The' Black and Whites' - Painting out the Pain

Went through a period where felt 'lost' and was unable to paint because all I seem to be doing is producing more and more work that will end up needing to be stored somehow HOWEVER what I REALLY wanted to do is just go 'hard-out' and paint, I mean REALLY paint - not technical exercises or actual things necessarily but to look upon a blank or textured background canvas and wait for the canvas to show me what needs to be drawn out of it.

So YAHOO! Back on track again and SO much happier with the results.

This one's called 'painting out the pain' and is, I guess looking on it now, an expression of self - in that it is about how I view Life with CFS and how it affects me in some ways. I love the cleanness of it - just used the raw canvas with titanium white and paynes grey.

I've found a way to paint that is not too painful - if I set the easle up at a low level on the outside porch then sit on a couch cushion so I don't have to raise my arms higher than waist height then the pain is dramatically reduced and bearable (have torn the tendons in both shoulders now and nerve inflammation and muscle pain is pretty synonomous with CFS). SO thrilled to have found a way to paint again at an upright easle.

The wee chap below I have put on especially for my NC friends who get chills about spiders - he was right next to me on the lemon tree yesterday and kept me company whilst painting. Had caught a beautiful metallic fly for his lunch clever chap!

Native Parrot Fish - using a limited pallette

An artists life is full of opportunities and unusual events if one keeps ones eyes wide open...

Yesterday was a day off so went costal for the morning. Caught nothing I was allowed to keep and so decided to have a final fish and a bit of a dip in the rivermouth at Taipa. Unbeknownst to me there was a HUGE fishing competition on based at the same place so I arrive in my very casual attire and wade out with my rod and cast into the current where the river hits the sea (sometimes when the kahawai are running you can pull in a few nice fish). Well - not a sausage! and the sun was beating down so decided to head for home.

Waded into shore and there right in front of me just floating along was the most perfectly positioned black fish - rigormotous had set in so it was positioned to look like it was swimming. So I scooped it up - someone had thoughtfully scaled it already - must have been one of the competition catches. Even though it was fresh I was a bit too chicken to eat it so instead saved it for today to use as a subject study. These fish though are beautiful eating if gutted and stuffed with a little salt and lemon and olive oil, wrapped in tin foil and baked in the oven, YUM!

1. Background was already done last year waiting for the appropriate subject matter. Laying in the outlines and position using chalk - want the eye to be in the middle of the first third line...

2. The stomach was very bloated this morning and the flies began to gather after a few minutes of the fish being out even there was no real smell of offness. It was an interesting painting experience because the fish grew whiter and the eyes dulled as the painting progressed so I had to keep in mind what it looked like when I initially scooped it out of the water. The eyes surprised me as I thought fish eyes were round but these were not totally. I'm using mussel shells instead of a palette board at the moment.

3. After 2 hours of painting. Palette used: Lemon yellow, titanium white, phthalo blue and burnt seinna

2 hours work yesterday inbetween funerals and other such events. In the morning worked on two backgrounds after being inspired by Craigie Aitchison's works and his bold usage of colour.

In the evening I set my alarm to work for an hour on the portrait - taking the hair back a bit, altering the skin tones and lengthening the neck.

Exhibition - January - and working on the portrait

I find that exhibitions are always a bit of a 'high' - especially being around like minded people and just being there as an artist and nothing else. It is a wonderful feeling. Oddly for some reason all of us on 'duty' yesterday took out portraiture work to do - very interesting looking at the difference in our styles. All in all a wonderful day of chatting with the public coming through, setting up future painting 'exploits' with other artists (Sandy and I are off to visit someone new we met at the exhibition as she has a lovely church in her area she thought we might like to paint so that will be a nice day trip on Monday to an area I have not explored yet at all. A teacher from Te Hapua has also invited us up there for a painting/ photography shoot (that might have to be an overnighter I think).

The self portrait is really beginning to come together. At the 'eye stage' now and will then have to go back and rework the skin tones a litle as she looks a bit lifeless for some reason.

Sandy playing at the start of yesterday - chalking in where she would place the features (on my request of course).

Exhibition Set Up - January 2008

My first exhibition for the year is always part of a fundraiser that local artists hang work for and a percentage of anything sold goes towards one of the local schools which is FABULOUS!!! The organisers are just lovely and they couldn't have been more helpful today - it was SO hot and humid it would have been very easy to be stressed and crabby but they were charming to everyone and really helpful.

It's the second year I have been part of this fundraiser and as a result I was able to be so much more organised and more relaxed and not so stressed as I know they do a good job of looking after everything. The location is just beautiful - right on a beach usually full of tourists at this time of the year - so afterwards my friend insisted we go for a walk in the ocean and it was just perfect. Beautiful overcast day and shell strewn beach with lovely warm semitropical water and not too many people. Couldn't ask for more than that.

