The Daily Spectrum - Gallery Wall Talks #5

The next batch of surviving paintings were done in Mid-coast Maine containing backyard dreams, ocean fantasies, to actual onsite locations, florals and an animal portrait.  The one unifying element in all my paintings is the use of bright color.  Vibrant color evokes the happiness I feel while painting.

Most of the color is intense - bright sunsets over the ocean and on Waterman's Beach in South Thomaston, Maine.  One painting is cold, and dreary - The Olson House, in the neighboring town of Cushing.  Maine's winters can be harsh on the psyche.  I did another winter painting of blue and white entitled Fantasy Pond that my daughter, Margarette, now has. This painting was of a happier feel to it as the blue was vibrant even though it still contained the cold of winter within it.

The Pier painting was done in Thomaston, Maine before Hurricane Katrina took it out.  A new pier has been built there since.  I especially likes the geometric pattern on the pilings that hold it up.  The wispy clouds in the background done in texture adds interest to the overall design.

In 2003, I attended an Adult Educatiuon painting class.  We began the eight weeks doing a barn painting.  Another session was the Olson House. The last session I did, I volunteered my daughter Catherine as a model for a portrait painting session.  She was 15 at the time and gorgeous.  I will treasure this painting (pictured below) until the day I die.

Until next time,
The Happy Painter,
Jill

The Daily Spectrum - Gallery Wall Talks #3

I'd love to say that all the paintings between 1987-1993 have been sold, but they haven't. While I was in search of a book I wrote called, Soul Colors, I unearthed five paintings from this time period. There were two portraits, one of my daughter and the other of myself at the age of 21. There was also a still life of a fruit bowl and two woods landscapes.

We learned how to paint the woods in En Plein Air (which is French for "in the open air") and the art work is created outdoors instead of in the studio where natural light is a key element. I developed a palette of colors that I particularly liked to use that has remained with me. I learned about the bugs and the heat verses painting in the shade and that I had a lot to learn about being prepared for the weather while being out in it for any length of time.

I also painted three 8ft. x 4ft. murals. One is still hanging in the Athol Massachusetts High School.  The other two have been cut up and painted over. They were done on Masonite board and were too heavy, too big, and too bulky to move from place to place with us all the time.

Another painting done during this time period is called, Peace. It, too, was a view out my window at dusk when a full moon was rising...my neighbors' house was conveniently left out of the painting to make the composition stand with the focal point being the moon. That's also the beauty of artistic license!

I feel calm when I see it and will always treasure this painting.

Until next time,
The Happy Painter,
Jill

The Daily Spectrum - Gallery Wall Talks #2

"Rainy Day Irises"

This oil painting is still one of my personal favorites and will be part of my collection for as long as it survives - it holds a special place in my heart as well as on my wall.  It was painted at our first home back in 1995 on a rainy day. I was overcome with sadness as I gazed out my front window and observed my Irises being plummeted by the rain.

I began with a wet canvas of white medium, then added a mixture of pink, light blue and then green.  I made fierce downward strokes with a large brush (about 1 inch wide) to create the rain image.  Next I took a painters' knife and danced in the purple waves of the petals.

The painting was completed within an half an hour and I was feeling let down that the fun was over so fast! Looking back, while I consider it a floral art work, it has an abstract look and feel to it.

Until next time,
The Happy Painter,
Jill

The Daily Spectrum - Gallery Wall Talks #1

This painting was one of three that made it into my first showing that was held at a bank in Athol, Massachusetts. It was also my very first "semi-professional"painting.  It was painted in Auburn, Mass. back in 1987.  It's called Winter Sun. It was painted using the then-popular wet-on-wet technique - although wet-on-wet, or alla prima (which is Italian for "at first attempt") - had been used for hundreds of years.

The wet-on-wet technique was popularized in the general public's eye primarily by a man named William Alexander - a.k.a. "the Happy Painter".  He had a weekly show that was featured on PBS and was televised for years.  He made this technique seem so easy to master that I had to try it when the opportunity arose.  A class was being given by one of his students using this technique.

It was a fall day and the weather was balmy.  Our oldest daughter was 18 months old then and my husband David promised to watch her so I could do this seminar.  I was an excited child given a new toy.  I had trouble following directions and wanted to explore what I could do with the paints.  It took every ounce of prudence I could muster to stay on task and do what I was told.  The result was a winter sunset with birch trees extending from the oval.

The wet-on-wet technique, although it can be done quickly, is sometimes rather difficult to execute.  The paint can easily turn into a muddy mess if one color too many is added. Basically, the process involves painting in the background first, then layering other paint on top - all before the first layer dries. The convenience of this technique is that is doesn't take days or weeks for layers of paint to dry and thus a painting can be done in "one sitting".

