I choose gentleness

'Grace' 

6 x 6 watercolor 

available here

“I choose gentleness... Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.”
― Max Lucado

 

This woman's eyes have always drawn me in with their gentleness and grace. And the tentative curve of her smile too. An older painting from the archives that I painted last year, but one of my own personal favorites. 

Yesterday while out running, I was trying to cross at a crosswalk, and the driver turning right wasn't paying attention to pedestrians. I was watching her and I saw that she was not paying attention to me, or else I probably would have been hit. I got angry. I smacked her trunk as she drove away with my fist. The thing that made me so angry was that the crosswalk I was at was right in front of an elementary school, even though it was too early in the morning for any kids to be there yet. All I could think of was what if a smaller child had been there?  A little one who trusted the cars to look out for them? What if it had been my child who had almost gotten hit, or worse, by this driver who was too busy to look around them?

My point is that yesterday I was not gentle. I vented all about it on Facebook. And I kind of regret it. Although, hopefully my fist pounding her trunk woke that driver up enough that she'll never speed through another crosswalk again. So the little ones who cross there will always be safe. 

 

Life is precious, and short. We don't need to make it any shorter for anyone by not paying attention, or choosing not to be gentle. 

 

Until. . . later my friends. I'm off to eat some cookie dough for a mid morning snack. 

Untamed - sold

'Untamed' SOLD

5" x 7" watercolor on paper

So, I missed my painting yesterday. Ah well, I don't feel bad about it at all actually. I always kind of planned on missing weekends and just painting during the week throughout this 30 in 30 challenge, so I will be doing 26 in 30. And that odd number is bugging me. I'll have to try and do two on one day or something. ;)

I have been wanting to paint this photo FOREVER, because I love her eyes and the way her hair hides part of her face, but for some reason I keep putting off painting the photos that I really love because I'm afraid I won't do them justice. Which is just plain silly right? Right. 

That's something that is turning out to be really great about this challenge, I don't feel like every painting is precious (Speaking of preciouses we went and saw The Hobbit this weekend and it was SO GOOD!!!!!) and has to be a success. Because tomorrow is a new day, a new chance to paint something that will be awesome.

For some reason I feel like I may have learned this lesson before. . .  :) 

This is painting 5/30 in the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.

Reference photo by Kelsey's Love Fusion, thank you!

And I also wanted to mention that Taryn Day, fellow daily painter, featured me on her blog 'The Art Room' where Taryn talks about art and artists. I'm really honored. :) Click here to go check it out!

No More Tears

'No More Tears' 

8" x 10" acrylic on gessoboard

not for sale

Last summer my three year old son (at the time, now he's a mighty four year old) was very sad. I don't remember why, probably because I was being really mean and wouldn't let him have jelly beans for breakfast or something like that. But he had these big round eyes with tears ready to fall over his little cheeks. My heart just broke when I looked at his little vulnerable face. 

So what did I do? I took a picture of course. I remember being so touched by his little sad expression, like his world had just come to an end, and I wanted to remember his face, always. And then I picked him up and snuggled him all better. 

No more tears after that. :) 

So, I ask you. Am I a big meanie for taking a photo of my sad little boy with tear stained cheeks, and then painting it for all the internet world to see? (Say no please! ;) 

This is painting number 4/30 for the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.

The Golden Age SOLD

The Golden Age SOLD

16" x 20" watercolor

Here's the Christmas commission I talked about in an earlier post but couldn't show you until now. I hope you all had a great holiday! We did. :) Although, I'm still trying to figure out how many miles I need to run in order to work off all the Christmas candy I ate. Probably more than I want to know. 

Every time I worked on this painting, I couldn't help but think of those few, brief times in my own boys life where they seemed to be getting along perfectly. No arguments, no teasing, or fighting. That was truly a golden age. And one that was over far too quickly.

Because now, this is what I hear, all too often:

Kid A, Kid B, or sometimes even my littlest, three year old Kid C: "Mo-ooom (see how the syllables of my name have been drawn out in a supremely offended tone, this adds emphasis to the victim's case) he's looking at me."

Me: "Oh really? That's nice babe." (Sometimes if I'm very lucky, this indifferent response is enough to subdue the situation)

Kid A, B, or C: "But, Mo-ooom, he's LOOKING at me!" (clearly this is not one of those times)

Me: *sigh* "Well, have you asked him if he needs anything?" (After my first failed attempt at indifference I have now resorted to peaceful problem solving. Because surely he wouldn't be LOOKING at his brother without just cause now would he?)

