Balance

That is my goal for 2011. Balance.

As a review, last year I embarked on a journey to make 100 paintings. I also planned to continue with drawing and sketching in my sketchbooks. I did find some time for visual journaling but from the start of 2010 through June I did no drawing, as I was driven with my 100 painting project. Which was all good. Until I realized that I missed drawing. So I stepped back a bit and looked at where I was in my 100 painting project (painting #56 to be exact) and saw that I had achieved what I wanted to do with paint. I needed a break. And a new direction to take that project. Plus it was so all-consuming.

So while I was mulling all of that over, I got out my pencils and picked up where I had left off the year before with a series of drawings. And I realized that by intensely focusing on painting I had become out of balance.

Just like my sketchbooks fill a need for visual journaling and working out ideas, each area of my art supports and feeds the other. I know that finding balance isn't necessarily a goal that is achieved, but more of a concept that I need to keep in mind, with regular adjusting due to one thing or another. Laure Ferlita, over at her blog, Painted Thoughts, has a wonderful post about The Power of a Word. She likened the word that one chooses to a touchstone for the year. I like that.

 Balance. My touchstone word for 2011. I hope to balance my various ideas with my art in such a way that I can keep my interests alive and the work fresh. I also need to balance my art-self with my mom-self, teacher-self, and my-self.

So what does all of this mean for me in 2011? Well, I do intend to complete my 100 painting project, perhaps with a new direction, perhaps even this year. I also plan to continue work on that series of drawings begun two years ago and then abandoned. I would like to see this become a cohesive body of work. And, naturally I will continue keeping my sketchbooks going as I do enjoy that practice of drawing from life. It's a lot to make room for, especially when I factor in my day job as a homeschool parent. Time is, after all, the most difficult thing for me to balance.

"If you find, in your own work, that ideas you didn't have room for at a particular time nonetheless lingered and arose later, you are coming close to an ideal creative state, one where creativity becomes a self-perpetuating habit. You are linking your art. Everything in your life feeds into your work, and the work feeds into more work." 

-Twyla Tharp, The Creative Habit

May you enjoy a wonderfully balanced and creative year in 2011!

100 Paintings

A brief departure from my usual Tuesday sketchbook posts to announce my goal for 2010.

100 paintings.

I know this a bold move, over ambitious perhaps, but this is my new project and starting point for the year.

It all started in October when I bought myself a set of water mixable oils. Now, you know that I am no stranger to painting in oil, even though it has been quite a long time since I put a brush to canvas. Over the past several years I have made a few attempts to paint with acrylic but just couldn't get the results I was after with that media. And not wanting the fumes and mess of oil paint I let the idea of painting go. But when I began reading about water mixable oils I was intrigued and wanted to give them a try.

I have been playing with these oil paints for a couple of months now and the process feels very comfortable and familiar. I wondered what would happen if I made 100 paintings. Where will this take me? I want to find out. I can't say whether I will actually complete 100 paintings in a year's time, but that is my goal. I will consider the goal achieved when I reach 100 paintings, even if it takes more than a year.

This past year I have been swimming in ideas, images that I wanted to explore but the drawing process slowed me down so I was becoming frustrated. But with paint the ideas flow much more quickly. I plan to keep these paintings fairly small, in a size that can be completed in one or maybe two sittings. From this body of work I hope to find inspiration for larger paintings later on.

In addition to making paintings I intend to continue with sketching and drawing. I am not placing any expectations on these activities however. I see drawing and sketching as a counterbalance to painting. For me, painting is active while drawing is meditative. Expand and contract. Like breathing in and out.

So watch this space! I will return to a Sketchbook Tuesday post next week as well as begin to post my paintings in the new year. Happy New Year everyone!

