It's Not Vacation Unless I'm Working!

Last week my in-laws treated Steve and me to an all-inclusive beach vacation with them in the Bahamas. We stayed at the Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, which includes lots of water sports, restaurants, drinks all day (not that I took advantage of that!), and even an off-shore private island. Of course, I couldn't stand the thought of spending five days without painting, so I brought my pochade box and supplies along with me. I managed to do a little bit of plein air painting almost every day we were there. There was something incredibly freeing about standing there in a bathing suit, barefoot in the sand, doing what I love the most. :-) 

 Finished painting (about 1 1/2 hours) of rocks and waves along the offshore island at the resort.

8x8" - oil on panel

Later my father-in-law even posed for one of my paintings. You may remember him from one of my portrait sketches a couple of years ago... click HERE to view that one.

Below is a 15-minute quick sketch of one of our many little beach visitors. :-) 5x4" - oil on linen glued to panel.

On our last day there, I got up early to paint the sunrise. The colors weren't as exciting as I hoped they'd be, but I still enjoyed the process of watching the clouds and colors evolve with the rising sun.

Yep, it's just not vacation unless I'm working. I love my job!

Heart of Contentment

Yesterday temperatures reached almost 80 degrees in the Dallas area, and as soon as I could, I grabbed my plein air supplies and dashed out to the nearby nature preserve to get some sun (and maybe do a painting!).

I realized, for that blissful hour and a half, that that was the first time in weeks and weeks that I felt peaceful and fully content (and I didn't even care whether or not my painting turned out!). Maybe I've been suffering from cabin fever... I don't know. But at the end of my little painting session, I wondered how I might carry that feeling of creative contentment back into my studio, and maintain it every day, no matter the circumstances. I've been feeling so unsettled lately, restless. Could it be that I just needed some fresh air?? It's probably more than that.

In my sister's apartment, she has a sheet of paper taped to her bathroom mirror that lists "The Three Cs of Contentment." They say, "Don't compete, don't compare, don't complain." I am not particularly competitive, but I will confess that I often find myself inadvertently comparing myself to other artists, especially when I spend too much time on Facebook (for more on this, see my FASO article from last summer). This is wrong. I have been given this life, these talents, and this set of circumstances, to glorify God in a way that is unique from anyone else. If I can simply remember that I paint for the joy of creating - that God smiles down when He sees His children happily using the gifts He has given them - everything else should fade away and no longer matter.

Since I'm confessing things in this post... I came across this the other day and it's blatant accuracy made me laugh out loud. I'm especially bad about those last two (just ask my husband!). Well, I guess there's always room for improvement. :-)

by Lauren Purje

A New Perspective on Snow

Steve and I weren't home to enjoy the white Christmas that Dallas received, but we were still blessed with abundant snow during our visit to family in Wisconsin. There was nearly a foot of snow, draping homes and fences and evergreens more beautifully than I had seen in years. We woke up each morning with a breathtaking view of perfect white, and I couldn't help but feel more at home than ever.

I didn't always associate snow with good things. I grew up with the expectation that a snowy winter simply meant lots of "hard physical labor." One year as a joke, my dad gave us snow shovels as Christmas presents and said, "Take these for a spin!" (He wasn't really joking) I can remember many winters during my childhood and teenage years where it was bitterly cold, and we had to start our car half an hour before going anywhere, just to make sure the engine was warm enough not to stall. And oh - the shovelling! It never ended.

There were some winters though, where I just got to be a kid. I loved sledding down our trails in the woods, but was sometimes crazy enough to try sledding down the bluff, too. That took some skill, dodging boulders and trees! I also loved ice skating on rare occasions when we had a mid-winter thaw, and a pond would develop in the low ground of neighboring fields. When it froze over, it turned into the perfect ice rink. The best times, however, were when the snow was wet and heavy - perfect for making snow sculptures and forts. My sister and I tried to outdo each other with our elaborate sculptures. We never made a generic snowman - it was always a horse, a dragon, or something challenging.

The longer I live in Dallas, the more I appreciate my once-home in the Midwest. I realize how much more glorious and pronounced each of the seasons are, in turn. One would never appreciate spring so much, if it weren't for the bitter cold of winter. My perspective has changed.

Knowing my time in Wisconsin was limited, I braved the cold to do a painting. Here are my efforts from several days ago.  These pictures give you an idea of just how much snow there was.

