Time to Order
September 1, 2010 by Janice · 1 Comment
Oil Pigments, Brush and Rags, Janice Cartier, September 2010
I’m out of medium. Right in the middle of squishy paint. No problem, except my favorite medium comes from the art store in Santa Fe. Sure I can order it. Or I could find something else here…or online..but you know what that means don’t you?
Yep, getting sucked into the art supply vortex…don’t make me open a catalog or look at the offerings on line , or , gasp… actually walk into the store…
You might not see me for a while.
Unless I put blinders on,
Or think one thing, just one thing,
Or someone attaches a rope around my waist to pull me out,
It could take awhile..
Because honestly, if the door to Cartier’s and the door to Sennelier’s were right next to each other…I would be lost forever…or at least a week…and don’t get me started on paper. They all have the power to do it…
Deep breath…
I just need more medium.
That stuff that makes the paint flow like butter, or dry matte like a lovely candle wax, or wash just like water…dry quicker or slower, but I think I might need some more white, and some sepia…and maybe some…violet… and some pastel paper…and how is my Rhodia Pad supply? or a new Moleskine would be nice…
See?
Somebody go get the rope…
And reel me in.
I love the stuff of my work…pencils and paper and paints and oooh.. did you see this… or what can I do with that…that’s what happens when I go in in person…and no catalog on line or at my desk is opened and shut without something or many things catching my eye…
Sigh…
And another breath..
I just need to get more medium…
Chin up, shoulders back…
Go quickly…
Like sirens I tell you…
Calling me to the rocks…
What’s your mad passion with the stuff of your work? Does it get to you?
You Will Find Me Here Today
October 16, 2009 by Janice · Leave a Comment
Writing takes a different part of my brain than painting. One that accesses the same source, but still a little different. Left and right I suppose. With a bridge built across the two. I’ve spent more time with words this week than with paint. And with some eye opening thoughts. Some discoveries and re-discoveries. Some paths to follow in a bit.
But today. I need to be here. Right here in the cradle of those two trees with a brush full of color in my hand.
So that’s where you will find me,
Up to my elbows, exploring wet paint.
In the paint.
Listening for rustles,
Evidence of life,
Nudging a few ochres into place.
Some tinted with subtle green.
Some whispering a lavender lullaby .
Thinking renewal.
What color exactly is that?
And there are some gentle golds.
Shhh. It needs some quiet pigments here, too…
Gently receding.
Some hints of shadow,
but not too much.
I’ll try some not usual for me colors, some newly born combinations…
Explore a slight shift to keep it fresh.
Brush those into place.
The birds outside this morning echo the ones that were there on that November walk. And it got chilly again here overnight.
That helps.
Cues.
And muses pulling me back into
… that cradle between two trees.
Yes… almost there.
The words recede…
only a few linger…
Just the important ones now…
and then the paint comes in…
intention set…quietly now…
That’s where you will find me today
Across that bridge …
Creating story with a little paint.
I’ll be back out around five. In time for a Naughty Margarita. Some Patron and some Triple Sec. Yep. See you then?
Have a great weekend.
Shades of Grey
April 29, 2009 by Janice · 6 Comments
I love to draw. Always have. There is something about that pull of graphite across paper that does it for me. And when I hold another artist’s drawings in my hands, or look at them on exhibit, I feel about as close as one can get to the person making the marks. There is no middleman, no embellishment, no interpreter of medium necessary.
Just pure and simple graphite tracing impulses on paper.
In the real world of artistic currency, show me an artist’s drawings and you’ve shown me the keys to the kingdom. Pure line. Pure form. And some shades of grey. Rudimentary or refined, drawings are the most direct line to pure thought for a visual thinker. They are concepts, origins, pulse points in shades of grey.
They are story.
I spent most of yesterday drawing. Tangles of trees. Organic lines. Large shapes for areas that need to be left alone, or graded ever so much in 6B. I need some of the paper left open, some of the lines made dark, some of them need to twist and turn. Others not so much. This is ground I have trod. Steps I have taken. Familiar textures and shapes. But this is only part of the piece.
