I enjoyed painting so much this last weekend and it was especially fulfilling to complete the work before end of day on Sunday.
Done and framed.
The picture here, like all of the pictures of my paintings that I post on this website, are merely raw shots with my phone and do not do the works justice. I just enjoy sharing them.
In this spirit of the romantic historical fiction of the “Outlander” series, I decided to paint from a photograph I took of my husband as he walked one morning through the grasses near one of our encampments. He was wearing a great kilt.
This painting will probably stay in my personal collection.
Sometimes it feels like our days are so full of all of our life obligations, commitments, projects and chores that there is no time left open for pleasure choices. When we do see a moment and decide to go for the fun, we feel guilty that we chose to put pleasure over ,,, housework, for example. Well today I need to remember that painting is more than a guilty pleasure for me, it is a commitment. I am off to the easel.
Being in a position to paint while talking to the public is such a joy it’s hard to explain. I get to paint, true fun to be sure, but to also talk about the history of women in the arts, my tools, my thinking process, and the joys of being a librarian and researching all of the details necessary to portray my persona in history. It is wonderful. The perfect storm.
I am in Platteville, Wisconsin this weekend working in the field, in another time period.
Fellow reenactor stopped for a visit and agreed to pose.
It is always a great day when I can carve out time to paint and when that is a whole Saturday I am elated. The first part of the day I was able to bring out the painting of the late afternoon sun that I had started in the spring.
Finally capturing the hidden light source.
For a number of reasons, most related to being too busy or having priorities determined by other parts of my life, this work has leaned in a corner for most of the summer. I knew it was close to done but there were things that felt awkward in parts of the image and my distractions had made it hard to pinpoint the problems. Yesterday, I had the time to implement the sub processing that had been going on [a large portion of any creative work goes on in the mind without touching the materials] and complete it.
Soft blended light of diffused early morning light over water.
The rest of the day I spent completing a panorama format landscape I started after I got back from a trip to north shore Superior in early August. I had been able to work on the sky in small increments (after work some evenings), but a nice, long stretch made it possible to gain inertia in a way I couldn’t have predicted. The paint just flew and my mind kept pace. It was pure pleasure.
Undivided time to paint for long stretches is such a rare blessing and I am thankful. I look forward to the time in my life when these kinds of days are more the norm and less the exception.
I hope you enjoy seeing the new work. Unfortunately, the little thumbnails I post here or the larger pictures in the galleries, both taken by my phone, cannot do the originals justice.
For the last month I have enjoyed a series of small historical encampment vacations that have been relaxing and refreshing. Part of what has made the time so calming for me was that I took my paints and some canvas along.
Some of the paintings I completed in August.
Since I enjoyed painting en plein aire when I was in Washington Island earlier in the summer, I decided to continue painting these quick oil sketches at the next two places. The first encampment was on the western bank of Lake Michigan in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sunrise was amazing each morning and really fast changing, demanding focused speed to capture the light and clouds.
The next encampment was on the North shore of Lake Superior at the Grand Portage National Park service site. This camp is an annual gathering of historians who put up canvas tents for a quick 5 days of early fur trade rendezvous.
What serious fun. I have tended to paint slowly and meticulously with a great deal of detail for many years and painting in this impressionistic style is so freeing and calming that it is having a good influence on the style of my overall treatment of the subjects. It is loosening me up nicely and helping me pick up speed. That is all good.
There’s an old farm adage that applies today, “Make hay while the sun shines…”. I have this day to work and don’t want to waste a bit of it. While I am waiting between the steps preparing the other board, I was painting a small portrait to try out my new magnifying lamp.
Extreemly small portrait. Watercolor on bristol. Dollhouse scale.
It takes a little practice to adjust to looking through magnification but it was fun. My phone shot doesn’t do it justice but thought I’d share anyway.
In the spirit of showing the process of how I make art, I invite you to walk with me as I create these new small works.
Step 1: Creating the board.
I’ve started today creating a board, as has been used through a long tradition as a painting surface. Board is less used today with the availability of pre-stretched canvas. I enjoy working on this firmness of surface so I prepared a scale board of ash. To remain true to scale, I used ash veneer with several coats of diluted gesso, sanding each layer as it dried. This finished painting will be 3 inches wide and 2 and 1/8 inches tall. I hope you enjoy watching.
I have always loved the world of miniatures and making small art. From 18th century portrait miniatures to dollhouse miniatures, it is just good fun to work in small scale. This last February I painted a watercolor landscape in an enamel pin-brooch (see image in that post) and enjoyed making it very much.
North shore afternoon. Watercolor.
In April I went to one of Tom Bishop’s International Miniature Shows and I was thrilled and challenged by the caliber of fine craftsmanship I saw. I decided fairly quickly that I would like to try my hand at high-end, dollhouse paintings and get into that show.
This is the first of a whole series of paintings I will be completing over the next months to build inventory so that I can be in that show next April. I am anticipating a need for a minimum of 30 to sustain inventory for the weekend so they should be coming along at a pretty healthy clip. I would love feedback on them, if you’re so inclined.
Don’t worry, I have full intention of continuing my large scale work as well. Enjoy!
Kelly E. James 