Speaking of Art Blog

Dunes Creek, pastel, 10x10"

As each year comes to a close, I like to look back and see how far I’ve come artistically.  This year’s observations are heavily centered around a conversation I had with a fellow artist at a recent art reception.  I was chatting with Tony Bianco at the opening reception of Home for the Holidays, the premier juried group art exhibit at my friend Kristina Knowski’s new framing gallery in downtown Chesterton IN - Ancillaerie Gallery.  The show is so beautiful, Kristina’s new business venture is doing well, the holiday decorations are up in the downtown business area, there was a festive mood in the air at the reception, and the conversations I had with longtime artist friends of mine were meaningful and thought provoking.

Tony and I talked about everything from what art tools we use for rendering our paintings (he’s an oil and acrylics guy and I’m a pastel and charcoal gal), to my latest acceptance into the gift shop at the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center called Beaches & Beyond, to why we do art in the first place.  That last topic was what made me feel validated as an artist.

Here is the gist of what Tony and I talked about:

• Trying to paint to sell our art is a really bad idea. The paying public is fickle and trends in what looks good hanging on their walls change constantly.  Trying to keep up with that is like chasing after the wind.  It gets futile and frustrating very quickly and turns into a creativity killer.  Better to set our own goals and then raise the bar for ourselves to achieve those goals.
• Working on a goal that one of our collectors has suggested to us is a different story. Collectors who love and own our work, if they truly enjoy collecting it, will give us wiggle room to experiment.  We’re not trying to produce something that will match their couch, but maybe we are trying to create something new that centers on a certain subject that they (and we) like.  When a collector of mine drops a hint to me about, say, sunflowers or winter at the IN Dunes, I’m on it.  They have invested in my work in the past after they’ve dropped a hint and/or commissioned me to create art for them, and they will do it again.
• Tony and I agree that the most desirable spot to be in is where the path to our next big idea is wide open and there are zero demands on us for what to work on next, and that includes art competition deadlines. Neither he nor I work to create something for a competition.  If we happen to have something laying around that hasn’t sold and it’s good enough to enter into a juried show, great.  But if not, then oh well.  We can take stock of our inventory next year and see what might work.  Throwing something at a show just to have it in the show is not a good plan.  Our best should be entered into the shows we submit to, nothing less.
• We both agree that our perfectionism in our work is not only our biggest blessing, but also sometimes our biggest curse. We have learned over the years to declare when we’ve finished a piece, and then put down our tools and walk away before we kill it.  That’s a hard lesson for a perfectionist to learn and practice.
• One of the biggest realizations we have come to with our art creating is that we both feel compelled as of late to find ways to give back to our community with our art. While I am busy producing paintings and drawings that feature the wonders of nature at the Indiana Dunes so that I can continue to heighten the public’s awareness of our national park’s wondrous beauty and also its fragility, Tony has been busy creating gorgeous murals for the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City IN that highlight all the wild animals that roam our planet and that we humans need to care about and for.
• Neither of us takes for granted what a huge privilege it is to live in a thriving art community here at the entrance to the Indiana Dunes. Both of us have lived in communities that are a desert when it comes to an art presence and that is not fun.  In a flourishing art community where artists are a dime a dozen, we spur one another on and each artist’s individual creative efforts benefit all artists and the community collectively.  Artistically speaking, I am at home in the most complete way possible here within 2 miles of the Indiana Dunes.  Lucky me, I teach pastels at not just one, but two local art centers: Chesterton Art Center and Art Barn School of Art.
• Both Tony and I feel humbled, honored and blessed to be creatives. Not everyone has a creative bent.  Not everyone can follow an art path with a chosen art medium and push that medium and themselves as far as they can go to create something beautiful and fresh and unique.  We realize that our creativity is a gift that we best not take for granted or misuse or cheapen.

Most artists, myself included, are hermit crabs as we work away solo at our easels.  Around the holidays I find it great fun to come out of my shell and gab with friends at art receptions.  Weighty conversations ensue and I am encouraged to stay on the right path, the hard path, the fun path, the creative path, with my work.  Lord knows it’s not the most lucrative path and in America, for most of us artists, it never will be.  But that’s not why we are doing our work in the first place.  It’s for self-expression, for creating something new and beautiful out of tools we purchased from Glenn Firme Art Supply.  It’s for sharing pieces of ourselves with others. 

