An Artist must have "True Grit" and Know how to Use It!

My husband and I were searching for a movie on Xfinity; a cheap vintage one.  We settled for a 1969 John Wayne movie “True Grit” because my husband had never seen it. We were delighted and pleased with our choice. Good old fashioned values, humor, and the simplicity and perfection of John Wayne. What more could you want?

Curious afterward about the meaning of “grit” I discovered that it referred to courage, resolve, and strength of character; a perfect description of the main character who was determined to do something important for her family and for her dead father. Her quest was difficult and unpleasant, but she met each obstacle unafraid and with true grit.

That word grit stuck in my craw for days afterward. Another definition was “loose particles of sand, stone, salt, etc.” Things I had already used in some of my paintings along with paste and fiber. My purpose was to add texture and interest.

In my mixed-media painting “Broken” I used a fibrous paste to create the texture of a cement wall, and added shapes and symbols popular in the Sixties to look like graffiti. In addition I dipped a torn newspaper article of recent disaster into liquid paste and applied it in appropriate places. 

My drawing of mother and child was left untouched until acrylic color had been added over the background and then wiped off to reveal the symbols. The figures were then painted in oil.

“Moonlight Magic” began as an experiment in texture and various colors that were mixed with fibrous paste. When it was dry I began applying various shades of blue, wiping off raised parts with a cloth to allow some of the under painting to show through. 

I had no idea what the finished canvas would look like, but I kept moving and adding paint until I had the look I wanted. Raised areas defined the final color and design.

“Auburn Nights” (shown in my last blog) was the re-purposing of an old oil canvas I was dissatisfied with and had put aside. 

Wanting to engage in frugality and needing a rough surface to define the windy unpredictability of fall weather, I painted over the canvas in reds and browns. This is a simple canvas and didn’t take long to finish. 

I did most of this painting free-hand with brush and paint. I decided that if it wasn’t perfect, I would not go back over it, but let the canvas speak for itself. I think the texture beneath the surface added to the feeling I was trying to create.

“Queen of Diamonds” is a statement in textures, shapes, and angles mixed with a bit of realism. I knew from the first that I wanted a Harlequin theme to highlight and accent the figure as center of interest. Whether I was successful or not remains in the eyes of the beholder.

A Studio Silver Creek artist shows you step by step how to create a textured background using paste and shapes: 

Watching Michael Lang paint is a religious experience. When he starts slapping on simple inexpensive acrylics you’re never sure what it’s going to look like, but he does. His technique is hypnotizing. Using a combination of brushes, cloths, fingers, a squeeze bottle of white paint and a spray bottle of water, he dips and dabs until his masterpiece is finished.

Feeling Unsettled? Jackson Pollock is the Cure.

(Jackson Pollock Mural)

The mad dash to get ready for the holidays and the whirl of activity which follows always leaves me feeling a bit scrambled. That and the fact that I'm reading "The Muralist" by Shapiro gave me an urge to feature Jackson Pollock the "slash and drip" artist in my blog. I'm using two sources almost exclusively so you can link for more information.

  

In the twenty years between his arrival in New York City to study art and his premature death, Jackson Pollock had emerged as the most original painter in America--famous for his unprecedented physical involvement with the act of painting.

Pollock's first mentor was Thomas Hart Benton. In 1930, Pollock left California before finishing high school to study under the famous regionalist painter at the Art Students League in New York. He was Benton's student for the next three years.

(Pollock's "Thomas Hart Benton" period)

Pollock's 1934 painting of a frontier journey connects his teacher's energetic style to his own roots in the American West: the scene may have come from a family photo of a bridge in Cody, Wyoming, where Pollock was born. The abstract swirling patterns evident in this landscape help illustrate why Benton boasted that with him Pollock had found "the essential rhythms" of art.

Jackson Pollock, Untitled, 1933-1938, pencil and colored pencil on paper, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 1990 (1990.4.8ab) © 1993 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Pollock's sketchbook, containing more than 500 drawings, shows his continued efforts to organize compositions rooted in twisting counter shifts, as Benton had counseled. Pollock's early artistic training focused on traditional historical sources. Benton made his students study and reproduce the planar dynamics of European masterworks.