The finished painting, "Winter Adornments" (10x8, oil on linen panel), is just awaiting a signature, and a new home. :-) I can honestly say that along with much-needed fellowship with family and friends, the cold air and snow were a welcome break from everyday life. Perhaps someday Steve and I will move back to the Midwest and it will be our "normal" once again...

Afternoon Excursion to the Nature Preserve

Today I thought I'd walk the dog, and get in some plein air painting, all in one shot. The weather here has been absolutely beautiful lately, and even some of the trees are changing color! I went to the nearby nature preserve to see if I could capture some of the beauty.

I painted for about an hour, trying to get the late afternoon light (somewhere between 3:45 and 5 p.m.). I love how the shadows slowly climb down trees and hills, and wanted to capture that in my painting.

Although I slipped in the mud a few times -- and got scraped up pushing through untrimmed thickets to get to my vantage point -- I think it was worth it. Not only did I get some wonderful fresh air and time outside, but my painting turned out all right too... and Bella had a great time dashing through the shallow creek! She needed a bath when we got home, but hey... it was fun. :-)

Below: Bella enjoying the water.

Below: the almost finished painting. I'm going to give it a rest and then maybe come back and tweak some edges and values here and there. Oh - and sign it! :-)

"Around the Bend" - 12x9" - oil on linen panel

Gaga for Green and Outdoor Light

Wow... I would like to try and post on this blog more than once a month, but it seems that's all I have time for! SOOOO much has happened since Weekend with the Masters!

First of all, as happens every time I return from an amazing workshop, my work begins to evolve rapidly. I'm finally starting to loosen up a little bit, have more fun with my brushwork, and incorporate more complimentary colors in skin and hair. And lately I've been a little bit obsessed with green.

For example, in this recent self portrait, I got a little bit "crazy" (for me!) in the hair. If you look closely, there is a weaving back and forth between hard and soft edges along the outside contour of the hair. There is even some wild color going across the form (going the opposite direction that the hair falls) to loosely indicate the planes of the head. I'm always amazed at how much green I have to use when painting blonde hair. This time it was an eclectic mix, in the appropriate values, of white, lemon yellow, yellow ochre, raw sienna, viridian, radiant green, transparent oxide brown, and cadmium orange. That's a lot of variety, for a generic hair color that we're always told to fill in with the yellow crayon when we're kids!

"Self Portrait" - 20x16" - oil on linen - Private Collection

Painted in afternoon window light (south facing)

The painting below is one that I JUST finished, and I think it's one of my best nudes to date! Thanks to my very talented artist friend, Carol, who volunteered her beautiful (and private!) backyard, I had the amazing opportunity to work with a live model out of doors. I suppose that if I had a north light window, that would be the next best thing, but as it stands, I have very little experience with painting the entire figure in natural daylight. There is something completely different about it, especially when the light is diffused by clouds. Fortunately for us, we still have relatively warm weather here in Dallas! We kept the model comfortable by having a space heater on hand, and Carol's cat, Sadie, kept her company. :-) If I had just an extra inch or so of canvas on the left, I would have put the cat in!

 "Garden Nude" - 18x14" - oil on linen panel - Available

Sadie "modelling" next to the model :-)

We worked from about 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and had cloud coverage the entire time, which kept the lighting pretty consistent. I was continually amazed at how much surrounding color (greens from the surrounding ferns and trees, yellows from the cloth she was sitting on) found its way onto the model's skin. I had to get used to pulling from colors I wouldn't normally use in my studio. The result was a painting with LOTS of Gamblin's Radiant Violet and Radiant Green in areas such as the highlights on the breast and hip bone, the reflected light on her right side, and the blonde hair. There was also very little contrast, so it was a great exercise in turning form using subtle changes in color temperature, rather than value shifts. In the detail below, you can see just how much color I could get away with in the hair and face. I think I could have pushed it even MORE than I did...

 Detail of the legs: I tried my best to work across / around the form rather than along it. This makes for a more solid looking figure and enhances the illusion of three-dimensionality.

I have another new painting I've been dying to talk about, but I'll save that for a later post. Till then, happy painting, everyone!

