Laurelines

Process, not Product, Part 2*

It's all Katherine Tyrrell's fault. She posted a very thought-provoking essay on her blog a few weeks back on the subject of plagiarism in art. Several Painting- a -Day Painters were under discussion. Looking at their work, I was impressed, once again, by how much progress these artists had made by hewing to that daily painting agenda that was so popular a few years ago.

I'm not interested in painting postcard-sized painting each day, but I AM interested in making progress! I came up with a scheme that has been sort of working, in which I paint a pre-selected (by me) subject each week, and I spend no more than three hours on each painting. The subjects are easy ones (seafood, still lifes, amaryllis, etc... just reasons to push paint around.) If you know how obsessive I'd become as a painter, you could guess that I wouldn't be able to finish a painting in three hours! Far from it! But, that was part of the plan. I'd just quit at the end of three hours. Then I'd start a new one the next day. No finishing means no finicking! The goal is to loosen up and just to play. These (unfinished) paintings are process, not product. 

If I get enough of these under my belt, I figure I'll know where I'm going as a painter again. It's been way too long since I painted in a sustained and sustaining way. I'm a toddler in the studio again... and you know what, it's fun. Who knows where I'll end up? 

Here and above are a few I've produced over the past weeks. They're acrylic on 11" x 14" gessobord. Remember, they are UNFINISHED!:

In addition to painting, I've been working in my garden! I will post more on this topic in a couple of weeks when the garden is in its first wave of seasonal glory. Here are two peeks:

*Part 2 of today's title refers to a post I made a few weeks ago about preferring process over product in my journal, on Kate Johnson's wonderful blog, a spinoff of her upcoming wonderful book. In the spirit of that post, I give you today's journal page:

Sketching at Sugarland with Sue

My great friend Sue Smith and I have joined a fledgling local sketching group. Yesterday it was so fledgling that we two and the group creator were IT for the April sketchcrawl.

We met at that den of delicious iniquity, Sugarland Bakery, to draw. And eat gelato, but never mind. Sugarland's offerings are various and sinful: espresso and fancy coffee drinks, pastries, cakes, gelato, and martinis! I call that One Stop Shopping with a vengeance! 

Here are my sketches for the day. I did not realize how contemplative everyone I drew looked until I got home and looked at what I had done.  Apparently, there's a lot of soul searching going on amidst all that imbibing.

I, however, ate and sketched and departed with my soul, on this particular outing, blissfully ignored.

Please click on Sue's name above and see what she has to say and show for our afternoon together!

Peggy Rabb memorial reading

Yesterday, on a balmy pastel-colored day, poets, novelists, teachers, friends gathered at Hyde Hall on the UNC campus for a memorial reading of Margaret Rabb's work and that of some of the readers. It was almost like having her back with us. Almost. I sat, listened, and drew.

Here's Peggy, three years before she died, reading one of my favorite of her poems.

Low Owl Illusion

Early but already broad daylight this morning

a barred owl glided across the path, so close I saw

wing edges split by a broken shaft, a feathery flaw,

and thin claws that trailed like exposed wiring.

Halfway up a poplar she lit by a nubbly opening,

slipped inside a gap healed around a lost limb's raw

socket, and sank instantly into the dark hollow,

all but her tail, like a bracket on the bark, a warning.

At the high end of hearing, voices thin as a wafer

bled from the tree. She squeezed back out, turned

on me her great fixed eyes and stared down: You.

She held still, but the longer I looked, the less I saw her.

I mean, it was only by blinking back the form I yearned

for that she stayed in view at all, whatever she was and who.