#31 of 100 Creations in 100 Days, Half Moon Rising

In Akureyri in 2017, the days could be achingly beautiful as on this day when the moon was rising gently over the stark white mountain across the fjord from the city.

During most days at some point, I left my cozy apartment/studio and walked past the art museum, the hotel, across the main street, past the photography store and tourist center.  I waited patiently for the red-heart-shaped traffic light to turn green then crossed the busy thoroughfare to the walkway by the fjord where the whale-watching ships waited for the tourists. I watched, astonished, as joggers dodged the ice, and wondered if I would ever attend an event at Hof, the cultural center standing sentinel over the shoreline.

I went to the water to drink in the beauty.  In my apartment, there were no windows framing the beautiful sites, only the grey snow-covered parking lot.  The sounds I could hear were studded tires racing down and grinding up the cobblestoned hill accompanied by the quarter-hour bells from the cathedral above me.  I went to the water to watch the ducks dive for sustenance, to hear the waves lap and the gulls caw, to have my ears and eyes filled with nature instead of assaulted by the sounds of man counting time or hurrying from place to place.

Half Moon Rising
pastel painting
18"x24"
$550 until 2/6, then $750

#29 and #30 of 100 Creations in 100 Days

I sometimes suggest to my drawing students that they practice drawing by copying a drawing by a great master like Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Raphael or another equally gifted artist.  The purpose behind the exercise is manifold:

• Learn more about the artist and how he/she approached a subject
• Learn about the artist's strokes and ways of treating value, line, etc.
• Learn to see ever better - all drawing practice is about that, ultimately!
• Have fun re-creating something so beautiful!

Today I had some time in art class because I only had two students so I took my own advice and drew a couple of nudes, one by Matisse and the other by Manet.

In drawing the image by Matisse, I learned how he used charcoal - he had a lot of pentimiento lines (thoughts, "mistakes", first tries) which he eventually smudged out which created falue in some cases, depth in others.  I became aware again of how distorted, yet oddly accurate his images are - surely this woman's left breast  (the one on the right in the image) didn't poke out of her chest as shown here - but it works.  We certainly know what we're looking at.  How do artists get to the point where they break off from reality and yet draw images that are completely recognizeable?  I don't know how to do that - yet!

The image by Manet was fun - is the model pregnant?  Does she have nipples? What's behind her?  There seem to be a couple of other figures partially indicated.  Her left hand (on the right in the image) is completely messed up - illegible! - but gone into with darker marks, helping disguise that fact.  I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't drawn it myself. 

Doing these sketches made me want to get back to drawing figures - it's been quite a few years since that was my focus.  Perhaps I'll make that a priority for a bit and see what happens!

#21-28 of 100 Creations in 100 Days: Visual Journal Explorations

#21

#23 from a fabric design by Knoll 

#21-24 are images I drew/copied from artwork I found on Pinterest.  I am drawn to patterns and lines and Zentangles and these were variations on those.  Eventually I'll incorporate more lines and patterns into my paintings - when I figure out how to do it!  But for now at least I can have the pleasure of doing them separately!

#22

#24

I had suggested to one of my students that she try copying some drawings by the Masters as a way to improve her observational and drawing skills.  I liked the suggestion so much that I decided to take it on myself!  Vincent Van Gogh used a quill pen or some other kind of ink pen when doing his drawing, but I didn't have that available so I used a couple of markers with wide and narrow points instead.  He is a true master!  I learned a lot from doing this - about his marks, his choices, his different kinds of strokes.  The trick now will be to include them in my own drawings!

#25 Apres Vincent

#26 Looking at Her

On our way to Wintergreen Ski Resort, we stopped at Tuckahoe Antiques in Nelly's Ford. I bought some antique postcards there then had the fun of playing with them in my visual journal over the course of the weekend.  #26 combines one of the postcards with a woven image I made of my husband.  It looks like he is oogling the girl, so I named the piece "Looking at Her".  I like the juxtaposition, but it does Chris an injustice as he would never, ever look at a woman like that - unless it was me!  He's the kindest, most appropriate man ever.  But the images worked together, so I'm sticking with them for now!

#27

I took my students to the museum last week and asked them to look for patterns throughout the galleries.  I have posted about that before.  At Wintergreen, I took the time to add watercolor to the images I'd drawn just because it felt good to explore what they would look like.  I enjoy having this set of images to use for documentation and for reference to include in my work.

