I Can't Stand It

Today my brother, Marc, & sister in law, Tricia, arrive with their 4 boys-Rory almost 8, Luke almost 6, Brady just under 4 and 7 month old Chase. A delay at the car rental counter of an hour has made them a bit later than I expected. But I've been waiting all day and can not wait for them to get here! I did have a bit of preparations to do before their arrival. Changing sheets, giving the dog a bath--Rory is a tad allergic and Bug hadn't had a bath since San Miguel, then cleaning the bathtub after the bath, extending the table, things like that. Anyway, it took most of the day. I did finally go out to the studio this afternoon and completed this piece. I think it is pretty good although the barn is a bit redder on the sunny side than the picture shows.

Studio Time

The above image is of the biggest oil I have worked on so far. 12 by 24 inches. I've got 5 more underpaintings completed in that size. But, with the nephews arriving tomorrow I decided to put up the oils and get back to the oil pastels. (Not as messy.) The colors aren't quite accurate and I like the piece better when I walked out to the studio this morning than I did the day I finished it.
Here's an image of my easel and work space. The oil pastels are very rarely any neater than this. I only organize them when I realize I'm spending too much time looking for a specific color. And I can usually rationalize that I'm not spending THAT much time.

Here's an image of one of the oils I did last weekend. I like the reflection in the water of the grass. I think it is 8 by 8 inches.

I caved in to NPR today and listen to All Things Considered for about an hour and a half this afternoon. I certainly don't want to watch any regular news so I figure this is the least evil way of keeping mildly in touch.

Today's musical highlights were Dave Alvin and Mary Gauthier. I've only got one Mary Gauthier and think maybe we might need some more.

The pressure is building again. After so many months of not having a show, acceptances (and rejections) are coming in. I know I can't do all the shows that I've got lined up but there is a part of me that wants to--of course, I need to work a little harder in the studio if I am to have enough inventory to do so. Wish me luck with my decision making. Gotta quit posting as I have a few applications I must complete before the guys get here tomorrow. More soon.

A bit shy

The above piece is not the first of the panels I have colored in but I think it worked pretty well. I may fuzz up the roof a little once it is drier but I don't want to muddy any colors. Which, by the way, is a much easier thing to do with oils than with oil pastels.
These 3 are 5 by 7s that I finished the other day. I'm still shy about posting them but since I haven't let too many people know about the blog yet I figure that is okay. I should just post and go forward. So I am.
In preparation for the nephews' arrival--they plan to make some art with me in addition to ski-ing up a storm-- I vacuumed the studio this afternoon and cleaned off the framing bar. It looked so nice I thought I ought to capture it for posterity.

Otherwise, I finished a few more of the oils and will post as time allows. Tomorrow we're off to Santa Fe to replenish the larder. Today we had our friends, Olive and Josie, over for some of the day. Olive is a 2 year old black lab and Josie is who knows how old and a white -ish lab, when she isn't covered in mud. Our friend, Bill, was going to Albuquerque today so we watched them. He'll take Bug tomorrow. Only he got home a whole lot earlier than expected because a TREE fell on his moving truck--yep. On his moving truck. It broke the radiator. Can you be lucky when a tree falls on your truck? Because he didn't get hurt, which is the most important thing. I guess it is all relative.

Not So Easy

Procrastination is a great way to start the day. So today I fidgeted around, put in a load of wash, looked through a magazine (Gourmet--and I don't even cook) and went to the local sort-of grocery store, telling Rees that I needed to pick out the temporary dog food. It took me a while to decide but I finally opted for Purina for worker dogs--high protein content. Bug likes Iams Large Breed but will eat anything--and if she doesn't, then just add bacon fat and, voila, good yummy food.

Pretty much anything to avoid starting one of the oils. Here I had been so excited but when it came right down to it, it was HARD. I almost bit Rees' head off when he came to ask what I would like for lunch. How dare he interrupt when I'm about to pitch a fit! But I can't give up yet. I even liked a couple I colored in although they bear little resemblance to my normal work. But I'm not ready to show them yet. I want a wait until I've tried my hand at a few more. Then, I promise, I'll post some. Soon.

