Notes from a Virtual Easel

Writing Content and Other Addictions

2008-04-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

As a way to promote my artwork and books, I joined a few content develpment sites this week. They are so much fun, it is hard to pull myself away.

Here is an article I am particularly proud of. It gives directions for writing a love poem and, as a sample, contains a poem I just wrote about my first date with my husband. We met in an art class taught by Latvian artist Vija Celmins (long before she was famous). Our date was an assignment to visit local art galleries. In Los Angeles, at that time, the gallery street was La Cienega Blvd.

http://www.helium.com/items/976055-poems-always-artifacts-powerful

Other articles I have penned for that site, so far, include hints for using acrylics and ideas for getting the most out of drawing lessons.

Stop by, if you have time. Who knows--maybe you will start writing articles there, too!

Magical Beasts and Ancient Archaeology

2008-04-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

This morning, as I was pedaling an exercise bike at the gym, I watched a show about ancient paleontology . The program pointed out that the ancient Greeks and Romans collected and displayed fossils of Pleistocene mammals. Certain historians have speculated that some mythical creatures could actually be theoretical reconstructions by the ancients, based on these bones.

This program reminded me of an exercise we did at the workshop on Saturday. For those who were not there, we combined parts of three different animals to create a new beast. Familiar animal combinations include

dragons
unicorns
griffins
fairies
Pegasus
the Phoenix
mermaids
mermen

If you were not with us, try it now. Draw two different original creatures. Make one mean and ugly. Make the other beautiful. The ugly one will drive away the inner critic who tells you that your work stinks. The beautiful one will bring you new, wonderful ideas. Add a picture of one of your beasts to the comments section of this post, if you like. Don't forget to include a link to your website so everyone can see the rest of your work!

Easy-Does-It Art

2008-03-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

For those of you who attended my workshop on Saturday, and for those who were not able to come, here's a book you might want to pick up. It contains more than a hundred ideas for classroom teachers who want to teach art, but who have little time and few materials. Many of the ideas can inspire adult artists, too.

Poems to Inspire Paintings

2008-03-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

During the Saturday workshop (see previous post), members of our group made quick sketches inspired by poetry. The poems I read were from "Talking to the Sun" (see the picture link on the right for more information, or to purchase), but the internet is a wonderful source for poetry, too.

Try it! Read the following poem. Without referring to the text, do a sketch based on any impressions that "catch" in your mind. Develop the drawing into a painting. It will not be an illustration of the poem. It will be like the perfume of an orchard in bloom--not at all the same as the flowering trees.

For hundreds of additional poems online, click the title of this post.

Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern American Poetry. 1919

Pear Tree

SILVER dust
lifted from the earth,
higher than my arms reach,
you have mounted.
O silver,
higher than my arms reach
you front us with great mass;
no flower ever opened
so staunch a white leaf,
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver;
O white pear,
your flower-tufts,
thick on the branch,
bring summer and ripe fruits
in their purple hearts.

by H. D.

Out of a Rut and Into Your Groove!

2008-03-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Are you stuck? Here is the first in a series of posts based on activities I tried out on a bunch of great sports, and terrific artists at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts yesterday.

Our first activity, very loosely inspired by Japanese Calligraphic paintings and the exciting works of Franz Kline, was string painting. We used black tempera and jute package twine, but you can also try black ink with yarn, string, or even rope.

1. Pour the paint or ink into a cup.
2. Dip the string into it.
3. Quiet your mind. Close your eyes. Loosen your shoulders and let tensions go.
4. Open your eyes. Pick up the string and draw it across the paper once, or several times.
5. Put the finished work aside and repeat on another piece of paper.
6. Let the works dry and keep them in a folder for a week or two.
7. Spread them out on a table and pretend someone else did them. What do they have in common?
8. Assume they are all expressing different aspects of the same thing. What is that thing and how does it relate to your work?

The Endlessly Flowing Vessel

2008-01-28T15:15:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from the free online ebook "All at Once: A Practically Instant Guide to Creativity"

Any experienced teacher will tell you that the most valuable lessons are learned from students.

