I been reading a lot of blogs lately …

My Adventure Plein Air

Since I’ve gone to Lori Putman workshop, her word keep ring in my ears about color theory and folks whining about why they can’t do something.  

 I have been reading a lot of blogs lately, FB ha been showing artist with disability and it seem they are all have one thing in common, they don’t whine or say they can’t.

Then last week I was checking my email and I came across this Newsletter by Crista Cloutier called “She looked like Georgia O’Keeffe❤”   which got me thinking about my own life.

I normally don’t share this part of my life  but for you to understand my adventure Plein air you must understand me and my struggles. So hear goes… almost 60 years ago I was born with dyslexic (I was on the high scale about 35 years ago)and who know what else. As I young child I can remember laying on my grandma kitchen floor creating what I thought was art as my grandma taught pregnant mom how to cook my dads favorite meals. I was two and half at that time.

As I grew I kept creating my simple child like art as I was being told by family, teachers and even friends that I could not do this or that because of my dyslexia and being an artist was a no-no to my family and grandmother because they thought I was not smart enough.

Growing up was hard and beginning told all those lies as a child you began to believe them but one. I knew  deep down in my gut that I am a artist even thou they couldn’t see it.

 Then came the day when I put my foot down and taught my self to paint and create as an adult to only hear the doctor tell me that I have osteoarthritis and one day I won’t be able to paint any more.

   Well I have something to say about that and that is, I don’t want to be other Grandma Ach… I am a artist and I have travel a long hard road to get to where I am today. I had to teach my self everything I know and I am a artist.

Now I am taking a new road as an artist and that road is the hardest one yet for me – Plein Air.

I still hear those childhood voices today telling me “You can’t do this or that” and oh the pain that my joints cry out at times. But I have to remind my self that I am an artist and know matter what life throws at me I will create.

Now you are wondering why I say all of this. I am finding that there are a lot of folks out there who are like me. Maybe they don’t have dyslexia but they have been told some lies and even beat down for their dreams but I am here to tell you that if you have that desire burning inside of you and no one could brake it from you, not even time it self, than quite sitting there whining about why you can’t create.

You don’t live in the day of Grandma Ach so stop making excuses and start creating. 

Here is the blog that Crista Cloutier  wrote.

Every family has a story.
 
They called her “Grandma Ach” because of her habit of beginning each sentence with a guttural sound of disapproval. “Ach! What is this?”
 
But her name was Mary Anne.
 
She was the daughter of German immigrants. Farmers. But Mary Anne was an artist.
 
Bright, beautiful, and serious, the photos of my great-grandmother remind me of a young Georgia O’Keeffe.
 
And like Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary Anne was devoted to painting. This is what she wanted to do with her life.
 
But times were very different for women then.
 
One day a man from a neighboring farm named Adam came to call. He was looking for a wife. His own wife, his beloved Elizabeth, had passed away and Adam needed a woman to raise his three kids and run the farm.
 
The daughters were called out and Mary Anne, being the most beautiful, was chosen.
 
She fought back. She didn’t want to get married. She didn’t want to raise children. She was an artist, it was her very soul.
 
But times were very different for women then.
 
Mary Anne would live in Elizabeth’s house, next door to Elizabeth’s parents. She raised Elizabeth’s children and each night she lay with a man who continued to mourn Elizabeth.
 
Over the years, she would give Adam 10 more children. Including my Grandfather.
 
I don’t know if there was a time that she ever liked kids. My Mom remembers Grandma Ach as hard and disinterested. I remember her too, with her long dark hair and piercing eyes. She fascinated me.
 
It wasn’t until she was already an old woman that she finally got all of the children out of the house and on their own paths. And the moment the last one left, Mary Anne marched to the store to buy herself canvas and paint.
 
She was an artist.
 
Finally.
 
But then life played its cruelest joke of all. It took away her sight.
 
Mary Anne went blind.
 
Grandma Ach would live a long life, but not a happy one. Because she was never allowed to do the work she felt most called to do.
 
I look at the choices we have the privilege of making today; about how to spend our time, how to live our lives, what is worth fighting for and who we want to be. We forget how lucky we really are to have such freedom.
 
So when an artist now whines to me that he wants to make art but just can’t get into the studio, making one excuse or another, or she’s thinking of quitting the art business because it’s just too hard, I tell them “That’s your choice.”
 
History is full of too many stories like Mary Anne’s, of artists who literally had no opportunity to do what their soul demanded.
 
“Can’t they see?” I ask myself, as I think of my great-grandmother’s fruitless struggle to be her true self, “Who is really blind?”

 

So now I would like to ask you just one question, “Are you a Grandma Ach or are you an artist living/fighting for your dream?”

As for me, it has been a tough road with bumps, potholes and barricades to brake though and yes I did my share of “I can’t do that” or “Whine, Whine , Whine” but that has long gone. Now when I see something, I look at it as “I can do that” when I don’t have a clue how to do it. I have taught my self most everything I know and with today’s world it is a lot easier to learn that when I was young.

So again “Are you a Grandma Ach or are you an artist living/fighting for your dream?

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Until next time, keep creating.

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I am deeply grateful for your support, comments and business and a huge thanks to all of those who have recently purchased my paintings and ornaments. 

It means a lot to me.

Thanks once again for taking the time to read my blog.

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Do you have a wall that needs to be filled or perhaps 

replaced with an image that inspires you? Or a memory you 

would like captured? Than I would love to talk to you about

doing a commission painting for you.   

And thank you for 

your support, your love of art and for letting me sharing my 

journey with you.  If you have friends who would be 

interested in my work, please forward this blog on to 

them.

