Flight of Fancy

Birdwatching on a summer afternoon. I find there's something incredibly calming, almost meditative, about beautifully graceful wild birds on a quiet lake.

©2014 Tammy Kaufman - Flight of Fancy - soft pastels on Canson pastel paper 9" x 12"

Reach

If you've been following my blog, you know I started a big (for me) painting project a couple of weeks ago. I normally paint on the smallish side, most comfortable in the 12" x 18" and smaller realm. This acrylic painting I started the other week, however, is 20" x 44", so pretty big for me. And also, this time I'm trying using a sand and Gesso prep, something else very new for me.

step one - sand and Gesso prep

After letting the prep dry and cure for two weeks, this past weekend I applied the background. I used a wide soft brush, twisting and turning the bristles, to scrub the paint across the peaks and into the valleys created by the sand prep.

step two - background

I let this dry for a few days while I mulled over the various ideas in my head about the direction I wanted to take with this canvas. Then last night, the finished painting came to me in a dream. What I saw in that dream probably broke all the rules of painting - composition, color theory and mixing, everything. But the image brought me such a sense of peace and happiness, who was I to question it? So this evening, I began brushing the acrylics onto the canvas. It was almost like my dream was guiding my hand, selecting the colors and brushes almost without my conscious decision - these colors with this brush, those with the other, until the work felt finished. I can't really explain why I made the choices I made or stopped when I did, and I know this painting may not fit the rules and guidelines of proper painting, but it matches what I dreamed, and to me it just feels complete. Unfortunately when I took a photo of it, the camera tended to flatten the image, muting the subtle variations in tone and depths of color somewhat in addition to making it difficult to see the brush strokes on the sanded texture very well, so this painting definitely is more expressive in person, at least to me. :-)

©2014 Tammy Kaufman - Reach - acrylics on canvas 20" x 44"

Sometimes it's fun to listen to my spirit, let go of the controls for a while and simply enjoy the ride, without sweating the details.

Sunday is FunDay

Fry spent all day yesterday at home, and we figured it was the least we could do to take him for a run today. So we hit the mountain bike trail with him, and he had a blast! He was running faster than I've seen him go in a long time, chasing squirrels, leaping into the creeks and just having a big time. But since we took our time on the ride to let Fry play to his heart's content, I didn't get back home in time to go paint outside this evening at the Six Sundays Concert, so painted in the studio today. This time, I decided to practice painting some manmade structures, working from a reference photo we had taken at Joyner Park the other week that really appealed to me.

©2014 Tammy Kaufman - Joyner Farm - soft pastels on Uart 500 sanded paper 12" x 18"

With, of course, all work being done under the watchful eye of Miss Venus, my arty-cat painting supervisor,

studio kitty

I first sketched out the composition I wanted with a charcoal pencil.

Charcoal thumbnail sketch ©2014 Tammy Kaufman

From this reference photo:

reference photo

I don't normally paint buildings and other such structures, but I want to grow as an artist, so what better time to try new things than now, right? And it was surprisingly more fun than I thought it would be. :-)

On Location

Steve participated in the Super D mountain bike race at Uwharrie National Forest today, and I joined him for a road trip to do some plein aire painting. I walked along several of the bike trails and forest service roads this morning when we arrived to scout for a painting location, and finally chose an empty camp site along Wood Run Road. This gave me an out of the way place to set up my easel, but still with a nice view of the access trail the riders were using to get to the start line. I just love those little yellow flowers that seem to dot every grassy area and roadside this time of year. I have no idea what they are - probably some kind of weed! - but they sure do catch my eye.

©2014 Tammy Kaufman - Wood Run Peek-a-Boo - soft pastels on Uart 500 sanded paper 9" x 12"

The weather was perfect for our trip so I was able to enjoy a pleasant morning of painting while Steve did his prerace practice, and this afternoon he wound up taking fifth place in his class! After the race, we went for a short bike ride along a portion of the Keyauwee trail which had some gorgeous views. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me on the bike, but I may try to paint some of the scenes from memory. It was a great day all in all - we saw a lot of old friends, made some new ones, and even got a good chuckle when "Macro-Me" met "Mini-Me". These dogs were so cute and seemed to make instant friends as soon as they met.

Moonlight Madness

Tonight I elected to paint a scene based on a photo I took last week. We were on our way back from the mountain bike trail as the full moon was just rising. When we stopped at a traffic light, I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick photo which simply begged to be painted. And since I had one last Ampersand Pastelbord left, I decided to use that with an alcohol underpainting for this little pastel.

© 2014 Tammy Kaufman - Moonlight Madness - soft pastels on Uart 500 sanded paper 5" x 7"

While I have certainly enjoyed stretching myself as an artist and working with acrylics using only palette knives, it sure was nice to get back to my pastels this evening. Lifting the cover off the tray and seeing all those glorious colors was like being in pure heaven, and using the pastels again felt like sliding into a favorite pair of comfy fuzzy slippers.

Love!

The Supervisor

For some reason, I haven't been sleeping very well for the past couple of nights so was a bit mentally - and physically - exhausted today, and I didn't really feel up to mountain biking this evening. But I did want to try and do some painting, so I headed to the studio with Venus, my resident studio "arty-cat" and best painting buddy, right on my heels as always. My little Muse used to be content just to lie under my easel and observe me while I paint, but she has apparently now decided she prefers to curl up in my chair and "supervise" my work. So I guess I need to get busy. I mean really, how could I say no to that sweet face?

© 2014 Tammy Kaufman - Muse - soft pastels on Uart 500 sanded paper 9" x 12"

First Public Critique

Tonight I had my first public art critique, and despite my initial fear and nervousness about it, I ended up feeling much better about my painting overall and even more enthusiastic about continuing to learn and progress. Everett Adelman was kind enough to offer us his critiquing expertise at the monthly meeting of the Wake Forest Guild of Artists, and provided incredibly helpful advice while entertaining us all thoroughly with his extensive knowledge of art and artists, and associated stories. I'm so glad I garnered the courage to take in a couple of my works - pastel and palette knife acrylic - for Mr. Adelman's critique - it was a true privilege to have him view my paintings and to have someone of his artistic caliber tell me what is working with them and offer suggestions on making the next ones even better!