Recent Art Goings-Ons

April was a pretty busy month art-wise for me. I did something like 6 events in one month. But that's great because it seems I can't get enough of art-related things.


The month started off with a sale, which was a great way to begin the month. 





I then did a demonstration of finger painting at my house. Here's the painting that was created with color suggestions by the kids of a friend of ours.





I'd been watching for an opportunity to donate a painting to raise funds for earthquake victims in Japan. I finally got my chance when two women organized a wonderful benefit concert (one is a Japanese violinist with the St. Louis Symphony). The painting "Land of the Rising Sun" raised $150 for Japan Earthquake relief.



I then did a one-night show at a local art walk in Maplewood, Missouri. I had a great time talking to people about my work and watching their expressions of shock every time I explained that all of my paintings are, in fact, finger paintings. 





Then, an artist friend of mine who teaches at a local community college asked me to do a finger painting demo for her art class. One student told me after that I'd inspired him to finger paint. I hear that a lot but I never hear back as to the results. 





Next on the agenda was a one-day show in which I sold this painting and donated a portion of the proceeds to a local hospice foundation.





And, finally, Jeff and I traveled to Lexington, KY, to take part in the Give Into the Groove benefit concert, organized by our indie rock friend Ellee Ven. It was my first time to show my art outside of St. Louis (not counting the time my art traveled to Lyon but I didn't get to go along). We met some wonderful people in Lexington, I did sell one piece, and it was a trip painting an old door with kiddie finger paints. The door will be auctioned off for charity at next year's event. Here are a few pics from that night.


Repose. Sold. 





The door.

Art display.

So that about sums it up for the month of April. I'm happy to have sold 3 pieces this month. More shows coming soon...

Finger Painting Artist Naomi Silver Presents "Stillness"

Searching

I recently finished reading a fictitious account of Monet's life called "Claude and Camille" by Stephanie Cowell.  I'd read two of her previous books, fictitious accounts of the lives of Shakespeare and a woman who marries Mozart. She's a good writer. But that's not why I read the book about Monet.

You see, I am still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I am an artist. This new identity has only been with me for about 9 months now. I'm still not used to it.  When people I meet ask me what I do and I say I am an artist, it feels strange. 

So I guess I read the book in search of something to help myself come to peace with being an artist. So did the book help? Well, yes and no. Monet certainly didn't have the happiest life. He fell madly in love with Camille, his muse/model, and finally married her only to have her die a few years later. If the book is historically accurate, he was very narcissistic (or at least completely obsessed with his work), and he flipped out and slashed canvases he wasn't pleased with.  Fascinating but depressing to say the least. But what I did get from the book is that many of the emotional struggles I am encountering in being an artist are universal and timeless. Not selling as much as I want. Fighting the need for affirmation from the world that my work is worthy. Questioning my ability. Accepting my "artistic temperment."

And now the reading continues. I went to the library in search of escapist British chick lit. (Go ahead and laugh if you will!) but came home with another fictitious novel called "The Painted Kiss" by Elizabeth Hickey. The story is told from the point of view of Gustav Klimt's muse, Emilie. I'm only part-way through so I can't say much about the book, but it is also perhaps in some subtle way helping me comes to terms with or understand who I am. Next on the list? "The Wayward Muse" also by Elizabeth Hickey, told from the point of view of the muse of Dante Gabirel Rossetti. So where is all of this reading getting me?  Stay tuned. 

"Falling Light" (painted while reading "Claude and Camille")

 Click for more information about "Falling Light."

The Advent of Light

The Advent of Light: Earth, Wind, and Fire

Click here for more info.

Back in the studio after a long break

After almost a month off, I finally decided to walk back in and hit the paints on Friday. I've noticed several times now that when I take longer breaks, my style of painting changes more dramatically and this is no exception. Here is the result.

For more information on "Awash", click here.

The Process: Waning Sun

People are asking more and more about the process I use to create my paintings. Because the process is 100% intuitive and spontaneous (and therefore different every time), it's really impossible to explain. So yesterday, I shot a few pics while I was working. Enjoy.

 
For more info on Waning Sun, click here. 

Dusk

This is the first time I've combined 4 different techniques of applying paint, in 4 layers.

Layer 1: Applied paint with brush.

Layer 2: Applied paint in small pats of my finger tips. Let dry overnight.

Layer 3: Rubbed paint into the dried, heavily textured paint from the day before.

Layer 4: Wiped paint across parts of the painting.

The Final Result

A heavily textured, deeply toned, complex, vibrant painting. And a contented artist. Well, at least for the moment.

For more information on "Dusk", click here.

A method to my madness

http://www.drawright.com/

So this is my bible. I love this book. I must have bought it back in the early 90's when I was doing the pastel portraits but am pretty sure I never had the patience or the discipline to work through much of the book. It's filled with what I'd call a psychological discussion of how our brains typically see versus how an artist must see, two very different things. The book is full of exercises which train you to turn off the rational left hemisphere of your brain & turn on the creative right side. Probably the most famous exercise is the one in which you turn your subject (assuming it's a photo and not a person ) upside-down in order to stop seeing the subject as a whole but rather as various components that fit together.

Having looked through bits and pieces of the book a few weeks ago, I decided to jump to Chapter 7 yesterday, "The Positive Aspects of Negative Space." One of the exercises was to draw the space around a complex object, so I took this photo of Jeff on the bike and did this sketch. I managed to hack off a bit of his leg , but I found the exercise very educational.

Finally, I did this sketch of Jeff yesterday after he crashed, totally wiped out from a day teaching 70 French students. It doesn't totally look like Jeff's but it's a huge improvement over the sketch I did a few days ago & it took 20 minutes instead of 3 hours. Today, I get some perspective. We can only hope.

Shifting gears...for the moment

I love doing abstracts. I can't think of anything much more liberating than throwing a bunch of brightly-colored paints on a canvas, blending them, and seeing what happens. I really can't describe how it feels.

But I've had this nagging feeling, and have literally been nagged (Ok, so gently nudged) by my husband and a fellow artist, to do portraits in addition to the abstracts. I am guessing that many people wonder if abstract artists can, in fact, draw. This is not to discount abstract work (I personally like my own work as well as abstracts of other artists), but there is something about being able to draw realistically that validates one as a "real artist." So I suppose part of my need to draw realistically is to help assuage my insecurities. 

 

I did a few portraits in pastels when I took a few art classes just for fun, back in the early 90's. And now, suddenly, I desperately want to paint portraits. I'm talking like the Masters. Ok, so it's a slightly lofty goal, but hey, why not shoot for the moon?

So here was my first attempt at a pastel portrait in something like 15 years (I'd kept some of the pastels in a Tupperware container). Obviously, I didn't finish. The pastels just didn't feel right. I missed the feeling of how paints move across canvas.


So I sat down a few days ago & did a sketch. It took 3 hours.


The painting took 7 hours. It's not bad for never having painted a portrait and having no clue what I was doing.. There are a lot of problems with it. For one, it doesn't look like the subject. The skin color is totally wrong, I couldn't do the shadows, she has a mop on her head instead of hair, and the poor woman has no chin! I may go back and correct and finish it, or I may re-do the whole portrait at some point. It practically killed me. I threw a few temper tantrums (but managed not to break anything) and cried. It was an immense struggle. Exhausing. Not the experience I was going for. So I've  decided to go back to the drawing board. Literally...