More about studio artists

Last week I wrote about studio artists in this blog post.

Working from photos isn’t the only choice for a studio artist. Sometimes they set up still life things (Still lifes? Still lives? “Things” works for me.) Sometimes they work from sketches they made outside. Sometimes they paint people who sit still and try not to fidget. Sometimes they finish paintings they began outside.

Sometimes they just make stuff up.

If I tried to paint this scene while sitting here, I might get hit by a car.

I’d fall off the bank if I was standing at my easel here and a car came by. There is no shoulder on this road right here.

Painting from photos is often considered “cheating”, not “real art”, and cheesy by many in the ArtWorld.

Ask me if I care. . . never been very affected by others’ opinions. (“Do you care?” – “Why do you ask?”)

Am I a fake artist? A cheater?

Nope. Don’t think so. Hate that snobbery, so there.

But, I know I could learn if I tried those other things. If I get bored with my current style of painting, or when someone comes along and says “Hey, want to learn how to paint differently? I’ll show you!” and I can fit it into my life, I might say yes. Until then?

I’ll just keep working from my photos.

If I stood on the bridge to paint this scene, I’d flinch and grit my teeth every time a car drove over the seam on the bridge because it makes a loud rattle.

I’m glad we had this little chat. Thanks for listening. Always nice to visit with you all!

Some Studio Artists Paint from Photos

Did you know that some studio artists paint from photos?

view from Kaweah Lake

 

I paint from photos. They provide ideas, inspiration, visual guidance and instruction.

photo of 2 pears by jana botkin

I paint from photos that I take. Sometimes I adjust them on my computer. Sometimes I have other people shade my lens, hold branches out of the way or manipulate the scene in other manners. Sometimes I arrange things and rearrange them and move them around to other locations.

pomegranate photo by jana botkin

My friend Jimmy brought me the most beautiful pomegranates he could find. It was at a busy time as I was preparing for 2 different shows. I knew they would shrivel before I could paint them. No problem. I have a camera and am not afraid to use it.

Perhaps this is just the practical side of being a California artist in rural Tulare County.

 

 

Thankful

Central California.

Salvation.

Life as an artist.

A good husband.

Perkins, my last cat.

Family.

Friends.

Health.

Safety.

Knitting.

My blog and blog readers.

Color.

Photography.

Sunlight.

Dark chocolate.

Good books.

THANKFUL!

 

 

Learning and Growing

My drawing students really impress me. They sign up for lessons, come for an hour a week, and produce wonderful pencil drawings. Most of them begin knowing nothing. They persist, they do the work, and they learn to draw.

I show them the way, but they do the work and grow in their knowledge and skills. Some of them go to other workshops on the side, like watercolor painting or oil painting, or knitting. They come from a variety of backgrounds, and most have much more formal education and are far more travelled than I am.

Got me to thinking – do I make an effort to grow? Am I working on self-improvement, personal growth, being a life-long-learner?

I don’t take any classes and in fact, I’ve quit many of the classes I’ve tried.

That admission makes me look like a sluggish quitter.

But wait! There’s more!

Currently I am forcing myself through something called the hundred pushup challenge. Really! Weenie-armed,  never-done-a-pull-up or a boy push-up, girlie wussy me. Even if I don’t succeed in the 6 week time frame, I will certainly be able to do more than I could before I started!

My great friend in the Seattle area gave me a 6 month subscription to a site called Lumosity. This is a brain training site that claims to be able to improve your abilities in the mental areas of memory, attention, speed, flexibility and problem solving. Over the past several weeks, I have grown mentally in all areas. Or not – perhaps I’m just better at playing the games. Whatever the truth is here, I’m having a great time!

While I paint or draw, I listen to podcasts by Michael Hyatt, Chris LoCurto, and Artists Helping Artists. Okay, sometimes I just listen to music, talk radio, sermons, or talk on the phone, or savor the silence, but often I take the chance to cram more knowledge and wisdom into my brain.

7 years ago I learned to knit.

oil painting of yarn by Jana Botkin
Knitting has changed my life!

6 years ago I began learning to oil paint, and a few weeks ago I took a portrait painting workshop.

I’ve learned how to train for long power walks and done a 5K, a 9-miler, 2 1/2 marathons, and a 21-miler. I’ve also learned about Plantar Fasciitis, dang it, and all the various treatments for it, dang it, including acupuncture, which is finally bringing some relief.

