Creative Energy: September 4, 2020

“Second Time” 36”x36” Detail of the Painting

When is a painting finished?

Only the painter knows. Every painter approaches the subject differently. For me, painting is an intuitive process. I start with an idea of the color palette, composition and emotion. As I paint, the painting is “telling” me what it needs. The painting may actually go in a totally new direction. I have to be willing to let that happen, trusting the process and my eye.

During this back and forth process I may have a color or shape that is just not working, I know it’s a problem, but I’m not sure how to resolve it. When that happens I try different locations, lighting, distance, or even turning it upside-down, observing it as I walk by or looking over at a glance. This can take a few days, weeks, or months.

I had a few paintings with issues that were bugging me. So last week I pulled out some of my favorite paintings and sat them around my studio. Then I added the unfinished paintings, looking at everything with a fresh eye and the relationships with all the other paintings. That did it. I knew what needed to be done. I thought I might share with you the before and after.

First stage: All the colors at the top were fighting each other for attention. I needed some areas to recede and have more depth.

Second stage: I liked how the main focal point was working, but the right edge next to a white shape was too severe. I also needed to breakup the over all-white just a little, bringing two different blues into the bottom half of the painting.

It’s finished, for now.

Creative Energy: August 21, 2020

Creative Energy: August 21, 2020

Water Mountains Some people would like to know how a painting would look in their homes. You’ll be happy to know that many artists and galleries will allow you to bring a painting into your home before purchasing.

I have recently been photographing my paintings in an installation to show the scale. This photo shows “Water Mountains” 36”x36”.

Arts & Culture App

Warning: This Google Arts & Culture App is so cool you could spend hours looking around. The download is free.

This rabbit hole is deep with all kinds of interesting ways to explore art and culture. This is just a small list. Explore high-definition artwork, virtual reality tours, and street views. Categories: artists, mediums, art movements, historical events, and places.

Examples include: Time Explorer – art & events during different periods of history. Color Explorer – artwork that features a dominant color. Art Transfer lets you transform your photos with inspiration from renowned artists. Music paired with art. Daily art history lesson and exploration of culture in 5 steps. Many more features too numerous to list.

Anyone remotely interested in art & culture would love this app. If you are in the education field this would be an excellent tool for you and your students

Art Cislo

My husband’s brother is an exceptional talented artists. In this post I want to share a little about my brother-in-law Art Cislo. He is one of the most prolific artists I know, creating art for the pure love of it. He has been in shows since undergraduate school in Detroit at Wayne State University in 1967.

In 2016 the Fort Wayne Museum of Fine Art had a major solo show of his work and this write-up is from the show. “Art Cislo, an artist living and working in Fort Wayne, uses his art to channel these interpretations of well-known narratives, particularly from Biblical scripture, that are familiar to many yet have been understood by artists in all mediums, styles, and modes of expression throughout recorded history. His chosen mediums, which include woodblock and monotype prints that emphasize his life-long interest in the human figure as a character in a story, convey his fascination with the heart of man in all its mysterious complexities and myriad expression.”

Not very many artists have the talent to draw the figure. Art is able to capture the essence of the figure sometimes with just a few strokes. He’s constantly working on his craft by sketching the figure. When we visit I’m always thrilled to be able to talk about his latest work or a historical reference to an artist. Art also shares his love and knowledge with students as an adjunct professor of Art at the University of St. Francis.

Pictured are some prints he has given us and a woodcut from his 2016 show. Please visit his website from this link – Art Cislo

Creative Energy: August 7, 2020

“Coastal Finds” During the first 8 weeks of Covid, I did a series of 12 small paintings. Drawing energy and inspirations from past visits to lakes and oceans and the small details that I observed. “Coastal Finds” is one in the series. Next week I will be on the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan in Union Pier, Michigan. I will be gathering more influences from my walks on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Chicago Art Institute

I have been visiting art museums since I was a little girl. In my blog, I will be sharing some of the current, recent, and past exhibitions that I have attended and how they have impacted my creative life.

September of 1995 a dear friend Anne Hunter and I met up in Chicago for the weekend. The Art Institute of Chicago was having a major retrospective on “Claude Monet 1840-1926”. At that time it was the largest retrospective of his works ever held. The exhibition included 159 paintings and works on paper including some never viewed outside of private collections.

