Join the mailing list be the first to know about new jewelry and art, classes, and writing!
I think I have creative ADD. Just a couple days after writing this post about scale (and how I wanted to work larger and on paper) and on the same day that Tara posted this thoughtful response to my question “can you be taken seriously as an artist if you only work in watercolor?” I decided to bust out my oil paints.
I’ve been thinking a lot about scale lately, particularly in regards to painting. My current painting process of working with watercolor markers on paper seems to lend itself to a small scale, despite my attempts to work bigger.
And why have I wanted to work bigger?
Since I shared one of the paintings in my studio, it seems only fair that I should take you on a visual tour of the others!
Since I pulled out my watercolor markers again a few weeks ago, I’ve also found myself revisiting some of my favorite art books. (From some of my favorite art exhibitions.) And my current go-to for inspiration has been the exhibition catalog from the Matisse/Diebenkorn show that I saw two years ago.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find out about it in time to see it at the Baltimore Museum of Art (which is much closer to me) but I was going to be in San Francisco while it was up at SFMOMA, so I made it a point to clear out time in my travel schedule to see the show.
It definitely didn’t disappoint. I’ve seen a number of Matisse shows in the last handful of years, but this was the first time I really looked at Diebenkorn’s work. The show explored the ways that Diebenkorn was inspired by Matisse, but yet at the same time, Diebenkorn’s paintings have their own identity.
My favorite work of the entire show was the one above, called Coffee. I’m not exaggerating when I say it literally brought tears to my eyes.
Sadly, no photograph or reproduction does justice to the depth and soul this painting has in person. But still, I’m using it as a beacon as I think about the kinds of paintings I want to create. I know I have a long way to go, but I like that the idea of this painting gives me some kind of direction for my own.
Speaking of my own paintings, I’m still just doing some small works with watercolor markers. (Though I’m hoping to move into some bigger paintings on canvas this summer when I’m not so bogged down with jewelry orders.) I’ve been inspired by the silos I’ve seen doing lots of driving in the countryside where I live, but I’ve also been thinking about how those relate to some of the shapes I was drawn to last summer.
I realized that in sharing the plants in my studio, I’ve been sharing lots of glimpses of this painting, but since it brings me so much joy (seriously, I love having it in my studio) I thought it needed a blog post of it’s own! (Especially now that it hangs out with the chair from my MFA thesis.)
After spending over a month working on my new ebook, I suddenly found myself with a strong desire to paint.
So I pulled out my watercolor markers and started playing again. And I think it’s pretty evident that all the plants in my studio have totally influenced my paintings, both in shape and color palette.
Even though my current paintings are mostly abstract, I am finding myself drawn to certain forms, and one of those is a bridge. (Which is most often takes the shape of an arch.) Some of them are more abstract than others, and while I’m still not certain what they mean (and maybe I never will be) I do see myself continuing to use this form for the foreseeable future!
After I posted this image to my painting Instagram the other day, it sparked quite a discussion. But I still wanted to share it here, because I do stand by this statement and it’s importance in the art making process. (And really, the process of learning anything new or taking up something we did once, but haven’t done in a long time.)
As I’ve been getting back into painting, there are times when I’ve found myself paralyzed before starting. (Especially on days when I’m not really sure what I want to paint.) But I also know that the key to getting better at anything is to do it and do it often. Which is why I decided to adopt this mantra: it’s ok to make bad art.
I joked on Instagram that as I was trying to make sense of the forms that have begun to appear in my paintings, I couldn’t help thinking of that episode of Friends where Joey goes on Pyramid and just starts shouting out answers. “Paper! Snow! A ghost!” Bonus points if you can name that episode! (In case you didn’t know, I’m a pretty big Friends nerd.)
I mentioned in this post that, while I originally started out trying to keep a connection between my paintings and jewelry, I decided to relax that in favor of letting the painting have it’s own space in my artistic process. And one of the ways I’ve done that is broadening the color palette and shapes that I’m working with. (Though to be fair, the colors in some of these experiments aren’t too far off from the stone in this post.)