It's Good To Be Conflicted,

Or is it?

Do you remember earlier this week I posted about sketching for a new painting and having indecision about exactly what to begin next because I had two very different ideas swimming in my head?  After completing the last Desert Plant painting I planned to move forward with another, however I made a trip to the Palm Springs Art Museum to see the Diebenkorn exhibit (click HERE to visit PS Art Museum site with info)

                 Woman on a Porch
                  Richard Diebenkorn

and while there wandered into the Western/Indian exhibition section to see if there were new items being shown.  Sure enough, there was a great, yet small, basket display and I was introduced to Guadalupe Arenas, a Cahuilla, who lived and created in the Coachella Valley during the late 1800's into the early 1900's.  

Basket woven by Guadalupe Arenas

This woman fits perfectly into my Indian Women Portrait Series, so of course I was captivated and began to research her life and work and sketching for a painting which would represent her.

I settled on a composition but I am having problems finding photographs of her and since I want to know what she looked like to make a more accurate representation, and since I want to begin a new painting immediately, my decision was made.  The easel will hold a Desert Plant painting for now while I continue research on Guadalupe Arenas.  That conflict resolved.

Back into the sketch book to face more conflicting situations. Which plant and which composition?

 Barrel Cactus with side or top view?

 Fence Post Cactus?

Some composition of Prickly Pear?

I found myself drawing one and another and another Prickly Pear composition adding in large, flamboyant flowers much like that in the previous painting, shown below.

Prickly Pear Blossom

40x30

I believe these conflicted feelings were resolving themselves. Next step was to 'live' with the sketches for a few hours and after selecting one, paint a small canvas board.

Sketches with small canvas board painting.

These canvas board paintings allow me to work out color, movement, high and low lights as well as my satisfaction with the composition.  OK.  All conflict resolved.  Was it good to be conflicted?  Not sure, but I do know it is good to have a canvas on the easel and pigments in the palette, all ready to go.

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Painting Completed and Delivered.

It Was A Busy Week In The Studio.

Prickly Pear Blossom

40x30

The deadline, dictated by the sale of the painting out of the La Quinta Museum exhibition and the need to replace that sold painting meant I spent hours in front of the easel creating the replacement work.

In last week's post I showed you the beginning of this painting, Prickly Pear Blossom.  Now here is a very brief pictorial of how the rest of it came together.

Prickly Pear Blossom

40 x 30

Acrylic on Canvas

Once the painting was complete it was delivered to the La Quinta Museum and installed in the on-going exhibition.

I got so involved with the process of painting I did not stop to take enough photos.  Promise, promise I will do a better job of recording the steps on the next painting, because so many of you have requested just that.  

I started sketches over the weekend for two canvases.  One is another desert plant;  the other is an Indian Woman portrait.  I feel conflicted.  I want to create both.  Which to begin????  Check back.  I will post the sketches and the decision.  More busy and more hours in front the easel coming up.

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Snowbird.

Snowbird.  It's Not A Bird.

Ok, yes, I admit it.  I am a Snowbird.  It gets cold, snow flakes begin to fall and my wings spread, flapping me south.

Wikipedia defines Snowbird as ' someone from the U.S. Northeast, Midwest, Pacific Northwest or Canada who spends a large portion of winter in warmer locales such as California, Arizona, Florida, Texas, the Carolinas or elsewhere along the Sun Belt region of the southern and southwest U.S., Mexico and areas of the Caribbean.' 

Hmmm...the Caribbean sounds nice, but I am not there, however dreaming of turquoise clear, clean, warm ocean water and white sand beaches is right up my alley.  It's the Southern California Desert for me and has been during the winter months for about twelve years.  Hence my desert plant paintings, palm tree paintings and desert inspired floral paintings.  

Having just arrived in warmer climes I set up my studio space which is small and simple.

When I say small, I do mean small.  This is it.  Drop cloths, one table, one easel and a stool.

Sketching began, got a canvas onto the easel and started painting the first day here.  

Simple line work

A bit of shading

Selecting the palette by brushing some of the colors into the sketch book

A bit more color and detail in the sketch 

All this hurry came about because one of my paintings in the Creativity La Quinta Take Two Exhibition just sold (that's a great thing). The exhibit continues into January so I must replace the sold painting with another of similar size. 

Oops....recent focus has been on the Indian Women Portraits so I don't have a replacement that would be appropriate.

It was an easy decision to start sketching desert plants since the sold work is exactly that, and remember I flapped my wings and headed south into desert country where these magnificently sculptural plants surround.  Great inspiration!

Big Flowered Euphorbia

48x30

sold

After the sketches and palette selection I painted a small rendition of the of work on a canvas board. This allows me to see the composition in paint and make any adjustments to the design or palette.

Before leaving the mountains I took my various existing containers that serve as palettes and mixed all the color together...from the Indian Women Portraits, from Tahoe Rock paintings, and from a couple Pine Cone commissions. When all these wonderfully rich pigments are combined you get a lovely, very usable, grey.  I added a bit more blue to end up with what I wanted to use as background color in this new painting.  Big strokes with the grey and some Titanium White left lots of expression swirling around what will become the plant.

A few days and many hours at the easel, painting from top to bottom, left to right I was able to lay in almost half of the Prickly Pear. 

So this is where we're at (don't you just love that grammar)....new studio set up, working long hours, partially completed painting, enjoying warmer climes, admitting I am a Snowbird, really ??? .... a Snowbird?  

