Day 61 of 100

This accidental photo caught my eye.

I drew a sketch.

I prepped a canvas.

This is a masking fluid drawing I started yesterday and thought I was going to work on today.

Day 60 of 100

I have done a lot of knitting lately. Somehow painting seems like a chore. I tried using the early morning as paint time. That lasted three days. In the evenings I am too tired to paint, but knitting is something I can do while I rest.

This one was fun. I want to do more like this.

Day 59 of 100

That one is finished now. I like the white lines, but I liked the look of the masking fluid better. I need to figure out what to do about that. I feel like I have typed those words before.

This from a while ago. I was looking through old paintings and this one caught my eye. Is it done? It looks spooky to me. I think I could push the contrast a bit more.

I want to do something with this.

These colors interest me.

These colors against the bold blue sky were much more vibrant in real life. This angle makes the trees seem imposing and accusatory.

Here is another photo of a similar angle. I wonder why this type of image attracts me at this time? Is it because I want to climb higher? Is it because I feel small? Ah, I overthink.

This type of thing has been interesting to me for a long time. Close up of plants. Surviving against the odds. Nature taking over where humans have neglected.

Day 58 of 100

Today's work. The struggle continues.

From a couple weeks ago.

Day 57 of 100

Most of the summer I have been home a week and gone a week. Internet access has been limited, time outside by myself was limited, but that is no one's fault but my own. When I did have time I chose to do things like garden, clean the house, surf the internet, do puzzles, read, walk. I have enjoyed the walking and the gardening. When I travel, I take a plastic ziplock bag with a 5x7 hot press watercolor block, my water brush, a black Pitt brush pen, an ultra fine black sharpie, a pencil, eraser, and some Tombow double ended markers. 

Today is Friday. Wednesday afternoon I got a call from my principal telling me that my classroom is needed for a new section of first grade. I will be sharing the other art room with the other art teacher. It is a room too small for one art class, although she has done a great job of making it work the past few years. He thought we could work out a schedule of alternating teaching from a cart and teaching in the art room. I told him I will primarily teach from the cart. I think that will be easier than going back and forth. 

So now I am grieving the loss of a space that took a lot of my time and effort. It was not a surprise but still hurts. 

This is probably just the kick in the pants I need to get away from spending too much time at school. I hope so.

Day 56 of 100

I went on a family trip to Colorado. Beautiful scenery everywhere. I only made one unfinished picture. The focus of that trip was spending time with family. Lots of hiking too. 

This is a picture from the trip to the boundary waters of Minnesota. I treated myself to a masking fluid pen and worked from a photograph. I am back to being unsure of what I want to create.

Earlier today I watched a video of Michael Bell, an art teacher, talking about how to help students find their voice. He said, "Make a line from your life to your art that is straight and clear" Good advice, I think.

Day 55 of 100

These are pen drawings. I painted the island picture with water. I went on a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota July 12-16. It was so clean and quiet and beautiful. We had to carry everything on the portages from one lake to the next so I only brought 4x6 hot press watercolor paper, brush pens, and my brush that holds water in the handle. My little art kit was about the size of a paperback book. I would love to go back there and stay longer.

Day 54 of 100

This is the second painting from Wednesday morning. It was almost time to go. I wanted to see what would happen if I painted almost the same thing again very fast.

This was the first painting of that day. I was with the Plein Air group from Northstar Watermedia Society. We were in Indian Mounds Park across the river from downtown St. Paul. I decided to focus on the milkweed plant and the high bridge. When I was a toddler I lived over on that bluff. I do not remember that time of my life. When I was first married, my husband worked in one of the buildings near the river. I do remember that. I left out most of the buildings. Some of the other artists were complaining about how complicated the scene was. That frame of mind is foreign to me. You are the artist, you decide what to leave in, what to leave out. Maybe they were just making conversation, or were just not inspired by the location and that is ok.

Day 53 of 100

This one is done.

I entered it in the State Fair Fine Arts Competition. 