Another Summer in Wisconsin

It's crazy how fast the summer has gone, since Steve and I have been travelling so much. We recently returned from two whole weeks in our home state of Wisconsin, where I didn't do as much painting as I hoped, but had some wonderful visits with family and friends (much needed time away from the easel, actually!). I have come back refreshed; there was, in fact, one whole day on our trip that I got to sit around, lazing in the sun with a good book, doing absolutely nothing productive. For those of you who know me... that is a rare thing, indeed!

Much of our time was spent at Steve's family cabin. We hadn't been there in two years and it was wonderful to breathe the fresh air and relax a little bit. The dog had a great time too, as you can see...

 Throwing the stick in the water - this is the only way Bella will really fetch anything!

Below are some pictures from the few days that I did get to paint.

Above: I hadn't painted in several days and started getting the itch... so I did this simple 5x7 and felt better afterwards. :-) It turned out all right in spite of the cloudy weather.

Below: Here is Tom Sweeney Sr., of Shady Nook Resort (they are lake front neighbors of ours). He and his family have owned and operated the resort for years. I thought he would make a fantastic portrait subject, so he kindly sat for me and shared stories of life in the north woods.

I finished the portrait later in my studio:

My sister Emily and her husband Blake joined us for a couple of days at the cabin. We had a great time fishing together, going out on the boat, and making s'mores over a campfire. Good times indeed!

Watching the sunset while fishing out on the boat. You can't really tell who I'm with in the picture below, but that's my twin sister and I sharing a blanket. We've gotten used to the 100-degree weather in Dallas, so northern Wisconsin felt pretty cold!

Campfire!

The only person I've ever been competitive with in my entire life is my twin sister, Emily. We decided to play with fire, so to speak, and have a contest to see who could draw the best outline of a horse in the air with a burning stick. Each "drawing" had to be done in just a matter of seconds. Steve took pictures of each one with a slow shutter speed, and that's how we got these shots. Above: Emily's first crack it a horse was incredible! I tried and failed several times before finally getting this one (below).

Maybe I'll just stick to portraits...

My last painting of the trip: an attempt at capturing water lilies and woodland reflections, with the old canoe.

This is as far as I got. I plan on refining it in the studio, and possibly adding some blooms to those water lilies. I like the mood though - it captures the essence of calm and relaxation that is here at the cabin.

Below: I started a portrait of my beautiful sister-in-law, Lindsay. A mother of four, she enjoyed the excuse to sit and do nothing for several hours!

Below: painting something else... my niece's nails. :-)

Below: For the first time in three years, my ENTIRE family was together... all 15 of us!

I'll post pictures of more finished paintings as I go. In one week, I'll be heading off to San Diego for American Artist's Weekend with the Masters. Until then, I'm scrambling to get some serious studio time in here at home. Keep watching for new work!

The Broken Finger: Round Two

So, I wasn't expecting a curveball here with this whole broken finger fiasco, but it happened, and I'm trying my best to maintain a positive attitude.
We spent this past weekend in Austin, enjoying a "mini vacation" with family, and because of all the distractions, I often forgot about my finger in its splint. It was a lot of fun, but by the last day of our trip I felt, as I always do after I've had a lot of socializing, that I really needed some time alone -- preferably with my paints and brushes -- to "recharge." I was determined to go out and do some plein air painting, broken finger or not. We were staying in a condo on Lake Travis, but it was a little bit of a hike in either direction to get down to the lake. I carried my painting supplies all the way there, and realized when I arrived that my finger was hurting more than usual, as though the pins had shifted and were digging around inside the bone. Ouch!

Still, my determination won out. I enjoyed the beautiful late-spring flowers that were blooming among the rocks, and decided to do a painting with that juxtaposition as the focal point. I realized fairly quickly though that the longer I painted, the more my hand protested. My painting is perhaps worth finishing, but when I look at it, I have trouble seeing anything but the struggle, the clumsiness, and the pain it took in the process!

Indeed, all of last week, even with the cast gone and a spint to replace it, I struggled clumsily in my few attempts at painting. But I thought the end was in sight until...

Coming home from Austin, I scheduled my follow-up appointment with the orthopedist a little early, because I was concerned about the recent pain I'd been having. They discovered from the x-rays that it was, indeed, not where it was supposed to be. While the bits of broken bone were still in place, the whole joint itself had shifted, making it off-center on the bone below. The told me I would need another surgery, this time to put another pin down the tip to ensure it wouldn't move anymore. But that also meant going back into the dreaded cast, for at least another week... and I'd have to start the whole process over!  They said it may or may not have been my fault; the truth is, the injury was worse than the x-rays could reveal, and the ligaments must have been pretty damaged, since they hadn't healed enough to prevent the joint's gradual dislocation.

