Once upon a time, I was an art student, then I was an artist, and then an illustrator. Always in watercolour. However, I've had a painting block for nearly four years and one of my things for this year is to pick up things I've neglected - mostly for unavoidable reasons.
Actually, my biggest painting block is with oils - it was my first love when I was a teenager and yet I've only been able to make myself paint one (still unfinished) oil in 25 years. Yes, over two decades. That's some block.
When I was taking photos for my first newsletter, I included a work in progress, Aunty Pat. And I was taken with the light in this picture, as it made a nice portrait. I hunted out some old brushes and paints and set to work before my stupid neurosis could take over. So my studio table was cleared and refilled and a little canvas started.
Here is where I made the first basic error - putting in a warm, creamy brown background, which in hindsight, would have been better as a cool grey or blue. At the time though, it was enough just to be actually painting again and to my surprise, feeling quite happily at home with it.
It went quite well to begin with, until I looked at it later and realised the light was all wrong; in the photo, the light falls from the right, so I painted her that way. But the background is lit from the left. I had forgotten the most basic thing I'd been taught, 'always look for the light'.
The next day, I set about correcting it and while it was now pedantically accurate, I had lost the freshness of the paint strokes. However, this was not about doing a perfect picture, it was an exercise to get me painting regularly again.
In putting down a similar background colour and tone, I found it almost impossible to get Aunty Pat's furry (or rather, woolly) head standing out as sharply as I wanted, without bringing in too much white. And then I added too much black (which I rarely used in the past and now I know why) to her foreground ear and it just looked messy and dead, colour wise.
But I persevered, and finished it. I don't like it. I know it's the thing nowadays to be terribly pleased with anything one has created, but I had an old fashioned art training, which taught me strict self criticism, in order to be able to improve. And at the end of the day, I broke my oil painting hoodoo. And that was what it was all about.
I'm going to write this one off to experience and do it again.
I did sign it though.
I envy people who can just pick up a brush and sail away happily. For me, it has been like not being able to eat my favourite food: it is, as they say, complicated and may even sound odd. Nonetheless, my inability to 'just paint' has been very real and frustrating. Like being able to swim well, but not able to enter water and still wanting to swim.
I'm off to spend some kindly given Christmas money on some decent brushes, paints and a couple of canvases. I've got a lot of painting to catch up with. Twenty five years, to be precise.
If you haven't signed up for my newsletter and would like to see the other photos of Aunty Pat, as well as read my tips for getting equal length limbs, you can find the archive here. (You're not obliged to sign up, just click the link for the January newsletter)
If you follow
my Facebook page, you will know why my Santa dog is sat with these two little resin dogs, looking very similar but made by the
Gisela Graham Company. If you don't...I'll fill you in next week. It's been a long day at the coalface.
When I was seven or eight, I bought a vivid magenta pink beret from a jumble sale. In retrospect it was probably quite alarming in colour, but it was made from soft angora wool and I considered it beautiful. I wore it constantly for a while; my mum was great about things like that. In fact, as our mutual wardrobes consisted of jumble sale finds and hand-me-downs, I have few (if any) memories of going into high street clothes shops for the latest fashions. (Which is probably why I am somewhat lacks-a-daisical in my dress sense now). The pink beret disappeared with the majority of my belongings when my parents died and near-relatives took matters into their own hands. When I left my foster home, four years later, I started wearing a beret again. I think it must have been a kind of security blanket, although I didn't realise it at the time - I just liked berets. I had a red one, which I practically lived in, and a black one, as I thought I was an anarchist. I'm about sixteen/seventeen here, living in my first bedsit. Looking at these old photos with fresh eyes, I am a bit shocked at how skinny my arms are, though I remember I was hungry a lot of the time. The dole money didn't stretch very far and I had a tendency to fritter away the little I had in charity shops, finding second-hand treasures to fill my life with.
Plus ca change. The middle picture was taken seconds after I had found an old cookery book in a bin (you can just see it in my hands). Naturally I rescued it. Not only was it a book, but it was very similar to my mother's cookbook, from where she did most of her baking, including the Christmas cake. Another way of trying to reconstruct my lost past. From then on I clung on to my possessions fiercely, determined never to have them ripped from me again. In fact, it is full of very good recipes, despite its plain appearance and I still use it now, over and above all my others.
I haven't worn a beret for years, not since I met Andy. But I still have a fondness for them, so I gave my newest creation , Petit Jaune, his very own.
He is off to his lovely new home in Italy, having done his duty on Etsy for a few hours. I am not a natural dog-person; I find it hard to see graphic shapes in their form, (which is easy to do with naturally graceful cats) but I will persevere. Doggedly, you might say. Sally arrived at her new home, looking a little stunned from the tender mercies of Royal Mail, but is recovered now and enjoying her new 'job'. As Eric noticed, the toys I am making now are essentially the same as the toys I've been painting for years - and I am loving creating them in Real Life. But they still start off as sketches - like this one for Petit Jaune -
Quite how they transmogrify into 3D from there, I really don't know. I just start one and it gradually forms under my needle. Although it is technically a textile art, needle felting is nearer to sculpting than any kind of sewing. Sculpting with rainbows and air.
