Category: Watercolor

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Maine Artist naturalism self discovery Watercolor

Drawing From Life, Abstraction & Simplification

Drawing from life never held any allure for me.  As a young man I was obsessed with the Pop Surrealist movements of art depicted in Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose magazines.  I poured over the galleries in the ads and in the gallery directory on the Juxtapoz website.  I de-valued the ability to draw from a figure or to do a portrait.  I felt like the only work that mattered was work that elicited a higher purpose.  I never thought that anything in my daily life might hold enough interest for a viewing populace.  

Currently, I find this to be contrary to my whole practice.  I have found that I am tremendously interested in observation and communicating a figure as simply as possibly.  This has created its own issues.  When I was in school there seemed to be this heavy push to learn to draw the figure as well as possible using values and proportion perfectly.  That was freshman year, when a basis in this information is vital to your artistic development.  I didn’t take many figure drawing or drawing classes after my freshman year.  Really I only took one, but it was that same figure drawing I course. I feel that I didn’t fully learn the basics that I was aiming to learn.

That said, I do feel that I have learned a communication of a figure, albeit in my language.  I have been struggling with justifying this figure to the figure that I felt I should be capable of producing due to that undergraduate education.  So when I was reading about Gauguin’s break with the impressionists this morning, when he was abandoning the comma shaped brush stroke and leaning towards more of a caricature style, it was heartening.  Gauguin referred to his new style as “the synthesis of a form and a color, taking into consideration [only] the dominant.”
Gauguin developed this style while looking through the print works of Hokusai and Hiroshige, styles and theories which I also am very much fond of.  As I’ve been working in watercolor, I’ve started thinking about how to communicate shapes using a single line much like Asian artists working with Sumi ink.  
As I read this morning I realized a connection.  I am simplifying my brush stroke which I use while working in acrylic paint, aiming for a more gestural and abstract expression of my subject.  Lost is the noodling pixellated looking brushstroke.  I never suspected that I would discover so much more emotion by painting subjects from the everyday.  I thought that the allegories that I had created were more powerful than my work from natural subjects, but I am beginning to think that this is false.  I guess only time will tell.  

While I do not suspect that I will entirely abandon my all of my silly character work, it is rather fun after all, I do think that I am excited to continue this level of discovery within the natural subjects.  I don’t feel that it is nearly the sell out that I thought it was every time my mother asked me for a painting of “something pretty.”
Peace
-Mike
Categories
introversion podcasting reading The Mighty Lark Watercolor

Introversion, Reading, Podcasting, and Making Peace

Everything seems different right now.  Life is not going as planned and so I find myself fighting the urge to delve further and further into self.  I’ve started reading more as a way to ground myself. Social media and personal interaction seems to exacerbate my feelings of indecisiveness. With this lack of stability in my daily life comes a more clear idea of what it is that I want for my work and my work goals, however.  More specifically, I’ve been thinking about the way that I work and the way that I prioritize.  These are two things that I have had issues with for a little over a decade.

