originals, but I’m wondering how much sprucing up of the house I need to do. The walls need painting, and the carpet needs replacing, but those things may have to wait.

It’s summer after all, and that means busy times ahead. Horse Shows By The Bay will take up all of July, and there are plenty of gardening chores to be done yet. And, I don’t intend to miss many trail ride opportunities this summer and sketching sessions at the barn. Plein air painting sessions are also on the summer agenda even if that means not venturing any farther than our yard.

To begin the summer, we celebrated the Memorial Day weekend at home with good food and the company of our two grown “kids”. I was able to talk my husband into cleaning out the old garage but not able to talk him into getting rid of much of anything, but at least it’s now cleaner and better organized than it was.

This morning I spent a couple of hours tackling the weeds in the flower beds and got a great deal done. I was sad to learn of the demise of my lovely delphinium, but the shasta daisies and foxglove are doing well. I must get more foxglove. At least the deer don’t bother them. Now that it’s June 1st, it’s safe to put in the annuals and that means a trip to the nursery to buy the plants. I also have three salvia to get in the ground, and who knows what else I’ll bring home from the nursery? Everything is so tempting but hard on the budget!

I’ve been thrilled to see that there are dozens of lilac shoots coming up from the ground where we had to cut down the old lilac bushes after the drunk driver went through our fence last summer. I’m going to put some small fences around a few of them so that they don’t get accidentally mowed down. They are the old fashioned dark purple lilacs that are hard to find anymore. My friend and neighbor will come and dig up some of the other ones and give them good homes.

On my agenda for today is an inventory of artwork for the studio tour to see what needs to be finished and what needs to be framed or matted. This is just the shove I need to finally finish Easy Rider and maybe even do the pony and child painting that’s been waiting to be put to canvas for the past several years. Most important, I will tackle melting the beeswax and combining it with turpentine for the medium my mentor wants me to use on the still life. That could be tricky!

Later on will be a trail ride with the girls. Ta Ta for now! The busy summer has begun!

PS I forgot to mention that one of my poppies bloomed for the first time this year! Last year it had a bud but the deer got it. You can see the bloom above.