Public Exposure at the Honolulu Museum of Art

I was invited to do a 2-3 hour demonstration of portrait drawing at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s “Art After Dark” event last week.

I look forward to the opportunity to get out in public; it’s good to check in with the world, and let them see what the process looks like. Among other benefits, the experience of being exposed to the unfiltered criticism of anyone who cares to say something is a healthy thing. And  as it turned out people were quite kind in their remarks, making it a very pleasant affair for myself and my model Sarah, who also posed for the pastel profile I posted a month ago.

Sarah and I hard at work.

I don’t get to do these often enough, and considering that most of my day-to-day easel time is usually landscape oriented, I’d like to make more room for portrait work from the model.

 

In With The Neu

Well, I’m taking advantage of every opportunity for creating new work in the New Year, and as our winter weather has improved from pretty messy to awesome, I took a break from the large oil I’ve started  (and which I haven’t discussed yet, it’s too iffy right now) and spent Friday morning at Kailua Beach with my partner-in-watercolor-crime Roger Whitlock to see what  trouble we might do with the raw material of sand, sun, and wind.

I managed a couple of little paintings out of that session (and another session yesterday evening)  but this is the only one worth having a look at.  I might be able tweak some of the others into Salvation, or just re-attack them on another nice evening.

 

Kailua Beach, Friday, 1/11 11 x15″ Watercolor

We joked around and had a darned good time while working. Roger has great prowess with “the dampened sheet”, and  I value our far-too-rare outings together.

As for me, the watercolor work under such circumstances seems akin to jumping around in a swimming pool, especially working in-the-moment and with the drying times of the washes being so absolutely critical. It’s somewhat like a controlled disaster, I really don’t know how anything good can come of it, but sometimes it does, and it’s nice.

 

Considering the Blank Canvas of a New Year

My favorite week of each year is the last week of December.  Between the two towers of Christmas and the New Year the fabric of life seems to hang more casually…schedules are a bit more open and folks are enjoying some margin in their otherwise crowded, overbooked lives.

For myself, it is always a week of reflection.  One of the beliefs that I haven’t yet outgrown or abandoned is the notion that, with the right set of principles and some discipline, one can change the course of life for the better. Despite failures, I also have some proof of this; when I finally managed to overcome my addiction to the smoking of cigarettes some 19 years ago, it was a New Year’s resolution that kept me on track. So, I think I have reason for optimism when at each year’s end I attempt to look both backward and ahead and ask myself the questions that I think I need asking.

-Why am I here? And where am I pointed…on what trajectory? To what end?

-What worked? What should I retain?

-What didn’t work? What can I discard?

-What might be the wisest single change I could make, all things considered?

-What would my family and friends like to see me change? (I’ll ask).

As a person of faith, I can’t exclude God’s influence, and ask myself what He has been showing me or trying to tell me through circumstances and all the ways He speaks. In that regard, I can say that the journal work I try to do throughout the year has been a good investment. It’s revealed  larger movements (or stagnations) in life that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Another lesson this year?  I don’t hold outcomes entirely in my hands, and if I did, we’d all be in trouble. Better to stay patient and steady on my end and allow room for all the possibilities I can’t foresee.

So, I’ll be engaging in some healthy soul-searching in the next 24.  May I wish you clarity in your search and all the best.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

Nice to be back!

It’s been seriously busy over the last month. Here’s a resurrected piece from at least three  years ago that was begun outdoors in a rather unplanned moment of enthusiasm,  and set aside as unworkable until a friend dropped by and commented that she thought it had more potential than I was allowing it.  That was about a year ago.

Finally over the last few days I’ve given it some attention and it’s looking better. I love working in close values and  color temperature shifts, and so this little canvas has become a pleasure to work on rather than the struggle it originally was.

 

Kawainui at Sunset  oil, 12 x 16″

 

 

Keeping Up

Can’t help but be excited about my upcoming exhibition, and I’m earnestly ( does anyone still use that word?) prepping everything…painting s to be signed, one or two are in mid stride, and I started small ones today.  So, I’m crazed, but it’s fine.  Here’s some things I put out today, frames are in process.  They may look familiar if you’ve ben following the blog.

The Sunlit Shore, Kailua 30 x 40″

 

            Lightfall   20 x 36″

 

            Konahuanui-Morning Shadows 12 x 16″

 

Ironwoods at Dusk 18 x 24″

 

There’s more, and you will see them later.  Thanks for the look.

Lay-in for portrait head

Quick post from my portrait class. The lay-in is going well, edges deliberately soft at this point, and any problems with the painting are already most likely present. The only trick is to see them now, before the acorn becomes a tree.

