Before The Curtain Falls

Mysterious Thrills

2009-06-09T11:27:00.005-04:00

Ink Drawing - Created during The Butterfly Project performance
New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, New Jersey
June 6, 2009
Link to journal entry: Mysterious Thrills

Cargo Pants

2009-05-28T07:22:00.003-04:00

Sketching in Old Lyon, France

Link to journal entry "Travel Tips for Artists - Cargo Pants"

No time to be fussy

2009-05-13T20:54:00.004-04:00

Link to jour nal entry on wordpress.com

Rapeseed Fields in Southern France

2009-05-12T04:53:00.003-04:00

Link to journal entry
Third Time Around

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T17:09:00.004-04:00

Watercolor Sketch painted in Arles, France. Cafe La Nuit, painted by Van Gogh.

Link to journal entry... Mother's Day

Cypress Trees in Southern France

2009-05-08T07:31:00.004-04:00

Link to journal entry

An adventure in France

2009-05-07T07:22:00.003-04:00

My dear friend, Mlle. Jane, treated me to a trip to France!

Over the next few weeks I will post sketches, photos, paintings and rambling thoughts on my wordpress blog. Each time I add a new post, I will also post an image and a link on this blog.

Link to today's post on wordpress.com

Bad Link

2009-03-22T13:13:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the bad link on the last post.

Here is the link to my wordpress blog: chriscarterart.wordpress.com

A Shift in Direction

2009-03-22T12:23:00.006-04:00

Trying once again to simplify my life, I have decided to try wordpress for my illustrated journal blog. After visiting Alexis and Nicole's blogs, it appeared that I might find it might suit my needs a bit better. I'm not sure how wordpress and blogger are related, but I was able to import all of the posts on this blog into my new blog. On occasion, I will post to this blog, but probably not more than once a month.

I believe it is easier to subscribe to the wordpress blog. You will find a "Blog" drop down button in the upper right corner that allows you several options including subscribing. My new blog is Third Time Around at chriscarterart.wordpress.com.

Over the next couple of months I am working on a large commissioned piece. I doubt that I will post paintings on Ebay during this time. I might simply vanish until late Spring when I will offer Creativity Workshops and Painting Workshops from my home studio.

Image: Maggie Segale - oil on paper

One Hung, One to go

2009-03-05T13:02:00.003-05:00

I'm cutting it close. The paintings must be dropped off at Wing's Conservatory before noon on Saturday. The paint will still be wet when the color studies are hung. Fortunately the paintings are oil on paper and need to be matted and framed under glass, protecting the wet paint from being smeared by curious fingers. Within an hour or two I will have completed the last of the little color studies and will begin cutting mats and framing.

Working four days a week at the prop shop has forced me into a discipline of scheduling my time carefully. Another benefit, aside from that of a regular paycheck, is the pruning of priorities. Over the past five years I have spent a great deal of time on marketing that has not proven to move me toward my goal of becoming a better painter. Ultimately, learning to paint with clean, fresh, exciting color that suggests moods, atmospheric conditions and excitement will bring me far greater satisfaction than adding more exhibits to my resume.

I look forward to disappearing from the public eye for awhile.

Image: Ellen Mihalick, painted over black & white, giclee print of photograph by Elayne Wishart.

Eric Ortega

2009-02-26T07:19:00.004-05:00

The energy and movements of Eric Ortega have been an inspiration to me since I began painting him four or five years ago. He inspired my spontaneous Zakar Art work and now the first oil painting of him. The exhibit Reflections of a Dancer opens next weekend at Wings Conservatory in Chester, New Jersey. Along with a selection of my watercolor paintings and Zakar paintings, a series of color studies created from the photographs of Elayne Wishart will be presented. This study of Eric is one of the paintings that will be on display. The exhibit is a fund raising event for the Butterfly Project. For more information on the Butterfly Project, click here.

Reflections of a Dancer - Exhibit at Wings Conservatory

2009-02-24T06:06:00.001-05:00

First Image: underpainting
Second Image: first glaze over underpainting.

The exhibit, Reflections of a Dancer, opens at Wings Conservatory in Chester on March 7th, 2009. The exhibit will raise funds for The Butterfly Project, supporting children's cancer research.

The technique used in the color studies I have created for this exhibit is new to me. The images were taken from the beautiful photographs of Elayne Wishart whose work will also be shown in the exhibit along with the work of Deb Gichan and Ana Tatoris. Using the traditional technique of underpainting and glazing, I first used the computer to transform Elayne's color photographs into black and white photographs. I then printed giclee prints and painting the initial underpainting (first image posted here) directly onto the print. I felt like a hack doing that. My goal was to play with color and glazes on figures as I did on landscapes last year. Taking the time to redraw the images of twelve paintings for a fund raising exhibit was not part of the plan, especially when the images themselves were not originally mine. Still, it worked against my grain to simply paint over someone else's photographs. These paintings are not just inspired by Elayne's work, they are, beneath the surface of paint, Elayne's work. So be it. I have learned what I set out to learn by this experiment, that complementary colors in an underpainting does not always work as well with interior/figure work as with landscapes. Analagous colors glazed over the surfaces of walls, backgrounds and flesh worked a bit better for me.

However, struggling through the color studies, nuances of color were suggested that I would not have thought to experiment with and will lead to further studies. Heaven forbid I find myself at a dead end of exploration. I had planned for the orange underpainting in many of the studies (not shown here) to be obliterated by the glazes. Instead, I left a great deal of orange as it added energy to the work. The flesh tones often conflicted with the walls and had to be adjusted. I will choose the colors for the underpaintings differently the next time I work on figures in an interior.

All in all, it was a delightful experiment and I am grateful to Elayne for allowing me to use her work for this small series of color studies.

For Exhibit information visit www.chriscarterart.com and click on the link for schedule of events.

Transformation of a Painting

2008-11-16T22:23:00.004-05:00

The top painting began as the painting below. I thought I had resolved the painting, cleaned my palette and brushes, shut off the lights and returned home. Next morning when I arrived back at the studio I noticed that the dark spaces between the branches of one of the larger trees on the right was too dark in value and came forward rather than recede. I thought it would be simple enough to make the adjustment. One small adjustment led to another. I added a bit more definition to the small, isolated tree in the mid-ground area on the far right. I lost the subtlety I had liked in the grassy area. The painting lost its spark for me.

I'm not sure what happened next. Perhaps I began making a few more adjustments. At some point, the painting began to take on a new life, a far more vibrant life than the original version. The image began to have a heartbeat and I responded by giving it air to breath and space through which to move. I have had this experience many times while painting with watercolor, but only recently have I experienced it while oil painting.

Transformation is thrilling. Allowing the painting to go in a totally new direction resulted in a far stronger painting.

Abandon

2008-11-08T22:29:00.004-05:00

Creating Freddie the Cockroach for Andrea Kramer's Butterfly Project delighted me. After painting in oil for the past eight months, returning to watercolor refreshed my sense of spontaneity with paint.

Unveiled - the Anatomy of a Painting which hung at Monsoon Gallery in Bethlehem throughout the month of October is now behind me. I am pleased by Geoff Gehman's review in the Morning Call.

Visual Arts

By Geoff Gehman of The Morning Call November 2, 2008

FIVE ELEMENTS, FIVE SKILLS

Chris Carter's show at Monsoon is a showcase of five artistic elements: color, line, shape, texture and value. It's also a showcase of her five-tool talents.

The resident of Califon, N.J., is a versatile, canny portraitist. Nicole, an extreme closeup in oil, features a fiery curtain of hair over one eye, a snaking blue shadow over the other eye and an air of fragile mystery. Watercolor/acrylics of nude women are splashy, tattooed landscapes. A pastel of a skeleton has glowing teal bones, a clever carnival touch.

Especially engaging is Between Here and There, a series of oils of fields, forests and roads. Carter easily blends lacily veiled hues, slaloming perspectives and bubbling macadam.

Carter's drawings are just as dynamic. Inky squiggles of dancers are charmingly breezy; a pencil illustration of a boy dreaming of adventures with his collie is just plain charming.

Getting around to Playing

2008-10-13T08:01:00.004-04:00

After working for about six hours on the two paintings of Gaudi's walls of brick and stone I felt tight and lacking in creativity. It is one thing to look intently at a scene in front of me and to respond to the details that I pull out of the reality. It is quite another to study a photograph with the same intensity. Photographs are terribly limited when it comes to color. They can't help it. The color is created by pigment, not light. Translating pigment to pigment is quite different from translating light into pigment.

After deciding it was time to stop working on the brick and stones, to let the paintings dry and hope for a bit more energy to come from the next layer of glazing, my choice was to lock up shop and go home or to paint the first layer of glaze onto the last of the Road Series canvases. I had decided to use the painting Morning Dance as inspiration and to see what might happen. The painting is not at blue as it appears here.

With simplicity in mind I began to paint; I began to smile, to feel that rush of pleasure when something unexpected begins to happen. My fatigue vanished and I followed the muse. The final painting is another example of how working on a series results in breaking through barriers and finding myself in a new, unexplored territory. I adore simplicity, yet it is so difficult for me to express well. This painting is finished and I am delighted with the results.

Interior of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

2008-10-11T19:03:00.010-04:00

Image #1: Charcoal drawing on canvas.
Image #2: Underpainting
Image #3: First layer of glaze in the bottom, right corner.
Image #4: First layer of glaze completed.

Two days after the show at Monsoon comes down, the show in Pennington opens. The October sunshine is calling to me and I must resist the temptations to pack my paints and head to the woods. The architectural paintings along with four more of the road series must be completed and at least dry to the touch to hang by November 1st. Painting the amazing tree-like columns of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia is as close as I'll get to painting in the woods this week.
Though my palette is the same that I used for the Road Series, the mixes are more neutral in this first glaze of paint over the underpainting. I enjoyed a break from the greens of the landscapes. Not much of a break, considering I worked on landscapes yesterday and will work on at least one tomorrow if all goes well with the next layer of glazing on the remaining two architectural paintings.

Straube Center Fall Art Show

2008-10-09T09:28:00.003-04:00

The exhibit at Monsoon Gallery closes on November 5th and the exhibit at Straube Center opens on November 7th.