207 Days

While I am sitting here waiting for snow, as we are predicted to get 2 feet or more, yes FEET, I thought I'd take this time to do a review of my year in art. Above is my calendar that I keep taped to my drawing board which shows I worked on art 207 days in 2009. And there are a few days left where I may be filling in more squares before the year is out. Especially since it looks like I'll be stuck at home for a while.

So here is my art year in review.

I had wanted to try working in a series. After much experimentation I settled on Rising Museum Board for a support. And even though I did over 27 drawings this past year (not counting sketchbook work) I never did manage to stick with any sort of a theme for a series. Just too many ideas zipping around in my head to stay with just one for any length of time.

However, I did try moving beyond landscape imagery with a few still life pieces, which I enjoyed doing.






I also worked in graphite in addition to colored pencil.










And I tried a couple of pet portraits in graphite, just to see if I could. And I have a couple to do still, some folks are still waiting.

I had wanted to put together a gallery submission pack, which I didn't do. With the economy and my lack of a body of work with any continuity, the timing just didn't seem right. Although I did enter two shows, got work accepted into one and both of those works sold.

It was also important to me that I continue with Everyday Matters challenges and working in a sketchbook. I let the Everyday Matters drawing challenges slide after a few months into the year but I did do much sketchbook work. I participated in the Every Day in May challenge. I also took two online classes offered by Cathy Johnson, Watercolor Pencil Workshop and Keeping an Artist's Journal. Even though the intensity of participating in a class took me away from my non-sketchbook art works, I found it was time very well spent. These classes also helped me focus on my goals for my art and how it can all integrate, art and life.

And finally, even though I wanted 2009 to be a year of "focus" it actually became a year of discovery. I did quite a bit of experimentation with process. In addition to the pieces above and discovering how lovely Rising Museum Board is for drawing with colored pencil, I also played with color and a process of using Neocolor II watercolor crayons to develop a loose underpainting before layering dry colored pencil on top. This proved to be much more expressive with the media than the highly representational method that colored pencil so easily lends itself to. One thing led to another. And now I have a very clear objective for 2010. Which I will share with you soon.
Promise.

Since I started this post it has been snowing steadily. It won't take long to get those FEET of snow. Feet. Good grief.

Focus

Stratus
11 x 14 inches
colored pencil on pastel board
©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

While last year was about experimentation with my art, this year I want to focus. Focus on simplicity. It's something I would like to do in all the parts of my life, from decluttering our home to decluttering my daily routine. I have been into so many things at once that I now feel the need for more concentrated focus as some things are just beginning to feel like distractions getting in my way. So my art goals for 2009 are are really quite straightforward. Most are some type of continuation of my goals from this past year, only distilled down to much more simple terms. Some I can implement right away, while others will require a longer process to get there. However, keeping focused should be a part of that process.

So here is what I have planned for 2009 -

~Continue with drawing practice and keeping a sketchbook including doing Everyday Matters drawing challenges.

~Study artists from history and contemporary artists that I respond to in relation to what I am trying to do with my own work. I have been working on a list of artists to pull from for this study.

~Develop works in a series. This past year I have been all over the place with subject, sizes, and process, (part of my experimentation). I would like to focus on working in a series this year.

~Continue with this blog, of course, but evaluate the various venues I have explored for sales, perhaps streamlining my efforts over time.

~Put together a gallery submission package. This has been on my to-do list for a while. Now with the economy the way it is I don't know just how practical it will actually be to submit work to retail galleries, so I am giving myself a little more time to work on this one.

~Enter 3 exhibits. Notice I lowered my expectations from last year? There were a couple of shows last year that I considered but couldn't talk myself into entering what with paying an entry fee, then the possible cost of shipping and framing, it can really add up. Entry fees alone can really eat up a budget. So three is the goal for this year.

The piece above is drawn from a photo I took while we were at Edisto Island last fall. There were some amazing clouds creating a lot of drama over the ocean. Sorry the image of my finished work isn't better but we have had some dramatic weather here the past couple of days, making photographing art a challenge, to say the least!