I LOVE group exhibitions up here - nice to catch up with art mates to say 'happy new year' and the atmosphere is so friendly and sociable. A huge variety of artists from potters to painters to photographers to framers to tapersters. And everyone keen to help everyone else with the hanging of the work. I used my old fishing line to hang the framed photos - good and strong and invisible on the walling. I was also given a display stand that a local pharmacy were throwing out that I repainted up and with a few toast racks it has made the perfect user friendly card stand. I am so thrilled with it.

Janet's display...

M.E. - a portrait of self (2)

Have been working today on the self portrait started a couple of days ago - see the next post for the initial sketch and blocking in of the background. AM really pleased with how I have ended it today although have re blocked out the eyes and mouth as they just were not 'right' and were annoying me. The joy of working with acrylic is it dries quickly and you can overpaint areas that you are unhappy with.

Will not be working on it anymore this week as am off to the pain clinic and then I will be getting ready for next weeks exhibition which has to be set up on Monday. Fortunately my neighbour is also involved in the same exhibition so we will set up together - only exhibiting some photography and one painting and cards this time so will be an easy set up I hope.

'M.E. - a portrait of self'

Yesterday I got inspired watching a documentary on Rita Angus and decided it would be a great way to end the year with a self portrait. The initial sketch is on a canvas block but because at the moment I am so ill I did it whilst in bed. Was horrified at how ill I actually looked when studying the mirror. My face is all inflamed and the eyes are all sunken with dark black rings.

Today I spent some time blocking in the background and took a photo to help with the finishing off of the portrait as do not want to paint in bed as have not found a way to do that yet that does not get paint everywhere. Tried to look a bit more cheery in the photo so the final portrait should not look so 'blah' (for want of a better word)

Am calling it 'M.E. - a self portrait' or 'M.E. - a portrait of self'

Students at work

Over the year there have been several young people come and paint with me - usually after school- all great fun, lots of laughter and learning and luckily for me they can paint in the outside studio during fine weather where they can be a bit 'free-er' with the materials if they need to.

I find the windows especially useful when practicing things like portraits, or to sketch out an idea with them - if you use whiteboard pens the glass wipes clean really easily.

We had our end of year breakup yesterday although from what I hear they are keen to go and paint out at a local wharf (and do some fishing at the same time) so might have to organise a 'feild trip' in a few weeks.

I've been promising to post some pictures of them at work so there they are...

Exhibition Opening

The Gallery Exhibition for the people on the workshop opened with a traditional welcome with each speaker being followed by waiata (song) before we headed inside ot have a look.

Wont put in all of the photos but you can get a feel of what was up.

1. The weavers looking at their work (these women are very talented).

2. 2 of the girls who were on the workshop and their paintings.

3. The Maori Madonna was hung high above a window - got some good feedback but it was very hard to read the writing when so high up. But it was lovely to have her up.

4. Nga Kai - lots of Kai Moana - sweet smoked fish, aromatic Mussels, fried bread, and a BIG pot of boil up (puha and porkbones) and a wonderful selection of fresh fruits (strawberries and grapes etc). After everyone finished looking we all shared a meal together before heading home.

Art and Craft Expo 2007

They call them 'GOLD days' - days where you have great amounts of happiness and togetherness and wellness and vibrancy - where life seems brighter and more intense and more 'lived' somehow.

Leading up to the Expo was pretty stressful with so much to do and the weekend before I came down with what was thought to be food poisoning and landed in hospital and was pretty crook for the next few days but thankfully all my marketing stuff was done and work organised and had some kind people step in and lend a hand.

Everyone set up on Wednesday, the opening wine and cheese was Wednesday evening and then the Expo ran for the rest of the week.

A wonderful time of meeting up again with exhibitors, meeting new people and interfacing with the public coming through, and both selling and buying and chatting happening everywhere. Great fun.

I brought a watercolour of blue poppies and a really pretty kite with shells woven into the rim and a wooden heart shaped bowl made of oak. (The watercolour you can see in the pic)

At the end of it my neighbour and I (we shared a space to keep costs down) put our feet up with takeaways and a good movie and a spot of red and just relaxed.

This Friday I have 'The Maori Madonna' going into a combined exhibition at an actual gallery with all of the other people who did the same Workshop I was on which will run until the end of January - am really looking forward to seeing that all set up. Maori Madonna has been priced at $350 and the gallery will double that price as they take 50% so she will sell in Gallery for $700 (here's hoping anyway). And if she does not sell that is OK because i will use her as a reference for skin tones anyway. Hoping to be able to commandeer a camera guy to go and do some filming of the opening and the people who have put their work in to it. We shall see.

The Maori Madonna

I have been fortunate enough to be able to study under an exceptional Maori Artist and look at how she does her portraits which has been a wonderful experience. Today is my second day of working on this portrait of the Madonna. Normally my portraits do not fill up the entire canvas so this was a new learning curve for me. I have wanted to work with her for a while now to look especially at how she does her skin tones because I have struggled in my own work to not loose darker toned people in the painting.

Above pic shows stage two of working on the eyes - the last thing to do in the portrait.

At the end of Day 2 almost everything is almost completed. The eyes have been finished so that they are staring straight out at the viewer and follow the viewer around as they move from place to place - kind of like having a painting staring back at you. Baby's eyes are a little too large so will shrink them in the next working.

