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If you could do ANYTHING you wanted in a day, what would you do?
How exciting! Right? ANYTHING you want! For me, it's creating. More specifically, painting. Everyday, I wake up with so many ideas of what I want to do. Time is all mine! My days are whatever I want them to be. The new absence of structure in my life is something I’ve never really had. Even prior to being an adult with a career - I was a student with at least some kind of expectations or agenda to follow for the day. So! I find myself making lists upon lists. My ideas are like popcorn. Pop! There’s one idea, then...pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Each idea leads to another...until I have to consolidate my lists into subjects. Hahahaa! Okay, it might sound a little overwhelming. Even so, I don’t want to lose any of these ideas no matter how grandiose or seemingly silly they may be. Ideas are exciting! They can lead to bigger and bolder challenges. And, who knows? Perhaps I’ll do HALF of them! *smirks* One things I've found with creating to do lists is - they DO get overwhelming. I decided instead of following a to do list - I'll write down what I accomplished at the end of my day. I've found it much easier to focus on the THREE things I want to spend most of my time doing.
I'm less distracted with my GINORMOUS popcorn bowl of ideas. I get so much more accomplished and I have more energy at the end of my day. Surprisingly enough, a lot of times I'll end up working on projects through to the end of the evening. About 50% of my time is spent researching, marketing, and learning about what to do with my art once it's complete. In the last three months I've literally spent hours on artist websites, hours watching youtube videos (on topics from video editing software to a day in the life of a full time artist), hours organizing my creation station and seriously - DAYS of trying to get my mind to settle down so I can JUST PAINT. The other 50% of my time is spent actually painting. I have a personal agreement with myself to be in my creation station by 10:00 am. Sometimes I paint for 7-8 hours (with small breaks), and sometimes I paint for a couple hours and work on the technical or personal pieces of my art. So far, this works for me! What do YOU do to stay focused on the things that are most important to you? I'd love to hear any tips or tricks that you've used that have worked. I'm off to paint! Until next time...enjoy your space!
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My very first time lapse painting video for your lovely eyeballs. Enjoy! I've been so excited to paint! Making sure I have everything I need, getting my creation station set up and then...WHAT?! I'm so distracted! Really... I pushed through. Usually, when I start a painting I prefer throwing paint on the surface to see what shapes or ideas take form. Here's is the aftermath of the first layer.  I don't usually use a lot of yellow in my paintings and the day I started this piece San Antonio was HOT, so I was feeling this sunny color along with two of my favorite colors to paint with - orange and red.  After my first layer of paint dried I added contrast with black paint in the effort to tone down the bright pinks and orange. Then I thought, oh jeeze...I just made a mess out of this painting! I wasn't thrilled with the muddy results from adding black paint. At this point I thought the color orange was taking over most of the painting - like a giant fire with black swirls of smoke whipping around and a red-black muddy ground. So, what did I do?  I threw on more paint! Ha! Why not? I added random spots of blue and white paint for some color balance. At this point of the painting certain ideas started to pop up and figured out WHAT I was creating. I decided to create San Antonio from my new to town view. That weekend, my husband took me to the river walk. This fun local social spot inspired the block-like spaces to become buildings and people in the forefront.  This is the final piece. I saw myself in this warm, busy and exciting city - overlooking all of what is and could be. New friends, new experiences, new everything! Since moving to San Antonio I've been feeling a little lost and overwhelmed. When I go places, I see all the people, the buildings of people aquariums, the doors waiting to be opened. Where to start? I've just been soaking it all in without much participation. I have yet to make friends!
What came out to me in the end... when you move to a new place there are so many things to see, people to meet, windows of opportunity, doors to open and I have yet to experience the full effect. I look forward to jumping into the middle of it all, opening doors and doing much more than looking into windows in 2018. Merry New Year, y'all! Does it just happen one day? |
 My first painting in 1995. 15 x 18 inch oil painting on mat board. | It was a |
Second oil painting in 1995 - 15 x 18 inches on paper The painting was oddly interesting to me...and, I was left with a very painted ring finger that was doomed to stay that way even after seemingly hours of scrubbing. I know now the purpose of tools and how important it is to take care of your tools so your tools will take care of you!
Even though I had no idea what I was going to paint, I was pretty happy with it all. The feel of the paint, the way the oil blended with all the colors I put on the surface was a surprise every time I moved it. I thought, I'm NEVER showing this to anyone. I was happy with it, for myself and more so my experience.
It was only a few days before I decided to start a new one. Now looking back I can't tell you how interesting it is to start learning how to paint with oils. Ha! I can't help but to laugh that my first two paintings are on paper.
Years went by and I kept painting. I still felt uncomfortable with anyone and everyone seeing my work, so I hid it. My friends would say things like, 'Oh yea! Heather's an artist! Talk to her!'. This was so awkward for me. I didn't feel this way. I still felt like I was just enjoying making a blank paper or canvas into a colorful piece of space.
About ten years later I started donating art to non-profit auctions on a yearly basis, worked with a handful of wonderful skilled artists and did several contract pieces of work. I created a website, sold my first painting from my website before having it entirely set up - which was crazy to me! I continued painting in the privacy of my home until I had an open studio in downtown, Corvallis where I would paint and show my work.