Find a place to share your interest in art.

•Ask at your local elementary school. There are probably several teachers who would schedule art sessions more often if they had an extra adult to help.

•Work with a youth organization such as 4-H or start an after school art club at your local church. Ask hobby shops and office supply stores for donations of materials.

•Volunteer to help with art activities for older or handicapped adults.

•Check your local newspaper for opportunities to share your art-related skills.

Exercises

1.Make a list of everything you already know about any art or craft.

2.Make a list of the kinds of people in your town who might like to learn what you know. Children? Seniors? Working mothers? Harried executives with high blood pressure?

3.Make a list of places you might find these people.

4.Make a list of the things you would like to be able to teach.

5.Make a list of the ways you could learn to do those things better.

6.Write one thing you can do today to share your love of art.

7.Do the thing you wrote in number six before you go to bed tonight.

Pricing

2008-01-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

(Previously posted as a comment on ArtMarketBlog.com)

I have long struggled with pricing.

I am also a freelance writer. When a client and I work together, we agree on how much I will be paid before I begin the job. There is an established price range for a certain type of work, and I do not delude myself into thinking that I am the only one with the necessary skills required.

My paintings are different. I do them as part of a personal need, a spiritual journey. Before I started painting, I was starved for silence.How do you charge for that? I was very grateful for the services of dealers when I was living in Los Angeles. Now I live in a small Colorado city.I am much happier and a much better painter, but there are no appropriate dealers nearby.

I decided to raise the prices for my originals substantially because, if I sold a picture for a few hundred dollars, it would take some of my writing time to stretch it and take it to the shipper. I would have shipping costs. Then, I would not have an irreplaceable part of my life anymore. What is that worth?

Well, I asked myself, which would be worse, to sell the picture for too little or not to sell it at all. I decided that, for now, it would be better not to sell it at all. That’s what value is, really. Would my pictures be worth what I am charging to others?

Art is such a matter of personal taste. What one person adores, another sees as kitch. I think that the real value of a piece of art lies in what it says to you. When I first started painting, I sold an acrylic of an ice cream shop on Stearn’s Wharf in Santa Barbara to a woman I met in a group. She paid me a $100, but, for her, that was a fortune. I asked her why she wanted it. She said she was diabetic and could not eat ice cream.

Another one of my early paintings was a gift to a friend, the wife of a director. It is one of the reasons I paint. The picture showed two women on the beach. One was lying in the sand and the other had been, but was starting to stand up. I did it from a little sketch. She was dying of cancer. She told me that, as she looked at that picture, she saw a person rising and stepping away.

A good friend of mine put it this way, "We make art to, first, heal ourselves, and then to heal others."

Learn From the Masters

2007-12-27T12:02:00.000-08:00

from All at Once:
a practically instant guide to creativity

Each generation stands on the shoulders of the last.
The wheel took a long time to invent. The Sumerians started out with simple logs, added grooves, cut out the spaces between the grooves, then, at last, made the wheel and axle separate.
As artists and human beings, we need to reinvent ourselves every day, but we do not need to reinvent the wheel. Many problems of form, color, texture and line have been solved by other painters.
Take time to look at as much art as you can. Visit museums. Go to galleries. Haunt the art sections of libraries. Notice what kind of work you like. This is probably the kind of work you would enjoy doing the most.
Do you like portraits? Realistic Dutch paintings of floral arrangements? Impressionist landscapes? Surreal dream paintings? Geometric abstracts? Expressionistic pictures portraying powerful emotions? Religious paintings? Rebellious paintings? Political paintings? Naïve paintings?
Find out about the training of your favorite artists. How did they attain the skills you admire? Many of the same training opportunities are available today.