Several of the paintings that have been posted over the past five months were not included in the current exhibit at Monsoon Gallery. I eliminated half a dozen from the Road Series and all of the architectural series. The architectural series, inspired by the works of Gaudi, will hang in the Straube Center Exhibit.

Venus as Garbo

2008-09-28T18:12:00.004-04:00

Sunday morning, 10am. All the paintings are framed and packaged... except for one, Venus as Garbo, the climactic painting of the upcoming exhibit. For over a year I have stressed over the presentation of this painting.

It is difficult for me, when I am working on a painting, to analyze the composition pretending not to see six inches around the edges. This is the challenge that presents itself when I am painting on an unstretched canvas. This has been the dilemma with Venus as Garbo. To present it without losing the perimeter would mean to turn it into a wall-hanging or a canvas stretched like the skin of an animal to a framework outside of itself. I came to the painful decision that I had to forfeit the outside six inches of the painting and stretch it.

Good news... the decision was made. Bad news.... stretchers do not come in the sizes I need. Fine. I'll make my own stretchers out of some frame molding that I will never use for frames. I'll skip the next several good news/bad news events that led to this morning's struggle to make the wrong materials do the right thing.

I was in a wonderful state of mind having spent all of yesterday with Alexis at the Dodge Poetry Festival. Tom had ripped the extensions of the fill-in molding that I had glued to the frame molding the day before. I met Tom at the shop and he set me up to use the belt sander to even the edging of the homemade stretcher strips. He then left to work with Alexis grouting the newly laid tiles at home.

The sanding went well as did the re-cutting of the strips on the chop saw. Then came the assembly. It was impossible for me to make accurate diagonal measurements of the stretcher frame. I did the best I could, squaring each side and adding cross pieces for internal support. All this was done against the rounded edges of the round-edged frame molding that I cut inverted so as to leave the outside squared. The final result, at that point, was that one side was 3/8 inch longer than the other in spite of the fact that they started off equal lengths. I decided to glue the corners for added inflexibility and poured a cup of coffee with which to regain my balance while the glue dried. Hah!

With perfect timing, Tom and Alexis arrived back at the studio having completed their task of grouting. Neither one of them had found it to be a pleasant job. With Alexis as another body and another set of arms, we re-measured the frame and discovered that the diagonal dimensions were off by over half an inch. Not good. Unscrew everything and start again........

How wonderful it would be to leave the framing and stretching of artwork to professionals. I really don't know how artists afford to do solo exhibits (50 - 70 works) if they don't do the framing themselves.

With Alexis as moral support and an uncomplaining helper, Venus as Garbo was stretched over the re-adjusted framework of make-shift framing molding. We sandwiched it between protective layers of corrugated cardboard and added her to the pile of paintings ready to be loaded into the car on Thursday morning.

Preparing for this exhibit has been a marvelous journey. The left side of my brain and the right side of my brain worked as partners, each getting out of the other's way at the right time and stepping in again only when needed. I didn't think such a collaboration was possible.

Such a revalation leads me, of course, to taking on even greater challenges. What fun!

Painting Out the Road

2008-09-17T08:22:00.006-04:00

How refreshing.

As the painting developed, the road became less significant. During the final stages, nothing about the road worked anymore, the shape, the value, the color.... , it had served its purpose of being the seed and it was time for the road to vanish and vanish it did.

Clinging to elements in a painting that no longer work can be disastrous to the final outcome of a painting. Flexibility, willingness to allow the painting itself to begin dictating the resolution of composition, of color, of character and personality is an essential part of the creative process. Knowing exactly what the outcome should be and making sure that it turns out that way negates any chance of creativity being part of the process.

In order for a canvas to develop a personality, a direction of its own, a painter must start somewhere, plant the seed, do all she can to nurture the seed and then let go of the controls when she sees that something other than a duck has hatched out of the egg! For those of you who missed out on the joy of sitting on your mother's lap and listening to her read to you, I'm making reference to The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen.

On The Road #1

2008-09-04T19:40:00.011-04:00

On The Road #1 was the first of the series Between Here and There. This painting has undergone more drastic changes than any other painting in the series.

The first glaze, a light value glaze of cool blue convinced me that I would, in spite of my doubts, enjoy the technique of glazing. I thought the composition was strong and I looked forward to the dramatic impact of the final painting. The second glaze, the glaze applied over the trees and over both the sky and the road, also went well. Without hesitation, except for the week of drying time between glazes, I applied the third glaze, a darker blue of the sky and a variety of greens on the trees. I did not plan for my emotions, so terribly susceptible to the moods of th ose around me and to the pressures of daily life, to take control of the painting. Without realizing it I changed a perfectly calm and evocative mood into one of frenzy and discord. The clouds shot diagonally across the narrow canvas in a state of frenzy.

At the next sitting, I painted out the lower clouds believing I could taming the energy of the upper clouds to my advantage. I was wrong. During the next sitting I painted the clouds out completely and pruned the tree on the right significantly. The following session involved further pruning of the trees on the left and total removal of the tree on the right. I was getting into a more Zen state. In addition, time had passed since I had started the series of Sky,Road and Trees. I'd grown quite weary of the subject and needed to do something drastic just for the fun of it.

During the past few days I've been reflecting on the direction of my painting. How does representational work really fit into my life, or does it at all? In the September 2nd Twice-Weekly Letter by Robert Genn wrote about refocusing on what one's passions were as a child. With that in mind I went back into the painting with a lighter touch, adding happier colors into the sky and allowing the trees to be more playful. At this point, the road seems to have very little to do with the painting. I will deal with that at the next sitting.

Perspective

2008-09-01T22:27:00.003-04:00

The ruins of Torre Salvana, Castle Santa Coloma de Cervello inspired the composition of the painting. My intention is simplicity, a few open passageways that lead the eye to the other side of thick walls. The dominant element is shape, mostly high key (light) rectangular shapes accented with triangular, low-key (dark) shadow shapes. The color is meant to be playful and not distracting.

Simple? No. Any painting that is not totally abstract tests my drawing skills. In this case, it is the ability to manipulate perspective. The ruins of the 12th century castle that sits high on a hill above the small village of Colonia, Spain is an M. C. Escher dream, or a C. R. Carter nightmare depending on my ability to control my love of mathematical puzzling.

I thank James Paterno, my eighth grade algebra teacher for fueling my passion for the manipulation of figures and shapes. With little more than a devilish smile he jumped from complex equations to drawing a “sniffer” using only geometric shapes.

My dad, trained as an electrical engineer, I can thank for my dedication to perspective. Before he could even think about liking one of my paintings, he would point out any aspect of the drawing that was not in proper perspective and comment on the lines that were not perfectly straight. Good old Dad. It was only three years ago that he opened his heart to my abstract work. In spite of his criticism he always offered to loan me his ruler. He encouraged me to face the challenge of drawing and painting and to learn the necessary skills to draw buildings and objects “properly”. Now it is my turn to challenge him. At the age of eighty-five he is beginning to see the beauty in crooked lines.

For me, the world around me formed a mosaic of abstract forms, lines that danced, unrestricted across fields, city streets and through forests. Shapes expanded and contracted like sheets billowing on a windy day, held back from flight by only a couple of wooden clothespins. I’ve always had a strong sense of line, shape and value, balancing them precariously on my page so as not to lose the sense of rhythm and motion that I love, or to diminish the space created on my page, a space so vast I get lost in it. Though I prefer painting abstractly, I return to representational painting to exercise my power of observation.

The painting of Torre Salvana will only appear simple if the outlying walls are drawn correctly. The central archway presented an optical illusion that has caused me to redraw the structure each time I have added another layer of glaze. I thought I had solved all of the perspective in the original charcoal sketch. How wrong I was!

The painting is finally taking shape and the walls are opening up allowing that ambiguous space I love so dearly to fill the gaps between stone and brick while still giving an illusion of a flat shapes upon a flat surface.

Cooped up too long or .... working from photographs

2008-08-31T08:30:00.006-04:00

I've reached my limit. I've grown weary of working from photographs. There is so much more color in the three-dimensional world lit by the light of the sun, and even the illumination from a light bulb. Photographs are so dreary compared with the richness of reflected light rays.

Bricks and mortar are a delightful change from sky, trees and road. The only green I am mixing is a grayed-green for the mortar. I find that working over the umber/white underpainting is not nearly as entertaining as working over a complementary underpainting. For the third architectural piece in the exhibit, the interior of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, I have painted the underpainting in yellow-oranges and violet-blues. I'm not sure it will be completed in time to be hung, but I'm not going to rush it. The underpainting is a bit thicker and will need a longer period of time to dry thoroughly before glazing.

There is no fast track to the point of exhaustion when working on a series of paintings such as the Road Series "Between Here and There". It is only at the point of exhaustion, the point where I find myself painting by rote, not exploring and solving problems, that I break through the barrier of painting the way I think it should be painted and enter the marvelous world of new habits, fresher color and unique vision. The new habits and the fresh approach will be carried to the next series of paintings "The Clothesline".

During the war in Vietnam, comedian Dick Gregory gave up eating solid food. The war lasted far longer than expected and Gregory lost an enormous amount of weight and became extremely fit. When the war finally came to an end, he vowed that the next time he protested by way of his dietary habits he would camp out next to a fruit and vegetable stand and eat constantly for the duration of the protest. For my next series, "The Clothesline" I vow to paint outdoors each and every day and to use sketches and color studies rather than photographs! I have never liked working from photographs and painting from them over the past several months has not altered my attitude.

Painting from life does not necessarily mean that painting out of habit doesn't happen. Naturally, it does. The difference is that the light is constantly changing, shadows moving, leaves rustling and branches swaying. Nothing is truly fixed. The way I mix my colors may become rote if I'm not careful, but there is a tendency to be more inventive. The colors that I see before me will always be like a fresh turn of a kaleidoscope, never quite the same, in the same combinations, as I've seen before.

