AEDM day 24: stuck

I have been working on these two paintings on and off for the past couple weeks. With both of them I've reached the point where I don't know what to do next. I know they both probably need some big changes before they are done, but I just am not seeing what those changes are right now. So I'd like to ask you for some input. Any suggestions for how to proceed with either painting? Any parts you feel are particularly unresolved or that you particularly like? I'd really appreciate any feedback you'd like to offer. Think of it as a virtual critique. :)

AEDM day 23: homage to my houseguest

As of today we have a very handsome visitor in our apartment. He's so adorable I can't stop staring at him. He was kind enough to pose for me as I completed today's AEDM creation, which doesn't begin to encompass his charm.

Today was a very good art day. In addition to a couple cat sketches (with water-soluble pastels), I did a little work on my Volksbad painting. Plus I spent the afternoon at Typisch München! (Typical Munich), an exhibition encompassing much of the art, history, and folklore of this lovely city. I was particularly intrigued by the cityscape paintings, since I'm currently working on paintings of the very same subject matter. The level of detail and geometric precision on some of them was amazing. As much as I enjoy depicting places I love, I hate straight lines. In my own work, at least.

AEDM day 22: Eyeflowers

Our party yesterday evening went very well. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it was a very fun crowd. It made me happy to realize how many wonderful people we have gotten to know in less than a year of living here.

I received many complements on my paintings, which are hanging all over the apartment. Some guests wanted to know who all the people in the portraits were, and why I had painted them (a friend in Amsterdam, a bartender in Tokyo, a friend and her child in South Africa...). Some wanted to know where the cityscapes came from, and shared with me what they were reminded of when they saw this painting or that. Still others wondered whether it was difficult to sell art, to part with it. It was so much fun to have these conversations, discussions sparked by my paintings hanging on the wall. I was quite touched by how much interest people showed. Maybe the theme of my next party should be "come talk to me about my art". :)

Today has been a day of post-party clean up and watching the snow fall outside the window. No painting today, just playing around in my sketchbook. My doodles almost always involve eyes. Today they wanted to become flowers. Eyeflowers.

AEDM day 21: Volksbad in progress

I had to get today's painting in early. Tonight I'm having a party, and the studio has to be cleaned this afternoon! I was hoping to have a few more paintings finished before today, but it is what it is.

The building in the painting is the Volksbad, the local indoor swimming pool in my neighborhood.

AEDM day 20: Tuscan rooftops

Tonight I had my second painting class (Experimental Acrylic Painting Techniques), and the theme was Corrugated Cardboard. The texture of the cardboard immediately brings to mind rooftops in Italy for me, so I looked back through my photos to find some inspiration to bring with me to class. I used a couple different sizes of corrugated cardboard, and spent so long cutting the pieces that I didn't have enough time to paint. Still, I'm pretty happy with the result. Maybe I'll work on it more later.

One strange thing from class tonight. I brought along an xacto knife to use to cut the cardboard. The teacher was fascinated, having never seen one before. And here I was thinking that xacto knives were pretty universal artists' tools. Guess not. I should have asked her what she would use to cut mat board and stuff like that.

AEDM day 19: blah

It had to happen sooner or later this month... I had a very blah art day today. I worked on two of my Munich paintings, and both of them look worse now than when I started the day. I didn't feel like sharing them here today, so I figured I should do something else. Borrowing a method from some other AEDMers, I made some random watercolor marks on a page of my sketchbook, and then stared at it, waiting for inspiration. Nothin'. Grumpy, I almost gave up, but then ended up piecing together a female figure, which I drew in in oil pastel and then emphasized with water color pencils and charcoal. A couple dabs of water, and this is the result:



Nothing too exciting, but a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. So good for me for persevering. If I really want to be an artist, I need to get in the habit of showing up.

Thanks to all those who have left such encouraging comments on my posts this week. Your supportive words mean a lot to me, especially on days like this when I am doubting my abilities. I really appreciate it!

AEDM day 18: more Munich

I think this first one is done. But maybe not. I'm going to put it aside for a couple days before I decide for sure.

