Four great arty stores in Truckee

I love this place - it's an artist run gallery in Truckee, California. It's a hip, happening place full of creative energy and very well made objets d'rte. I have a few little paintings there too! check them out:

riversideartstudios.com

And this little gem is right next door! They sell gorgeous jewelry and clothes, as well as some very unexpected arty items (I got my husband a great Christmas pressie there)...brilliant place.

drakeandlulus.com

A fine place to discover handcrafted goods from all over the country. Many of our artisans specialize in sustainable, recycled, and all natural materials.

Organic skin care products, recycled metal & glass work, furnishings made from FSC certified & reclaimed wood, finely crafted jewelry, vintage findings, and healthy gifts for kids. Just some of the fun you will find at The Feather's Edge.

thefeathersedge.com


Located in the Downtown area of Truckee, California, Fair & Green's goal is to be a center for responsible consumerism by providing unique, quality products of a fair trade, organic and/or ecologically sound nature.

Fair & Green looks to serve consumers who want to look beyond the chain stores and who are looking to make a purchase that help people sustain a better life through Fair Trade. In addition, Fair & Green will strive to educate their customers on Fair Trade and Green Trade practices.

fair-and-green.com

Finding yourself

I had one of those eureka! moments watching Finding Neverland the other night. I often get inspired by particularly 'painterly' films, like The Piano, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. This is inspired by a still from Neverland, of lovely Kate Winslett. I got my sketchbook out as soon as the film ended, excited and impatient to capture the image with seemed to be a crystallisation of what I've been restlessly striving for.

I've been struggling with this concept I have for portraits of women - they've just been coming out crap. I think I was confused about what I wanted to achieve - I wanted 'feminine' and I painted 'girly'. I want to paint something which speaks about women as people - emotionally and psychologically different from men, but also I want to capture something of the human condition, in an unspoken narrative.

I've also been stuggling with my 'style', such as it isn't. I've had this rather unappealing image of myself as Derek Zoolander standing in front of a mirror, going "Who am I?"

I want to paint loosely, and then I get all uptight because I'm all excited about ideas, and forget to let it flow. The studies came out great, nice and loose, lots of energy and clean paint - and then when I try and transfer that to the real thing...well, not good. Maybe I shouldn't do studies, I never used to. Maybe all the energy is spent after I've painted it once. I have learnt a lot though, about colours and the type of space I want to create, so all is not lost.

Anyway, I'm really happy with this Kate Winslett painting, and I think it's opened the door to a lot more. Yay!

Painted Ladies #1

Blue Orchid
Oil on Panel
30x30"

Holiday Painting Sale

Click to Enlarge

I'm having an 'open house' art sale on Sunday from 11 till 4pm- lots of inexpensive little paintings will be available, as well as some larger pieces for as much as half price. I'll be baking mince pies (yum!) and making a batch of mulled wine to warm everyone up. Here's directions via mapquest.

So I've been 'tagged' by two artists, Nathalie Davis and Carolyn Finnell. Here's how it works: I tell 7 interesting things about myself and tag 7 other people, linking to their blog and tagging them in a comment. I've been racking my brains for days trying to think of anything anyone else might find interesting about me, and I can't so I'm just going to wing it and see what comes out.

Here's to navel gazing (clink glasses with imaginary reader..)

1. Lots of people know that I packed up and left my life - within a month - in the UK in 2005, but only a few know that I made myself a kind of tick list of things to learn on my travels. Surfing was on there, which I tried, and failed at. Turns out I'm much more terrified of the sea than I thought. I still haven't learnt to play the guitar - so if anyone in Tahoe wants to trade skills, I'd be well up for it.

2. I'm not shy. People think I am because I'm quiet, and I used to be when I was young so perhaps I do a good impression. I am often intimidated by loud people, and abhor being shouted at. I won't tolerate bullies and liars. A story I told my younger sister when she was being bullied at school: There was a girl who used to bully me and try to make me feel small and worthless all the time. One day she pushed me too far and I just saw red. I didn't hit her, but I grabbed her by the hair and held her down until the mist cleared. I let go when I saw the horrified face of her cousin. I didn't hurt her, but she was pretty terrified I think. None of the girls spoke to me for a while but the boys thought it was great. I never got bullied again. Moral: If you demonstrate your strength just once, most times you won't have to do it again.

3. Until recently I didn't like the colour green. It was a colour I didn't like to wear, and I wouldn't paint with unless I had to (i.e grass, trees etc) Even now, I tend to lean my greens heavily toward brown, yellow or blue, otherwise I think they look cheesy and obvious. Wales is incredibly green, with all the rain, so landscape painting can fall into a very 'postcardy' trap if you're not careful - and never was one for the 'pretty landscape'. I think my shift in attitude has to do with Taylor, whose favourite colour is green. He's a redhead, so certain greens are delicious on him.

