A Painting. Beginning, Detour, and End.

I knew exactly what I was going to paint.  I had it in my mind as clear as day.  There would be an old tree at the far left side of the canvas, at the very edge the sun would be rising.  There would be washes of light streaked across the sky, filling the entire right side of the canvas in pinks and oranges and reds.  A brilliant spring morning.
The tree would have a life force, a face of an old soul - an old man tree, if you will.  He'd be smiling because of the beauty taking place around him:  three dimensional cutouts of butterflies that I'd specially purchased for this painting would be manipulated and carefully glued to the canvas as the last touch.  An explosion of butterflies flying into the air at the break of day.   That was my plan.

Then, my husband became ill.

In and out of the ER with no apparent cause to the severe abdominal pain that caused him to become violently ill whenever he ate.  We waited for doctor's appointments and fretted about what was wrong with him. Hernia?  Gallbladder?  Intestinal blockage? 

While we waited for answers I continued to work on my painting, both as a distraction to my worrisome attitude and because I looked forward to seeing the work finished.  Somewhere though, as my mind focused more and more on my worries I began neglecting to pay attention to what I was doing on the canvas.  I went on 'auto-pilot' as they say.  Before I knew it, I was done with my sky.  The sunrise I started just before my husband became ill was shining.  There were the oranges and yellows and reds beaming on the left side of the canvas.  But as the eye moved to the right side, the day, instead of being streaked with morning sunlight, turned to utter blackness.

I tend to forget this about myself: I paint according to how I feel.  Clearly my choice of colors indicated that I was painting from a darker place than I had been several days prior.

Well, this screwed up everything.  The butterflies would never work, now.  Not unless I painted them in shadow....and why would butterflies be flying when it's still dark outside?  It wouldn't work.

Now, what?

I agonized about what to do.  I didn't want to paint over the black sky.  It was obviously meant to be that way (even if I hadn't realized it at the time) but what on earth would I paint in order to pull this piece together?  Why was old man tree smiling?  He had nothing to smile at, that's for sure.

I brainstormed.  Maybe Northern Lights? How about an owl in flight (thanks to my friend Kyra for that suggestion).  Actually, I did try the owl and I think I ended up comparing it to a malnourished chicken in flight.

Finally, I decided to give up and sleep on it, hoping the answer would come to me.

It did.

Around 4 AM the next morning I awoke and knew exactly what I would paint.  This is the final painting:

I titled this piece:  Awaiting Play at Light of Day

The beautiful thing about images like this is that anyone can create his/her own story as to what's happening here.  This version is mine:  Clearly the tree is happy at the rising sun because that means the child who lives in the cottage will be coming out soon to play on the tree swing.

For a painting that I agonized over, a painting that I nearly tossed in the throw away pile a couple of times - it turned out to be the most shared, most 'liked' painting I've ever shown on my Fan/Business page of Facebook.  It reached nearly 700 people and it sold shortly after that to a woman whom I know will treat it with the greatest of care.  It makes me happy to look at it.  It makes me feel accomplished in that I didn't give up on it.  It taught me to trust my instinct.  Above all else, it showed me that no matter how much I plan, things aren't always going to turn out the way I want.  Sometimes they turn out better.

~Ellen

American Robin Painting

Never before have I been looking so forward to spring. Last year at this time I was in the midst of preparing for abdominal surgery. Between the middle of April, 2012 and early fall of the same year things are pretty much a blur to me. Now, finally on the mend from bad back (a completely unrelated issue) I am ready to enjoy what the next few months will bring, and have every intention of making the most out of this spring and summer.
What better way to celebrate the warmer weather by painting an American Robin.
Before starting on my painting however, I wanted to get some practice in so I painted a baby robin this week on Clayboard:

It proves to be a bit of a challenge because I much prefer 140 pound weight watercolor paper. This Clayboard is actually call Aquabord and has a smooth surface which does not absorb color but rather allows it to remain pooled on top - a technique that I am generally unfamiliar with. In truth, we just don't play well together.
After finishing the baby Robin I felt more comfortable tackling the adult one. Why is it that when ever you want something you can never seem to find it? There have been robins all over the yard for the past two weeks but when I was finally ready to photograph them, not one was to be found. Finally, I had to get up quite early one morning and saw a lone Robin looking for worms before he took flight and rested on one of my pine trees in the backyard. After allowing me to take several dozen photographs he flew away. I wasn't thrilled with any one photo, but used several as a reference and came up with one that I felt was suitable. Here is my finished piece:

Bird Signs and a Red-Winged Hawk

I’ve been having run-ins with a few of the birds I’ve been painting. Odd but wonderful run-ins.

A few days after I painted my crane:

 I was walking the dogs at the park and noticed a flock of cranes swirling over my head. If you’ve ever heard these birds communicate with one another then you know they are impossible to miss (they’re quite loud!) On two separate occasions later the next week when I went out to get my mail from the mailbox, there again were cranes hovering overhead long enough for me to stop and watch them for as long as I wanted before forming their traditional V pattern and moving on. Each time I saw them I think my heart swelled to twice its normal size.
My second run-in happened right after I finished my most recent painting - that of a red-winged hawk:

 I put away my watercolors and grabbed my coat so that my husband and I could go grocery shopping. While heading down the road a red winged hawk flew right in front of our car and into the woods, carrying a mouse. We both screamed out, ‘Did you see THAT??’

I was amazed and in awe of seeing that bird.  The last time one has ever flown that close to me was when I was on my way back from college.  A hawk swooped down onto the road in front of me (and I was driving at least 40 mph), plucked a scurrying mouse off the road and flew away. 

