A Brief Time Off Line

Dear Friends,
I wanted to let you know that I have not disappeared, but I will be off-line for some time to come. My soul mate and life partner of the past 28 years is now in the care of Hospice here in our home, and this is where my focus and energies currently are. Until I can get back to painting and blogging, do enjoy what's already here.
Thanks for your visit.
Dianne

What Is Enough?

"Snack Time"
16" x 12" Oil on Canvas
For Purchase Information Go HERE

Bagatelles:
"So how many squirrel paintings are you going to do?"
"As many as I consider enough."

These little guys fascinate me. They've continually outsmarted me about the bird feeder. Finally, I started putting shelled corn out on the ground beneath it and that keeps them relatively happy. Even so, now and then a defiant one among them will head for the feeder, right past my latest, most ingenious baffle.

I've always really liked a smarty pants.

Meanderings:
We won't have an Empty Easel tutorial this week. Dan, our editor, is up to a new venture, something exciting for all of us. I don't know yet what it is either.

And our challenge group has a new name--Moses Botkin Challenge Group.

And soon I'll be introducing--with a new website--our new local art guild.

So Spring's in the air in more ways than one. New things are being born already.

A Sure Sign of Spring

"Lady In Waiting"
14" x 10" Oil on Canvas
For pricing information, go HERE

BAGATELLES:

The female cardinal doesn't get enough attention. Greeting cards, calendars and the like love to feature the adored male cardinal, but far too few see the beautiful in the subdued colors of the female.

I've been watching her for several days now. The couple has already bonded, so now they're getting busy nest-building to raise a family. She has a special loveliness at this time of the year. Since the colors aren't out yet, she still blends with the ground except when sunlight catching a portion of her feathers. Still it's more than her color. It's almost like she, along with all our feathered critters, awaits new life that Spring always brings.

MEANDERINGS:
Who's not ready for Spring! Seems to me the last few weeks of winter are times when paintings goes into limbo. This year that has been especially true. I thought at the beginning of winter that the lovely winter variations on gray would see me through the season, but they wore thin several weeks ago.

It's not so much wanting to see green again though I do look forward to it. I want to see life again--people working in their yards, kids playing in the park, flowers blooming everywhere. And I'm looking forward to watching baby buds flesh out into leaves, watching feathered parents as they feed their young, looking for the first hummingbird to appear and hearing Canada geese squaking as they fly overhead. Yep, I'm in Spring Watch mode! How about you?

Challenge Group Painting #2

SPECIAL FEATURE: March Challenge
Challenge Group member Vicki Ross chose the image for our March challenge: an eggplant. Admittedly, at the beginning I drew a blank because I couldn't get passed that jingle we butchered as kids--"Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Silver bells and cocker shells and one damned eggplant."

So after a lot of deliberation and scratching my head (thanks for that bald spot, Vicki), I decided to go with my initial impression--with a twist.

Like our February challenge, members of the group who were able to participate came up with uniquely individual interpretations of "eggplant". Okay, here they are with mine at the end.

"Eggplant?"

Vicki Ross 11x14
oil on gessoed panel

©2009 $250

"Huddled Eggplants"
Oil on canvas, 11" x 14"
(c)2009 Marie Fox
Marie Fox Painting A Day

"Attack on the Eggplant" Oil 6"x8"

c 2009 Diana Moses Botkin

http://dianamosesbotkin.blogspot.com/

"Eggplant"
6"x6" Oil on Board
Michael Naples

"Farmers' Market"
Ink Pen and Watercolor Washes 9" x 12 "
(c) 2009 Robin Cheers
http://robincheers.blogspot.com/

"Eggplants"
8"x10" oil/canvas
Silvina Day
http://studio280.blogspot.com/



And finally my own. Click on the photo to better see the mouse :)

"It's Just A Big Ole Eggplant"
"10" x 14" Oil on Canvas
(c) 2009 Dianne Mize
$180 plus $12 S/H

Will Spring Actually Arrive?

"Spring Promise"
14" x 10" Oil on Canvas
For pricing information go HERE

Bagatelle:

I'll say the obvious: this is not people not the hands that I alluded to a few days ago. That will have to wait because I got bogged down. For now, it's about the advent of Spring.

We believe in feeding the birds, so regardless of the economical meltdown, the bird feeder stays filled. And this time of year I spend a lot of time looking out our kitchen window, keeping an eye on who's making an appearance.

One of our earliest and most devoted visitors is the red-bellied woodpecker. His name makes no sense at all--it's his head that's red, not his belly. But that's what Peterson's calls him. And because he's getting more and more of my attention these days, I decided to paint him.

