Painting: Sophia

Detail: "Sophia"

Mixed Media Painting, 18" x 24"

This is a detail from the first painting I have completed in quite sometimes (years, I think). This was done using Caran d'ache watercolor crayons, water soluble oil pastels, acrylic paints, watercolor pencils, gessos and ink pens. I used no model for the woman, just various photographic references.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

The Creative Call: Being Servants

Chapter 6 deals with the "meat and potatoes" of the creative's life. It is about productivity. The advice given there is not new: silence the critic, stop procrastinating, get over being afraid of failure (or success), create an environment conducive to your work. However, what is different here is the notion of being a "servant of the work". As servants of the work we need to get off our duffs and get to work, even if this means that we must schedule an appointment with ourselves to do so. The author points out that the Spirit requires us bring into existence the inspiration given to us. Even if we don't feel like working, or don't feel as if we have an idea to bring to life, we need to sit down and write or make art or whatever. Get working and everything will fall into place. We need to make our creative practice a top priority instead of something we do when we finish other things.

I found this to be true for myself this week. A number days ago I had the vaguest suggestion of an idea. I put it off for a few days until I forced myself to pull out a large piece of paper and prime it. The primed paper then sat on my studio table for several more days. Yesterday, I decided I needed to schedule the time to start the painting. I made the appointment for 8:00 last night. It is at the end of the day not because I did not think it was important. It is at the end of the day so I could start working and not have to stop myself to do something else. I could go as long as I needed.

I started with this sketch:



And then blocked out the major color areas. I worked for about two hours until I came to a convenient stopping place.



The image is now sitting up on my studio table. I have scheduled this evening again, at 8:00 to continue laying on the color and start on the detail work. I'll post the finished painting when I feel I have reached the end.


ljgloyd (c) 2010

The Creative Call: Inspiration

Getting inspired to create artistic products is the theme of chapter 5. The chapter explores the source of inspiration -- the Holy Spirit-- and how to access that inspiration: through giving up ourselves as the source of our own inspiration and relying upon the Spirit, through prayer, to achieve it. Sometime our creative blocks come from our trying too hard. Sometimes we just have to be patient and wait. And if we are open to what the Spirit has to offer, it will come.

Waiting for inspiration does not mean we sit around and take no action. We need to be attentive to the world and people around us. The Spirit will work through our experiences to bring us ideas and motivate us to act upon them. We need to do our "breathing exercises" as Elsheimer urges. We need to spend time out and about on a regular basis to "prime the pump." This would include not only getting out and experiencing the world, but also studying what other creatives have done that we would like to emulate. If you paint, study the great masters. If you write, study your favorite writer.

Also, we need to start thinking of ourselves as writers or artists or chefs or bellydancers... whatever mode our creative expression takes. When we do this, our eyes will open and we will start stumbling across the ideas the Spirit tosses in front of us.

Finally, the author makes the practical suggestion of carrying around a notebook or sketchbook to capture those observations or ideas as they occur or record those inspirational dreams that may wake us up. I leave you with this example: I have been thinking about one of my creative mentors, Hildegard von Bingen, a medieval woman who was an artist, theologian, musical composer, medicinal healer, and adviser to many powerful people in her world. I thought of a painting I might do of her and I put down this quick thumbnail to capture what flashed in my mind's eye. I may not act on this, but at least the seed of the idea is down on paper and on the way to fruition.

Art Journal: Weekend Spread, Do Not Fear Success

This weekend's spread is all ready to receive writing which I think will be white gelly roll on the left side. I don't want to put in any writing on the right, but I'll have to see how much room I need.

The first layer of the background was gesso over blue watercolor crayon followed by several layers of green and blue tissue, art papers, and a computer printout of the female figure. The image is embellished by glitter glue. (I don't fling glitter, I squirt it! :)

Creating the image was a project in itself. I found a vintage image of Mata Hari. I am not particularly interested in Mata Hari herself, but the image presented to me all sorts of possibilities in terms of manipulation and embellishment. It took about an hour to colorize the whole image in Photoshop, resulting in about a dozen layers to achieve the final effect.

So what is this spread about? A couple of weeks ago during a meditation time, the words "Do not fear success" popped into my mind. It was an interesting insight that made me consider that my lack of progress in certain areas of my life may not have anything to do with a fear of failure, but rather from a fear of being successful. This insight is something that I am going to have to give some considered thought.

I debated with myself as to whether I should rephrase the title of the spread into a positive affirmation such as "Welcome Success". But since those were not the words that came to me, I stuck with the original statement.


ljgloyd (c) 2012

Art Journal: Weekly Spread January 16 Onward

Here is my spread all ready for my multi-day journaling for this week. Nothing fancy: just gesso over watercolor crayons, then stampings, followed by a drawing. I will handwrite my entries in black Pitt pen.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

Mosiac Spread: It's All About the Journey

This is my full weekend spread for January 14 and 15 (awaiting text for the 15th). It employs the mosiac and "hidden" tab prompts from earlier this week. I created the background by laying down some white gesso, fushia acrylic paint and black gesso. The mosiac tiles are cut from a paper I made of light wash of the fushia paint rubbed over by a thin layer of copper metallic acrylic paint. The labyrinth is a computer print out. I embellished with glitter glue. At first I was hesitant about using too much glitter but then I thought "You can never use too much glitter!" Woo-hoo.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

In the Studio: Creating a Mixed Media Painting

My thanks to those of you who gave me mostly good feedback on my post of a couple of days ago. The point I was trying to get across is that persevering in achieving a goal is as important, if not more so, than one's psychological frame of mind.

Yesterday, I was fooling around with a visual interpretation of this concept. I decided to document the process of creating the painting in this video. Thank you again for your support.



ljgloyd (c) 2011

Mixed Media Journal Entries

For the past year, I been doing a lot of mixed media painting and collage. Here's a couple of examples from my art journal.

"Ungrounded"

"Hope is a Star in my Hand"

ljgloyd (c) 2011