A Happy Day in February

First pic is of JuneBug--my best dog ever! Pic 2 is of the piece I finished yesterday. Pic 3 & 4 are the pieces from today.
Today we awoke to practically gale force wind so ski-ing this morning was out. I was a bit disappointed. I got out to the studio and got a couple oil pastel panels done today. I tried putting away some of the other panels but I'm running out of room so I rationalized waiting until I had more finished. But the good news is the underpaintings are dry so I'm really psyched to get out there tomorrow and get to work on them. I hope I'm not crying about them when I come in tomorrow evening.

Managed to get some big batch cookies made this afternoon. I used to keep cookies in the house all the time but as Rees & my waistlines expanded I decided to forgo cookies unless we have guests. Since Marc & family arrive Thursday I thought I could get a start on the baking. I'd like to have several different kinds of treats put up in cookie jars before the boys arrive. So, a little at a time.

Music today was dominated by Rodney Crowell. I'm not saying that was my favorite--NOT--only that the ipod had a mind of its own and that seemed to be all it liked to play. It is rare that I can even find the little remote do-hicky but I did find it so I could fast forward without leaving my easel. I like to think of doing that as improving productivity but the remote is now covered in oil pastel. Maybe Rees & I should think about separate ipods. Then I'll put more Dead, Joan Armatrading, Rachel Price, Getz & Gilberto, etc. and he can keep his weirdo country guys. Of course, that would mean actually using itunes, which so far I have been able to totaly avoid. Don't get me wrong--I love Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Bruce Robison, Kellly Willis, Iris Dement, Steve Earle and I'm sure a lot more but I DON"T LIKE RODNEY CROWELL. Maybe tomorrow ipod will love Nick Drake--his dreamy sound is just what I have in mind for some of these oils...

Playing Hooky!

Not much to report today. Rees & I put on the skis and did a few runs. What a beautiful day! I wish I had brought the camera. For living in a ski resort I most certainly do not take enough advantage of our "free" pass. It took me a few runs to get my legs back but I think I'll be ready for the nephews next week. And, the snow was remarkably good for not having had any in a couple of weeks.

This afternoon was back at the easel--an oil pastel as the underpaintings are still a little sticky. Rees got wires put on all the varnished boards/panels so tomorrow I can get them put away. The music highlights for today were 1)Lucinda Williams--Little Honey--it is growing on me. I like it lots more than when we first got it 2) Two Dollar Pistols (Have they done anything lately?)

Back on track tomorrow--except I think we're gonna do a few more runs early. I'll get the fire going in the studio before we go and by the time we get back it will be toasty! Good excuse, anyway!

I'm Messy

I have really, really, really been trying not to be such a slob in the studio. I mean I'm still a slob--still wearing hole-y jeans and paint flecked fleeces and the mandatory turtleneck-- but I am trying not to let the studio implode every time I do something. And I've been really careful with all this oil paint stuff, checking my shoes so as not to track it onto any house carpet. (My studio floor is acid stained concrete and it comes clean very easily so no worries there.) But what happens today? I switch shoes to walk Bug--my winter hikers-- as it is really icy out there right now. So, Rees & Bug and I take a nice but windy walk and I get back and switch back to my crocs. It is then I notice a glob of oil paint--burnt sienna in color--on my sock. I've managed to rub it 2 miles worth into my hikers, rubbed it all over my socks, and smeared my crocs. I can't for the life of me figure out how it got up on my ankle, under my jeans without getting any on the jeans? Are there studio elves out there, like house elves, that have a twinkle of evil and place blobs of paint where they don't belong? Washable crayons are seeming more and more appropriate. See first image for sock.

Today was underpainting in the am and an oil pastel in the afternoon. All in all a good day. Got some other pieces varnished and made some panel covers for those. It will be nice to get those all put away. Second image is of the oil pastel and one of the underpaintings.

Musically, I was back to shuffle. It seems to much trouble to pick artists and I have been too lazy to develop playlists or anything of the sort. I can tell you that John Doe, Iron & Wine and Guy Clark stood out today as my faves. I've got to tell you this is way better than the pre-ipod days. I had a 5 cd player out there which I would fill and listen to repeatedly. It wouldn't be until Rees would come out to do a framing day that he'd complain they were the same 5 cds as the last time he was out framing --generally a month or so in between. So, really I'm exposed to lots more than I used to be.

