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It’s just been one of those days! You know the ones, where nothing seems to go right. I just posted a blank post to my blog after writing a nice little post and it got lost – doh! Other than that – I seem to be dropping things and am pretty tired! Oh well! Things will turn around – maybe the sun will come out again?…now?…nope not yet.

So, last weekend was totally gorgeous! It felt like I was in California instead of Washington. I love it when it’s sunny out!

It got me to thinking that I should take sometime during the non-wet/windy days to paint outside.

The last time I painted outdoors was in college for a landscape painting class in the fall – boy was it cold out! Along with my painting supplies (easel, chair, and oil paint) I had to bring an extra jacket, fingerless gloves, and a hat to keep me warm. That’s the thing about painting outdoors, you have to be prepared to be in one place for several hours – which is why I’m looking forward to basking in the sun.

Here are some paintings I did while outdoors:

  One of the things I like about painting outdoors is that I get the chance to explore new areas. So far I’ve been to Lake Wilderness, Flaming Geyser, Lake Union (by the UW stadium), and UW Campus. I know that there are more than a million different compositions you could come up with off of the landscapes that are out there, and that is so thrilling to me!

Question for you guys:

I’m looking for new areas to explore, do you know of any that would be good painting/hanging out spots?

Well, off to the rest of the day for me. Wish me luck!

p.s. I’m going to go back to writing on Tuesdays & Thursday so…

See you in a couple of days!

Beka

 

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Hey everyone!

I took a day off from blogging to celebrate my 30th birthday! Didn’t do much yesterday, it was nice to just relax. On Saturday I went with my husband and friends to Seattle for a night out on the town and fortunately it was gorgeous out!

I realize I have been doing a lot of posting without pictures, and for us visual people it can get a little dull with me just drolling on :).

Here are some photos of my ‘clean’ studio and the evolution of my tree drawing, I hope you like them!

I will be the first to admit, I am not a neat freak. I live on the cusp of chaos and cleanliness. While working on a new art project a room, that was once spotless, will end up looking like a Tasmanian devil had gotten loose in it.

Last week I went ahead and bought six plastic bins and filled them all with my art supplies. After four years of art exploration I had a lot of stuff. I was surprised to find that I had oil paint, water soluble oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, brushes of all types and sizes, canvas stretching supplies, crayons, pastels, colored pencils, pens, pencils, and much more.  Some of this stuff I hadn’t used in the last year, and it was hanging around in my studio space just waiting to be used. Now all of my supplies are put away and easily accessible and it’s like I have a whole new outlook on my space and the work I can create in it.

The first thing that popped into my head once I was faced with a clean studio was to create a new painting. Then I felt that I had to take a step back. It’s always fun to start something new, but also easy to forget the current project in the process. I’ve been at this point before – the point where ideas are coming out left and right and it feels like you’re not quite on the ground. The sea of ideas are floating around you and the only thing that anchors you down is the current road you’ve been taking. Is this the safe road? Should you let your ideas take root even though there are quite a few of them and they’re not all on the same wavelength? These are some of the questions I’ve been asking myself.

If you let yourself go, are you going to going to get what you want out of the experience? Do you want to sell your work or do you want to experiment and see what happens?

I’m more on the side of exploration. I feel that my work is inspired by me, it is a way for me to express what I’m feeling – my very soul. The more I let my ideas guide me, the more intriguing my work gets. Now that doesn’t mean that at some point I shouldn’t have an idea or a group of work – maybe I just need to trust that everything will work itself out. Less quantity, more quality.

It’s a funny thing, a clean space. It kinda reminds me of what happens when you have a white canvas or piece of paper. There are so many possibilities that open up when you’re approached with a blank space. Sometimes it’s overwhelming and other times it’s invigorating. At this moment I’m going with the latter one.

What are some of your thoughts on this topic? Are you in a place where you feel lost in the sea of ideas or are you sticking to the paved out road ahead? What struggles do you face as an artist with experimentation vs. production?

Something to think about :),

Signing off,

Beka