How long did that painting take you?

    How long?  That's a question most artists, composers, and craftspeople have fielded at some point in their careers.  Even though I am a maker of paintings and other things, and I know how difficult it is to answer this question, I still wonder about it silently when admiring the creations of others. I think it is just human nature to be curious about the hows and whys. 
    Whether the "how long?" question is answered with "my entire adult life" or "7 days, 4 hours, and 26 minutes", I'm just glad art is not priced by the minute or hour!  What if we all had taxi-cab-type meters attached to our easels (or desks), and we had to activate the timer when we sat down to work?!  Surely very little art would then be affordable!

 Here is the latest version of the painting I showed you on my last blog.  I was sure I would be showing a final version by now, but I was wrong.  This scene, with a working title The High Life, needs more refinement.  Then I will turn it to the wall while I work on other images.  Often this helps clear the visual palette, so to speak, and helps me see my very familiar marks with a fresh perspective.



Do something refreshing for yourself this week!  Thanks for viewing this blog.
 

The Blade, the Fish, and Me

Catchy title, no?  
The blade to which I refer is the Paramount Theatre's new blade sign reproduction which is being officially lit this Wednesday, September 23, as part of the celebration of the theatre's 100th birthday.  If you can make it to downtown Austin, it should be pretty cool to watch as the 1,386 bulbs are switched on.  The street party starts at 6pm, and the lighting is planned for 7:15 to 7:45 (to allow for speechifying!) https://tickets.austintheatre.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=550

The Fish?  Some of you know that I built a pond a few years ago, so now I'm a pond keeper. This involves periodic wading around to tend the water lilies and do some cleaning.  It's also a good time for me to hand feed and 'pet' my favorite koi, Key Largo.

If you like to see a wide variety of back-yard ponds from do-it-yourselfers like me, to professionally designed and installed ones, please plan on attending the Austin Pond Society's annual tours in June each year. Other great pond information may be found at http://www.austinpondsociety.org/ 

And finally, me as painter.  I haven't managed to put in as many hours of painting this week as I'd like, due to some special events.  So I will have to show you the finished version of this painting on my next blog.  But here are some "in process" pictures:

 

Thanks for viewing my blog!

Happy Birthday, Carole

My mother is Carole McIntosh Sikes, and her birthday was yesterday.  If you know her, you will agree that she is multi-talented.  She's an accomplished painter (the first women to gain an MFA from the University of Texas, Austin).  Some of her paintings may be found here: http://sikesart.com/carole/nature/index.html  Also, she has written and published a history of her neck of the woods called Hudson Bend and the Birth of Lake Travis.  

It's available at http://www.amazon.com/Hudson-Bend-Birth-Lake-Travis/dp/1626196672
and also in Austin at the Tarrytown Pharmacy, the Oasis Restaurant, and Barnes and Noble Bookstore.

Since I always enjoy seeing process in others' work, I will show you a 'during' and an 'after' of one of this week's paintings:

The unfinished painting is much more exciting to me both because of the red under-color, and because of the way the twigs look, scratched out of the wet sky paint. The final image represents what I saw as we walked one of the trails at Mesa Verde National Park.  I wish I could get the best of both in one painting...I'll just have to keep seeking that elusive goal!
 

Back to Work!

Hello, Friends! 
I am back to painting and loving it!  I'm working on landscapes from our recent trip to northern New Mexico and the mesas and mountains of Colorado.  My family and I love these spots and have been visiting them for many summers now.

I've also had fun revisiting the paintings of the Group of Seven and Tom Thompson.  They painted in Canada around the 1920's, and I love the freshness and immediacy of many of their works. Here are some examples and a link if you'd like to get more familiar with these excellent paintings:
 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Group+of+Seven&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAmoVChMIv67ej_XjxwIVBHySCh1XTQlL&biw=1760&bih=803

News from the Garden

I've been away from the blog too long again. It isn't difficult to write a bit of something once a week, and if I had the discipline to set aside a dedicated time, well then, I'd have a weekly entry. And also, I'd be someone else!