I'm not listening to NPR anymore. It seems all they (and all other news outlets, I might add) do is talk doom & gloom. I know the economy is rotten but I don't want the news of it to negatively impact my work. I actually think most of the newspeople actually enjoy reporting more bad news, like that is gonna help. Jerkos.

PS The third image is of my painting/drawing work space. I was going to tidy it before I took a photo but since I now realize that I am truly a slob, I figured, why bother?

More Underpainting

Since I never did clean up my work space from yesterday, I decided to continue the underpainting theme. And, as promised, I did work on 3 with structures (barns for the most part) in a 12 by 24 format. I also worked on 4 other ones with no buildings. I'm amassing quite a few of these and can't wait for them to dry enough so I can add the color to the whole deal. For me, it is really weird to not be able to finish a piece the same day as I start it. But there is something warm and fuzzy about looking forward to coloring in the pieces...sort of like getting a new coloring book when you were 4. I will have to go back to some more traditional work soon as my show schedule appears to be heating up. And at most shows I won't be able to show the oils. The piece in this post is a color study I did with the oil pastel on paper. I'm thnking of using some subtler colors like this on some of the underpainted panels. We'll see.

I did something completely radical for me today in the studio. I turned off shuffle songs on the ipod and picked individual artists. I know, it is a really out there thing to do--I'm sure no one else ever actually picks their music. You always shuffle, right. It is just so much easier. But today I thought I should actually listen to specifics. Hits of the day were Bon Hiver and Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons. I wish I could say I found them myself but actually have to credit a few of my old high school buddies --Dave, Dan & Steve--for turning me on to them. If you haven't heard them, do so. I'm wondering if they've composed abest of '08 list yet.

Then, I reverted back to some of my dead guys. I've got this thing for really enjoying a bunch of singer/ songwriters who happen to be dead. Nick Drake, Townes van zandt, Gram Parsons, Elliot Smith, Jon Vandiver, Blaze Foley are all some of my faves. For those of you who are/were Dead fans, you should definitely listen to Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Bros Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969. The sound guy, Bear, for the Dead had this in his archives and just released it/licensed it a couple of years ago--he hadn't let anything be licensed out of his personal vault since 1970. I always thought it was a Grateful Dead sound but the same thing is in this cd--so I guess it is a Bear thing. How little do I/did I know.

Underpainting--yeah, really, painting, not coloring

Today marked a bit of a departure from normal workaday painting. I left my oil pastels alone and pulled out my oils. I did a variety of building-less underpaintings on gesso board and am really quite pleased. They are remarkably dissimilar to my oil pastel work and wonder if they will remain that way once I add the color layers. And, of course, I need to decide what color layers I need to add--oils or oil pastels? My answer tomorrow when I actually decide. Although the pieces I worked on today were quite small--6 by 6, 8 by 8 and 12 by 12, I'm thinking this process would work quite well way larger--I mean WAY larger--bigger than any panels I actually have.

The way I did these was to brush on the color and then use rags to wipe off down to the white gesso. I also use my color shapers to wipe back more color---they get closer to the white but leave little burnt sienna blobs at the end of a stroke which then need to be removed--great for lines, though, and super-highlights. I do sometimes need to add more color to get the darker tones again. So, I guess it isn't really painting but wiping. Rats, here I thought I was doing something like a real artist!

I suppose I'll work up to a really large size but maybe I should call ampersand and order some big panels and then we can pick them up while we're in Texas this spring. It would save on shipping.

Maybe this deserves a side note, ampersand art panels are built/made in Austin, TX. I love the gessoed texture and they come in a vast variety of sizes and depths. You can buy them as flat sheets, 3/4 inch cradles or 2 inch cradles. The cradled ones don't need a frame although you can certainly use one if you want. www.ampersandart.com is their web site. And, to top it all off, if you want something that is not in stock, they'll build it for you. And not gouge you with the price. They'll make things up to around 42 by 90 inches (at five feet one and three quarters inches, I'd definitely have to work horizontally, or else get a ladder!) So, my hats off to ampersand. They have a great product. I don't usually deal direct--jerry's artarama, dick blick and artist supply warehouse all carry the panels.

