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Well, it was a heck of a winter, and now summer is sweeping me away! Taking the winter months to paint and learn turned out to be exactly the right thing to do despite requests to teach here on Cape Cod.
I started with Mary Moquin’s Master Class. In it she concentrates on helping artists find their “voice”...that is, how to get the emotion into one’s painting in your own exciting, unique way. It was fabulous, and I will be taking it again next fall or winter. It’s definitely worth the drive!
Then I got really lucky. An artist friend had me look up Jeannie McGuire’s incredible figure work. Well, her name sounded familiar, so I looked on the Web, and she was going to teach a workshop nearby. I leapt on that and got in. She was just what I needed. So many things went “click” for me during the workshop!
It turns out that I do a lot better emotion- and composition-wise when I start out with my darks and my main-emotion colors.
“Huh?” you say. The best I can do is examples. For me, cobalt blue usually means peace. When I was preparing to paint “Over the Rainbow”, I realized that I wanted cobalt blue to flow through it from left to right. “Why?” I asked myself while I was totally relaxed, and the words just popped out. “Cobalt blue is peace. I want peace to flow through it like a river.” When I started painting, I put the blue in before anything else, and the rest followed.
It was quite an experience. Give it a try. If you can’t float in your right brain until the answer comes, try writing about your painting-to-be, what it means, why you want to paint it. Write down anything that comes to mind, even gibberish. Eventually, if you write Everything down, the answer will eventually flow out of your pen.
OK, I’m off to prepare to teach my first two-day workshop for the The Falmouth Artists’ Guild. Go paint!
Hugs,
K
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Those of you who have known me for a while know that I’ve been working hard to take that next big step in my art development. I felt like every painting I finished, no matter what the subject or approach, was just like the last one I had done. I both wanted and needed something more.
I started with Steve Quiller, who told me to draw less on the paper and paint more from my gut, to paint shapes instead of things. Easier said than done, it turned out. I pushed and sweated and swore.
Eventually, I took Mike Bailey’s “Watercolor - Beyond the Obvious”, which got me turned in the right direction. I finally started thinking in shapes for the first time. What a rush!
Now I am taking a “Master Painters” class from Mary Moquin, an artist here on Cape Cod whose work really speaks to me. The entire class is aimed at helping each artist find their own “voice”, which was exactly what I was looking for. It took some fast talking since she doesn’t work in watercolors, but I’m in.
Two classes later after what feels like years of banging my head against the giant step I’ve been stretching on tiptoe for, I have finally gotten myself over the lip of that next level that seemed so high and out of reach. I am trying things I never even thought about trying before, and seeing things differently.
“Prism” is an example. I’m almost done with a calla piece that flowed out of my hand and heart so quickly that I still can’t quite believe it. I am excited as I haven’t been in years, so I have to get back into the studio, but I will keep you posted.
Happy painting,
Kate
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Hi, all. If you’ve been trying to find my website, it’s been offline while I changed hosts. If you can read this, it means I’ve finally got things straightened out.
There’s more, though. I’ll be upgrading my operating software during this next week, and I don’t know what kind of glitches I might have, so pray for me. I’m not sure to whom. Just pray.
Here’s to a happy new year full of wonderful paintings and lots of learning!
K
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It has been a most amazing winter. Just over a week ago, I was painting en plein aire not far from the place where this photo was taken.
Today, on the other hand, I’ve spent my time recovering from a whole lot of snow shoveling yesterday.
I keep seeing this in my head with deep, warm pockets of colors in the negative shapes between the trees that will be the center of interest. It’s hard to say when I will get it started...life is unexpectedly busy right now. This one isn’t going to let go, though. It will be painted.
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Well, the hustle and rush is done at last. The cards are sent; the gifts are mailed, and friends are duly missed. To all my past students, you have made a huge impact in my life. The gifts you have given me, the ways you have touched me cannot be numbered or even described. I would not be precisely who or where I am without you.
In these coming winter months, you will be with me in the quiet of my studio. Your gifts will come through my heart and out my hands onto the paper. You will be in all that I paint.
Thank you so very much for being you.
Merry Christmas,
Kate