Ugh. My internal dialog is not being nice to me. I am feeling like it is laughable. Best to just move on.

Day 52 of 100

Yesterday I went outside to paint. I used the brush pens and my brush with water in the handle. This will be my supplies when I go to the Boundary Waters next week. 

Day 51 of 100

Painting should be fun and this was. I looked at the photo when drawing the pencil lines, but not when painting. Guess I changed some of the lines while painting. The plain yellow negative shape I left that way because I liked it. This is a photo I took at a State Park. It is our state flower. It grows in bogs. I wonder why it was chosen to be a state flower? Beauty arising from the muck?

Day 50 of 100

I just did these while sitting on the front step at my dad's house. The light right now at 8:44pm is perfect for painting, too bad I am working from photographs. Every so often I look around in wonder.

Day 49 of 100

I took this photo on a walk yesterday. There are similarities in the composition between this and the fallen log bridge picture I was working on. I did a quick sketch so far.

Day 48 of 100

It was a great week. As soon as the critique was done, I drove 250 miles to visit my dad. I am quite tired.

Day 47 of 100

This is the view from the place where I am staying this week. Lucky me. I noticed this morning that each rectangle is a separate composition, just like the grid picture I was working on.

But I did not work on the grid picture today. Last night I made this sketch. I wanted to keep in my head the things that have been interesting for me to work on.

First thing this morning I made this painting using the sketch as reference.

Hazel gave me a full sheet of hot press watercolor paper and I made the composition again. I redrew the figure a few times. It was always too big and I still think it is too big but maybe it needs to be big. I wanted it to blend in more, be part of the landscape. The smaller ones were more successful at this idea. I have not painted the figure yet because I am not convinced it is right yet.

At the end of the day I worked on this one a bit more. It was Hazel's idea to make each tree a different color. I agree it was a good idea.

Day 46 of 100

Today it is raining. All the better to paint inside.

The order of the photos is backward from the order in which they were created.

When I trimmed the pictures from the grid to make the ratio work I had all those watercolored strips of paper. What do you do with strips of paper? You weave, of course.

And then I went back to working on some of the grid pictures and I was struggling with which branch was in front in a few spots.

I wanted to make a picture of woven branches. That is the top picture.

This is acrylic. I was frustrated and decided I needed to redo the composition in a quick study.

And this is the current state of the grid picture.

Day 45 of 100

Most of the day today I worked on the gridded out enlargement of the tree painting that I was most interested in. I wish I could figure out what it is that intrigues me about it.

The weather was beautiful so at the end of the class time I went to Artist's Point and drew rocks and water. In this class the theme "Authentic Identity" involves remembering what we were like at age 8-11. I remember loving climbing on rocks, being in the woods, being in or near water, singing, doing jigsaw puzzles, doing crafts, watching cartoons, reading, baking, exploring. Today I did not do all those things, but I did some of them.

Day 44 of 100

I am starting the second day of a class at Grand Marais Art Colony. There is so much in my head right now I need to just start painting again. This is what I worked on yesterday. The theme of this week is Wonder Woman:Authentic Identity.

Day 43 of 100

I did battle with this painting today. I wish we could work together, but it won't tell me what it wants. Sometimes it is best to spend the rest of the day framing. I also went for a walk. It is a beautiful day. 

Day 42 of 100

My mother-in-law gave me an hourglass as a gift. We were shopping together and I was admiring it. She seemed to truly feel joy in the interaction, so I did not try to stop her. I usually have anxiety about giving and receiving gifts, and try to avoid all gift situations.

I do like this. I will bring photos of it when I go to Grand Marais for a painting class.

Day 41 of 100

There are computer tasks for school that need to be done at some point this summer. My plan was to get started this morning,using a computer at school because the software and access to the server is there. School is in the process of being cleaned for the summer, all the furniture is in the hallways. So I went for a walk at Lake Vadnais. So glad. It is a beautiful day. I did not have my paint with me, just a small notebook. 

This evening I went to a watercolor demo at the Northstar meeting. Feeling energized to paint with rollers and palette knives.