Some pictures of new paintings, etc.

Yes, your paintings are stunning g_g. Thanks for joining us over here. Your painting so speaks of your love of you GD -- better than any words could. And that is, no doubt, your garden in the background. Very lovely, too. I love hollyhocks.

Dear Roybird, one of the most fabulous aspects of friendship is respecting differences. You have respected where she wants to hike, now perhaps it's your turn to choose the next hike?

Differences between friends will always exist, but isn't that what makes us (and our best friendships) grow? The very best friends, few and far between, we and they understand the dynamic that is each of our lives. Sometimes we have to work at maintaining the relationship, and sometimes... the relationship itself is so good that to not talk for a few months and pick up like it was yesterday is commonplace.

Friendships like that are rare, bsavage, and worth cultivating!

That is definitely my garden in the background, with the elusive hollyhocks who sometimes self seed and other times don't. Grrrr! Dahlia, I also have a painting of GD as fairy, done a couple of years prior to the skipping rope one. She is my favorite little model although not so much now that she's twelve and also wears transitional darkening lens, so it's hard to take a decent candid outside.

She is a beauty! You obviously love your subject. The jump rope one is my favorite. Brenda, what you said about friendships is quite true. That particular friend is somewhat competitive and like GG, I'm wanting to look at birds and take pictures, etc. Now, I'm off to class! Catch you later!

I often forget to take my camera when I'm going someplace for a specific reason. I missed some gorgeous early morning shots of workers harvesting in a field that way. I've done some paintings of blueberry pickers and I thought the workers could be part of that series, but alas!

This thread makes for interesting reading. Welcome gg, lovely GD, and paintings.

I cancelled the flight to Baton Rouge for my oldest grandson's wedding. It was made for Feb. 18, but after worrying for a month, I decided the schedule they (my son and GD) had worked out wouldn't work for this 83 yr. grandmother. So now I can relax and not worry about flying. I used to enjoy flying but not now with all the restrictions, etc. which I presume are necessary, but don't make me feel any safer.

Beautiful day here today, cold 26 degrees, but the sun is shining brightly for the first time in at least a week.

Donna

Fun to see another artist on Rocky Mountain Forum here. Nice work!

G_g, did you live in France? Moi aussi, dans les Alpes.

It seems extreme to me to not want to get one's shoes dirty. Perhaps she has OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). A friend of mine had that. It is very interferesome.

Paj, you worry me. What if you fly somewhere that has beautiful flowers, and then don't come back? Will you check in with us from French Polynesia, s'il te plaît?

Thanks, people!

Donna, I can sympathize about the wedding schedule; surely you're old enough now and have enough points to do what pleases YOU sometimes. Good decision!

We used to live in Washington, off the coast of Bellingham. We just loved it there. I don't know where Tonasket is but I'm assuming it's more inland from those temperatures!

Picante, non, je n'ai jamais habiter en France; j'y étais seulement au séjour. We have friends who have a place in Languedoc and we visited them a couple of times, and then went to Paris for a few days. We would love to live there but would also hate to leave family. What were you doing in the Alps and WHY did you come back?

Donna, it was interesting to me that you decided to cancel your trip. I am going to Florida for a family reunion of sorts in March. Not flying. But, I am the oldest living person in my family at 56!!! And we keep adding more friends and family to this reunion that I don't know very well or at all! I am starting to feel uncomfortable about it. Perhaps I should visit you instead! Relax, I'm kidding. But, I can sympathize with the feeling of things getting to be too much. Picante, I think that particular couple have O.C.D. to some extent, for sure. It can be entertaining but not always. GG, I often forget to bring my camera and then wish I had. Sometimes I don't bring it and am glad I didn't, too.

I was 20, was attending the Univ. of Grenoble, and I came back to finish my degree at UC Davis.

I really like the Pyrenees, too. They are much steeper than the Alps. And full of nice people.

Roybird, why not find some reason why you have to cancel? It sounds like the nature of the event has changed quite a bit and it's no longer something you're looking forward to. So why go?

Picante, I so much wanted to go to France in college but just never made it. I envy you that experience! The friends we visit live in the foothills of the Pyrenees, kind of, or at least it's very hilly. The driving can be hair-raising. When we were there we tried to drive only in the daytime, and of course because it was September and October the roads were fine. One night we went out to dinner and were talking to some other travelers; I forget if they were German or Swedish. They had gone over to Spain that day and had encountered quite a bit of snow en route. They had digital photos to prove it. I was glad it wasn't I who went because the road they had to take is scary at the best of times!