Image: Cellar ceiling of the Palau Guell in Barcelona, Spain. Designed by Gaudi
Link to other architectural paintings from this series

Unveiled - The Anatomy of a Painting

2008-08-26T18:51:00.009-04:00

October 3rd - November 5th 2008

Monsoon Gallery
11 East 3rd Street
Bethlehem, PA 18015

PH: (610) 866-6600

www.MonsoonGalleries.com

Link to Press Release

Opening Reception: First Friday - Oct. 3rd 7-10 pm
Music by singer/songwriter Maria Woodford!

Link to progress of paintings to be exhibited.

A unique exhibit introducing the Five Elements of Art in both representational and abstract paintings. By appointment, I will guide small groups through the exhibit. School groups are encouraged to attend. Please call the gallery for scheduling.

Yoga/Art workshops will also be offered at the gallery during the month of October. Space is limited. Each workshop focuses on one of the Five Elements of Art. No previous yoga or art experience necessary. All supplies will be provided.

Portrait of Nicole

2008-08-14T09:40:00.012-04:00

The glazing technique excites me more each day. When I return to plein air painting in the fall, I am fairly certain that I will begin with a quick drying underpainting in acrylic. Glazing over underpaintings allows me to easily keep colors clean and lively.

Though the flesh tones in the portrait of Nicole are a bit pasty, I don't think there will be a problem in adjusting them to more pleasing tones. The turquoise underpainting of the hair masses has worked well with the glaze of red. Nicole adjusted her natural brown hair color to this fabulous red hue many years ago and I think it suits her perfectly.

The painting will dry for a week before I go back into it with another layer of glazes. At that point I will focus on developing the form around the nose, eyes and mouth. I will also paint in the basic forms of the necklace. Most likely, the final glaze will highlight areas of the hair, make final adjustments to facial features and add loose but careful definition to the necklace.

Image: Portrait of Nicole, oil on masonite panel

Link to Page on Website featuring progress of portrait paintings

Progress

2008-08-07T08:18:00.012-04:00

The early stages of the portrait of belly dancer Rachel Brice expressed an energy and spontaneity that I did not want to risk losing. After allowing the under painting to dry for a week, I liked the blue color of her skin and had no desire to begin the layers of glazing. My curiosity won out and I had to see what would happen when I began to apply more color. Besides, I was rather tired of mixing greens for the landscapes I have been working on. Getting back to the movements of a dancing body was a welcome change.

Pushing a painting further challenges my ability to manipulate color and brushstrokes and to correct the drawing with simplicity in mind. Pushing a painting to another level also tests my intuitive instincts to know when to stop, to know when a painting has made a statement that engages the viewer to keep the communication going. If the painting has the last word, it has reached the point of boredom. The viewer will move on with no intention of returning to finish the conversation.

At this point, I think the painting will require at least two more layers of glazes.

Image: Portrait of Rachel Brice
Oil on wood panel 10 1/2" x 14"

Link to page on website featuring progress of portrait paintings

Ruins of the Castle at Santa Coloma de Cervello

2008-07-29T19:49:00.015-04:00

In 2004 Nicole and I ventured southwest of Barcelona to the small village of Santa Coloma de Cervello to visit the Eglesia de la Colonia Guell, the village church designed by Gaudi and built in the early 1900's. From 1898 until construction began in 1908 Gaudi worked on developing a system using hanging strings and bags filled with pellets to determine the arch supports needed for his organic, irregular design of the interior columns. The success of his method in Santa Coloma de Cervello led to the design and construction of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

On the outskirts of town, the ruin of a castle, the Torre Salvana of Santa Coloma de Cervello captured our curiosity. It sat high on a hill above sun-parched fields. The root of a gigantic tree carved a lace-like pattern out of the bleached blue sky. The castle spoke of an earlier time when the air was not filled with a muffled silence. There was something about the castle that drew us nearer to it and caused us to linger for well over an hour. To get to the castle we had crossed over the parched fields from the road that led away from Gaudi's Eglasia de la Coloma Guell toward the train station. We left the ruins by way of an ordinary path that led to a road that led to a formal entrance upon which hung a sign that indicated that we had trespassed. Oh well. The castle inspired a sense of starkness. Rather than paint an image of the Salvana Tower, the main feature by which the castle is know, I have chosen to focus on the abstracted features highlighted by that early afternoon sun.

While researching the castle I stumbled upon a few blogs written by individuals who have visited Barcelona and the outlying areas. Once again I am reminded of how important it is to take more careful notes when traveling abroad, especially when experiences evolve into paintings. I totally misunderstood the information I gathered at the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia. I did not realize until my recent research into the history of the Torre Salvana that the interior of the Sagrada Familia and the Passion Facade on the east side were not actually designed by Gaudi. The amazing tree-like columns of the interior are a cross-mix of more modern design and the original intent taken from Gaudi's notes. One of the pieces in my upcoming show Unveiled-The Anatomy of a Painting is inspired by those enormous tree-like columns. Another painting (shown here), inspired by the Passion Facade on the west side of the Sagrada Familia should be attributed to Subirach, not Gaudi.

Images:
First Image - Charcoal drawing on canvas - Torre Salvana in Santa Coloma De Cervello, Spain
Second Image - Underpainting - Raw Umber and White
Third Image - Oil Painting of a portion of The Passion Facade of the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

Link to page on website featuring progress of architectural paintings

Thunderstorms

2008-07-27T20:29:00.008-04:00

Summer is not my favorite season. For me, the highlight of summer is thunderstorms. I love lying in bed, total darkness except for the flashes of lightning, the wind causing the curtains to billow into the room and the sound of rain on the gutters and ground. The sound of the rain pounding on the metal roof at the studio is even better.

A powerful storm moved through in the early hours of the morning taking with it the electricity at the studio. I've painted in the dark before, no reason to break my routine due to lack of light. A perfect opportunity to play with my paint, using extreme colors calculating the mixes in my head and making sure the values worked. Even after the electricity came back on I continued to play. As much as I have enjoyed working on the Road Series, I have also felt restricted by working representationally and focusing on relatively realistic atmospheric conditions.

One of the benefits of painting a series is that after having solved many of the common problems presented by the series, I can't help but veer off in another direction that usually suggests a fresh approach and ultimately stronger work.

Sky as the source of color scheme

2008-07-26T21:47:00.010-04:00

The underpaintings shown are a mix of viridian, cadmium red medium and white. Yesterday I applied the first glaze to the square painting illustrated above, a landscape in Northern Portugal. I started the session with a neutralized blue-gray to the sky. My attention was focused on mixing colors to create distant atmospheric perspective. When it came to the foreground greens I found it difficult to mix colors that didn't make my stomach turn and cause a sense of depression to deplete my energy. After several hours of struggle, I was able to mix brighter, yet still grayed, greens and an odd, but not unpleasant sense of light began to give life to the painting.

Today's session started on a second canvas (same underpainting colors) with a different approach to the sky, a bright, yet light value mix of cobalt turquoise and white. The color of the sky determines the light source and therefore affects all the other color mixes on the canvas. If the sky is gray, there are no blues being reflected off of the landforms in the shadows below; nor are there warm yellows reflecting off of the landforms in the sunlit areas since the sun is also blocked. Therefore only grayed variations of all the colors are possible if I am limiting myself to reality which, of course, I am not. Reality is only a starting point. When the sky is blue, the shadow areas will reflect a lovely blue variation of the local color and the sunlit areas will reflect white or yellows variations of local color. As the sun sets and the sky becomes more purple with oranges reflecting off of the clouds, the same colors appear in the shadows and lit areas of the landscape.

I remember the first winter after discovering alizarin crimson. It was the early 70's. Winter no longer appeared gray, white, black and brown with a blue sky overhead. Everywhere I looked I saw crimson and purple brambles, hillsides of lavenders and pinks. My eyes, having awakened to the crimsons of the leafless trees and bushes, became aware of the bright blues in shadows cast upon snow next to the sunlit yellows and oranges. Once again, painting is awakening me to new colors and nuances of color that have surrounded me all my life without my taking notice.

Creeping Up on Color

2008-07-19T23:27:00.007-04:00

July in New Jersey challenges me to find interest and variety in the color green, even when painting in the studio. Using a limited palette makes it easier to create variety in my greens without introducing a green from a totally different light source. The fact that the same limited palette can be used to express landscapes at different times of the day and under different weather conditions might appear to contradict my last statement. I use a large sheet of glass as a palette allowing me to leave many piles of mixed paints spread about the surface. If the colored piles don't work well together on the palette, the colors won't work well together on the canvas.

I am finding that cool greens work better than warm greens when glazing over an underpainting of cool red. Both cool and warm greens work well over a warmer toned underpainting. Each day another positive aspect of underpainting reveals itself to me. Because the hu es of the underpaintings are varied, I am forced to explore different choices for the glazes such as grayed greens, purple-greens and strong blue-greens.
The strong yellow-orange underpainting of the sky in the last two images forced a stronger blue that moves toward a lighter lavender and ended up suggesting one of those peculiar weather situations where it is raining a few miles up the road while the sky above is still a bright blue. The trees ahead, closer to the storm, are a cool, gray-green, while the trees closer to the foreground are a warmer, grayed green.

An unexpected result of painting landscapes in the studio is that I see the combinations I've created artificially in real landscapes. I've learned more about atmospheric color schemes in the past month than in a decade of plein-air painting. I'm looking forward to packing my gear and setting up outside this fall. Perhaps I will do a quick underpainting in acrylic so that it will dry quickly and I can immediately begin to overpaint in oil.

Link to page on website featuring progress of these paintings.

Subtle Changes and Safflower Oil

2008-07-17T18:20:00.005-04:00

About a month ago I came across the book Traditional Oil Painting by Virgil Elliott. I refer to it often while experimenting with the technique of glazing over underpaintings.

In Chapter 7, Oil Painting Materials, Elliott suggests using safflower oil for cleaning brushes followed by soap and water rather than using turpentine. I have always used soap and water on all of my brushes, but never thought of using a vegetable oil for the preliminary cleaning. Safflower oil is a common binder in many oil paints. It can also be used judiciously to thin paints while glazing. I was surprised by the successful results as both a cleaner and a medium.