This was the first time I realized just what it takes to create this size of an exhibition. The curator of the exhibition, Charles F. Stuckey, spent years arranging with other museums and private collectors to bring these paintings to Chicago from all over the world. Never have all of those paintings been together in one location. Another first for me was being able to see the evolutions and changes in Monet’s work over his life. The curator chose to group some paintings by subject; wheatstacks and waterlilies. In those rooms, I was able to compare one painting to the other and see how he interpreted light and color differently over the years. I frequently review the 281-page exhibit catalog and take a memory walk through the exhibit. Each time I see things differently each time.

Petoskey Stones

The “Petoskey Stone” is the official stone of Michigan, which is the fossilized coral of the genus hexagonaria. This coral lived approximately 350 million years ago in the sea that used to cover all of Michigan.

The majority of these stones are found in the northwestern portion of Michigan's lower peninsula, although, I have even found them downstate on both Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. They’re the easiest to find when they are underwater because the hexagonal coral shape is more pronounced when wet. My son is the best Petoskey stone hunter and polisher; he can even find them on a dirt road.

Creative Energy: July 24, 2020

“Hitting the Shore” This painting was painted last September during my artist-in-residence at Fire Island. During those two weeks, I was able to study the ocean waves: the forms, texture, and colors of the waves. Yes, the waves are not red but red symbolizes power and energy.

Passion & Discovery

Séraphine Louis and Maud Lewis both had secret passions for painting and both were discovered serendipitously.

Séraphine Louis (1864-1942) was a self-taught French painter in the naïve style. She was inspired by religious art and church stained glass; the intensity of her color and the replicative floral designs. Painting in the evenings after her domestic work she was soon noticed by renowned German art collector Wilhelm Uhde, her employer. He would serve as her patron and champion promoting her work alongside other leading primitive artists. I was immediately drawn into Séraphine’s work. The unique color combinations are fighting and working together all at the same time. Creating a painting that moves your eye around the canvas. Look at that red background. It makes the painting. Not very many artists can pull that off.

Maud Kathleen Lewis (1903-1970) was a self-taught Canadian folk artist from Nova Scotia. She achieved national recognition in 1964 and 1965. She painted on wooden boards using bright colors in her paintings. The subjects in her paintings were often of nature, animals, inspirations from her childhood and local landscapes. She was discovered by an NYC women who had a summer home in the area. She sold her little paintings out of her one room house on the side of the dirt road. People started flocking to the little house. Even Vice President Nixon bought one of her paintings. I enjoy the simplicity of the shapes and colors that are the foundation of Maud’s paintings. Look at the compositional balance of her bird painting. Some people will pass judgment on the simplicity of folk artists, but it is extremely difficult to paint in this style because every element counts.

Check out the biopic movies that have been made on both of these artists. Links to Séraphine and Maudie

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Creative Energy: July 10, 2020

“Over Under”

Acrylic painting on canvas 24”x24”
Observe how the pinks and yellows change, based on the colors next to them.

The Interaction of Color

“Colors appear what they are not, according to the ground which surrounds them.” Josef Albers. The author of The Interaction of Color, Yale University Press in 1963.

Vincent Castagnacci, a Yale graduate, taught my color theory class at the University of Michigan. His teaching was based on Albers’ principles.

In class, we studied the relationships and interaction between different colors. We used 220 different colors and shades from a pack of color-aid paper to create our "color-studies”.

We were given the tools to experiment, but we had to unlock the magic of color by seeing the difference between colors and how they interact. Later I would realize that this class would be the most influential class I would take at UM. My eyes were opened.

On Color

Our lives are full of color and for this reason this book is for everyone. On Color by David Scott Kastan with Stephen Farthing. They investigate color from numerous perspectives: literary, historical, cultural, anthropological, philosophical, art historical, political, and scientific. In ten lively and wide-ranging chapters, each devoted to a different color, they examine the various ways colors have shaped and continue to shape our social and moral imaginations.

Impressionists and Violet

Violet became the color of choice for Impressionist. It differentiated the palette of impressionism from any paintings before. Manet said, “I have finally discovered the true color of the atmosphere; it is violet”

Stacks of Wheat by Claude Monet at The Chicago Art Institute

Creative Energy: June 19, 2020

“Water Flora”

When I’m floating in a kayak looking at the flora on and in the water, it gives me a calm and transcendent feeling of being carried away. That is how I felt when I painted this painting, {24” x24” acrylic on canvas}.