Exercises
1. Copy a painting. If you can, go to a museum and copy from the original. You will need to either take a museum class or make special arrangements, but it is worth it. If you can’t go a museum, don’t worry. Most of us can’t. Use a reproduction.
2. Choose five favorite paintings. Think about what they have in common (for you). Use these elements to create a painting of your own.
3. Find reproductions of narrative paintings, such as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Think about how the subjects relate to your own life or to situations in the modern world. Do a painting or a series of paintings using master artists’ compositions, but your own figures, background elements and colors.
4. Attend a workshop or lecture given by a favorite living artist. Ask questions. If you can’t do this, write a letter. Tell the artist what you like about his or her work. Your librarian can help you find a mailing address. Don’t expect anything from the artist. The act of writing the letter or taking the trip will help you in ways you don’t expect. If you don’t like the work of any living artist, keep looking.

Just Say You are an Artist

2007-12-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

from the online ebook
All At Once
a practically instant guide to creativity

This one is harder than you might think, and more important.

There’s an old playground saying: “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me.”

It is not true.

Broken bones are not fun, but they heal much faster than broken spirits. Criticism and teasing have left their marks on most of us.

I taught elementary school long enough to know that in every class there was a “Designated Artist”. This boy or girl was like the star kickball player. Anything he or she did was admired by adults and children alike, so this student drew and painted more than anybody else. It was an interesting cycle. The more the class artist drew and painted, the better he or she became at drawing and painting.

There were many other students in each of my classes who could have drawn and painted as well or better, but they did not think they were artists. Someone had once laughed at their work or misunderstood it. They were reluctant to try again.

If this is you, don’t curse the person who hurt you. He or she was also hurt. Just stand up straight and reclaim your spirit.

Exercises

1. How would you spend your working day if you were an artist? Use a planner page to make a schedule. Reserve a Saturday or vacation day for yourself. Do everything on your schedule. Revise your schedule, if necessary and repeat this exercise as often as possible.

2. When you have twenty finished paintings, tell a stranger you are an artist. They will ask what kind of work you do. Be ready to tell them in a sentence or less.

3. Investigate conferences, retreats and artists’ colonies. They are available for all skill levels. Attend one.

4. Join a local art group. This could be a weekly figure drawing session, a plein air painting club, or a neighborhood art collective that hosts a tour of local studios. Introduce yourself as an artist.

The more you say this, the more you will believe it. When you believe it, other people will too.

To read the entire ebook, visit http://lindaarmstrong.homestead.com/allatonce.html

Let Go of the Results

2007-12-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

from
All at Once
a practically instant guide to creativity

The love of money may not be the root of all evil, but it is the root of a lot of mediocrity and unoriginality in art.
There’s no doubt about it, the market-place loves the familiar. If you want to support your kids through college with your art or writing, then the advice in this booklet is not for you. Originality is not as popular as people would like to believe.
If you are doing art for yourself you have the best chance of producing something unique. The reason is simple. You do not need to worry about whether anybody else will like your finished piece enough to buy it.
How do retailers know what will sell? They look at what people are already buying. Artists who sell do the same thing. It works, but is it original? Does it provide the “recreation” that civilizations require of their art?
If you make art without thought for its ultimate fate, you can allow each piece to become what it needs to be, evolving under your brush in a joyously unpredictable way.

Exercises

1. Cover a small canvas with random patterns of three or four colors of acrylic paint in less than ten minutes. Repeat with four other canvases. Put them all aside. Do the same thing every day for a week. Have a show for yourself. Put the pieces up all around a room. Assume that there is something hidden in each picture. Choose one painting at a time to develop. If any of the paintings leads you to a type of subject matter, or a style you want to explore, follow it. Save the original canvases for reference.
2. Tear as many pictures out of old magazines as you can in ten minutes. Create a collage from the pictures. Notice any themes that might show up. These can be colors, textures and angles as well as subjects. Use these ideas to create a painting or series of paintings.
3. Take out a thick book. Close your eyes and open it to a random page. Point. Write down the word you are pointing to. Change books. Repeat three to five times. Write a paragraph or poem using the three words. What is it about? Do a painting based on your paragraph or poem.

To read the whole free ebook visit http://lindaarmstrong.homestead.com/allatonce.html

Note to my readers: I changed the name of my blog because I discovered that my previous title was already taken by someone else.

Judge Not

2007-12-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

Here is the second installment of my ebook "All at Once, A Practically Instant Guide to Creativity"

Written for my students at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts, it is useful for artists at all levels. The exercises, if followed, will help you find your own unique vision.