Like leaving a place set for another guest, I’ve left room for more to happen.
In the little orange Rhodia pad are new spontaneous doodles. Four so far. Each one of them capable of being a full fledged piece to work on. They came to me after I let myself get still and relaxed. I was playing with an intersection of what I thought were two entirely different things. Not so. We’ re going to put them together. That pad is for capturing things just like that.
Yes, set some experiments up, step out on a limb a bit and ideas start presenting themselves.
Capturing is essential. Because after I saw those doodles, I pulled out another sketchbook and saw some similar sketches done immediately after the storm. And the notes that I had made with them. Hmph. This experiment series has been waiting for me. Patiently, but waiting nonetheless until I could stop and listen.
Oh, it needed some more elements, it needed some time to pass, but here we are now. Right here, right now. I am present… and I have plenty of pencils. I have a few sheets of paper. I am listening and capturing and playing in shades of grey. And things are getting good. Really delicious, I hope. Because the marks are pure and real and right for just this moment in time.
This is what it is like in Private Studio.
What about you? When you get down to the real nuts and bolts of what you do, does it give you shivers? Does it set your heart racing? Do you get a thrill over the tiny bits of magic that appear?
Notes To Self
April 20, 2009 by Janice · 1 Comment
“Go laser-like toward things we love”~ Me
In the photo under one of my chief editorial assistants, er, CEO’s, you’ll see snippets of my favorite things from the paper yesterday. There’s a note to self, and a Texas Cattle Drive postcard too that I picked up in Grapevine, Texas last week. And there’s a pencil. A nice 9B soft graphite pencil. What do these all have in common? Why would I put them together here?
To play with edges and ideas.
If you missed last Friday’s post, here’s the thing: the house cat that I share some space with here in the Lone Star State batted a full glass of water over the painting I was working on. Yep. The watercolor. But guess what? It dried just fine. Well, a little worse for wear, but essentially whole.
It’s time to approach that piece now with a beginner’s mind.
Edges and ideas can take us to new places, or bring us right back to ourselves. In a good way. Having a beginner’s mind, or approaching something as if we are seeing it for the first time, is the mindset of discovery. And that is truly rich.
Discovery.
And that is where the handy dandy words in the quotation above are driving the next actions. It is no accident, that 9B pencil. It is no accident, only openness, that that particular grouping is in the photo. They are gentle nudges. Reminders to go ahead. That I actually know how to proceed. There’s a thread that runs through them all. A wetlands thread if you know where to look. I instinctively pulled those pages out of the pile this morning. It makes me smile to see what those choices were. Like getting an unexpected present.
So today, another Organizing Monday, will have me hauling out a nice piece of Somerset paper and sharpening that lovely 9B pencil. I need a playground for the painting to play on. Here’s the very big thing. In spite of cats, or catastrophes, I have learned three very important things: 1) Befriend random. 2)Experiment. 3) The constant becomes you.
Upon finding a strange patch in the artistic process, those are three good points to remember. So here I am in a strange patch in the process. Oh sure, I set it up this way. (See point two above. ) It’s still a strange place. It’s a good place to listen… to nudges, and to notes to self. Listen, and go laser-like toward those things you love.
How about you? When you are at a spot that is uncomfortable, even though you know it’s part of a good thing, do you calm yourself and listen? Especially to yourself?
And In This Corner
March 27, 2009 by Janice · 10 Comments
Indecision is a killer. This corner was bothering me. I was stuck, stuck, stuck. Yep, stuck. Rolled that around in my head for a while. Felt it. This corner had not revealed itself. Or had it?
So I made a mark. Then another. Those pine needle ones. The orange and browns. Warm. They are in another section of the painting just above this one and I like them. Walked over them for miles and miles in my life. So in they went. Then I put some of the brown into coyote fences to anchor the adobes that had asked to be there. Then that curl of blue at the end of a fence. Hm, they look like they are in snow now. And that made me smile.