My palette was needing a cleaning, so I used up the remaining paint on it to start another painting - yep, another Munich scene. I'm hoping to have enough of them by the end of the year to start looking for an exhibition space. How many should that be? Some of them (such as these two) are quite small. My last show had 22 paintings in it, about half portraits and half cityscapes.

AEDM day 17: the view out my window

I started this little painting months ago and then forgot about it. Today I picked it back up and decided to start playing with it again. Working on it reminds me how much I like the view from my studio window, and how lucky I am to have such a wonderful studio to paint in. :)

AEDM day 16: painting along

Nothing too exciting to share today - just more slow progress on my Munich paintings.

Halfway through Art Every Day Month, and I am wondering if I should keep this up for next month, too. It has been great to have an 'excuse' to work on my art projects each and every day, or to think up new ones. It has been so inspiring to visit the blogs of the other participants and see all of their fun creations, too. What I'm trying to say is that AEDM gets my ringing endorsement. :)

AEDM day 15: progress

I continue to put in a little time on my two new Munich paintings daily. I want to have them finished in a few days. I also have a couple other paintings in progress which would be nice to finish next week.

The excitement around here today is that we are finally hanging some of my paintings up in the living room. I hope I don't get tired of staring at them every single day.

AEDM day 14: painting with sand

So last night I went to my first experimental acrylic painting class. The teacher came in and announced today's material would be sand. Then she had us each introduce ourselves and tell her what our expectations were for the class. Half the students admitted to never having used acrylics before. Then the teacher showed us techniques for using sand in acrylics, and suggested we sketch something out on our canvases before beginning. I panicked a little. I'm used to working from life or photos, but I'm pretty useless when left to my own imagination. I cursed myself for not bringing photos to work from.

As I started my painting, I remembered the street scene I had been sketching that afternoon, and decided I would try to work with that, or at least my memory of it. I started absentmindedly dropping the buildings into my scene. The teacher came by, took one glance at my work, and immediately dubbed me a remedial student in her mind. She tried to explain a little linear perspective to me (I was purposely distorting the perspective on my buildings, but granted it looked awful when she saw it, and clearly she was just trying to help...). I considered telling her that I knew perfectly well what linear perspective was, that my 7th grade art teacher had asked to keep my perspective drawings to use as examples of greatness for all students who came after me, but then I decided that such an announcement would only embarrass us both.

As I murmured in agreement with her suggestions, the student next to me saved me by admitting she had no idea what linear perspective was, so the teacher busied herself explaining while I got to plod on with my horrible painting in peace. I considered my options for the class at that point... basically I could continue to play the idiot, and then I wouldn't feel any pressure to produce anything good. That would be nice, right? But still, my ego, the part of me that fancies myself a real artist, wasn't too happy with that solution.

And then a strange thing happened. About halfway through the 3-hour class, my painting started to come together. It started looking somewhat decent. The teacher was obviously surprised when she came by to see it, amazed that her idiot student had lucked into something... artistic. And then towards the end of class I was moving in status from lucky to perhaps-actually-knows-what-she's-doing. Other students started to take notice, and by the end of the evening I had a small semi-circle of people around me, gushing about how lovely my little painting was. I was a little proud but mostly embarrassed to be the impromptu center of attention. I just kept saying 'danke' and smiling sheepishly as they went on about my sandy little city scene. Which doesn't seem to photograph well, so you are probably as astonished as I was that this thing was getting the attention of the whole class.

Now I'm worried about next week - will they expect great things from me that I'm unable to deliver?

AEDM day 13: more Munich scenes

Back in the swing of things today. I applied some modeling paste to my two in-progress paintings to give them some texture. I also started playing around with the next image I want to turn into a painting: the view out a window on the second floor of the Hofbräuhaus.

And I still have three hours of art in front of me today. I'm starting an evening class at the Volkshochschule (like a community college) called 'experimental acrylic painting techniques'. I hope it's fun!

AEDM day 12: more painting

Made a little progress on the two paintings I started yesterday. Had a good, creative morning and then lost steam. Must be the crappy weather.

AEDM day 11: Two new paintings

A while ago I bought a group of four 45x45cm canvases, intending to make them into a series of Munich scenes. The first two are almost done (here's the first one and the second one); today I started on the last two canvases by sketching out the basics of the scenes:



I had originally picked out a different view for the last painting, but today I made a last-minute decision to go with this instead:



I'm excited to see where I can take these.

