Slow on the uptake

Well, so far, I'm not doing that great, I have missed 2 days this last week, of course I still have today, I'm heading out to get started. Saturday my friends and I went to a PAAWM scheduled paint out, that's Plein Air Artists of West Michigan, I don't get to very many, but I guess I'm a member. It was cold, and we missed the critique, but all in all, it was nice, I'm thinking that I should have taken my pastels instead of the watercolors. I put alcohol in the water, but it wasn't enough to keep it from freezing on the palette and a bit on the paper, of course at this point in my life, the watercolors seem to call my name, I used to paint strictly with pastels, but somewhere along the line, my brain switched me to the watercolor. It could be because I went to so many watercolor workshops, for many years, during the pastel years, I belonged to the SWMWS, which is the South West Michigan Watercolor Society, I was only working in Pastels, I know, strange, but then I've always been different. Anyway, here are my 2 small watercolors that were painted on Saturday, the first one is just in the beginning stages, my water was freezing so I started a different view.

The beginning January 21, 2013

Well, here we go again, I've had a few hard lumps this past year, my blogging has suffered, I've just decided to get back into the full swing of this blog stuff again. I really felt it was good for my art work and kept me working, I'm also trying to get my health back on line, being in the hospital for several weeks sure does take a lot out of you. But now, since I have started some exercises, I'm feeling a bit stronger and the new year is a great time to get this back in line, I have some shows scheduled this year, 3 to be exact. My first one is at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, which is a nature preserve near Hastings Michigan, that I do have to work on that this next few weeks, but I'm back to my teaching and I still want to keep producing work so this is what I plan. FIRST, to get busy organizing this show at Pierce Cedar Creek, and that's going to be a doozie, I will have to hang and put up all the information myself (hopefully I will get some of my friends to help), and that also includes getting some more stuff matted and framed (I am on my way to the studio to determine how many frames to order, then making the lists and designing a brochure and printing it. I am lucky that I still have lots of the work that is already framed and matted from my previous shows. Next is a show that my dear friends, Blue Moon Art Group, which consists of 3 other art friends, Bev Tippmann, Susan Miller, and Carol Hatfield, we, as a group, have a show at the Tibbits Opera House in the lower level Gallery, this summer. Then in September the Blue Moon Group has a show at Pierce Cedar Creek (this will require new paintings from me, since I am going to be included in this show, I can't use work that was in the March show, now can I, so I must get busy and make new paintings, lots of work to do and not much time to do it. It's amazing how quickly the time has gone by, it seemed like a long time ago when we scheduled all this, oh well, no time like the present to get started. SECOND, I really wanted to have some small paintings of birds for this first show, since it is a nature preserve, I do have some, but not as many as I want. I just brought my travel painting bag over from the studio, I'm going to start today. THIRD on my short list of resolutions is trying to be more creative with my work, I really am interested in getting more abstract in my painting style, of course, I have made some progress in that area, I believe it is due to the pressure of painting a complete painting every day that has helped that. As any artist knows, working every day is bound to improve your ability and style, so lets start today, I'm going to paint every day, I may not complete one every day, because I intend to do some larger paintings. I'm thinking that to get into more shows, and to possibly win some awards, that I need to do larger stuff, and that is my goal for this year, to get into more competitions and to see if I could possibly win some awards. So, as this year is getting started, I'm going to work harder, and work everyday, I will post what I have done, and hopefully, my health will allow me to do it. Here is a painting I just completed 2 weeks ago, I am calling it Falls II, U.P. Series, I don't know if that's the final name or not, but it's a start. Happy painting to all, try to challenge yourself to work everyday.