A lot going on again this week, with Real Life getting in the way of my work in the studio. Not much art getting done for a variety of reasons, the main ones being a couple of funerals I had to attend, and the incredible heatwave we have been under for the last 2 weeks, which makes working anywhere, but especially in my top floor studio, very uncomfortable. We live out in the country and have never seriously considered putting in air conditioning, as it usually would be necessary only a few days a year. But this year has given us cause to reconsider that decision! I am happy to report however that I have made some major progress with soft pastels. In an effort to enjoy Plein air painting more, I had been considering using pastels rather than watercolors, because of their simplicity and immediacy. Pastels are very portable, and you don’t need an elaborate setup or a lot of supplies or tools. They don’t dry out, they don’t spill, and you only need a damp rag to clean up. Pastels are dusty, but outside this isn’t an issue. You can cover a lot of surface very quickly with pastels, so you can capture a fleeting scene in a few minutes. It’s no surprise that courtroom artists often use pastels! And if you remember my recent Plein air experiences, you know that anything to make it easier will be welcome! In a wave of optimism, I had brought my big box of pastels with me 10 days ago to the art show in the park, where I was doing some live painting to draw the attention of passers-by to the show. But I had also brought my Plein air easel, and in the end, I chose to go the safer route and worked in watercolor, as I figured that watching me stumble with pastels as I used them for the first time outdoors was probably not going to be a very good draw for the exhibition! A few weeks ago I discovered pastel artist Karen Margulis on Youtube. I strongly recommend her channel if you have any interest in pastels. I have watched quite a few of her videos and have tried some of her techniques. I really like her style, be it artistic, personal, or teaching, so I find it easy to learn from her. I did a small study in the studio early in the week applying some of what I learned, and it turned out better than I expected. I have included a photo of that effort and hope you like it! So I decided to look for a small box to pack a minimal set of pastels to take “on the road”, rather than my huge and heavy box which is really more than I need. I should be able to assemble this set today and I plan to take it with me to paint at the Farmer’s Market on Friday. Hopefully seeing me working will get people to stop and chat! It is also supposed to be significantly cooler Friday which will be a welcome change! Last week’s market was brutal!! So what tips or techniques have made such a difference you ask? The first is working small. I was surprised to find out that Ms. Margulis paints ACEOs like I do, but in pastels! I never even contemplated this, as I always considered pastels too fragile a medium (they can easily be smudged) but she has a few useful pointers on how to avoid this. The second is blocking in large shapes and values and blending them into a soft background before applying the “real” colors. This helps with evaluating the composition, sets the stage for the details, and ensures the paper is covered. The third is using a light touch (she calls it whispering) to allow for optical blending of multiple colors of pastels, which gives a beautiful effect, and the fourth is using directional strokes to help the viewer interpret what they are seeing as flat or upright objects. It may not sound like much, but I was not doing most of these things, so it makes a huge difference in the results. I still need lots of practice, but I am happy with the new direction this is taking me. So I have cut up some sheets of pastel paper into smaller pieces, I have bought a few supplies suggested by Karen Margulis and that I agreed would be useful, and I will be trying my hand at more pastels, outdoors this time! I would love you to tell me what you think of Karen Margulis, and if you have other tips or sources of tips on pastels, I would appreciate you sharing them! Thanks!
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It has been a very tough week, so I hope you will forgive me for taking a break from art and telling you about two wonderful people that were taken away from us this week. The first was my uncle Jules. He was my father’s brother, and was also my godfather. I was always very proud that my parents had chosen him for that role, because he was the most intelligent person I know. He had, perhaps without him knowing it, a big influence on me growing up. Whenever I saw him, he would have a question for me to research. I don’t know how much time he put into thinking up these questions, or if he thought them up just for me, but they were always interesting, never easy, and certainly nourished my curiosity. He expected an answer the next time we met, and he never forgot to follow up. One in particular I remember was “Why are British policemen called “Bobbies”?” Of course there was no Internet at the time, so finding the answer was not as easy as just saying “Hey Google”! I remember that I used to love to babysit my young cousins, because there were so many books at his house on Science and Nature that I could read once the children were sleeping. So it is doubly sad that this brilliant man, who was a surgeon in his professional life, was stricken, like several of his siblings, with Alzheimer’s disease. The last time I saw him, he did recognize me, but I could see from his smile and the things he said that it was the child he was seeing. I am glad I was able to repay him then some of the joy he brought me. I am also pretty sure that he was the one who got me started in watercolor, at least as a child. Though I can’t be 100% sure, I believe it was he who gifted me the wonderfully huge tin box set I remember from childhood and that I talked about here. I am sure however that I owe a lot of my curious nature to the never-ending prompting he provided, and that without it I would not be the person I am today. So thank you, dear uncle, and until we meet again. If that loss wasn’t bad enough, a dear friend and former colleague also left us this week. He had been diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, it was already stage 4 so the prognosis was not good, but I still held