Color, Design and Geometry

In spite of the fact that I rarely if ever post on this blog, or the CreativeColor Blog anymore, I continue to have new subscribers on both.

Flowering Purple Oxalis Mandala

For those new subscribers, as well as the rest of you, I want to remind you that I post more regularly on my website blog.  Link: ChrisCarterArt.com/blog.  You may subscribe by following the link.  You may also subscribe for the monthly newsletter.  The “Subscribe To Newsletter” box is below the “Subscribe To Blog” box. Two separate subscriptions.

I’ve posted quite a few new videos on Vimeo.com/chriscarterart ….. check those out, too!

Since my return to traveling, teaching workshops, painting en plein air and intuitive studio painting, the creative juices are flowing like Niagara Falls.  The focused color study by playing the color Scheme Game is paying off.  This year’s focus is on design through geometry.  I’ll be teaching in Maryland in March and back in California in May, November, and possibly July or August.  The workshops are better than ever thanks to the feedback from my students!  Workshops and Events are posted on my website as well as updated in the monthly Newsletter.

I hope you tune in to the new blog.

 

Time to Think

Hours passed as I waited for the fog to lift.

Fog cover …. Mussel Rock, Pacifica, CA

Waiting for conditions to be right for my first paragliding flight is different from most other sorts of waiting.  I can usually concentrate on drawing while the minutes tick by.  This morning my attention was seriously split between being an artist and being a bird.

Fog at Mussel Rock, Pacifica, CA

Fog begins to clear …. but no wind

Finally the fog cleared.  The wait continued as the wind refused to grow strong enough for sufficient lift.  I didn’t want to simply drop to the earth as I did when I jumped from a plane.  I wanted to soar, riding thermals to touch the clouds.

Succulents

As the sun headed toward the horizon, all hopes of flying vanished in the warm glow.

Between drawings I wandered the paths, inhaled the sea air and thought about how I want to spend the next two years. Why two years?  Because I’m following the suggestions of my fabulous Business Coach, MS.  Where do I want to find myself as an artist in two years?  Where do I want to find myself in ten years?  Where is that magical balancing point between painting as painting leads me and painting as the economy leads me?  My brain felt foggier than the air around me.  I tried to be objective about realism vs. abstraction and where en plein air and the Color Scheme Game fit into the plan.  Though I reached no conclusions, I found more options.

I didn’t get to fly today.  Instead, I had a wonderful day of contemplation.  My sleep will be sweet tonight.

Sketchbook drawings:  Pencil and watercolor, Ink and watercolor on watercolor paper in handmade, coptic bound sketchbooks.

 

Fascinating Times

Orbs No. 25 – Waxed Watercolor – 32″ x 48″

Life is coming together in a wonderful way.  I have missed posting on a daily basis, however, my time away from the computer has been well spent.  thirty years ago I could only dream of painting the paintings I have recently created for the solo exhibit at Overlook Medical Center, November 1, 2013 – January 5, 2014 in the Bouras Gallery.  Going back to square one to study Color has paid off in trumps!

Orbs No. 14 – Watercolor – 22″ x 15″

For once, it was better that I didn’t have windows through which to see the beautiful days that passed by as I poured, sprayed, brushed, splattered and spun paint on paper, both large and small.  The trash I found at flea markets proved to be treasures, working as templates to create translucent layers of shapes that interact with one another.  The illusion of movement through space is fabulous in this new body of work.

The day after tomorrow I’m headed back to California to teach workshops and to paint the real world again in the hills surrounding San Francisco.  I’m hoping I can project a glimpse or two of my inner worlds onto the real world as I paint en plein air in the landscape that I love so much, those crazy barren hills with spots of live oak.

Though the life of a painter is always challenging, I wouldn’t trade it for any other sort of life.

Images:  Watercolor Orb Paintings, part of the Series for Art, Energy and Healing.

 

Heading back to Santa Rosa soon!

Counting the days until I find myself back in the Bay Area!

