A Milestone Day

 Major excitement for me today as it was my drop off day for the Square Foot Show at Westland Gallery in Wortley Village. This goal has been several months in the planning and I'm quite chuffed with myself for having followed through. Wouldn't have foreseen doing this a year ago LOL. 

Lots of new experiences for me in bringing pieces forward for sale - applying hanging hardware, applying a protective finish, labelling and signing each piece. I decided to go with spray varnish for the canvas piece and then cold wax for the two pieces on wood panel. As far as a signature goes I finally settled on putting my initials in one lower corner and then full signature on the back. For the non representational pieces I don't want to choose for the purchaser which way to hang it. As the painter I certainly have a sense of which way it goes but once it's out of my hands it should be up to the buyer to choose for themselves and I don't want my signature to determine that necessarily.

Looking at them here I see I also need to practice my photography skills, as you can hardly see the hints of red that live in Gale Force. 

    

     Gale Force - mixed media          Adrift - mixed media                 Tufted Joy - mixed media

       on 12 x 12 wood panel              on 12 x 12 canvas                    on 12 x 12 wood panel

Tufted Joy is also serving as my personal xmas card this year, so spoiler alert for those on my card list LOL. It was painted from a reference photo belonging to Mary Villazon , with permission, as we are both members of the Photos for Artists facebook group. 

The Square Foot Show  runs November 24 - December 30, 2021.

Up next - my winter project is to build a proper website for my artwork and I'm hoping to be able to link this blog to it at some point. Lots more learning ahead!

A first of many firsts to come

 This was the first year that I actually set written goals for myself and my art at the beginning of the year and I'm extremely pleased to say that I have followed through on every one of them! 

And then today I followed through on one more impromptu plan. I entered some of my work into a local competition - ack! This is so not me LOL. My goal here is not the prize which is nominal, but to actually put my work out there into public space for anyone to see. This process started with my decision to participate in my sister's weekend market, so more about the competition in a minute.

Each Sunday since early June I have taken a selection of the mini canvases I painted during the winter/spring lockdown, along with some older watercolour pieces and notecards, and set up a vendor table to test the water of selling my art. I had no idea whether anything would even appeal to this limited market and next to no idea about pricing said art. Well, things turned out better than I could have ever imagined. The 40 lockdown pieces were quickly rehomed and I was having trouble keeping up with new items to add to my display. Got lots of lovely feedback too.

So now, as summer is coming to an end I turned my eye to our local fall fair and lo and behold - despite physically cancelling the fair - I saw the creative arts competition is to continue virtually. So I had a good look through my stuff and found 8 pieces that I was happy to enter into 4 different categories. They were entered this morning and are now out there online for anyone to see. I can't tell you how huge a win this is for me!

Next up on the agenda is making and selecting pieces to put in a local gallery square foot show. Application deadline is less than 6 weeks away! 

Lucy Revisited

 

Lucy is growing up so it was time to update her portrait. This is done in charcoal on 12 x 12 inch watercolour paper 140lb cold pressed. I was really pleased with how it turned out overall but especially her mouth and teeth.

I'm once again taking Louise Fletcher's Find Your Joy course this summer and thoroughly enjoying it. I'm a bit behind on the weekly modules due to some other art commitments but since I have access to the material for the year, that's of no concern. What I can see though is how my work this year has been propelled by my participation last year, if that makes any sense. Sort of like a springboard effect. 

Those 'other art commitments' are also an after effect of taking FYJ last year in that it's given me the confidence for putting myself 'out there' more than I ever have as an artist. My mini canvases have been selling at a rate almost faster than I can keep up with - not a bad problem to have LOL. 

Lucy

 

It's been ages since I've done a realistic drawing but I'm quite chuffed with the results. Lucy is an English bulldog puppy belonging to a friend of my sister and too cute for words.

It's far from perfect but the likeness is there and I'm quite loving the lost and found edges and incomplete nature of the whole thing. I stopped at this point because the 'fear of ruining it' would not be denied LOL. 

Who knows, maybe I'll try another one and see how much farther I can push it. Would also like to try it in india ink.

Fall is Here

How quickly it seems the season changes. 10 weeks of the FYJ2020 course has just flown by. Later this morning will be the wrap up zoom call, which will be an ending of sorts but such an amazing beginning. I can't say enough about the value of Louise's teachings. There's just been so much to take in and the amount of exploration that still awaits is huge. So glad we have access for a full year! 

 

I've kept up with the videos with each new module but not necessarily the assignments and journaling that is so key to moving forward. But all in good time! I've been having a blast just through swatching different colour palettes, amazed at the variety of tones and colours one can make with just a couple of colours plus black and white. There's a part of me that would like to pick a short term palette to work with for a period of time. 

This piece to the left is baltic blue, yellow ochre plus B&W and I'm quite enjoying it. I've watched a lot of the series Shetland recently and find a wonderful beauty in the bleakness of the landscape. Such a drastic difference from my own surroundings. I also have a 'thing' for the simplicity of some of the cottages found in the UK. It all ties in with my connection with inukshuks I think, in that here is a marker that someone has been here, no matter how harsh the geography might be. Someone has been and left their mark. This is one of the many revelations that my journaling uncovered for me and that is key to why I want to make art. Can't wait to see what else I find out about myself LOL. 

