Adding Shadows

My current series of work is moving right along.  I am now adding shadows to create depth to this work:  note how I am using a blue tone for the shadows: this is borrowed from the French Impressionist Painters.  Even before I was an art teacher, I was developing lesson plans.  Once finished with my BA in Fine Art Degree from Moorhead State University, Dave and I spent a summer in Indianapolis.  He had a 3 month officer’s training with the U. S. Army.  For the first time in my life, I did not have to do anything:  3 months wasn’t worth going out to try to find a temporary job, so I began my art career.  I read a great deal about the Impressionists: this was an area I had not fully   explored in my education.  So, I read and observed from books.  I then gave myself some challenges in my paintings:  working for some of the techniques and philosophy of the Impressionists.  The use of color was eye-opening to me.  The lack of black was also of major impact, especially in my watercolor painting.  Those self-imposed lessons are still with me today:  adding blue and purple to my shadows, not merely going darker, to create increased depth in my painting.

Studio display

This is the wall leading down the stairs from my upstairs studio.  The large painting of the tipi was the start of the entire series that is now absorbing my attention: the rendezvous series.  My mother lived near Riverton, WY, and they host an annual rendezvous, sponsored by the 1838 Rendezvous Association.  Their website is:  http://www.1838rendezvous.com/  This is a truly wonderful time, and is interestingly, still being held at the original site!  If you can, try to take in this event: held around the 4th of July every year.

A rendezvous was an early trapper trader meeting with the Native American Indians, in which peaceful trade of goods and culture occurred.  Today’s rendezvous are re-enactments, and an opportunity for today’s visitors to get a unique feel for a truly American experience.  I took many photos while visiting rendezvous, and they are inspiration in which I draw from with this series.

About Time…

Time is a crazy thing.  I have been busily painting the past couple of days… starting at 9:00, and shocked when I look again at my clock and it is 1:30!  Time flies when one is doing something one loves… and creeps when doing something one dislikes!

This great Coca Cola clock is in my studio.  If you have to watch the time, it might as well be a unique timepiece!  I’ve had it for years, and had it repaired by The Clock Shop in Rapid City.  This did a good job, keeping it authentic.  Those of you who know me, know I love antiques.  Having a vintage clock in my studio is just part of the package.

I heard a saying yesterday:  it said basically that each person is creating a self-portrait by how they live each day.  I liked that:  not all self-portraits are paintings….

A special day

I’ve posted before about the presence of my children in my studio… virtual presence, that is!  Here is a painting I did from the special day in which I took photos of  my two boys.  We had hiked up to a popular local destination site: Devil’s Bathtub.  This is a pooled area up Squaw Creek, in our local Spearfish Canyon.  A magical spot for me as a young person, there was a natural rock slide, in which one could ride the frigid water down into a deep pool of water.  Of course, it was dangerous… there were the inevitable abrasions and possibility of paralysis at the bottom if you fell wrong or the water was not as deep as you thought…  Now, the slide is blocked by a huge boulder, but the spot remains a summer hiking spot, held dear by locals. (And the water is STILL frigid!)

So, it is a location and experience I much enjoyed, so I loved bringing my own children on a hike up to it.  I forced them to pose their feet, emphasizing the difference in ages.  It was a day of brotherhood, no fighting (their gift to me!) and apparently, lasting memories!  The painting I did of the day takes me back there every time I look at it.  It hangs above the door to my studio storage closet, so I get to see it often.  Anybody been to Devil’s bathtub?  Reply to this post with comments about your day there!  I’m hanging out here with no dialogue!!!

My Boys

My two children have majorly impacted my life, as most any mother would tell you.  I have two sons: six and one half years apart.  Raising a family takes a great deal of an artist’s time, and I believe that I balanced it well (thus far)  Painting is my source of sanity, and is who I am… Motherhood is my sense of grounding, and also who I am.  My boys were both in the art studio a great deal with me, especially over the summers.  They have dabbled with my art supplies, and have each made some very nice art themselves.  Tyler and I “collaborated” when he was around 4 – 6 years old, in which he would paint on a canvas, and it helped to inspire me in my painting resolution.  Several of my paintings still show his “mark”.  (He claims a commission when they sell!)