I was told when I went to college for fine art that this technique isn't "real painting". Looking back, I feel this opinion was solely the belief of a biased professor with the strong possibility he meant the TV show didn't teach real painting. As I researched the wet-on-wet technique, I found that numerous oil painting masters from Jan van Eyck, to Diego Velazquez, to Monet and Van Gogh, either used or experimented with wet-on-wet.

My daughter, Margarette, was given this painting on her first wedding anniversary as it is her favorite.

Until next time,
Another Happy Painter,
Jill

Back To The Drawing Board!

The Daily Spectrum hasn't been quite as "daily" as I had hoped or envisioned. My life experiences have radically changed once again - once again for the better.

My husband and I recently moved into an apartment in the downtown area, which will serve as a "home base". Our new digs are spacious, but fairly warm since we're on the 4th floor. To compensate for all this "free" heat, we have to open the living room windows - yes, in January - and we now hear the squeal of brakes, the whim and whir of various engines as well as the occasional crash when motor vehicles collide at the busy intersection we reside at. This was especially the case during the "epic" blizzard of 2015 (named Juno) which we experienced earlier this week.

I am in the process of settling in. Most of my stuff is either unpacked or somewhat organized (read: shoved) into the huge hall closet. Some of my stuff isn't even here yet - it's in storage at my youngest daughters house. After living and traveling in our RV for over 15 months, it does feel good to spread out. Each item seems new and many feel as if they have been my long lost friends with news to share.

We humans can be funny that way - our stuff telling the story of our life and where we've been. With this in mind, I've decided to take a trip down memory lane to revisit with my past work. To remember why I painted it and to hear its story.

Folks say you have to know where you've been in order to know where you are going. I will embrace this concept with my gallery wall that is pictured below. I will begin at one end and discuss one work at a time, then change it up until all my surviving and unsold art has been featured.

The end result? Sharing my passion and the hope that I will get a clue where to paint next...

Until next time,
The Happy Painter,
Jill

The Daily Spectrum - How Does My Art Evolve?

Sometimes I'm just not sure!  I settle myself on my chair and prepare to begin just to find that I need to hold onto my hat - whiplash- the painting has begun on its own momentum- the idea dangling way out in front and I have to run like a greyhound after a rabbit to keep up.

It stops as abruptly as it began.  The next painting follows suit.  I have had painting sessions where I've completed a dozen small paintings in this manner...they shot out the gate and left me with wonder in its wake.

Not all sessions have been that lively or quick.  I've had some still life paintings take weeks to plod off the paintbrush.  It was a process of methodical layering and waiting for drying to happen in between.

I remember painting a series of abstracts starting in 2011 that went until the summer of 2012. The canvases were various sizes, from 8x10 up to 16x24, but all involved bright colors with embedded positive words in them.  A number of these works ended up in a gallery showing in March 2013 in Camden Maine. Numerous show attendees studied the works - some said they were intense, others said they were playful. A third person said the work featured below "looked peaceful" to him.  (I hadn't considered the public's reaction to this line of working.)

For me, creating art, for the most part, is peaceful...it is a slow, methodical process where I need to focus intently on every move of my hand.

Peace in the universe--flows through me- my hand- out onto the paper- for the viewer to have peace too...

That is the best evolution I have observed to date.

Until next time,
The Happy Painter,
Jill

The Daily Spectrum- Is My Art About Me?

For better or worse, it is all about me! :)

Trauma struck our home when I was five years old:  my father died.  I didn't know how to grieve such a loss.  Depression plagued me for most of my childhood.  I did big dark charcoal drawings of black clouds overhead.  I remember a sailboat with its sail fallen over the boat in a storm.  I drew a disjointed house, mangled animals, and many other such disasters.

My mother bought me a set of pastels and told me to add color to my drawings.  She wanted me to "brighten up".  I also learned to mask my feelings and hide my face behind make-up.  I began drawing exotic peacocks with their tail in full array ( a defensive pose, I later learned), a puffer fish, and other animals in attack mode.

Later on, I met my husband and fell in love.  I also changed to oil paints. I painted still life--that's where I was- still- not progressing. Emotionally, I hadn't grown up at all.  Everything I had painted was frozen in tone on my canvas.  I could see the world, but I couldn't live in it.

I had to have therapy...yet, it was my own art therapy that had to happen.  I saw a friends' art of her anger, pain and suffering on display.  I admired her courage for being able to do and display her pain.  I told her I couldn't paint pain, yet, I had.

I did a series of acrylic string paintings where I "whipped" the canvas with paint.  Granted the design looked appealing even though it held all my anger.

There are a lot of things I don't understand about life and God.  But one thing I do know- Art heals the child within all of us.

Until the next time,
The Happy Painter,
Jill