Before and Afters

 A little over midway through FYJ2020 and it's everything and more that I was hoping for. I'm still keeping up with viewing each modules videos even as I fall a bit behind in the exercises but that's okay. We have access to the course for a full year and there's just lots of room for exploration, so I won't lack for things to do for the upcoming months LOL. 

The current module is dealing with contrasts in relation to composition and tone. I took my 3 least favourite from an exercise in the taster course and decided to use those to resolve. Pretty happy with my first attempt. 

        

Using the same colour palette of payne's grey, Q nickel azo gold and pyrrole red I changed up the shape sizes  and made the darker tones more dominant. Don't think it's done yet but definitely progressing. 

I also took another piece that was meandering in no fixed direction and decided to see where I could take it. Again, not sure it's reached its final destination either.

  

Find Your Joy Taster Course

Had a blast doing Louise's taster course. This is my result from the first lesson, where we picked 3 colours plus B&W and just went to town. We started on a full sheet of paper that was taped off into smaller grids. The idea was to treat it as one big painting, no thought given to the smaller areas, and work for no more than 30 minutes. This was to avoid thinking about what we were doing and just do what our intuition said to try. 

It looked quite the chaotic mess until the tape was removed and then, as always, the magic happens LOL. It never ceases to amaze me how different things look with that white border around them. The colours I used were Paynes grey, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold with a bit of Pyyrole red brought in just at the end for some visual pop. I've since cut them up into individual pieces to play with at a later date. A few I quite like now but most of them need some further resolution. 

I thought I would be good just carrying on with some of the ideas and exercises from the free taster course but after a couple of days pondering I committed to taking the full 10 week course. Starts Monday - can't wait!

2020 - What a year it has been so far

Wow almost 7 months since I last posted here - even I didn't realise it had been that long. Who knew the world was going to change so drastically overnight?! I've been busy with lots of things and a good number of them creativity related, either directly or sometimes indirectly. 

I was able to get out to my studio so much earlier this year after we installed new garage doors - these ones are insulated (big help in this climate) and with windows for extra light. The beauty of this is I learned even with having studio space set up indoors last year, I pretty much stop and pause for about 2 months post xmas. I swear I was a bear in a former life as hibernation comes very naturally to me. By the time the doors were done I was ready to get back into making something, anything LOL. 

Then the whole Covid shutdown happened. Thankfully I had already joined an online art community run by Louise Fletcher. If you don't know who she is, search for her on YouTube or google her. She's an incredibly generous artist spirit who somehow manages to speak directly to my creative soul. Watching her videos helped me to stop being precious about my work or my supplies and to learn that just because I don't know what to do with a piece today doesn't mean I won't be able to resolve it at a later date. Just put it aside and play with something else LOL.

Yesterday that very thing happened. The first picture was several layers into it and it was all feeling too contrived and forced - so I put it aside. That was last fall; then up out of nowhere I picked it out of the pile of broken toys and just threw paint at it, playing intuitively and not the least bit concerned about the outcome. I still don't know if it's finished but I'm much happier with it now.

This week I am taking Louise's free Find Your Joy taster course so hope to be posting some more this week. We'll see!

Change of Plans

Clearly, my inner artist has been growing more confident with my time spent in studio this summer and she was not to be denied LOL. I have a lot of available space in my bedroom and so with a little shift in layout, the winter studio has been set up!

Took down the california shutters on the big window, plunked my table right in front, bought some flexible floor lamps with daylight bulbs in them, rearranged the furniture and we're good to go. Touille, my calico longhair aka the boss, was a little unsure with all of this activity but has given her stamp of approval now that the dust has settled. And she's behaving herself as far as painting etiquette goes, though anyone familiar with cats knows that could change at a moment's notice. For now she gets to come and go freely when I'm painting. 

With the change in location and season I'm already noticing some differences in my practice. Winter is just around the corner and with ever diminishing light a reality, I'm finding late morning or early afternoon is usually when I'm drawn to create. But every now and then I find myself called back in the evening, to play around some more. And I like that!

New Season

Fall is definitely upon us! Cooler temperatures for the past few weeks have forced induced me to alter my studio time. No longer can I head out there first thing in the morning - well I can but I'm not a happy camper being out there LOL. 

I do have a space heater but that necessitates me closing the garage doors in order to be effective, and I'm loathe to give up the light just yet. So I am starting to make a plan for when I finally have to close my little haven down and relocate inside. A list, because I love lists, of things such as what art supplies need to be stored indoors (mostly just paint and mediums) and what kind of art do I want to make until I can get back into my studio. I know in my head it makes perfect sense to spend the winter working on my ancestry, and I'm sure I'll embrace that once again when it's time but the painter in me isn't ready to give up the reins just yet to my more pragmatic side!

In the meantime, here's a sampling of some of the pieces I've worked on since my last posting. Oddly enough, I've gotten back to my watercolour roots in recent weeks. Wasn't expecting that but I'm delighted that it happened. It's also got me dreaming of working on full sheets of paper which is huge, both physically and philosophically for me. Scary and exciting all at the same time!

Siddall Road (c) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart
acrylic on 12 x 12 in canvas panel

Cosmic Duet (c) Kate and Susan Langdon
mixed media on 12 x 16 in paper

Southwest (c) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart
watercolour on 12 x 16 in CP paper