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Indian Woman Portrait #6 Completed

After Some Relax and Refresh Time

Dat so la lee With Five Degikup

is complete.

Dat so la lee With Five Degikup

48x36

Acrylic on Stretched Canvas

If you follow my Artist's Facebook page, you have seen photos of the painting as it progressed since my last blog post.  All the detail in this painting took hours and hours in front of the easel, and as it neared completion I decided to add the orange border around the design element that represents the throne back. That addition led to painting the wrapped edges of the canvas the same orange tone and smearing the pigment a little bit around onto the front of the canvas...that orange was created by mixing cad red, cad yellow and a bit of titanium white...all from the simple palette used for these Indian Woman Portraits.  I have talked about this in previous posts.

Detail showing edge of canvas painted orange.

 Each of the baskets represents actual baskets created by Dat so la lee, Queen of the Washoe Basket Makers.  The designs on her head scarf as well as the symbols across the upper 1/3 of the canvas are  are also inspired by a basket she wove. 

This portrait, #6 in the series, is painted with the same palette as the others however I included a great deal more titanium white to lighten the overall appearance.  I worked the paint in the body much like I do when I paint rocks.  

Here are the six completed paintings:

Dat so la lee with Eight Degikup

Demonstration

Dat so la lee

Sally Snooks

Queen of the Washoe Basket Makers

Dat so la lee with Five Degikup

I am plowing back into my research, sketching, coming up with what I will paint next in this series.  

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Making Valuable Use of Time

It's Important to Take Down Time

The baskets begin to take form

I just read an article published by Scientific American, titled Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime.  Click HERE to go to the article.  Basically it tells us we need to take time away from our work to nap, vacation, rest, all to recharge our mental energies, enthusiasm for what we do, and our creativity.   It's a long read, but a good one.  Think I will go out for a row on this spectacularly clear, calm fall day to recharge.  How about you?

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Portrait Work.

It's Not All About Painting.

Right now it's about the research and well, really it is all about painting.  Last week I was scheduled to be in Washington DC doing research through the Smithsonian Museum for my series of Indian Women Paintings, however as we all know our government is shut down which meant the research was not going to happen.  Trip cancelled.

Dat so la lee

12x12

It's ok, there is plenty to see and read in Reno, Carson City, and Tahoe in our wonderful museums here, and they are open.  Also the Smithsonian Anthropology Department directed me to incredible on-line archives that are completely time consuming and fascinating.  

And then I am reading reading reading my way through several books.  

And yes, I am painting.  Here is how portrait #6 looks after additional work on the body and belt areas.  If you are familiar with my rock paintings you will notice the handling and technique of the body remain within my style. My goal here is to present a solid, stylized form. I also removed the hair that was falling over the shoulders and changed the eyes a bit. This painting is far from complete, so check back for additional up dates and photos.  

Now it is research time, a few hours every day.  

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More About Indian Woman Portrait #6.

Lots of Painting Time This Week.

Last week I stated I don't paint every day, however this week I did just that....painted every day.  Must be the renewed enthusiasm from that week I took off.   Let's take a look at the progress on the sixth Indian Woman portrait....

Sketched in the composition

The desire to paint with loads of expression drove me to select a larger canvas, larger brushes and the use of big, sweeping strokes.  This made it possible to create visual movement in the painting which you can see in the background:

The beginning of Indian Woman Portrait #6, 48x36 (on the easel and untitled at this time) with Dat so la lee portraits in background.

This painting is inspired by a formal photographic portrait of Dat so la lee, Queen of the Washoe Basket Makers, so this loose, expressive style of painting is in direct contrast to the formal nature of the photo.   It's my desire to create paintings with a decidedly contemporary edge even though they are based on photos from the late 19th or early 20th centuries.  I am experimenting my way through the beginning of this project and sharing that experimentation with you.

These photos show the beginning of the face, laying down layers of pigment.


This is the same palette used in the previous portraits, with the addition of a great deal more white pigment.  I want to lighten up these paintings.   The composition elements of the large rectangle behind the figure, representing a throne back, and the stripe across the top 1/3 of the painting which will hold designs from one of Dat so la lee's baskets, is a continuing, uniting theme in this series of paintings.

After I worked the face I began the head scarf however the photos I took of painting in the face, head scarf and stylized body had issues...darn.....so though I was diligent about taking the pictures there was an problem downloading them so there is a photographic skip which is disappointing to me since I wanted to show you the progress in more detail. 

The scarf is covered with designs inspired by those woven into one of Dat so la lee's baskets. 

More sweeping strokes of the brush created a stylized garment, a visual reminiscent of my rock paintings, and is still an area in progress.  Instead of remaining inside the lines of the horizontal stripe in the top 1/3 of the canvas I made an intuitive decision to have the basket designs overlay and extend beyond making a larger visual statement.  They look like stylized trees, but the actual intent is unknown.

This is where I am today with this painting.  It is not complete. There is more to do with the 'body', the hair, and there will be baskets ringing the lower portion of the figure.  Back to the easel.  

On another, but somewhat related note, I was headed to Washington DC this week where I planned additional research on and about these Indian Women who lived close by during the late 1800's and early 1900's,  however with the government shut down this isn't happening.  I am disappointed.  But back to the easel works for me.  

Check back for more photos of the progress on this painting.

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To visit my web site click HERE