Munich scene #2

Another Munich painting I've been working on, not sure what to do with next. 45 x 45 cm.

AEDM day 10: Theatinerkirche

I've been working on this painting of the Theatinerkirche in Munich for a couple weeks now. I can't decide if it's done, or if I want to completely re-do the sky and a couple other parts. I guess I'll wait for a couple days and see what I think then.

A self portrait in stuff

This post over on Red Otter inspired me to play along with a self-portrait concept: "If you were to pull together five to ten of your favorite items in your home, what would be included, which items would you choose? What is indicative of you? What have you carried with you everywhere you've traveled or lived?" Here's what I came up with:



If anyone else decides to play along, let me know in the comments!

AEDM day 9: chugging along

I'm proud of myself today. Not that I am particularly impressed with the art I produced (several quick sketches with oil pastels), but that's OK. The exciting part is that I managed to keep up with AEDM even while traveling for 5 days! OK, that may not sound very exciting to you, but to me the whole point of AEDM is to do art that I normally wouldn't do, and 'normally' I wouldn't have brought a sketchbook along on a trip like this. But not only did I bring art supplies, I used them every single day!

Today's sketches were produced on the train from Zurich back to Munich. Now I'm home and so excited for the coming week of art and catching up on other AEDM blogs. Love this!

AEDM day 8: more figures

AEDM day 7: baby

Again, not much time for art since I'm in Zurich visiting friends, but I did take a couple seconds to sketch said friends' baby this morning. It's not much, but at least I'm still doing something every day. :)

AEDM day 6: so many leaves

I'm in Zurich visiting friends, so not much time for art! I did manage to squeeze in one little sketch - the view of my friend's ivy-covered balcony. Drawing all those leaves individually was time-consuming, so I didn't quite get a chance to finish. Maybe tomorrow.

AEDM day 5: curled-up figure

I’m in a sleepy, hungover haze today after staying up until 5am to watch Obama win the election. It felt like a good day to play around more with this figure, which has been recurring in my doodles.

AEDM day 4: distracted doodling

I can't seem to tear myself away from election coverage today. A few doodles was all I could manage.

AEDM day 3: self-portrait and red sky

I can't say enough good things about participating in Art Every Day Month so far. I've had a great time looking at the work of other participants and being inspired to try new things. Today I worked on a variety of stuff.

I started this self-portrait a long time ago and then forgot about it. I added another layer to it today. Rarely do I use so many colors in one painting.


I also played around in my sketchbook, something I don't do enough these days.



The last painting I completed for my art show last year had a deep red sky; I find myself wanting to make more skies red these days.

And finally, I did a little more to the goldfish painting from yesterday. I like how I caught Barack Obama on the TV in the background. I'm addicted to election news today.

AEDM day 2: goldfish

I usually paint from an image - life, a photograph, something. So in the interest of using Art Every Day Month to try new things, I sat down with some acrylics and just started painting today. It started to look vaguely like goldfish, so I went with that. Not done yet, but wanted to take a photo before my daylight completely disappears...

AEDM day 1: getting started

Ah, the pressure of getting started! I worked myself up into a minor frenzy worrying about creating something good enough to be worthy of being posted for the very first day of Art Every Day Month. In the end I decided to use my husband as a model and do a series of sketches of him sitting on the couch.


Scott furrowing (ebony pencil on paper)

Hooray for Art Every Day Month!

I'm looking forward to participating in Art Every Day Month, starting tomorrow. I wanted to do it last year, but given that we were traveling for pretty much the whole month of November, it just wouldn't have worked out logistically. But this year I'm all ready to go!

In addition to continuing to work on my larger painting projects, I want to use this as an excuse to play around with some new media and subject matter. I'll be posting my creations, however ridiculous, here on this blog every day. I also hope to make it around to the blogs of others who are participating to get to know some more folks from the online creative community.

If anyone is reading this (and I know that's a big "if" - this blog gets hardly any traffic) and also participating in Art Every Day Month, leave me a comment and let me know!

Reviving the art blog

It's been about eleventy billion years since I've posted here, I know. My art production has been similarly stagnant. But these days that trend is reversing, so I thought I'd come back here and start chronicling a bit.