I met another artist at a show a couple of summers ago and he said he always sanded down the edges of the panels when they were cradled. That way if it got dinged a slight bit, it wouldn't be noticeable. I now always sand the edges with an orbital sander for the same reason. And always sand before you paint--I learned the hard way!! I sanded a bunch more panels this afternoon so I'd have some more panels to do underpaintings on. I think tomorrow I should work on some some structures. I'll let you know how things turn out!

Don't mess with art gods

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday as we had early-ish dinner plans and I wanted to finish a couple of pieces. It wasn't a very exciting painting day anyway. I had a miserable time sketching out a big long skinny board. It serves me right for getting so cocky about the composition of the big square I did the day before. I should just be humble so the art gods don't get in my way. But, no, I have to brag about how great working with the chalk is and then, wham, a gazillion erasures before I had something feasible to work with. And while yesterday's long skinny piece eventually turned out fine I took an awful lot of wrong turns to get there. I think I need to consider myself lucky that these sorts of days are rare occurrences.
The 2 smaller pieces I also did yesterday were much more successful than the skinny board. One was of a very different color scheme and the other was of a landscape--no building--very rare! They were both the 8 by 8 size on paper. I'm out of frame moulding in that size and am trying to figure out what to do. I still have a lot of blond wood frames but am thinking of eventually switching to a dark/black moulding. I guess I'll wait and see if I need to order a few more light ones to go with my current inventory. (I personally don't care how my work is framed--light or dark, as long as the framing is really simple--otherwise, I think it clashes with the simple-ness of the work itself.) If anyone has any feelings/ideas about the framing issues, I'd love to hear from you. Since almost all my sales are from outdoor art shows, I'd like to have some consistency in frame color in my booth. When I first started the blond wood seemed more appropriate but now, with so many people painting their walls in the neutral beige/green, the blond doesn't seem to work as well. That is definitely one of the benefits of working on the cradled panels. No frame is necessary. I have found a floating frame in black that is readily available, even for the 2 inch deep cradle. Thank you, Florida Frames!
So today I decided to try some little guys--my extra smalls--to see if I could find new color palettes that I would find pleasing. I managed to get quite a few of them done and I'm happy with almost all of them. One of them--a red sky, orange foreground, white building, really should have worked. So far I haven't figured out what went wrong. Maybe I'll see when I go out tomorrow.
On other notes, my friend, Don, inquired about Bug's foot. Happy to report all is well. This morning Junie had a massive fetch session with our part-time next door neighbor, Ellen, and her black lab, Captain Black. She (JuneBug) had enough energy for her afternoon walk but has spent the rest of the day sleeping. On the walk we saw Barbara and Frank's car in their drive so I assume all went well with the surgery--(by the way, Frank came & got Princess the day after I mentioned her, even though she was no trouble.)
I've got to upload some new images to zapplication (an online show application site) as I have a few deadlines coming up pretty soon. Jeepers--February is speeding away. By the way, if you haven't checked out my website lately, you should. Rees has added a lot of panel work as well as updating the regular pages with some new pieces. www.jennifercavan.com
Tomorrow I'm hoping to try some oil painting again. Wish me luck--I think I'm gonna need it.