People doing outdoor things who are reluctant to get dirty make me wonder about them. Once had a friend who did not want to get her waders muddy. Sheesh.

Yes, I do cancel out sometimes. I am hoping that things will just kind of trail off easily. I don't see how anyone can do anything without getting dirty, indoors or out! Did not paint well today but had fun and just noticed my purple elbows. I'm thinking about doing an oil painting. I have never used oils but doesn't this photo look like an oil painting? OOps, too big to send TIF file, need to re-size, sorry.

Oils are my medium of choice, Roybird. They're very forgiving and also have a nice texture. Do you have a supply of oils and canvas? I use walnut oil for a medium; Liquin turned out to give me fierce headaches!

I need to get back into the studio, but if I don't have a commission or some other deadline I find it hard to get started.

Post that picture once you resize it!

Guys, I take a day off and I can hardly answer all the stuff that came up.
1) Rutholive, if you feel like staying home, stay home. Tell they you want pictures. You get to be queen. Maybe even ask the young couple to come visit. You live in a beautiful place, I bet they would enjoy it.
2) Roybird, you were noble to accommodate your friend. In time you may want to do it again but, don't do it while you are feeling a bit bummed out. Wait until you want to see her -- I mean ** you** want to see her.
3) Picante -- I promise to stay tuned no matter where I am, but I do believe I will return to see home and farm and so many places that I love. But isn't the internet wonderful for allowing us that, so easily? No this writing on paper and rewriting because you goofed up and then finding a stamp and an address and trudging to the PO.
I am the kind of person who forms major attachments to places -- one special place is Northern New Mexico, another is New Orleans and SW Mississippi. I would move to Hawaii tomorrow, that is a very special place to me, but I am also attached to DH. Luckily for me he prefers to hang out in one of my special places and to travel a lot.

DH and I stopped for lunch in Grenoble on the way from Zurich to Avignon where he had a scientific in the Palais des Papes ( hoping I spelled that correctly.) We had a lovely drive but got a parking ticket there because we didn't understand the parking rules. Then we had to figure out how to pay it. Go to the tabac and buy certain stamps then paste them on the ticket, then mail it in. On the way back to Zurich we drove from Nices through the mountains, Grasse, etc, a lovely mountainous area. Roads weren't all that scary there, but small. We spent the night in a tiny little resort town, Castellane, which I remember because I bought a wine bric there and still have it.
I attended the University of Madrid in my junior year, not with the Junior Year Abroad program which I was too chicken to apply for, but because my father was working in Europe and I took a semester and summer off to hang out with them. We lived in Milano and traveled weekends to lots of beautiful mountain towns in Switzerland by car. Those roads were terrifying, but I find that nowadays, the mountain roads in Europe are much better and safer. Still I will never forget the roads with sheer drops and no guard rails and the turns where there was a picture of a French horn warning you to sound your horn before going around the bend. That summer I attended the U of Madrid which I have since revisited with DH because they have a terrific Nuclear Science department.
Madrid has really grown, but is still a very cool place. But you can't walk everywhere anymore. They have sprawl, too. Still, Madrid is a very live town. Maybe even more than when I was young.
So much more to say, but it is time to cook. G_G, you GD is adorable. Maybe you could paint her in those color shifting glasses -- a very different sort of painting.

Yes, maybe a close up of dear DGD's face, glasses and all, showing how inner beauty shines through. Just thinkin...

Here we go. I like the bird in flight on the right. This is, of course, very "shopped". I see it as an oil painting. But just the bird on the right. A gestural bird.

Here.

Roybird, I LOVE that... that's a photo?

That's a wonderful bird! Is it a sparrow? You're right, it fairly reeks of oil paints! How would you handle the rest of it, or would you just do a small painting of only the bird?

I always admire the soft impressionistic look but I can never bring myself to leave the danged thing at that stage!

Paj, what a wonderful set of memories you've got, and I really envy you being able to travel with your DH to that extent. I wish we could do more of that; hopefully we'll get back to France this year!

