I’ve been playing around with ideas for watercolor style tattoos for a couple weeks on my downtime at the studio. Since some of them are really fun, I figured I’d go ahead and share them here. If anyone wants me to tattoo one of them on you, holla. The first two are different concepts for the same dancer. The lion and elephant aren’t related, but I’ve seen a lot of people getting generic tattoos of lions and elephants, so I wanted to play with making them really unique.
It’s official! We own commercial real estate. And we’re going to fill it with needles and ink. That’s right, I’m going to become a tattoo artist! Quick, hide the kids! I’ll go into more detail soon, but I just wanted to say that, as I realized I was having less and less fun teaching at the paint and sip studio (except for the consulting, which I still love), I had to take a long hard look at what I wanted to do next. And one thing was very clear: despite my frustrations at the business side of the art world, I want to make art. It takes away the itchiness in my soul. Making and promoting art is hard, but, fortunately or unfortunately, it’s essential – at least for me. So following my heart means following my art. For all you other artists out there (whatever form your art takes, be it visual art, performance, literature, or anything else), don’t let the struggles of earning a living get to you. I know, those are easy words to say. This business is hard. But keep returning to the work and you’ll be okay.
Just finished up another little watercolor video for you. This time around, I went for a more limited palette and “stayed within the lines.” Not sure how I feel about staying in the lines. One of the things I’ve been having fun with is intentionally being loose and a little sloppy. When I do my realist paintings, I have to stay so tight and controlled, so needing to work fairly quickly for these videos is forcing me to ease up a little bit. It’s forcing me to be a loose woman…wait, maybe that’s not what I really mean…meh. Sure it is.
Anyway, here’s a video of an Entwined Trees painting, by a loose, loose woman.
If Bob Ross taught me anything, it’s that afros just don’t work on white guys. And if he taught me anything else, it’s that sometimes in art you have happy little accidents. As mentioned in my last post, I managed to spill a whole cap of ink onto my painting and threw my back out cleaning it up. I thought the whole thing was ruined, but when I finally made it back into the studio today, I discovered I actually kind of liked the ruined painting. So rather than scrapping the whole thing, I decided to embrace the mess and roll with it. So here’s the next Chickadees painting video. Please excuse the hairdo – I hadn’t planned on filming myself today.
A couple days ago, I got to work on a couple new painting videos for you. The first one went fine and you can view it below. But during the second one, three things happened: 1) my phone stopped recording for no reason, 2) when I realised it, I got distracted and knocked a ton of ink all over the painting, and 3) when I stood up and reached forward about 20 degrees, I threw my back out. Awwwwwwesome. Is this what 40 looks like?! So then I stood there for about a half hour afraid to move, all the while screaming obscenities in my brain and wishing I could scream them out loud but knowing it would hurt too much. Greeeaaaaaat. I finally managed to sit, but that made it worse, so I kind of oozed and rolled my way to the floor and lay there for a while. By the way, there’s a lot of dust under the guest bed. I know that now…not that I’ll be cleaning under there any time soon.
Eventually, the need to pee convinced me to do my best Walking Dead impression and I zombie-walked to the bathroom where I stood and stared at the toilet for a while trying to figure out how I was going to lower myself onto it. First time in my life I actually wished I was in a public restroom because there are handicap bars for this kind of thing, y’all. Finally managed to sit and then had to stay there for a while trying to figure out how to wipe without screaming.
Since then, I’ve been stuck mostly in bed with the exception of when I need to get up to pee. I fear the process of getting in and out of bed looks and sounds disturbingly like a cow giving birth, but S married me for better or for worse, so tough shit, Sweetums.
I did manage to shower today, so I smell a little less like a cow giving birth. So there’s that. And I could sit up enough to get this video uploaded and onto my blog because that’s how much I love you.
People keep telling me I need to do videos of myself making art. The problem with that is that realist paintings take a looooooong time, and it’s tiny little paintstrokes and it’s pretty boring to watch. So I’ve decided to do a few quick and dirty watercoler with India ink paintings. I don’t have a ton of experience with watercolors, and I haven’t used pen and ink since college, so for now I’m having fun experimenting and letting you watch. I did two paintings today, but my phone is an asshole and stopped recording half way through the second one. And now it’s getting dark and my studio has shitty lighting, so I can’t try again. But at least I got one done and uploaded.
I should also note that I don’t have any fancy set up for getting the camera focused on my painting, and I don’t have the money to buy a fancy set up. So I did a little artist hack and jerry-rigged a harness with some twine and hooks in my ceiling. Super hightech over here, people.
And now, for your view pleasure, here’s a little watercolor and India ink painting of a butterfly.
As mentioned in my last post, I was up in NJ training art instructors for a new paint and sip studio earlier this week, and when I travel, I like to bring along a watercolor palette so that I have something to do while I’m in my hotel room or the airport. I pack my watercolors (dried, not tubed) and brushes and a small pad of paper, and just bring an empty water bottle and fill it at the airport once I’m through security. Then voila, I can paint on the go! Here’s a little rose painting I did on this last trip:
Part of the river cruise that I took last month included a day trip to Giverny and Monet’s garden. Everything was lush and gorgeous and we got good weather and it was pure, unadulterated heaven. In an effort to not be totally derivative by just recreating his waterlily paintings, I opted to paint some of the flowers I photographed instead. There were so many different kinds of tulips I lost count. Here are 2 quick paintings I did based off of a couple, one fairly delicate and one big and bold:
This is an old one, and I have no idea what I did with the original, which sucks, because I’d like to frame it and hang it in my home now. But it’s still one of my favorites. I did it probably around 2004 or so, and hadn’t painted with watercolors in years, so I kind of surprised myself when it was finished and it actually turned out well.
Peace Rose 8″ x 10″ watercolor
Prints and merchandise featuring it available here and here.
Okay, last one of the new watercolor paintings from my trip down the Danube last summer. This one is the view of Passau from the river. A charming city!
The Perks of Being an Artist 