I applied a very thin glaze on the painting illustrated here. I wanted to get a feel for the coloring of the sky before I worked color into the trees. After the first glaze on the sky and a bit on the road, I mixed a cool, dark glaze of alizarin crimson, viridian and a touch of manganese. I glazed over the trees and grassy areas attempting to establish a sense of the clustering of the trees. It is difficult to see the subtle changes of value in these photos. The manganese helps to create a sense of the same atmospheric light. I'll let the painting dry completely before going back into the trees with a greater variety of greens, both warm and cool, the cool being dominant. After establishing the final range of values in the trees as well as a stronger palette for the trees I will glaze another layer onto the sky and the road. I want a sense of rich darkness in the trees, but I want the grass of the medium to be lighter, reflecting more sunlight and sky. The foreground road will be darker; the foreground grass will be lighter. The challenge at this point is finding a suitable hue for the lightest lights in the foreground grass.

Underpaintings of Figures

2008-07-10T20:08:00.008-04:00

The benefits of doing an underpainting continue to delight me. I find it easier to correct drawing and test values. I have more patience, correcting the drawing as many times as necessary. Trees are much more forgiving than faces. The technique of glazing multiple layers of paint over the underpainting requires weeks, perhaps months to complete since each layer must dry completely before applying the next layer of glaze. What is the sense in spending weeks applying glazes over a poor drawing?

The colors are so extreme that the canvas begins to take on a life of its own from the very first few brush strokes. A conversation begins almost immediately and the dialogue between the canvas and the right side of my brain is absolutely entertaining. I am amused that I feel as carefree painting this way in oils as I do splashing, splattering and pouring watercolor paint. For the past several years I've been trying to figure out how to thin oils so that I can manipulate them like watercolor. I thought I needed to splash, splatter and pour to get the sense of depth and motion I want. It is absurd to me that the technique of the old masters has given me the freedom I was searching for. It is difficult at this stage to imagine what the paintings will look like with five or six layers of glaze.

Image: Rachel Brice, Tribal Fusion Belly Dance Performer

Link to page on website featuring progress of portrait paintings.

Five Elements of Art

2008-07-08T08:45:00.005-04:00

Talking about a painting is a challenge for the viewer as well as the artist. Artists often use words too esoteric for even other artists to grasp the intended meaning. Viewers might not even attempt to connect the words with the brush strokes on the canvas. The solution is to find a simple vocabulary that can be understood by all. My friend, Dine, introduced me to Art Fundamentals – Theory and Practice published by McGraw Hill, a fantastic book that offers definitions and examples of a basic vocabulary with which to talk about, analyze and appreciate the world of art. I immediately read the book from cover to cover.

After so many years of painting I had taken my evaluation process for granted. I had stopped communicating clearly with myself, working more from the gut and ignoring the input that the left side of my brain might offer. With the Five Elements of Art in mind, I reviewed the paintings throughout my studio. My strengths and weaknesses shouted through the veil of artistic expression. How refreshing!

The experience of traveling to a foreign country is much enhanced when the traveler is able to communicate with the local people in their own language. The experience of standing before a painting is much enhanced when the viewer understands the language of the artist. So began the development of the yoga/art workshop that combines yoga with visual games focused on the five elements of art with the intent of opening the door to the pool of creative energy available to all, artists and non-artists alike. So began the idea of an exhibit that reaches out to the viewer rather than simply presenting itself to the viewer. Unveiled – The Anatomy of a Painting is such an exhibit, displaying paintings that illustrate my decision-making process as well as preliminary stages of the paintings to clarify that process.

I am a bit hesitant to bare my dirty laundry on the walls of Monsoon Gallery, while at the same time, I want the viewer to see what is beneath the many layers of paint that lead to the final surface. Within those many layers is the expression of the creative process, both the struggle and the joy. The final result is the conclusion of that creative process to which I am addicted. If painting were not a challenge, I would have given it up long ago. Each painting presents the opportunity to try new variations of manipulating the basic five elements of art; the options are limitless.

Image: Underpainting for Nicole - oil painting on masonite - 2' x 2'

Link to page on website featuring progress of portrait paintings

What if ......... ?

2008-07-05T21:22:00.003-04:00

Though the technique of glazing over a complementary-color underpainting is quite different from throwing, splattering and dripping watercolor onto paper, I discovered yesterday that the labor intensive glazing technique triggers the same thrill of experiencing the unexpected as my watercolor technique. As I gazed at the variety of the underpaintings of the past two days another significant similarity struck me. Both techniques lead to my asking “What if ....... ?”

What if I intensify the values of the underpainting?
What if I use analogous colors in the underpainting?
What if I handle the brush more freely?
What if I draw with strong-valued lines of paint?
What if I use more turpentine, causing the paint to drip in the underpainting?
What if I use that horrid color, cadmium red medium, in the underpainting?
Can I make the color sing by glazing vivid colors over a neutralized underpainting?
What if I do the underpainting in two or three sessions of glazes?

Yesterday I began by digging out my least favorite color, cadmium red medium. As beautiful as cadmium red light is both by itself and mixed with almost anything else, cadmium red medium is dreadfully dull by itself and manages to absorb the life out of any other color it is mixed with. Earlier in the day, while sipping a delicious cup of Dine’s coffee, I mentioned to my dear friend that I would experiment with cad. red medium in the fall after the exhibit at Monsoon is hung. She asked why I didn’t get rid of the paint rather than spoil good canvas and expensive paint trying to make it into something it isn’t. Perhaps the answer is that I’m stubborn and can’t help but believe there is at least one way to use the color successfully. As soon as I climbed the stairs to my studio I knew that there was no reason to put of until October something that I could do immediately.

I squeezed out cadmium red medium, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow medium, cobalt turquoise, pthalo turquoise and french ultramarine blue. After completing one large and one small underpainting I was left with sizable piles of blue paints on my palette. I ended yesterday’s painting session with extreme dark blue of the trees contrasted against a pale sky and ribbons of road.

My animosity toward cadmium red medium diminished significantly. I decided to use only cadmium red medium and viridian in today’s underpaintings. After the first two, I added pthalo turqoise.

There are two tried and true ways to activate color. One is by placing complementary colors next to one another. The second is to place vibrant color against a neutralized color, one that amplifies rather than competes with the color that is meant to sing. Even a less-than-vibrant-color can appear quite lovely against a neutral. I look forward to breathing energy and life into all of these experimental underpaintings.

Glazing Technique

2008-07-02T07:52:00.007-04:00

On July 1st, Judy Stines asked "Can you give us any details on your glazing technique?"

The purpose of the series Between Here and There is twofold: to explore the technique of glazing and to create a series of paintings that clearly illustrate the five elements of painting as simplistically as possible. I chose subject matter that presents a common, everyday experience, that of seeing the road cut through the landscape while driving in a car. The subject of these paintings is secondary to the elements of the paintings. The exhibit, Unveiled - The Anatomy of a Painting, will present both representational and abstract paintings. My hope is that the road series will introduce the idea that all paintings are working with the same elements. It is only through the artist's skilled and successful manipulation of these elements that content and meaning are communicated to the viewer.

My experience with this glazing technique has already inspired me to go further with it following the exhibit. In the future I will concentrate more on layered, composite drawings. In the road series, the drawing is extremely simple, stating only basic shapes and only suggestions of more complexity within those shapes.

I begin with a photograph. Hah! I cringe at the thought of working from photographs. In this case, fortunately, I made an exception.

Surface: My surfaces are either prepared birch plywood or stretched canvas. The plywood is sealed on both sides with two coats of acrylic GAC (made by Golden) and four coats of acrylic gesso. I sand the surface before applying the next layer. I also glue a frame made from 1"x2" strips 2" smaller than the board on the back to prevent warping and to provide a way to hang the paintings if they are not framed.

Drawing: Working from the dimensions of the canvases and boards, I crop the photographs and rework them using pastels to achieve the shapes and values that will create strong compositions. Using a projector, I transfer the drawing onto the surface indicating only the basic shapes, avoiding any small details.

Color Palette: My color palette is limited. I want to explore the range of color I can achieve using only White (Zinc White or Permalba White for transparent glazes and Titanium or Flake White for more opaque layering), Cadmium Yellow Pale, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Manganese Blue, Cobalt Blue and Ultramarine Blue.

Mediums: I am using either oil paints or acrylic paints for the underpaintings. I am using only oil paints for the glazes. I am not using a medium with the oil paints for the glazes, only turpentine.

Underpainting: For the underpainting I mix colors that are close to being the complement of the final color and are the same value as the final value. For example, if the sky will be a dark blue, I mix a dark orange. If the trees are going to be a mid-value cool green, I mix a mid-value cool red. I am experimenting with the warm and cool aspects of the underpainting and glazes. I will adjust my technique depending on the results.

Glazes: Each layer must dry completely! I apply the glaze with a brush, sometimes rubbing it into the surface with a cloth or removing parts of it with a brush or cloth. Sometimes I scumble the paint over the surface. I keep the edges soft at this point. Sharp definitions of shapes will come in later layers. I mix colors both on the palette and on the painting, enjoying the nuances that are automatically created by the interaction of the underpainting and the glazes. I allow the underpainting to show through in order to preserve the push and pull that occurs when complementary colors are placed next to one another.

The technique is quite simple. What is hardest for me is to be patient and allow the layers to dry completely before applying the next glaze. I am working on at least eight paintings at a time. That, too, is a new experience for me.

Color Play

2008-07-01T07:36:00.007-04:00

Figure 1. illustrates the first layer of glaze on the road in the foreground. Figure 2. illustrates the first layer of glaze on the rest of the underpainting and the second layer of glaze on the road.

The cool reds of the underglaze demand equally cool greens in the glazing. The mood created is wonderfully different from the first few paintings in this series. I continue to be in awe of the ease with which a sense of mood and light can be created by this technique, glazing over an underpainting of complimentary colors. I can only imagine the results of at least half a dozen glazes.

I see experimenting with this series as another turning point in my growth as an artist. What might have been a miserable experience of juggling too many responsibilities and time crunches with preparing for the solo show in October has been transformed into a journey of joy and discovery. Had my time not been so restricted, I would never have chosen this path. I would be outdoors painting.