I have, for as long as I can remember, been of the mindset that more to do is better than less to do.  In order to be successful, I thought, you must always be producing.  I see now that this isn’t really the case.  It is hard to be “on” all the time and that isn’t even accounting for all of the time that a person needs to spend marketing, promoting and building relationships with clients.  There is too much other work to do to realistically work on your artwork all of the time, and yet, that is what I’ve often tried to do.  It isn’t terribly successful from a business perspective.  I have, however, my craft has gotten a lot better than it was when I first started working.
Lately, with problems stemming from what I think I would sum up as maturation issues, I’ve been thinking about the steps that I’ve skipped.  I can’t go back and make myself not skip those steps.  I can try to build a new foundation, working my way from the bottom again.  This seems hard.  Everything can seem hard.  I’ve found, however, that there are several things that I’ve wanted to do in my life, that I haven’t.  There is no reason for this other than fear of failure and rejection.  And so I have to ask myself if fear of failure and rejection is worth the price of never trying at all?  I don’t think that it is.
One of the things I’ve wanted to create is a podcast.  I always wanted to start one, but never felt like I had anything to offer that wasn’t already out there and if I did, then it wasn’t really worth people listening to.  My daily watercolors have given me a bit more confidence, as I realize that I’ve put in work that maybe other people haven’t.  I know a thing or two, even if it isn’t, at times, the expected knowledge.  Now I am beginning to think that maybe this different sort of knowledge may actually be a strength and not a weakness.  Isn’t that what individuality and creativity is all about anyway?
And so, I’ve started a podcast where I vocalize the thoughts in my head while I am creating my daily fish bug watercolor.  It began as a way to try to get myself out there in a different way and now I am realizing that it helps me see the value in what I do, the methods that I am capable of, and that I am actually able to vocalize what it is that I know how to do.  These three things seem to me like the root of the ability to sell oneself.  So as my confidence grows in podcasting, I suspect my confidence will grow in speaking about my work.  You can check out my podcast on itunes, under The Mighty Lark or on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/mighty_lark.
Here are some of the more recent bug illustrations that I have created after I started the podcast.  I had to start a second book to house the second half of the year.  These milestones feel so good right now.  

I mentioned that I also had started to read a bit more again.  Yesterday, I took an hour to myself, and went to the park to read a book.  I intend to take some similar time today.  I felt surprisingly more at peace just by allowing myself that time.  I think that going forward the biggest key to being successful in my artwork is to allow myself to be successful in daily life, with my wife, my son, and myself.
Peace
Mike
Categories
Maine artists Watercolor

A Wisp and a Flourish

Watercolor is really trendy. At least that’s what my wife tells me. She says its in. I think that it is probably always kind of in. There is something to it, much like old Eastern brushwork pieces, that truly transcends an “other” from the individual painting. 

This week I got a new watercolor kit, thanks to my mom, still my biggest artist patron.  The set came with a number 6 brush which felt awfully large to me, but as I started to use it, I realized what a fine point it would hold and that by varying my pressures and angles I could start to get some of those “watercolor” strokes people talk about.   I mean those strokes that look completely like an accident, like you gave into the world in some sort of Buddhist awareness and just let your actions be. The strokes are surprisingly satisfying even if there is a certain level of awareness to making them. 
Here are my last two bugs which I was really able to let “be.”
I also started a podcast where I begin to discuss the method behind making one of these bugs every week. It’s really just giving voice to some of the inner monologue while you paint. You can catch that on my soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mighty_lark/the-mighty-lark-episode-1-the-golden-drak
Let me know what you think. 
Have a good Sunday, y’all. 
Peace
Mike

Categories
Drawing Maine Artist Portland Maine Watercolor

New Projects in the Mix

My world has become so full.  I am doing more design work and illustration than I’ve ever had before.  I have had at least three shows and a couple extra projects each year to work on and I now have a family to take care of and a son to raise.  I’m finally starting to feel okay with it.  This is it.  I’m living now.  Whatever that now is, I’ve got to live it.

I’ve been working on a watercolor of a bug every day this year.  Until about a week ago they were straight forward watercolors.  I’ve never used watercolor very much.  It was too unforgiving and I used a heavy hand.  I really just didn’t have the patience.  Enter toddler.  I suddenly have so much more patience than I ever thought myself capable.  The watercolors have advanced though, and I knew that sooner or later I would find myself adding myself back into the project.  This past week I started adding some geometric elements into the pieces.  I really like them.  Here are a few of the best ones.

I have also started another small side project.  I’ve always collected a number of sketchbooks.  One of my favorit types is called Dept. de Poche.  I have a small square book that I’ve started making simple graphics of whatever imagery I’m into on a daily basis.  I’ve started thinking of them as Squares of Vitality.  I hope to fill the whole book with foundation pieces of my vitality.  Here’s one of Mingus and some lettuce that is growing in my garden.