(During Pollock's "black pourings" period -- Murals)

Pollock preferred the fluidity of commercial enamel house paints to the more viscous texture of traditional oils. This choice allowed him to weave a more intricate pictorial web, flinging swirls of paint onto the canvas.

Total physical involvement of the artist defines this "action painting." Pollock spread canvas on the floor in his barn studio, or on the ground outside, and then splashed, dripped, and poured color straight from cans of commercial house paint. It was essential, he said, to "walk around it, work from all four sides, and be in the painting, similar to the Indian sand painters of the West." 

His friend and patron, the artist Alfonso Osorio, described Pollock's artistic journey this way: "Here I saw a man who had both broken all the traditions of the past and unified them, who had gone beyond cubism, beyond Picasso and surrealism, beyond everything that had happened in art....his work expressed both action and contemplation." 

CLICK FOR MORE PAINTINGS

Pollock's biography

Two more works-in-progress on my latest "Stir Fry" oil on canvas. 

  

Ode to a Loggerhead Turtle – Antiquity in Fluid Motion

A large loggerhead turtle was released on the beach yesterday after a long rehabilitation effort to make it well and strong. I shudder to think of the thousands of dollars this cost taxpayers.

On the other hand, I’m humbled by the familiar story called “The Star Thrower:”

“A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

“She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

“The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”

“The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.”

— Adapted from The Star Thrower
by Loren C. Eiseley

"Window on Pine Island" oil on wrapped canvas

It would be wonderful if we could save all the hurting children in the world and all the abused animals. What an enormous job for one person! But we can save the ones that are nearby. We can contribute to organizations that do the work for us. We can help our family, our neighbors, our friends and community.

That noble loggerhead turtle was valiant in facing the elements and the wide blue-green Gulf to transition back into the wild. I worried that our efforts to save him would be in vain. What danger awaits him out in the deep? Will he find his way back home? Although he was tagged for identification, we may never know.

"Pelican at Rest" oil on canvas; prints available

If we were to question every effort to help a living creature, a person, a child because the end result was unknown there would be little good done in the world. We help because we must. It’s called compassion, empathy and character. If we cease to act on these divine qualities that reside within us, the world would become a savage and brutal place.

Nature ravages earth's population enough without our adding fuel to the fire. This morning on our walk I saw a baby bird sprawled on the sidewalk. The storm of last night had blown him from his nest. He was a wet wilted pile of feathers; neck and legs outstretched in rigor mortis where he’d fallen. The sight brought back all the times I’d tried to nurse a baby bird back to life and failed.

The future is a blank slate. We can’t stop doing good things just because we don’t know if it will change the outcome. You or I could step off the curb tomorrow and that would be the end of us. Fearing the unknown is part of human existence. But that knowledge shouldn’t affect how we live our today's. 

For that reason, I’m going to assume that the loggerhead released into the ocean finds its way back to a wonderful existence where it may live for another 100 years. Marvelous creatures they enshrined with dignity and mankind’s history imprinted on their backs.

"Beach Buddies" mixed media on canvas

Come on -- Let's Fly Away, Mini-vacations that Soar!

A Key West sunset from Key West Express jet-powered vessel

On Labor Day we got up early, traveled to Fort Myers Beach with some friends, and walked on the damp sand before breakfast. The air was cool and the sea breeze gave us an appetite.

Disciplined regulars were already jogging and walking when we arrived. A few seashell hunters scoured the crashing waves as they spilled over the sand. Hotel and restaurant owners opened their doors and swept the remains of white sand from their stairways and sidewalks.

When businesses opened at 8 a.m., we dined at the Island Grill and watched beach goers gradually fill in the empty spaces with their colorful towels and chairs. The Key West Express, a jet-powered liner, bounced across the water with at least 350 people on board who were eager for their exotic adventure. Soon wave runners were powering through the blue-Green waters and white sailboats meandered past the pier a few hundred feet away from us heading into the Gulf.

"Sea Nymph" work-in-progress first drawing and wash. There is some foreshortening going on and I will need
to make sure her knee area looks like it's going back and layer the fins in the front.

