Charcoal Figures 7

As yet untitled
Charcoal heightened with white conte
30x22"

As yet untitled (Detail)

Available for purchase, please contact me for a price

Just in case you guys thought I'd forgotten about my commitment to do thirty drawings before I picked up a brush again - I haven't, I've just been too busy and preoccupied to post them!

Colour Theory Excercise

I'm learning so much by doing research and preparation for the class I'm going to teach - so many gaps are appearing in my knowledge, it's a little unnerving. I am able to take a step back from my ego and say to myself that this is all part of the process of growing as an artist, but I can't help feeling that the shaky foundations upon which I've built my craft all need to be ripped out and replaced. This is OK though, a bit of updating is long overdue, and I think I'll come out the other end with more confidence.

The process really started back in April, when I did the workshop with Carol Marine in Santa Fe. She took us through some colour theory and a practical application of its principals. I realised with a little shame then that I have very little real knowledge of colour. I work intuitively, and this gets me by - I kind of 'knew' how to mix colours, in a really basic way which I couldn't explain. Carol's demonstration was a real eye opener, and the resulting works I did with my new visual vocabulary were by far the best paintings I'd ever done. There were still problems with my technique though - I was still flying by the set of my pants really, and today I found out why.

I painted a colour wheel for the first time today.

I've got a degree in art, and have spent the past 15 years making a career from painting, and I can't believe I somehow missed out on this really crucial lesson. I know a lot of artists I can engage in mutual bitching sessions about the quality of art education - both in Britain and America, and yet nothing really makes up for the idiotic ethos many art schools uphold regarding basic skills. So much emphasis is placed on being the most shocking 'artist' that people like myself who actually want to learn the traditional skills our forebears spent their lifetimes perfecting, don't get the opportunity until they leave school - and find a workshop taught by someone who cares enough about art to pick up the 'creative baton' and run with it some more.

And whilst I'm ranting, I would like to point out that the lack on instruction we had as regards health and safety practice in the studio, was not just ignorant, but dangerous. I'll be the first to admit that my cavalier attitude to safety is probably hard-wired into my personality (I'm also a rock climber) but when we were introduced to oil painting on the good old foundation course at Parc Menai - we were never warned about the perils of inhaling turps, or the cadmium and lead in our paints. We didn't have good ventilation, and weren't told that eating your lunch or smoking with oily hands was perhaps not a good idea. I realise that common sense should have prevailed, but excitable 17 year olds rarely think about their own mortality in that way.

My Environmental Scientist husband is probably going to read this with some relief, and wry smile, as he has been horrified at my appalling ignorance of safety in the studio. He built me a great ventilation box which attaches to my easel (thankyou Carol, again), and gently reminds me about safety when I'm caught up in the moment. I'm very stubborn though, and it takes some tact and patience on his part. I'm coming round to the concept of altering my practice to accomodate good healthy habits step by step. So much is ingrained in my artist behaviour that it's really hard to maintain my motivation when things aren't organised like they were. I've just moved into a new studio too, and I feel like a cat padding round and round until I'm ready and comfortable to work again.

I'm not going to start painting in gloves though - old habits die hard and I can't bear the lack of contact with the wood of my brush. I also refuse to wear a helmet when I'm climbing. I know that seems stupid to some people, but I've actually given up the type of climbing where it's most likely I'll sustain a head injury.

I've always been a very tactile artist, enjoying the mess and chaos of the creative whirlwind. The trick now might seem to be to find a balance between intuitive chaos, and considered, skillful markmaking.

The colour wheel was fun, in a slighty nerdy way. I'm not very adept at left-brain activities, but I find the challenge stimulating if it's on my own terms. The turquiose I was finding it impossible to mix in Santa Fe just came right out, and now I know how to mix it and many, many other really beautiful colours, I can feel the creative block I've been fighting with for the past few months lifting....right , I'm off to paint - yipee!!

Charcoal figures 6

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted on here! We've been moving house, and had no internet for ages - but all's almost back to normal now. I have a lovely new studio looking over the Carson Valley. It floods with glorious sunrise light in the morning - my favorite time to work.