Meanderings:

Artists get accused of having this thing called a muse. That's the inner voice that steers our ideas and heads us down roads, sometimes familiar and sometimes totally unexplored. That's one reason we keep at it--we're curious about what we're going to find.

In my beginning journey of looking at people relating to one another, I've discovered I've entered into uncharted waters requiring lots of study. When this happens, it's a good idea for me to keep at least two themes going at once.

I'll blog more about what I'm discovering as the journey unfolds, meanwhile with the promise of Spring's arrival, you can guess what my accompanying theme is becoming.

Sketchbook Studies

Bagatelles:

Here's one of yesterday's studies from my sketchbook:

"Study of medical rescue from news broadcast"
Dianne Mize

I do these things watching TV news. The trick is to grab as much of the action as possible from the time it appears until it's gone out of site and out of memory. To warm up, I often do quick studies from some magazine or newspaper.

I've always loved looking at quick studies. One of my favorites is from Rembrandt's Notebooks entitled "Woman Sleeping".

"Woman Sleeping" by Rembrandt van Rijn"

It's amazing what can be captured in a few gestural strokes and Rembrandt's mastery enabled him to give such life to those strokes that I never tire of looking at this drawing.

Here's another recent page from my sketchbook:
These are quick ballpoint pen sketches from photo references. The game with both of these was to grab as much as I could from memory before going back to the reference for more.

Both the exercise at the top and these are good training for the eye, the mind and the hand. I am in a habit of grabbing my sketchbook and a ball point pen whenever I perch myself in front of the TV for a newscast. I probably won't show many of these on the blog and Lord knows they'll probably end up in the recycle bin years down the road, but they serve their purpose for me and that is to keep my mind, eye and hand totally in touch with one another.

Meanderings:
I am discovering that beginning a new series can take many turns. The current painting would have been finished yesterday if I hadn't decided to change its emphasis which meant pretty much making a second painting on top of the first. That's the reason you got sketches today instead of a finished piece.

Blogging does add a certain pressure to being an artist, at least it does for me. When deciding to change the emphasis of this painting, I argued with myself that I really needed to post something on the blog, but then I argued back that I'm not painting for the blog, but for my artistic discovery and growth. Well, then--that's settled.

Progress Report on "Hands"

Meanderings:
I'm not quite ready to show you my next painting, but I do want to give you a progress report.

This new subject, humans relating to humans, has captured my imagination in an unexpected way. Like any new series an artist begins, you never quite know WHY you select a subject. In fact, most of the time we don't really care why--we just paint what fascinates us. I chose the humans theme because I've always been intrigued by human body language and by how sometimes the artist can dig into reality behind our self-imposed masks just by tuning in to our body language.

So I chose a larger canvas for the piece I'm doing now--a painting I've already entitled "Hands." Larger takes longer, right? Well, it surely does for a snail-paced painter like me. Today the painting is about two-thirds finished. It's almost reached the point where it calls the shots instead of me.

So why don't I post a WIP photo? Because it goes against my grain to serve food half-cooked. Meanwhile, I hope by the weekend that "Hands" will be finished and ready to post. As I always say, stay tuned...

Papa Knows

"Papa Knows..."

18" x 14" Oil on Canvas
NFS

(Click on image for larger view.)

Bagatelles:

When my youngest nephew was about six months old, on his first Christmas he became ill. I remember my brother, Bill, closely holding his crying baby saying, "Daddy knows, Daddy knows..." For some reason that has stuck with me. Here 24 years later, Bill is now a grandfather. At Christmas I caught a photo of him comforting his tired and sleepy two-year old grandson, Ryley. That's how this painting came about and thus the title "Papa Knows..."

"Papa Knows" is not meant to be a portrait, but an expression of adult-to-child compassion. There is, however, a pretty darn close resemblance to Bill, as well as to Ryley's back side.

Meanderings:

There's a fine line I don't want to cross when doing a tender subject in painting--becoming entirely too sugary sweet. I wanted to give a direct expression of a grandfather comforting his grandson without getting all gooey about it. Being emotionally connected myself, it's hard to know if I pulled that off. And that begs the question "should an artist even try to detach emontionally from her subject." I don't think so. I think if we have our attitudes in the right place and are responding honestly to our subjects, it will take care of itself.

The other side of this is what the viewer brings to the painting. Some will get it. Some will write it off as too sentimental. But as artist, I respond. The world decides. And that's just how it works.

Challenge Painting Group Debut

diana moses botkin

Yes it's getting down to the wire! NOTE TO ALL CHALLENGED ARTISTS :~) Are you...

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SPECIAL FEATURE!

Today we debut our Challenge Painting group with our eight members painting the same subject chosen by February's namer, Diana Botkin. The rules go like this: a commonly available subject is named, then each group member finds whatever it is and does a painting of it. Group members are not allowed to communicate with one another about what they are doing and nobody is to tell anybody outside the group what the subject is. How's that for fun!

