Three "Daily" Paintings

My daughter recommended I give this some genitalia name, just to get stir up a buzz. I'm not given to that kind of palaver, actually. So, "Cozy Rhody" it is!




The next one is entitled, "Sunny Trio".



The third one is actually the first "flower" piece I did. I was reasonably happy with my attempt, but found it all rather boring. So, I decided to add a juxtaposing type of background(I was going to say non-sequitor, but I couldn't get spell check to help out and my daughter and I couldn't agree on spelling.) I like the result. Entitled, "Can't Change Your Stripes".




The size of all three are 200 x 250 mm, or about 8 x 10 inches for all my non-metric friends.
They are available for purchase on my Yessy site. Go to http://www.yessy.com/beverlyclaridge

Gorgeous Spring Time Down Under!

While Northern Hemispherians are enjoying their Sunday drives through spectacular display of autumn leaves, down under we are enjoying the beauty of spring.

Here in Invercargill, the Parks Department seems to outdo themselves each year with their displays of tulips intermingled with all variety of annuals and perennials used as annuals. Most any drive through town will afford the opportunity to enjoy floral beauty everywhere.

Queens Park, which I consider to be one of the most beautiful parks I've ever been in, is home to what I'm sure is some of the largest rhododendrons on earth. Some of them, over 100 years old, are larger than many two story houses...fair dinkum...or down under for...I ain't lyin'!!! In fact, if you ask me to, I'll see if I can dig up the photos of my daughter standing in front of one of them. It'll be a bit of an undertaking because my computer died a few months ago that contained most of my photographs. I think we've rescued most of them. At any rate, I could just drive over and take photos if I had to.

My purpose for bringing all this up does relate to my quest to complete a painting daily. For my daily efforts, I've decided to go back to painting flowers, which is the first kind of thing I drew when I came to New Zealand, back when coloured pencil was my medium. I was simply blown away by the abundance of incredibly gorgeous flowers of all varieties everywhere.

I've also come to another decision. A painting a day to me does not necessarily mean starting and completing it in one day. If I'm not happy with it, and a few extra licks of paint the next day, or the next, will make it better, then so be it. So far, I've started two rhody works, almost completed one to my satisfaction, and I'm finishing up on a painting of a calla lily. This is in addition to working on two Stewart Island paintings and doing a lot of mulling over two paintings for Ephemeral Perception.

So, yes, I've been one busy artist, which is why I've been late this week with my post. I'm not going to post any of these paintings until I'm happy with them, which hopefully should happen by tomorrow or the next day(which is Saturday for me... with daylight savings on, we are now 5 hours behind and a day ahead of my folks back in Kansas...don't try to figure it out :) )

I'll see if I can find a picture of some of the gorgeous flowers around.

Kia Ora!

...and Blessings!

Resolve and Reality...

Faithful Morning. Oil on Board.

A painting a day....yeah...ummm....no, not yet.

It has been an interesting journey from the point of deciding to do a painting a day.

The first part of that journey took place in a conversation with Bob Martin, the owner of the gallery that represents my art, ArtSouth . He questions the need for me to complete a painting a day, more or less saying he feels my skill level is already more than enough. And he's wanting me to finish my "Ephemeral Perception" series in a timely manner, I suppose, without distraction. Not the exact conversation, mind you, but something to that affect. Or at least how I understood it. While I appreciate these notions, and they were very complimentary, I really want to increase my speed with which I produce my paintings. He expressed concern that speed would diminish my skill level.

The second part came from a response to a post from one of my favourite newly discovered artists, Mark Adams , an amazing, yet humble artist, who wrote in his response to me saying he inspired me to try a painting a day, replied to me on his blogspot of daily paintings:

"Beverly, The daily paintings are a great discipline, just don't let it stress you out on those days that you just can't create or have a social obligation. Rather than scratching out something you aren't happy with, I find it is better to let it go rather than get frustrated. Others find that pushing on is a better philosophy. What ever works for you."

Good words from someone I admire so much. Bob Martin, painting as Robert John Martin, is no slouch either. His paintings of swans, kiwis and trout are masterful, plus he successfully running a gallery with international clients out of Gore, New Zealand.

