Today was a good day! It was the first less humid day (it was only in the early to mid 90’s and there was a cool breeze!!!), and I was productive!
I woke up determined to go to the gym. While I’m still recovering from my illness, I wanted to get back to the gym, so starting yesterday I’ve gone, but I take it easy, sticking with less strenuous cardio and lighter weights. Even though I’ve been feeling blah, I felt less blah after the gym!
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| Spot in front yard! |
Since today felt like it was going to be a lovely day, I was determined to finally start a new painting! And I did! From about 1 to 4:30pm! Although maybe I didn’t choose the best composition, I was more concerned with the fact I haven’t been painting as much as I had hoped to this summer, so I figured if I started something , that would be better than nothing. So I wandered around the backyard and then the sideyard and then the front yard, and my dad came out and pointed to a spot that would be in the shade as the sun moved (even though its cooler today, it’s still 90 or 95 degrees). I went with that and decided to look back towards the house into the sideyard.
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| Gesture! |
So here are some pictures of what I started. My goals for today was to get a gesture sketch in and to try to cover the canvas with basic color blocks, nothing too detailed or anything. I want to say that it kind of looks like Diebencorn-esque, or Gaugiun-esque color, but not really (although those two artists are two of many of my favorite painters. I thought about Fairfield Porter today, too, but really my painting looks nothing like any of it). My strategy with the color blocks was to get as close a color to what I see in real life, but then I wanted to get everything in so I kind of sacrificed some of the accuracy of the color and leaned towards making the colors more saturated, mostly because I really think saturated colors are beautiful and more exciting to look at, I’m somewhat impatient, and I haven’t mastered the subtleties of color mixing quite yet. Also when I try to get to the colors I see mixing colors, I get ugly blobby blah colors instead. I figured I can fix things later. My easel was also a little catawampus, so it ended up looking off. Oh well! I was happy that it at least looked summery so far!
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| What I ended with for the day! |
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| From another angle! |
At least I’ve been more honest with myself in terms of what I like about art and why I do it. And since I’m no longer taking classes, I’m my only critic (unless I contact my former teachers). I find that it is difficult to judge my work because there is so much push and pull involved, bringing things to clarity and smooshing things back. The editing process truly is a never ending, difficult process, especially since there are so many variables to play with at once. (Thats why I like printmaking, I can deal with one thing at a time). I don’t know where to start and stop things, so I’ve been going off my own intuition, as right or wrong as that may be. It’s amazing how many tiny choices go in to making one painting. Its even more difficult for me to decide if what I’m doing is actually good or not. Should I measure more precisely? How should my brushstrokes go? What can I do to make my painting more harmonious and how can I unify elements in the painting? I usually just feel constantly overwhelemed when I ask myself these things, which is why I end up shutting those thoughts out, which is more how today went. I didn’t measure, I wasn’t too precise, went with my gut, and above all had fun mixing paint and scrubbing it about the canvas, all while listening to my iPod and jammin out to the same 5 songs over and over.
After painting I showered and went out to dinner with my family to the new Jukebox Diner. Our waitress was the same one we saw at IHOP 2 or 3 weeks back. Somehow we started talking about jobs and my dad mentioned I had waitressing experience and the next thing I know I’m being offered an application. They actually ran out, but the waitress encouraged me to come back on Friday for one. I’m tempted to get a part time job there. We’ll see. I feel like I want to get a job, and I think I can make more money serving than at retail (I was tempted to apply to a job at a local arts and crafts store). Of course maybe I should look into an entry level marketing job or something. I’m even tempted to volunteer somewhere, like at a gallery or museum, but I kind of would like more job experience and a little bit more income. And I want part time so I can have time for me and for researching schools and doing more art. We’ll see.
After dinner I went with my sister to orchestra rehearsal. That’s right. I auditioned for the Manassas Symphony Orchestra yesterday and got in. And when I went to rehearsal today, there was only me and one other violist there today, so I’m glad I went! Its exciting because I know several people in the orchestra already, mostly my former teachers. I like the atmosphere so far and I’m looking forward to this upcoming concert already! Its funny I joined because I had really thought that I didn’t want to play the viola anymore because I feel like I am not able to play the instrument in the way as I feel it deserves to be played, and I didn't feel like I wanted to put in the time and effort in the practice it takes to reach that level. But now I'm reconsidering.