Dixon Adobe at Night

Back to the easel today. I got the panels which I had gessoed yesterday back in their racks. Seems like I am drawn to working on them versus the paper these days. I can remember when approaching a 30 by 30 board/panel seemed like a monumental task. Since I've been working on some larger pieces it doesn't seem so bad. Plus, I'm lovin' the chalk! I can't believe how much it eases the composition procedure. Today, I pulled a photo from one of my photo boxes. It was of an old adobe in Dixon. A photo I took many years ago when Becky Towne & I headed down to Dixon for their annual artist tour. Anyway, I've painted from the photo many times. So, as I approached the panel I drew it relatively similarly to the actual photograph. (I never bother to get it just like the photo--just leave the photo and forget the painting, right?) But as I studied this elongated adobe I decide to pull one of the house wings (if you can call it that) towards the front of the painting. To create a reasonable perspective, that made that part of the house (probably just a room or two) much bigger than the other wing. And, it made for a much better composition. I never would have changed that if I had been using my graphite. I actually redrew the one part of the house about 4 times. I'm thinking now that I have exaggerated enough--the structure, I mean, not my comments. I tried a new roof color and think it works. Will wait again until tomorrow to see if it really does work. I think a good exercise for me would be to work up some new color combinations on some small pieces, especially in terms of building colors. I tend to get stuck in a rut--either white/payne's grey purple or Sennelier #18 with Sennelier 90 and 32 as the shading. I'll add to my to-dos.
JuneBug's back leg was much improved so we walked this afternoon. I'm still trying not to fetch too much as I figure the jumping up for the frisbee puts more strain on the sore paw.
I got some images to Katherine McDermott for the postcard for this year's Moreno Valley Arts Council Artsfest advertising. Last year I won Best In Show. As a partial reward I get to be the postcard artist this year. I wonder which one MVAC will pick. Hopefully, I can hold back that piece until the show this July.
A box arrived today from Jerry's Aartarama with some new supplies. I don't know why it always jazzes me when I get new art supplies. I mean I use them every day. Anyway, I got some other colors of the water soluable oils and will work with those this next week. I think I've got some good ideas. Just need to decide if I want to do burnt sienna underpaintings or work with the colored gesso. Maybe a little of both. But I was really disappointed that they were out of another substrate I wanted to try--I'd ordered in several sizes and think I may be able to cut it to any size I choose. I wish they'd let me know. I even searched Dick Blick and aswexpress and decided to go with Jerry's because they had more in stock--hah! They were lying! But it did get me to place the order with them. Oh, well. Maybe I'll learn.
Got an email from Emily who sounded like she was really enjoying her birthday. I think it is really cool she's turned a teenager on her Star Birthday! Hopefully she can be like my grandma Evie and stretch the celebration as long as possible.
Anyway, Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

Prep Day

So today I don't get to track any actual painting--although I was busy in the studio all day. I cleaned up the framing station--hadn't been done in several years. I varnished a few more of the boards I painted last month and earlier this month. I put away a few of the pieces I'd varnished yesterday and framed one piece to conserve space. I'll need to get some more of the big frames out of storage pretty soon. I realized I'm a bit low on foamcore so I ordered some more and I placed a glass order as well.

Took photographs of some big long skinnies so I could stack them interleafed with glassine until such time as I want to frame them. I need to remember to photograph when it isn't so windy. Lately, we've been photographing outside on the shady side of the house. I'm mostly pleased with the colors and as long as I include a color chart in the picture I can adjust appropriately. I'm sure a real photographer would grimace at how I do it but....that's not really my deal.

I'm trying to keep better track of my inventory this year and so I took the x-small pieces -my 5by 5s in 10 by 10 frames-- and matched titles with pieces. It should be easier to know what pieces I have--just going through the photos rather than actually going through all the boxes. Of course, I've managed to not photograph 6 of the 32 pieces I have in that size--took care of that this afternoon too. Then I color gessoed a bunch of panels. I guess I've never said in any post but I have always worked on 3 background colors--red, indigo blue and burgundy. I buy the pastel paper already colored but the panels I buy have a white gesso on them. Thus, I have to add a layer of colored gesso, after I've sanded down the edges of the cradled panels. It would be like the deep blue in the second picture from yesterdcay's post. So, I got about 20 panels ready to go. They are drying and I'll put them back up tomorrow morning.
It is a little overcast today--I was sort of hoping for snow so I didn't take any pictures of the snow banks. Hopefully tomorrow it will be nice enough---maybe I'll take the camera on our walk.
Tomorrow is my friend Emily Clark's special birthday--she turns 13 on Friday the 13th! Happy Birthday, Em! I believe this birthday is called a Golden Birthday or a Star Birthday but that is only because her age matches the date of the month--on top of that, Em's got the Friday the 13th element to add to her celebration. Hope she has fun!

First photos successfully uploaded!

Of course I needed some help figuring out how to upload the images to the blog. We finally figured it out--not too difficult. I think I'll just reduce the picture size I take with the camera so I don't have to resize each and every picture I put up on the blog. I actually wonder how many images I should bother with...maybe one or 2 each time I post. Maybe as I get a few people following this, they'll let me know what seems good.