Re DGD, I don't mind painting people with glasses as long as I can see their eyes! Here's a painting that combines GD and birds; I took her with me to help weigh, measure and band shorebirds along with an international group of scientists. She was wearing glasses but I used artistic license and removed them:

This message was edited Jan 17, 2010 7:28 AM

Gg, great painting of your GD and bird. I tried painting people but realized it was not my thing. I like landscapes best. Took a lot of photos for painting inspiration, and did do some. Afraid my oil paints have dried in their tubes by now. After I moved 15 years ago, from where my DH and I had lived for 50 years, I was just too busy with doing everything again in my 5 acres and just never got back to painting.

roybird, you are more than welcome to visit anytime. I have traveled a lot, been in all but 3 of our 50 states, there are 3 on the east coast that I missed. In Europe, I liked Germany and Switzerland best. I loved Ecuador, and Costa Rica, and would go there again.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for mid-Jan. Sunny and 40 degrees. This morning it is raining, but not cold so not freezing.

Donna

Donna, I love painting people; I do a lot of commissioned portraits, although this year was the pits! When I got back to painting I used tubes that were thirty or more years old and they worked well, so you might be surprised when you go to check on them. I do find that without a specific incentive I don't go over to my studio, though. If there's someone you'd like to paint something for that might get you started.

I do some commissions but generally prefer to just paint what inspires me directly. That in itself is enough to get me going. I used to do portraits, but have not in a long time and am content to leave it that way. Everyone is different in how they work and what they prefer to do.

The nice thing about commissions is that they're automatically sold, so they generate more income. I've rarely sold any original oils, although I do sell some giclées. I have giclées of my French series matted and framed and hanging in a little French restaurant down the shore, and those sometimes go.

Do you have a website?

I actually sell a lot more of my independently created paintings than commissions. And the commissions I do are usually requests for something in the same series as a piece I already sold. Giclees can be helpful as well although I sell more originals than giclees.

I have several websites, but the main three would be
http://www.riverstonegallery.com
http://www.lexisundell.com
http://www.energiesofcreation.com

The last site listed has my latest painting posted on the home page at the moment. I have just finished a meditation that goes with it but do not have that posted yet. Perhaps in a few days.

What wonderful work! You do acrylics, then - and have written a book about them. I'm impressed! I can see that your work would be more saleable than mine as originals, but the quality is super, too.

Thanks GG, these days I prefer acrylics as they do not produce the fumes oils do. With DH and me both painting large canvases in oils, no one would be able to set foot in the gallery! So we decided to use water media only when painting in the gallery, which usually is where we both paint. I used to like oils a lot better, but once I discovered the advantages of acrylics instead of being disgusted they did not act like oils, I have come to greatly enjoy them.

You are right about oils lasting a long time in the tubes, I have some ancient ones that are still good if I choose to use them. I just set up a painting station in the basement but think I will stick with acrylics for the series I am working on at the moment. Had the easel upstairs in the living room, but we have started removing the popcorn from the ceiling which is a serious conflict of projects in the same space. I am painting at home while I get my immune system back to reasonable strength as I am avoiding the public with all the bugs going around.

I have a fairly airy studio and I installed a fan, but I never use it. For medium I use walnut oil and occasionally Gamsol, but I keep that covered unless I'm going to be using it. And I clean my brushes mostly with Murphy's Oil and once in a while Awesome if they really need it. I also don't work any larger than 24x30". I think it's really difficult to get subtle shade shifts with acrylics - although obviously you don't have that problem! Skin tones seem especially problematic. So I stick to oils.

My husband is having immune system issues right now, too, following treatment but hopefully it's bouncing back. People are getting used to not hugging him when they see him - and not coming over if they have anything potentially contagious. It's a drag, though, isn't it?

Sounds like you have your studio well in hand for the fume problems. Acrylics do pose some challenges in subtle gradations of color, but it is doable.

I am in a rather inward mode right now so I don't mind avoiding masses of people. The drag is being so darn tired and out of shape that anything I do makes me sore. I keep doing more and more, so although I maintain constant soreness I am improving. Hope your DH is getting better with his health issues.

I think I may go to the matinee of Avatar tomorrow with a friend. It has been out long enough that the matinee should not be overcrowded with coughing people now and we are thinking of seeing it.

I had a friend who was a wonderful artist but who developed a reaction to oil paints and their mediums, so I took that into account when I set up my studio awhile ago. I figured if I were proactive I could hopefully avoid that problem.

We went to a party last night and DH stayed on the couch; people came to him and I think that helped. If the movie's been out for a while, you may be okay, but aren't matinees often chock full of sneezing, coughing kids? Maybe not Avatar, though; I don't know how it's rated.