I have learned to blog, update my own website, to comment on blogs, to use LinkedIn, Adobe InDesign, Paypal, Pinterest, and Daily Paintworks, all in the past several years. (no smart phone, Twitter or Facebook – gotta draw the line somewhere!)

I LOVE to learn new things, especially things to do. (These are just the ones I remember, because according to Lumosity, my memory is the weakest part of my mind.)

What are you learning? How are you learning it?

Bowlafruit Critique

Last week I showed you this watercolor painting by Jim, who asked me for a critique.

This is what I told him:

“Wow, you are a get-‘er-dun kind of guy! Love the title too. . . (I’m puzzling over what to call my painting of the same scene that isn’t too dumb, obvious and boring)

“Your shapes look great, the textures are convincing and the colors of the fruit are bright.

“3 suggestions for a little better results (just to push it up a level):

“1. If the background part of the reflection is darker than looking out onto the grass (wow, so cumbersome to find words when if we were together I could just point!), then it will have more impact. This is because the contrast will be greater both between the inside and outside of the window, and between the reflections of fruit and background.

“2. Edges of reflections and shadows should be fuzzy EVEN IF they appear sharp in life or in a photo. It helps the viewer know which is real and which is an illusion (bring to mind that poem at the end of Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues – I loved that song in 8th grade)

“3. I know nothing of watercolor so this might be useless information but here goes. . . the shadows on your lemon and lime look as if you just put black there (could be the monitor, the photo, the airwaves between your town and Three Rivers. . .) When I want a shadow in oil, I mix a darker version of the same color. Often shadows will show in a photo as black, but we have to disregard that visual information and make the color be a real color. (stupid deceptive lying sneaky cheating photos)”

And here is Jim’s reply:

“Thanks so much for your quick response…I understand everything you said, and I appreciate it, especially about the shadows on the fruit. I didn’t know that, so, wow, that’s valuable information. I really thank you, also, for your encouragement. I want to get to the point where I call myself and artist and BELIEVE it.

Blessings, my friend,

Jim

“Oh, and feel absolutely free to use any of my stuff on the blog; that’s the purpose, right? Even throw your suggestions to me on there if you desire. There’s so much we can all learn from each other in this world if we’re honest.”

Jim is smart, nice, funny, hard-working, and talented. (Forget it – he is married!)

Bowlafruit

A man named Jim took drawing lessons from me. His real desire was to learn to paint with watercolor, but he is a very smart guy and knew he needed to hone his drawing skills first. After several private lessons (in which the student learns at an accelerated rate), he was off and running.

Jim saw my photo of the Most Beautiful Fruit Bowl I’ve Ever Seen and asked permission to paint it. I’ve got a strong attachment to all my drawing students, both past and present, and it is my goal to help each one further their art skills. Besides, I was flattered, so of course I said yes.

He sent the painting to me and asked for a critique. That sort of request can be weird between people. If you don’t know the person really well or haven’t established an honest relationship, it can be a real sticky wicket. (No, I have no idea what that expression really means.) Does the asker just want reassurance that his work is good? Does he want suggestions?

It is a very important part of my drawing lessons that we are honest with one another. Your mom and your best friend and your little sister will say “Wow! That is beautiful! You really draw good!” If you overlook their grammar and manage to resist the effort to correct them, you can bask in the praise.

It feels good but it isn’t very helpful. When you are among people who draw, people you trust to be kind while speaking the truth, and you are able to hear the truth without resisting and arguing, you can really improve your art and your skills.

You can learn both from being the critique-er and from being the critique-ee. For that reason, I frequently ask my students to let me have it about my own work, and we all enjoy the process.

Jim and I established that sort of relationship when he took lessons from me, so I felt comfortable telling him the truth about his painting. Here it is for you to see, and next week I will share the conversation we had about it.

Bowlafruit, watercolor, by Jim

Redwoods, Redwoods, Everywhere

I still have a very large commissioned oil painting of redwoods to complete. Redwoods are sequoia gigantea, not to be confused with California redwoods. We grew up calling them “the big trees”, and I had no clue what a privilege it was to live so close. (I might have been a bit of a twit.) I choose to call them Redwoods now because I went to Redwood High School, and although I will skip the upcoming reunion, I have retained enough loyalty to hang onto the name. But, I digress.

