Setting Distractions Aside and Choosing to Paint
I had the pleasure of interviewing a local painter named Cindy Vincent last night. Her paintings are wonderful and she's illustrated a book! I always think that reading beautifully illustrated children's books is a good way of introducing art to children, and bringing art into your home in an affordable way. I've been known to read my children really awful stories because the illustrations are fabulous, and to throw out wonderful books with crappy illustrations. If you have little kids, you might enjoy these recent discoveries:
Autumn Bear by Diane Culling, illustrated by Cindy Vincent
Calico the Wonder Horse, written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton (it's scratchboard!)
Meet Wild Boars, by Meg Rosoff, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (irreverent and hilarious for kids)
While interviewing local artists is fun, and it's invigorating to get involved in extended conversations on issues pertaining to the artist's life, it can become a distraction from my own process of creation. We can bring so many things into our lives that distract from what we really want to do! So I have resumed working on a painting. I intend to finish it this weekend, so I'll have something to show you next week. I've had all kinds of setbacks - I started the painting using a reference photo located on my external hard drive, and then my hard drive died...again. But I didn't let that stop me, I decided to complete the painting using my artistic license and in that way the death of my hard drive was a blessing, since I have been wanting to move toward a more interpretive style and too often get stuck in the photo, trying to make my objects look "real."
Oh, and you really should take a look at a bit of the talent our little rural region produces and check out www.artistsnorthcanada.com . Cindy Vincent's work is there, as well as the art of a local printmaker who has had a role in challenging me to pursue my desire to paint well.