And the, of course, there is the biggest part of this artist journey with which each practitioner much successfully contend, if that is the right word...family life.

We are blessed to have a couple of my adult children live with us as they complete tertiary studies. They along with my husband, a highly regarded Southland high school teacher, are all home on break before the fourth and final term of this year commences. This situation eliminates a lot of needed quiet time for me.

I work best when I can hear myself think, with few distractions, and perhaps a bit of classical music on the stereo. I am one of those artists that does a lot of painting in my head before a brush hits the panel. All those "I just want to tell you this" interruptions cause me to lose a lot of the mental imagery that I had previously collected. But I love them and try to treasure everyday I have with my family members and so put up with it...but still.

Then we were fortunate to have our lovely wee granddaughter Lori Lee come to stay visit this week, resulting from a last minute decision. Of course we were delighted...but oh my idea of a daily painting...on top of the "big stuff" I need to complete. But I love wee Lori Lee and as a person who has lived more years of her life than she likely has left, I realise the time to form a lasting relationship with her is now...not later when we perhaps watch her go down the aisle with her future husband. Life passes by so quickly! Plus our other granddaughter Nova visits weekly as well. So family life is full.

So, no daily paintings this week. Instead, I have managed to expand my "social" artist network. I am actively involved in BrushSpace, which showcases some brilliant artists and allows each of them to "follow" other artists on the site. Quite a little community is being built. Chrysalis Seed Trust, a site dedicated to help artists of the Christian faith in New Zealand interface with the world at large, and Yessy, a site set up to easily show and sell my paintings. Seeing that art is a rather solo pursuit at times, I figured it was time to get a little more sociable whilst viewing some great artwork and actually discussing philosophical notions. Maybe even sell a painting or two or three...or four!!!

So all I can say, I suppose, is stay tuned. I do plan to manage to do almost daily paintings soon. In the meantime be sure to check out some the links I've put down. And enjoy looking at one of the paintings from my Stewart Island series. Until then...blessings!

Okay!! Daily Paintngs...Well, yes....

I realise that it has been almost a year since my last post. My fourth quarter of the year resolution is to update this blog at least weekly, if not daily.

Why my new resolve...well, a lot of it has to do with BrushSpace(click on to the link at the side of my page). I received a rather innocuous email a few weeks back asking me to be part of a 4 week old website for "top" artists. Couldn't resist the "top" hook and so I checked it out. What I saw was almost enough to make me want to throw away all my brushes, paints, and pencils!!! There are some phenomenal artists on there. Most notably, for me, Mark Adams, Chris Stott, and James Neil Hollingsworth just to name a few!!

With fear and trepidation, I joined the group, uploaded a few of my better images and, sure enough, received enough "followers" of my artwork to keep me going!! More importantly, as I am want to do when I spot a good artist on the inet, I started visiting the websites of these outstanding artists to perhaps gleen something I could use. To get some inspiration...

What I discovered was a real community of artist using the internet to network. More importantly, I discovered many of these amazing artists participate in the "painting a day" movement. Now, understand, I paint very slowly, so for me to agree to try to do a painting a day is a fundamental change of work habits. Especially considering I'm in the thick of painting my series of 1000mm x 800mm artworks for "Ephemeral Perception", my next solo exhibition. But, I want to paint better, so, here I go!!!

I'm not up to the painting per day yet, but I've completed 250 x 200 mm(I think 8x 10 inches in the old money) paintings. One of a tea cup...not so successful and one of Oreti Beach on a windy day. (I almost lost my car to the surf, as it surged and surrounded it...with me in it!!) I've also completed a couple of works that for some reason or other I had not managed to. Plus, I've started two more "Stewart Island" paintings. All in addition to working on two 800 x 1000 mm (roughly 2.5 by 3 foot works). It all makes for a full day. I've also joined Yessy in order to sell my Daily Paintings. So if you see something you want to purchase from me, google Yessy and insert my name in their search. I've yet to figure out what the html for my page on Yessy is.

So, I'll post all I've completed so far, and when I get a photo of it made, will post the tea cup...all in the spirit of fairness, I guess.