On the 15th of each month, all eight of us will post the eight paintings on each of our blogs as our way of unveiling the results. Today is our debut.

Our February subject was a certain type of miniature toy man. We can't mention what kind because of copyright issues. These little guys come in all sorts of identities; mine ended up being a knight. (I confess I had no idea what the thingy was until Diana mailed me a loaner.)

Anyway, you will see below how much fun each of us had with this.

I'll present the others first and my own at the end. Enjoy.
_____________________________________________________________________

"Snow! Why'd it Have to be Snow?!"
Oil, 3.5"x 5", (c)2009 Diana Moses Botkin

With apologies to Indiana, I thought the little guy's smirk was perfect for this snow job.
dianamosesbotkin.blogspot.com

____________________________________________________________________

Mike Beeman
“Cheyenne Funnel Beak” 5” x 7” oil
Daily Pastels Paintings
_____________________________________________________________________

"Anna at Play"

6x6 oil on panel

c. 2009 Robin Cheers

My five year old doing what she does best!

www.robincheers.com

_______________________________________________________________

"The Line Up"
6x6 oil on board

(c)2009 Michael Naples
michaelnaples.blogspot.com

_________________________________________________________________

'Soldier Boy, Please Don't Go!"
8" x 10", oil on canvasboard
(c)2009 Marie Fox
mariefoxpaintingaday.blogspot.com

____________________________________________________________________

"Call Me Plastic Figure One More Time"
8"x 10"

(c)2009 Silvina Day
studio280.blogspot.com

____________________________________________________________________

'Le'go my Sake'
6x12 oil on panel
(c) Vicki Ross

vickiandrandyrossart.blogspot.com

___________________________________________________________________

And finally, my own take...

"Toy Knight Turns Artist"
or" The Brush is Mightier Than the Sword"
Watercolor on Cold Pressed 5" x 9"
(c)2009 Dianne Mize
$92 plus $8 S/H

I never approved of the Crusades or of any kind of violence for that matter. So with this little knight's whole-hearted permission, we traded in his sword for a paintbrush.

Giving The River a Rest

"Approaching Sundown on the Tallulah"
16" x 12" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

Bagatelles:
From this nook on the Tallulah you don't see the sky, only boulders and trees growing among and, seemingly, out of them. This painting is set at about five o'clock in the afternoon. In these mountains in the winter months by five p.m. you begin to feel the sun's already setting, especially on the rivers and creeks.

Much of the waining sunlight was blocked by the hills, but just a glimmer was filtering through the trees and barely hitting the rocks. That sort of time creates a feeling of emotional ebullience. You just want to hold onto it.

Meanderings:

Since my early days of painting (we won't say when THAT was), I've loved painting rivers and lakes. My favorite solo show was in the nineties and entitled "In Praise of Mountain Waters." That title expresses how I feel about all our mountain waters. But sometimes you need a break from even the subject dearest to your heart.

With spring promising to appear again, I'm switching my attention to "people relating to people". This theme has always been a fascination, but I've not given it much attention in my painting. So now, I've diving toward it. The first canvas is already massed in so here we go.

In other news---our Challenge Group is geared up to unveil its first group of paintings this coming weekend. Stay tuned.

First Anniversary: Wow!

Meanderings: This is going to be a bit long

This blog is one-year old today. Amazing. Why did it take so long for me to begin blogging?

It was thirty-five years ago that I ended my years' long migration and settled in these north Georgia hills. The Academic Dean of Piedmont College had asked me to revive the school's then-defunct visual arts program and so began a bit of stability to my previous ten-years as a artist teacher roaming from school to school, idea to idea, attempting to find a place that fit.

Ten years later with the college's visual arts department thriving, it was time for the next leap--to begin my own art school for adults, a journey which deepened my inner conviction that every human being on earth is born individually unique, that the job of any teacher is to tap that uniqueness and give it substance for growth. (I have never believed very much in talent, but I strongly believe that each of us potentially is gifted in something, that we ourselves determine the destiny of that gift.)

Our school flourished for 24 years before the time arrived for me to retire into a newer life. Seven years prior to my retirement we merged the school into the Sautee Nacoochee Arts and Community Center's programming. That merging gave the school a place and potential environment in which to continue after I would retire.

I honestly thought teaching would end with retiring. Little did I know that I would discover the world of blogging and that it would become my next tutorial medium. And my honest intention was to devote my entire energies and attention to painting, but after a year of doing that I discovered the ole teacher wanting to get busy again.