Being 'in-the-moment' - an exploration into Expressionism

The student who paints with me on Tuesdays and I have been exploring 'Expressionism' for the last two weeks.

Artists like Van Gough and Kandinsky painted in this style. Another term for it is 'Fauvism'. It's where you use intense raw colours, wild brush work, abstracted subjects broken down to their simplest forms and loads of emotion (portraying emotion through the use of colour).

When doing today's painting I initially wanted to convey the idea of 'denial' - the background is made up of turbulent reds and blacks and deep Ultramarine blue all wound up in horizontal chaos yet there is the girl on the swing - fiery hair flung out in loose abandon, clothed in gold and yellow (colours of happiness and joy and wealth) and a touch of orange (excitement and spirituality), shoes flung off goodness knows where as she totally casts off the world and all it's cares.

After I finished painting I hung it on the wall for a bit to see what title would fit it best.

The more I looked the more I realised this is not a painting about 'denial' of life and it's problems. It is a painting about living in the moment, and maxing out on life.

For a start the girl is on the upward rise, not the downward fall of the swing. Her legs are outstretched, taking her higher, lifting her beyond her limitations. I was reminded of a child. When a child is on a swing they are totally lost in the moment - carefree and full of abandon. The cares of the world cease to exist. They are completely free.

So here it is - today's work

Simply titled - "Being 'in-the-moment'"

November Exhibition Preparations - Marketing week

Have set side this week to get all of the marketing side of things organised so that next week I can concentrate purely on choosing which paintings are going to be displayed and doing a 'mock hanging' to get the layout right. I am sharing an area with a friend of mine so we need to ensure our work looks right together before exhibition day arrives.

Yesterday I spent the morning revamping the old business cards and turning some of this years paintings into greeting cards to sell at the exhibition. I've also started putting together a portfolio on each work that people will be able to browse through as they come to my part of the exhibition (it's a group one of about forty artists and crafts people from the region).

Today I have a student coming to paint with me in the afternoon so no time to work on marketing. Tomorrow's task is to begin laying out a brochure. Publisher is such an asset! It was so easy to go and make changes yesterday to the business cards and run them through my printer - I dread to think the cost if I had used commercial printers.

The 'Golly' series

See side panel for actual photo of the original Golly.

The first Painting of Golly was done around 1989 - a crude attempt at pointillism

The second last year as a Christmas present for my niece.

The third completed yesterday as an exploration into expressionism.

November Exhibition preparations

This week have started to work though the seemingly ENORMOUS list of things to do before the exhibition, and whilst the exhibition is on, and then when it is over.

My friend and fellow artist and I discussed pricing paintings today over numerous cups of coffee - it is invaluable to have other artists to bounce ideas off. We have come up with a kind of a 'pricing formula' we are keen to trial whilst knowing that at times there will be 'exceptions' to the rule of thumb because we are so in awe of what has emerged from the tip of the brush or whatever (we are good for each other - both chewing things through until they are clear and make sense.)

Felt great to run it through with someone!

Experimenting with the Pigment Bath

PIGMENT BATH EXPERIMENT and Resulting Artworks OCTOBER 27, 2007

An experiment I just invented yesterday (although most likely I will find out Art school have been doing it for years!) - often happens - I 'find' a new and exciting something that gets me buzzing with enthusiasm only to read about it later in some book or the other...haha keeps you from getting too big headed though!)

OK - the long version: I was painting some backgrounds ready for the nautilus shell I have been asked to paint - the backgrounds were black with a hint of blue for the ocean (their house decor is b&W). I needed some fun so squeezed big blobs of paint directly onto the paper before mixing and combining with a brush. Took a couple of prints to remove the excess but noticed my water jar was full of black swirling pigment and had one of those 'WHAT IF' moments.

Went something like...'Mmmm. WHAT IF I soak some watercolour paper sheets in that - would they pick up the pigment - would save wasting it..." So went through the cupboards and the only thing I could find was the dish tray (that you sit under the dish rack) Mine is A3 size if that makes any sense.

So cut the paper to fit and placed it in the tray. Poured the Black water on top, topped it off with some clean water and left it sitting on a bench in the outside studio area to soak for a bit. I LOVE playing and experimenting.

An AMAZING thing occurred. The sun was SO fierce that the water heated up and the paper partially dried in places and lifted from the pigment bath (as I am calling it). Re sunk it and it did the same thing over and over - the result of which is a beautiful artwork in its own right - looks like a pebbled beach. The second paper I did looks like a shallow rock pool. I was so excited when I saw how they were turning out that I have them both properly stretched on a heavy piece of board ready to see if they need to be worked on further.

The different shades of grey and black add real depth to each work. I am so excited to try more. They did not work so well if done inside - had to be out in the full sun - must be something about the water heating up and the paper drying in stages before being resunk to then dry in different places.

The first one especially is very nice - I can see the clear shape of a foetus along the bottom half. Not sure if I will do anything else with it or leave it as it is.