Kid A, B, or C: "No!" (this is said with little arms folded over little boy chests with a huff. Hmph!!)

Me: *double sigh* "Well, maybe you could give that a try." 

Kid A, B, or C: *shakes head emphatically* "Nope, Mom, I won't."

Me: "And why not?" (this is where my patience is starting to grow rather thin. I count to ten)

Kid A, B, or C: "Because he's still LOOKING at me!"

Me: *brief pause so I can count to 100* I press my fingers to the bridge of my nose and close my eyes, then I say, "Darling, unless he's looking at you with laser beams shooting out of his eyes I really don't see the problem."

Kid A, B, or C: Gives me a look that says a deep injustice has been wrought upon him and all his mother can say is that there's not a problem unless laser beams are involved! Then with blue eyes glinting, he asks me, "Mom, when does Dad get home?"

Because apparently Moms just don't understand the problems of brothers LOOKING at each other. Go figure.  

*This painting helped me work on one of my unspoken goals I've had for this year: work on expressing emotion in my paintings without relying on facial expressions.

Since we couldn't see the faces of these two darlings I had to focus on other things in order to get a message across. Mainly, gesture, and movement. I personally, find paintings of people where we can't see the faces to be deeply moving, if the gesture of the figures is convincing. (Karin Jurick for instance is a MASTER of this. I could stare at her paintings of people studying paintings for hours. Literally.)

I'm hoping I was able to pull that off here. My new collector seemed very happy with it. :) I'm hoping his wife was too, since it was a gift for her.

See you next week everyone and Happy New Year!! :))) Huzzah!!

10 things I've learned since my high school art class

      Okay folks, are you ready for this?


      Who else is gonna be brave and post some of their high school/older artwork?

    
      Hmmmm??


      I dare you.

   
     Come on, who can back down from a dare? ;)



      When I was in high school I took every art class they offered. I had special permission from my art teacher to take the AP (advanced placement, if you pass it you earn college credit while still in high school) art test my junior year, and my senior year (at the time, which was about 13 years ago, they offered a general AP test and a drawing test). I was in heaven.

      For my portfolio I had to have a theme, and a common style to my work. This is what I came up with:

    
      Lots and lots of these paintings and drawings of people. Mostly girls in prom dresses, or at the beach, or putting on makeup, or kissing their boyfriends (yes, I was a typical fashion and boy crazed teenager. I admit it.) These were all done in watercolor with pen and ink details. They were so. much. fun.

     The emphasis was always more on the design, than it was the accuracy of the figure. I whipped out these little drawings, (mostly from my imagination or some fashion magazine) then painted the washes in. This is where I began to learn how to handle watercolor.

This is a sketch of a Native American, his head is close to his horse, not his girlfriend ;)

     My art teacher always said, that abstraction and design was preferred over realism, and that it was the one sure way to make your work stand out enough to the judges to get you to pass the test. So that's what I did, as much as I could. But I never felt like I was creating artwork that really said 'me'. I was just doing what I thought the judges wanted to see.

     It's taken me a long time to finally come to terms with painting the way I want to. And now, I feel happy about that. Here are ten things I know now that I wish I could go back and tell my 16 year old self.

1. There is no ONE way to make art. If someone tells you there is, they are wrong. It's that simple.

2. If you want to paint horses and puppies, then paint them. Don't paint something just because you think other people will like it. Paint what you like, and it will appeal to others as well. Images that come from the deepest desires of your heart will always touch other people too.

3. Not everyone is going to like what you paint. That's okay. Who cares? You like it, that's what matters.

4. You can teach yourself how to paint and draw the way you want to. It's a learnable skill. Practice, practice, practice. Study, learn, repeat.

5. Believe in yourself. If you don't, no one else will either.

6. The smell of instant coffee still reminds you of Mr. Crowther (your art teacher). And he was right about doing all those contour line drawings. Suck it up, do them, and be thankful.

7. Your first realistic portrait? 'Tis not beautiful. That's okay, try, try again. Learn from it what you can, don't get discouraged, and try again.

8. Don't give up. Not even when you think you suck. Because you don't.

9.  Prayer helps. A lot.

10. Your favorite watercolor brush is still a size 6. And also a ten. :)