Painting and Sand Castles
I tried my hand at painting while we were lounging on the beach in Maine last week. I’ve never painted before (except maybe in art class in school when I was a kid) and so I bought some watercolors to take along and play with.
Here is my attempt at doing a landscape. It’s really rather boring although I like the big fields of colors.
Hermit Island ©2006 9"x12":
I have to admit it’s a pretty crappy composition. So I might crop it down like this.
I think it’s the quilter in me that feels that the correct thing to do is to paint something then crop out the good bits. Maybe attach something different on the top or sides.
It was interesting sitting there painting, I felt very restricted by the paper as there is no way to make it bigger if I want to add on more later. I suspect this means I should have planned ahead as to what might be a good composition to start with. Clever of me to figure this out huh.
I also was a bit impatient by how long it took to build up a nice big chunk of color. With quilting I create large pieces of color very quickly by dyeing tons of fabric in one day. Then I spend my time cutting and rearranging the color into a composition. With painting is seemed backwards. It felt very odd. I could definitely feel my self wanting to dunk the whole thing into a bath of color and be done with it.
But I stuck with it and decided landscapes didn’t interest me as a subject matter, I’m really more interested in shapes anyway. So I painted this and had way more fun:
Unnamed ©2006 9"x12":
That should probably look a bit familiar.
Structures #11 ©2002 72"x47":
I took my painting supplies to the beach other days but the ocean was calling me. Digging in the sand is just too much fun to pass up. So I built some large sand castles with my kids and then watched the tide come in and destroy them. It was usually an all day affair building the castle right up at the edge of high tide all day then waiting for the water to come and fill in all the moats in the evening. What great fun.
Here’s the one we built on the last day:
It’s hard to see but I built a bunch of tunnels connecting all the moats. It was pretty cool watching the water come in and fill up the trenches.
From this photo you can also see what the inspiration was for the landscape painting.
The animals were guarding the palace but the ocean always seems to win in the end.
At the end it was just Mr. Crabs hanging on the stick but he eventually fell and we could finally go get dinner.
Posted by Lisa in: Drawings
Martha Marshall said,
August 26, 2006 @ 10:38 am
Lisa, thanks so much for the link to my blog. Been a while since I’ve visited your site, but love, love your quilts! I just have to say how much I like your landscape. A little secret: painters often do crop (that is, unless it’s a stretched canvas!)
Anyway, putting your link up on my blog now!
Martha
Lori Witzel said,
August 26, 2006 @ 11:54 am
It’s so cool that you mixed it up with painting! It is a very odd feeling working in a less-comfortable medium — like walking in a new, less comfy pair of shoes.
But always seems like a worthwhile idea, if for no other reason than to be made less “automatic” and more conscious as one wrestles with new tools.
Thanks for the ever-thoughtful post, and the happy beach pics.
Loved those clingy crabs.
Lisa Call said,
August 26, 2006 @ 12:04 pm
Martha - good to hear from you - I really enjoy your blog also. Glad to hear painters crop also. I’m not sure I’m ready for a canvas yet though - so few options.
Lori - yes - what a great analogy - I know how to make art but it sure was awkward doing it with a paintbrush and not scissors.
And I think I should have mentioned the crabs were found objects previously deceased so they didn’t mind hanging out so long.
shan said,
August 27, 2006 @ 9:19 am
Lisa,
Structures #11 is stunning. Wow.
My unsolicited advice on building up large fields of color faster with paint–up the size of your brush. Though your brushstrokes don’t look particularly small I’ve often noticed that beginning painters almost instinctively reach for smaller brushes, when in fact it’s almost always better to go with a brush that’s much larger than seems comfortable at first.
Also, if you’re not already familiar with it, you might like Elizabeth Murray’s work. She’s a painter who cuts, crops and adds as she goes–very organic work that is certainly not limited by the size of a canvas.
Lisa Call said,
August 27, 2006 @ 4:24 pm
Thanks Shan. Structures #11 was on the cover of the 2003 Quilt National catalog. There is a pictures of the book on my blog bio page.
And thanks for the advice. I do think I was using too small of a brush - it wasn’t tiny but I think it could have been bigger. I think the second piece was more fun because the brush probably was more appropriate size. I’ll try that next time.
I looked at some of Elizabeth’s work online. It’s hard to see what’s going on with such small images but they do look more collage like than just painted. Thanks for the reference.