I just finished a painting of a bridge near where I was born. I really enjoyed painting it - I like the process of refining and tweeking until it comes out the way I want.

Here it is.

I've been working on skies and ways to approach clouds and horizons etc. and I think I'm really starting to make progress in understanding a way to paint them with more depth and realism.

Today I finished a sky in one of me small paintings that was quite involved and intricate - It's wet and I also don't want to post it until the rest of the painting is past the ugly stage but I really think I'm on to something.

 

Well I've been progressing with my art. Enjoying the process.

Marketing it is slower but I'm to be in a 3 person show in Novemeber at Ben Navaee Gallery and I'll have another show at my studio as well.

I've been setting up my work in prints http://www.artistrising.com/galleries/Lucinda_Knowlton

 

Well I've been debating about this painting and whether I should add more light green highlights to the foreground bush. Ahh the trials and tribulations.... lol

 

Today was a rather quiet day at the studio. I worked on  a greyscale landscape of a sunrise in oils. I love painting and find myself in a peaceful state almost every time I'm at my easel. I'm so focused that hours go by and when I look at my watch it truly amazes me that a day has gone by.  Each new painting I try to incorporate the new tidbits of observations, stuff I've learned about colour, perspecitive, tones , creating form... all the things that create art. The effects of light and how it  impacts everything is a wonder to me and I do hope  that I never tire or stop learning to translate what I see and feel into art.

 

Well It's the first week that my studio/gallery will be open for business and I'm very excited about it. It will be great to work on my art more than time allowed me to before. I plan to show a variety of artists work, especially other emerging artists like myself because there is so much undiscovered talent out there that can contribute so much to the artworld. Time will tell if the public agrees with me. 

I'm opening a Studio/Art Gallery/Art School in a very small store front at 1234 College St. Toronto

It's called Studio 1234. It will be great to work in all that light. 

Well I'm progressing under David Gluck's guidance. I wish I had more time and resources to have more class time. His rates are extremely reasonable but my budget is always so tight. I'm learning about chroma, colour and we've pretty well completed the first 3 stages of a still life painting. Each week and each stage of the very first painting I've been working on have opened my eyes and I feel like a light is coming on. I have just touched the tip of the iceberg for each of the stages but I feel that with each painting I do more will be added to my knowledge base. It's just a start and have so very, very far but I'm really thrilled at the progress I'm making.

These are the stages though I'm not sure if I've gotten the names correct as I'm interested in the actual technique rather than the language which I'm sure will naturally follow as it's repeated and my comprehension of what I'm doing is reinforced.:

 

Only week 2 and it's amazing what knowledge I gleaned from David Gluck. Last week we did an underpainting with Raw umber and white with mineral spirits and this week we did the plain colours. He showed me methods of checking angles and colours to see if they were the correct shade. I was really amazed at how much I did incorrectly since I'm self taught and did most by trial and error.He also sent me home with some basic drawing exercises to work on finding the main shadows and to eliminate the middle shadows.

It was a great class!

Today was my first day to have an art tutoring class with instructor David Gluck. It was great! He's a young man with an amazing amount of talent and I found I learned a great deal in the short two hours that I was there. So far so good. He set up a still life and we began an underpainting - blocking out the painting and putting in the shadow areas. I found it really helpful. I have a feeling that he'll be a good instructor and I've found someone that I can learn a great deal from.

It was a very good day!

I was never too sure that the bird of paradise flower existed only in the minds of artists as I had never seen one at any flower shops. Yesterday I saw some that were included in bouquets in the store I go by on my way to work. So I bought a bouquet on my way home from work. I tried painting it last night. This flower looks like it should have been in the dinosaur  movie "Jurasic Park". lol

 

This one makes me think of where I work.

Management Lesson 101:

 

Well it's the final day of the year.  I'm not sure what I think or feel about the past year except to say. It's over and I've made some headway in some areas and lost ground in others.

 

Today I'm meeting with the gentleman that bought two of my paintings who will introduce me to the owners of a cafe that are willing to display a couple of my paintings. Progress is happening - albeit about 1/10th the speed I'd like but as my friends tell me I'm always in high gear and nothing ever happens fast enough. lol They are right of course.

 

I'm just finishing a tutorial on creating inexpensive frames for your paintings.

Check it out soon

 

<a href = "http://www.artbylucindaknowlton.com/Inexpensiveframing.htm" target= "blank"</a>

 

I got notice in the mail today that I was rejected by the Toronto Arts Council. Everyone suggested I apply since no one gets it on the first try. I still can't help feeling disappointed though. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Well it's 9:15 and I spent the day adding my url to more directories, building frames for my paintings and working on writing a tutorial for building wooden frames. It's progressing but nothing ever progresses fast enough and there is always so much to do with not enough time to do it in. I enjoy the challenge but at times it's gets pretty exhausting

It amazes me how much time is relative to what you're doing. If I'm at the office - the daily grind I have to do to eat and pay the rent - time drags - so very slooooowly! When I get home and have a list of things that seems 10 miles long, I sold a painting yesterday! Yeah It feels so good to put a cheque in the mail for $30.00 to the Toronto Humane Society as I donate 10% of all my art sales to animal and wildlife orgainisations - I can usually barely pay the rent but I really believe that it's the small things we do in life that if I can show by example one person to give something to benefit others it's one of my legacies-- If anyone ever actually reads this they can look on my website and see my idea of impacting the world in my small way... one of the reasons I try so hard to promote my art is so I can do just that (10% to save the world")

 http://www.artbylucindaknowlton.com 

- : Quick clean up the apartment, gotta hurry to get as many submissions art website into as many as I can in a specific time that I allow for that, then sand some frames for my paintings, gosh!I need to walk the talk to do this - now gotta move onto writing a tutorial on creating frames for the website, then it's fold posters to mail out to vets offices for doing pet portraits oops forgot need to practice painting techniques and record my results, - I do an hour of heavenly painting then - gotta walk the dog, feed the cat, oh yeah that little thing I call sleeping and eating. Gotta gulp down some food but of course I'm too wired to sleep... get up and do another hour of heavenly painting - go to bed and then wake up the next day - everything starts over again... rush - rush rush trying to get my artwork off the ground and keep developing as an artist is so difficult when I need to waste 40 hours a week working another 4 commuting and then several trying to get my art to pay for itself and enable me to practice it more. It's a frustrating circle as I know how much faster and better it would develop if I had the time and resources. Then again it's such a labour of love and I couldn't stop painting because if I did, I don't think life would be worth living.And who knows... someday.... 

This is just some ramblings I think of when I get frustrated that I don't get any time to paint. I'd better go read the book on painting still life that I've started to read. The madness will continue , probably as long as I do. Ciao

November 16, 2006

 

I'm an artist. I love painting wildlife, animals, people and just about anything else that catches my eye.

 

My art website is http://www.artbylucindaknowlton.com