It is hard to overcome feeling discouraged, but I keep telling myself that if I could make it through this once, then I can do it again.

The surgery took place yesterday, and I am back in the cast, this time without any of my fingers free (just the thumb). The pain is worse this time, as are the side-effects to the pain meds. I am typing this with one hand, and thinking about what to do next. Perhaps another right-handed painting? ... :-) We'll see.

Taking Advantage of Dallas Blooms

This week is spring break, which really doesn't mean anything to me EXCEPT that my twin sister is off from her music teaching all week! So, that means she and I can spend lots of time painting together. Lately she has taken up painting again (she and I had flip-flopped majors and minors in college... I was the art major, music minor, and she was the music major, art minor). This makes me very happy as she is always great to hang out with, and she's a pretty good artist, too, especially for not spending nearly the amount of time at it as I do!

Today the Dallas Arboretum was packed, due to gorgeous weather, spring break picnickers, and various wedding shoots and quinceañeras... but Emily and I found a quieter spot and sat down for two solid hours to paint some of the sunlit tulips.

Notice the matching DSW totes... are we twins, or what??

We had a wonderful time and our paintings didn't turn out too bad, either. I may tweak some of the edges and color temperatures on mine back here at the studio, but otherwise, it's a finished sketch.

Aside from my plein air excursions, I am working on a number of new pieces for a fast-approaching group show at Weiler House Fine Art Gallery in Fort Worth. The opening reception is on March 24 from 5-9 p.m. If you are in the area, please stop by! In addition to some other work, I will have 7-8 new pieces. More info at: http://www.weilerhousefineart.com/#events.

Lists of Blessings, New Paintings and More

I would love to write on here more... but lately I've been spending most of my time painting, which is what I'm supposed to be doing! However, a brief update is long overdue.

First of all, I should mention that for the past week or so, I've been greatly encouraged and inspired by a little book my mother sent me for my birthday, called One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. The book talks about how to experience joy, and a full life, regardless of your circumstances. The key is in finding gratitude for all of God's gifts, both big and small, in your everyday life. So the author took up a dare, to record a list of one thousand "God-gifts". Her writing style is beautiful; as my mom said, she "paints with words." And, as a result of reading this book, I've begun to deliberately slow down my mad rush -- taking time to enjoy the little things, and to give thanks. I've also started a list of my own... today's additions:

- Perfume of full-bloom hyacinths by the hundreds

- Smiling pansies along the pathway

- Wearing flip flops, ridding warm body of sweatshirt and soaking in the sun... in February. :-)

After a day like today, who could be ungrateful, after all?? It was a high of 78. I spent the morning plein air painting at the Dallas Arboretum, enjoying in the way that only an artist can the full beds of hyacinths and pansies in all of their glory. Here is a picture of just a tiny fraction of what I was surrounded by... I'll show the painting soon. It still needs a couple little adjustments (I had to stop sooner than expected, thanks to some little mites that decided to form a parade up my pant leg).

Other painting projects... well, these all seem so unrelated to one another, but that has been my working method as of late.

I recently completed (er--tentatively completed) a new self portrait. I began this painting last week when Steve and I got dressed up for a Valentine's Day photo shoot, and I decided, "Hey, why shouldn't an artist dress up for her own portrait?" I managed not to get any paint on my clothes. The painting is titled, "Self Portrait with Red Lipstick." I never wear lipstick - in fact, I hate it. But I will admit that it does look good. :-)

"Self Portrait with Red Lipstick" - 20"x16" - oil on linen

I need to get a better photo of it -- AND I still might make some small changes -- but this will do for now.

One more painting I did just for fun... I've been meaning to set up this scenario for a while and finally made it happen. My dog, Bella, was curious about a new studio pal, a plaster bust that my painting student dubbed "Houdini" (after the sculptor, Houdin). Here is the painting, "Getting Acquainted." Bella sat for much of the painting, thanks to a tempting treat sitting on top of Houdini's head.

"Getting Acquainted" - 11"x14" - oil on linen panel

I will have much more new work coming out in the next few weeks, in preparation for a group exhibition at Weiler House Fine Art Gallery. The show opening is on March 24 from 5-9. More details to come!