ONE LITTLE CORNER

 

I live most of my life, quite happily, in one small corner of the world ….just a few square feet of space right in front of my easel.

It works for me!

I found another little corner this morning which also worked for me.  One of the photos, sent to me by my traveling hubby wasn't terribly interesting but something drew me to the tiny right hand, upper corner of the larger picture.  I cropped it and knew I’d found the inspiration for today’s ‘before breakfast’ painting.

So, when you are looking through your reference photos, don’t forget to peek into the corners, so to speak.  Remember that you can take bits and pieces of a picture for your use. You don’t have to use the whole thing.

 

Here’s the big picture including the rear view mirror on his big rig.  Lots of his photos have that particular feature. 

 

 

 

Here’s the little bit I cropped out from waaaay up in the right hand corner.

 

 

 

Here’s the resulting painting with some artistic license taken.

 

It is, after all, my world and I can create it however I see fit.

INSPIRATION

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case." -Chuck Close

 

I read this quote the other day and I do believe Mr. Close hit the nail squarely on the head

 

I guess if you have no need or desire to learn to be a better painter, you can wait for inspiration to hit but if you want to be a good painter you paint!  You paint when you’re excited about a new idea.  You paint when you haven’t a clue what you want to paint.  You paint when you are feeling full of piss and vinegar and you paint when you feel like crap!

A couple of days ago, I woke up after a really lousy night’s sleep and the very thought of standing at the easel with a paintbrush in my hand was, in a word, unappealing.  Still, I looked through all my photos…and my facebook friends’ photos, too…. in a vain search for ‘inspiration.’ 

It never showed up.

So, like I do every other morning, I opened my paint box, put a new canvas on my easel and picked up a brush.  Using the leftover paint on my palette, I began. 

It wasn’t complicated.

I put paint on the brush and put that paint on the canvas.  I smeared it around some.  Next, I picked up another leftover color and repeated the process.

This is the result.

 

CACTUS CANYON

16 x 20

It is one of my favorite paintings I’ve done lately….begun with no inspiration and no real desire to even paint. 

I have learned to trust the process.  I have learned that I will make a good painting or a bad one but in either case, I will have learned something.  I will have grown in skill.

And that is inspiring.

 

My paintings are available at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SKayArt

 

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

It seemed like all the news from this last week was upsetting, sad and fearsome.

A friend recently suggested I do a painting of a child flying a kite.  This morning, that seemed like the perfect thing to do.

One of the greatest joys of painting is how I can use it to process emotions or to even change my outlook.  It's powerful stuff, creativity! 

Go!  Create!  Or maybe just go fly a kite!

 

4" x 12" acrylic on gallery wrap canvas

 

Available on my Etsy Shop

.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SKayArt

 

 

GOIN' FISHIN'

I had the painting all but done..the trees...the road...the grasses...but it seemed to be completely lacking in purpose.  Why do yet another painting of trees, grasses and a road going somewhere.

I was thinking about chucking it in the trash when a friend said that she could 'see' Andy and Opie in it walking down the road toward a fishing hole.

I do love and appreciate my friends! 

I  hope the fish are biting today.

 

Goin' Fishin'

8 x 10

acrylic on canvas

 

Available thru my Etsy shop

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SKayArt

 



STACKING UP

My studio is getting filled up with paintings...LOTS of paintings!   Most are actually finished.  Many still need work and are just waiting for me to either get in the mood to go back to them or to attain a certain skill that I didn't have when I began them.

I have GOT to do something with them or we'll have to build on a storage room to hold them all.

So, I opened an Etsy shop, which you can find  here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SKayArt?ref=search_shop_redirect

You'll find desert landscapes, mountain landscapes and prarie landscapes.
You'll find still lifes and florals.
You'll find rivers and ponds and seascapes.
You'll find paintings of country homes and city streets.

If you don't find them now, they'll be there eventually.  Like I said, I have LOTS of paintings stacked up and waiting to be photographed and put on-line.

I think my paintings are priced very reasonably and I hope lots of them can find a new home.

Here's one that you won't find there.  It's my favorite place to eat my favorite fast food in Tucson, Arizona.  If you've never had a Mexican Hot Dog, you have no idea what you are missing...and these, made by Noe, are the best!

 



I gave this to Noe in appreciation for the many delectible hot dogs I've enjoyed at his fine establishment. 

If you're in Tucson, you can find him on the NW corner of 6th Ave. and 22nd St....right across from Santa Cruz Cathedral.

If you check out my Etsy shop...and you like what you see...please share the link with your friends.  I'd appreciate it so very much.  So would my hubby, as he has NO desire to build another room just to house this ever-growing stack of paintings!

March 24, 2013  approximately  2 a.m.

 

Something disturbs me and I begin to wake up.  I wonder why because I don’t really have to use the bathroom all that badly and that’s what usually wakes me in the middle of the night.  I roll around a bit, trying to get comfortable and go back to sleep but finally, I decide to just get up and get the bathroom visit over with.

My sleep is very important to me and not always an easy thing to achieve.  One of the things I do faithfully, so that my sleep is undisturbed is to shut my bedroom door to keep the cats out of my room.

When I sit up and open my eyes, I notice two odd things.  One is that my bedroom door is open a few inches and the other is that there is bright light coming in through that opening.

I get up, open the door and find the following:

My over- the- road truck driving husband’s bedroom light is on.  He is away, of course.  The bathroom light is on.  A large hall closet door is open and the light is on.  Things in my husband’s bedroom have been disturbed.  Things in the living room have been disturbed. 