For November, I'm thinking about participating in Art Every Day Month, an event that in turn was inspired by NaNoWriMo, which inspired me to write a novel two years ago. It also taught me to love month-long commitments to creative output. I'm tempted to try the writing version again this year, but either way I'd like to do Art Every Day Month. Making art every day sounds like a fabulous goal to me.

Work in Progress: another Zurich scene

I want to move on to Munich paintings, but I had a couple Zurich ideas left to realize. This one started out unexciting, but I'm starting to get attached to it. I'm looking forward to where it goes next.

Sorting things out

So, some more setbacks in the art career that I don't want to go into here... I've come close to giving up and going a completely different career direction, but now I'm not sure what I'm going to do anymore. Things are up in the air. And until things are decided, I'm just going to keep making art. No good reason not to.

I have a couple of portrait commissions to do to keep me moving, and I'd like to start on a Munich series of cityscapes. Plus I'm hoping to switch this blog over soon to associate it with my artist website rather than with my personal blog (although I guess they might as well all be inter-connected). I've quit my two professional blogs as of the end of May, and I'm really happy about that move. Although they were relatively small time commitments, the ongoing obligation to blog on them kept me from blogging here as much as I would like to. I'm excited to be completely free to pursue what I want. Well, not completely free - I have signed up for a German course that will keep me busy three mornings a week. I figure whatever career path I decide to go with, polishing my German will come in handy. You know, since I live in Germany and all.

OK, enough rambling for today.

Hmmm... so much for that plan

Well, I'd like to blame my failure to come close to meeting my weekly goals on being sick this week, but truth be told I was well behind last week, too, even when I felt fine.

So what's going on? Why am I resisting spending time at the easel? Fear of failure? Too much else to do? Is the goal too big? I don't really know. Maybe I need a more specific long-term goal to go along with my short-term goals. Whatever the reason, this month's goals just aren't working out. I think I'll adjust them for the second half of the month. Haven't decided how, yet.

I have done a good job at getting going on The Vein of Goldat least. More on that later.

February wrap-up and March challenge

My challenge for myself for February was simple: start 2 new canvases per week.

I completed this challenge with flying colors. My studio is now full of work-in-progress, several of which I'm very excited to continue. I started a handful of new cityscapes, a few portraits, and two abstract red paintings. I've never been much of an abstract artist, but I think it's worth playing with.

This challenge was a great way to motivate myself to choose new subjects and get painting. But while I did start all the canvases (as per my self-imposed rules), some of them are just barely started. Some weeks I spent very little time actually painting.

March's challenge attempts to address this issue: I have to spend 20 hours per week on art. At least 10 hours per week has to be actually painting; the other 10 can include activities such as learning Photoshop (a goal for a while now), researching art classes, etc. I'd also like to finally work through The Vein of Gold, which I've been meaning to do for over a year now. Art blogging counts, too.

I'm not sure how I'll do with this challenge. It's different. I'm not used to working just for the sake of putting in hours; usually I'm most effective when working towards a goal, instead. In this situation, the 'working' is the goal itself.

I am not off to a great start with this challenge. It's already Wednesday afternoon, and I've only logged 1.5 hours in front of the easel. This is not going to be easy, but hey, sometimes challenges should be challenging. :)

Yet another reason to love winter

When it's 0 degrees out, it's perfectly acceptable for me to throw my long winter coat over my studio clothes and go shopping. Never mind that those studio clothes are really paint-stained sweats with holes in them. A nice long coat makes it all ok. Yay winter!

The February Plan

I'm still experimenting with my work patterns and habits to see how I can do my best, most prolific painting. To that end, I've decided to start giving myself various art-oriented goals each month to get me to try new things.

For February I just wanted to get going again - the long, drawn-out move got me very out of practice with my daily art habit. To that end, I gave myself a simple task: start at least two canvases a week. They can be any size, any subject, any medium.

Since I already had a couple canvases in progress from January, that means I'll finish February with at least 10 in-progress canvases (at the rate I'm going, I probably won't end up finishing many of them this month, but that's fine). I like this challenge because it's making me get past that fear of the blank canvas and just get painting. And on days when I just don't feel like dealing with a blank page, I have plenty of in-progress works to choose to work on.

