Holiday Time in New York City

Monday night I was out and about and saw some great holiday displays.  I've been experimenting with taking photos at night and while this is best done with a tripod, I wanted to get some candid shots while walking around.

These were taken near the Chase Building on Sixth Avenue.  It was really pretty with everything lit up.

A strange looking Hello Kitty and the cowboy from Toy Story were posing for pictures (for money of course, so I didn't get too close)!

Radio City all lit up and decorated for Christmas.

It is hard to see, but if you look closely even the pretzel guy had his cart decked out for the holidays.

Here are a bunch of people getting drawings done of themselves.  There were also tons of people out buying handbags, but I have to tell everybody - those aren't real!!

Why were there so many people out at ten o'clock on a Monday night in December? Because of this:

That's right.  It was 59 degrees at 10:02pm on December third in New York City!  I'm not one to walk around at night in the winter time, so this was a real treat.  Of course, we're back to freezing now, but it was a nice break.

I'll be back with another post of holiday windows so stay tuned!

Book Review: Creativity at Work

Creativity at Work is the new book by the author of the Habitually Chic blog, Heather Clawson.  Habitually Chic was my gateway drug into the world of interior design and fashion blogs, so I've been eagerly anticipating the publication of Heather's first book.

Creativity at Work is a beautiful hardcover book giving us a peek into the offices and studios of top designers, artists and creative directors.  The photos, all taken by Heather, are gorgeous, but my favorite part of the book was reading the designers stories about how they got started and what they are doing now.  They also give us a few words of advice, something I love hearing from talented professionals.

Like everyone else, I'm dying over Jenna Lyon's office and love the interview with Mickey Boardman, but my favorite story comes from Bunny Williams.  She wanted to work for a decorator so just walked up to Parish-Hadley and asked if there was an opening!  I can't imagine that happening today but you never know.  It's a good lesson to go after what you want.  Actually, that is a theme that runs throughout the book and something that is important for creative people to remember.

Creativity at Work is a great read.  I can't wait to see what Heather has planned next!

The Artists Way

Are you guys familiar with The Artist's Way?  Written about twenty years ago by Julia Cameron, it is a great book for artists of any kind.  The front cover bills it as "a course in discovering and recovering your creative self".  I bought the book many years ago, put it on my shelf and promptly forgot about it.  I've since learned that this is a very common occurrence.  Last January, after spending way too much time reading design blogs and even more time on Pinterest I decided that I needed to style my bookshelves.

While this restyling was going on, I happened across my Artist's Way book.  I had forgotten that I even owned it and was actually thinking about buying one.  On a whim I decided to google around and see if there were any courses happening in my area and as luck would have it, a six week course was just about to start.  The book itself is a twelve week course, but I signed up for the six weeks to get started.

I was very lucky.  My class was taught by one of Julia Cameron's teaching partners, James Nave.  I went to my class every week for six weeks and worked along with the book.  Unfortunately, I did not continue on to the remaining six chapters,  so I have decided to do the book again on my own.  Once a week for the next twelve weeks I will write about everything that I'm doing with the course.

First up, the Basic Tools.  Julia states that there are two basic tools needed for creative recovery.  The first of them is the morning pages.

The morning pages.  Oy vey.  These would be much easier for me if they were the afternoon pages.  I am as far from a morning person as you can get, but they are a very important part of the course.  Basically it is three pages of long hand writing of what ever pops into your head.  You don't stop writing until your three pages are finished.  You are not suppose to think about it, just do it.  Julia says that in order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it.  I'm luckier than many people doing the course.  I have not lost my creativity, but I discovered through doing the morning pages that I often let "the excruciating minutia", to quote Elaine Benes, of every day get in the way of my creativity. I was doing everything I needed to do and then making time to paint.  The painting time has to come first and if the house isn't perfect or the paperwork needs to be done it just has to wait.

The second tool is the artist date.  The artist date is a block of time set aside once a week to do something fun and nurturing to your inner artist.  I have to admit, when I did the course the first time I did not do the artist date.  I made the excuse that I did not have time for it, but the truth is, I didn't make the time.  The artist date can be anything.  A trip to the museum, a car ride, a long walk.  This past Friday I was in between appointments and I realized I had an hour and a half of free time.  I started thinking of all the tasks  I could accomplish in that time, but instead decided to take myself on my first artist date.  I happened to be on the Upper East Side, so I decided to window shop along Madison Avenue.  The store windows were beautifully decorated and seeing them was very inspirational.

Julia says that your artist needs to be taken out, pampered and listened to. I rarely do that to myself, much less my inner artist.  She also states that there are many ways to avoid this commitment and she is so right.  I have to do it again this week and am struggling to make time for it, but I will let you know where I go and what I do.

There is so much more to The Artist's Way than what I've written here.  If you would like to check out the book for yourself, it is available here.