So now I begin each day painting for three or four hours. Later in the day I work on my two weekly tutorials--one for Empty Easel, the other for my Compose blog. And the second Tuesday of every month, I meet with a select group of my former students which has officially become the Second Tuesday Art Guild. (More about this group in the Spring.) It has all fallen into place beautifully.

So for several years while most of you have been habitually blogging, I was totally unaware of such a world--a community. Unaware until early 2008 when I read about a daily painter called Juston Clayton whose blog led me to other painters and gave me the idea of using this medium for sharing images of my paintings. That was just a year ago, folks.

So for those of you who wondered where in the world this art tutor suddenly came from, now you know. While you were building your own identities as artist bloggers, I was, unknowingly, finding my way to the front door. And I must say that here I have met some of the finest and most interesting human beings on earth.

I enjoy sharing my work and my thoughts, but I treasure my visits to your world, watching each of you grow and sharing in your stories. May we all continue to grow into our individually unique voices while our friendships deepen and thrive.

Winter Waining

"Winter Waining"

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information, go HERE

Bagatelles:
Monday was Groundhog Day. Our state groundhog said we'll have an early spring, but the national groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter. Our family has voted the state groundhog "correct", the national groundhog "incorrect".

Our household is growing weary of winter! Every February is the same: winter starts getting really old and I start craving greens. Funny thing is we've got greens all around us--magnolia trees, mountain laurel, holly trees, pines, hemlocks--all these right in our back yard, but among the winter grays and cold temps, they're hard to see.

For this little painting, at first I wasn't interested in the barn but the pine tree. I wanted green! And the early morning light really didn't become a part of the equation until I was halfway finished and realized I was painting it. It was about then that I noticed that the barn was pretty neat, too.

Meanderings:
I had a real wake up call recently. I have accepted an invitation to a challenge group (see sidebar) where individual members take turns naming a subject (or object) that each artist will paint, not to be shared at all until the unveiling date when each group member will post ALL the paintings on their blogs. Our group leader named the first subject.

It was something I'd never heard or nor had any idea about. Our group leader mailed me one and there I found myself confronted with doing a painting of something about which I was totally ignorant. The next several days were spent getting acquainted with this subject before I could have any idea how I could relate to it in a painting.

Stay tuned on February 15 to find out what the subject is and how each of us interpreted it in paint.

In Other News: Pat Weaver is one the artists whose work, in Compose and Empty Easel, I use frequently as a strong example of good composition. Just down the road from here, Pat's giving a workshop March 30-April 3 at the Sautee Nacoochee Center, sponsored by Art Immersions (who brings to our area Charles Reid and Maggie Price, among others and sponsors this blog.) This is a real opportunity to crawl out of winter hibernation, trek up to our lovely north Georgia mountains and begin the birth of spring with an exciting week of studying watercolor with one of the best. Go HERE for details.

Tallulah Quiet and Cold

With this post, I'm beginning a slightly new method for organizing each of my posts. I'm going to take seriously the title of my blog--"Bagatelles and Meanderings"--by talking a little bit about the painting or drawing, then talking about what I'm thinking about.

Here's the first go at trying that out.

Bagatelles:

"A Quiet Tallulah in January"

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

I've commented before about the diversity in the Tallulah River. In some areas the waters are raging with such noise that you can't hear a conversation. In other areas, the waters are calm enough to hear the birds rusting in the trees. This bend in the river is one of the few quiet places along its route. But in January, most days on the river are chilly.

Meanderings:
I've always pondered what happens within the artist that makes a painting different from a photo. This morning while painting, I became aware--though not for the first time--that I was being guided by the scene.

As I squint my eyes, I am guided by the patterns, their sizes and directions and connections to each other. I sort out color variations--some cool, some warm. Then as I open my eyes, I see textures and edges. I become aware that my brush is figuring what it knows that will make those things happen.

So as artist, I've developed skills I spent a long time learning. While learning those skills I was also learning about composing. And all the time I'm learning how to become a whole human being. I'm still learning these things.

So this scene in front of me this morning was guiding me through a place I love, allowing me to see images and patterns from that place, to extract and filter them through the motion of my hands and spill them onto a surface.In other news: one of my new goals for 2009 was to find my voice in watercolor. To that end, I have been doing watercolor studies almost daily. Here's a little tree study done a couple of days ago. I might make it for sale later.

Tallulah Boulders in Winter

"Tallulah Boulders in Winter"
12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

It is complete. Not finished, not all finished--just complete. It's not finished because I'm not through with the Tallulah river theme. I may never be. That river has been such a strong metaphor for me for so many years, I suspect it will hang around yet for awhile. You saw the quite cold of the painting before this one; now the rushing waters among those huge boulders which formed so long ago few humans can conceive of their age. I can't. I can think about it but I can't fully comprehend it. Were there humans on earth when they formed? We don't know.