#28

When I created the CitraSolv/watercolor tree, I first cut out a tree to use as a template. This is that tree juxtaposed against some watercolor paper I'd used long ago for templates of leaves which I used as stencils.  It was fun exploring how they'd work together.  I chose this weekend to not adhere tightly to what I would normally think was "right" or "OK" and instead pushed my boundaries and explored how things looked.  I enjoyed trying new things and doing things I wouldn't normally - like putting the pink flowered pattern together with the tree and the leaf stencils - I had to release my usual judgments about what would work together to let myself do this.  Ends up I like what happened!  Who knew that exploration and boldness could lead to cool results??!

#19 of 100 Creations in 100 Days: Dettifoss Waterfall

When Chris and I were in Iceland in October, we decided to drive to Dettifoss Waterfall because it reportedly has the greatest volume of any waterfall in Europe, 500 cubic metres of water per second plunges over the edge. Sure enough, it was deafening and impressive!

The drive to Dettifoss on icy roads

The drive to the site was long and arduous as the roads were icy, and it was beginning to get towards sundown. I wasn't sure we'd make it with enough daylight to see the place!  Chris was concerned we would have to walk some distance to get to where we could see the falls - I didn't think that was the case because most tourist sites make it easy for tourists to get to the good places!  I was wrong!  

Me, happy in my crampons!

When we got there, the parking lot was emptying out.  We headed to the trail.  Immediately I began slipping and sliding even though I had my great hiking boots on.  I asked people coming off the trail what it was like and how far it was to the waterfall - treacherous the whole way and over 1/4 mile.  Oops!  Thank goodness I had my crampons in the car and Chris was generous enough to go get them for me because I was slipping every step of the way - I don't know what kept him upright - great balance, perhaps?  He had no crampons at that point.  

My glorious crampons!  Like bears'
teeth. A wonderful invention!

Once I had my fabulous crampons on, I could walk over the ice beautifully!  They have teeth like a bear trap so they dug into the ice with every step and kept me from falling really well.  Note:  if you decide to go to Iceland in the winter, get/take crampons!  

The "trail" to Dettifoss

The walk was still arduous.  The trail wasn't clear and obvious - rather, we could tell where people had gone before because the snow was better packed down and in some places there were ropes showing us where not to go.  The terrain was rocky, full of ancient rhyolite volcanic boulders and debris.

Once we got to the waterfall, I was disappointingly underwhelmed.  It was, to be sure, massive - and LOUD!  So much water!  Therefore impressive.  But not beautiful.  There wasn't much light and the water appeared very muddy, not the fabulous white of other falls I'd seen.  Perhaps it was so turgid, it was grey and brown instead of white - I don't know.  Or perhaps I was tired and couldn't see the beauty. A friend of mine posted a beautiful picture of it from a different observation point from the summer and it looked gorgeous, so clearly it has a lot to offer which I didn't see this time around!

Dettifoss Waterfall (for scale, note the size of the posts and ropes of the trail markers)

And here's the artwork I created in response to our trip to Dettifoss.  The CitruSolve papers provided the perfect texture for me to express the flow of the water and the challenge of walking on the ice and the challenging rhyolite rocks.  The image of the falls themselves is from a postcard I bought in the area.  It gives a better sense of the actual color of the water than my picture since there wasn't much light left when we were there!

#19 Response to Dettifoss

#29 Knobbly Kneed Tree (Trigger warning)

#29

Knobbly Kneed Tree.

I created this image after doing some energy work/body work.  During it I recalled an event that happened in my youth with a boyfriend who had little to no ability to listen to my "NO", no matter how firm, no matter how clear, no matter how frequent.  Instead, he was atuned to his 18-year-old bodily needs and desire to satisfy them.  He coerced me mightily until I complied on my knees under this tree with bumpy roots.

I have written many poems about him and his coercion and its affect on me, but I'm choosing not to post them here because they leave me feeling too raw and exposed. If you want to see one of the pieces, you can see it at Life in 10 Minutes where I posted one in April 2018.  It's by far the least intense of all the writings I've done about this man who affected my entire life with his insistence that I satisfy his urges and not listen to my own needs. 

#15 - 20 of 100 Creations in 100 Days : Fun with CitraSolv!

