One
of my very favorite blogs is written by “Val the Victorian.” Almost daily she produces from her “lair”
another post of humorous, imaginative and unique news of her doings providing
brain food for students at the local high school, or the goings on in her neighborhood
in “Backroads.” What’s more, every evening she replies to the comments she
receives with more clever remarks.
(Selfishly I hope she doesn’t get the flood of readers she deserves
because then she’d be so successful she’d be too busy with book tours to return
comments.)
Anyhoo, she
recently answered a list of questions passed on to her by another writing
friend who had also answered the questions and named some friends−you get the
idea. Then she included my name to add to the ever widening circle of links—having
nothing to do with chains or sausage.
The
list has to do with the creative process, and although most of the bloggers in
the group are writers the questions apply to art as well.
1-What am I
working on?
I
work in watercolors, producing enough paintings to keep my Etsy Shop stocked. At present I have a deer painting in the
works. Because, as a successful artist
told me, “the deer and the antelope pay.”
All you have to do is check out galleries in places like Jackson Hole,
WY, Scottsdale, AZ or Santa Fe, NM to see he’s right. Not that I expect a great cash return for my
work but I always need revenue for art supplies.
2-How does my
work differ from others in its genre?
I’m
fortunate I don’t need to produce to survive so I don’t often paint for the market. I do pictures of all kinds of things; except
people, unless I’m not expected to generate a recognizable likeness. My shop paintings are on archival paper with
high-end pigments (thus the need for at least a few sales). The customer gets them without mat or frame,
letting me skip the part of painting I hate and the customer can take the work
to their local frame shop and have it preserved for display any way they
please.
3- Why do I
write/paint what I do?
Most
of my paintings are souvenirs of good times.
When I have to study a place or thing well enough to make a finished
painting or even a sketch, I learn to appreciate details I miss in casual observation. I take lots of reference photos and often
pick and choose from them to create a composition.
4-What is my
writing/painting process like?
I
don’t do as much painting/sketching on location as I should. One reason is watercolor and wind and even
bright sun are not very compatible. I’ve
put up a few posts showing a work in progress and the final results. You can check three of them out here, here and here.
Val
also made kind references to my poetry and wondered if I might be working on a
book. The only book I’m working right
now is an album of photos and letters I found among my parents' things after
their death. It’s a slow process but I’ve
at least got it sort of sorted.