All at Once
a practically instant guide to creativity, part 2

If there is no right way to be an artist, there is also no wrong way.

There is a right way for your friend to be an artist, a right way for your cousin to be an artist, and a right way for you to be an artist. The only thing you can say for sure is that these different right ways will never be exactly the same.

When Mr. Esteemed Workshop Genius of the Month starts telling you his way to create art is the only way, a good response is to nod, smile, and think about what you need at the grocery store. Good teachers help students clear debris away from the entrances to their own paths.

Critique groups can be helpful, but they can lead to creative block. Artists who criticize the work of others may feel a familiar pointing finger when they return to their own easels. When commenting on the work of others, be sure to emphasize what you like about the pieces.

There are many audiences for art and many styles. If you don’t like a person’s work, there’s a good chance he or she does not like yours--different brushstrokes for different art folks. You can still go out to lunch together. Everybody likes lunch.

Exercises
1. Check a book of paintings out of the library. It should be a book of pictures you don’t like at all. Find something to admire in each painting. Choose a painting you actively hate. Do a version of your own. Change it any way you want. Keep working on your version until you like it, even if it takes a year. (You may work on other things too.)
2. Go through your old drawings and paintings. Pick out the very “worst” one. Mat and frame it beautifully. Enter it in a show. This is an especially useful ploy if you are afraid to enter shows. After all, what do you have to lose?
3. Choose a failed drawing or painting from your drawer. Pin it up where you will see it every day. Look at paintings of similar subjects by your favorite artists. Hire a model or do sketches to fill in missing information. Resume work on your failed painting.
It was not really “failed”. It was just not finished.

Watch for part 3 tomorrow, or visit http://lindaarmstrong.homestead.com/allatonce.html

to read the little book in its entirety.

Loosening up

2007-12-02T12:15:00.000-08:00

For a while, I taught drawing and painting classes at our excellent local art center. Some of my students were very skilled professional artists and designers, but they had lost touch with their own unique visions and were not having very much fun. They liked my class because I approached art practice from a completely different angle. I wrote a little pamphlet called "All at Once, a Guide to Practically Instant Creativity" to be sold in the center's gift shop.

It was a lot of work printing those things out and stapling them (an indication of their professional production values), so I decided to put the second edition online. You can find it (for free) at http://lindaarmstrong.homestead.com/allatonce.html

It contains a series of simple lessons, each with a group of tested exercises to help artists get in touch with themselves.

Here is a sample:

Do it Rong
from All at Once: a practically instant guide to creativity

We live in a time of professionals. Professionals do things right. Singers hit every note. Writers make prose invisible. Dancers, skaters and gymnasts follow definite rules as they challenge the laws of physics.
There are right ways to do your taxes. There are right ways to discipline your child. There are right ways to drive.
There is no right way to be a creative artist.
Have you ever heard yourself say, “I’ll paint that picture someday--after I study the rules of color.”
Why study rules? Rules say this way is right. That way is wrong. People made them up. People break them--all the time. As a painter, you can look up the ones you need. Don’t worry about the rest.
Rules are ready-to-use, one-size-fits-all decisions. In daily life they are wonderful. In art they are not.
An artist makes his or her own decisions. The quality of decisiveness is recognizable instantly in a drawing or painting.
It is called style.

Exercises

1. Make a mess.
Cover your carpet with a tarp. Close the door so nobody will hear you. Use lots and lots of inexpensive materials. Have you ever watched small children draw or paint? They are finished in five minutes, and you should be too. Do one piece, then another, then another. Two hours is a good stretch for a start. You may or may not create a masterpiece, but the time you waste will be more truly your own than any you have spent in years.

2. Break an art rule you have learned. For example, did someone tell you never to use black? Do a painting with black outlines or do a painting with black ink on rice paper.

3. Make a list of rules that drove you nuts when you were a kid. Share your list with friends over a good dinner. Do a painting about one of those rules or its enforcement.
Visit http://lindaarmstrong.homestead.com/allatonce.html
to read the rest, or revisit this blog. I will repost the rest of the "book" here.