After a week of no entries, I'm back!

The living room converted into our work/play
space!

I spent the last four days at Wintergreen with four friends creating! What a wonderful fun time!  We stayed in two condos there, one of which we converted from a lovely living room into a temporary studio and filled it with more art supplies than Michaels and AC Moore sell combined!
And boy, did we play hard!  I haven't seen the others' work because I was so busy making my own, but we will share Thursday when we gather again.  I played with CitruSolv, an organic cleanser which artists have discovered will take the ink off of the pages of National Geographic and will turn into beautiful textures!  Leave it to artists to discover the craziest things!

#16 20 Shades of Blue

#17 Abstract Strips

The prompt for the piece on the left was 20 shades of blue.  I used my color pencils, watercolors, and Tombow markers for many of those, but when I needed more, I rifled through my CitruSolv papers to find more.  Unfortunately some of them have a bit too much glare on them to be able to see well, but some you can see.  The piece on the right was me playing with strips from CitruSolv papers to make an abstract design.

#18 The Wisdom of our Elders

This tree is one of my favorite Citrusolv pieces.  One of the women in the group shared with me a children's book about planting trees in Israel which had lovely illustrations.  I decided to make my own version of one of them using watercolor for the background and Citrusolve papers for the tree.  I'm crazy about the textures that come from this process!

#19 Response to Dettifoss Waterfall

#20

#19 is a combination of a postcard image of Dettifoss Waterfall in northern Iceland and strips of CitruSolv papers.  I write the story about it in my next blog post.

#20 contains an unlikely combination of elements - a page from National Geographic which wasn't completely destroyed by CitraSolv's magic along with a photocopy of one of Monet's late paintings.  I was drawn to the marks Monet made and their abstract quality juxtaposed against the texture of the CitraSolv and the ropes and other linear features remaining from the picture in National Geographic.

I can see that CitraSolv holds much potential for art for me.  I look forward to playing with it more in and out of my Visual Journal and am thankful for the chance to explore its possibilities this weekend!

#4 of 100 Creations in 100 Days, "Home for the Winter"

#4 is finally finished! I began the piece about a week ago and wasn't able to get it finished until today! The reasons for that: it was a busy week; we were out of town one day; but mostly it took a while because it is very complex - the perspective of the boat is a challenge - in the past I would have gridded it to make it exact, but I chose not to grid it this time, so it took a lot of time to get it right (I hope I got it right!) The textures are also tricky - the grass, the water, the reflections, and especially the wood in the boat - but that was my favorite part - I really enjoyed making the wood look aged.

Home for the Winter
pastel painting
18"x24"
$750

I am imagining that this row boat has been around a long time - that it was made by the owner whose family has (in my mind, at least) lived on the lake since the middle ages and is now making its living as a host at the cabins they've build in addition to their older living of making smoked trout to be sold throughout the country. I imagine them taking the boat out in the seasons other than winter to fish for the trout and just to enjoy the lake. For now it's moored in a small protected cove next to their family home which has more recently become a guesthouse. The family has hired several young people from Eastern European countries to help them run the place - cleaning rooms and cottages, setting out the breakfast, speaking with visitors when they arrive, etc. The owner doesn't speak any English, so it's helpful to have help who do, though I'm not sure how they communicate with each other, as the help don't speak Icelandic!

The main building feels like a single story family home which has been expanded to become a guesthouse. Their location is perfect, directly on the lake, and across the street from Dimmuborgir Rock Formations (more on that later). They added a beautiful glass room on the back where visitors have breakfast overlooking the lake. What a treat! There are also two rows of 1-2 BR cottages near their house. We stayed in one of them which had a kitchen and a nice living room/dining room that looked directly onto the lake. The weather wasn't gorgeous, but it was still wonderful to be able to see the lake and to be surrounded by nature AND be in a comfortable house.

Our first morning at Dimmuborgir Guesthouse, after our breakfast in the room overlooking the lake, we came outside where we were greeted by a couple of very welcoming pups. Having nothing better to do, we let ourselves be led to the lakeside, past this row boat, to where the one pup could access the lake easily. He went straight onto the lake and began digging fast and furious into the ice, at times breaking through and following into the 7" deep water. He didn't seem to mind - he just hopped right back out and started in a new place! I don't know what he was trying to do, but the marks he made looked like an abstract painting, and the sounds he made resonated through the ice and sounded like New Age synthesizer music. I was enthralled watching him!

