Everything's Relative

Here are the ten phases of painting, at least in my book:

• Enthusiasm - Defined as the stage when I have selected an image and can just picture it in my head how it will turn out. I can't wait to start the new project and tend to dive in head first, almost before cleaning my last pallet.

• Optimism - The drawings look good and I've got it transferred to the canvas and have blocked in the color. Everything is going swimmingly and I lose myself in the project. 

• Fear - Suddenly something looks off. The more I try to resolve the issue the worse it seems to get.

• Avoidance - Every time I walk past my studio I wince in pain at the...

• Loss - Of all of my previous enthusiasm and optimism. I find excuses not to paint. This is when a good deal of housework gets done. Even brass gets polished.

• Resolve - Gritting my teeth I convince myself I can fix this and move ahead.

• Despair - Prior fears get the best of me and I start doubting the whole thing.

• Distance - I start looking at it from 20 feet away and, hmmm, it doesn't look half bad. I check it out in the morning as I head down for my coffee and again at night before I go to bed and I start thinking things might be okay.

• Renewal - I take a "to hell with it" attitude and forge ahead. Inevitably the background gets finished and things begin to look good. I add highlights and deepen shadows and I squeak through to...

• Ta da! It all falls into place and I come to love the thing that a few days ago was a hopeless mess. 

Relativity © Lissa Banks 2018

Such is the life cycle of a painting. I named this one Relativity because time seemed to have stood still during its completion. If I hadn't been tracking my hours at the easel I would have sworn it took me weeks and weeks to finish. It didn't...it was a relatively quick finish. The pain and agony are forgotten and I start thinking, mmm, maybe I should start painting people again.

I invite you to visit my website where you can now sign up to receive now and again emails that will keep you up to date with where I’m showing, when I post these musings, and when I am offering special sales and promotions! My site is secure and I PROMISE never to sell your information.

  For more about my work follow me on Facebook or visit my website Lissa Banks Paintings to learn how to purchase an original. You can purchase prints for sale at  FineArtAmerica.com.

Mocking

The fourth in my most recent series of tulip portraits is a departure from the up close and personal nature of its predecessors. It's both simpler and more complex.

I was drawn to the photo for the sinuous nature of the leaves and stem and to the strength of the blossom...so perfect, so proud. And I loved the messy cacophony of the shadows cast by the five-arm chandelier that lit the subject. The flower came together quickly, the shadows less so. As I wrestled with the layers of tint and shade I came to wonder if it would ever fall together. And I wondered if it would ever speak to me beyond the difficulty it was presenting.

Mocking - Chandelier Jealousy © Lissa Banks 2018

It wasn't until it was complete that I saw it for what it was. Those shadows were jealous of the bloom. Hard as they may try to compete, they were but a reflection of the curious perfection that nature always manages to achieve in her infinite variety. They mock the flower but they mock themselves in the process.

I can't help but think about the current state of our humanity. We seem to have forgotten that we are all imperfectly created out of the same oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. We love our children and breathe the same air. We all eat, sleep, yearn, cry, fear, want, laugh and triumph in the same way. And yet, whether it's scrawled on city buildings or plastered on billboards or shared on Twitter, we berate each other and treat each other as if they are not us. We seem oblivious to the fact that as we mock others we, in turn, mock ourselves. How silly, really, it is. Silly if we were only shadows on a wall.

I invite you to visit my website where you can now sign up to receive very infrequent emails that will keep you up to date with where I’m showing, when I post these musings, and when I am offering special sales and promotions! My site is secure and I PROMISE never to sell your information.

  For more about my work follow me on Facebook or visit my website Lissa Banks Paintings to learn how to purchase an original. You can purchase prints for sale at  FineArtAmerica.com.

Getting Brave

I don’t make New Year resolutions but I do try to set annual goals that sometimes take on an aspirational tone. This year’s theme leaned towards being brave and to be vulnerable. I certainly bit off a huge chunk to chew early on. You see, I took the plunge and mounted a solo exhibition.

Believe it or not I’m a quasi-government official, on a strictly volunteer basis…I’m an advocate for the arts here in my little town. I sit on a council whose charge is to distribute state money earmarked for arts and culture via a grant process. We also solicit shows that run in our local library.

When there was a rather large gap in our exhibition calendar I offered to put my paintings up for a month or two. The trick was that I had to pull it all together in a week. YIKES! This was my first time around this block and knew it would all be on me…the hanging, the labels, the whole enchilada. Double YIKES!

Solo show - Norfolk Library 2018

Lucky for me most of my pieces were framed and was able to expedite frames for the ones that weren’t. And I had a son nearby who was willing to help me schlep and hang the show. I pounded out an artist statement and tried to create a rationale for the pieces I selected. It was hard, but an excellent exercise.

Solo show - Norfolk Library 2018

An enthusiastic visitor

I wanted the whole thing to be cohesive but interesting and accessible. I didn’t try to impress anybody because, quite frankly, I didn’t want to come off sounding stupid or highfalutin.  I wouldn’t know for sure how many people wandered through to see my work, I just prayed that someone came to the reception!  Between the flu and the weather the turnout was small but hearty. My biggest fan by far was also my smallest.

When I first started showing my work I was a wreck having avoided it like the plague for so long prior. I’d rationalized that my work was for my own pleasure and not others which allowed me to avoid criticism. So when I finally did show, to my everlasting surprise and pleasure, I found people to be kind at the very worst and encouraging, even enthusiastic, at best. 

I have found a wonderful community of artists who each have sat in an empty space hoping for others to join them for a glass of wine, a bit of comradery and appreciation of the work. 

And I have found great reward in opening up myself, being vulnerable and being brave.

I invite you to visit my website where you can now sign up to receive very infrequent emails that will keep you up to date with where I’m showing, when I post these musings, and when I am offering special sales and promotions! My site is secure and I PROMISE never to sell your information.

  For more about my work follow me on Facebook or visit my website Lissa Banks Paintings to learn how to purchase an original. You can purchase prints for sale at  FineArtAmerica.com.