Tony and I agree that the biggest thrill for us is when a person falls so in love with our art that it brings out an immediate emotional reaction in them that is indescribable, beyond words.  Gasping is good, always a good sign. May we continue to create artwork that elicits gasps in our viewers as we face the new year.

Eastern Screech Owl, pastel, 9x12"

This is my latest pastel painting, of a rescue owl that was being skillfully handled in a public presentation that I attended last year, given by Nicole Harmon, the director of Humane Indiana Wildlife, a wild animal rescue center.  The owl was very calm and I was able to get some great pics of it.  Some Eastern Screech Owls, including this one found in the wild in northern Indiana with a major eye injury to its eye not seen here, are the brown morph, which means they have variations on the theme of brown in their mottled, multi-colored feathers.  They are a small owl, relatively speaking, so there was an audible “awe” coming from all of us audience members as Nicole held this owl up for us to see and learn about.

But I’m not a fan of the color brown, so I held onto my reference photo for over a year before I decided to attempt this painting.  I guess my main objection to using a lot of that color is that brown can look so drab, like dry dirt.  Bleh.  In contrast, I like bright colors, pure visual notes, not super mixed up or grayed down combinations of color.  But I had a thought as I studied the reference photo of this owl last month, and I was intrigued to try an interesting new plan, an idea stemming from a seemingly insignificant event during our vacation my husband and I took earlier this fall.

In October, we drove to and visited 3 outstanding parks at the height of fall color season.  We started at Brown County State Park (IN), then Great Smoky Mts National Park (TN), and finally Hocking Hills State Park (OH).  It was at Hocking Hills that I experienced my encounter that influenced my choice to attempt creating this brown feathered wonder.  On our last day in the park, we chose to hike on the Rock House trail.  In the trail parking lot, we encountered 2 ways to walk to the trailhead, both within about 100 yards of each other.  One way, the way my husband chose, was just a straightforward paved path that led directly to the trailhead.  The other way, the one I chose, had an old stone stairway that deposited me at the far end of a grassy area that I then walked across.  After a breezy previous day, the steps were now covered with tons of gorgeous, newly fallen, bright fall-colored maple leaves.  The scene took my breath away.  I told my husband that I would be a few minutes behind him because I was definitely going to stop and take some pics.  I took the scenic route to get to the trailhead and I’m so glad I did.  The saturated colors and varying shapes and mixed textures all around me as I climbed the stairs were energizing to my senses.  I got lots of cool pics.

 So, what does that have to do with this brown owl?  Well, I thought that perhaps I was not letting brown have its due because I hadn’t explored all the nuanced variations of the color.  So, I looked closely at my reference photo and I tried to picture just how far I could push the shades of brown in different feather groups on its body, punching their saturation and hue, and still be able to call them all brown.  I pulled out some pastel sticks and pencils from my huge stash and I was delighted to find some rich brown color notes that would work nicely together.  Their hues ranged from light valued peach-brown to bright orange-brown to a deep rusty red-brown and even a golden yellow-brown, all hints of fall leaf colors.  OK, maybe I could travel the scenic route exploring all the shades of brown after all.  It would take me longer to get to my destination, but like my stone steps mini adventure, maybe the result would be worth the extra time.

As I worked on the owl’s feathers, I kept reminding myself to push the colors in key spots to really make them sing.  Yes of course, I still needed to temper some of those highly saturated sections with some more grayed down shades next to them.  But whenever I felt like the feathers needed some pizazz, I reached for richer browns, the ones that reminded me of those leaves on the stone steps.  And it worked.  I took the scenic route with brown, meeting all its many and varied relatives, and I’m so glad I did.  The owl looks alive and vibrant and definitely not drab like dry dirt.  I counted 15 shades of brown that I used by the time I finished.

Who knows, maybe I’ll be inspired to tackle a creation that is mostly gray next time.  How many shades will I use?  I don’t know, maybe 50 (groan).  Whatever projects I choose, I’m going to take the scenic route to get there.