Finding Inspiration Part 2

Rembrandt Self Portrait Age 63

                                                                        

Rembrandt's Late Self-Portraits,

 Elizabeth Jennings (1975) excerpt

You are confronted with yourself. Each year

The pouches fill, the skin is uglier.

You give it all unflinchingly. You stare

Into yourself, beyond. Your brush's care

Runs with self-knowledge. Here

Is a humility at one with craft.

There is no arrogance. Pride is apart

From this self-scrutiny. You make light drift

The way you want. Your face is bruised and hurt

But there is still love left . . .

Sherry in the Cubist Style

Since becoming a serious artist eight years ago, I have spent many hours pouring over the paintings done by the masters I most admire, looking for what I can learn from each one.  My husband, who is a poet, has often given me a poem written about a painting, an Ekphrasis, such as this one about Rembrandt’s work.  So at some point it occurred to me that I might also find inspiration not only by looking at masterworks, but also by re-reading my favorite poems and listening to my favorite songs.  The more I mature as an artist, the more I am convinced that all of the arts spring from the same or a similar source in our souls – a psychologist would say from our unconscious. Wherever our inspiration comes from, immersing ourselves in a variety of artistic resources, not just paintings is bound to stimulate our personal creativity, and painting a self-portrait is a fine way to begin that journey within.

 

                                               

Inspiration

Remains of Monday, Collage

Origins, Mixed Media

Most creative people are frequently asked “where do you get your ideas?”  When fellow artists and even non- artist friends ask this question, the immediate response is “everywhere.”  This may sound trite but it's so true.  One day as I opened my mailbox and found it full of junk mail and not much else, I started thinking about just how much “trash” ordinary people collect in just one day – plastic wrappers, paper bags, images from magazines, emails that we don’t need to keep, used crossword puzzles, movie tickets, used dryer sheets, and on and on.  This idea floated around for several days and then the concept for Remains of the Day was born, a collage series with whatever I had collected for each day in a week.

Cecil, Oil

 Eating out is a treasure trove for the portraits I love to paint – not the stiff formal ones but “character” studies –unusual  people whose faces speak of an interesting history or lifestyle. Watching the news often incites a desire to rave about injustice or how we now have “news as entertainment” rather than just the facts.  Being outside and finding the shadows left imprinted on the driveway by leaves after it rains inspired an abstract series based on shadows.

St. James Island Marsh, Pastel

 When the muse seems to have left me, I often listen to music or read poetry and these never fail to conjure up images that just might be my next favorite painting.  Literally anything can provide inspiration if we are open to the endless possibilities that are right in front of our eyes or floating around inside our heads at 3:00 in the morning. 

FLORILEGIA

Digital image from a sketch diary

      Sometime ago I added a note-taking app to my Ipad to collect all the little bits and pieces of information I come across online, in emails, talking to fellow artists and reading all sorts of books.  Prior to this app these were collected on little scraps of paper that I was forever misplacing.  Little did I know that I had just begun a practice digitally that I and millions of other people before me had been doing for centuries. 
      Called florilegia ( flowers of reading) in the Middle Ages, it actually goes all the way back to ancient Rome where Julius Caesar kept copious notes about his readings. During the Renaissance it became known as keeping a Commoplace Book, a place to keep a record of quotes, ideas, observations, theories or any other kind of random information that the writer might find useful at some future date.
      As artists, it has now become somewhat of a fad to keep an "Artist's Journal".  Regardless of what you call it, or whether you keep yours manually or digitally, a Commonplace is a terrific way to make connections among all of the thousands of bytes of information that we process everyday.  Here are some of what goes into mine:

• Sketches of scenes I like
•  Color Palettes
• Quotes related to art or by famous artists                               

  

  Digital image of an art journal

• Suggestions for topics I might like to blog
• Unusual compositions that interest me
• Descriptions of new art products and where to buy them
• Art books I've read and want to revisit or ones I'd like to read
• Names of artists with whom I'm not familiar but want to look up
• Photos of places I want to plein air paint
• Photos to use for reference
• Descriptions of the order in which I've started a mixed media  piece so that I can use the same sequence again
• Subjects that I love like Boats, any kind of boats
• Places I want to visit
• People who have interesting jobs

This list goes on and on -- what makes this process so worthwhile is the serendipitous new projects that often develop from the juxtaposition of these unrelated bits of information.  If you've never done this before (all in one place), NOW would be a great time to start, oh -- be sure to reread your snippits often!

 Critiques and Self-Critiques are tools that many artists shy away from, often as a result of negative experiences with insensitive teachers or artists who don't really understand the purpose of a critique.  At its best a critique offers an opportunity to improve on a work that may be okay but lacks something to make it more interesting and exciting.  There are numerous  critique forms available on the Internet and with experience you can write one of your own to help improve those "not quite there" paintings.  To the left top is a plein air painting that I did this summer.  I intentionally kept it loose and was pretty happy with the result.  It sat in my studio for several weeks as I went on to other projects.  

When I decided to discuss the process of critiquing with the class I teach, I used this painting as an example.  I noticed that although I had a focal point, my eye didn't really move around the painting as much as I would have liked.  Since the pink flower focal point was really the only place with any pink, I decided that touches of warm red and rose could add to the interest and move the eye.  The resulting changes gave the painting subtle movement that was lacking in the original.

 Long before I became a visual artist, I was a crafter, showing my wares in a number of local craft shows.  For this year's Roswell Fine Arts Alliance's BIZARRE BAZAAR, I decided to revive those old skills and become one of the 18 vendors in this show.  This is it's third year and each year it gets better and better.  Some of the artisans this year include a potter, a maker of garden glass totems, knitters, painters, handmade soap crafter, etc.  There will also be gourmet food available provided by Chef Wendy's Kitchen "Cafe".  There will also be a beautiful show of two dimensional art in the Gallery.

 Joys of the Season is the name of the show and all of the original pieces are smaller works at very reasonable prices.  What you see here are the myriad of items I've created out of DUCT TAPE!  Yes, you read correctly -- duct tape.  I had no idea when I started how many things I could make -- most of which make great gifts for kids, teachers, pets -- just about anyone on your list.  There are journals, "Buddie Bags" -- for storing legos, little cars, any small pieces that kids collect, wallets and

cell phone holders.  You'll also find pony tail holders with bows plus bracelets and necklaces for your "princesses". There are gifts for you wonderful dog, and your wonderful husband.   I've even got holiday decor! 
Please save the dates -- December 5th and 6th and stop by the Gallery at 9100 Fouts Road, Roswell, GA 30076.  You'll be glad you did.

  Working in a Series
       Often when I'm working in mixed media I work on a series of paintings that all have the same original basis -- sometimes it's a color palette, sometimes a concept, sometimes a particular medium that I want to explore.  In this instance the initial basis was collage.  I attached very dark value pieces in three different compositional formats and then began to paint.  I knew that I would select one color from the palette to emphasize in each piece, and that I intended to work with a variety of media 
including pencil, pen, pastel and acrylic (as well as 

collage with which I began.  Since these were to be entirely non-representational, I worked with temperature and value to create interesting surfaces.  Eventually, I  began to feel as though I was moving toward Armageddon -- a feeling of violent storms, volcanoes, fire.  This feeling led me to title these works Destruction I, Destruction II and Destruction III.  

 When viewing the originals it is possible to see all of the underlying marks and patterns.  This enables the viewer to follow the process from first layer to final surface.