——————————————————

If you have friends who would be interested in my work, please forward this blog on to them. And 

You can continue to stay connected via:

My Website:  http://creationsbyjdfields.weebly.com   

My info blog: 

https://iwouldliketotelly’all.wordpress.com  

My art blog: http://theartisteasel

My Newsletter: https://newsletterbyjdfields.wordpress.com

Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creationsbyjdfields 

and 

and (J.d. Fields Artist) – 1127025311@facebook.com 

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/+JDFields 

Instagram :  https://creationsbyjdfields/  

My Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/creationsbyjdfields / 

   Commissions are welcome, Contact Me: pals4ever98@hotmail.com 

 

(C) All copyright privileges retained by Creations by J.D. Fields. Downloading/printing is prohibited by law

Just went to a Lori Putnam workshop

My Adventure Plein Air

 

 This week I got to go to my first Plein Air Workshop and to my surprise it’s a FB artist that I followed, Lori Putnam. What an amazing artist she is. Full of life, willing to be a person on your level not one that is above you and so informative that I walk away with my heading spinning and my notebook full of notes.  

Now most of you guys know this info but for the beginner plein air this will be a few nuggets and for the rest of us a fresh reminder …

Lori talk about how she wanted to brake into the art world. But it was and a portrait artist friend that told her to start by painting Plein Air painting for this would help her to see color that u don’t see in a photo and to push her self lay down color and shallows fast.

She also said something that hit me right between the eyes. Most artist never see there dream come true because we make excuses on way we can’t paint that day.

Have u ever said “I have my kids to take care of”(but if u want to go out shopping, a date night with it husband,boyfriend,out with a friend you will make the time),”I have to cook dinner” (then paint in the morning instead of watching TV or paint something in the back yard) . We can make all kinds excuses why we can’t but stop!

Lori also briefly talk about an Plein Air group of artist and one of them dose not have arms. She said that they where out painting when it started to lightly rain. The first thing everyone started to do was to complain. When she (Lori) look over to where the Artist with no arms was,she had some how pull a tarp over her self and kept on  painting. There was no excuses for her. She was living here dream…

This is something that I am falling into lately. I am a Acrylics artist but taking my Acrylic outdoor is not easy. Most artist tell me to switch to oils but I like the drying time and for me there is no smell in Acrylics. I was getting frustrated so I started making excuses of why I can go out to paint today but know more excuses for me. I shall see my dreams come true.

She also talk about FEAR and how it can hold us back from your dreams. Oh someone has been reading my diary. But again no more, I am going to get out of my comfort zone and start telling my self that “I can do that” even when I don’t have a clue on how to do it.

She talk about her Plein Air gear, paints, & brushes.

Then she talk about something that I don’t do and I should. A thumb nail sketch for your Plein Air painting.

This I am finding out is very important when Plein Air. What is a Notan sketch? Will I look it up and you can read about it here-http://www.pleinairbc.com/the-notan/ . Also when doing a Notan sketch, make sure you make detail notes where your shadows, lights, colors-warm or cool are.

Now Lori had started her painting and while she painted she talking about color values. (Check out the Artist’s Road -http://www.theartistsroad.net/articles/colormixingsecrets) . And that we needed to get our shadows in our painting quickly.

Plus she would mix her colors next to each other to get a value check but then she would check that same color against a white paper towel before adding it to the canvas to make sure she did not get a color shade to dark or light.

She also said for us to ask our self these questions while painting?

1. Is your colors-warm or cool,light or dark.
2. Is you color closer to the color you just put down.

After the workshop was over I went up to look at her painting closer when a friend came up to me and said some like “I wish she would have talk a little bit about how to brake into the art world”. Will the next thing I knew we went up to her and ask  and the answer was Social Media. Then she told us something that I was a little surprise to hear. Don’t put your work up at a discount or cut your prices to make a sale either. When you go to the doctor you don’t bargain with the cost, not do you bargain with the market, etc. You know it cost money and you paid for their work.  The same going with your artwork. If they can’t afford the original work of art than sell them a copy of your work at a lower prices.

You are an artist not the 99 cent store/dollar tree store. 

If you ever get a chances to take one of Lori Putnam work shop, do for you come out with nuggets that you did not have before

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Until next time, keep creating and God Bless.

————————————————————————————————————

I am deeply grateful for your support, comments and business and a huge thanks to all of those who have recently purchased my paintings and ornaments. 

It means a lot to me.

Thanks once again for taking the time to read my blog.

————————————————————————————————————

Do you have a wall that needs to be filled or perhaps 

replaced with an image that inspires you? Or a memory you 

would like captured? Than I would love to talk to you about

doing a commission painting for you.   

And thank you for 

your support, your love of art and for letting me sharing my 

journey with you.  If you have friends who would be 

interested in my work, please forward this blog on to 

them.

————————————————————————————————————

If you have friends who would be interested in my work, please forward this blog on to them. And 

You can continue to stay connected via:

My Website:  http://creationsbyjdfields.weebly.com   

My info blog: 

https://iwouldliketotelly’all.wordpress.com  

My art blog: http://theartisteasel

My Newsletter: https://newsletterbyjdfields.wordpress.com

Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creationsbyjdfields 

and 

and (J.d. Fields Artist) – 1127025311@facebook.com 

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/+JDFields 

Instagram :  https://creationsbyjdfields/  

My Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/creationsbyjdfields / 

   Commissions are welcome, Contact Me: pals4ever98@hotmail.com 

 

(C) All copyright privileges retained by Creations by J.D. Fields. Downloading/printing is prohibited by law