I hope this blogpost finds you well.  I’m wrestling with myself to get back into this space.  It used to be so good for me and I think that now more than ever it could be that outlet that I am not finding in other ways.

Peace
Mike

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failure Fortune cookie persistence Portland Maine artist success Watercolor

You Will Conquer Obstacles to Achieve Success

I went to lunch by myself today, a Chinese American restaurant. I was kind to myself and ordered off the menu instead of indulging in the buffet. The regular menu is too much food as it is, but my will power does not match the power of a buffet. All I wanted was some lo mein and that, I am proud to admit is what I got. When I received my tab, my fortune cookie was a lift that really epitomized my week. “You will conquer obstacles to achieve success,” it read. This week has definitely presented its obstacles, a visit from the fire department and their ensuing ire, a trip to the emergency room with my son, but these events paled in comparison to two talks with old art colleagues who I am again working with and a new routine, which has been life changing. 

I have always been a morning person. Even when I would stay up late working, it seemed I would be up early and ready to go. I have, however, seldom attempted to go to bed early to account for the sleep a body may need. I have been doing this for the first few days of my adult life this week!  I have been going to bed at roughly 10 pm and getting up at 5 am. 
The first hour I spend working on my  on my Draw 366 project, a bug a day. Then I have been taking a walk around the Eastern Promenade Trail. Each morning I’ve been taking a picture of the sunrise. I intend to do a number of these as watercolors. I did so the first two days. Today was so beautiful I will have to do it sooner or later. 

Drawing the bugs and allowing myself to make landscapes has really felt like a yoke lifted from my shoulders. I can draw whatever I like and it doesn’t need to be cool and it’s fine if old women think that is cool as long as it is for me. These landscapes are amazing, because for the first time I am allowing myself to fail disastrously at attempting to match colors and subtleties in the morning sky. I feel like I am again learning how to paint. 
It is hard though. I admit that I am working on things that make me feel very uncomfortable. But this is good. It’s time to grow. 

You will conquer obstacle to achieve success. 
Peace
-Mike
Categories
Drawing Insect Portland Maine artist Watercolor

Insects, The Lagoon, and a Daily Creative Thing

Over the past several years I have watched many artists working on a drawing or painting a day sort of projects. They always seem so fascinating. The very idea of maintaining an idea or theme throughout the entirety of a year seems downright daunting to me, but here I am on day sixteen of doing a watercolor of an insect every day of 2016. 

It started with the idea that there is such a multitude of insects. I have been reading Armand Marie Leroi’s “The Lagoon,” a history of Aristotle’s scientific observations on the animal kingdom. The book is fascinating, well written, and stresses an attractive idea of study through observation. (At least to an artist this certainly sounds attractive.)
Before I had reached a full week into the project, however, I became aware that it was not merely important in order to maintain a theme (which I suspect I may not be able to do) but also to set aside a half hour or so a day to myself and my own creative endeavors. As a father and husband, often my time is shared time. This is mine. I’m hoping I can make it through the whole year. 
Here are a few of the highlights so far. 

The project has been really fun and I’m optimistic that I may be able to make it all the way to December 31. If all goes well I plan on drawing mushrooms next year. 
Peace
-Mike
Categories
Art Painter Passion Portland Maine Fine Artist Watercolor

The Fear that your Passion is Greater than Your Instructors Ability

Today was the first day of class for one of my sections of 2d design. Generally my 2d design class is filled with a number of non-art people. This is the nature of a community college, and I will say that most of the time, it is the complete privilege of teaching at a community college. I hae met some incredible people who are multifariously gifted and individual. 