I have photos of the boys in the studio… it is natural, and helps me see the whole picture of what my life is all about.

Color

Images inside a tipiLast summer I made a trip to galleries in Jackson Hole, Bozeman, and Billings.  Those experiences are shaping my art today, as after seeing the more contemporary western painting there, I was emboldened to go bolder with color.  As an art instructor, I often suggested students try “non-local color”, making things not their natural or expected color.  Now, I am taking my own advice.

Being an instructor was good for me as an artist.  I was able to look at student work objectively, and give suggestions based on years of experience.  Now, I am trying to incorporate those same art techniques into my own work.  Being objective is difficult with your own work!  Taking my time with paintings is very helpful, as it gives me distance in order to see more clearly, and willingness to make changes.

Another skill I discovered as an art instructor, is that design and proportion flaws are more evident from different angles.  As a teacher, I walked around the classroom, and saw student work upside down and from an angle, and problems were more evident to me when my positioning was disoriented.  So, too, is the advantage I find in seeing my artwork in digital format.  As I typed this, I already observed 3 things I intend to change as I continue working on the piece!

Wild Horses

Turmoil, twirling, interconnected… seeming chaos, but then upon closer reflection, different aspects pull forward and one sees a more  complex intertwining of component parts… This is the story of my life!

The juxtaposition of many seemingly unrelated things make up the component part of the whole… I think it summarizes it up well!!  It is not a conscious choice to make a statement of who I am in every painting… it just is what it is.  I’m philosophical today…

Bison Hunt

Many of the ledger art images I have come across are very stylized: simplified forms resembling ancient cave drawings in some ways.   The primal response to telling a story:  to embellish where needed; and to simplify where prudent as well!

I have been painting a great deal: especially liking this one, as it is depicting the importance of the bison to the Native American culture.  Purposefully making the imagery reminiscent of cave painting, I am telling the story that has no beginning… mankind’s hunt of the bison goes back well before recorded time.

There is a bison jump near Spearfish:  it inspires my imagination, to realize that Native American tribes knew of this site, and utilized it for centuries… the stack of bones that are being excavated is astounding.  It makes me realize that the site was ingrained in the tribe’s yearly food harvest. The bison were herded near the spot,then stampeded over the cliff.  The many arrowheads also excavated, are evidence of the people standing above the pit, finishing off the bison who fell in.   The site near my home is called the Vore Buffalo Jump:  it is just over the SD state line, on what we call “the Old Beulah Road, as it is between Spearfish SD  and Beulah WY.

Wild Horses close-up

To run free… the magic of the wild horse imagery.  The way God intended, before the horse became domesticated.

Perhaps this is a symbol of humans as well.  We are easily tamed and domesticated, yet the free spirit within is harmed.  It is a trade-off.  Being tamed leads to different roads to travel, different experiences than one chooses on ones own.

I’m working away on this series of work.  I hang them around my studio, so I can contemplate the next step, as each dries.  It gives me the necessary separation from the piece to see it more objectively.  And, I get to enjoy being surrounded by them for the time being!

Terms Negotiation

Everything in life is a negotiation… I’ll do this for you, if you do this for me… how much does it cost?  Exchange of money has become a major driver in our culture.  To some extent, the barter system is making a come-back… that is interesting, but then again, it DOES require interaction… we don’t do much of that these days.

Speaking of interaction… is anyone out there?  Anyone reading my blog?  Drop me a comment: I’d love the input and potential dialogue!

Back to negotiation.  I am thinking about the negotiation of treaties.  This image is done in sketch-like format, showing mounted Native American warriors coming in to negotiate with mounted cavalry.    The failure of these  negotiations is well known to history.  Is it a lot different today?  We have negotiated with (sanctioned!) North Korea, we have negotiated between Israel and Palestine, we have negotiated with Iran… yet, the basic underlying conflict is there, or just beneath the surface.  There, just waiting to be revived by the smallest action or word.  Truly, that is why there are wars.  God must cry daily.