Glory in the Ordinary

Cold winter weather is the ideal time for still life work in my studio. Sure, I love to travel and to paint on location. But sometimes, as Dorothy would say, "There's no place like home." This month, I decided to use some very ordinary--even ugly!--things from my daily life, and try to make a beautiful painting of them. As I was taking down the greenery that I had used for Christmas decoration in my house, I was fascinated by the dead magnolia leaves. Yes, dead leaves. They had such a marvelous curviness, and the browned backs of the leaves made a great contrast with the fronts. I guess it takes a girl from the South to love magnolia leaves like this!

I grabbed an orange from the kitchen, and voila! I had a simple, and in my opinion beautiful, still life composition. Even the photo (sorry it's blurry) was pleasing. You can see my drawing above. I gave my brush free rein to explore the shapes of the leaves and the dance they seemed to do. The finished painting is below.

"January"
9 x 12, oil on linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2015

In reflecting on this painting, I was reminded of Frank Hobbs' comment that "Your life's work lies in the courtyard just outside your house." Indeed, that is exactly where I found these leaves. I will share a quotation from Henry James that Hobbs mentioned in his interview. Great words to live by.

Take what there is, 

and use it,

without waiting forever in vain

for the preconceived...

Seeing

The more I read, the more I study, the more I paint, it all comes back to the art of SEEING. Today I want to share a few favorite quotes about seeing, and some pictures created by the people who said them.

"Withered Oak Leaves"
watercolor
John Ruskin, 1879

"The greatest thing a human should ever does in this world is to see something

Color of the Year 2015

It's that time again: Pantone has announced its Color of the Year for 2015. And the winner is..."Marsala". Yes, the color of Marsala wine. Said to be rich and full-bodied, "naturally robust and earthy".

I have written before about Pantone's annual announcement, so if you have been reading, you know that I have mixed feelings about being told what color is "in".  I have read

Stairways

"Flight"
14 x 11, oil on linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2014

One of my most popular posts lately has been the one about Hopper in Paris. Hopper's interiors--particularly his staircase--generated a lot of response from faithful readers. Inspired by Hopper, and by the stairs in my Paris rental apartment last month, I have been working on a series of staircase paintings. Believe me, this is not easy stuff. But I have been patient, and I have not allowed the object to get the better of me. Instead, I have focused on

Copycats?

"Self Portrait with Vase of Flowers"
Emile Bernard, 1897

I recently saw a wonderful exhibit at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris--a retrospective of the works of the French painter Emile Bernard. Bernard lived from 1868 to 1941. Lots of water went over the artistic dam in that time period, and Bernard did his fair share of experimentation with various styles that came in and out of vogue. Eventually, he developed a strong affinity for 

The Creative Habit

This year, am re-reading one of my favorite books, The Creative Habit, written by the great choreographer Twyla Tharp. From practical guidance to philosophical reflections, this book has it all. And it applies to every reader, whether he is a painter, a doctor, a musician, a lawyer, or a candlestick maker. One of the themes of the book is

that to excel, you must have a combination of passion and skill. Only work, work, work will help you reach your creative goals. 

Tharp writes, "If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge." She points out that Mozart had to practice his scales before he could write the great symphonies. With this notion, Tharp is on the same page as Malcom Gladwell, who wrote in his popular book Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. That's a lot of hours.

But skill alone is not enough. Tharp notes that "Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft, Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life."

So what about some practical tips for unleashing your passion, and developing your skill? One idea that has stuck with me from The Creative Habit is the importance of rituals. In Tharp's book, a ritual is a pattern of behavior that becomes so routine as to be "automatic", and yet constitutes something very "decisive". She writes that rituals are especially crucial at the beginning of the creative process. Beginning is the point of greatest peril--the moment at which you are most likely to chicken out, or turn back, or go in the wrong direction. The ritual serves as a reminder that you are on the right path ("I've done this before. It was good. I'll do it again."). It wipes out procrastination, and jump starts the creative process.

Tharp describes "triggering rituals", which make the actions to follow feel comfortable and routine. Used at the beginning of the creative process, these triggering rituals start the creative juices flowing. They increase confidence, and reduce distraction. For some people, the ritual may be turning on a certain type of music. For others, it may be lighting a candle. Or cleaning your tools. For some painters, the simple act of squeezing out fresh new pigments in a preordained pattern on the palette is a triggering ritual.

Tharp says that faithful use of a start-up ritual has a guaranteed outcome. She even goes so far as to call it Pavlovian: "Follow the routine, get a creative payoff." Tharp makes it sound as if the routine yields the desired payoff as surely as night follows day. I think she may be onto something. So......here's to a New Year's resolution to cultivate routines that pave the way to creativity!