On the first day of class I like to ask my students what their greatest fear about the class is. Often these answers focus around anxiety in drawing ability, shyness, inability to share, or the feeling that you might suck. Today, however, a student looked up and said, ” I am only scared that my teacher (that would be me) will not be as passionate about art as I am. This is a bold statement to make. I am not sure how most artists would take that attack. Do you laugh it off?  Do you question its truth?  These students have so much more youth and energy. Clearly they might have a bit more gusto, a bit more juice in the tank?  How arrogant a statement. Was it anything but passion for art that put me in the position of faculty to begin with?  I am not offended, but I am completely intrigued with what this student brings in and it calls to light something I haven’t thought about in ages. In order to be successful in the arts, I believe that you have to think that you are right. There is no one who can tell you otherwise. If they do your work fails. Pretty simple. It doesn’t really attest if you are actually right, but I think you need to be so confident in yourself that you think critics are ignoramuses rather than that your work is ill founded or poorly executed.

Here are a few suprematist coffee pots that I have been working on. I’m interested in the order of shapes necessary to communicate the object. I’ll keep you posted. 

In the meantime, thank you young lady for the reminder to remain passionate. We’ll see how this plays out. Maybe you are more passionate than I am, but for the next three months I will say, that you have to deal with me believing that I am right. 
Peace
-Mike
Categories
Index Card Art pipes Robots Solace The Metamorphosis Water Drops Watercolor Waterworks

Index Card Art, The Metamorphosis and A Night Off

Yesterday my wife volunteered her time to help paint a new wellness center that our good friend is spearheading.  I was granted the opportunity to an entire day in studio, but alas when I was left alone in studio I was not very capable of working.  My energy wasn’t there.  I didn’t really care what I was making.  Sometimes this happens.  Usually this happens when I have been waiting for days to have a good long studio day and haven’t been granted one.  This was the case yesterday, I think.  At about four in the afternoon I gave up and traveled out to my old, pre-wife haunts.  I visited my friend Mattie and my friend Shirah.  I talked about teaching and my frustrations therein.  I talked about art making and its traps and I talked about how my students never show up to class on time.

Shirah is an amazing painter.  It is lovely to take time off to speak with her.  She has a habit of setting my head straight.  It proved to be no different this time.  I woke up today refreshed and ready to get some work done, at ease with the wife being gone all day in place of my former reluctance, and curious as to what I was going to make.  I am now wondering if maybe being curious as to what to make is better than being certain of what you are making.  Today I made some small pieces of jewelry and traveled to the craft store to pick up more supplies for necklace making.  I then set to making a number of small drawings on index cards.  My artist assistant was busy making backers for each of these.  You can read about that at my Tumblr blog which she manages.

It donned on me that the index card paintings would look a lot better as acrylic paintings than as watercolors.  I determined that I would leave the background as index card and the foreground would be painted opaquely.  I was very pleased with the results.

The other day I had made a single watercolor which I was trying to recreate.  The recreation did not go so well.  I think that may have been the root of some of my problem yesterday.  I had to abandon that method as the expectations were too high and it was influencing the quality of my piece.  Here is that original piece, however.

It was good to abandon that drawing for a little while.  Painting opaquely requires a different type of focus; one that alleviates my stresses and makes me more in touch with my anxieties.  I become a better person, essentially when I paint opaquely.  I think that perhaps this is what people mean by having a calling.  It made me think back to the weekend.

This past weekend I read the Metamorphosis.  Since about Monday I have been questioning why Gregor ever needed to turn into a bug in order to create the resolution to the story.  Why wasn’t he just sick or completely immersed in his work or why didn’t he just disappear on one of his many train rides?  The fact of the matter is that I have spent four days wondering why the construct of the story happened.  It is a success.  It is stuck in my head.  It didn’t need to be anything more than it was.  It was simple.  I have been looking for a big punch again, an answer that will solve the world’s problems; my problems, but I have forgotten once again that the world’s problems start as something very small within the citizens of the world.  The inconsistencies and anxieties that each individual feels feeds the dinosaur that is our society.  The whole turns about and eats the constituents.  To solve the worlds problems we all need to find our own balance and let the other guy be the other guy.  That is, at least, what I keep reminding myself.  It is, I think, just as correct as many of the sociologists hypotheses.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike