An Afternoon Visit

When you're painting, you can't think about anything else.



I thought I'd share the progress on the iris painting; the first 2 pictures are ones I already showed in previous blogs, and the big one is the way it looks now. I'm really enjoying this one - it's not quite finished, but I'm getting close!

I didn't get much painting in yesterday; after lunch we went over to our very good friends' Ramona and Ken's for a visit. They're both teachers, and Ken was still at school but Ramona has taken the rest of the year off to recuperate from a hospital stay. They live in a wonderful old neighborhood with lots of gigantic trees and we sat on the front porch talking and drinking pineapple juice, and the afternoon was perfectly glorious, so it was a wonderful midday break for me.

At one point we walked across the street to say hello to their neighbor Edith, a 91-year-old artist. She said she didn't start painting until she was in her 50's, so she's "only" been painting for 40 years! She doesn't paint much any more because of the arthritis in her hands, but she took us on a tour of her artwork throughout the house. What a treat! I wanted to share this tidbit from Edith:

I would paint every day starting at 9:00 at night and paint until 1:00 in the morning. There was no interference; it was great! I started painting because it was great therapy. I used to sew, but when you're sewing, you can still think about all kinds of things; when you're painting, you can't think about anything else.

I hope your day is beautiful!

Living the Lyrics

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.


An absolutely beautiful morning!

Our choir theme this year is "Living the Lyrics," and one of the songs we sang last night at rehearsal was based on this prayer. We were reminded by our director that the way Jesus taught us to live our lives is diametrically opposed to almost everything our culture tells us about a successful and abundant life.

This was my meditation on my walk with Trixie early this morning: asking God to help me "live the lyrics" today. To REALLY react in love when I'm faced with hatred, to REALLY bring joy to others even when I'm sad, to REALLY forgive someone who has injured me in some way.

God has told us through Paul's letter to the Philippians 2:3-4 (from The Message) "Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand."

Wow ... does this totally go against what our "me first" culture teaches us or what? Is putting others before ourselves natural behavior for any of us? Certainly not me! I'm so grateful that the abundant and successful life God wants for me has nothing to do with material things, but goes much, much deeper, and I'm certainly glad it doesn't depend on anything I try to do on my own, but is only attainable by His grace, which anyone, ANYONE can have freely by just by accepting the gift of His Son to the world. Every day I can ask for God's help, confident that the Holy Spirit living inside me will enable me to "live the lyrics." What a priceless treasure!

Ray, Art Critic

I like to work in natural light whenever possible, which is why I hardly ever paint at night - in addition to the fact that I'm very much a morning person and my energy tends to fade a little ... ok, a lot ... as the sun goes down.

Anyway, one dreary afternoon a few days back I had my easel set up in front of our living room windows, where the light is a little better on cloudy afternoons than in our office/studio. I took a break for a walk with Trixie, and upon returning some time later I found Ray enjoying the residual warmth of my vacated chair, studying the work in progress. (I was hoping he would offer some pointers, but he was pretty close-mouthed on the subject for a change.)

I was already carrying my camera (how convenient!) and the light was so beautiful and soft I couldn't resist an impromptu photo session. I knew I probably only had about 30 seconds, tops, before Ray decided he was through posing, so I had to work fast! Snapped a couple from the doorway with the entire scene, then moved in for some close-ups. To my delight he didn't make his move until I had captured this beauty - I just had to share it with you.


Tomorrow I'll post another picture of the iris painting, it's getting close to finished I think. Meanwhile, let me introduce you to the other feline members of the household. (These are some of those rare photos I have when they're awake!)


To meet the dog, Trixie, click on April under Archives and scroll down to April 12, "One Hip Cat."

Rejoice!

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."
Philippians 4:4-8


Mondays are usually pretty jam-packed, but I managed to find some time to continue work on these irises. I'm really pleased with the way this one is coming along.

These particular irises, which are growing in my neighbor Penny's FABULOUS front garden, have a really sweet history which she shared with me one afternoon as I was admiring the blossoms. I plan to share that story when I post the final painting.

Meanwhile, I hope you find this painting's progress interesting and enjoyable!

Another Beginning

Here's the underpainting for the third of my "Neighborhood Paintings." I wanted these irises to be large and dramatic, so I chose a 16 x 20 art board. I like to work from dark to light, so this first stage will tend to be rather dark. I think it's a good beginning, considering I didn't start painting really until later in the day.

Today (Saturday) I had every good intention of starting early, and I hit the ground running (after sleeping an hour later than usual) at 7:30 this morning, got dressed, kissed my still slumbering husband, drank some o.j., fed the cats, took Trixie for our morning walk and upon returning made some coffee, dragged my easel to my favorite spot in in front of the windows, sketched the outline of the new painting onto the board, and then promptly engaged in about four hours of what we artists fondly refer to as "avoidance activity."

