Dragonfruit Left

Last dragonfruit of the week, and last little tidbit of knowledge.  The real name for this fruit is the Pitaya, and surprisingly, they are native to Cental America, not Southeast Asia.  They grow on cactus like trees, and from what I can tell, the big supplier to this area is Vietnam.  The red dragon fruit seems to come from Vietnam, and some of the white variety (white on the inside) might come from Malaysia or Thailand, but the bulk of what I see is Vietnamese.  Wikipedia has a pretty good article on them here if you would like to see some more pictures.

On a side note, although at some point I will want to sell these paintings, right now I'm really just working my way through things.  Nothing is automatic.  I have to think very hard about every color I mix, about every brushstroke that I take.  Half the time, my colors turn out totally muddy and awful.  I've seen quotes from other artists about how the life of an artist is to subject oneself to constant frustration and feelings of self-doubt.  I can definitely commiserate a bit.  I usually finish a painting and have this amazing feeling, akin to a runner's high, where I feel like I got it, I understand it.  Then I walk away from whatever it is that I've done, and I take another look at it, and I start to see all the things that are wrong.  Take, for example, the first version of today's painting:

Do I love the colors?  Yes, they're fun, vivid, bold.  But the piece overall was just a mess.  I was kind of in a groove when I did this one, and so I think I got a bit cocky and didn't think about the composition before I started.  As a result, the fruit looks like it is falling off of the picture plane.  Everything is sitting in the bottom right hand corner, and your eye has no reason to look at the rest of the image.  So, in the end, I totally wiped it off and came back the next day.  Giving my eyes a rest can have a wonderful effect.  I thought it through more carefully, and my finished product (first image) I think was much better than the first.  I still have such a long way to go, but I'm totally enjoying this.

Pomelo Dreams

Okay, I give in.  The mystery fruit is a Pomelo!  After I finished this final painting, I gave in and tried it.  Oh my - simply wonderful.  It tastes like a grapefruit without any of the bitterness that you would normally associate with grapefruit.  The variety that I found was actually a little bit on the sweet side - heavenly!

IMM Field

I spent most of the day yesterday exploring nooks and crannies of Singapore, and I got some great shots.  I totally understand why most plein air painters usually work in Spring and Fall - it gets bloody hot here.  By 9am I am dripping sweat just casually walking around.  This little scene is from in front of the IMM building by the Jurong West MRT station.  There are some beautiful trees in a field that has somehow managed to avoid development thus far.  I am not holding my breath, as I am sure the government will find something to put there, but in the meantime I very much enjoy walking to the middle of the (very mushy) field and feeling like I have escaped from the city.

In other news, my cubic meter of art supplies finally arrived!  I bought all of the art supplies with the intent of resurrecting BS Art Studio.  I had so much fun with the encaustic stuff, but the more I got into it, the less time I had for school and oil painting, which is my final goal.  So, after much talk with the hubby, he proved himself amazing once again - I'm dropping the encaustic and working on oils full time.

Unfortunately, most of the supports that I ordered were Ampersand Claybord, which is decidedly NOT recommended for oil paint.  It is way too absorbent.  I have seen a few artists use it, but it definitely doesn't have the effect that I am looking for.  So, as you can see below, I have a lot of gessoing in front of me.  But - on the good side, I now have close to a years worth of supplies.  Woohoo!

Apple a Day

I continued the theme of apples again today, with varying success.  I was pretty happy with the second painting I did (shown above) because it involved my turpentine container, which is silver.  So it is very shiny, highly reflective, and just generally tough to paint.  I did my best to convey it, and I think I was pretty successful.  The colors got a little muddy, and I would like to do it again, but overall I am happy with it  I've included a picture of the still life setup below.

The first painting I did was of some apples in a bowl.  As per usual, the ellipse screwed me up a bit.  The apples are approaching the end of their useful lives, so it looks like I will be moving on to another type of fruit tomorrow.  I am really hoping to be able to get outside sometime soon again.  Since today was gray that probably means I can get out tomorrow.  One day on, one day off. 

Whew, a little worn out today actually got up at 5am to workout.  Monday and Tuesday I was kind of slack and didn't get around to it until later in the afternoon.  Bad Shelby. 

New Goals in Art

So I started this adventure about two weeks ago, or 15 days(ish). I just realized that when I started, I was 100 days away from my 27th birthday, October 21st. My big goal is to work towards completing 10,000 hours of painting, but assuming that I work 40 hours per week every week, it will take 5 years to complete that goal. So, in order to make my bigger goal more manageable, I'm going to have small(er) challenges along the way. My current goal is to complete 100 paintings by the time I turn 27.

I've currently done about 20 paintings in the last 15 days or so, and I am already seeing so much improvement in my work. I'm figuring out how to work with the

paint, how to mix the colors, how to work with color relationships. Yesterday was totally frustrating, I wound scraping down everything I tried to do. How infuriating is that? But today I came back with a positive attitude and I've done 5 small paintings, and I feel like I am really getting the hang of it. The best part of all of this is that mess ups and mistakes are okay, they are part of the learning process.

In any case, I started out the day with my block study, and I moved on into some fruit and vegetables in order to have something else to focus on and paint. I really enjoyed the other objects.

By the way, I really need to work on my photography. I didn't realize what awful, horrific glare I was picking up with this. Sheesh.

Week Roundup

I woke up today and have not managed to get myself out of a funk. The cloudy, gray days are starting to stack up. This is supposed to be the dry season - can I please have some sun? Thanks. Okay, enough griping. I'm going to talk about only good things right now. Here is what I accomplished this week:

1) Exercised 4 out of 5 days - Let me tell you how sore I am. P90X is not for the faint of heart. My arms are just about dead. I think that working out so intensely has a lot to do with my fatigue. But I am getting a great sense of accomplishment from doing it, so now is not the time to give up.

2) 30 Hours of art from Monday - Friday. My goal was closer to 32 hours, but I've been dealing with a lot of rain, which makes it kind of difficult to paint due to lighting conditions. Sigh.

3) Getting a grasp on saturated color - just looking at my progress from the first block study I did until the one I did this afternoon makes me SO happy. I need a progress report to keep on trucking!

4) Worked on my first landscape study - (see yesterday's post) There are still some things that I want to change about this, but overall, I think it is coming along and not an awful first attempt.

5) Eating right - Less partying! I'm going to pat myself on the back for that one. I've been a very good girl and been eating the right way. I feel better - now the weight just needs to follow suit!