As I write, and doing my usual dipping into blogs, I read with complete horror that my friend Rima has lost ALL of her art records, digitally stored, from which she makes her prints, her amazing animations and in short, from which she earns her living. Anyone who knows Rima's work and her life will know that that this is not only a devastating loss to her business, but that she simply cannot afford to get her data recovered from a specialist company. There is a general whip-round going on, so that she can pay to get her hard drive seen to and her artwork recovered - read more about it here.
“Hey LadyStar readers! We’ve got us a double-update on the growing Legends of Aventar Gallery. Z-bot found four great upcoming pages from the Varcarel Jade Web Comic, and we’re going to add all of them as we update our profiles on the various web comic directories. Keep looking for clues and see if you can help Cici find our friends. Acey out.”
“Z-bot to Hana.”
“Hana, Acey here.”
“Confirming multiple updates to The WebComic List pages for LadyStar and Varcarel Jade. Proceeding to Legends of Aventar Gallery update. ETA four minutes.”
“Acknowledged, Z-bot. Hey folks, if you’re a member over at The Webcomic List, add my pals to your favorites and vote for us! Don’t miss our comic update later today! Hana out.”
“Hey LadyStar readers! Acey here. Z-bot just reworked the comic page a bit and re-added the Buzzcomix button. It’s below the panels on every page. If you click that button you can vote for my pals over on Buzzcomix, so jump on over there and give us a thumbs up! Acey out.”
“Okay Z-bot, I want to make sure we don’t lose Cici. If she lets out a yell, I want the Hana over there with weapons charged before the echo dies, understand?”
“Affirmative, Commander. The ship is on full autonomous combat readiness. Sensors, battle computer and perimeter defense systems are on maximum alert.”
“Acknowledged. Here’s our first update, folks. We have a new Varcarel Jade web comic page for you over on the comic side
. Enjoy!”
“Errrr… Ranko called me and said there wasn’t anyone to do updates today, so uhhh… well, here we be. I’m Tara Blaylock and this is my pal Irina. Let’s see here I wrote down what Ranko
said. . .”
“It is comic book update, no?”
“Yeah, the Var-car-el Jade comic page was updated today. So yeah, go have a look or something.”
“We are not regular update people so please be kind if we make mistake.”
“I hope Ranko gets back soon.”
“The Prologue for the Varcarel Jade story was published, and so now we got two pages on the web comic site!”
“Okay, so like how do you get from one page to the next?”
“There are ‘Previous Page’ and ‘Next Page’ links at the bottom of each page.”
“Sweet! Bonus update action, folks! Have fun!”
“Ja!”
“This is our new web comic! It’s called LadyStar: The Varcarel Jade, and it’s a story about this really strange artifact we found one day after this super tough battle against some haunts at the Sports and Crafts Fair. It’s gonna be just like our Ajan Warriors Series Books, except it’s a seperate story, so it’s different than the books sorta, cause in the Varcarel Jade we all have our treasures and powers and stuff.”
“The Varcarel Jade will be updated every Tuesday and then again as part of our Ten Update Fridays. We might do some bonus updates too. We’ll announce everything here, and we’ve got a category set up for the web comic too.”
“So tell all your pals we’ve got a new web comic and invite them to join the adventure!”
“Yeah! It’s gonna be lots of fun! Ja!”
“This must have been why we’ve had that tough-looking girl on our main page for the past few weeks, huh?”
“I never thought we’d be surprised by big events on our own site, but I know I was surprised.”
“Cici, how did you know about all of this before anyone else did?”
“”Cause I’m the Warrior of the Rocks and I’m ready for anything! My lantern tells me when things are enchanted and stuff.”
“So you found out about the web comic and halloween stuff ’cause of your lantern?”
“Makes sense, right? LadyStar webcomic, enchanted webcomic. We got no shortage of magical artifacts and such. That Chronicler’s Lantern doesn’t miss much.”
“I wonder what we’re gonna get to do for Halloween? I hope it’s fun and not scary.”
…
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“Boo”
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28 Comments on Violets and Camellias, last added: 9/30/2010
SO EXCITED AND HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!!!
Yes...I'm yelling that at my laptop ;->
janet xox
I'm so curious but I'll be patient!
Gretel, I am facebook-less so must be patient.
Meanwhile, I do love the look of those pups with their mugs (or should I say muzzles) turned toward the sun.
xo
They're gorgeous Gretel, and Santa dog is in great company :D
hahah.... you are too funny..... long day at the coalface....hahahha..... but, I know what you mean....
Hello Gretel, it's been a long time.
Just seen your blog and also the GG stuff on FB - really lovely work. I'm SO pleased for you, you did it!
Did all this come about from my meeting with Piers at the NEC a few years ago when I introduced you?
I remember your email to me re commercial work saying
''I kept the Penny Johnson instruction manual ;) ''
heee heee - so it worked :o)
I hope all is good for you and Andy.
Penny.