Travel photos from London trip

Yes, I've only been home from my visit to Montana for four days, but when opportunity knocks, one must answer!

And when someone asks, "Do you want to go…."
My answer will be YES 99.9% of the time.

Last week I relayed my first steps of planning a sizable three-panel triptych. I’m excited to share that I’ve started on the first panel, and while it’s not done, it is covered top to bottom in big swaths of paint and texture!

I have an opportunity!

A really BIG, fantastic, incredible opportunity!

The backstory.

In 2020 I was selected to be part of a residency program called the "Artist Accelerator Program," created and hosted by The Arts Center in Corvallis, OR. It is a program designed to help artists excel at the business of being an artist.

Last week I wrote to you about constraints. This week, I worked on a painting using only three colors. Payne’s Gray, Chromium Oxide Brown, and Raw Umber (also brown). I enjoyed the process and look forward to seeing what I can do with two colors next time.

The video linked below is almost 9 minutes long. I did not speed up any of the footage, but there was a large swath of time that I did not film.

I've been thinking recently about how putting constraints on oneself can lead to more creativity. I've had some real-world first-hand knowledge in understanding how conditions lead to more creativity by being a member of a co-op gallery. In the gallery, creating work that is appealing to people visiting the coast is in my best interests, so I paint the ocean. I love painting the sea, so it works out for everyone, but I've come up with some really inventive ways to paint the ocean because that's all I paint. Along these lines, I am trying to design exercises to continue to foster the creativity that constriction and constraints provide.

Rockaway Beach in the winter is pretty stunning. I spent a mostly unplugged weekend away with a good friend. We talked, laughed, ate food, visited the local creameries, ate cheese and ice cream, and took several beach walks. The clouds were dramatic and doing things that only winter clouds do. Please enjoy the show!

Sometimes progress and the process go in different directions. Sometimes they are at the very opposite ends of the spectrum. Which is hard when one expects the process to yield progress.

My usual process is walking, exploring, taking photos, and finding an image I can’t wait to paint. I then race to my studio and get it down onto a surface before it can escape my brain.

This image was going to be a challenge, but I was ready to lean into these big puffy dramatic clouds.

I've had an idea that I've been mulling over: to share more of my painting process. I've tried various tripods, but they need to be more up to the task of filming a flat desk. So I did some digging, read many reviews, watched some YouTube, and came up with this delicious contraption!

I love art supplies.

I love the colors.

I love the textures.

I love the smells.

I love how they come in all different applications.

Tubes, sticks, pots, pans, pencil form, crayon form, thick, thin, chubby, chunky, mini there is no end to how the color is delivered.

But most of all, I love the potential.

Each tube of paint, each brush, and each canvas has the potential to be something beautiful, something that might move someone to laugh, cry, smile, or even cringe a little.

Last week I wrote to you about the lessons I had learned regarding professional framing. Let me tell you, the learning curve did not end there. On belay!

And to answer the immediate question that I assume any rational person would ask. “Jill, How have you been painting with watercolor for more than ten years and not know about framing?

Well, friend, the truth is pretty simple, I do this with my paintings…

Last week I spent the afternoon with a fellow gallery member. She was kind enough to welcome me into her home and then lend me some knowledge that she has spent years cultivating and curating. It was time well spent, and I am forever grateful that she agreed to share it with me. I am already a better artist for it.

I had no idea how much I didn’t know about matting, framing, and art preservation. My mind was quite blown. It’s an entire art form all by itself.

I’ve added a new introductory page to my website. Since I created the site, I’ve had an artist statement, but those tend to be a little stale and stuffy. They don’t say much about who the person is outside of their art. if you’d like to know more about what makes me tick and inspires me, please check it out - About JillThis page is a hello from me to you!

I understand that this is not the time of year to promote or tout rest because it’s the holidays and there is SO MUCH TO DO, but I’ve learned a critical lesson about rest recently, and I wanted to share it in the hope that someone can learn from my mistakes.

I’ve been a knitter for longer than I haven’t been a knitter if that makes sense. My mom taught me the basics when I was seven or eight. It was something I did now and then as a kid. In my final semester of college, I went back to it - I needed something different than studying. When I began working full time, and my paints sat in the depths of various storage units, I went back to knitting. Wool became my best friend. It is soft and comforting, it was and is creating while resting, and it has taught me so much about going back and getting things right. And when things go poorly, knitting taught me it’s okay to knit a simple striped scarf pattern as often as it takes for things to get better.

My current wax and watercolor paintings have been inspired by this one super rainy, cold, windy, beautiful morning on the beach with Roxy.

Trust.

I've been leaning into trust recently.

I have been challenging myself to make decisions without second-guessing. Choosing not to trust the weather app on my phone, knowing it's going to rain again at any moment. It is winter on the coast, for Pete's sake!

Another layer of trust I have come to understand recently is around my art. I've long believed talent is more about time spent in practice than an inherent skill set. But I am starting to think that talent goes deeper than that, the time spent is vital, but the time is less about developing a skill set and more about trusting oneself and the materials.

I've spent more than three years living in Newport and have yet to trust myself to paint the ocean in watercolor. It felt too advanced for where I was in my skill level. But as I've leaned into painting with watercolor more, I've grown brave with the subject matter I am willing to tackle with my paintbrush.

I have always loved stickers. I am of the generation where a sticker book was a thing. Sticker books existed because the stickers were too valuable to put elsewhere. Other possible locations for stickers were a letter to a friend or maybe on a brown paper bag school book cover, but nowhere else!

But now. Now, the mighty sticker is not just reserved for little girls with puffy pink books. Stickers go everywhere, from curated water bottles to car windows, cases, coolers, journals, and many more exciting places. Creating a mobile showroom for these fun, creative, and gorgeous works of art!

I don't know if you'd call it overconfident, lazy, or how you would even label it, but sometimes (in art and life), when I think I've got the hang of something and that I'm unstoppable - along comes a porcupine to let me know I still have work to do.

So...so...so much work to do.

For example, I painted this otter and am in love with water. I also love the colors of the wings on the raven. These two paintings came together like spreading butter on hot toast. They were almost effortless. I was feeling on top of the world!

Then, along waddled this porcupine.

I was at a gathering of artists a few weeks back. We ate good food, laughed, and told stories about being young and dumb. The weather was sublime, and it was a lovely evening. But the part that has stuck with me and the line that struck a chord deep in my soul, the line that I will never forget, was the most profound compliment from one accomplished artist to another. “I can see the hours in your work,” He said.

Meaning- I can see the years you have spent honing your skills when I look at your paintings. And it’s true, it’s so easy to look at a beautiful painting or sculpture and think that artist is so lucky to have all that talent, but it’s not luck. It’s HOURS.