I love these “mini-vacations.” Only a 45 minute drive from home, and we feel as if our world and the stresses that go with it are left far behind. Sometimes we make a day of it. We bring our beach towels and blankets and have one of those refreshing naps enveloped in the warmth of the sun. 

August is not the best time of year to languish. The heat can overwhelm you before you are even aware. I noticed that most beach goers were bouncing in the water and the dance between blanket and waves kept getting shorter and shorter as the sun crossed the morning sky.

My grandpa's Stereoscope early 1900's

Many walked their dogs and others played with them in the water in spite of the fact that there were “No Dogs Allowed” signs everywhere. Signs that were never enforced. 

Puppies were plentiful. We petted a few yippers and nippers. A large black dog and its owner played fetch in the water with a tennis ball. By the time we were ready to leave, several children were half-way through building their sand castles.

I will be selling this on my Etsy Shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/AnfinsenArt 

Three pelicans flew over us heading for the pier where they dive bombed for fish and tried to steal the bait from fishermen’s lines. One year when we were walking on the beach a floundering pelican twisted in fishing line was being rescued by two men who were patient enough to untangle the mess the bird had gotten himself into.

I have 228 photo cards from 1895 to 1905;  early US states, Early MN Nicollet Ave.
Old Norway, Palestine, and other.

A pelican looks fairly small flying overhead or sitting on the grey piling, but when his wings are outstretched as this one's was, his wingspan and long pocketed bill dwarfed the two men who were trying to save him.

Seagulls will also battle fishermen for their catch and doggedly attack and tug at a fish until it is safe in the creel.

At 10 a.m. we made our way home. The beach was getting crowded and the humidity was rising. We carried our memories home along with the sand that stuck to the bottom of our shoes. We were already planning our next mini-vacation!


(Old Norway photo cards, one side)

Photo cards run from $3-5 each.
Total cards = 228
Stereopticon $ 55 plus shipping












Michael Buble -- Come Fly with Me!

Your Name is Your Brand – Protect it at all costs!

"Collecting Sea Shells" 8x10 acrylic on panel

What’s in a Name? Ask a person who has had his identity stolen, and he’ll say everything! Ask a person who has just had her name dragged through the mud in error, and she’ll tell you how hard it was to regain her reputation.

A small business or corporation will tell you that name recognition is everything! They spend billions of dollars on advertising and marketing techniques to find the right brand for their market. Then they defend that brand name even if they have to go to court.

Men have their names for a lifetime. Women change their names, sometimes several times, before the end of their lives. But times are changing.

"Military Regatta"

I vowed I would never go through that hassle again, but yesterday I found myself sitting across a desk in the Social Security office to do just that. I did not change my name when I married my husband, and vowed I never would. People know me as his wife and they use his name, but legally, my name was my own.

We all have our reasons. As I told my husband yesterday, once you start a name change, you start an avalanche that keeps on going. Your name affects your will, your inheritance or that of your children. Your name is on census records, voting records, bank accounts, magazine subscriptions, medical records. Your name is your identity. When you change it, the world becomes topsy turvy, at least for awhile.

"Regatta" 18x24 acrylic on canvas (work-in-progress)

An artist’s name is his brand. Although, I have an artist friend who signs her paintings “Hope,” even though that isn’t her real name; that will become her brand, for better or worse. 

Name recognition is paramount in selling a product or yourself. Your name is linked to your reputation. They are inseparable. This combination becomes your character and affects your references and your repeat business. What’s in a name? Everything! Protect it at all costs.

A Perfect Way to Deal with Anger – Paint it!

 The Alliance for the Arts capitalized on the “angst” that divides people in this current political season. They sponsored a juried competition titled: “State of Mind: Politics 2012.” It isn’t the first time they’ve used a political theme, and it won’t be the last. But judging from the crowd on opening night, the strategy is still working.

I was fortunate to be selected for the show. Although I wasn’t one of the winners, I was the only one who represented the chaos in the Middle East. In my blog is a sampling of the diversity of subject matter and materials that were used.

