March 2024

Hi!

I’m taking a huge deep breath at the moment. This month was intense, I have not had a day off from painting/art for weeks and honestly, I’m tired. It’s a good tired, but tired, nevertheless. 

Drawing Fundamentals at Acworth Arts Alliance continues to be a huge source of pride and inspiration. They want it. No question about it. They work between classes and it shows. To see one of my students go from never drawing before in her life to doing this charcoal drawing in six weeks…

I’m blown away. And I’d love to tell you that it’s because I’m a great teacher, but that’s not true. It’s because the artist puts in the work and pushes herself beyond her comfort zone. And she’s not satisfied - isn’t that always the case with us artists? We can always find something wrong, something we can improve. It’s truly a lifelong pursuit. I can’t wait to see what she does next. 

Working on drawing has made a huge difference in how I paint. When you step up to the easel there are so many factors at play - how to work the brush, how to work the paint, color choice, color mixing, value management, composition and design and of course, drawing. But if you work on your drawing, then you don’t have to wrestle that beast along with all of the other aforementioned concepts. It becomes muscle memory. You can work faster and more accurately. 

I’ve been committed to a daily drawing practice for the past two months. I spend about 15 minutes a day drawing something, anything just to practice hand eye coordination, lining things up, shapes.

I’m also still going to Atlanta Artists Center on Saturday mornings to practice drawing from life. Still have no interest in becoming a figurative painter. I just like the challenge of drawing the figure. Kicks my butt every time. Yesterday I was so frustrated with my inability to get the model correct on paper that I started drawing the artists around me. 

Which leads me to my next class that started this month at Binders. I have three oil painters in my class. They joined my group at Binders for the very reasons just stated. Maybe the course should be renamed to “Drawing for Painters” because so many painters skip drawing and go right to the paint. (I should know because that’s the mistake I made!)

Along those lines of learning … I was also a student this month. My friend Evelyn and I signed up for Jill Carver’s 5-day workshop at The Booth Art Academy about a year ago. At that time I was still gungho on oils before diving into pastels last summer, so I’m not going to say I was dreading the workshop (certainly not the case), but I was wondering if I would still be fired up about painting in oils. 

Let me preface this by telling you that I painted my very first plein air painting with Jill in 2018. Had no clue who she was, my brand new red steel easel still had the price tag on it and I was in wayyyyy over my head. My brain couldn’t keep up with Jill’s content so I floundered miserably, but I wrote down almost every word she said and I still carry that little book around with me. With a lot more experience and brush mileage under my belt, I was in much better shape this go round.

As I was setting up my station I saw one of the most well known plein air painters/instructors in the country walk through the classroom door. My first thought was that she was going to do a guest teaching gig, but nope, she was there to learn just like the rest of us. Here’s the thing — I see newer artists put more experienced artists on pedestals (I used to do it, too) just because they have a famous name or paint well. It’s so silly. We are all human beings. No one deserves more or less respect than any other human being. Also - it turns out that some of these people that artists idolize actually aren’t all that nice in person. You can read into that whatever you like :)

Back to Jill’s workshop … We began each day with a 3 hour lecture/discussion on design, color, value, shapes, armatures, concept, intention. Quick lunch break, then we went to our easels to practice what we’d discussed. Not a lot of finished paintings. In fact, one person asked Jill if she was going to show us how to finish a painting and she said no. This wasn’t a “paint like Jill” workshop - this was about process and learning how to improve our paintings by spending more time in the design / exploration / experimentation phase before we put paint to canvas. 

She said plein air has changed so much. The true purpose of painting in plein air is to study nature, observe, learn about light and shadow …. Then you go back to your studio and apply what you learned. She went to the Grand Canyon to paint and spent one week just observing before spending the next week painting. These days plein air is all about competing and winning. I’m taking a break from that scene so that I can focus on what I’ve learned from Jill and hopefully become a better painter.

Our workshop was heavily STEM based - loads and loads of math, science, construction, design. Her theory is that if you spend more time in this phase, the painting paints itself. And she was right. 

On Day 5 we put everything we learned into one small painting. I chose a reference photo from Tanyard Creek, a typical Georgia creek scene with all the greens, browns and oranges that we see all around us when we go out to paint. And I’ll be damned, it all worked. Jill left the classroom to set up her next workshop and when she got back to the room and saw my painting, she made me stop and give her a hug. LOL. She also loved Evelyn’s painting. Evelyn freakin crushed it. I loved seeing her work. We just had the best time. 

No kidding - it changed me. It really did. I can hardly wait to put all of this into practice. Worth every damn penny. But remember this — it took 6 solid years of painting for me to be ready for what she teaches. If you read her course description you’ll see the workshop is for advanced painters only. That’s because if you’re not advanced, you will be misssssserable. And frankly, you’ll be wasting money.

PAINTING NEWS

Finally got a chance to get out and paint with my VHPAP crew. We painted at the corner of Virginia and Highland and it felt so great to be back outside, laughing with my friends, enjoying beautiful weather and painting. Due to my crazy schedule, I haven’t been consistent with Thursday plein air sessions, but the group always keeps me busy. We are preparing for a show in May at a local church, plus bookstore activities, and last but not least, I handle all the social media.

Speaking of social media, I’m handling all of the social media for this year’s Olmsted Plein Air Invitational, which begins in a few weeks. And I’m on the planning committee. Now you know why I have zero free time these days :) Just got back from visiting the gallery space we’ll be using for the event and it’s perfect. 

I managed to snag an appointment with an allergist next week to see if I can get an epi-pen. Nurse Preston says he’s not painting outside with me until I get one. He may have more PTSD from my caterpillar stings than I do. 

A few pieces of good news - one of my pastel paintings was accepted into the annual Booth Artists Guild summer exhibition at The Booth Museum. 

And I got a painting into the Southeastern Pastel Society show which was juried by Nancie King Mertz. Pretty psyched about that. They won’t let me post it until April, so I can’t tell you which one. (So dumb)

I also have a few paintings up at the Ponce Library and of course at Virginia Highland Books. 

There’s a huge project I’ve been working on all month that I can’t discuss until the deal is done. It’s the biggest, most important, most significant thing I’ve done to date. I’m terrified to talk about it for fear of jinxing it. So you’ll just have to come back and read next month’s blog. 

POTTERY

What a thrill to see the pottery process work from beginning to end. Definitely not easy but very rewarding. I’m registered for the next session and plan to continue as long as my schedule allows. It might be an ugly, wonky coffee mug but it’s mine and I made it all by myself. Don’t knock it til you’ve done it.

PERSONAL

Scott and I spent a misty, rainy weekend in Highlands, NC. It was so cozy and hygge!!! Loved it. Blankets, reading, a fire, cocktails at Hummingbird Lounge. What more could you ask for? 

UP NEXT

April will be a wildly busy month: Piedmont Park Paint Out Week, a trip to NYC (!!!!!), Olmsted, more teaching, more pottery. Michelle is staying with me again this year for Olmsted and we are giddy about getting to spend the week together, laughing about dumb things and telling each other how much we love each other. She’s also going to be at PACE in May, so fasten your seatbelts. 

Unless you want to see cat photos, you can stop reading now :)

OTIS and JUJU

Thanks for stopping by :)