Wednesday Wandering #14

Feels like the End of Spring Semester

I never intended to take this long for my recent self-challenge, but it feels fitting that what I started in February has wrapped up in June. Kind of like a portfolio, I guess. I never took a college level art class, so I don’t know about that.

So What’s Next?

Watercolors, I have been yearning to get back to my watercolors. First on the agenda, finish up the tree course I purchased in January.

Autumn Maple

Live Oaks

This one was more difficult and the colors did not grab me.

I am trying to find the right balance between studying to improve my art skills and just playing to improve my looseness and my boost my mood.

I took the lessons learned in the course and played a bit, amping up the colors. I am also trying to use up a stack of second-tier watercolor pads and blocks. These were done in a Strathmore travel journal. It does not absorb the water or paint as readily as the Arches 140 lb CP I used for the classwork, so it has its own learning curve.

Vibrant autumn colors

Ink and wash rockwork, and a memory of the morning sun in my woods these June mornings.

Lastly, some gnarly trees on a hilltop from a photo, in brighter greens than the live oaks in the classwork.

I felt enough energy to work on some foundational skills, like sketching in a $1-store writing tablet. Sketch them then toss them away.

As soon as I am off the doxycycline for the Lyme Disease, I hope to be out and about more and do some plein air watercolor and make a serious attempt at Urban Sketching. I sat in the parking lot after my gym session on Friday and used a uniball (too thick a line!)and a small sketchbook. My hometown does not offer a lot of great scenes on Main Street.

Perhaps I will go sketch at the historical society site, which boasts the little library that Walt Whitman once took care of and some other buildings of significant local history.

I have even been doing some quilting and knitting again. I still have a lot of spring cleaning to do, but I will get back to it in a more balanced way, hoping to preserve some time to keep on sketching and painting.

So, I think that my first few weeks doing the Artist’s Way exercises have opened my heart and soul to being more creative already.

Does your energy change with the seasons? Is summer creativity different for you than your practice in the cooler months? I would love to hear from you in the comments.

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