Today, politics seems to be played like a football game; each side cheering for their side at all costs. In the past, more people seemed to vote for the person, rather than the party. At least, I did. I’ve been an independent, a democrat and a republican, depending on who's running. Now it seems that people support the party rather than the person, and choose to ignore voting record or the past of their own candidate. Instead of offering solid policies and solutions, there is more slander and mud throwing.

Historically, this has always been so, but the ugliness today is right in our faces and the values once cherished are no longer in play. In the show, it was interesting to see how artists expressed these concerns.

Putting your anger and emotion to canvas is invigorating and healthy. It allows an artist to express his inner turmoil and share either a vision or a torment with his or her audience. Van Gogh had so much suffering and discouragement in his life. He allowed people to see his anguish, his joy, his exultation and pain in a style that today is considered brilliance from an  unfettered imagination.

If you have joy or pain that eats away at your heart, try expressing it on canvas instead of burying your soul under a pillow of tears. Discouragement comes to all of us.

I painted a scene of two brothers on the beach watching the sun go down. I wanted it to have a magical feel, one that was almost fanciful and full of wonder. I submitted my painting to a critique group and they literally slaughtered it! There were so many criticisms; I had trouble absorbing them all. Only one person gave constructive criticism. I printed out her suggestions and kept them.

What happened to the painting? I was so ashamed of it I put it in a box with a protective cardboard over the top along with other stored canvases. I quickly forgot where it was. I opened that box several times over the course of the next year, but the cardboard I’d placed on top of the painting created a false bottom.

A year later, I found that painting and finished it according to the constructive criticism I’d received. Ironically, not only the first version of the painting that was critiqued, but the final version sold prints from the digital images online. I consider this a valuable lesson. Listen to your own heart and paint what you love. If you receive criticism, weigh it carefully. Take what is of value and blow the rest away!

Please share your experiences with critique and the value of belonging to an art league with us.

Lucky Charms, Rituals, and Zany Work Habits

 When people live alone, often the first thing they do when they come home is to turn on the sound:  T.V., music, radio. They check text messages, voice mail, email, anything to break the silence, the emptiness.

When people live with a spouse, partner or roommate, they relish their space. Private moments give them time and aloneness. After a busy day at work, the rush of silence and quiet that greets them as they open the front door offers a sense of relief and peace. Even the bathroom may provide much needed solitude if others are nearby.

Where we are in our lives dictates our choices and preferences. I once knew a woman who had two young children. As an aspiring writer, she sat under a hair dryer to compose so the noise of her children playing and jabbering would not distract her.

With a bustling family, my time alone was a hot soak in the bath. I could read, jot down ideas for articles, or simply enjoy that brief time alone when the family was asleep or away

.

Now rejuvenation comes via creating. I can lose myself completely with brush in hand at a canvas or with keyboard beneath my fingertips. Solitude is precious, if I can find it. Most of us have to settle for the peripheral noises in the next room or over our heads as we seek to express our dreams or expose our inner demons.

Even sleeping is a ritual that engages preferences unique to each of us. My son-in-law and his family require overhead fans or plug-in fans to provide “white noise” that muffles whatever sounds might be happening around them. The whir of the blades creates virtual lullabies that whisper them to sleep.

Some artistic people have rituals they perform before starting a new project:

·         Wearing of a favorite shirt to help them think

·         Drinking a cup of coffee or tea to get their blood fired up

·         Special background music in some cases, silence in others

·         Writing at dawn in their pajamas while their brain is fresh

·         Chewing gum or smoking a cigarette while they think

·         Saying a simple pray or chant to open the mind up

Sometimes these rituals help us get in touch with the muse, and sometimes they do not. But if we believe that they help, they probably will.

Even baseball pros have a number of tools they employ for good luck. Rubbing a special coin or a good luck piece builds confidence. Wearing a favorite pair of socks worn in a winning game may help performance. We all use whatever little gimmicks or tricks we can come up with. If we believe that they will help, they usually do. For people of faith, prayer seems to hold the key to inspiration and success.

Do you have any winning habits or rituals that help you work? Do you have a good luck piece that calls the muse? Please share your great ideas and thoughts in the comments.

