DJ Geribo

Yesterday I spent the day at my friend Shirley's house. Although the goal was to paint, we managed to spend an almost equal amount of time catching up on news and also discussing a variety of art-related topics. I brought my oils with me but decided I wanted to try out the water-soluble pastel painting sticks I had recently purchased from Jerry's Artarama. I must say, I was intrigued by the term 'water-soluble' in the same sentence as 'pastel sticks'. So, I took them out and in combination with my Aquastroke watercolor brush pen, I played around with a couple of paintings. One was a small still-life Shirley had set up. The other was the head of a Dachshund puppy on the cover of a book she had.  I really enjoyed using this new medium and enjoyed the relatively dry pastels with the watercolor. I felt like I had a lot of control but that I could also be more free with it, if I wanted. It was so strange to feel like I was using a hard pastel stick and then softening it up with water to create what looked like a watercolor painting. I think these sticks, like the watercolor pencils, will be great for use when on the road.

Last week I visited with my friend Shirley and she had a still life of vegetables set up. I used oils, something I want to use more often (I also use water-soluble oils but many people have suggested I use the regular oils because of their lush quality). Although she had an off-white table cloth with an off-white background, I made my foreground and background more colorful. And when I got home, I changed the color again. I love the old-world style of painting that David Leffel has in his works and I decided to go more for that. I did the foreground but decided that I'm also going to add a darker background. And since I'm still getting used to oils (I have been using acrylics more than any other medium recently) I'm making very slow progress on the vegetables. It also doesn't help that not only do I not have a photo of the still life we set up (I forgot my camera!) but I do not have the vegetables. So, I'm painting from memory. I think I'll have to take a trip to the supermarket!

I've been working on this Hibiscus painting and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I did something here that I haven't really done before - I dropped the photo. I think I have been holding on to my reference photos like a baby holds a security blanket - I wasn't confident enough to let go. But I suddenly felt restricted by the photo, like it was more of a chore to hold onto it and I got impatient with myself for trying to follow it so closely. I started playing with the leaves and adding colors I wanted to see there instead of colors that were there (like in photo-realisim paintings).

So, with a short break, I'm 'getting' newly inspired. I got together with a painting friend, Shirley, and after having a difficult time getting started I finally chose a subject and I was off. I had the usual anxious feelings as I progressed such as, oh, this is awful, it seems I haven't made any progress in my art, insecurities, as usual, rearing their ugly heads! Ha! And then suddenly, as I continued to paint, adding layers, focusing on just a couple of areas, I started to like what I was painting, what was happening on the canvas. Of course, I still have a long way to go but so far...pretty good!

My friend Kitty, who lives in Montana, is also an artist. We often discuss things that inspire us, where we are going with our art, and often what we are doing wrong with our art that is preventing us from getting more sales. So when she saw this free webinar from Northlight books she told me about it and today I watched it from my studio.

Rachel Rubin Wood, the editor of the Splash watercolor book series, explained the guidelines for getting accepted into the Splash books. Number 16 is currently open to submissions and one of the former participants and winner of a variety of awards over the years, Soon Young Warren, was a guest speaker as well. Rachel showed two paintings side-by-side, one that was not accepted into one of the Splash books and one that was accepted. She pointed out the reasons for their acceptance and then gave some tips about what she looks for when she selects a painting for each Splash book. She looks for the "WOW" in a painting, it should mean something to you and tell a story. Find a way to make your art jump off the canvas and have as much impact on those who are looking at it as it did for you when you decided to paint it.

Other suggestions are obvious - following the guidelines a publisher recommends to make their job as easy as possible to decide if your painting is the right choice. Rachel mentioned how some images, no matter how hard she tries, cannot be opened. This is a no-brainer. Make sure you can open the image before you send it off. It would be a shame to have a beautiful piece of artwork that is possibly worthy of a place in the Splash series, for example, rejected simply because the editor could not open the image.