"Color of water?"

 Local business owner of Magnolia Gallery in Larkspur, Theresa Ryan, an amazing framer and creative person extraordinaire, has "The color of water?" series on display in her shop window.. along with my first surfboard (with a painted graphic that covered a hung ding repair) and an amazing recliner built by Matt Stoich who has a custom upholstery shop next door... all sitting on 200 pounds of sand in the window.. Thanks Theresa! Check it out if you are in Larkspur! I love seeing the 4 paintings all together.

A surf painting!

Needed a break from the water surfaces, so decided to give a try at a more "traditional" surf painting.. "K.B.'s Left" is actually a first for me as the surfer is actually the focus of attention.. (Not counting the surf photos I copied in high school.) Thought it would be interesting to combine the water surface ( foreground) with a shot of someone actually surfing.. I had taken a photo of my surfing buddy, Kathy, a while back. I worked with a couple of reference photos to  provide additional information of the wave, the light, and the foreground surface.. I was also trying to capture the morning light at our surf spot.. And the color of the water is rarely that color.. but as we all know,  the color of water is an endless topic for me... A nice little experiment...

Both of these painting capture the feeling I have while I am out on my board. I love it that every time I surf, I am also working.. Art is life.

"K.B.'s Left"  9"x12"  oil on masonite

(an earlier painting- focus on water, not the surfer)

Silver and green

Moving right along. My goal is to do 8 of these 16" x 20" paintings.. Exploring different angles, colors , light. etc..  Four down, four to go...

"silver swell"  16"x20"  oil on canvas

"green sea" 16"x20" oil on canvas

Longing for beginner's mind

Why I haven't posted recently:

1)  Finished "the color of water ?" series.. yikes! what next?

2)  Excessive ukulele practice/play

3)  Child #2 moved into her own place and started a new job.

4)  surfing

5)  distractible mind (so what else is new?) 

6)  what next? (again) 

7)  designed a tee shirt for the Berkeley Ukulele Club..by hand... THAT took a lot of time..

8)  and all the other life stuff

 Now that I have a LOT of water paintings and explorations under my belt I don't feel quite so much like the beginner I was when I started all this.  I also feel like I am starting to repeat myself..and when I stop seeing new things, well... I lose interest and move to other things.. I know I have just scratched the surface with the water paintings.. ah, for a return to beginners mind.. 

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few"- Susuki Roshi

SOOOOOOOOO.. I decided to buy eight 16"x20" canvasses and just paint as a practice.. Move quickly from one to another (yeah, right!) .. They actually look pretty cool when I hang all of the same size together.. Here are the first two.. (not including the 4 completed canvasses I already have)   

"Peachy morning" oil/canvas 16"x20"

"Shallow" oil/canvas 16"x20"

The color of water series

 "What is the color of water?"

 The one thing I know for sure is that "capturing" color on canvas is even more difficult than "capturing" movement.  It's varied and changing essence is dependent on surrounding atmospheric conditions, global location and what microscopic particles are in the water itself. 

 If nothing else, I learned a lot about the pigment that comes out of a tube of paint and how to work with that color to change it in so many different ways... It has helped me see these minuscule changes when I am out in the water... Always something new to see..I can see how artists may spend a lifetime trying to understand what they are seeing.. I am still looking! And looking forward to starting a new exploration...

As for the color of water? I still have NO idea! 

                                                                            

"the color of water #1 " , 24"x30", oil/canvas

"the color of water #2", 24"x30", oil/canvas

"the color of water #3", 24"x30", oil/canvas

"the color of water #4", 24"x30", oil/canvas

                                      

working

I am working on a series based on the concept of the previous painting.. Plan to post them all when I finish, so stay tuned! HAve 2 more almost finished. One more blank canvas..

The obvious question...

What is the color of water?

the color of water?  #1  24"x30"  oil on canvas

This question has been my companion since I first opened a tube of paint and attempted to paint the element I adore and spend so much time in... I know, I know, water technically is clear, and reflects it's surroundings, but still....the beginning of a more methodical exploration perhaps? Especially in relation to pigments. 

Grey Morning

"grey morning"  9"x12" oil on board

Ultimately I am drawn to black and white. Especially after the past little diversion of "glorious eyes"

Two more...

Smaller pieces, can be rotated any way you want... these were shot with a top light and are a little bright on the top...

Different marks on paper

A friend gave me a huge sheet of paper, beautiful thick yummy amazing paper, at least 10 years ago, if not more.. As a paper hoarder, I have been saving it, waiting for the right opportunity to use it..It has been rolled up in the closet, stored under the bed, and hung on the wall, accumulating all sorts of nicks, scratches, cobwebs and cat hair along the way.. And then the right image finally appeared.. 

About the image: I saw some Aboriginal artwork a few years ago in a magazine by a elderly woman named Gloria and was immediately attracted to the technique of white brush strokes on black and the exciting combination or form, light, and movement.. So I finally decided to just go for it and try it myself...

Because I couldn't paint it on my wall easel (not rigid enough) I ended up working on my hands and knees in my small studio, placing a piece of shelving across the paper to kneel on... Once the general image was done, I hung it on the easel and worked on bringing it to life.. It was so much fun and has opened up many new possibilities...as well as reminding me just how much I love black and white! 

I have called it "Glorious eyes" -a play on "Gloria's eyes", homage to the inspiring woman who sparked this work in the first place..