I am completely enamored with birds at the moment and will likely continue with this trend for a bit longer, but I must admit I'm beginning to feel the draw back into mixed media.  A few more birds first, though...

Continuing my bird series - peacock on watercolor

 

This week's piece brought me back to cold press watercolor paper. Last week I played around with some boards that had a clay surface to them. They were labeled mixed media boards and I was naïve to think that the watercolor paint would react the same way it does on the paper I'm used to using. It didn't turn out too bad, but I was glad to get back to my coldpressed Fabriano watercolor paper this week.

A couple of years ago I was vacationing in Florida and went to a bird sanctuary where a peacock was roaming around throughout the grounds. I was extremely surprised by how loud these birds are, and even more surprised at how extraordinary their color palette is. Until recently I had no idea that peacocks have bright orange feathers that they keep close to their tail. I had never seen these feathers before because normally they are tucked away. When doing research for this week's painting I came across several photos where peacocks had their wings relaxed to where you could see the orange feathers hanging down from them. I knew that I had to paint one of these birds with the brilliant blues, emerald greens and bright orange together in one composition. Here is my finished piece, minus decent lighting...

Copyright Ellen Brenneman Studios

 

 

All artwork on this blog is copyright protected and shall not be used in any form without the artist's consent.

A Piece A Week: Blue Jay

Ever since I finished my recent crane watercolor, I've been fixated on doing birds.  I've always had birds in mind to paint but not in watercolor.  In my mind it was always closeups of bird feathers, like the one below which I'd done as part of a series:

This is a closeup painting of the feathers from a Malaysian Peacock Pheasant.  I completed this, along with 5 other bird plumage I found extraordinarily beautiful.  This was done on a 4x4 mini canvas, by the way.

Something clicked between my paintbrush and my brain when painting the crane.  Because I was having so much back trouble at the time (and still am) my mind was focused on distracting myself from the pain - nothing else.  No pressure to create something magical; no worries about painting something good enough to sell.  Just 'paint'.
From that moment on, I have stumbled into bliss and if I keep practicing, hopefully I'll just continue to get better.  Here is my latest:

I have always love loose, expressive style and can usually achieve it with acrylics.  Now, I think I've found it with watercolor and I'm excited to see where this leads me.

A Piece A Week

I have been having major back pain over the course of the last month or so. It has made painting difficult if not impossible for me, unless I do it in short bursts. Since painting is my only source of income right now I feel bad if I don't remain connected to it even if I can't spend a lot of time on it.
Since I have been working on birds lately, I thought that might be a good project to do in watercolor. I live within an hour and a half drive of Radioville, Indiana, where Sandhill Cranes make a stop every November during their migration to warmer climate. My husband and I try to go as often as we can in hopes that we may get some good quality photographs. Since I have had a few years worth of photos just sitting in my computer I decided that a crane would be a good subject to paint. Fairly easy to sketch, uncomplicated color, and I could work on the background at a later date. This is how Dwayne started:

As you can see, the brushstrokes for the body are fairly broad, and for the head I used a simple wash of light gray.
After I finished laying down the base colors I started working on the head in more detail. Since my studio is in my basement (and way too embarrassing to show to another human being, so don't ask) I would work in 3 to 4 minute intervals between loads of laundry.

(I'm surprised that the photo turned out as well as it did considering there is a pink hue in the background that should not be there, so imagine the background as it should be, which is white.)
A few days later I finished the body and after sitting with him for a while with no background other than the few splotches of color I carefully placed I decided to leave the remainder white. Now I'm just trying to get a good photograph so that I can have Giclee prints made. I can't seem to part with the original - for several reasons. One being that he is a good reminder of how much I have improved over the course of this past year despite the fact that I've spent a large part of that time in physical discomfort. Also, a friend of mine who happened to have a copy of a book titled 'Animal-Speak: The spiritual and magical powers of creatures great and small' quoted me the following from the book:
"Longevity and creation through focus. Often helps teach you how to express your own feminine energies. If the crane has shown up in your life as a totem, it could very well reflect that you are about to recover what had almost become extinct within you."
I think that's pretty cool. Anyway, here's my finished guy.  As you can see, I'm still working on getting that perfect photograph, but you get the idea:

change it up

I've been exposing myself to new mediums lately. 

Recently down in my basement I came across a bin of items I hadn't seen since my furniture painting days.  A craft store was going out of business and had something like, 80% off of the last of their inventory.  I ended up getting jars of handmade paper paste, liquid clay, stencils, markers, gouache, and a host of other stuff.  I decided that I was going to find a use for everything in that box. 

A local craft store had a series of wooden boxes, unfinished.  I grabbed a few different designs and painted clay onto the surface of one.  It's the consistency of Elmer's Glue and it can be brushed or rolled on.  Once dry, it almost looks like joint compound (depending on how harsh you layer it on). 
Once dry, it can be painted on, so I used acrylics and just began painting without regard to color.  Then I brought out my permanent markers and began creating Mendhi-style designs onto the box:

Once I was satisfied with the look of the designs, I used a gel stain and rubbed it into the inside of the box which gave it a nice, warm finish.  Here's the final piece: 

Not too bad, although I wish the clay effect could be seen a bit more - it's pretty cool stuff, actually.  I just spread some onto a 5x7 canvas board and then used some leaf stamps to make a few impressions into it.  It's still drying so I'm not sure how that will come out but if it does and I can actually get some more refined dimension out of it, I will be looking for more.  Of course, I bought it years ago (actually surprised it was still any good!) and with my luck, they've stopped making it.  lol

Anyway, here's to changing things up and using new materials to spark creativity!