This Week in the Studio

   This was my painting at the beginning of the week. It is a painting of Blue Range Hut in the Tararuas. It's one of my pieces for the Art of a Hut exhibition at the end of this year. All I have to go by is my drawing and a rather bad photo from an entirely different angle which has only been helpful to see how the moss grows on trees so far. It is quite a challenge painting almost entirely from my head. It is still far from finished and this is how it looks today, Friday.

   I haven't been working full time on it so there is still a lot more to do on it. I will finish it this week. I have also been doing a lot of drawing. This is the longest drawing from this week, a portrait of Marion on which I spent about six hours.

  And while I have not been at the easel or the drawing board I have been shooting arrows from my bow (also losing them!) and working my way through the huge amount of content on the Art Renewal Center website. I'm enjoying learning a lot about Art History and discovering amazing artists I never knew existed before. The site has many high res images of some great paintings so it's a great place to view art if you are like me living in the uncivilized north of New Zealand. I dream of going to see the great master paintings in Europe and America. We do have some pretty good work here too, but I don't often have the opportunity to see it. Besides NZ is still mostly in the Dark Ages of Modern Art!

  And to end with here is a drawing which I finished months ago but never photographed until today. I never see it but I think of Thoreau's Walden which I was listening to while I drew this.

Inspiration from the Masters. True Story.

   Have had a nice quiet weekend to myself, usually I'm off doing something with my friends, there's always something going on these days! I could have gone hunting and kayaking to an island but I thought it must be time for a quiet weekend and get myself into focus for the rest of the month.

   I've been reading my favorite art book, Richard Schmid's Alla Prima II, and doing a lot of reading of Articles on the internet. Just getting fully inspired really. 

   I somehow came across The Master Secrets. A website/blog of Kathryn Lloyd an enthusiastic artist and lover of art who has interviewed many amazing artists. Her interview with Daniel Gerhartz is very inspiring, and with Rosemary & Co brushes--very interesting and informative. It's good to hear interviews in which the interviewer is also an artist and can ask good questions that I want to hear the answers to. 

   One article I read, Finding your Artistic Voice,  contained advice to young artists about how to find a voice or style. Being a young aspiring artist myself which all that advice is aimed towards I am thinking I should take it on for real. I've known it for so long having heard it repeated over and over from many successful artists. Just paint, paint, paint, and draw, draw, draw. Do your best work. Don't worry about style, go after the important things. Learn the craft. Be honest.

   That is exactly what I did in the pastel portrait of Tabitha. I spent all my efforts getting every measurement right, making each mark have a purpose, and not thinking about style or effect. The result was what I consider my best portrait to date.

   And I suddenly realized one aspect of what I've always heard and sincerely believed only didn't understand. Only because I applied what I had learned was I able to really understand it. I should say begin to understand it. The more I learn the more I realize I have to learn! 

  This month I am going to start working hard to apply everything I've learned so far. I have a commission to work on, heaps of Virtual Art Academy assignments to complete, and heaps of ideas for lots of drawings and paintings. I already spend most of my time doing art related stuff, but I always seem to be caught up in other little jobs and leaving the fun 'til later. I need to forget that I have a hundred things to do and just spend all my time having fun with charcoal and paint.

   Might need to order some more art supplies about now...

   I'll keep you posted with photos of some of my new work. Look out for some brilliant progress!