"Glorious Eyes"  acrylic on paper 48"x75"

Impulse post

I have been in the limbo between paintings, actually it is more like purgatory or the bardo....A familiar and very unpleasant space to occupy...What do I do next??? My head is filled with all the images I want to do and because none in particular stands out, I end up doing nothing and just "wasting time" ... Hmmm , maybe the point is to do nothing and to be ok with it... I have read that this plateau, although unpleasant and dull, is often a necessary step along the way...
 There are a few painting ideas, and even more not-so-serious painting projects... like painting an old surfboard top, painting on driftwood, painting a graffiti-like image on our garage door before we get a new one...then, working in my art journal, continue with  "faces" sketches I have been doing to see if I have a particular style that is obvious, as I am so influenced by what is "out there"..

Updated website

marywagstaff.com

A two month process, with interruptions.

"Giving way to Light"

oil on canvas 48"x48" (This is the second largest canvas I have painted..The other was 48" x 60")

 The process goes something like this:
1. choose photo to work from
2. grid photo and canvas and transfer as an underpainting in a wash of raw umber or something similar. This is often the most exciting part of the process as I watch the image appear on canvas. I also love the loose "drawing-like" slightly crude quality.
3. Start applying color.
4. agonize over color..do I want it to actually look realistic? This so far has been impossible, but it keeps driving me.
5. Mom visits from Maryland. Spend time with her. I paint only sporadically.
6. Daughter graduates from college, spending time at home before and after before she disappears to Papua New Guinea for the summer. Time to be with her. I paint only sporadically.
7. Life quiets down. By now I seem to have lost my momentum and can't remember what colors I used and where.. I start plugging away, but with none of the intensity of the beginning.
8. Painting too big to see properly in my small studio.
9. Take painting outdoors where I immediately see all the spots in it that need adjusting. Fix them.
10. Finished! Take photos for blog.
11. See in photos all the spots that don't work.. I am impatient.
12. Fix the spots.
13. Proclaim it is as good as it can get without ruining it. Take new photos, which NEVER depict the true color.
14. I am SO DONE!
15. Blog time

This process took place over about 2 months..I wasn't painting all the time and I try to keep track of my hours...but once the process gets interrupted, I start to loose interest or just forget to do it. (People are always asking how long it takes to paint something like this..

I am planning on updating my website as soon as I have a good day for outdoor photos and a good camera. Soon I hope!

What if?

Giving Way To Light

"Giving Way To Light"  oil , 36"x36"

Yet another professional photography session... and I wonder why the color is always off. Will take more care for the website...

Onto the next painting!  More water!!!

Taking a break to go surfing for 3 days...

Yesterday I was ready to throw a bucket of red, no, orange paint at the bottom half of this painting...Oddly enough, when I am NOT painting, the solutions seem to come to me.. or at least a way of engaging with the challenge at hand... It is not finished, but I wanted to post it anyway, am going surfing for a few days and hopefully the mind will be able to see it clearly when I return... 

Below are the first two stages... somehow I thought the violet glaze would do something to the color.. but I think I put on too much paint for it to actually work.. Sure wish I knew what I was doing.. will I ever?

New surfboard.. art!

Since I now have a website for my paintings, I thought I would be more relaxed about posting here..

This is my new surfboard, shaped by John Moore of Mystic Surfboards in Santa Cruz. He worked with me to produce this beautiful longboard, for how and where I surf... My input was providing the art and the design/color for what I wanted it to look like.... took me almost a year of thinking about it...as well as quite a bit of time designing and finishing the art..I am not one of those spontaneous "just draw it on the board" types. I have to plan, sketch, do life size studies.. lots of work. Needless to say it looks exactly perfect!
Not only is really fun to ride but now I can really tell if I am on the nose, or not!

When I am riding it, it looks like I am on a giant dreamsicle or 50/50 bar.. Yummy!!!

Back in the groove... I hope!

Yet again I was knocked out of my "painting groove" ... Lighting installation, the holidays, the surf trip in January, various projects, other things in life, lack of energy (except for surfing) , distracted mind... lots of lame excuses... I did manage to actually finish two paintings:

(No title yet, any ideas?) 18"x36" oil on canvas

"Return" 16"x20" oil on masonite.

A big swell last weekend ( 40'+ waves for the Mavericks contest) ) washed all sorts of driftwood up on the beach..I was like a kid in a candy store! Fortunately, this is all I wanted to carry. I notice yet again that the garage door really needs painting, and hey... I'm a painter... but think I will start with painting stuff on the driftwood... when it dries out... ( setting up for "Return" photo)

My husband built a box to support my son's computer monitor, so it would be at eye level... Beautiful wood and my contribution to this birthday gift was to paint the front drawer. Originally, I was going to have some wood showing (see below) but, well, I just got carried away... Kinda hypnotic, painting all those lines. It is just a perfect resting place for this reclining Buddha... Hopefully Brock will build another one just for it.

In preparation for painting the box.. lots of experiments, acrylic on wood.. above is just one...

Launched!

marywagstaff.com

COMING SOON!!!!!

My son Jesse built me a website for a Xmas gift. I cried! He is so amazing and generous with his time and talent...Yeah! I will post a link on this blog as soon as it is ready.. It is being fine tuned now.

I am heading to Costa Rica for a surf vacation and when I return I am really looking forward to getting back to the studio and working! (makes coming back not so hard.. it's only hard returning to cold water.)