Last winter I began to prepare for a spring and summer of painting outdoors again. Little did I imagine that my life would change in a way that kept me from that goal. I have watched the most beautiful spring that I have ever experienced in New Jersey, followed by a lush and visually exciting summer. Perhaps next year I will be able to paint outdoors. When I do, my experience will be richer as a result of this study of glazing over underpaintings. The series is appropriately named "Between Here and There".

Links to previous blog entries and images of the progress of this series:
Exhilarating Fun
Underpaintings
Acrylic vs. Oils

Acrylic vs. Oils

2008-06-22T19:36:00.004-04:00

I enjoy taking risks when I paint as long as the risks I am taking have the potential of making something wonderful happen. When painting with watercolor, when less than wonderful things happen there are multiple options to take while still moving forward. Even after the layers of splats, splatters, flicks and careful brush strokes result in absolutely no life emerging from the paper, I can wash the whole thing off and start again with a beautifully patterned paper rather than a stark white piece of paper.

Oil paints also allow me to venture into the unexplored territory of techniques. The only limitation I am forced to accept is that I can't pour and splatter them the way I can watercolor and acrylic. Acrylic paint has never been a favorite of mine. It dries too fast. I thought, after having discovered that I can mix my own fluid acrylics and splatter/splash them the way I do watercolor, that acrylic might join the ranks of mediums I adore. It has its place in my work, but I don't adore it. After yesterday's painting session, glazing over both oil underpaintings and acrylic underpaintings, I decided to continue all of the glazes in oil and not shift over to acrylic in July.

Several months ago I attended an acrylic workshop. I was the only artist in attendance who still painted in oils. I was asked why in the world I would do such a thing. Why? Because I love the smell, the feel, the way color can be mixed on the palette and on the canvas, blending (or not) to my heart's content. I don't care about all the nifty things you can do with the acrylic mediums that turn a painting into a stained glass decal that will stick to my window or turn my canvas into a three dimensional topographical map. In spite of the negative attitude I have toward acrylic paints, I have found ways to use them that have inspired new directions that I will follow. My mind and heart are open to a better relationship with these speedy dry paints. However, no matter how much retarder I use, they do not please me the way oil paints do.

The "Between Here and There" series will be part of my solo exhibition Unveiled - The Anatomy of a Painting at Monsoon Gallery in October, 2008. If I were to follow my original plan of switching to acrylics for the glazes I would find myself manufacturing paintings rather than creating them and I would not be able to smile or carry on an honest conversation about the paintings at the opening. Instead of dreading the hours of struggling with quick drying acrylics I look forward to applying each and every layer in oils.

Exhilarating Fun

2008-06-21T20:10:00.011-04:00

I began today's painting session with both excitement and apprehension. As I squeezed paint onto my old RCA Television Glass Pallette (saved from my family's first television in the 50's) I reminded myself that the results of first time efforts are often less than visually pleasing. This was my first experience applying thin glazes over a complimentary underpainting. The last thing I expected was to have so much fun, starting with the first brush stroke.

I'm curious as to how these new paintings that require months of alternating drying periods with glazing will influence my pleine air work. I will continue to post photos of the paintings as they evolve.

Already, I am seeing colors differently as I drive along our country roads, the light flickering between the tree branches of the dense wooded hills.

Automatic Blog Updates

2008-06-20T00:00:00.003-04:00

During the past two weeks my ability to manage the google group connected to this blog has mysteriously vanished. This entry may or may not get to those of you who have joined the Before the Curtain Falls group. If you wish to continue receiving updates, please please visit www.chriscarterart.com and click on "Contact Chris Carter" at the bottom of the page. Send me an email indicating your email address. I will forward updates to you as I post them.

Paying for Representation

2008-06-11T21:52:00.002-04:00

How valid is a list of galleries that represent an artist's work when the artist pays for the representation? How hard does the gallery work to represent that artist and to sell the artist's work if the gallery has already made a profit from the artist paying them to be a part of an exhibition or a special event?

Every week I receive at least one invitation from a gallery in New York or London or somewhere else in this ever-shrinking world. A lovely message telling me that they discovered my web site and feel that my work would fit well in their gallery or their upcoming show. For a small fee (anywhere from $600 - $3000) they would be happy to include my work in their show and "possibly" represent my work in the future.

After a letting out my fury I respond as kindly as I can letting them know that I don't pay for my representation. If they are interested in my work without the required fee, I will be happy to discuss possibilities with them. If the gallery feels that they can sell my work, they will make their money off of the sales, not off of my investing in them.

Urrrrggghhhhhhh!

Limited Supplies

2008-06-09T05:51:00.006-04:00

The hot, sticky night left me short of time this morning, my body feeling sluggish and unmotivated to spring out of bed, refresh myself in the shower and dash down the road to the studio to pick up my painting supplies for this morning's yoga class. Instead, I grabbed a small tin of paints, a handful of tiny scraps of watercolor paper, a couple of brushes, a few paper towels and a plastic cup for water.

Hot nights generally result in low attendance to the early morning class. Quite a few of the regulars didn't show up. A perfect situation to step out of the "norm".

I found myself in a different state of mind, tuning into the space around the figure and allowing it to merge with the figure, blurring the boundaries of inner and outer energy. As I look at the resulting paintings, poetry comes to mind.

Underpaintings

2008-05-30T08:41:00.007-04:00

Several years ago I saw a fairly large painting in a gallery window. The glow of the colors amazed me. As I squinted to read the small card beside the painting I was shocked to discover that I was viewing a work of art done in colored pencil.

The next day I unearthed my supply of colored pencils from the cobwebbed corner where I store supplies that do not vibrate with my internal frequencies. I was determined to breathe life into my pile of colored sticks. It was at that point that I decided to begin a more careful study of 'color'.

My success was limited at best. After executing (the perfect word) two 5" square pieces I returned the lifeless colored pencils to the cobwebbed corner.

A month ago I came across a book, "Masterful Color" by Arlene Steinberg. I was hooked by the cover before I read the small print " vibrant colored pencil paintings layer by layer". Though I knew well the practice of underpaintings, I had never used the method myself. Having started as a plein aire painter, underpaintings never found their way into my life.

A year or two ago I decided that I wanted to make a giant leap to a new level of painting. In order to do so, I knew I would have to break out of my habits, perhaps all of them. My ultimate goal was to create color in my paintings that made my heart sing rather than sleep. I had decided to try my hand at underpaintings a short time before I ran across Arlene Steinberg's book. She presents the idea of creating an underpainting using the complement of the final desired color. Though I thought this a bit absurd at first, the idea began to make sense to me, especially in light of the subtractive color theory I have been using lately with far better results than the additive color theory I've practiced for thirty years.

Yesterday I painted three underpaintings, illustrated here. I will post them again as they progress into full color paintings. I'm anxious to see the difference between painting the greens of the trees over the yellow-orange underpainting and the red-orange underpainting. These three paintings are all oil paintings. I've accepted the fact that colored pencils block the flow of my creative energy.

Raising Funds for the Arts - Roxey Ballet - Zakar Art

2008-05-19T08:17:00.007-04:00

On May 10, 2008 a fabulous evening of live Jazz, delicious food and Zakar Art was hosted to raise funds for the Roxey Ballet. Four years have passed since I began creating Zakar Art, capturing the moment of movement to live music.

The intent of Zakar Art is to awaken the public awareness of creativity and the interaction between music, movement and the expression of that energy through the visual arts. I envisioned fund-raising events as an excellent venue for Zakar Art. Some visions take time to manifest. The May 10th event marks the third successful Zakar event of 2008. I will continue to raise funds for the ballet company by painting during the summer workshop sessions and during the dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker in November.

On May 22, 2008 I will paint during the annual New Jersey Arts Collaborative Performance at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ to raise funds for the Butterfly Project. The paintings will be posted on Etsy.com and 50% of the sales will be contributed to benefit Cancer Research.

For many years I have struggled with the question of how I contribute to society and to the universe. The joy of painting and drawing, living the life of an artist, can feel rather indulgent at times in spite of the constant struggle to make ends meet and to purchase supplies in order to continue painting. Zakar Art not only keeps my eye fresh, my body loose and my spirit nourished, it now enables me to contribute to the survival and continuation of the arts.

On the Road

2008-05-08T08:48:00.006-04:00

Tom and I recently returned from a road trip to Florida. Tom did all the driving, leaving me to explore the landscape and to reflect on the theme of my upcoming exhibition in October, Unveiled. Sketching in the car was limited to avoid motion sickness. New Jersey to Florida is far too long a drive to chance queasiness.

Over the last six months, still-life and landscape have nudged their way back into the list of subjects I am inspired to paint. The challenge has been to incorporate them into my work in a way that will expand and enhance my language of expression rather than send me on a totally new path. My goal is to express motion through space in still-life and landscape as I do with figures and orbs.

By the time we returned to New Jersey I had renamed the exhibition Unveiled - exploring the elements of art. The diversity of the subject matter will be united by the techniques. I will include preliminary sketches and paintings that will clearly illustrate the strengths of each element and how they can either contribute to or detract from the sense of movement in a painting.

Fling A Fox

2008-04-20T21:23:00.005-04:00

At this morning's Ashtanga Class I challenged myself to working more slowly and combining more than one posture on each painting. Instead of being totally focused and present in the moment of the movement I found myself uncomfortably slipping out of the state in which the pen and paint flow freely as an extension of experience rather than the result of thought.

A half hour passed and I found myself feeling as I did fifteen years ago when I assisted Michael in the retraining of his brain. Every morning and every evening we spent at least half an hour doing vision exercises that involved eye hand motor coordination while simultaneously keeping the brain busy with a slightly different activity. Each time I added a figure to my painting I had to make left-brain decisions such as where to place the next figure; what size to make the figure; what colors to use on the figure. I felt myself stiffen as I dipped the pen into the ink. After a deep breathe I relaxed and added the figure. The cycle began again with the next figure.

My routine is to pile the paintings up and not look at them again until the evening. Because I had battled back and forth between the two sides of my brain, I felt that the resulting paintings would be of a more serious nature, less light-hearted and free-spirited.