It does help if you keep doing more and more, as long as you're up to it. It increases your energy level and your strength.

Montana does not have your population density. I have been to matinees that had only six or seven people in the whole theater. I forgot tomorrow is a holiday though, may wait till Wednesday.

Nice thread! I love hearing about what other painters are doing; your tools and process. I have done quite a bit of painting with acrylics but only 2 oil paintings ever! I have also worked with clay sculpture and other 3-D media. As well as water color and printmaking. Photography is a new passion. Brenda, that is a photograph that I played with in photoshop elements. It helped me to emphasize what I liked about the original photo. Then, it sure looked like an oil painting to me. An oil painting friend is helping me set up a simple orange and blue palette and giving me some instruction in exchange for the print you saw here. It is on bright white rag paper, so that also adds to the painterly effect. I have never done portraits. I have done indoor mural/ acrylic paintings on walls for people but not in a long time. Also have done some drawing illustration work for publications and comix. One, I almost got sued for! l.o.l. I wasn't the one who published it , though. I just drew it. So they really couldn't successfully sue me as it turned out. I have also worked with dyes and fabrics, costumes, performance art. And teaching art to elementary school kids and special ed. Egads! The mind boggles. I love to experiment and try new things.

Wow, Roybird, why did you almost get sued? Who would have thought that art could be so dangerous!

Did you find that teaching art made it harder for you to have the energy to pick up your own art at home? I've heard others who teach say that. Did you find it rewarding and did you think that you were able to turn any kids onto art?

It sounds as though you've had quite a varied career.

g_g Also Cosmo is an abstract impressionist who lives with Mulch. He prefers to work in Permanent Red. This upsets Mulch cuz he oft prefers to 'abstract' her works in progress.

The controversial illustration happened to be a political cartoon of some city councillors and the incumbent mayor at the time. Portraiture, I guess you'd say. It depicted the mayor turning to alcohol and drugs to help him cope with the newly elected council. The mayor did, in fact, have a notorious alcohol and drug problem but that wasn't really what the comic illustration was about. It was about how he was reacting to his new co-workers. It was rather too accurate, I'm afraid. He did go out in the next election. He wasn't a bad guy but he was arrogant and used to doing whatever he wanted. Then the tide turned. This happens in New Mexico government with some regularity. Teaching art was a mixed bag. I enjoyed it when I was younger; especially with disadvantaged kids who did not get art classes in their regular school curriculum. I worked around the state but mostly in Albuquerque for Very Special Arts N.M. I had to drive a lot, supply most of the materials from my own budget and so forth. The pay was lousy. The kids were great! That was my favorite art teaching gig though there were others. I hardly did any of my own art work during those years. I think kids are all natural artists and they mostly need someone to pass out materials and be around to answer questions in case someone wants to know how to do a certain thing. It was very wonderful to see how art transcends language barriers, sometimes helps with behavioral problems and builds confidence! I loved doing costumes with kids. Probably too much information. But, I really do believe that "art saves lives". Happily, there are so many kinds of art there is an incredible range of activity.

I imagine that you do have to be careful when dealing with recognizable figures! I've never caricatured anyone, but for a while I had a gig doing portraits of notables who had been chosen as mayor of the year for a state organization. Politicians are a breed apart!

It's so important to offer a variety of arenas in which kids can be successful; you never know what's going to turn a kid around and make him buy into some of the hard work that's needed to become a functioning member of society.

Nut, dear, are you saying that Cosmo takes off on Mulch's original concepts and makes his own interpretation of them? In red and abstractly? I'd bar him from my studio, I would!

He very creatively adds 'red' directly to her canvas with his tail gg. It causes a kerfluffle but I don't think he has been banned from the studio.

Worse than that. Cosmo is half border collie, half springer spaniel and dangerously smart. His tail wags at the exact height of my palette. He always seems to get into the red and wag it all over the place, sometimes on my painting in progress. I am unimpressed with his creative efforts and do everything I can to stifle his drive to paint.

When I lived in Canada there were 16 kids who got on the bus at the end of our cul-de-sac. At some point or another I had all of them in my clay studio. I had two rules. No hassles. Don't break anything. The only kid I had to kick out was my own one time. They had a fabulous time in the clay with me. I showed them how to make elbow pots by patting clay onto your own elbow and they were off, making knee pots, heel pots, etc. Kids and clay are a perfect match.

D'nut, we crossposted. No, I have not banned him, but I have become highly defensive about my palette.