I keep thinking I will make more time for my blog --and my art. I find another year has gone by and my progress is minimal. Is it someone else's fault?  No-- my own lack of scheduling for myself. I have spent much time landscaping--necessary and still not done, but it has eroded the time I spend painting. 
     I have made a couple of improvements to the studio to make it more comfortable-- a heater and new music--both help to keep me down there doing something--even cleaning is good!
  I am now spending more studio time as I need to finish the work in progress before the prospective buyer loses interest. ( And, I can always use the money.)  I am still rearranging somewhat as I often do not know what works best until I have spent the time working and can see what doesn't work. I am "retraining" myself to not keep every little thing that I might use in the future. I am becoming more minimalist, if you will. Clutter is no longer my friend, although you would still not know this by looking at my studio.  
   I have found that the longer one doesn't paint, the harder it is to re-start. I know this of course, but forget in the midst of doing something else. What if I ruin the painting I have put so much time into? What if I cannot come up with any ideas for paintings? What if I can't make my paintings work?  I am sure I am not the first, nor the last to deal with this.
      One solution is not to stop painting, if possible. Another is to dig up a bunch of "ruined" paintings, or sketch paper and just see what you can come up with-- it is not meant to be a painting-so no worries if it is no good. This is known as PRACTICE!!! Practice is something I normally don't do with intention, but sometimes you need to give yourself permission to "just fool around" with paint and paper. I have done this off and on for the last 3-4 days and spend some time on "the" painting inbetween. Even learning about what your colors do when mixed is fun and a learning experience.
  For instance --oranges and blues can make some beautiful greys for shadows. So can greens and reds, and yellows and purples. I forget when I am actually painting how beautiful these colors can be, so I am planning to keep a couple of examples in front of me as I work--just as a reminder.. 
     I am headed to the studio now, to practice what I preach! 

      Now that we have arrived, rummaged around, opened boxes, scattered out belongings, the new house is finally feeling like we really live here. I am still finishing new furniture--chairs and bed almost done. After that I can begin on the studio.
    The studio is 16 x 20 ft. --just a bare room, with a bathroom to the side ( nice). I am in the process of figuring out a design for storage as there is none. I am currently thinking a large 8 foot bin on casters, 36 inches deep and about 36-38 inches high. My original design had bookshelves above--as part of the unit, but I have since changed that--and probably will again. No room yet to build this until furniture is done and taken up to the house. I have a 4 x 5' table, and a bin for matboard and foam core. 
   I see also I need room for the stretched paper on boards, clean paper, prints, supplies. and so on.
 Since I have been going through  "painting deprivation" I finally looked up and joined a local painting group Yosemite Western Artists, but haven't yet gone to any paint outs.
​    More to come, with photos!  I will include the garden also, landscaping, and large rock moving, as much of this will be interspersed with studio work.

Here it is another week gone by. I have continued working on the paperwork--still. Also, during breaks have been by fits and starts uploading copyrighted images of my work to Pinterest. It is a chore as for some reason the images are blank until clicked on--or they become multiple images and how that happens I do not know! It  would be funny if it didn't waste a lot of time reloading. Now( yesterday) I have found if I ignore the multiples, and concentrate on just adding a couple of new images per day, then log off, everything seems to go back to normal on that site. So far, that is. Today is a new day and I now expect anything to happen. I have noted some concerns by others that they have "lost" all uploaded images.
   