Redwood oil painting in progress

The customer liked a similar painting that I made for someone else, which was based on the pencil drawing called “Redwood & Dogwood”.

You can see the drawing, plus a photo of a sequoia on my laptop. The reason the palette is on the floor is because I was kneeling there to work on the lower portion of the tree. You can see the primary colors running across the top of the palette and the redwood colors running down the side.

But wait! There’s more!

redwood mural, pencil drawing, photo and oil painting

Sheesh. This California artist has a thing about redwood trees. On the left is half of the pair of doors to the painting studio. I had to open them because it is sort of dark in there. Then, the swamp cooler had to be on high, so the doors were blowing around.

It’s rough being a California artist in the heat of summer.

Wah.

commissioned oil painting of redwood in progress

This is how it looked at the end of the noisy, dark, overheated day of painting. It should dry enough overnight to begin adding the dogwood flowers on top of the redwood tree. I mean layered in front of the tree, not up at the top of the painting. You knew that, right?

 

Why I Sometimes Don’t Answer the Phone While Painting

If you call my studio during work hours on a work day, often you will get the answering machine. You might be thinking, “That flaky artist doesn’t work much!”

Au contraire!

Sometimes I just can’t get to the phone.

Inside Jana Botkin's painting studio

The phone is on the far left of the photo, atop the filing cabinet, and requires that I put down my paintbrush from my left hand, take the one out of my mouth, put down the one I am using, and climb over the cords to the speakers and to the laptop. Ain’t happenin’. Sorry.

When it is hot, I can’t even hear the phone over the swamp cooler on high and the music coming from the laptop. Sorry.

This is what it looks like while I am painting a large commission. I’ll show you more about it tomorrow.

What I Listen To While Painting

Being an artist at a private home studio can be a silent and solitary profession. Sometimes I embrace the solitude. (Ever notice how the word “embrace” gets overused these days??) Sometimes I trap the UPS driver into seeing my work and hearing about it, because I haven’t talked to a soul all day long. I’ve tried making phone calls using the speaker-phone so I can paint while talking. The recipient of the call says “What?” so much that I’ve decided that is just not a viable way to multi-task.

triptych of tulip fields oil painting
This oil painting of tulip fields (still unnamed) heard a lot of music, podcasts and sermons.

Lots of times I use the painting time to listen to good stuff using my laptop and Bose speakers. (What a wonderful addition to a laptop for $100 – GREAT sound!!)

Here are a few of my favorite listening sites:

Artists Helping Artists is very very interesting, especially if you are an artist. (Thank you, Captain Obvious!) Leslie Saeta from Pasadena, California, is a working artist who used to be in marketing. She has a weekly podcast on Blogtalk Radio in which she interviews working artists and shares marketing tips. She is very upbeat, high energy, giggly and encouraging.

my pastor, Alex Garcia from the Three Rivers First Baptist Church. I listen because I miss a lot of Sundays in the summer, and I listen because I learn so much from Alex.

Michael Hyatt is one of my favorite bloggers. He is an “a-may-zing” guy, and I have learned so much from him about business, writing, getting published, blogging, leadership (as if anyone is actually following me!), marketing, and personal development. He has a great podcast once a week.

Chris LoCurto is another of my favorite bloggers. (I’ve guest posted for him 3 times.) He does a podcast about every 2 weeks, interviewing some very great business people like the head of Zappo’s, Tony Dungy, the head of Tractor Supply Co. and a number of business authors.

I Heart Radio is a new website that my sister. Melinda, told me about. (She has always been ahead of me when it comes to cool stuff.) You type in a favorite song or singer or group, and it creates a personal radio station for you based on your choice. First I put in Toto (remember them from the late ’70s or early ’80s?) and now I can listen to “Toto Radio” – it really surprised me how many groups from that time sang with very tight harmonies (like Little River Band, or even the Eagles.) Then I put in Casting Crowns, and got to hear new songs by old favorites and old songs by new singers. Then I had them make Steve Wariner Radio for me – he is my Absolute Favorite Male Voice of All Time. (Yes, he is Country – so what??)

There are other things I listen to, but this post is just getting too long. Besides, I probably disgusted half of you by admitting that I listen to Country music, and annoyed the other half by saying I like to listen to my pastor’s sermons!

If you are still here after all that annoyance, will you tell me what you like to listen to?