Total Art Soul - for artists

Beginnings:  the initial wash...

When I was in eastern Montana last fall I took a 100 mile + drive south and west of Miles City, following the Tongue River about 50 miles and then heading north on dirt roads about 40 miles to Rosebud where I got back on I-94 to Miles City. I took a bunch of photos along the way of the river, the fields and whatever looked interesting. Once I got on the dirt road with the warning signs posting "this road is impassable when wet", I was following near Rosebud Creek. There were these beautiful sandstone cliffs with a lot of pine and juniper. I have long been impressed with Albert Handel and Richard McKinley's paintings of such cliffs and rocks, so I shot a bunch of photos of the area and thought that one day I would do some paintings of the rocks and brush.

A side note..."road not passable when wet" is a reminder to me of living in eastern Montana and when it rains, the earth turns to gumbo...not the culinary delight - but a mud that is sort of clay like and as you walk in it; it collects on your feet until you can hardly lift your mud encased appendages. It is really like clay...you can actually form 3D items of art with it. My mother used to sculpt with it for fun. You couldn't go out and hike around until it dried; so one might as well spend some artist time and make things out of the mud!

Fortunately in October there is little chance of rain and had there been a cloud in the sky, I would have turned around and retraced my tracks back to Miles City on the gravel and asphalt roads.

So today I painted a second painting of the rock cliffs and shot some images as I progressed through the painting...I chose a piece of Art Spectrum paper and toned it with some reds washed with alcohol. Once this was dry....an alcohol wash takes minimal time to dry...I roughed in the sky and tree line.

Then I added more detail to the trees and basically finished them before tackling the rocks. I used Unison, lonelier and Mungyo pastels for the trees, starting with a dark lavender for my base, then adding some dark blue and the dark green.. Once I had the darks in, I sprayed the trees with some workable fix lightly to allow some of the tooth of the paper to come back so I could add some highlights to the tree branches.

So once the trees are in I can start to work on the rocks. Before I leave the trees, I make sure to have highlights of the branches visible and some light peeking through the branches as well. Now I start with the rocks; putting in some general masses, some hints of color and definition. A light spray of the fixative will help to create texture in the rocks, then more color and definition. Next the rocks get to share space with a "cow trail" that meanders down the hillside and more definition of the rocks take place and a bit of vegetation - weeds- sage, etc sprout up near rocks and trail.

I like to sometimes leave some of the initial wash showing through for interesting texture and color. The goal is to invite the viewer to think the scene is interesting enough to want to get on that trail and hike to the top of the rims and see what's on the other side of this ridge...and wonder where that trail goes...they almost always lead to water, to shelter or...

Hope you enjoyed the "demo"....happy painting!

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If you're just tuning in to "Art in the Studio", you should know that this particular blog is the second part of a two part reminiscence of writing my artist statement.

I've never heard a writer say that that they love to write because it's so easy they could do it in their sleep. Those whom I've spoken with or listened to via interviews always mention that writing is grueling demanding work BUT they get great satisfaction from it. I agree two hundred percent. As I mentioned in Part 1, I spent HOURS  thinking and writing my artist statement and at the completion of the two paragraphs, I experienced not only relief that the "damn thing" (my pet name for it) was done but I also felt a sense of awakening or a self-awareness of myself as an artist. The moment was not an epiphany and music didn't swell in the background as I clicked "save as"; I just felt centered.

One year ago, I retired from my day job in hopes of working as an artist full time. I pulled up the art information folder in MY DOCUMENTS and reexamined my artist statement that had served me well for so many years. As I read, I realized that my statement no longer fully represented what I now know about myself and my artwork. The self -awareness that I had acquired from my initial two paragraphs has continued to grow over the years as I have continued to paint and my statement needed to reflect this growth. And so I spent many more hours revising the initial document by adding and incorporating my new understandings. When I was finished, the new statement had a few more paragraphs and much more depth.

I doubt that I would be able to write the statement that I have today IF I had not written the first one years ago. My advice to all of you who have not written your artist statement: write the "damn thing" : you'll be glad you did.

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