As I looked again at the painting illustrated above, I was reminded of how blinded I am by the previous experiences in my life. I can't look at the painting with any sort of objective point of view because it reminds me of an extremely absurd painting I did more than thirty years ago, an illustration for the letter 'F' in an alphabet book. The text for the illustration was "Fling a Fox". I think it is the line of movement created by the two largest figures in the yoga painting that bring to mind the flinging of the fox.

All of the illustrations for the alphabet book may be viewed at: Alphabet Book
Click on each image to see the text that goes along with the illustrations. I am amused by the fact that the illustrations were, and are, considered rather bizarre. I don't think of them as any more bizarre than the text.

Time Crunch

2008-04-15T07:10:00.004-04:00

Recently my schedule has had to change. My time for painting has been cut drastically. I made a choice not to accept this change with resentment, but to take advantage of the forced opportunity to make the most of my creative time.

This past winter I began small studies, both watercolor and oil, in order to form new patterns for using color and for toning my drawing skills. I have not worked from reality for several years.

While at the grocery store, I gazed in awe at the pile of Bartlett pears. I questioned why they inspired me so much more than the Anjou pears I had painting the week before. The shape is relatively the same, yet not at all the same. The slight bulges and irregularities of the Bartlett acted on my inspiration as do the lines and movements of the human figure. The shapes begin the movement and take me into that space where anything can happen and everything does happen.

At that point I abandoned my cart and lost myself testing my emotional monitor with every fruit and vegetable on display. With so little time to paint, I see no need to draw or paint anything that does not make my monitor soar. There is no shortage of shapes that make me catch my breathe. There is also no shortage of shapes that leave me in the dark. There's too little time for me to waste any of it painting in the dark.

Rejected Treasures

2008-04-12T20:52:00.010-04:00

"Sorry, we don't rent hats. We are 'Anything But Costumes'."

The tone of voice on the other end of the line turns angry.... "I didn't think you meant that literally!" Click..... the angry voice becomes silent and we return to our work. It amazes us how many people call us looking to rent costumes. Perhaps if Linda had named her company "Anything But Props" people wouldn't be confused and angry when we tell them we rent props, not costumes.

At the end of their project, film crews are notorious for unloading all their left-overs along with our props, hoping we will save them a trip to the dump. Sometime we get lucky and fill more of our weight-burdened shelves with unique clocks, hideous lamps, outrageous lamp shades, shag rugs, broken teapots and other odds and ends that set designers from the extended tri-state area adore and pay good money to rent.

Rarely does something come along that Linda rejects. Fortunately for me, these loom reeds fell into the abyss of the unrentable and ended up in my car. Now they hang on the wall of my studio tempting me and teasing me to abandon the miserable job of framing the five pastels I have completed for the upcoming annual "Spring in Bloom" exhibit at Solaris Gallery in Califon.

It's a real toss up between the loom reeds and the wooden bowl & billiard ball. I can feel the series of pencil drawing and paintings already beginning the trek toward manifestation.

I'm sad that the prop shop must find a new home. I love the smell of the barns and the way the light plays on the buildings. I love the sound of our footsteps on the wooden floors. It's frightfully cold in the winter and blisteringly hot in the summer. We haven't any running water, unless you count the constant leaking of the roof. I would rather be in touch with the weather, both foul and fair, than to be inside of a windowless warehouse all day long, oblivious to the changes of the light, the sounds and the smells of the day. I will adapt, as I always do.

Regardless of the location, the props will continue to inspire me. Props are used to create illusions, to define character, location and time. Last week a press back chair was brought back to us after having been repaired. The man who had repaired the chair, one of a set of two, thought he would do us a favor by giving it a fresh coat of paint. He had no idea that the fresh coat of paint has now made a chair that was rented constantly into one that will hardly rent at all. Its mate will continue to rent because it still shows its character and its history. I am reminded that the wrinkles in my face and the silver streaks in my hair define more clearly the joys of my life.

Lines and Spots

2008-04-10T20:15:00.004-04:00

I adore playing with lines. A line can carve a shape out of a piece of blank paper. The shape can move or be still. It can dance and it can meditate.

I adore spots, splatters and seemingly haphazard marks. It is only when I make these simple strokes and dabs that I absolutely don't care what anyone else thinks about what I'm doing.

It is spring and it is time to eliminate the unnecessary and to redefine my path. Perhaps I should imagine it is spring each morning when I awaken.

Cleaning House

2008-02-27T17:04:00.008-05:00

I've been trying to simplify my life. Hah! That has always been the greatest challenge.

While sorting through my studios, the home studio and working studio, I found I have too many dangling projects...too many copies of "The Collie of Castle Hill" (the children's book I wrote and illustrated) and too many Limited Edition Giclee Prints of Captured-Digigraphs, Digital Photographs and Reproductions of original paintings. I have made a promise to myself to either make use of the things that are taking up room in my workspace or throw them out. With this in mind, I have decided to list some of the giclee prints on eBay. I have also opened an online Etsy.com store to sell small originals and prints. I love the idea of Etsy because it focuses on items Made by the Artist! and not bargain basement specials.

That said.... I continue to do my little studies. I find that I am becoming more aware of my obsessiveness over composition. The two versions of the painting of Round Valley Reservoir illustrates the lessons I learn from these little studies.

The image on the left was the first version of the painting. I thought it was finished ... a quick study.... no big deal. Hah! When I looked at it the next morning, the triangle created by the tree trunks in the middle of the painting drove me crazy. My eye could not leave that spot and it wasn't a very interesting spot to be stuck in.

I painted out the annoying tree trunk. Now the horizontal branches on the far right are causing me a bit of lost sleep, but not enough to change them. It is a 5"x8" study... not a 5' by 8' painting.

Thanks to these little studies, my large paintings will reap the benefits of the compositional errors that would be magnified in the larger works. As I look at the images on the blog, the triangle is not as distracting as it was in my studio. It does, however, block me from seeing past the grove of pine trees. I love traveling into the unknown.

Red Pepper

2008-01-22T18:38:00.001-05:00

Although I enjoyed painting the pepper on the left, the only element of the still life that truly excited me was the curve of the stem and the upper contour line of the pepper itself. I struggled to find another element to include in the second painting. I thought I would enjoy layering the shadow forms over the pepper. In the end, it was only the curve of the stem and the contour line that held my attention.

Playing with Still Life Design

2008-01-16T07:23:00.000-05:00

Limiting my palette in order to develop a better understanding of color has led me to painting a series of small still life studies both in oil and in watercolor. During the cold, winter months I am more inclined to work in a warm studio than I am to paint outdoors as I did in my younger years.

As much as I love throwing the paint and pulling images out of the resulting patterns, I find myself wanting to introduce more layers of human interest in my work. The desire to portray more specific personalities, archetypes and situations requires developing greater drawing skills and brush manipulation. I am delving deeper into the understanding of color in order to portray more specific mood and atmospheric environment for the characters that evolve in the larger paintings.

At times I feel as if I am taking a giant step backwards. A part of me feels that by now I should have a solid understanding of all the elements of art and be able to simply paint with joy and expression. A greater part of me knows that the reason I continue to paint is because there will always be more for me to learn. I am never bored. I am never complacent. I am always challenged by the extent of what I don't see, don't understand and can't express.
However, I find it necessary, after struggling with the uninspiring realistic representation of a still life object, to treat myself to a bit of play, focusing on the elements of the object that delight me, making them dance through space, releasing them from their comatose state of reality.

The paintings in this series are tiny. The oil paintings are either 5" x 5" or 5" x 8", painted on gessoed, birch plywood. The watercolor paintings are about the same size with a few variations.

Scent of Love - Jigsaw Puzzle - Image by Chris Carter

2007-12-15T16:02:00.002-05:00

When it was suggested that my captured-digigraph images would make great jigsaw puzzles I was thrilled. I wasn't sure it would become a reality. Thanks to Andrews and Blaine, it is. The 'Scent of Love' puzzle is currently available in Barnes and Noble stores and online.

Scent of Love Puzzle Image by Christine Reilly Carter Produced by Andrews Blaine Sold through Barnes and Noble
ISBN-13: 9780641857652

The story behind the image:

Tom, arrived home from a long day of work and saw that the dozen long-stemmed roses he had given me in the morning no longer had stems of any length at all. The beautiful, pink blossoms were floating in a bowl of water on the table. Next to the bowl was a gorgeous print I had made from scanning the blossoms. His response was a giant smile. That is true love.

And so began a seven-year detour from my path as a painter. I scanned everything in site, flowers, thorns, insects, beads, animals, tools, hinges, food, textiles and even my children. An abstract artist at heart, nature provided me with every shape, texture, color and line to play with. More than a thousand images later, the print of the pink roses remains one of my favorites. Through it all, Tom has supported my journey as an artist.

Link to Barnes and Noble listing

Portable Paint Box

2007-12-06T07:19:00.002-05:00

Inspired by my friend Xochitl Barnes, I put together this fabulous tiny paintbox/easel. It fits nicely into my backpack and holds everything I need to paint a tiny painting. I'm looking forward to trying it out at Porters Pub this Friday night.

My return to painting on site is an attempt to refresh my ability to handle a paintbrush with poetry of line and motion. I moved away from brushwork in my large watercolor paintings. My need for expression of story within the abstract patterns has led me back to drawing and painting from life in order to bring these skills back to the larger works. I find it difficult to transfer drawings onto watercolor paper after I have built up the initial layering of patterns. I also find that when a figure is transferred, it loses a bit of its vitality. Returning to the skills of direct observation allows me to draw directly onto the watercolor paper without having to make multiple corrections that will destroy the surface of the paper.

These little studies are so much fun that I could easily become a "painting a day" fanatic. It's no wonder that there are now thousands of artists following the lead of Duane Keiser.

The cold weather is a bit of a deterrent. I've sifted through hundreds of photographs and pulled out dozens that I use for inspiration when the weather is too chilly and I'm not in the mood to paint a pair of scissors or a salt shaker.

Traveling and painting is once again a realistic notion. Over the years, the necessary supplies that I carted around to paint outdoors became ridiculously cumbersome. With a limited palette and my tiny box, I am ready to go anywhere.