Once he was done creating his art for us, he hopped back on land and grabbed a stick and insisted we throw it for him - though he wouldn't let go of it! There aren't many sticks in Iceland since there aren't many trees, so we played a lot of tug-o-war and cavorted and laughed for quite a while until we gave in and let the dog keep the stick. Of course that was the moment when he gave it up so we'd keep playing!

Across the road from the guesthouse was a set of rocks called Dimmuborgir also. They were formed by an ancient volcanic eruption and looked like troll homes or some other fantastical structure. We spent about 5 hours there fascinating exploring, following the challenging path into and out of caves and arches and so many other amazing places. It was so much fun!

The largest cave we saw.  Large enough to provide shelter
from the weather. We wondered if people
had ever lived there?  

A little guy we saw at Dimmuborgir who
seems very appropriate for our snowy
icy weather today!

Here are a few pictures of the day today - so gorgeous I kept going outside to admire the view. I think this is what we're going for when we decorate trees - this sort of beauty with the lights and tinsel - but Mother Nature does it so much better than I've ever been able to!

The back of our home with the deck that's in the process
of being constructed to the left and brilliant sparkling
trees surrounding it all.

#12 Geometric Quilt based on Sanford Biggers' sculpture at the VMFA

After a lovely walk this morning with a friend, I headed to a store that sells lamps to get a light for above the door on the deck.  I was fortunate to find one I like for a great price at a local lighting outlet then headed home for a full day of studio time!  Yay!

Interestingly, having the entire day stretch out before me led me to not use the time as well.  I took time to make bread, a friend came over for a bit, and I interacted with the folks working on the deck because I'm so fascinated by the process, I can't stay away!  I realized today I hope they don't think I'm micromanaging - I just love seeing what's happening and how they're doing it.  I never watched construction as a kid - I just thought a building magically appears and toilets never break and things never need fixing, because I have no clue who did that in our house!  As an adult, it's been an interesting journey to figure out how to fix and build things - I feel lots of pride when I manage since I'm coming from a ZERO knowledge base!

Anyway, finally around 2 I got into the studio and felt called by the Citra Solv papers...  Yesterday at the museum I'd seen a 3-D sculpture by Sanford Biggers.  It's a geometric structure based on the Golden Mean, created out of 3/4" plywood (I'm guessing) and covered with quilts created by African Americans.  I drew a sketch of it because it captivated me, and today I decided to try to recreate it in 2-D using the Citra Solv papers in place of quilts.  Here's the result along with some close ups:

A Typical Day in the Life of This Artist + #11

Today was full of art, but I had to climb back out of bed tonight in order to finish a piece for the day!

#11 Chris

To give you a sense of my fairly typical day...

• Up at 7:15 and into the studio where, instead of creating, I loaded pictures onto my blog - something which hadn't worked yesterday no matter what I tried.
• 8:15 - met with the men who are building our deck to let them in the house where they were planning to put a hole in the wall for our sliding glass door.
• 8:30 took off for a walk with a friend
• 10:00 - at the VMFA, I met with a group of women I teach.  Their exercise for the day was to look for patterns in the artwork and draw the patterns in their sketchbooks for use at a latter date and to raise awareness of patterns as a component in artworks. 

I have done this exercise for myself before because I have always loved patterns but felt it wasn't OK to include them in artwork - that they were somehow "less than".  I realized I needed to go to the museum to test my belief.  Once there, I saw that virtually all the pieces I examined contained patterns!  It was crazy for me to think they weren't valid!  I immediately began to include them into my work.

Today I chose to look at my favorite section first: Kasai Hasui's Japanese Wood Block Prints. Those pieces always make me feel so calm and serene. My favorite patterns this time were his trees and the shadow of a tree on steps.  I love the layering of trees as they recede into the distance and the simplicity of the stairs.

I wanted to go look at the Asian Indian art because I'd delighted in the patterns I found there before, but instead I decided to go into the room with Greek and Roman art - decidedly NOT my favorite art.  I thought I should see what was there since I'd been too prejudiced to go in there before.  It's a good practice for me to test my prejudices!  I found so many interesting and beautiful patterns, some that felt so modern! I look forward to incorporating them into my artwork soon.  I especially liked the pattern on the top of the page on the right.  It looks like something I might have done on my own with all the spirals.

