Making a commitment. Going back to the yellow warehouse

I think about painting and drawing every day.  Nothing has yet inspired me enough to pick up the pad or brush.  I find myself once again trying to boost that inspiration by writing about what I'm thinking.  What goes through my head when I think about art?..I just know what I like.  I know what draws me in when I see a painting.  Immediately, without hesitation, I want to do something like what I see...but nothing and seemingly no one can put an instrument in my hand, sit me down and make me go forward beyond that thought.  Maybe I'm trying to create the demons that have inspired so many great artists.  Well, I believe that I have started to feel those demons.  For the past week, I have started to feel down.  Something is nagging at my soul.  I haven't figured it out yet.
What I know is this.  Last night I went to bed feeling uneasy.  I was trying to talk myself into feeling better so I could go to sleep.  I need to feel comfort in the quiet moments.  The comfort that comes from knowing you have done something good.  From knowing that you have made some sort of positive difference in your life lately.  For me, it's knowing that I have a gift, and giving that gift of creating something.
I woke up this morning and started looking at episodes of Oregon Art Beat, originally to find a painter who was compared to Mary Cassatt.  I remember thinking that this artist didn't merit the comparison because her art was more gestural, and Cassatt although impressionistic had more of a representational style.  She was much more refined technically.  But that's another topic...  As I was looking through the episodes, I landed on a story about Gabe Fernandez.  Okay, now I have a base to work with.  His style is impressionistic but with enough realism that it satisfies my visual taste.
  I went through my own work, and found something that I could see myself painting again.  The yellow warehouse in watercolor.  I painted this a few years ago.  It has promise as a full scale painting.  It's a start.

Its that time of Year: But now there will be More

Evidently, my desire to post on my blog has slowed to once a year.  My last post was of my daughter Grace running last years half-marathon.  This post is of my daughter running this years half marathon.  I have been creative, but not painting.   I sorted through the reasons I have not had enough determination to paint.  There are really several key reasons.  1.  Painting just for the sake of creating is not enough reason to make me want to put something on paper or canvas.  When I paint, I want it to be for a specific purpose.  I have so many paintings and drawings hanging around that I'm running out of room to keep them.  The painting a day was very useful in getting me back into painting.  Now I need to paint something that I will either hang for myself, give as a gift, or sell.
2. Creating a painting will now take more time than I am willing to set aside.  My insane work schedule has left me with no sleep schedule.  So there is no specific time available to set aside for painting like there used to be.  Ideally, if I were to have a 6AM start time, that would leave me with a perfect opportunity.  Not going to happen at my current job.
3.  I have found an outlet for my creativity that has temporarily replace painting.  I was given a Go Pro for Christmas.  Since then I have spent a portion of free time filming different things around town.  Then editing and putting music to them.  It's incredible that only a few years ago you needed tapes and clunky editing software to create movies.  Now even at a novice like myself can shoot and edit a decent movie or Time Lapse segment for nominal investment.

Rose Fesitval 1/2 Marathon....

Well at least someone is doing something constructive today.

March Sixth 2014

   

Im not sure exactly when I decided to make this, but I knew I had to finish it today.

Another Caricature and a Bad pun

I did forget one rule of drawing in pencil this morning.  Dont press too hard.  The indentations in the paper affect how it looks when you photograph it.  The camera wouldn't pick up the dark in his left eye because of the glare.

I don't want to get political here...so I won't.  However,  no one has heard from this guy about the recent events.until today.  So I figured now is a good time to do a caricature.  And here is the bad pun.....For those of you who don't know who this is, I'll give you a hint:  I was Vlad that I put in a little extra effort on this caricature.  I spent a little more time on this one than the Obama, and it came out a little better.   I can hear the collective groans and I apologize, but  once I thought of that pun, I couldn't stop myself.