Seeing

Recently I found this quote.


We don't see things as they are.
We see things as we are.
Anais Nin



I painted some orange geraniums around it and pinned it to the bulletin board over my computer. I really need to remember this because so many of my so called bad or "lemony" days start in my head. Look at the case of my cat's "hurt" paw in this past post. Even in painting, I often am hardest on my work when I'm hardest on myself. Seeing has so many layers. As we travel through life we learn that our vision can change and will. And as an artist I know that if I sit still long enough and see what I'm painting. I can see layers of color and light that I've never noticed before. Last year when I was teaching a friend to watercolor paint, I emphasized to her how important it was to look at the subject matter and notice, see. There are various shades of color in something that looks solid. Shadows are like that too. Colors reflect on to each other, and when you see dark shadows they aren't necessarily black, but full of dark color. My girlfriend told me that after that lesson, she saw things around her differently because she was paying attention.
Like I've been saying from the beginning, painting can teach us so much more than how to put a pretty picture on paper.

Orange Ranunculus - All Day!

Ranunculus are back!!! And that always makes me happy until I paint them ... ALL DAY . Then they become pesky little buggers. Still it was good to have the time to work on something for more than an hour. I wasn't pleased with the oranges I was making (No I don't own a tube or orange paint - I mix my oranges). Finally I took a break from them and decided that that I needed to look at them with fresh eyes. The whole fresh eyes thing is essential. What really is happening is that you're looking at it with a fresh mind which is a less critical mind - a kinder, gentler mind. And you thought movie critics were tough - you should here the critic in my head! So here you have an afternoon of work... and I'll go at it again the next day. But don't worry I'll always love ranunculus.

Painting Day


I'm nearly three hours behind my Saturday schedule. Where does the time go? Oh, yeah I slept in. Ahhhhhh that was nice. So here I am, finally at the "drawing board" with the blank page in front of me. GerAmyUm is a story I've had in my head for awhile and it's starting to take up entirely too much creative space. It's ready to be born. I need to get it out, but not just in words, but in pictures too. My goals today is simply to lay out the words and come up with the sketches for the rest of the book. Hopefully, if time allows, I'll get to dip my brush in color. So here's where it happens in corner of a room by a window and of course, flowers nearby. The afternoon calls for the music of Madeleine Peyroux. Au revoir.