I went into the living room to retrieve my reading (and painting) glasses, and it suddenly hit me that the coffee table, which has been in the same sorry state of chaos since roughly Valentine's day, could not wait one more second before being restored to order. Cleaning off the coffee table also included going through a stack of Country Living, Country Home and Cottage Living magazines and cutting out pages I wanted to keep before throwing them away ...

As I was sitting down to prepare my palette, it occurred to me that since I was about to use my fourth-to-last art board, and I only had a tube and a half of Titanium White left, I'd better order art supplies right away, which meant sitting down at the computer and of course while I was at it I might as well check my email, read a blog or two, check the bank balance, pay a couple of bills ...

So now it's time for lunch, another outing with Trixie, and an in-depth discussion with my husband about what items we might need at Target since he's going there anyway to pick up a prescription. Then a phone conversation with my brother. Then a quick walk a couple of houses down to my neighbor Penny's house to refresh my memory with a look at the irises in real life again, even though I had seen them at least four times a day every day for the past three weeks.

And FINALLY sitting down to paint, I look at the time and it's 2:30.

It's pretty much the same thing with every new painting. Why do I do this? I love to paint. God has given me great joy in this work. When I have other things I'm obligated to do, I can hardly wait until painting time is here. And thinking about doing a new piece is really exciting to me, so why on earth do I delay each new beginning? After all these years it's still a big mystery to me. At least with practice and the good Lord's help I've whittled the avoidance time from weeks down to hours. That's something I guess!

Go Bobcats!

Just wanted to show you all what I did today during my painting time. This is the cover art for next year's school planners at Burcham elementary and middle school in Long Beach, CA, where two of my nephews go to school. My sister (PTA President) drew the bobcat and designed the cover, and I transformed it into vector art in Adobe Illustrator for her.

And here's a picture of my 3 California nephews, blazing a trail during a family camping trip:


This picture is several years old - this July they will turn 15, 12 and 10 ... whew! the time, how she do fly by!

In the morning I'll start on another of my "Neighborhood Paintings" - tune in tomorrow to see what it will be ... the suspense is killing you, I can tell!

GO BOBCATS!

Avery and Jazz

"Avery and Jazz" © 2007 Karen Mathison Schmidt
12x12 • acrylic on 3/4" cradled gessobord • SOLD

I posted progress photos of this painting a few days ago; here it is finished!

Several weeks ago my friend Andrea commissioned me to take photos of her son, herself and her mom, in various combinations. Of course, being 7, Avery wasn't really into the photo shoot; it was next to impossible to get him to sit in any one spot for more than about 4 seconds, and even harder to get a natural expression out of him. (From experience I know that it takes about a thousand clicks of the shutter to get 2 or 3 really good shots of a kid or a pet - thank goodness for digital!)

At one point I got Avery to sit looking out the window and tell me all the things he could see out in the back yard.
Me: What do you see out there?
Avery: ummm...
Me (clicking away): Is there an elephant out there?
Avery (very matter-of-fact): No.
Me: Hmmm ... he must have gone home to eat lunch. Is the giraffe still out there?
Avery (laughing): No-ho-ho-ho!

Then, just for a second, he stopped talking and was just looking, and their cat, Jazz, hopped up behind Avery and was looking in the exact same direction. It was the kind of moment a photographer dreams of – a real gift! I snapped the picture and I knew I had a gem. Out of an hour long photo session, this turned out to be everyone's favorite. Later, looking at the photos on my computer, I knew I had to paint this one. I've been trying to build up my portrait painting portfolio (wow - say that 3 times real fast!) so I have more to show potential clients.


The big challenge for me in painting a portrait is to end up with a good likeness without trying to control the outcome too much. It's kind of like a creative tightrope walking act, trying constantly to keep that balance. And of course I want to be true to my own style, seeing as how that might be a reason that a person chooses me over another portrait artist.

I have a tendency to be very detail-oriented in my work, which is a plus in my graphic design job, but which I have to fight against in my painting in order to keep my brushstrokes loose and painterly. Somewhere in my past (it could have been in an art class or something I read) I heard that the less information the artist provides in a painting, the more the audience has to fill in from their own experience and memories, so a less detailed work can seem very personal and familiar, even when you're seeing it for the very first time. This might explain the extreme popularity of impressionistic art.

Well, boys and girls, that concludes our art class for today. In closing, I would like to say one more thing: it was really fun painting the cat!