Are you doing The Artist's Way? Leave me a comment.  I would love to read about your experience with this amazing book.

Frances

Public Service Announcement

As most of the world knows, last week Hurricane Sandy destroyed parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  With another storm on the way tomorrow, people in the affected areas need all the help they can get.  I've been using Amazon Wishlists to send things to charities and organizations that need help and using the wishlists means they get exactly what they need.

If you would like to help, here are two of the links that I've been using:

Occupy Sandy: Occupy has been helping storm victims in the Rockaways, Brooklyn and Staten Island from the beginning.  They desperately need cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products and cold weather clothing. Here is their wishlist.

Liberty Humane Shelter Jersey City:  Liberty is an animal shelter in Jersey City.  They had an Amazon wishlist before the storm, but I used it the other day to send them some cleaning supplies and food.

There are lots of other places that are trying to help out.  My Assemblyman and Councilwoman are both having donation drives at their offices.  You can call your local politicians and see what they are doing.

Last, many organizations need volunteers to drive supplies and people to the affected areas, food prep and delivery, medical personnel, people to sort donations, answer phones and do data entry.

I know I usually talk about fun things here, but with all the devastation that has taken place I felt I had to do my part to publicize ways to help.  I will be back tomorrow with a fun art book post.

Thank you,

Frances

**PS:  To my US readers - Get out and vote!!

The Blogcademy

The weekend before last I had the amazing chance to attend The Blogcademy, put on by blogging goddesses Gala Darling, Nubbytwiglet and Kat of Rock and Roll Bride.  I've been following Gala and Nubby since their livejournal days, so it was great to meet them in person and hear first hand how they grew their blogs and their businesses.

Me with the fabulous Gala Darling

This class was amazing.  There was so much material covered starting with how to grow your blog and turn it into a business, branding your business, how to get a book deal and so much more.

Nubby, Kat and Gala

Kat and Nubby watching Gala's presentation

The other great part of the weekend was meeting so many inspiring women from all over the world.  Bloggers came from England, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia as well as different parts of the United States.  And speaking of amazing women attending The Blogcademy:

Me with Veronica Varlow (doing I'm not worthy motions right now!)

The amazing Veronica Varlow was a fellow student!  Yes, the Danger Dame herself was there and not only is she tall and gorgeous, she is also incredibly sweet and friendly.  My secret art fantasy has always been that I win the Mega Millions, have a huge studio of my own and paint all the Dr. Sketchys models.  I guess it's not a secret anymore, but a big part of the weekend was putting your goals down on paper and out into the world.

I have to give Gala, Kat and Nubby a huge thank you for all the work they did to give us this presentation.  Thank you for an amazing and inspiring weekend!


Frances

*Due to hurricane Sandy, Gala is without power and Veronica is in the flood zone.  Please send some good vibes out to them and everybody else affected by the storm.

Union Square Redux

Remember my Union Square debacle with the falling painting? Well, I finally got back there to finish up the rehabilitation.  After falling face down in the dirt (not actual dirt, it was concrete, but since this is New York City there was plenty of dirt on the ground), I had to use duct tape to gently get dirt, sand, particles and who knows what else off of the wet painting.  After it dried a bit I had to wipe the whole panel down with a paper towel.  Needless to say, the painting needed some work after all that.

I tried to fix it up at home, but the spontaneity of the painting was lost.  Luckily, we had a gorgeous day last week and I was able to get back out there and fix it up.

Before The Fall

This is the painting before the great wind gust of 2012.  This was back in June, so the light was different last week, but due to the great weather, I just repainted it and I think it worked out fine.

The great thing about oil painting is that when disaster happens you can just paint right over it.  So glad this painting was not lost for good.

Artist Demonstration

A few weeks ago I attended a demonstration given by my teacher, Gregg Kreutz.  Gregg does demos for us once or twice a year and I love watching them.  Not only do I learn a lot about the painting process and color mixing, but it is incredibly interesting to watch a master artist at work.

Maja, our model 

The demo was a portrait of our lovely model, Maja.  

Gregg's Palette

The start

Gregg has a formula for painting.  He starts with the placement, then moves on to the background (seen above), then shadow and light.  I'll do a separate post about this in the future.  It is a great method that really works and changed my painting life forever.  

Adding Shadow

The light was coming from the left for this set up, so if you look on the right side of Maja's face and neck you will see the shadows added in there.  

Light Added

In the photo above you can see the light added next to the shadow.

Finished

The demo lasted about two hours.  I find it amazing that Gregg can get this much done while teaching us and answering questions at the same time.  If you ever have the opportunity to watch an artist at work, take it.  I hope you enjoyed seeing this portrait demonstration.  

