Hours, Weeks, Decades

On any given Sunday afternoon you will find me in front of the television perusing HGTV, the Cooking Channel, or the Food Network.  Ever watch “Chopped?”  One of my favorites:  four professional chefs, each successful in their own right, compete with unusual (surprise) ingredients, limited time (30 minutes each course), over three courses.  With each course, one of the chefs is “chopped”, and sent home by the panel of expert judges.  I have often watched this show sitting in wonder as these gods of the kitchen create masterpieces out of funky ingredients (leg of goat and trail mix…really?).  How do they create on the spot?  How do they know which ingredients to grab?  How do you know how to make a chocolate cake without a recipe???

This past Sunday however, I decided I sort of know how they do it.  Years and years of training and experience are behind every minute they spend in the kitchen.  “How long does it take you to paint a painting?”  is perhaps the most commonly asked question I hear.  I think most artists would agree it is also one of the most frustrating questions to answer.  The truth is that the best answer will sound sarcastic:  whatever the age of the artist.

I have been painting for 6 years.  I have been a professional artist for 27 years.  I have been artistically expressing myself my whole life.  All of life’s experiences import to my memory base (whether I remember it or not) and will mix with my technical skills, my media, and my current style to export on the canvas. In the case of last week’s adventure at the county fair, it is easy to say “She painted this in one hour!”  However as you my readers are aware, I spent three days preparing for that one hour.  (Believe me my catch up list has been long!) To finish it back at the studio (to my standards of completion) took another 2 hours. However, in reality, it took over 5 decades to complete as all combined for one hour on stage.

The finished painting?  “Take me out to the Fair”  30×24, acrylic on canvas.  It will be auctioned through The Arts Council of Williamson County with 100% of proceeds benefiting the organization.  It is after all the organization that offered me the “experience of a lifetime”.

Prototypes and Ferris Wheels

   The assignment:  a painting with a county fair theme to be done on stage in an hour and a half.  What you see here is the prototype and is really just a section of the larger piece I will paint tomorrow night.

The solution:  combining images of our fair with images of our county.  With a little help from a friend who served as a great sounding board and offered the wonderful idea of using the flags from the fair’s logo, I worked out a sketch.

The problem: working through the color scheme and placement enough to be able to simply stand at the easel and paint.  Thus the prototype.  I often use these to work through a color palette or design idea for a commission piece.  Yesterday I contacted the president of the Arts Council who will be auctioning this painting as a fundraiser to approve the sketch.   Having the prototype (which in this case is just about a third of the actual painting) helped to share my vision.  This is another step I often do with my commission clients so that everyone is comfortable with the page I’m working from.

The result:  I discovered the perfect solution for the background behind the Ferris wheel, with a bit of brighter color and a swish of the palette knife the feeling of movement and the excitement of the Midway surfaced. And my “customer” was more than thrilled.  Having stretched my creative envelop, I am more comfortable with the whole idea of creating a painting within the given time.

Tomorrow’s assignment:  The PLAN