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Adapting to Offkilterness

One At A Time, acrylic on panel, 18×18. Available at Portland Art Gallery, Maine.

We all share a common sense of confusion and offkilterness in 2020. So many aspects of our lives have been jolted into an unsettled sense of being. We fix one thing and another thing jumps up like a whack-a-mole game but it’s truly no game at all. It’s exhausting. And discouraging. And without a way to bring back a sense of calm and peace, it will continue on through the fall and into 2021.

I’m addressing this ongoing problem in a few different ways.

  1. Being sure I am prioritizing listening to people who are positive influences–not pollyannas or debbydowners, but realists who seem to have found a way to manage these unsettled times.
  2. Taking a hard look at my commitments and removing those that are causing more stress than they are worth.
  3. Refocusing my efforts in practical matters that are key to my successes as an artist. Going deeper into the items that will benefit from my complete uninterrupted attention.
  4. Doing small things that matter for people I love.
  5. Reining in the scattered interests that take time away from my core interests and values.
  6. Finding time to be ok with doing nothing but thinking about how blessed and grateful I am and will be in the future.

Good luck as you find your balance again.

Lesson learned: I could have done all this without a pandemic.

Gearing Up and Down

How do I begin a new year’s worth of paintings? Previously I have kept sketchbooks of thumbnail images –basically small inch by inch sized sketches or thoughts of an idea. I don’t work out details in this it is just a nugget of an idea on design, subject, or a color note. Because I always have a sketchbook going–too many to count in my studio–it has been a bit difficult to keep track of images that I’ve wanted to explore further.

My answer? Thumbnail pages. I went through my recent year of so sketchbooks and took a photo of each little drawing–over 200 plus–then using Adobe Bridge software brought them all into the program to create a 12 page pdf. I then put a symbol in color near each little picture–c=couples, f=fisherman, etc. Then cut them all apart and regrouped them according to my symbol system. Now I can review similar ideas on one page like shown above. The little black and white is a what I use to refer to to design a new painting–see lower right.

A bit of time to do this–about 6 hours of searching through sketchbooks, photoing, then computer work. But now I have at a glance what I need to gear up for the mountain of work ahead of me this year. Now to get down to business…

Lesson learned: Be prepared.

 

JoP Research Journal

2017 -> Visual Research Journal with spelling mistakes and links to image sources

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A family farm in Goffstown NH

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Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

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Thinking about design every day

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Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

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