Some New Still Life Paintings

I'm still working on getting all of my paintings photographed.  I will post them as I get them done.  Once I get them all completed I will make albums here on the blog, but for now I hope you enjoy seeing these posts.

Still Life With Nectarines and Grapes

Brass Jug With Lemons

The Copper Pot

Fruit and Bread

Thanks for looking and I'll have a new post up soon with a great painting demonstration that I attended.

Flower Power

Flowers are my favorite thing to paint.  I don't know why, but they just come naturally to me.  I'm very lucky to be able to get some amazing bouquets at the farmers market and there is nothing I like better than setting them up in a great vase and getting to work.

Another great thing about painting florals is that you can't procrastinate or obsess over the painting.  You just have to get on with it as flowers do not last very long and will usually change from day to day.

Here are a few of my flower paintings.  Hope you like them.

New York City Wildlife

My blog name says I'm a painter, but I'm also a photographer.  In fact, I was taking photos long before I ever picked up a paint brush and one of my favorite subjects is New York City.  I have always loved everything about the city.  Every place that you look there is something or someone to photograph.  I started doing this as a child.  I remember taking a class trip to the top of the Empire State Building and taking photos with my little Kodak Instamatic camera with a flashbulb on top (yes, I just outed my age).  Speaking of which, last week I saw some kids on the subway trying to put film into a 35mm SLR.  They were looking at it like it was an ancient artifact!  Too funny.

Anyway, I was looking through photos today and realized that I have a lot of pictures of wildlife around the city.  When I think of NYC wildlife, I mostly picture cockroaches and rats running around the subway, but if you look around, there are many cute critters running and swimming around.

Turtles in Douglaston

Ducks and seagulls in Long Island City ( I know it is hard to spot the seagulls, but I love this shot with the UN and the Chrysler building in the background)

These guys were hanging out and watching me paint at the Abingdon Square Market

A pretty bird hiding in the trees at the pond in Douglaston

It is always fun to see animals in the city.  I'll be on the lookout for more.

Art Supplies

I'm always curious about the supplies artists use to make their creations so I thought I'd talk a bit about what I use.  When I first started painting I had a million different supplies.  I had paint in every color, a ton of brushes, different mediums, palettes and every gadget imaginable.  I could go into the art supply store for one thing and come out with bags of art materials.

What I didn't know at the time is that having a ton of art supplies around will not make you a good painter.  Educating yourself and practice are what it takes.  A few years ago I noticed that the best painters in my class had very few supplies- usually just a small paint box, some brushes, a medium, palette and a limited number of colors.  I decided to do the same and it completely changed the way that I paint.  When I got rid of the clutter I became a much better painter.

My current palette consists of:

Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Light
Cadmium Yellow Deep
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Red
Burnt Sienna
Transparent Red Oxide
Burnt Umber
Raw Umber
Alizarin Crimson
French Ultramarine
Ivory Black

I use a variety of filbert brushes, 922 Medium, two palette knives (one large and one small) and turpenoid.  I paint on Innerglow Panels. I started using these a few years ago and doubt I'll ever go back to canvas.  These boards have a great surface to paint on so no prep is needed and they are double sided.  If you don't like your painting, just turn it over and start again.

With the exception of an easel, this is it. Using a limited palette of colors is actually much easier and the colors are better when you mix them yourself.

Last, but not least, my studio assistant. Every artists needs one.

Cityscape Painting

Every year my teacher, Gregg Kreutz, takes us on an outdoor painting trip here in New York City.  This year we went to Abingdon Square Park and Union Square.  Painting outside is always a challenge - you have to deal with weather, wind, changing light and of course all the people who want to chat with you while you are trying to paint.  It is all worth it though.  Some of my favorite paintings are the ones I have done outside here in the city.  Most important, we always have a great time and lots of fun. Here are a few shots from our weekend out.

This was the first painting I did in Abingdon Square Park.  I ended up wiping it down but looking at it now it wasn't too bad.  I just wasn't feeling it and when that happens I've learned it's best to just move on.

The next day I moved to just outside the park.  They have a great farmers market there on Saturday so I decided to paint the tents.  This turned out to be a great spot and the weather was perfect.

This is my painting of the farmers market and my favorite of the cityscapes I've done so far.

The next day we moved up to Union Square.  Union Square is always a challenge as it is loaded with people and it seems like they all want to chat with you!

This is the painting that I did that day.  Unfortunately, just as I was about to finish up, a huge wind gust came along and blew my easel over and the painting landed face down on the ground.  It was a wet oil painting so of course it was covered with dirt, sand and who knows what else.  I am still trying to rehabilitate it and will post a photo when it is finally finished.

You never know what is going to happen when you are painting outdoors and painting in the city is especially challenging, but so much fun and the paintings you end up with are unlike any place else.

Our teacher, Gregg Kreutz.  The man that makes it all happen. Thanks, Gregg!