Her Thoughts – Page 25

The Fast Art of Painting Quickly

fhoffman December 1, 2014 Uncategorized

This past weekend brought freezing temperatures and the first snow to the region. Andrew and I recently broke our Alla Prima Pochade boxes in and weren’t going to let a little chill daunt us from our painting adventures.

Now, normally I would be the one to get us up early but this Saturday Andrew kicked our asses into gear early and had us out at Tower Point by 8am. In 0 degree weather!

We found a lovely wooded area with views out to the coast, protecting us from a few flurries and -11 winds (I AM a west coast wimp – there were maybe a couple snowflakes and a light breeze).

And I finally kicked into gear. The cold and exhilaration of being out there so early on such a lovely day made me focus and frankly, speed paint. I blocked it in fast and directly laid the colours I wanted down rather than thinking about layering. It was unbelievably great to feel things coming together after practicing and looking and planning and practicing. It just felt right. And it shows in the little island study which was the fine result.

Fresh Snow off Tower Point, Nov 29 — Fresh Snow off Tower Point, Oil, 8`x 10`

The next day we ventured out again but his time we lingered in bed with the excuse of waiting for it to warm up out there. By the time we were packing our boxes onto location it was still -4 and one of us was a bit… ah, grumpy. Not quite up for the task. But, we managed to pitch our boxes in a lovely Japanese garden in Gorge Park, Esquimalt for 45 minutes or so – just enough to get the basics down and take photos for reference in the studio later that day.

And it happened again. The fast, fresh and loose magic that I’ve been waiting for and working towards. Can you tell I’m thrilled?

Fresh Snow in the Japanese Garden, Gorge Park Nov 30 — Fresh Snow in the Japanese Garden, Gorge Park Oil, 9`x 12`

I’ve added a little skill-building activity to my nightly ritual of pretending to watch movies in the form of an iPad Jigsaw puzzle App. I upload paintings that I love by other artists and make them into puzzles and then go about the pleasurable task of putting them back together. I learn to look for loose shapes and colours, composition and light. I don’t know if it is this activity or just the culmination of practice and cold air which loosened me up, and I don’t really care. I just want to paint!

Tools make the artist?

fhoffman November 26, 2014 Painting

Christmas came early this past week with the arrival of our much anticipated Alla Prima Pochade Boxes, lovingly made by hand by artist/craftsman Ben Haggett.

Andrew and I are plein air newbies and lovers of art supplies. We decided to forgo Christmas gifts this year and purchase two Bitterroot Pochade Boxes.

And the next day, magic happened as we broke our boxes in on a beautiful sunny fall day in lovely Cowichan Bay. The boxes consolidated the supplies we need to take to plein air paint and focused our art making on just that, rather than juggling palettes and paints and even coffee cups! The boxes are so beautifully made, ingeniously functional and they even smell good. Wood smells good. As does salt air and oil paints. And fresh coffee.

Plein air painting is so lovely. Even lovelier with good tools.

Alla Prima Bitterroot Pochade Box in action. — Alla Prima Bitterroot Pochade Box (and Andrew) on the docks at Cowichan Bay.

1957774_10153410419934129_7930409299080672445_o — My Alla Prima Bitterroot Pochade Box on the docks at Cowichan Bay.

Finger painting

fhoffman November 4, 2014 Uncategorized

My husband and I were sitting in the living room last night, doing our regular evening Netflix and iPad dance where we pretend to watch a movie while browsing the interwebs for anything diversion-worthy. Conversation often blurts out when one of us notices something the other may be interested in. The blurt upon which I now reflect was related to the juxtaposition of these two paintings:

We had just come back from a very quick plein air painting session in which we time-boxed 1.5 hours to complete a painting. I liked my little painting (above, right) and thought it a nice step in my progression. Until I saw it juxtaposed beside a professional piece on Pinterest. I said to my husband, (paraphrasing myself):

“I thought my painting was not so bad until I see it beside a real painting, which makes it look like finger painting.”

He just smiled and nodded.

And then my mind went on to justify itself and satisfy my ego by saying “but I don’t want to paint that way, I want to be more loose”. And while that is true and I do want to paint more like Roos Schuring and I am training (not copying) to that end, I was nonetheless, justifying and satisfying.

It is not easy being both a student and a professional at the same time!

I can see where I want to go. I know I will get there eventually through dedication, focus and work – most importantly, work. But the paintings aren’t at the level my other work is in other mediums, so I am embarrassed. Simply put.

And yet I enjoy the process of learning and love those glimpses of understanding how others paint. I enjoy seeing the progression of others as they learn; It’s a mixture of little successes and plenty of failures. A painting can fail on the “final, professional piece” level while succeeding in the learning process and in small bits on the canvas. Some of the marks and colours I made in the Swan Lake Study are lovely. I just need to learn and practice how to make more of those beauties and figure out how to… well, I could write a whole post on what I need to learn. I’ll just leave it at that.

And leave you with my most favourite Roos Schuring painting of the moment. Isn’t she lovely?!