Exploring Barton Creek

Most of my days begin with my young dog Maddie staring at me. She is not-so-patiently waiting for me to load her into the car and head to the Barton Creek Greenbelt for our morning hike. Over the course of a month of these morning walks I took photos of parts of the trail I found interesting in some way. I would then make a painting based on these reference photos when I returned home.

 

  Central Texas is a land of dense Oak and Cedar forests. I have learned this is a rare combination, which makes the flora and fauna of the area totally unique from many other parts of the country.

 

Baby oaks in spring.

 

There are also cliffs that go up the sides of the trail. They expose the layers of limestone that were created when Central Texas was covered by warm shallow seas during the Cretaceaous Period. The colors, shapes, and textures of the rocks are beautiful.

 

The sounds of the highway are not my favorite part of the walk, but they create some great lines for compositions

 

I am always impressed when I see a tree growing out of a crack in a rock. How do they do it?!?

Spring season in Austin did not involve many sunny days. On the rare day that the sun made an appearance, I made sure to get a picture of my silhouette shadow on the forest floor.

Between photos Maddie demands fetch and playtime.

An example of wintery/early spring on the trail in Austin

Some tropical looking plants

Reds and yellows always jumped out from the greyish surroundings.

After fifteen days of hiking and collecting photos, I made fifteen small watercolor paintings and hung them all together on my wall in order to view the paintings as a whole. I can easily say it was the most satisfying sketchbook collection I have ever done! I feel more confident in my use of colors and landscape paintings as a result. Very worth the effort!

An additional bonus to these artistically motivating hikes through the forest is a sleepy puppy at the end of the day.

 I definitely encourage taking the time to get outside and immerse in the unique nature that can be found right in your back yard. It is a wellspring of inspiration. Happy trails!

Arctic Travelers

    I recently finished a narrative painting of a group of muskox, geese, and a girl traveling via steamboat through icy arctic waters. For the sketching phase of this painting I went back to charcoal and graphite. I usually do a series of study sketches before each painting, especially if it involves animals and people that I have not painted before. For this painting I spent a lot of time rendering it in graphite before moving on to painting.

 I started with a design for a steamboat

The drawing took over my whole dining table for a while.

Why yes, I do use yams to hold down the corners of paper that wants to curl.

Then I added the big woolly beasts to the boat, and snow geese to the sky

 

Muskox up close. I love drawing the texture of animal hair.

 I put the finished product on my studio wall to use as a reference for the acrylic version.

I kept the acrylic version small. 11x21 on paper

 

 The navigator hard at work in her glowing cabin

 

 One muskox at a time

An up close look at this guy. 

They weave their way through icebergs under a starry sky.

From Start to Finish Everyday

My 2014 ended with a 17 day tour of Italy. My husband and I traveled from Milan down to Sicily with many stops along the way. We made it to all of the big museums and saw many of the most beloved paintings, sculptures, and architecture that Italy has to offer (which is A LOT). It was inspiring, fast-paced, crowded, wintery, touristy, and exhausting at times.

As many knockoffs as we have all seen of this sculpture, the real thing does not disappoint! 

My husband got a video of me trying not to have a melt down when I saw Botticelli paintings for the first time. Finally seeing art that you have always loved in person can be pretty intense!

It got me thinking a lot about how the old master painters - especially my favorite Renaissance painters - got to be so good. No one becomes a master overnight. I started reading "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone after seeing Michaelangelo's frescos in the Sistine chapel, hoping for some insight into this question. The book is a biographical novel on Michelangelo and shows how he got to be such a great artist. In addition to good connections, self-discipline, and curiosity, he was CONSTANTLY drawing. When he was researching for a sculpture commission, he was drawing. When he had no marble to carve, he would spend all day long drawing. When he couldn't sleep, he was drawing. He never stopped. He always sketched what he was most inspired by - the human body. I suppose that is how many people become masters at any craft. They practice the fundamentals of their art/sport/craft every single day, without fail.

In that spirit, I decided that I needed to draw more if I want to grow as an artist. So, I have given myself a "sketchbook project" where I will be doing short drawings and paintings of what I am most inspired by. For me this has always been the time I spend outside in nature. Every time I step out the door I see different things that I find remarkable and beautiful. I have started documenting what I find on my morning walks, and then making a small sketch of it when I return home. My problem has always been that I paint too slowly, so for this project I have given myself a two hour cut off for each painting. Here is the first week of my documenting/sketching project!

I spend a good bit of time figuring out what to leave out of each picture without losing the essence of the image.

I also change up the colors too.

This one had me pretty freaked out. I have never painted water that you could see through but was also reflective. It's not an easy thing to paint!

I had to break the background down into color blobs to make this one work.

This sketch surprised me by being pretty easy to paint, and also the one I liked most out of the week.

I feel like I started to let the watercolor "do its thing" for this one. This is something that I have struggled with when it comes to watercolor. I like to use it like a pencil instead of paint. I can't really do that for these quick sketches though!

I just liked this picture of Maddie (my corgi/lab mix puppy), even though there are a million details, I gave it a shot anyway.

Now at the end of the week, I can definitely feel a small increment of improvement. There is also a good feeling that comes from starting and finishing something everyday. I would love to hear what other artists or anyone who has to work hard everyday to master their craft is doing to improve and stay inspired.

Keep chasing what inspires you and have an awesome weekend!

Telescopic Viewer

My painting "Telescopic Viewer" is now finished. It is 24x48 inches and painted in acrylic.

 This is a painting that I have been wanting to create since moving from Madison to Austin. Moving across the country has been a thrilling, bittersweet, and sometimes lonely adventure. The landscape of Austin is dry and starved for water. It is hot, the roads are congested, and public transportation is minimal. It is vastly different from the land of one thousand lakes that I grew up in. Despite the differences, I am learning to love the arid landscape and noisy city of Austin with its thriving community of creators and entrepreneurs.

Here is a walk through my process of making this painting:

 It always starts with the blank canvas

 Then the drawing, followed by painting the most distant background details

 When the weather cooled down for a few days I painted outside on my back porch and added hills, trees, and elk to the foreground.

Elk in the forest, a fallen tree, fish, and lily pads in the water

The water has all different kinds of creatures and objects in it.

 

Sharks, stingrays, chairs, tires, stoves, and barrels

 

 Schools of fish, rooftops, and floating jellyfish

  

Across the water is a city

  

And farthest away are the rolling hills of farmlands

 

 Coffee to keep me going

And Maddie to keep me company

 A telescopic viewer at the end of the dock

  and a White Heron perched on the boat

To create this full panoramic