        " Back at the ranch": Spent a couple of days at the ranch in Lincoln--cold, windy, some faint sun. Forgot my camera and didn't bring any paints, so missed a few good photos- and too cold + windy to paint. Some plein air will be in the future when fishing time comes though.
          Considering how much I haven't been painting, ideas go streaming through my brain like freeway traffic--whether this is good or bad--not sure. I do know that not painting is not good for me mentally as I become very impatient with everything, and crabby.  I thought I might alleviate that condition somewhat by just throwing some paint on  paper--no plan is a plan to fail.  I did find that it took the paper about 1.5 hours to dry, which surprised me since I thought  the air was dry in the house. I will not throw it away as I go over these failures later and can save some.
       Now that the termite inspectors are through trapsing  through here, I can reassemble my studio and begin to paint again. Will keep you posted

      Once again I have had to set aside my painting as I realize it is "tax time" and paper work has to be gathered and organized, totaled, copied,etc.  Soooooo my plan is to use my framing table as a large area to spread out the paper work and of course, it needs to be cleaned off first. While cleaning, I thought I should also file anything that should be filed and so on. Taking a quick break, checking out the rain, I glanced at the window sill and found some " little brown granules". Upon taking another look as I was wiping them up, I realized they were termite droppings---Oh Oh!  There, way up by the ceiling was a very small hole which was the source of the granules. Hubby was not impressed when I showed him. He then went out on the roof to check the outside wall, and found droppings coming from under the siding --so I think tenting the house is somewhere in the near future. An exterminator was called, who did recommend a choice of spot treatment or tenting.
   Meanwhile, back at the studio. I had moved all work-in-progress to the spare room, cleaned the floor, and put a bunch of stuff out of the way---ha--on the work table. Well now I am here moving all that stuff to start the paperwork.  On the good side, I spent a lot of time yesterday uploading "watermarked" images of my work and deleting the unmarked images. I am also doing the same on Pinterest, but am having trouble with the uploaded images showing as blank spaces until clicked on. I do not like the "maintenance" part of having a website, but it is a necessary evil. 
 All this commentary is to illustrate that I have stuff in the way and I have to make a conscious effort to not let it derail me for too long or I lose my painting momentum . Once that happens, it is much more difficult to start again. That is one of my reasons for having a couple of paintings in progress so it doesn't take as much planning---just pick up the brush and remember what the original plan was. If you are also an artist and reading this, do not become disheartened by getting derailed. If you are friends or just interested in how art is created, it sometimes a roundabout process!
     

      We all seem to have new goals and resolutions in January of a new year. Most of mine are ongoing as I never quite get to many of them, and some of them (weight loss) never seem to be finished ( HaHa).
Regarding artwork, which this blog is about, but also connected to ongoing life,there always seems to be something lurking on the horizon, ready to launch itself and derail our best intentions.
     My self talk instructs me to just keep on plugging as best as I can after I have dealt with whatever gets in my way. I cannot leave things "in the air" and not deal with them, because I have found they will perch right on my shoulder and mutter in my ear, resulting in the same interference as if I just get off the track and deal with the concern anyway!
      I never just ignore my ongoing artwork. It rumbles and creaks around in my brain--sometimes in the unconscious, sometimes in my face. I find that this can actuallly solve issues of composition or value as it makes me  stop and look more, rather than barrel through, on a roll, but not seeing as much as I should.
     Now that I have more time to "play", I am working on three paintings. Two were started earlier and are posted below.  The newest is in the sketching stage. I promised myself that after I finished the two that are pretty detailed, I would do something fast and loose! However, I am in the middle of the sketch and realized it too is very realistic and detailed. If something comes to mind, I may delay painting on the third and come up with a smaller (quarter sheet) looser work. We will see!
    The recent storms and rain ( and frost) has derailed me somewhat as I dropped everything to cover my plants on the cold nights, then taking it down durning rain. Now, I need to make more permanent covers for frost and excess sun. So, some garden construction will be underway soon! Hopefully not more than a 2 day delay.

