Lost in Space

One of my New Year's resolutions has been to hone my drawing skills. I have learned that no matter how "loose", or even abstract, a painting may be, drawing has to happen in order to make it a success!  So what am I doing about my resolution? One thing I'm doing is committing myself to do some drawing exercises every day. 

My favorite exercise so far is focused on "negative space". That's the space between objects. So rather than draw objects, you draw the gaps between them. And voila--the objects magically appear! For example, in the top image, I didn't paint the legs and braces of the easel. Instead, I ppainted the spaces between them. Granted, it emerged a bit lopsided, but I like the loose, unstudied effect. And besides, the point is not to produce a work of art, but rather to enjoy drawing and teaching your eye to see.

This exercise will help my brain to focus on shapes, rather than "things". Seeing the negative shapes inside a chair back, rather than the pieces of the chair itself, is part of the that process. There are other exercises that cultivate different aspects of drawing. The goal is to practice each of these exercises until they become second nature. By incorporating all of these tools into your artistic DNA, you are able to bring any or all of them into play when you approach a drawing.

FYI, the works pictured in this post are made with gouache on  Canson Mixed Media paper. As the days go by, I am rapidly filling the notebook. It will be interesting to look back and see what happens over the course of time...we shall see!

Why Bother?

Lesley with Diebenkorn

I recently visited The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. The impetus for my visit was the special exhibit "Bonnard to Vuillard: The Intimate Poetry of Everyday Life." And it did not disappoint! I broke one of my usual rules, and allowed myself to study the exhibition catalog in advance of my trip. Comparing my experience with the catalog to that of my in-person  visit, I was struck by the rewards I got from making the effort to go to the show in person. In today's world where almost everything can be done "virtually", why bother to go in person? Read on for my top three reasons.

Visiting the Nabis Exhibit

1.  You can't appreciate the scale of a painting from an image in a catalog. Paintings presented on the pages of a book are necessarily of somewhat the same dimensions. After all, a page is only so large! It would be far too distracting to show a person standing by each painting in order to show its relative size. We can read the actual dimensions in the descriptions of the paintings, but even knowing that information doesn't convey the "feel" that we get from confronting the painting in person. A small painting encourages you to step close, to peer in. A huge painting encourages you to step back, to let the whole of it wash over you. Just look at the dramatic difference is scale between the Diebenkorn painting at the top of this post, and the Nabis' paintings following it. Two different worlds!

"The Door and the Sewing Table"
Oil on Cardboard, 16.75 x 17.5 inches
Édouard Vuillard, c. 1900

2.  Reproductions don't show the true colors of the original. Even though we have wonderful new technologies for reproducing images, the reproduced image just cannot tell the real truth of the original. Oftentimes the reproduction comes very close to the original, but falls slightly short. Occasionally the reproduced image is so poor that it doesn't even seem like the same painting as the original. The catalog for the Nabi exhibition is a wonderful one, with excellent quality images overall. Even so, there are exceptions. For example, one of my favorite paintings in the exhibit was the one pictured immediately above. I swore to my husband that I had not seen it in the catalog--I was adamant that it was definitely NOT in the catalog. Upon returning home and consulting the catalog, I found that it was in fact pictured there. But the reproduction was so far off the mark that I didn't even recognize the painting. See the reproduction below (photo from the catalog). I rest my case.

Reproduction of Vuillard

3. A well curated exhibit places the paintings in a context that enhances your enjoyment and appreciation of the artwork. No question about this. I have attended exhibits that were so well staged that I felt as if I had entered a time machine and had been taken to the painter's world. The Anders Zorn retrospective in Paris is one that comes to mind, and I tell you why here. The Nabi exhibit at The Phillips was in that same category. Because the Nabis believed that art should be part of everyday life, they created not only paintings, but also decorative items such as stained glass, screens, tapestries, and vases. The Phillips included all of these types of objects. The curators went even further, and wallpapered some of the gallery spaces to reflect the style of the Nabis' era, and the nature of the interiors they painted.  I'm including an example below. The colors, the textures and the placement of the art evoked the decade of the Nabis at their zenith. A great job!

Gallery in the Nabis Exhibit, The Phillips Collection

If you can get to Washington for the Nabis exhibit at The Phillips, it's worth a journey. The show runs through January 26, 2020. If you've been, or if you go, let me know what you think!

Announcing Maggie Siner's Landscape Workshop

Painting on location in Maggie Siner's workshop

It has become an annual ritual in recent summers--participating in Maggie Siner's total immersion painting workshop in France. Yes, total immersion is the key. It is the closest thing I have ever experienced to living in the proverbial artists' colony, where concerns of the world are far away, and energies are focused exclusively on painting. 

We are lodged in a charming little hamlet in Provence, in structures dating back to the 1500's. The French word for "hamlet" is "hameau". I am told that a true "hameau" consists of ancient farm buildings that have been repurposed to form a community of small dwellings. In our case, one of the buildings used to be a stable or barn. It has been lovingly restored, and now houses a painting studio, with sweeping views over the Luberon valley. Sometimes it's hard to keep my mind on the critique of the day's work, when my eyes are drawn outside to a magnificent sunset.

"House in the Lavender"
Oil on Canvas, 8 x 11
(c) Lesley Powell 2019
(Available)

Maggie keeps us on our toes, with several painting sessions each day. We go to one location in the morning, and a different location in the afternoon. Maggie chooses the locations so that each one is designed to help us see and implement the lesson she will convey. Sometimes our hosts bring a picnic to us out on location, and we are able to continue painting until sundown. The sun doesn't set until about 9:30 pm, so the painting days are long. The last light of the day is magical.

"Quiet Hamlet"
Oil on Linen, 12 x 8
(c) Lesley Powell 2019
(SOLD)

Dates have been set for 2020--the workshop will run from July 4 to July 11. You can see all the details on the website here. Applications are now being accepted. Time to start dreaming and planning for the summer...