A Lesson in Color Mixing

2007-11-18T19:40:00.001-05:00

I go through phases of carrying a small bag of paints and supplies with me wherever I go and spreading myself out in my gigantic studio without a square inch to spare. The current phase is one of traveling light. Even in my home studio I am using a small box of paints and one or two brushes. I used only tube watercolor paints for the past twenty plus years. A few months ago, when I began serious re-evaluation of my palette and the mud-making color theory that accompanied it, I began experimenting with pan paints, limiting my palette to only three to five colors, using the logic of subtractive color rather than additive color. What a joy!

I had to laugh when I found an old metal paint box of pan paints a couple of days ago while cleaning out a drawer of art supplies. The paint box was made by Binney & Smith, Inc. a company that began in 1885, the creators of Crayola crayons. (In January of 2007 "Binney & Smith" changed its name to "Crayola".) The paints in the box are called "Artista Water Colors No.8" and I believe they are at least twenty years old. The colors are Primary Red, Orange No.5, Primary Yellow, Green No.7, Primary Blue, Violet No.5, Burnt Umber No.3, and Black No.? (a bit of rust over the number). What I find interesting is that the Primary Red is not the Fire Engine Red I was taught to make as a primary red in my color theory class at Spectrum Institute for the Advertising Arts in the early 70's. Nor are the primary yellow or the primary blue the primaries I was taught to create. Instead, the three primaries in my Binney & Smith paint box are closer to a Magenta, a Hansa Yellow and a Prussian Blue, the three primaries I have been using in my recent color studies. I have found that with just those three colors I can mix anything I want without it turning to mud. It still puzzles me that I didn't question the split primary color theory I was taught so long ago. Mud is guaranteed when using such a palette. Perhaps, if I had not turned my nose up at pan paints years ago, I would have learned that lesson earlier. As I recall, the choice of paints in many watercolor paint boxes are similar to the Binney & Smith No.8 collection.

Over the years I marveled at paintings with gorgeous colors, rich neutrals and pure hues that sang strongly on the paper. Though I read many books on color and tried other artists' palettes, an understanding of color alluded me. Occasionally I would be fortunate to chose my colors well. Most often, I allowed myself to fall back on the split primaries, killed the color, and fought hard to bring life back into the painting. I washed a lot of paint down the drain.

It's a bit frightening, starting from scratch. It's also a bit embarrassing. But fear and embarrassment are a small price to pay for finally feeling as if I'm on the right path toward understanding color and having control over the colors I mix.

Watercolor Painting: Nicole sitting outside the Fundació Caixa Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Meditation and Painting

2007-11-14T08:25:00.000-05:00

When I was a young child, I was given an extraordinary gift, a subscription to a book club. Each month a book containing a collection of stories and poems arrived in the mailbox. The books open doors to worlds I had not experienced on my own.

As an adult I still treasure the gift of a book. This year I received a copy of "The Joy of Living - Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness" by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Buddhist monk. Yongey Mingyur presents the parallels between meditation and neuroscience with humor and simplicity.

My experience with meditation began at the age of fourteen. As an artist, there are times when I am painting without "creating". Those sessions leave me feeling frustrated and empty. When I am "creating" I am usually in the same state of consciousness that I am when I meditate. When I have been asked about this, I have found it difficult to explain. Yongey Mingyur explains my experience. He demystifies meditation and explains how one can be practicing meditation throughout the day during normal activities (such as painting). I am hopeful that this book will awaken readers to their own creativity and the joy that comes along with the creative experience. In my mind, observing one's environment with open eyes and an open heart is new and unique each and every time. Allowing that experience to be expressed and acknowledged even silently within one's own thoughts is creative and joyful whether the feeling is happy or sad.

Image: Music and Art in the Big Bad City by Chris Carter
Mixed Media Collage - Paper and Acrylic on Masonite
Size: 10" x 10"

Metro Madness No.2

2007-11-05T20:05:00.001-05:00

This is the completed second painting I began after hearing of my son's close call on the Brussel's Metro. It is an excellent example of working through an emotion and coming out on the other side having survived and having learned several important lessons along the way. I am speaking about myself, not my son, though I believe his own experience was equally as valuable.

This painting was a lesson in "content and intention". I wanted it to express a quality of light, of wisdom, of coming through the darkness to a more balanced state of emotions and mind. I wanted it to be a vision of the larger experience of life, beyond the daily ups and downs.

My uncontrollable state of emotional distress was worked out in the first painting and left me free to move on and explore the post-trauma feelings. This was a new experience for me. I have not used painting in this manner, as a way to work through an experience acknowledging each and every thought and physical sensation, expressing them visually with the intent of reaching a resolution and a clarity of understanding how the experience fits into my life in a way that is positive rather than negative.

Painting: Oil on Kraft Paper "Metro Madness No.2" 24" x 48"

Dark Deja Vu

2007-09-04T08:25:00.000-04:00

August 14, 2007 ... I received an email from my son Michael.

....Yes, a steak sounds great. I have to warn you though I am not as handsome as yesterday. Last night some kids tried to steal my sunglasses and I told them to f... off. They followed me off the tram. Three vs one. They had a knife. So I took some punches and a head butt to the face. I am ok but I have a black eye ... opoooppps haha it's terrible, almost a flawless summer. I am in good spirits. it was just bull...t.

Sun 19AUG DELTA 141 SA J LV BRUSSELS 1120A L ** AR NYC-KENNEDY 135P BUSINESS

love,
mike

.......

I'm thankful for the technology that permits instant correspondence across the ocean. Within twenty-four hours I was assured that the knife had not come into contact with my son's body and that nothing had been taken from him. He suffered a black eye, a serious cut above the eye, and a battered nose. He told me that when he exited the tram and the three guys followed him, he experienced a vivid Deja Vu of having gotten off at the same stop and being murdered. He consciously decided to alter the end result in his current reality. Fortunately he succeeded.

Back in my studio, I knew better than to work on any of the paintings that were already in progress. Though I had been as positive and supportive as possible in my emails to Mike, I knew I was not holding up well internally. I tacked two fresh pieces of kraft paper on the wall and let myself fall apart, thinking of all the possible scenarios that did not have the happy ending of seeing my son walk toward me at the airport in five more days.

My goal was to paint through the experience, expressing it, allowing it to express itself, and ultimately to grow from it, finding a greater strength from having stepped out of a safety zone where you think you can count on your children being healthy, happy and safe.

At the end of the first day of painting, I wiped the paper clean with turpentine. Ghost images remained and were the foundation of the final painting. I felt not a stroke had been wasted or unnecessary in spite of the fact that I eliminated all of them at the end of the painting session. Each stroke relieved a bit of anguish, a bit of anger, a bit of fear, a bit of frustration, a bit of worry until I was empty of those emotions and I could start to build again from the heat of the love I have for my son and the relief of knowing his heart still beats in a whole, healthy body.

Breaking Old Habits

2007-07-11T09:01:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I felt exuberant. I felt my new paintings were strong and I was expressing a balance of creativity, skill, expression of experience and content, uniquely mine. I felt comfortable with my personal language of marks and media and I could begin to dig much deeper into the experience of daily life to strengthen the content of my work.

Inspired by Robert Genn's June 25, 2007 newsletter in which he wrote about Emily Carr, I dug through my file cabinet to find my Emily Carr folder that held a pile of papers with quotes I had copied from several of her books. When I discovered her, twenty-five years ago, I did not care much for her paintings, but I felt I found a kindred spirit. Over the years, when I strayed from the path of painting from spirit, I thought of Emily and would do my best to head back in a better direction. Among the papers in the file folder where a couple of pages from one of my journals. I thought it odd that they would be in the Emily Carr folder, so I read them to see how it was that they might relate. They didn't. They did, however, make it perfectly clear to me that I still struggle with the same mental and emotional obstacles in my life and that I have not broken the habits that hold me back, the habits that keep me from growing as a spiritual being and as an artist. I could have written the journal entries yesterday. How distressing.

Since that rude awakening, I have felt numb. That, too, is part of my habitual cycle. My solution, in order to not find myself in this same repeating cycle in another twenty-five years, is to consciously behave differently in as many small, everyday situations as I can, throughout my waking hours. I doubt than anyone could notice the difference in my behavior. I, on the other hand, feel as if a major coup is going on inside of me, making me rather uncomfortable and a bit disoriented.

The result of this exercise in moving forward is that my point of view has shifted; "truths" have revealed themselves as "attitudes". That realization opened a giant can of worms. This is just the beginning of an exciting journey, certainly not an easy one. At this point, I have nothing to lose by being even bolder and more daring as an artist and as a human being. It is easy to be bold and daring on the outside. It is far more difficult to be bold and daring on the inside.

Simplicity of Expression

2007-06-27T20:12:00.001-04:00

Life as an artist often becomes far too complicated. I continue to ask myself "What really matters? What means of expression brings me the most joy, the most satisfaction? Of all the work I've done, which are most meaningful to me?" The truth is that the free, uninhibited flow of a line is most precious to me. Everything else I do leads up to this moment of letting go. A painting that I work on for hours or days or months is practice me for that precious moment when the eye, the spirit, the soul and the hand are united as one, inspired by music, by movement, by pattern or light.

Integrated System - Stages of Development

2007-05-26T17:07:00.001-04:00

Integrated System - Oil on Kraft Paper

The first stage begins with a free-form, dance of line. I use soft, vine charcoal on a large (42" x 54") sheet of kraft paper tacked up on the wall with push pins. At this point I critically view the drawing from about fifteen feet away to check the flow of the line, the rhythm of the forms and the overall composition. I use a tissue or paper towel to eliminate unnecessary and awkward lines. I draw, eliminate and redraw until I am satisfied that the drawing is strong enough to support the painting. In order to begin painting, the drawing must have a spark of its own energy and life that I can nurture and develop with paint.

I decide on my color palette. For "Integrated System" I chose venetian red, cadmium yellow pale, yellow ochre, cadmium red medium, raw sienna, pthalo turquoise, pthalo blue and viridian. On occasion I will do a few value sketches. In this case I do not. I begin laying in color, basing each decision of color and value of color on the effect of the previous application and staying in touch with the developing personality and movement of the painting.