Breaking Barriers

When people list Impressionist painters they name Monet, Renoir, Degas and Pissarro, but never Morisot.

Berthe Morisot was an accomplished painter, who showed her work in the very first Impressionist show Salon de Paris in 1874. Her fellow painters admired her talent but male art historians decided to ignore her talents. I did not learn about her in college, she was conveniently left out, in Art History books.

Morisot’s paintings have a depth of feeling and subtle delicate quality. With a soft color palette and a delicate touch, her subjects are centered on female and family life.

She had the advantage of being born white, with talent, money, intelligence, beauty, sophistication, and opportunity. With her supportive family she was in the center of an artistic bourgeois home and in the same society circles and friends with Manet and Degas. Socially she was not allowed to gather with all the other painters in bars and cafes. She decided that she was not giving up being a professional painter to have a family. She married Edouard Manet younger brother Eugene’ at the age of 33 and had one daughter. She painted over 860 paintings until her death at the age of 54. That is averaging 28 paintings a year.

To this day she is still not as well known as that of her male contemporaries.

“After Lunch” 1881, Photo of Morisot, “The Cradle” 1872 and “The Psyche Mirror” 1876

Tools in Hand.

“Real painters understand with a brush in their hand.” Morisot

With tools in hand, I paint horizontally on canvas. The fluid acrylic paint is applied and moved not with a paintbrush but with pieces of cardboard in various different sizes. To achieve the desired effect I can apply a very thin, transparent layer of paint, or thick and opaque. Drying time is 24 hours between layers of colors. The overlapping colors will start to buildup and the painting starts to emerge.

Picker, Singer and Songwriter.

Musician Sarah Jarosz new release “World On The Ground.” My top album picks are… “Johnny” with its sparkling, studio-cured folk-rock or the dusky, jazz-influenced subtlety of “Orange and Blue.” as reviewed by iTunes. I still buy music because I want to support the artist and create my own playlist. I hope you’ll check her out on Found and Instagram.

Take a tour around my website and let me know which painting is your favorite.

CREATIVE ENERGY: June 5, 2020

Darkness to Light

I feel this painting captures my emotions this week with everything that is going on from Covid-19 to the racial protests. I painted this while hurricane Humberto was kicking up some big waves off the coast of Fire Island.

Art to Remember

Minneapolis and other art communites are at work to keep George Floyd’s memory alive. Read more…

Challenging Expectation

Artist. Humanist. Amy Sherald

Amy is best known for painting the official portrait of Michelle Obama. Read her recent interview with the Smithsonian magazine.

Follow Amy on Instagram @asherald

Do Good. Make Change.

This week I found myself asking, “What should I do?” Then I saw this very powerful list of 75 things that white people can do for racial justice. Read the list and start doing something.

CREATIVE ENERGY: May 2020

Images That Inspire Me

Merriam-Webster Definition of Inspiration – something that moves someone to act, create or feel an emotion. The inspiration for a painting during my artist-in-residency at Fire Island National Seashore.

Bird’s-eye View

Drone photography has been around for a few years now and it still excites me. We are able to easily see views and angles that we have never seen before. This photo inspire me with rich texture and unique patterns. Image credit Everett McMillen Cislo www.everettmcislo.com/drone-photography

Book: Becoming

Book: Becoming

I read the book Becoming Michelle Obama early in 2019 just after it was published. I have always been a big fan of both Obama’s. In the book, she opened and shared very personal stories that clearly show how she became the incredible and much-loved person she is.

Becoming is now a major Netflix documentary. The documentary takes you through her 2019 book-tour with sold-out crowds of 17,000 in 34 cities; also meeting and listening to young students. Her brother and mother shared many stories about their family.

I would recommend reading the book and then viewing the documentary.

Bread & Covid-19

We fell in love with the Great British Baking Show a few years ago which has a very calming effect. The show rekindled my husbands baking practice. He has been baking all our bread for the past couple years and we’re happy that other people are baking as well. Give it a try.

Link to the GBBS recipe.

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.”

Pablo Picasso