Several weeks ago I invited a number of artist friends to join me in my backyard for a playdate with paint and whatever creative materials anyone wished to bring. So, on a very hot, humid Saturday we gathered in as much shade as we could find and began working together.
I originally did this two years ago after my collaboration experience with Mike. One of the things I do not get to do often without taking a class is to paint with others. I teach and I love that, and glean much from my students, but it is not the same as painting with them.
This is a photo from the first playdate, which I dubbed Collaborationathon. I had only two rules : anyone attending must create (just watching not allowed!) and everyone had to be open to allowing others to work with them -even on their piece. We had a blast. So, two years later, we had Collaborationathon II.
This is a photo from the most recent day....Mike is using a cement trowel, borrowed from Liz, on my canvas. He is swirling paint and thickener that I have poured onto the canvas as it lay on the ground. A few others had their hands in there as well, so this one did become a bit of a collaboration. I had originally begun a painting of two dogs that I repainted on a different canvas, so this was a perfect surface to play on.
This is Bun, working on one of Mike's large panels.
Artists are often creative alone. We need that time to process and work. We do find ways to connect with one another and we do take workshops, classes, etc. But just having a fun day to let loose, try something new, or have other input into a piece while working on it is so enriching. I hope to host more of these in the future and can't wait to see who attends and what unfolds.
I am often asked why I paint the colors I do and what got me started painting like that in the first place. I have a difficult time explaining it in the 60 seconds most people are willing to listen. I began thinking about it quite a lot this month. What really started the thinking was a visit with our friends and my first commission clients, Keith and Leslie. We know this couple from my husband's job AND because they stole our wedding date from us. (ha! so now it's public knowledge, Doogie!) Seriously, we both decided to get married at the same time and really did pick the same date, but since my husband and Keith both worked in the same department, that wasn't going to work at all. They legitimately beat us to the punch.
So, back to the painting. While chatting with my husband and some other friends at the Gosport Arts Festival last month, Leslie mentioned that they were my first clients. Yes, indeed. They were. They saw a painting I had done of my pup Gracie and Leslie wouldn't give up until I agreed to paint their "kids."
This painting is about 24 x 36 inches and I began it quite realistically. I had been painting in pastels and some acrylic, doing beach scenes, florals and people. My work was no different than dozens of other artists doing the same thing. And I was bored. So, I started painting wild colors, a lot, LOT of red, all over Gracie. Then adding sweeping gestures of bold blues and oranges and yellows. Colors I typically did not use and nothing found in any dog I knew. I left the studio that night and didn't look back.
The next morning I went into the studio and poor Gracie! She looked like she had been born in flames. wow. Helldog. But, I loved the striking colors and now I had the challenge of bringing it back. This was done in 1996. It's not a great painting, but I learned a great deal by doing this one. It's the painting that helped me turn a corner and was the beginning of my maturing process (if you can call it that) as an artist. Following that painting, I began to take graduate level classes and began to explore color. Not intentionally, but that is where I was headed.
So, Leslie became enamored with this painting and asked quite a few times if I'd paint their dogs. After some thought, I decided Sure. Why not? Soon after, they delivered photo albums. Complete albums, just of the dogs. It was awesome. I delved into all the photos and pulled out the ones I thought would work. The only request was that the two had to be together. It was also my first venture doing a composite painting - taking elements from several photos and combining them into one.
"Cujo and Church," a 24 x 30 inch painting, was done in 1999. My career as a pet painter was born.
The colors I used became bolder as I learned more about pigment. It wasn't until 2004 or 2005 that I learned other artists were painting in wild, unheard of colors as well. I had never heard of Ron Burns or Jody Wright. I wasn't mimicking anyone: I loved animals, I loved color and the marriage of the two made sense to me. I find it interesting that there are other artists out there who must have been catching the same energy waves as I was at that time, because when I read their bios or backgrounds, their stories are nearly identical to mine. Now numerous artists are painting in similar ways to those of us who began this over a decade ago. But one thing is certain...we all have our own style and if one looks closely enough, past the colors, none of us is the same as the other.
So, Why do I paint with the colors I do? Short answer: Because that's where I am.
I've been wanting for a long time to move on to new ways of painting. I've taken tentative steps in the past, through classes and experimenting, but it felt like I had pieces to a puzzle and they didn't all fit. Now it's like I'm collecting pieces and eventually they'll all make a whole.
Here is a piece I began painting at my Plant Zero studio last week. I try to keep a painting going for students and visitors to see. A client / fan / collector posted on her Facebook page a photo of her dogs' legs intertwined, which I fell in love with. So I asked permission to paint using her image.
I love this for the composition mostly. And because it's a great way to move into more abstract paintings while doing what I know. I plan to keep this looser than my usual work and hope it becomes a little more painterly. Let's see how it goes.