Deciding hour to hour and day to day whether my next action should be grocery shopping, finishing up the kitchen clean-up, taking the dog out to the garden, researching future home maintenance needs or calling to schedule repairs or check-ups, going up to the studio to try and restart my stalled painting, arranging the next play dates or vacations, weeding, pruning, watering, or planting, mulching or fertilizing, running a load of laundry, checking email, doing a blog entry....well, sometimes I have so much trouble prioritizing that I find I choose "none of the above" and end up taking a nap!  Does any of this sound familiar?

Pictured is the rose bush which I've shown in earlier entries.  It's been glorious!  Now it's about done and ready to recharge for another bloom cycle (with some help from the organic fertilizer of course).

Also in the Garden: the frogs filled my pond with eggs which are now tadpoles; this last week a medium-sized ribbon snake and I have mutually startled one another on several occasions; Molly the dog drew my attention to a swarm of newborn praying mantises, fresh from their hidden nest in a rock wall; the lady bugs have decided that the artichoke plant is a fabulous place to make love and babies; the artichoke is showing some buds, and the tomatoes are coming along.  And we need rain!

When it gets too dark to garden, and I'm all chored-out, I've been enjoying a book I received recently.  It's called The Backyard Parables by Margaret Roach.  Margaret gardens in the Northeast, so her particulars are not transferable to central Texas gardening (except for the advice that the only way to really deer-proof is to fence).  But her meditations and the glimpses into her development as a gardener are universal.

  

Things Done and Left Undone

The phrase I've used for today's title popped into my head this morning, but it comes from the Confession of Sins we say every Sunday in our liturgy at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.gsaustin.org

Spring Break is over for us, and the enormity of the "things left undone" in my life is again pressing in on me.  It seems that it is this side of the equation that weighs heaviest as we mature.  As a youth, I would confess my sins "against God and my neighbor" and I would search my heart for wrongs of commission.  In this middle chapter of my life, it's much more about the sins of omission. 

Speaking of which... I'm including a photo of my most recent UNfinished painting.  I started this 24"x24" canvas last month and was sure that I would get back to finish it within a day or two.  

Now, weeks have passed while the energy and vision for the work have drifted away.  Experience tells me that if I just get myself in front of the easel and begin again, I will be able to find my way back in.  If you struggle with picking back up once the trail has gone cold, please send in your examples of what helps you to get going again.  Thanks!
                                        Meanwhile, Nature has kept to her schedule.  See the before and now photos of the rose bush I blogged about last time:  The growth is amazing!     

In my next post, I'll report on the progress of the landscape work I've been doing at Lake Travis (One of the things I've been doing besides painting and everything else!)  Enjoying this lovely
Texas spring,

Laura                                     

 

 

Pruning, Faith, and the Lenten Season

I just finished pruning my three rose bushes the other day, and hats off to you gardeners who have many roses to keep up with!  As I worked, I had the feeling that I had never done this before and that I was going to wind up with ruined plants.  I also kept returning to the idea that there could be no better metaphor for FAITH than that of a gardener pruning her roses. 
 
It is counter intuitive to take a big, healthy rose bush which gave me lovely flowers last season and whack away half of its mass and most of its folliage!  Why would I do such a  thing?  I do it because rosarians who have been doing this crazy pruning thing testify to the miraculous results it brings to their beloved roses, that's why.

As obvious as this is, I wonder why I have such a hard time following the advice and example of Jesus and the holy people who have written or perhaps even spoken to me? You know the kind of wisdom: the first will be last, and the last, first.  Or: one who seeks to save his/her life will lose it, but if that one loses (willingly gives over that life to God's service)  her life, she will save it.

I think that this spiritual pruning is harder for me to follow than the horticultural kind because it takes longer to see the results of the work.  And also, because I am the one to be pruned and that doesn't feel good!  I want to let myself grow in chaotic, random ways like an uncultivated plant in the garden! 
So I wish you good luck in whatever type of "gardening" you do this lent.