 

12 x 16″ linen on board. Straight oil paint, no medium except a small amount of liquin mixed into the flake white #1 to make it short enough to manipulate. Big brushes, step back for each stroke. lay it on with intention in color and value and placement. Scrape down anything that’s not working.

Always be preparing for the next sitting.

About that Figure in Watercolor Workshop!

No photos, no images….frankly, we were working so happily and busily that I never took the time to shoot anything.

But the workshop was successful beyond my expecations, the response afterwards has been positive, and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to help so many people.  And the best part was that what was beyond my expectations was the attitude of the participants!  To a person, they worked as only the inspired do. I’m very proud of each of the 13 who attended.  Hard to quantify such an experience, but we will be repeating this workshop again, so if interested, send me an email and I ‘ll get you on the advance list for next time!

Here’s some of the advice that surfaced:

Be a painter first, a watercolorist second.

Suggest, don’t explain.  The word “Suggest” is printed indelibly on the face of my own watercolor palette.

Draw from models, memory, imagination, and draw in the streets.

Dry in the lights, wet in the shadows (“When you paint light, you paint form, when you paint shadow, you paint stmosphere.”).

Art never will come to you, you must always make the first move. 

So chew on these thoughts, work in your sketchbooks constantly, and  remember to be always looking, always designing, seeking fluency, and willing to work. 

 

11 x 14″ Practice sheet from the workshop…heads constructed from a skull, and varied for direction, gender, and expression.  Drawn and painted from imagination.  Great way to study, and fun.

A Special Workshop-The Figure in Watercolor October 6-7

I have a peculiar relationship with self promotion.  While I want very much for people to see my work (that’s half of the equation), I possess a reluctance to market myself conspicuously.  I don’t much like discussing the sales of my paintings outside family and closest friends, or operating as if I’m luring the unwitting into the artist’s version of a car dealership. I like to keep the work and the selling somewhat compartmentalized. This blog is an example, I don’t get into selling here, I would like readers to just come aboard and visit without a subtext.

That said, I now would like to brief my reading public on something that I’ve been working on that has me excited a bit beyond all reason, a special watercolor workshop on painting the figure.

As you may know, watercolor was my first love-experience in painting, and while I don’t participate in it full time,  I am perfectly comfortable working in it, and I often return to it for the working out of those subjects where watercolor is appropriate.   Also, I confess here rather remorsefully that I have a contrarian streak at times, one that chafes at some of the goings-on in the watercolor world.   There are great things being done by very talented people, certainly. But I also see very sincere painters-in-the-making that are struggling with some very basic and essential things about making paintings. They seem to go in circles, relying on method rather than really seeing, and hoping that tips n’ tricks might carry their work.  As a result they often stumble on the subject of the figure, and so that is the focus of the workshop I’m conducting in October.

Here’s what I’m doing:

My first step has been to analyze and address the repeated problems that I noticed watercolor painters incur.  They are summed up in the workshop credo I developed:

We are always looking ~We are always designing~ We are seeking fluency~We are wiling to practice.

There was a fifth We are artists first, watercolorists second, but I dropped it, it’s a bit much though it speaks to the problem of separating “watercolor” from painting in general, an error I believe.

Next,  I created a power point presentation to address and demonstrate each of these necessary attitudes.  I spent way too much time on making this, but found myself really excited to show what I think is a valuable point of view on the matter.

First, there’s a whole section on the study of master drawings.  People need to see the great work of the past, and why it’s great.  Rembrandt’s wash drawings are a great lead-in to the importance of seeing your everyday world, taking clues from your immediate surroundings and doing something with them. Then, committing oneself to a lifestyle of continued eye-opening, sketching, and active participation in development of one’s work as a designer, taking what’s around you and shaping it.  I also have a section on my own favorite painters in watercolor, many of whom students are unfamiliar with, because I believe that to gain fluency, you need heros and mentors.  Zorn,Sargent, Seago, Bonnington, and others have influenced me greatly, and I’m very happy to introduce some favorite works by them.

The workshop itself will be fun, I’ve developed a series of exercises to deal with everything from the slight indications of the figure in the landscape, sketching habitually, memory work, and finally to working directly from the live model.

Below is one  piece I developed to market the workshop, I’ve posted it in the past.  It’s developed totally from imagination and recollection of all sorts of things, which is something I’ve taught myself to do. I want students to understand that this is possible, it’s an attempt at fluency and integrating their life experience and their craft. It’s simply the sort of liberating and challenging work that I think artists, generally speaking, should some how be up to attempting.  Without photos… those will always be around anyway.

 

For more information, email me at mark@marknorseth.com   or call the Academy at 808.532.8741.   I believe we have only 3 spaces left.  Could be a game changer.