4. I knew Taylor was 'the one' the moment I saw him. That sounds like a lie, but it's true. He was slacklining in a park in Squamish with his Scottish friend Craig, and I just went up to him and asked if I could have a go (told you I wasn't shy!) That's never happened to me before, so I knew it was true. We've been together pretty much constantly since that day in 2005.

5. For years I shunned colour. The majority for my work for my degree was in black and white, and for a couple of years after I graduated, I worked solely in black, white and gray. I just didn't feel like I could express myself in colour, it was a language I wasn't fluent enough in. Even now, when I allow myself the indulgence of monotone, I think my work speaks more directly to the emotions.

6. I'm a chameleon. For someone so fiercely independant this surprises me about myself constantly. I pick up accents, painting styles, mannerisms and fashions faster than I can check myself. When I realise what I'm doing, I tend to re-establish my own personality and absorb these things into myself, with a subtler influence of the new (if I like it).

7. I love learning new things, and this is why I think I'm a chameleon. I like trying on new images and ideas, to see if they mean anything to me, and whether I can use them to understand more, or create better art. I'm also an avid reader - I love words, verbal imagery and recollections of a person's life. I'm curious by nature, and value openness in others - partly because I'm very open myself, and it makes me feel more comfortable to be with my own kind.

Phew! that's it - ok here's my lucky 7:

1. Melissa Gregory
2. Greg Shores
3. Kristen Boles
4. Jeanne Bauer
5. Donald Neff

6. Penny Shrawder

7. Bonita Paulis

Two Oil Sketches

Remember not this sins of my youth nor my acts of rebellion
Oil on Panel
12x12"

I've done two quick oil sketches this morning, and I'm so excited I had to post them straight away. I loved the echoes of Degas, Schiele and Toulouse - Lautrec's women in this model, (and maybe a hint of Marie Antoinette...? ) and so dressed her up accordingly (just ankle warmers, and stockings for some pictures) I wanted to capture something reminiscent of older paintings, with a distinct stamp of the now declaring it to be contemporary. The model has piercings in her cheeks and belly, as well as the very cool tattoo you can see on her back. The quote is a slightly tweaked passage from Psalm 25 in the Bible.

Untitled study
Oil on Panel
12x12"

So I'm really feeling the looseness I've been striving for in my painting today. It's exciting, it's like the penny has dropped, finally, and I feel freer. I think it's a combination of the observation skills I learnt with the painting a day project, and regular life drawing with Phyllis Shafer.

What's slightly irksome though, is that these weren't done from life (I took photographs). I tried to paint when the model was here, and I painted this horrible, muddy, stodgy piece of crap which is now of the studio floor, destined for the bin.

I think there are a few reasons/excuses for this: a) I was using a scrap of unstretched canvas, which despite the extra primer, was still really absorbant, and b) I was feeling a bit overwhelmed to be painting a figure from life, despite the fact that I've been drawing from life for weeks now. It's weird, sometimes I worry so much about the model being comfortable/warm, etc., and that I want to produce something quickly that does them justice, that I just lose it. I think I'm over this stuff with drawing now, so hopefully with practice I'll be able to relax enough with a brush in my hand to achieve the same loose painting from life.

Thought for the day...

It's never too late to be what you might have been.

George Elliot

Charcoal Drawings 8

This is white charcoal on black paper - a really interesting exercise we did in class recently. You have to kind of put your brain in reverse - pulling out the highlights instead of the shadows. What I'm enjoying about these studies is that it's really challenging me to rethink what I 'know' about drawing, and I'm learning so much through the process of experimentation, doubt, failure and success (not necessarily in that order).

Something I was thinking about today was how hard, even in an academic environment, it is to not to contrive a narrative of some kind into my drawings. I do have something of an active imagination, it must be said - I have very vivid dreams and nightmares, and my brain rarely stops for breath, so to speak. Maybe that's a female thing, maybe an artist thing, or both. I've talked before about my habit of anthropomorphosising inanimate objects I paint in still lives - same thing.

Anyway, I thought this model had a kind of medieval quality about him, with the beard and earrings, which lent him a kind of dignified authority - like a king or a warrior from ye olden days. I liked that idea, it gave the drawing an energy I think. We were drawing a female model who fell asleep today, and the character was completely different. I think it's important to tap into what's going on around you to channel into your art - as long as it's stuff you can handle. Sometimes I think that kind of sensitivity can make you vulnerable if you're not aware how much you're taking in.