10 x10 canvas ~ my first landscape and my first frame. The teacher was Dorene Terryberry http://www.sdvag.net/T/DoreneT.htm a true teacher, because she taught by demonstrating on her canvas only, allowing the student to paint on theirs, so when I took a finished painting home it was truly painted by me. My teacher taught me about color and how it can be used to add perspective to a subject, by using cool colors and warm colors to create a subject with "volume". Instead of a ball appearing only shaded, the ball can be shaded using the paint colors temperatures played off against each other to create a volume or "plump"ness. The color temps can also be used to make a point of interest stand out or come forward.
oil on canvas 10" x 10" c. 1967Example of the use of cool and warm colors used to allow a volume to an interest in a painting can be found in this French painting. Although the photo is not of excellent quality the pearls do show this cool/warm truth. http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/FrenchPainting/Detail.cfm?IRN=126569 Look for this "truth" that will be galleried on this blog. Another example of the play of warm and cold can be seen in this painting http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request+image;hex=M2000_179_3.jpg where you can see two warm colors in the robe" drape, but the warms are differentiated by the warmest coming forward, which causes the cooler warm to recede away, thus causing the illusion of a perspective in the clothing. I don't assume to compare my work to the "Masters", but I do assume to learn from their learned experiences, and I just thought I would include this color/perspective color use secret to the learning novice or to the struggling artist, at this time.
When I realized what my teacher was showing me, with the use of oil paint pigments, I was excited. It was as though she had unlocked a mystery, as she moved her brush, loaded with paint, across her canvas. I always tell my students, "Yes, listen to the words of your instructor, but always, always watch her hands. What paint is she loading onto her brush?, how is she loading it?, is it a cool paint?, is it a warm paint?, did the warmth of the color, just painted, change to a cooler one as it responded to the warmer touch that she just put next to it or did it cool? Listen to the words, yes, but watch what she is doing, because she isn't going to tell you every little long used information she is calling up from her imagination and mind, especially if she is a quiet and or humble artist, so you need to watch her hands, her brushes, her angles, her choices, and then her words."
This is true for other fine arts. A pin stripper, who are usually male, have little to say from their mouths, but if you watch ther use of their brush, the way they load that brush, how they apply the paint to the vehicle, with what pressure on brush, what finger is supporting and steadying the brush as it glides over it's subject? All you learned from the pin stripper's words were minuet compared to watching his hand create a coveted design. Analytical you must be.
A word about the frame on my first framed painting. I had to purchase a custom frame, because I used stretcher bars that weren't of "standard" sizing, meaning that ready made frames were not available. The price for the frame was $14.00, and that was a lot of money, "back in the day", 1967.
I was a "starving artist", when first I began. I was a young mother with three children and a husband who always said, "no", to my requests, whether for underwear or paint supplies. etc. So I wasn't starving for food, I was starving for essentials for my personal "me" life. I had no money to paint, and if it hadn't been for my dad giving me a big gift of brushes and canvas, I would never have been able to take lessons from a wonderful artist/teacher, who lived just around the corner and down the street from where we lived, at that time. BUT, I needed some sable brushes with their soft bristles, and I also needed $$$ for lessons.
We all know that "Necessity is the Mother of invention", right? Well, I needed supplies, and I noticed that my instructor had a lady who cleaned her house, and I heard Dorene complaining that the woman had quit and now she needed someone to clean her house. She had six kids. I went to her and asked if I could have the job of cleaning her home and she said, "yes". Now I had a new necessity, what with three small children, and only one in school, 1st grade, and one in diapers and a very active and inquisitive 3 year old. I now needed a baby sitter, and I found a wonderful, loving, Hispanic, grandmother, who like me didn't have any "pocket" money and after striking a deal, she took the job of caring for my children. After I paid my babysitter $2.00 an hour I was left with $1.75 an hour for my work, it would have been worth it, except I was so exhausted I could hardly make dinner and set the table that night. When my husband came home, from work, he could see how tired I was, and because he didn't know what I was "up" to, we progressed through the evening, at a slow pass, toward bed time. I was weepy, because of my absolute fatigue, I realized I would never get away with my conspiracy. I soon learned I had hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and until I learned of that and corrected the timing of my nutrient intake, I was almost incapable of caring for my family. That was all discovered and corrected by my mother, not by the doctors, who just wanted to put me on tranquilizing drugs. Anyway, back to the bedroom scene, when I broke down out of frustration of not having any money for me not even money to buy fabric, so that I could sew clothes, while all the time he was wearing designer labels and new underwear and impressing everyone with his fanciful beauty thoughts of himself. I confessed to him how "rebellious" I was and about my scheming and all that shit. I was a broken women. my emotions telling me how caged I was, by him. For the first time I realized a womanly secret, that emotions can work against a bully, a tyrant, sometimes, and I unknowingly "manipulated" an allowance out of him, the mechanical engineer, and some promises for stretcher bars and canvas and staple gun and staples, which came to around $7 or $8. I am not one to manipulate anyone, for I prefer to be "upfront", some times without tact, but I would rather we honest than conniving. So it was a bitter pill I swallowed that night, and his payoff? Sex. @%#&*+&+(. The selfrigheous would call that an ugly label. He and his life are no longer blessed by my presence and hasn't been for a wonderful, glorious 24 years.
I did learn how to paint and mostly on my own, because I was only able to take lessons for a few months.
I soon ran out of stretcher bars, but I found a source for them. One day while visiting my father in Manhattan Beach, Ca, I saw a home that had been demolished and right their in the ocean breeze, thick with salty ions of inspiration, perched a window, the largest, biggest, bestest window, with layers of chipping paint, probably loaded with lead, which we weren't savy to yet. The top layer was the 1950's ever popular dark green! I quickly got my father and some rope, and broke out the remaining glass, and we hoisted my gifted stretcher bars, all assembled, all squared, onto the top of my Valiant station wagon. WOW! I had struck gold, streets of gold!
I am a Christian and I knew that the Lord had provided. How could it not be so? I was jubilant and I was sooooo very happy, and as I write this story for the first time, all these years later, I am crying, remembering His blessing on my painting.
Please try not to be skeptical, but instead look to Him for all your needs, and He will supply them according to his riches in Glory. This is a truth. I have come to realize His great love for me, and that He has always been there for me, even when I didn't recognize it. Accept Him into your life, know His work on the cross and know His forgiveness and then live your life full of His grace, which is undeserved favor. You will go jumping and leaping and praising God. Amen Nuff
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