Everything goes fairly smoothly until it becomes clear that the large shape on the right side of the painting is not going to work. The left side of the painting is not balanced by the right side. The shape on the right is awkward and stops the movement of line across the two dimensional plane and prevents the viewer from entering into the dark space beyond the forms.

The final resolution was the large dark hole in the awkward shape.

A Work in Progress

2007-05-13T21:40:00.000-04:00

The development of When Heads Begin to Roll illustrates a few of the challenges I confront when I surrender to the needs of the emerging image. I find it painful to sacrifice the freshness and the initial energy of the underwashes and the linework. The subtle suggestions of form in the preliminary translucent layers of paint are extremely seductive and my desire is to allow them to remain suggestions rather than clarify them and risk rendering them motionless and lifeless. The first challenge was the disitinct separation between the left half and the right half of the painting. Each side had a completely different feeling of space and of the movement within that space. In resolving the sense of movement throughout the entire painting I lost some of the elements of the story that I had begun to unravel in my mind. As the painting developed further I took greater risks with the values and the delineation of forms. Looking back at the first stage, I see that there are a few shapes that I need to recreate in order to maintain the original direction of the painting. After having lost several of my favorite areas of transparent overlays, I decided to see how far I could push this painting with bold colors within a limited palette. Cadmium red is always difficult for me to work with. I love the dynamics that a bright red can add to a painting if used with moderation. Cadmium red, when mixed with other colors quickly becomes lifeless. To keep the color vibrant without diminishing the strength of the forms and their movement is my currrent challenge.

The small orb on the left side beneath the upper, red corner resolved a difficult area, a shape that was causing the painting to visually split horizontally, stopping the circular movement of the heads. This solution was a surprise to me after eight unsuccessful attempts to resolve this area. Every shape within a painting, regardless of its size, can significantly alter the entire composition, setting it in motion or causing it to be static.

Image: When Heads Begin to Roll - Oil on Kraft Paper - 36" x 48" (Stages 1, 2, 3 and the final resolution #4)

Altered Ego

2007-05-06T09:23:00.000-04:00

Last night's conversation among four artists, each working in a different discipline (painting, film, fiber, pottery) touched on how the artist's ego plays a part both in the creative process as well as the post-creative life of the completed work of art. For the most part I am not attached to my paintings once they are completed. I am happy for them to find their way into the lives of others. If I have done my job well, the painting will continue to open the mind and heart of the viewer to new thoughts, emotions, memories and ideas through a balance of beauty, movement and the tension sparked by shapes, lines and color.

Perhaps it is the manner in which I paint that prevents my ego from getting involved during the creative process. My ego must step aside and allow my anima to direct the brush strokes and the splattering of paint. The anima is defined in Jungian philosphy as the inner self, the soul of an individual, not the external persona or the ego. If I do not shut off my ego, the painting does not reach the critical point at which I begin to have a sense of direction. From that point I become extremely focused on the needs of the painting. It is not a question of what I want the painting to be but what the painting has the potential of being.

Ego may be defined as the self, distinct from the world and other selves. When I am painting well I feel as if the work I am creating is a collaborative work and I do not have a sense of ownership. Joy and the euphoria of creativity is experienced during the process of balancing the chaos with which I begin the painting and while coaxing the painting into a form that conveys a universal message. The message might be profound and it might be rather superficial, it is not something I attempt to control.

For more than twenty years, I produced art without experiencing creativity. I struggled to express something meaningful and to produce what I thought to be quality art. It amazes me that I continued to paint. I felt like I was on the right path going the wrong direction. Now I feel as if I've stepped off the path to explore the unknown. I love every minute of the adventure and the increasing difficulty of the challenge.

Knowing When to Stop

2007-04-26T16:02:00.001-04:00

Hera Grows Suspicious ..... again and Rhapsody illustrate the dilemma of my diversity as an artist. I had grown weary of painting headless, handless, footless, naked, female torsos. The head, hands and feet are expressive elements of a figure's body language. I wanted more content in my painting. I want to express a greater depth of content both visually and spiritually. Depicting universal archetypes satisfies part of that desire.

Hera began as a practice study of a female head, using a photograph I took of my daughter, Nicole, as reference. A simple pencil sketch was followed by watercolor washes. Charcoal redefined the features, followed by more clarification with watercolor and gouache. I had achieved a well formed head that resembled my daughter. It captured her features, but not her personality or spirit. A few irrational marks with pastel brought the painting to life, the character taking on a personality of her own, not Nicole's. I carried it a bit further with a few more illogical lines, letting the artist within me direct my marks and decide when to stop. The artist within is emphatic about when a painting is resolved and I am obedient.

Rhapsody began in my usual manner of painting which is to throw splats and splotches of paint onto paper, allowing the layers to dry between throws. When an image begins to emerge, I begin to clarify the vision and tune into the energy of the marks. Sometimes other figures emerge. Rhapsody, no matter how long I worked on it, would never have evolved into the depiction of an archetype, would never have the depth of personality that Hera has. Instead it expresses another side of my spirit, a more whimsical world of illusion, fantasy and imagination. As with Hera, my inner artist nudged me to stop and I obeyed.

Communicating With Fewer Brush Strokes

2007-04-25T08:28:00.001-04:00

I study anatomy in order to paint the movement of a figure with as few strokes as possible. It is not that I don't enjoy painting more complex works of art, it is that I value the power of a single stroke that carries a message of something as complex as a figure expressing emotion and mood through body posture and movement. Though I love thick novels I admire the well-crafted short short story, the one that is only a page long, even more.

Images:
A Dance for Dionysus - Watercolor and Oil on Canvas
Samira Belly Dancing at Easton Yoga - Watercolor

Letting Inspiration Brew

2007-04-19T07:12:00.001-04:00

One of the wonderful aspects of aging is that enough time has passed to reveal both consistency and inconsistency in my work over time. The hints of what was yet to come are often more than subtle in my earlier work, but unrecognizable due to the simple fact that I hadn't yet lived long enough and painted enough paintings for the inspirations to develop.

Beneath the Folds is a recent painting. The media is watercolor, gouache and pastel. The composition is based on a self-portrait, a photograph I took of myself in 1975 when I spent at least half my time in a darkroom printing black and white photographs on Portriga paper. I snapped the photo one evening after having dressed for slumber. Earlier that week I found a fantastic robe in a second-hand shop. Never having been a huge fan of paisley, I was surprised that I was drawn to the pattern of the robe. Most of all, I loved the style. It zipped up the front, snuggly fitting my upper torso and flaring out below the waist. I couldn't help but swirl and dance every time I zipped it up. I felt like Ginger Rogers and Greta Garbo rolled into one.

For over thirty years it had been in the back of my mind to explore the possibilities of the image in a painting. Each time I thought to try, I knew I would get too caught up in the details of the patterns and loose the energy I wanted to express. Now that my style of painting and the language of my marks has matured, I could take on my challenge with joy.

Automatic Drawing

2007-04-17T05:31:00.000-04:00

This drawing was done in 1982. It was the first time I experienced drawing completely from within, allowing the drawing to evolve without filters, without my brain interfering. The Surrealists referred to this as automatic drawing. As I drew, I didn't try to figure out what the drawing was about or why the content needed to express itself.

It was a terrible time in my life. My marriage had failed. I'd returned to school to work toward obtaining a Masters in Computer Technology! I was, for the first time in my life, being sensible. I was taking three courses at night while holding down a full-time job designing computer workstations. At the age of 31 my dreams were shattered. Hormones kicked in. All I wanted was to be a mother and to paint. I had always thought I could do both, but found that life was not allowing me either one.

Due to my schedule, I hadn't painted or drawn for months. Sleep deprivation got the best of me. I stayed at least five feet away from all windows as the urge to jump had returned. The two glasses of wine I consumed while cooking my week's worth of food had kicked in and my emotions swirled, gaining speed until I found a pencil and my sketchbook. I was too weak to resist the forms that emerged.

I had forgotten this drawing until yesterday when I was writing about Out of the Darkness. I have been asked about the pod-like form. I don't know what it is or why it came out of me. Nor do I understand the rings, the orbs or the saucer shapes. When these shapes emerge, I feel a release, a balance. I am where I am supposed to be if only for a moment.

Link to other automatic drawings & paintings

Orbs as Guides

2007-04-16T07:14:00.001-04:00

After painting Out of the Darkness I experimented with allowing the first marks on my canvas to come from within and to leave my logic and judgment behind. The Orb Series and the Journal drawings are the result of giving the artist within me permission to step out into public .

I'm grateful that I stuck with it long enough (about thirty years) to get to this point of painting from within and allowing myself to experience the marks, the colors and the forms as they play with one another on the canvas without forcing them to behave in a manner that I think will result in a good painting.

Prior to this, I had experienced momentary flashes of what I would describe as creativity. Now I experience it for hours at a time and I am totally addicted to it. I'm curious and excited to see what sort of paintings I will be doing in a year, in five years, in ten years.

At this point, the orbs express themselves as spheres or as ovals, occasionally suggesting the heads of figures. The ovals appeared in the painting I posted yesterday, Rebellion in the Harem. They have crossed the line between my abstract work and my figurative work.

Image: Three Guides . Oil on Canvas

Going public

2007-04-15T07:45:00.000-04:00

Writing in a private journal helps to focus my thoughts and to clarify the direction I might be heading in as an artist. Sitting across a table with a dear friend, sipping Portuguese coffee and sharing personal struggles as artists can unearth new issues and bring to light both strengths and weaknesses allowing for healthy growth. To push the 'publish' button on a blog posting feels like casting my thoughts, opinions and personal purpose in a hundred foot bronze form placed in the center of Times Square at rush hour. It is owning up to where I've been, where I am and where I want to be going as an artist and as a person.

My work is diverse. I am told that is a problem. The diversity is a result of my curiosity, my need for new experiences and my aversion to repetition that might lead to boredom and paintings without energy, a painting as an object rather than the result of an experience, the experience of painting. I will continue to be diverse. I want to experience as much as I can before my curtain falls.

Image: Rebellion in the Haren . Watercolor