    Not having participated in this year's Open Studio Tour  was some slight relief from deadlines, though it does tend to make one a little lax in getting things done. I still have several paintings in progress stashed away and waiting for whenever I finish the current three that are commissions .          Commissions are good and bad. They bring in money=good. They make me paint more = good. They have deadlines--sometimes not so good if I get stuck and have a problem, but then I realize I need to have challenges and that is good!
    The most difficult part of commissions is the mental "roll" of creativity that gets going inside my head--and has to do with every subject that is not on the easel at this time!      Ha Ha-- this is also part of the challenge--to tune down those little sneaky ideas that come crawling into my head from who knows where. It is all work and all play, and difficult and easy, fun and misery--and such a high when all comes to a finish!
     For any of you other artists who may be reading, since I do my own framing, as I paint I am also thinking about mats and frame molding- and I'd better get with it, and so on.
      If you are local to the Santa Cruz County area--or nearby counties, I am showing some of my available work at Burgers and Brews on Main St. in Watsonville CA. Come take a look and have a burger.

Here is where I would normally post photos of work in progress, but since they are surprises I would ruin Christmas for the gifter. I will plan on posting them right after the Holidays

The yearly " studio revamp" is still in progress. I seem to have been moving things from "pillar to post" and back again-achieving nothing. However, I think I am finally making a little progress in last couple of days. I have the mid-old age vision problem with the computer screen: have to be too close for glasses and too far to read without. The solution was an inexpensive TV to use as a monitor for my laptop, along with a wireless keyboard so I can put the screen on the wall across the room and be able to read my blog posts and Word files. I will test it once the remaining stuff I have collected is either put away in its' assigned place ( ha ha) or is donated to a local thrift shop.
     In the middle of the chaos I have been working on a painting in a little looser style than I usually paint. This is one of the water "gates" used to control water flow at a duck club in Los Banos, Ca..  There are always weeds and grass trying to take over everything and they are a challenge to paint without getting too picky. It still has a ways to go but I like it so far. It is now on "hold " for a couple of more days until the studio is back and running.

I "watched" the rose painting last night--all evening-- and could see it wasn't quite right.So I made some adjustments again this afternoon, and think it may be close.

I like the larger dark area and did not like it when it was so pointed- as in the previous "fixes". I still have a ways to go as some more of the petals will have browning edges and I may yet change the shape of some of the other petals. I think it also needs more color and a little darker shadows, but we will see. I am not as gutsy as I should be.
    On another note. "Watching" my paintings, thinking about what they need or don't need takes time. Often beginning artists, family members, friends and collectors do not realize that this time contributes to the work and should not be discounted as "wool gathering" or " star gazing", or even being too lazy to work on the painting. The process of figuring out the next step is not only a learning situation, it is part of the process itself. An artist uses his past education, his ongoing education, an array of his  life experiences, his hours of practice, his color choices, and so on. Some of this is conscious thought, some is automatic response to  a learned  skill-- as in pushing in the clutch when driving a stick shift vehicle.  It has taken my years to do this painting because it took all those years to become this skillful. And if I had put in more time years ago, I would be much farther along!

Still considering the rose, and making changes. Put it in the living room for a couple of days so it was in my face each day, all day. Think I have tweaked it, but I will take my time and finish other areas that are not done, then reconsider how it looks in terms balance between the dark and light.

I have yet to enter any shows. That is one of my 2016 resolutions. My painting are never good enough, but I will enter them anyway as I feel I need that experience. If I keep in the back of my mind--that it may be entered in a show, then I will (I hope) be more conscious of my composition in terms of the Elements and Principles of design
        You will notice I capitalized  Elements and Principles. I feel they illustrate my weakest point and therefore need to be at the top of the list in importance. Whether this works or now remains to be seen. 
     Another resolution is painting more often. There are artists out there who religiously paint every day. Unfortunately I do not, and it costs me as I do not go forward as quickly as I should. I will need to take a couple of breaks at the end of January as fence building at the ranch beckons. The actual building is the easy part. Cutting through 6 foot high blackberry bushes  to find where the original fence was is another story. Hopefully the snakes will all be sleeping. Cougars, coyotes, skunks, and possums -and deer, may not be sleeping. On a good note, I will be taking several stretched quarter sheets and my plein air setup and may actually get in a couple of good paintings while there.
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