out hope, if not for a total recovery, at least for a bit longer than what the doctors had predicted. Jim was a funny and erudite man, who never forgot his humble origins. I am so glad to have been able to be one of the many people he entertained, over a glass of single malt of course, with his colorful stories of camping on the roundabout, or the bicycle ghost, or the unforgettable hippopotamus leech, all told in his charming Glaswegian accent! I will never forget the look on his face when, as “Quiz Master” to a “Pub Quiz” we had during one of our Whisky Society dinners, he realized that I, a mere Computer Science teacher-- i.e. NOT an English teacher--, had the correct answer to a question he had written, which was “What English word has the most definitions in the dictionary?” I guess my pastime of reading the dictionary, no doubt a by-product of my uncle Jules’ questions, came in handy after all!! Every time I have a wee dram, I’ll have a sip to your memory, dear friend! With covid restrictions, it was impossible to visit either of these wonderful people, which made things harder. But it also gave me a convenient excuse, because I confess I am a coward when it comes to dealing with people facing serious illness or death. I guess it’s because I don’t have much experience of it, which one could take as a good thing, but I wish I knew what is the “right thing” to do. My egotistical side wants to hold on to the memory of the person I knew, and not have to deal with the reality of illness and death. I am sure I’m not the only person who feels this way, but it doesn’t make me feel less ashamed of being such a coward. Have you had to deal with these feelings? If so, I would love to hear your advice on doing better in the future, as this will surely happen again as time catches up with us and the people around us. Anyway, thank you for reading. Hug the people you love and tell them while you can. P.S. I intentionally didn’t give the answers to the questions above. Stay curious, my friend! It’s been a busy week. Lots of "busy work" getting ready for a weekend show. I have been working really hard lately and have very little results (i.e. sales) to show for it, causing me to lose a bit of momentum vis-à-vis this whole “I want to be an artist” thing. But instead of boring you with my winging, I thought I would turn to you for help on zeroing in on where I should be concentrating my efforts. I have prepared a short (4 minutes according to Survey Monkey) survey on your personal art purchasing habits. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a millionaire collector for your opinion to be of value to me! Maybe it’s the heat, but I really need it. Thanks for helping out! Click here to take the survey! First a shoutout to my oldest who turns 39 today! How did that happen?!?!? Contrary to what today’s title might suggest, this blog has nothing to do with the post-Covid return to normal activities, although it is nice to be seeing family members again. I am talking more about the return to a freer personal schedule, following the end of World Watercolor Month. In case you missed it, this is an event that was created in 2016 and in which I have participated every year since. More about it here. Because the challenge is to paint one watercolor every day, and because there is a suggested theme for each day, it forces me to find a subject or topic that illustrates that theme, and of course to find the time to actually paint it. I have mentioned this before, it is both liberating and restrictive. Liberating because I don’t have to totally come up with an idea of what to paint, and restrictive because there is a time constraint to get it done, which in July is not always easy. So I have a kind of love-hate relationship with this event. I love a challenge, yet I hate having this time taken away from other things. I love being given themes of what to paint, yet I hate having to come up with actual images to represent that theme, yet I love the opportunity to think outside the box to do so, and to end up painting topics or subjects I probably never would have thought of on my own. I love the fact that these paintings are just for fun (that is a rule I set for myself) and so I can step away from my perfectionist tendencies for a while. I love the routine that the month brings, but at the same time, I hate it! Anyway, at this point, I think that this will have been my last participation. Much as I enjoy posting my creation each day and getting your feedback, much as I know that these small exercises are good for me, right now I think I have to find another, less rigid way to get the same benefits. Mind you, I have a whole year to think about it! So, much as I said last Sunday in my weekly newsletter (sign up here if you aren’t getting it!) coming out of WWM is a bit like the feeling you get after the Christmas Holidays; after many days of being overly busy and having way too much to do, there is a mental and physical crash when all of this activity suddenly stops! But it is 5 days later now, and life is back to normal for me. I am back to wondering what to paint next, working on improving my marketing, and looking into opportunities for shows and competitions. In a way, I miss the routine of the daily paintings, but I still have plenty to do. I have started a new poured watercolor, and have plans for painting a larger version of one of the better studies I did for the WWM. Some of the artist groups I belong to are slowly returning to in-person activities in which I will be participating. The Lennoxville group is having a get-together (outdoors) for the first time since they shut down the weekly painting meetings in March 2020. The Sherbrooke group is having a group exhibition next week, which will be my first with them since joining in July 2020. I have entered a piece in the Magog group’s upcoming art show in September, and my local village has invited me to participate in its Culture Days event, also in September. Two people have also contacted me about commissioning a painting, and one of my granddaughters has asked me for a painting for her birthday. So as you can see, I have plenty to keep me busy for a while! I must also start thinking of this year’s Christmas ornaments! I have an idea, but it is just that at this time. Back to work! |
AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
March 2023
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