Featured Artist
Lisa.C from Poissy, France; her humorous and endearing style is a mixture of collage and art nouveau. As a professional artist and illustrator, Lisa is able to capture a long ago time and place while seeming to be cutting edge. Check out Lisa’s web site!

http://www.lisa-c.fr/

Here comes Summer! Are You ready?

I’m working on something that I can’t share with you right now; illustrations that will be used in the publication of a book. You may have noticed the repetition of paintings in my blog. Please bear with me until this project is over.

The tourists and “Snowbirds” have gone back home. The streets are once again accessible; the stores half empty (or is it half full?). Our Co-op Gallery at Coconut Point in Bonita Springs has come to an end. Our President, Marsha Bisson, shared this “thank you” with the members:

Dear Fellow Artists,
I would like to thank all of you for your part in making the Coconut Point Co-op Art Gallery into such a successful gallery, both sales wise as well as artistically. We sold over $9000 in artwork this year!
The quality and beauty of the artwork offered by all of you provided a professional and varied selection for our customers. Visitors to our gallery, both buyers and lookers, made so many positive comments about the artwork and the gallery, that next year we'll be having them write them down so we can share them with all of you!
Meeting the artists is such a positive experience for buyers. There were a lot of occasions this year with sitters selling their own work on the days they sat. It's a win win for both! And, again, congratulations and thank you to both Donna Elliot and Pat Papa who, in one, day-sold over $1300 in artwork!!! A great job!

And thank you all for your cooperation in gallery sitting and selling. . .

A triumphant ending to a wonderful winter season!

"Pelican Bay" oil on canvas

Year-round residents like us enjoy summer in spite of the heat. There are specials on dining out: two for ones, and lower prices.  The restaurants and store owners welcome our business. We enjoy the perks, but we also miss our friends and neighbors. By June our streets resemble a ghost town.

This is the time of year when I catch up on my dreams and the projects that have been waiting in the wings. Maybe even plan a vacation. My husband and I have only each other to converse with across the table in our favorite restaurants; an opportunity to renew our friendship and catch a movie or two to rekindle the former fires of dating.

"Flash Dance" oil on canvas

Summer should be a time for renewal; a time when neglected relationships are nurtured and revitalized; a time to enjoy the moment and the minutiae. The smell of charcoal and grilled burgers waft on the air currents mixed with jasmine and gardenia. Our hibiscus and Mexican Petunias are “blooming their hearts out” while we swelter in shorts and bare feet

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The beach beckons us to enjoy the water and the sand unfettered by the winter crowds and “spring breakers.” There’s nothing like walking along the beach in the early morning hours or just before the sun goes down in the evening turning the sky a pinkie, orange lavender.

"Beach Buddies II" mixed media on canvas

New Painting—“Beach Buddies”

Beaches are creative and colorful: the marvelous sunsets; the sparkle of sunlight on tropical waters; the irresistible froth of waves flapping onto shifting sands. And besides, beaches are fun to paint.

I had intended to paint this photo; and I may yet. It’s a picture of my husband’s granddaughter and her little brother. I loved the glow of sunlight on the water. The figures are almost silhouette like; the colors mostly gray. Instead, I decided to use a photo submitted by one of my contest winners. The figures were actually sitting on the grass rather than on a sandy beach, but I loved the affection they shared.

I first laid in my drawing with burnt umber acrylic on a 16x20 canvas, and then added a few acrylic washes to suggest plains, spaces, and color. When the paint was dry, I wiped a thin linseed oil and turpenoid coat over the top, and then wiped it again with a dry paper towel.

The prep work made the canvas ready to accept my oil paint topcoat. This first layer of oil paint further defined my drawing and added some color; though, some of it may be covered up by subsequent layers.

With oils, it is the layering process that gives the painting depth, shape and form. As I’ve told you before, it is a refining process; working from beneath to the foreground, until I’m satisfied with the details and the overall feeling and statement of the painting. At this point, the colors are too bright, too flat.

In my next blog, I’ll introduce the next “painting in progress:” part of my “With These Hands” series. The painting will feature a young black girl as she prepares to shoot a basketball. The painting will be titled: “With These Hands—Hope.”

To see other paintings in my “With These Hands” series, please go to my online gallery:
http://carol-allen-anfinsen.artistwebsites.com/