I have to traverse the very short, but interminably long, distance to reach the phone because it is apparent that someone was…and might still be…in my  house.  I am completely and utterly helpless to defend myself.

When I get to the phone, I can see that the back door is ajar.

I press 911 and nothing happens.  Horrendous fear turns to abject terror because I think my phone lines have been cut.  I try again and thankfully, the call goes through.

While on the phone with the dispatcher, I discover that my purse is gone.  In it, in addition to the debit and credit cards and some cash were my cell phone and every key to every lock in my house and for our two vehicles.

The dispatcher and I wait the twenty minutes or so for the police to arrive.  It seemed an eternity.

The young cops-obviously quite bored- check everything inside and outside the house.  They take a very few notes.  They leave.  It is about 2:30 and I am alone and I am scared.

I want you to re-read the above.  I want you to imagine yourself in that situation.  I want you to do everything you can possibly do to make sure you are NEVER in a similar situation and if you allow yourself to try to really feel what I was feeling you might be more inclined to take some action.

At a decent hour I begin making calls to set wheels in motion to achieve some sense of peace.  Every lock has to be re-keyed.  Until that is done, my ‘visitors’ have free access into my house.

That is the beginning of a week chock full of calls and appointments and more activity in and around my house than I usually have in six months.  None of it is fun.  All of it is very stressful.  All of it is extremely expensive.

Here are some things I did which were almost a hand written invitation for burglars to come into my house.  I am telling this long story in hopes that you will learn from me what NOT to do.

The previous night, I did NOT, as I usually do, check to see if my back door was locked except to look and see the position of the locking apparatus.  Apparently, as there was no ‘breaking’, only ‘entering’,   I did NOT have the door fully closed so of course, it was not truly locked.  I have been told, however, that people who know how can easily open that type of lock.  So maybe I did lock it but I know I did not test it.

I left my purse sitting on my dining area table.

The dining area window was uncovered giving anyone a clear view of my purse and many other things inside my house.

My cell phone was in my purse.

My keys were in my purse.

Here are my strong suggestions to you and I do hope you will pass them along to others.

·         I have learned that a burglary call is very low priority to the police.  Technically, that’s what my incident was called instead of a ‘home invasion.’  I am NOT suggesting you lie to the police but a much faster response time might happen if you report that someone is or might be still in or at your residence.  So, if you’re not 100% positive your ‘visitors’ are gone, leave that as a possibility.  Don’t tell them you’re certain they are gone.

 

·         Never trust your eyes to determine whether or not a door is closed and locked.  Test it with your hand!

 

 

·         Always take your cell phone with you when you go to bed.

 

·         Always take your purse with you when you go to bed.

 

 

·         Always take your keys with you when you go to bed.

 

·         Do NOT leave spare keys or your primary set hanging on hooks, lying on hall tables or inside drawers any place in your house EXCEPT YOUR BEDROOM!  Even then, choose carefully where and how you hide them and believe me, they need to be difficult to find, NOT out in plain sight.

·         Make sure all exterior doors have deadbolt locks.  Then lock them and make sure you have locked them!

 

·         Put some kind of good lock on your bedroom door to buy you some time to get to your cell phone or your taser or your gun or out your bedroom window in case someone makes it into your house.  I realize that probably won’t be a choice if you have small kids in the house but otherwise…and especially if you are alone a lot…it is a really good idea!

We had a security door on our front door but not our back door.  That has been rectified.  There is no exterior door to my house which does not now have a deadbolt lock!  I have been told by people who should know, that most opportunistic thieves won’t even bother with a house which has security doors.  Also, that stickers which say you have home security are also a good deterrant-whether or not you actually do have a security system.

 We also have obtained an alarmed security system service.  Nice blinds have been installed on that bare window.  ‘Nice’ blinds are not a requirement.  Just cover the window…with a sheet…with anything!

And I now have a weapon.  I chose a Taser for several reasons.  I never intend to be helpless to protect myself again.

Write down and keep in a safe place your credit and debit card numbers.  Some of them cannot be cancelled at 3 a.m. because you will have to talk to a human to cancel them and sometimes, with some banks, those humans are not available 24/7.  Somebody could do a lot of shopping on your card before business hours on a week day.

I found a locksmith who will, on occasion, re-key a vehicle but if you can’t find one and have to go to a dealer be warned that you will experience sticker shock.  I was quoted $225 to re-key my car!  The locksmith who had already done all my doors only charged me $125 for both vehicles.

 

We have layers of protection around our house and around me now.  But I am wondering if I will ever be able to sleep peacefully again in spite of it all.

I am hyper-sensitive and hyper-vigilant.  I’m sure some of that will fade with time.  I hope I never again am complacent about my safety and I hope I do not become a fear-based human being. I do not want to live in fear. I refuse to live in fear.

It’s not being fear-based to wear a seat belt in my car.  It’s a common sense method of self-protection.  That’s how I am trying to see all these things we’ve done…not as a fearful, knee-jerk reaction to one event but as a logical, proactive means of ensuring my safety.

I am filled with gratitude that my unwelcome visitors were only after things and did me no physical harm.  Things might have been very different.

I do hope you will take this little story to heart and take similar actions to protect yourself.  Also, I do hope you share it with many, many others.

A word to the wise….hopefully, will be sufficient.

 

 

 

Still doing autumn color paintings.  I find them very difficult to keep from being just too garish....but then, sometimes, in certain lights, fall colors are just brazen, aren't they?

I don't know what to call this one.  Any ideas?

 

 

24 x 36 acrylic on canvas