I spent the weekend with family, and came away from those gatherings, and some art meetings, energized to get my website updated.
Viewing
One of my outings during my family visit was to check on a gallery, WallSpace. They’d moved location on me since I was last in town, and reconnaissance was in order.
Lucky for me, they had a lovely show of big abstracted landscapes by Erica Hawkes, and their new space is far more open and bright. Family + art = fun!
Learning
Wasn’t I taking a watercolor class? Yes, yes I was! I had 2 lessons to go, and I wanted to at least watch them, if not complete the assignments, before my weekend trip. The focus for these final lessons was more representative than I want to be, but I now think I have enough information — about value, color, edges — to make some color field studies that might work as background or intermediate layers. I see a 30-day project here!
I highly recommend keeping an eye on Carla Sonheim‘s class offerings. I’ve enjoyed several of her courses so far, and when I log in for this latest session, I can still watch any of the others again.
Meetings & Making
It was a good week, by my eyes, over at the Paris Collage Collective. I always check the weekly image, and download it if I think there’s something I can work with. This week, it was a vase of flowers. Let’s see…
I do enjoy having some of the image disappear by one method or another — removing the darks, or the lights, or tucking it behind some layers. Nothing ever comes of these images, necessarily, but I enjoy the challenge and the community as we all try to make something out of the same base piece as everyone else. In this particular case, I’m thinking about how a detailed addition can affect the focus and color accents.
On my weekend visit, I had lovely feedback from my cousin about my recent newsletter. He really liked the experimental piece I shared, so I’m encouraged to revisit it, and find it some buddies.
My thought was that these pieces could expand my Adaptive Horizons series, urban landscapes started when I moved into Seattle. Why not work out my adjustment to Vancouver with some similar efforts? I’m on it! If I still like these next week, they might get:
- Titles
- Inventory numbers
- A post on my site
- Placement on a print-on-demand site
- An order button??
Showing & Connecting
I dashed to a quick Arizona Collage Collective call — only just time for a quick visit this week; a shame, since the banter is excellent! Then, the next day, I spent a bit more time with the SLMM West gang. We had called for art with a theme of yellow, and the pieces have now been gathered into an exhibit on the SLMM.org site. This group, where I’ve been a member since 2020, has been a great respite of virtual meetings, ideas, and projects. Much appreciated!
Other group meetings this week included the SLMM studio meeting, the national SLMM weekly call, and my bi-weekly Paint Mix crew — good discussions and encouragement all around. How about you? Where do you go for feedback? And, as I overheard on a podcast this week:
If you could suspend self-doubt for 6 months, what would you make?
Amy Talluto, Pep Talks for Artists podcast