Orbs No. 22 – 22″ x 30″
Watercolor and Collage

In the last week, I hung one solo show and dropped a dozen paintings off for the Sawmill Gallery Invitational that opened on Friday evening.  Both shows look fabulous.  The exhibit at Blue in Portland, Maine just ended.  All of the paintings for the upcoming exhibit Orbs, Science & Healing at the Bouras Gallery, Overlook Medical Center, must be framed and catalogued before I leave for California next week.  No wonder I haven’t been posting on my blogs lately!  In the middle of it all, a very dear friend reconnected, inspired and provided the fuel for the energy I have needed to produce and market this exciting new body of work!  Life is wonderful, to say the least.

If you live near Santa Rosa, please check out the workshops I will be teaching September 26, 27, 28 & 29 at RileyStreet Art Supply, Santa Rosa, CA.  Calendar of Workshops and Events

Painting:  Orbs No. 22, 22″ x 30″ watercolor with a tiny piece of handmade paper added.

 

What a Whirlwind

On beautiful, summer days I’ve buried myself in the basement studio.   Ahhhh!  I dream of the day that I will once again have a studio above ground, northern light and windows everywhere!  I will not have to worry about spiders laying eggs, birds dropping on the canvases, mice crawling over waxed watercolors.  I will need to live to the ripe old age of 150!

Orbs. No. 21, 22″ x 30″ watercolor

What a whirlwind it has been for the last month and a half (or so).  With the help of a friend from long, long ago, I am on a roll with the orb series.  In four days i switch gears, pack up my car for camping and plein air painting in Vermont.  I can leave the driveway with an open heart and open mind.  I already have enough new paintings completed and framed for the “Healing Arts” solo exhibit to be hung in October!  My travel/workshop schedule is so crazy between now and hanging time that I was in a panic.  Thanks to P I’m in great shape.  one can never lose faith in old friends.

Painting:  Orbs. No. 21. Abstract watercolor, Orbs Series, 22″ x 30″ framed to 30″ x 40″. Layers created using junk as templaates and a mouth atomizer, among other odd techniques.  I’ll be teaching these techniques in Pennsylvania (August), California (September), as well as New Jersey and Maryland (October)  check my website for schedules …. www.chrisCarterArt.com

 

Airing out the Tent

Dedicated to Wayne and Dolly.   I know….. three months haven’t passed and I’m posting here again.  What I needed was to clarify the purpose of each blog.

After discussing the ins and outs of blogs with X this morning, I realized I would miss the opportunity that Third Time Around gives me to share who I am and what I care about outside the periphery of actually painting and drawing.  I would miss the journaling of odd but meaningful thoughts and experiences that I want to make note of. As I took my two-man tent of of it’s stuff sack for the first time in more than two decades, I remembered exactly why I started this blog and why I call it Third Time Around.

I turn 62 in October.  I’m at the beginning of my third phase of life.  With the experiences and knowledge I’ve acquired during my first two phases, I have most of the tools I need to make my third phase unbelievably wonderful ….. as long as I stay healthy.  But there’s no time to waste.  I have to start doing all those things I told myself I wanted to do when I grew up.  Some of those things I no longer care about and I’ve crossed them off the list.  I’m finding ways to do the things remaining on the list as well as constant additions to the list.  One is taking workshops with instructors whose work I respect and admire.  Another is wilderness painting.

I’m registered for Susan Abbott’s workshop at her Vermont Studio in early August.  I’d rather take two workshops and camp in a tent than take one workshop and stay in a hotel or B&B.  So that’s what I’m doing.  Camping in August will be a test run for camping at Mount Diablo in California at the end of September.

Why is this post dedicated to Wayne and Dolly? Because this is the tent I bought so that I could go with them to the Brandywine Fiddle Festival more than thirty years ago.  The moon was full, the fiddlers played all night long sipping moonshine and dancing with a feverish energy I’ve never again witnessed.  I felt alive …. incredibly alive.  I was thirty years old and entering into my second phase of life.

It’s as if this tent waited for me to be ready to invent myself yet again.  There are no holes in it and it doesn’t smell nasty.  I’m looking forward to get reacquainted.

 

New Blog Reminder for a Simpler Life

It’s true that the Universe responds to all requests.  I am busier than ever with travel, workshops, exhibits and painting!  My plants are suffering from the time crunch.  Five months passed before I added a new drawing to my Family Treasures Series.