I think March's plan will be to require a certain number of painting hours per week, plus some other aspect which is yet to be decided.

I needed something to decorate the walls in our new apartment

While I am in Zurich right now, I swear I had nothing to do with the big art heist that went down Sunday.

I am, however, kicking myself that in two years of living in Zurich I never once made it to the Buehrle Collection. What was I thinking? I hereby promise to not be so negligent in my examination of Munich's art.

White board walls

How much fun would it be to paint the walls of my studio with this stuff and just make them giant dry-erase boards?

I am an artist.

Wanted to put that out there today. Thanks, Linda.

Too Old

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with myself when we decided to move to Munich. I had a hunch I wanted to more aggressively pursue my career as an artist, and so I investigated going back to art school as an option. I found the website of the Akademie der bildenden Künste München and eagerly read through the information presented for those hoping to be admitted for an art degree course. I got so excited thinking about life as a full-time art student - how much I would enjoy the various challenges in each course, how much I could grow as an artist with all that new knowledge.

And then I started reading through the admissions requirements. And then I came to this bit: (Section 6.1.a.)

Minimum Age: Eighteen years at last birthday
Age Limit: Thirtieth birthday

Fabulous. My over-30-year-old-brain just isn't worth their time. Too shriveled and useless to benefit from art school!

Studio!

The single most exciting thing about our new apartment is that it contains a room which I get to use as my studio. A whole room just for my art! I've never had that before. It's thrilling. I love this room. It is big and bright and has a big window with a lovely view.

Except for my easel and art supplies, my studio is still pretty empty - I want to get to know the room a little bit before I decide what additional items I want to acquire for it. Plus I love how much floor space is available for me to spread out in.

Speaking of the floor, it is brand new - the landlord had it re-done right before we moved in. While it looks fabulous, the pristine surface has me terrified. What if I stain it? Get paint on it? Ruin it? For now I'm using a couple rolls of the fabric floor covering the movers left here (at my request) to keep myself sane, but I'd like to come up with a better (and more attractive) long-term solution.

The walls create a similar stress point: they are newly painted and hole-free. But the good news is that here in Germany we are required to re-paint them when we move out anyway, so in theory I can go ahead and mess them up as much as I want. Still, it's hard to make that first mark...

Getting back into things

I spent the last month and a half of 2007 traveling without a single art supply; so far 2008 has mostly been occupied with settling in in our new apartment in our new city (Munich). One of the most exciting things about this new apartment is that I have a studio in it. I'm still figuring out how I want everything arranged (and what additional furniture I'd like for the room), but I have managed to get the easel set up and have started a new painting. I'm very excited to get back into the rhythm of painting daily. I also plan to start updating this blog more regularly.

I have a few commissions that I need to get to work on. I also need to find a good local source of art supplies. I went to check out a couple shops in my new neighborhood, but their offerings are limited. So much to do...

It's up!

We put up my show this morning. It was crazy seeing all my paintings somewhere besides in a pile in the corner of my bedroom.



I'm very excited and nervous for the opening tomorrow. Wish me luck...

New subject

I'm still working on a few portraits, but I decided it was high time to start on a new body of work, as well. So I've started on a series of cityscape paintings. The first ones were inspired by the canals of Milan's Navigli neighborhood. Here's one of the works in progress.

I will be painting furiously for the next month, as I have an exhibit opening in Zurich in November. So much to do!

I want an art allowance!

Small Collectors - wealthy kids buy fancy art

Collage play

This month's art projects are all about playing around. I don't really care what the final products look like - just so long as I experiment and enjoy it.

This collage is made up of images from college alumni magazines and Italian food magazines. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep working on it, or just move on to something else. That's part of the fun of playing - if I don't feel like finishing a project, I don't have to. Just the process has given me some ideas for future projects.

Just play

I've hit a big lull in my artistic production these days. It kind of feeds on itself, this lack of production, until it becomes really difficult to jump back in. So this month, I've decided to up my output by lowering my standards. It doesn't really matter what I create, as long as I'm creating. No pressure, just play.

As a start, I played around with some new water-soluble crayons this weekend. Next I think I'm going to cut up some magazines and make some silly collages.