Gray Weather, Grande Jatte

2007-12-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

This morning, I turned over my calendar to the December page revealing a reproduction of a lovely, moody painting by Seurat entitled "Gray Weather, Grande Jatte." Seurat is a master of moodiness, and I adore his shadowy drawings, Dover's collection of which, sadly, is out of print.

Outside the upstairs window of my little ex-bedroom office, dramatic gray clouds are skidding overhead on their way to the mountains, where they are scheduled to deliver up to five feet of snow to waiting ski resorts.

Looking out at the sun-touched wet landscape outside, I remember one beautiful Saturday afternoon when I dashed up the stairs to my father's studio and dragged him to the window to see all the city streets below our hilltop house painted with silver. I hope my daughter will remember some moment with me as I remember that.

See my Dad's work at http://www.californiaartgallery.com/ec-watercolor-keck.html

Life and Art

2007-11-30T15:35:00.000-08:00

Today, I was drawn in by a thread on the forum of one of the microstock sites. The posts were about the "other lives" of designers and photographers.

There are graphic artists, scientists, media people, and professors. There are students, parents, and retirees. There are graduates of prestigious schools and self-taught artists. There are people from all over the world.

Reading these posts brought to mind an old question: What is an artist? Is an artist someone who makes his living solely from the creation of artwork? Is an artist someone with an MFA? Some people believe that one or both of these criteria hold true.

The internet may well change art forever. It gives us the opportunity to experience the work itself, without curatorial intervention. Perhaps, we will find that artists do not necessarily earn a living by plying their craft. Some are scientists. Others are German professors. We may also find that some self-taught painters are producing fresher, more meaningful work than their academically-trained peers.

Is this surprising? How many of our best poets were physicians or civil servants?

See some amazing international art at RedBubble.com. Here's my portfolio there.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/bluerabbit/art

Time

2007-11-29T12:52:00.000-08:00

November is coming to an end, and with it, the Book in a Month Challenge, a semi-insane internet phenomenon designed to help writers overcome blocks and complete their projects. The idea is to clear all obligations for the month and write like mad every day. The object is not to have a saleable manuscript finished before the Santa season, but rather to overcome internal criticism and market worries by losing yourself in the work.

I participated once, years ago, and the experience taught me that time is elastic. It can be stretched to fit around any desired objective. The most important step toward accomplishing a goal is defining that goal.

That is where I am stuck now. I have been writing supplementary materials for teachers almost nonstop since 2001. When I finished one project, another always appeared. Late this spring, the flow of assignments stopped. I welcomed the break, and I do have other projects, now, but it disturbs me that I wasted wonderful months I could have used to write a couple of longer spec projects I have been developing in the back of my mind for the last couple of years.

I found myself, instead, posting photographs, paintings, and digital art to sales sites online. I would wake up every morning and tell myself I should write, but I could not make myself do it. This situation reminds me of the time, back in 1987, when I began to paint. At that time, my daughter was young, I was teaching full time, and I was writing fiction and free verse poetry at night. I had a great class at a nice school, but everything, all of a sudden, became empty.

The emptiness stopped soon after I started painting. Since then, I have been careful to include visual art in my life, but I think that, lately, I have not been doing enough. Part of the problem is that I am not sure what course to pursue, next. I work in series. Sometimes, a series lasts for several years. Sometimes, just for a few months, but when a series is finished, it is finished and I have to wait for that stirring of excitement that draws me into another.

Right now, I am hanging in space. Working on a couple of writing assignments, and waiting for that stirring. I think it is just under the surface of my consiousness, but it is not definite enough, yet.

It is easier, I think, for famous artists with established styles. They go to their easels and work in the ways they have developed. I have an advantage. I have total freedom when I paint because nobody cares what I do, or even whether I do anything or not. Unfortunately, this is a disadvantage, too.

This brings me back to setting a goal. I do not want to paint to match trends, but what DO I want to do?

Perhaps I need to just rest, play, and let my next group of projects gestate in uncomfortable silence. Waiting is hard.