1/30/2022 8:12:26 AM
"Without a gradual accumulation of so-called mistakes, nothing evolves or moves forward"
- David DuChemin
I just spent the last three days attending "Watercolor Live" . this is an online conference of watercolorists. We witness numerous talented artists from all over the world create beautiful paintings.
In one form of another each performing watercolorist explained the importance of "hours on the brush" and how making mistakes was part of the learning process.
In his book "Start Ugly: the unexpected path of everyday creativity" , David DuChemin explains how the making of anything, including watercolours, is an evolutionary progression. This process of constant tumbling can be terrifying for some.
Although I'm extremely grateful for my students, I also encourage them to paint on their own as they need to stumble on their own and develop the problem solving skills in order for them to get better. The sooner you begin to make those mistakes, the sooner anyone will gain momentum to improve one's skills.
Here is my latest demo painting.
Next week we'll start painting a shiny fabric.
I still have a few opening in my two upcoming workshops.
Students will learn to paint this delicate icicle on Sunday February 6th.
During this workshop I will break down the steps for students to paint this drooping sunflower. The workshop is held on Saturdays Feb 19 & 26 and March 5.
Have a great week,
Danielle
1/21/2022 8:56:26 PM
There are a lot of reasons each of us fear making mistakes, not the least of which is the desire not to fall on our faces in front of others. This is why if we slip on ice and fall, the first thing we do is look around to check if anyone saw us fall.
Many of us want to make something that is good enough or important enough to us that we’re prepared to spend time and money and a good deal of emotional energy on it. A mistake could completely derail those efforts, or so we think.
Unfortunately, some people want to start at A and end up at Z (proficiency level) quickly and without getting too much mud on their feet. They want the process of creative learning to be painless, quick and the final product to be perfect. It's not possible to learn watercolour or any creative endeavor and jump all the learning steps. In addition, the learning curve is nothing but linear.
One of the reasons that I enjoy teaching is seeing students progress through the various techniques that they can apply on their own paintings. I mostly enjoy coaching them though their mistakes. It seems that students who have taken risks and made mistakes are the ones learning the most.
Here is my latest demo from one of my classes.
Speaking of learning, I have two upcoming opportunities. Please check out my website.
Creatively yours
Danielle
1/16/2022 7:39:57 AM
Part of the process of becoming a skilled artist, is knowing when to abandon a painting. It's part of every artist's path to develop the instincts to know when you’ve reached a point to throw in the towel and start over your painting.
There aren’t many reasons to continue a flawed painting, especially a watercolour, so why not learn some lessons and start over with some new knowledge. I recently abandoned a painting and started over. The second version is coming along nicely.
Here are a few reasons to stop working on an unfinished painting:
- No concept: the idea to be realized by the painting is not clear or doesn’t exist
- Bad composition: the composition doesn’t focus the eye and keep the viewer’s attention. There is no movement or flow within the painting. The proportions of the elements are not appealing.
- Inconsistent styles: too many styles are competing
- Lifeless Colours: the colour choices have led to mud. The ratio of warm and cool is improper.
I completed a small painting this week for an upcoming 3-hour workshop to be held on Feb 6th in the afternoon. You can sign up as of January 17th.
In addition, I am working on a number of different paintings. Here are two of them that I'm demoing with my classes.
For this one, we are working on the shadows before painting the jean fabric.
In addition I'm working on one for my series of silver and crystal and on the project for my second class with Angus McEwan. By next weekend, I hope to have finished at least one of these two. This is my project with the class I'm taking. I'm looking forward to learning different ways to paint "rust".
What's on your easel?
Have a great week,
Danielle
1/8/2022 7:30:54 PM
When I finished teaching my last class in mid-December, I decided to take a short break or detour from my objective to paint a series involving crystal and silver. Some might refer to the detour as procrastination. What do you think?. I already have a half a dozen in that new series so I thought why not have fun with something else during the holidays then paint another one for the series before my classes resumed mid-January.
Well here we are now in the second week of January and I've not painted any crystal or silver. Credit to me, last night I did start drawing a new painting with crystal perfume bottles and a vintage chain link purse.