I’ve now not only mixed perspectives. I have mixed seasons. So this can no longer be about one moment, but about time. Now that makes another smile. Do I leave that in? Leave that white of the snow?
I think so.
I had not planned that, but here was another window opening. I’ve talked before about bridges. Have I talked about windows? Sometimes things happen in paintings that allow another level to be explored. In fact, I have set this particular piece up hoping that would happen. And I think we have one here. A window. Not sure, but the goose bumps when I saw it might be a clue. “Toto we are not in Kansas anymore” was the message I received. Yippee.
I like that.
Because look at the flow. Look at the rhythms the marks are making. Look at the color combinations. We may actually be getting closer to a very deeply held dream of mine. Maybe a small step closer, but a step for sure. I have always dreamed of finding an abstracted style that was authentic to me. Not surface, not shallow, but truly felt, and authentically me, not some “ism.” But I have been such a realism based artist and photographer (Zone System) that I have only let loose in small bits in special sessions with mentors.
I love to play with color, and rhythms and forms. Line makes me unbelievably alive. But my best work, or shall I say my most collected work has been based in realism with hidden abstractions in those spaces between. Oh, more and more of that, but still pretty realistic. Dare I push further? Will there be collectors for these? Will I be able to convey the exuberance and excitement? Make the marks make sense that I am making? Will these be accepted?
I don’t know. But I know that I am not stuck anymore.
At least not on this piece. Let’s not even discuss that crazy idea I have of taking up running again. Now there’s another smile.
How do you deal with stuck? How much time do you give it? Any tricks you have to share? And couldn’t we all use a naughty margarita ? It is Friday after all.
Oranges Go Here
March 25, 2009 by Janice · 11 Comments
See those white spikes? Those. The ones in the blue. They are the perfect spot to put some oranges. I am very excited about that. Cause then we get some popping. Some color energizing. And it won’t take much orange at all. But it will change this little corner of shaded pebbles into a perceived oasis. Yep. Just a little bit of orange.
Like a spice.
After so many broad puddles and planes. These little areas begin to appear. Places where opportunity is just ripe. Places to make color come alive. Places to create some depth.
Why orange?
Because the blue is dormant. But eager to show its stuff. It’s nice blue, in fact it is several blues. And there is blue in the green. But it is blue. Not shimmery blue. It’s only partly blue. That’s why it needs some orange.
Orange will bring out its authentic blueness.
We have all heard of complementary colors right? Everyone has. Red /green, violet/ yellow, blue/ orange. You mix them you get grey. Put them side by side, they enliven each other. Well, did you know that your eye wants both of them present to believe what it is seeing? Huh, did you know that? Yep. You sometimes know something more by what it is not.
Knowing how to play with that in its degrees and nuances is a lot of what painting is about. Well, one of the things. The thing we are about today. And it is one of the things that makes me happy. Color. Simple huh? But more than that, it is what color can do.
So what you are looking at, those white spikes? Well, you are actually looking at anticipation. I paused right here for you. It’s that moment before. Before it all changes and becomes what it is to be. Here’s why I paused. Because I know the full richness of this moment. I am fairly abuzz with it.
Think about it. That moment just before. Before you snap that photo, write that phrase, or feel that perfect thing fall into place. The ones you know will make you shiver. That moment. Those are to be savored. Those are what we do. And fairly live to do again. This little spot of orange that I will place, means as much to me as the whole piece. More sometimes. Call it a sweet spot, call it crazy, but just let me keep doing it.
Setting up that resonance. For me, today, it is that little bit of orange. And I love it. Can’t wait to dip my brush into that color and put it just there. Because the spot will come alive.
Take a look at what you do. Do you have sweet spots like this? Are there parts of what you do that make you so glad you do them that to do anything else is not comprehensible?
Yes, today I am smiling over a silly bit of orange.