Get What You Need

Greetings and I hope you enjoy this oak tree painting entitled “Get What You Need.” I’ll describe why I called this painting by this name (a variation on “You Can’t Always Get What You Want“) in a minute. But first, I want to describe the purpose of this post and blog.

Small Spaces Special Places

Each year, I select a theme for my weekly paintings. For instance, this year’s is “Small Spaces Special Places.” One reason for this theme is I have been surprised, even delighted, with the small spaces in our house that have captured my eye.

Then, there are the special places I see on my daily dog walks here in Raleigh. Each morning, rain or shine, I love getting outdoors and looking for special places to paint. Sometimes, we venture on the road and I expect to share paintings of special places from these trips, too.

Most weeks, I also share an exercise, book and/or a painter who inspires my work. If you know someone who you think might enjoy a weekly dose of color, with a dash of art history, please encourage them to sign up here for this weekly blog. And, heads up, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You’ll see this in a few links below. Let’s get to the colorful stuff, shall we?

Hello Fred and Priorities

On Wednesday this week, I walked up to Fred Fletcher Park in Raleigh to paint…outdoors…in front of whomever might walk by. This is a big deal for me for several reasons. Let me share those reasons. And, please know that I am sharing this for you in the hopes that it might inspire you. That is, I am not complaining (well, OK I may winge a bit).

First, I didn’t go to art school (as an older student, uprooting me, my spouse and pets and moving to Philly for five years) to paint landscapes outdoors. I went to art school because I wanted to learn to paint beautiful figure paintings. I wanted my artwork to show the connectedness of humanity. That is, I dreamt of being able to show how we are all similar in so many more ways than we are different.

As I worked and studied and painted and studied, I started to think about several things that were important and relevant to me. What paintings do I collect and love? What places do I enjoy the most. Where do I get a sense of connection? What brings me joy? What is beauty?

Don’t get me wrong! I love painting human beings. But a combination of the struggle that every painter goes through, personal loss of a family member last year, along with the isolation of the pandemic forced me to assess what’s most important and valuable to me.

Baby Steps

The biggest realization is that I love to spend time outdoors. I also love to be outdoors walking. And, I came to see how much I love being outdoors walking with my spouse, friends and our dog. Once I realized I could connect my love of outdoors with painting, I had an “Aha” moment.

But five years studying and painting the human figure does not prepare me for the challenges of landscape painting. And, believe it or not, dear readers, painting outdoors is a whole new trajectory of challenges.

What steps did I take? Baby Steps of course. I thought of what problems I might encounter outdoors. I started reading some of the great books including Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting and Arthur Wesley Dow’s Composition: Understanding Line, Notan and Color (Affiliate links).

I also started to set the timer and do timed color sketches waayyy back in February. Why? Well, for one thing, the light changes when painting outdoors. So I knew I needed to pick up the pace of my painting. Timed color sketches have helped with that.

Just Do It

It’s all well and good to read about painting outdoors. But ultimately, I had to…welp…go paint outdoors. How did I begin to do that? Baby steps again. You may find this hard to believe but I was really nervous about this part. Why? I’m shy!!!! Really!!!

So I decided to paint what I could see from our front porch and back deck first. That way, I was outdoors but not out in the world…yet. So I looked out our front door. Then I looked to my left. Our neighbor’s Japanese Maple was sitting there in all it’s red and radiant glory.

Whew! Painting that tree was fun. But I wanted a way to nudge myself a bit more. You know, kind of like when you start running and you think “Hmmm…maybe I should run a marathon.”

Plein AirPril

So I started painting and posting a plein air (outdoor) painting everyday in April. Yipes! I’m seven days into this painting marathon. So far I have learned that gouache is a great medium but it can dry really quickly…especially outdoors. And, when it dries the value of the colors is quite dramatically different. In other words, I think I’m showing light on a tree branch and then 5 minutes later, after the paint has dried, it’s too dark.

This is not the paint’s problem. I love the velvety Turner Acryl Gouache paint (Affiliate link) that I use! The problem is the paint operator (moi)! So I am noodling on some ways to improve my ability to gauge the shift in values as the paint dries while I’m painting. If you’re interested in seeing the daily paintings I post in April during the Plein Airpril competition, you can click “follow” on my Instagram link.

Painting Inspiration

Before I share the whys and whats of this week’s painting and it’s name, I have to share the name of a Canadian landscape painter with you. Her name is Emily Carr and she was completely obsessed with painting trees. If you get a chance to read about her in that previous link, you will find she had quite a salty personality.

Her landscapes, especially this one, are so colorful and loose and inspirational to me. So there you nearly have it dear readers! If you can’t always get what you want, you may find, you get what you need. And, at the end of the day, that’s pretty AOK. Don’t you think? Oh and here’s today’s painting inspired by that song.

I have noticed that each tree that I paint has it’s own unique ‘gesture.’ So, I am glad to know that the gazillions of human gesture drawings and paintings I have done are appearing in these mighty little tree paintings. Yay!

What about you? Have you found that you have adjusted your thinking after the 2020 pandemic and other seismic events you may have experienced? If so, please do share in the comments below.