It's no surprise to those who know me that I'm not good at estimating how long some subjects may take to paint. In addition to finishing my homework from my class with Angus McEwan during the detour, I decided to paint a scene from Paris that I've always wanted to paint. Little did I know that this painting would take almost 50 hours to paint. Luckily I am happy with the result and it has been adopted by a local artist. Here it is:
To get me in the spirit of my next class with the Kanata Art Club, I decided to paint a
stack of quilts. Easy peasy, right? Well maybe not my most challenging painting, but it also had a few details.... which means it also took quite a few hours to paint. The reference photo wasn't clear which meant I had to modify much of the pattern fabrics. I'm happy to say that I finished it yesterday.
On the subject of my class on "Colourful fabrics" with the Kanata Art Club that starts on Thursday, I prepared a whole module on colours that participants will be able to apply to their paintings. I'm extremely fortunate that the group of participants is the best I could ask for.
I'm also ready for my
2-day workshop to paint this adorable teacup filled with blueberries.
Then I scheduled a new
3-day workshop because I just love this photo of the drooping sunflower. Together, we'll be painting a gorgeous colourful background and luminous leaves and petals.
Then that left me with figuring out a workshop to teach for Art of Affect. I naively thought that a pile of clothespins might be interesting for a 3-hour workshop. After 4 hours into this demo painting, I thought that maybe that we could do a 2-day workshop. Then after after 6 hours and still not finished, I realized that I had to bail on the idea of demoing this. So now I'm back to square one of finding doable ideas. There is no shortage of ideas, just realistic ones LOL.
So where do I stand now after four paintings completed during my detour? Next I want want to paint the project from the second class that I purchased with Angus McEwan and I may have some time to start painting those gorgeous perfume bottles before my class on Thursday.
What would our lives look like if we didn't embraced, even looked forward to the challenge of the detours which offer so many possibilities? I feel a sense of freedom with detours because they are my choices and aside from my classes, there are no deadlines to creativity.
Creativity is not a step-by-step process. The muse has whims of her own, and while focus and discipline are important, so is a willingness to be messy and take detours down paths that may never go anywhere and the freedom to take those detours just to see where they lead without the pressure to always see them to the very end.
Now off I go to paint. Creatively yours,
Danielle
1/1/2022 3:29:03 PM
We probably can all agree that change is the only constant in life and the only thing we can be sure will happen. In addition to external change, life isn’t as much a matter of being who we are than it is about becoming who we are.
If everything is always changing, as we have witnessed in the past years, then shouldn't we be less presumptuous about what we think we know, have a lesser sense of entitlement and be kinder and gentler with those around us? This includes accepting that the people in our lives are not the same people they used to be many years ago.
For artists this may mean that when we find solutions to problems, we should expect that those solutions may not solve a creative problem later on. Some artists figure out what works for them at a given time and repeat it over and over to the point that it may no longer be relevant or satisfactory to their surroundings.
Would artists take more creative risks and try new things if they accepted that their past failures were not a guarantee of more of the same? Conversely, an artist's past accomplishments is not a promise that everything they touch will turn to gold.
Clinging has never worked, whether to old ways of doing things, old technology or old practices. Our desire for people and things to remain the same is unrealistic.
I hope that we all start this new year accepting our uneasy relationship with change and have a new challenging vision. I'm hoping that we embrace who we are becoming within the constant changes, and solve current problems with new approaches, without getting hung up on the past. The alternative could mean decay and stagnation.
My vision for my watercolours is always outpacing my abilities. This is because my vision today is greater than my vision from last year. This is in part the result of classes I take, inspiration from seeing what other artists produce and the students that push me to be "more". My updated vision challenges me and demands that I learn new things. I love how my vision moves ahead, just our of reach.
To start off this new year, I do not have a new completed painting but two paintings that I'm working on. In the next few days, I will complete this painting from a scene in Paris. I think that almost everyone who has visited Paris has taken a photo from this street. As much as some people like the Eifel Tower, I adore the architecture of the city.
And if you wonder if my painting of this Paris scene is part of my new vision, well not really. Maybe I painted this because I miss travelling. I'll call this experiment a small detour.
This next painting is in preparation for my upcoming class on
"Colourful fabrics". I'm pleased that the class with the Kanata Art Club is almost full. Trying to resolve the warm vs cool colours in this painting is a fun challenge as I am making up most of the patterns that you see.
To support my vision for the year, I have been buying new glass "props" and have been having fun taking numerous reference photos. I won't say more on this, you'll just have to wait.
If you're looking to take on some new challenges, consider my class on colourful fabrics or my beautiful blue teacup.
I hope that for the new year that you produce all that you dreamed of and that you embrace change and have meaningful, positive and kind encounters to shape your future.
Happy New Year,
Danielle