Since then, I've surrounded myself with creative people, doing art shows and painting exploration classes. I don't recall the exact moment I started comfortably calling myself an artist, I just know that because of these experiences I'm confident about what I do and I've decided for myself - YES! I AM an artist.
So! You can see some of the art I've done on my website and you may notice there are some different styles. I haven't decided on a definitive style and I don't know that I will. I just know that I'm drawn to color, people and stories. Whether it's obvious or not, here are stories throughout my paintings. We ALL have our stories!
While I appreciate all kinds of artists, I'm mostly inspired by Pollock, Frida Kahlo, Picasso and Salvador Dali - not in that particular order.
Something that I've changed since starting painting is (I think perhaps obviously) sharing it. What I find most challenging now is explaining it. It's a piece of me and there's a story to every one.
Today is the first time I've painted since moving here to Texas from Oregon. While I've felt anxious to paint I've felt the need to make sure my immediate surroundings were in order. It's like (for me) cooking in the kitchen when things aren't in place.
I look forward to sharing the first piece of work for my Texas collection!
Until then, enjoy your space!
Even though I had no idea what I was going to paint, I was pretty happy with it all. The feel of the paint, the way the oil blended with all the colors I put on the surface was a surprise every time I moved it. I thought, I'm NEVER showing this to anyone. I was happy with it, for myself and more so my experience.
It was only a few days before I decided to start a new one. Now looking back I can't tell you how interesting it is to start learning how to paint with oils. Ha! I can't help but to laugh that my first two paintings are on paper.
Years went by and I kept painting. I still felt uncomfortable with anyone and everyone seeing my work, so I hid it. My friends would say things like, 'Oh yea! Heather's an artist! Talk to her!'. This was so awkward for me. I didn't feel this way. I still felt like I was just enjoying making a blank paper or canvas into a colorful piece of space.
About ten years later I started donating art to non-profit auctions on a yearly basis, worked with a handful of wonderful skilled artists and did several contract pieces of work. I created a website, sold my first painting from my website before having it entirely set up - which was crazy to me! I continued painting in the privacy of my home until I had an open studio in downtown, Corvallis where I would paint and show my work.
Since then, I've surrounded myself with creative people, doing art shows and painting exploration classes. I don't recall the exact moment I started comfortably calling myself an artist, I just know that because of these experiences I'm confident about what I do and I've decided for myself - YES! I AM an artist.
So! You can see some of the art I've done on my website and you may notice there are some different styles. I haven't decided on a definitive style and I don't know that I will. I just know that I'm drawn to color, people and stories. Whether it's obvious or not, here are stories throughout my paintings. We ALL have our stories!
While I appreciate all kinds of artists, I'm mostly inspired by Pollock, Frida Kahlo, Picasso and Salvador Dali - not in that particular order.
Something that I've changed since starting painting is (I think perhaps obviously) sharing it. What I find most challenging now is explaining it. It's a piece of me and there's a story to every one.
Today is the first time I've painted since moving here to Texas from Oregon. While I've felt anxious to paint I've felt the need to make sure my immediate surroundings were in order. It's like (for me) cooking in the kitchen when things aren't in place.
I look forward to sharing the first piece of work for my Texas collection!
Until then, enjoy your space!
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with so many exciting ideas it just feels like your spinning in place?
Well, that's me in a nutshell this week! After hours of organizing and sorting through my supplies, I finally arranged my creation station into working order. YES!!! I like how colorful and bright my space is. I have french doors that open up to the backyard and all of my supplies are organized into labeled plastic shoe containers right next to my desk for easy access. I've got music set up with great speakers (which is essential for me getting in 'the creative zone'). I have so many finished AND unfinished paintings and not much room for them. I definitely feel like painting up a storm when I walk into the room. There's just ONE thing that is distracting me...
Well, that's me in a nutshell this week! After hours of organizing and sorting through my supplies, I finally arranged my creation station into working order. YES!!! I like how colorful and bright my space is. I have french doors that open up to the backyard and all of my supplies are organized into labeled plastic shoe containers right next to my desk for easy access. I've got music set up with great speakers (which is essential for me getting in 'the creative zone'). I have so many finished AND unfinished paintings and not much room for them. I definitely feel like painting up a storm when I walk into the room. There's just ONE thing that is distracting me...
...this is the view on each wall I'm facing from my desk. It's crazy! So much is going on and while i LOVE having things around me to inspire my creative mind - there is pretty much no blank space in the room. As if there's no room for more paintings on the walls, which is a terrible thought. It's like when you have so many books in your bookcase, you start stacking them on top of each other crammed in the shelf. You want to get more but there's no room (kind of like what happens with my clothing collection). When my mind is consumed by how much room I'll have (or won't have) it doesn't really make me feel like painting. New item on my to do list for this next week - find a new place for the two huge paintings I'm still working on. Until next time, enjoy your space!
I'm just getting settled into my new art space here in San Antonio,Texas. So far,it's been a month of unpacking and arranging,making connections and mostly arranging. Pictures and new art blog starting next week! See you soon.
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