The cost of impatience

To graduate from cooking school I was required to do a three month internship. My friend was the chef at an executive dining room of an international bank on Wall Street. She arranged for me to work with her and her top-notch staff.
The sous chef had demonstrated how to assemble a tower of grilled veggies and present them beautifully on a plate. Practicing on my own, I had gotten as far as cutting, assembling and cooking, but the plating had not gone well. When asked to prepare the dish for customers waiting in the dining room, I held my breath and I may have closed my eyes during the delicate grill-to-plate transfer operation.
The tower came undone and zuchini went flying in all directions. To make it worse, I shrieked so loudly that some waiters rushed into the kitchen looking for casualties. I was mortified. My lack of experience coupled with impatience and anxiety prevented me from going slowly, focusing and seeing it through.
What has all this got to do with my painting of a bald cyprus? While I have painted this tree a number of times, I haven’t given it the time and practice needed in order to get the desired outcome. Seems like sometimes I’m just too impatient.

Leaf me alone

I was out of sorts, being a grump puss and not productive at all.  So when Carol, a new friend in the watercolor club, showed me a bag full of leaves that she collected, I was happy and interested in having a closer look. I loved them! Seagrape leaves. I’d only ever seen them shiny and vibrant green; never dried and brittle like these. She generously gave me one and we traded ideas on how we might make use of them. After a few false starts, I packed up my stuff and headed home.

Sitting at my easel, soft jazz playing, I turned over my new leaf, started to paint, and this is what emerged.

Been here

I’ve become fascinated with cypress trees. I think they have a lot of character. I’ve made a number of attempts to paint them in their natural environment which is always water. It’s usually all dark and dripping with vines and forest litter. Very dense and steamy.

So I was on my, I dunno, 88th attempt when I decided to swap out the water for land. Soon I was painting a path and flowers. Here’s the funny part; I have painted this same picture before. Actually I’ve painted it a few times, but with different trees. Birches, oak, maple, pine. Yes, those are all in the northeast.
And I’ve followed this path before, too.

Where did it lead to? Good question.  🎶🎵🎵. I’ve been so many places in my life and time....🎵

Let it in, let it out

Yes, there is a whole lot going on in my head. Yes I did wake up in the night and not be able to go back to sleep. Yes, I tried to transform some of that heady energy by using a painting process that has worked many times before; painting a path to lead me to a more quiet, peaceful place. I guess before I could reach such a state, I had to clear away a bunch of stuff. There’s still lots more that has to go.

Of course, someone else might look at this piece and think that the artist didn’t know when to stop.

They would also be right.

Can’t see the forest for the trees.....

“The Berkshires has mountains, tall evergreens and birches!” I was pining again🤪 Florida has big beautiful sky, endless ocean and sand. I have produced over 30 pictures of beach since before the move. No complaints. When I needed to cleanse my pallette 🤪, I did a few abstracts. Fine. The truth is, after that,  I was feeling stuck. Would start a picture and wreck it. I was uninspired. “Florida is flat. Everything is landscaped and looks the same, I complained.”

Well, you never know when and where you will find inspiration. Thank you dear friend, Edith Dankowitz, for your beautiful pictures of Morikami Park, not 10 minutes from here. Your photos energized me enough to create a landscape of my own. For today, I’m back on track.

No words

All I can say about this picture is that it felt good to create something so freeing.

Here spot

To keep from losing balance and getting dizzy, a dancer will focus on one ‘spot’. With each rotation, she returns her gaze to her spot. 

When feeling overwhelmed, it can feel like I’m spinning. Finding the one thing to focus on can help to restore some balance. It can be difficult to choose the one spot as so many are calling out for attention and they all seem equal in importance. But I can only do one thing at a time, really. If I don’t pick one thing, one little thing, I got no thing. So any spot will do in a storm.

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That’s how life has  been feeling.

Painting has not been joyful either. It feels like I forgot why and how. After several attempts at yet another beach scene, I put all those images aside and allowed myself to just apply paint to paper willy-nilly. Then I went in with smaller brushes and added some texture, etc.
Now, this felt good! I didn’t have to stay within the lines!

Where are the oars?

Lot’s of challenges lately. I knew I needed to change the energy so I joined a watercolor club. I’m still feeling sort of  “up the creek without a paddle”, but at least I started painting again. Painting helps me feel better, but sometimes I need to feel better in order to paint...

Continuing the water theme, thought I’d try something new. Here’s my first boat.
Watercolor and oil pastels
7 1/2” x 11”

Oops. Forgot to post this one.

I do not post everything I paint. I often go through quite a bit of paper, especially when I’m working with some new material or subject matter. That’s just part of the process.
This one I did a couple of weeks ago when I was playing with masking fluid. I didn’t knowwhat to say about so I put it aside....
Might as well post it.

Words and pictures, etc.

Blogging continues with experienting with masking fluid. Alternate layers of watercolor and the masking here with simple shapes to see how it works. The masking stuff is going to take some practice and imagination, but it interests me...