Well, today the colors didn't look too bad but I did think the house structure would look better with a whiter sunny side and a purpler/ more maroon shady side. So I scraped back the oil pastel to almost the underlying blue---can't get quite all the oil pastel off without using a solvent and I didn't want to do that. The second picture is still the light blue and you can see a hint of the foreground chalk composition sketch. The first image is the finished piece--at least I think it is. I'll take a look at it tomorrow and see what, if any, tweaking is required. I'll probably add some highlights to the trees as I applied the color quite thickly and I can't get any more color on until it dries a bit. You can see in the bottom of the second that the indigo blue gesso is not applied in an overly consistent manner. I think it gives the final pieces a bit more movement. (These 2 images were intended to be reversed but I haven't figured out how to do that yet!)

I also managed to varnish some finished panels. I don't want those to add up and have too much to do right before my first show of the year--Scottsdale this year towards the end of March. They need to dry overnight--at least. I also covered some cut out foam core with glassine so I'll be able to protect the surfaces of the finished pieces when I box them for transport. If I'd only clean out my shed storage space, I'd be able to cut the glassine off the roll with much more precision.

It was gorgeous today--a little bit cool--just hovering around freezing. But another blue sky day! We still have Princess (and might for a while, as Barbara has scheduled surgery on her back for tomorrow). Both P. and JuneBug really enjoyed their walk. And I enjoyed the fresh air. Hope it lasts until my brother and his family arrive for what I'm hoping is the first annual ski trip to see Auntie Jen & Uncle Rees. They get here in about 2 weeks. I'll post some photos of the snow tomorrow.

Creating a starry night panel

Today I started working on a large (at least for me) panel--30 by 40 inches. I decided to do a night scene but wanted it to look a little different than the couple I have completed in recent months. After working in oil pastels for 10 years I very recently came across a better way to sketch my composition. I've always worked with a graphite stick--Derwent graphitone--to do my underlying sketches. And that works great on paper because it is quite erasable. But it doesn't erase as well on the gessoed panels. So, lazy artist that I am, I would sometimes decide the composition was good enough just because I didn't want to erase the graphite and redo. Pretty silly when you think of all the other hours that go into creating a piece. Anyway, I was cleaning out one of my cupboards in the studio and found some chalk--just plain chalk--and it works great on the panels. If I don't like something I just get a shop rag wet and wipe off the line. Also, working in the lighter color on my colored panels makes the composition/sketch much more visible than when I use the graphite. The chalk also doesn't create a dark line when I go over it with a more translucent color. I wish I'd thought of it sooner. Well, I got the composition drawn and the sky filled in--that might be another topic for this blog--filling in the sky. I've roughed in the mountains and some of the baseline trees and one of the structures. Not real happy with the structure color so I figured I'd leave it until tomorrow and see what might work in fixing it.
And, besides, Junebug has a visitor today and tonight--our neighbors had to go to Santa Fe and this is our first time taking care of their dog, Princess--a shepherd mix. She's never even let me pet her before today but she's making herself quite at home. Asleep in the studio most of the day and asleep in the bedroom right now. Ahh, a dog's life. And, the Westminster Dog Show starts very soon.
So, besides finishing the big panel, I think tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the studio and the panel piece. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? (Is that all?) And maybe I'll post some pictures of all the snow we're getting! Later.

Starting a blog

Well. It is about time I actually started one of these. I've been contemplating doing so for over a year. Then it was a new year's resolution, one I thought I'd get to in January but, alas, here it is almost mid-February and I am just getting going. And this is not my busy season. So, I figure I'll try to post a few times a week and see what happens.

I'm hoping that by writing a blog I'll be able to share with others what I'm doing in the studio, what changes I'm making to my art, and along the way, maybe share other important tidbits--you know, like favorite movies, music I like or have recently found, and what other ideas I have. It may turn out I just share images of what's up on my easel, how it/they are progressing and the like. I'll have to see. Since I'm not the computer wizard in the house--I leave most of that to Rees--I'll have to get better at managing and uploading images. That is probably a good skill to have anyway. And, if nothing else, this blog may be good documentation of what an artist does all the time. I sometimes wonder myself. Maybe this will help me keep track. So, I guess I'll start my real posting tomorrow and try to write a little bit about my background each time I post until maybe we are caught up. And I'll wait a few days before I share my blog address with anyone, so they'll have a little more to read/learn. Until tomorrow.