•  1:15 I met a 99-year-old friend of mine for lunch and had a wonderful wide-ranging conversation that touched on art, dance, Iceland, illness, and death.  Frances is a role model for me, someone I'd like to emulate as I age because she lives life fully. She is performing in a ballet this weekend - yes, at age 99!  She is not as spry as she used to be, but she still dances twice a week and even still teaches.  When we talked about death today, I felt like I was touching on a forbidden topic (even though she brought it up), but she said she's ready to die - she's lived a terrific life - it doesn't worry her or make her feel afraid.  It's nice talking to someone who is closer to death than I am (probably) about death.  It takes the taboo out of it.

• 4 Home to work in the studio for a few hours.  I made more Citrusolv pages because I'm going to Wintergreen next week with some friends to create art, and I want to have lots of pages to play with.  I got some wonderful ones today!  I don't know what I'll do with them, but I'm imagining weaving with them and making layered abstractions and perhaps even trying to create landscapes.  I look forward to having all day to explore and play.
  
  
   I worked on my painting of the boat some more, hoping to finish it, but when I got to this point, I could see, finally, that my drawing is off substantially.  I think the bow of the boat is too far to the left.  It's going to take quite a lot of effort to fix that, so I stopped work on it til I feel fresher.

• Chris got home at 8 so I went into the house then to have dinner with him and spend time with my sweetie. We went to bed at 10, but I just wasn't tired enough to sleep, so, in my pj's, I came back out to the studio to examine the Citrusolv pieces more.  Then I felt compelled to get a finished product for the day so I did a weaving based on a lesson Helen Hiebert shared.  I used pictures of Chris which I'd taken to do a David Hockney-type portrait, but haven't done yet. I am enjoying the juxtaposition of the parts of his head/face which don't quite fit together but which clearly belong together and the funky weaving.  The piece makes me giggle!

• So...  long day. Good day. Creative day.  I am blessed to live a life that is typically full of creativity and delight and curiosity and fun.  Having the goal of 100 Creations in 100 Days is making me even more aware of what I'm doing in the studio and is making me do even more.  I'm glad I made this decision.  And now I'm tired enough to go to bed!

#5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 of 100 - lots of drawing today!

I'm loving this challenge I set for myself!  It makes me excited to get up each morning so I can get into the studio and begin playing.

This morning I wanted to continue working on the drawing of the boat from yesterday, but I also needed to make a gift for a friend for a gift exchange I'm involved in a couple of weeks from now.  I decided to make a sketch book for her out of pretty papers since she'll be taking Beginning Drawing starting the week after that.  The book is done using a coptic binding which allows the pages to lie flat when the book is open - very practical for a sketchbook!

At 11, I had the pleasure of teaching a private student Beginning Drawing then this afternoon I taught Intermediate Drawing at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.  In class, I gave the students the assignment of drawing a single object at least 12 times.  To facilitate their process, I gave them a table with 12 entries suggesting ways to draw the object, and another table listing 6 different media they could use.

Blind Contour	Modified Blind Contour	Gesture
Negative Space	Detail in 1”x1” box	Focusing on volume
Focusing on value	Using cross hatching	Fill the entire page with just a segment of the object
Using 1 continuous line	Using only 3 lines	Filled with patterns

6B pencil	01 Micron	Peel-able charcoal pencil
Fat charcoal	4H pencil	Anything else you have

I had them tear up the tables and place the pieces of paper in 2 different piles then draw one from each pile to create a drawing. So for example, they might get "Focusing on volume" and "01 Micron".  Then they would create a drawing with shading that emphasized value using a 01 Micron pen.  The drawings students came up with were very cool!  After a time, they got tired of working with just a single object, but I encouraged them to keep going because the best break throughs come in this exercise when people push beyond the frustration/boredom and do something completely different.

Here are a few of the drawings I created using this system:

focus on value, large charcoal

I'd love to see what you create using this exercise if you decide to do it.  It's lots of fun!  I hope you'll give it a try!

blind contour drawing, 3 minutes, Micron 01

negative space, peel-able charcoal

blind contour 5 minutes, Micron 01

put patterns in it, large charcoal (no time
for the patterns!); 1" box, large charcoal