Plastic, light-up, musical church, Family Treasure No. 50

Maintaining three art blogs is a bit overwhelming and unnecessary.  As of late, I’m getting far more spam comments on both my Third Time Around blog and my Creative Color blog.   I’ve decided to stop posting on both of these blogs for at least three months.  I will be posting only on my website blog…. ChrisCarterArt.com/blog.

In addition to the website blog, I send out a monthly newsletter with painting travel tips, updates on workshops and events as well as updates on both plein air and studio paintings.  On the website blog sidebar, you can easily subscribe to either or both the blog and the newsletter.

Thanks for your readership!

Chris

Family Treasures No. 50 – drawn first in ink with fountain pen, followed by watercolor in coptic bound sketchbook

 

Grateful for Patient Friends

In early January I traveled to Asheville with my friend, Pete Lutz, to shoot a few trial art demo videos.  I totally froze in front of the camera, couldn’t even say my name comfortably.  Pete sent me the footage a few days ago and I couldn’t stop laughing.  Here are a few of the many bloopers……

Since then I purchased an ipad and I’m making my own little clips.  After the photo shoots in Asheville I realized I needed to become comfortable in the company of a camera.  Thanks, Pete!  You helped to make the giant leap into art video demos.  As soon as I edit the rest of the footage I’ll post the best of what we filmed in January.

 

Fabulous Fishies

Before heading to Santa Rosa to teach another workshop I spent a day painting at my favorite place in San Francisco, California Academy of Sciences.

Of course I headed straight for the weedy sea dragon. There are now two in the tank, not just one! My goal for the day was to attempt to capture the playful nature of the flittering tropical fish in one of the large aquarium tanks, the one that replicates a Philippine Coral Reef.

Drawn first in ink with fountain pen followed by watercolor.

 

A self-portrait….. of sorts

The events of the last six months has transformed my life in an incredibly positive way.

Mouse, Tail of a Parrot, Coffee Mug, Fountain Pen Cap and Key to my FIT

Thanks to a kindred spirit, Joanie Springer, an amazing artist I met through Daily Paintworks and my Creative Color Blog, I taught a couple of workshops in Santa Rosa in November when I visited my son in Mountain View.  That visit realigned my brain and my heart.  The amazing Weedy Seadragon ( Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) I discovered at the Academy of Science in San Francisco sealed my fate.

Jumping ahead six months….. I replaced my 1988 K-car (that I loved, but needed a new catalytic converter to get through NJ inspection this month) with my first New Car!, a standard transmission (hooray!) Blue Raspberry (turquoise) Honda, FIT.  I got 44.5 mpg on a recent trip to Maine.  In addition to the amazing new set of wheels, I added an ipad to my collection of amazing devices.  I can now make my own art videos to post online for my workshop students.

Skipping the rest of the wonderful moves forward…… my father’s dementia is taking it’s toll.   When my father received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Rotary last Saturday evening, I captured a video of the presentation with my ipad.  While waiting for it to upload to video for my family to see, I drew and painted the above image.  ( I didn’t know not to film it in Portrait……. it has taken me all day to upload the video!) It is now 5:11 pm.  I realize that today’s sketchbook drawing is a self-portrait of where I am at this moment …. a really great place to be ….. and a great place to move on from.  I remember the moment of hesitation, standing at the end of the diving board.  Taking a deep breath before beginning my steps forward … leading to the end of the board and the leap forward into the air above the water ….. reaching me arms out into a swan dive or folding my body in half into a Jack-Knife Dive…… then entering the water and gliding through the liquid space beneath the surface.

Image:  Drawn first in ink with fountain pen (Noodler’s Whalerman’s Sepia) followed by watercolor using a limited palette of Raw sienna, cadmium red deep and ultramarine blue.

A quick reminder…. I am teaching workshops in Santa Rosa again at the end of April!

April 25th & 26th …. Village Art Supply – Color Scheme Game and Color Value Workshop

April 27th & 28th …. Riley Street Art Supply – Extraordinary and Fun Watercolor Techniques playing with Abstract Design.

Email me for details … Chris@ChrisCarterArt.com