I've also been attending a figure drawing class with Phyllis Shafer - a real treat for me. It's a much more academic class than I've ever attended, and I feel like I'm getting something of the classical education I always dreamed of. It's really helping me to loosen my drawing style, and I feel like I'm learning to look and make marks from scratch. I think I've said before that I regard my art career as a lifelong apprenticeship, and taking this class is a humbling reminder of the skills I have which need refinement.

I'm going to be teaching a class at Lake Tahoe Community College in January, entitled 'Discovering and Developing Creative Imagination II'. The course is an exploration of the creative process, including sources of inspiration and developing an idea. It is an introduction to art through two and three dimensional experiments in drawing, design, ceramics and sculpture. I'm really excited about teaching again - it's been a while! If anybody is interested in taking the course, you can visit the college website: http://www.ltcc.edu the course code is ART 105.

Charcoal Figures 5

Release
Charcoal drawing
30x20"

Click on image to enlarge

I think this drawing really captured what I intended - so I'm happy about that. It's funny, looking at yesterdays's drawing (Tension) compared with today's, I can really see how stressed out I was, and how it channeled into the image. I meditated and did Yoga this morning before I started drawing, and I'm glad I did because some of that peacefulness came through.

Charcoal Figures 4

Tension
Charcoal on Paper
30x20"

Click image to enlarge

Normally I nag Taylor about his shoulders - draw them back, stretch! He thinks Yoga is hilarious, and despite the fact that he can't touch his toes he can pull off a full Lotus with no effort or training - frustrating for the likes of me who has to work really hard towards stuff like that. Taylor's got classic climber's shoulders: big for his frame, prone to round forward, and susceptible to injury and aches.

In this case, however, the question mark physique is perfect. The tension through the arms and fists is emphasised even more by the angle of his torso. My next piece will be the 'release' of this pose - I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I'm sold on the paper by the way - I first tried this drawing on the cheaper paper and the way the charcoal skidded around the surface was really frustrating after the nice tooth I was using yesterday. I 'chalked' it up to experience, and started again.

Charcoal Figures 3

Flight
Charcoal on Paper
20x30"

(Click on the image to enlarge)

I've been experimenting with different papers, since the charcoal behaves differently on different surfaces. I'm going to have to get my head around the cost of the nice paper, as I did with the museum quality painting panels - I start tightening up when I know the surface is expensive. When I was at art school, we were encouraged to be experimental with our materials - and that meant dumpster diving, using found materials and recycling older works. The freedom of expression, and willingness to let go (and maybe get in wrong) is so much easier working on an old fag packet, or a napkin in a bar than on a sheet of $6 paper - which I know isn't that expensive in the scheme of things, but if 10 drawings end up in the bin....that makes me take a bit more care.

I guess it's a similar principal to what I was writing about in my last post - if you're thinking about failing/falling, then you probably will. Hmm.

Charcoal Figures 2

Equilibrium (ii): Breathing is Balance
Charcoal on Paper
20x30"

The title comes from two sources: an older piece I did in 2004 named Equilibrium (below), which depicted a woman half falling half flying through a crazy mass of marks and brush strokes. It was created during an unsettled time of my life when I was striving to find balance amidst chaos and transition. The best I could do at that time was steer into the skid, so to speak.

In this piece, by contrast I'm trying to evoke a sense of tentative balance by means of focus and discipline. The latter half of the title comes from a piece of advice my sage husband gave me when we were slacklining on the beach recently. Slacklining is something climbers often do on rest days. You stretch a length of 1" webbing between two trees, and attempt to walk/jump/turn/whatever on it. It's a bit like tightrope walking, with a lot more play in the line.

I've found that I can walk on the slackline much better this year, I think in part due to the yoga I did all winter. The discipline of breathing exercises really helps me to clear my mind - and if you're thinking about breathing, you're not thinking about falling. This has helped my climbing too, as you can imagine. So when Taylor said to me, "Breathing is balance..." it made so much sense to me, and the alliteration makes it easy for me to remember...or was it "balance is breathing"...? oh well, I think they're interchangeable anyway!

Equilibrium (2004)
Mixed Media on Paper
Sold