Speaking of Art Blog

Snowstorm Blues, pastel, 9x15"

This is my newest pastel, of 4 male bluebirds that lined up on our feeder pole as a snowstorm earlier this month was getting started.  Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime photo!  I love how they are each oriented differently on the pole and are spaced evenly apart.  It was surreal to see them line up like that, one after another.  But our woods are narrow and the house behind our woods was very visible in the photo.  So I decided to white out the whole background so as to get rid of the house, and thus make the bluebirds’ coloring stand out even more.

What I was on the fence about, though, was how much color to add to the suet cage off on the far left.  Yes, it is on the same plane with the pole and birds, but its coloring was what I questioned.  Would it stand out too much if I made it as colorful as I saw in the reference photo?  Here is a progress pic I took just before I painted the last bluebird in the right front corner.

When I finished the whole painting I was OK with the result, but there was still something gnawing at me about it and I knew what that something was.  It was the suet cage.  It stood out too much and was a distraction.  But I was hesitating to try a remedy because I knew it meant knocking down the coloring on the entire cage big time.  I had spent a number of hours to get the painting to that point.  What if lessening the suet cage’s coloring didn’t look right?  Would I have to then repaint the whole cage?  What if my paper wouldn’t handle the changes well?  Might I have to start over?

Finally I took the plunge.  I swallowed hard, picked up a Ludwig soft white pastel, laid the stick on its side at the top of the cage, and swiped it down (which is called scumbling in pastel lingo) multiple times, until the whole cage receded in prominence.  Was that scary to do?  Oh yes!  Was I happy with the results?  Oh yes yes yes!  But it could have turned out to be a disaster too.

So here’s my point: If an artist really wants to follow their vision for a piece of artwork OR they want to try something new, sometimes they have to get brave and take risks.  Might they fail in the process?  Yes.  Might they find a new door has opened for them?  Oh yes.  But they won’t know until they try.  Experimentation in art is not for sissies.  It involves getting brave and taking risks.  Sometimes the results will be failure, but other times the attempts just might uncover true originality and refreshing results.  I’m going to remember the bravery of 4 bluebirds who faced a storm together next time I want to shy away from taking a risk at my easel, and just get brave.

Wings and Light, pastel, 14x11", AVAILABLE

I just finished painting this summer sunset over Lake Michigan scene as a demo for my Zoom pastel class.  The theme for the four lessons was painting clouds and this was the perfect subject.  I was able to cover a lot of territory with my students.  It was fun.

It doesn’t matter that it’s winter right now because I love painting summer lake scenes all year round.  Which brings me to my main point for this blog post.  I’ll admit it, I’m not a fan of winter.  It’s my least favorite season.  Being cold or even slightly chilly is just not my thing.  Winter sports?  No thank you.  I do love a tasty bowl of hot soup, but I can enjoy that all year round.  As a result, I’m not a big fan of painting winter scenes.  But I do like the challenge of tackling a subject that is new for me, so I’ve actually rendered a number of winter themed paintings in order to build up my knowledge base for painting snow and nature in winter.  But here’s the weird thing: I only feel like painting winter scenes in winter, no other time of year.  I’m thinking it’s because once winter is done, I don’t want to have to think about it until the next winter.  My thinking is usually, “Whew, that’s over.  Thank goodness it’s warming up outside.  I don’t want to see another sweater until late next fall.”  So why would I want to paint snow, that cold stuff that makes driving anywhere treacherous, in July?  No thank you.

So imagine my surprise when I counted up how many winter scenes I’ve rendered in the past 17 years, and I found a whopping 13 winter paintings!  That’s way more than I thought I’d find.  But when I checked on the time of year each one was painted, that info was more predictable.  I painted them all between December and early March.  No surprise there.  I’m just very glad that my customers love my winter paintings all year round because most of my selling opportunities come in the summertime.  Even on a hot summer day at an art fair in August I’ll still have the inevitable visitor to my booth, asking if I have any winter paintings to sell.  I usually remember to have one handy.  I don’t know, maybe it makes them feel cooler to gaze at it in summer.  Or maybe they just like winter a whole lot more than me.  Whatever their reason, I’ll keep working on a winter painting now and then between December and March while I’m still wearing sweaters.

Here are the 5 winter pastel paintings I've created that I haven't sold yet.  If you are interested in one of them, please contact me and I’ll give you a price.  And I’ll probably assume that you like winter way more than me, which is fine.  We are all entitled to having a favorite season.  Mine doesn’t happen to involve snow or cold.  Mine has more to do with beach towels and sunsets over Lake Michigan and bare feet in the sand.