Late-Night Painting

As a care-giver I keep some strange hours. It can be hard to get work done, hard to start something that will take a lot of time, knowing that at any moment I could be called away. Learning how to manage time, when that time is irregular and unpredictable, is a continuing process. Broken sleep is the norm.
 I find it easier to stay awake than to wake up. If I'll be serving chocolate pudding and coffee at midnight, or we'll be belting out Christmas songs at 2am, I'd rather still be up than try to clear a half-asleep mind. So sometimes when I know it's going to be a late night, and because it's hard to stop once I start, I paint in the wee sma's.

Work-in-progress... at 3 o' clock am.

Neglected Paintings

One of my goals this summer is to FINISH paintings. I have many more I want to begin, but have been holding off a little, as I try to get some of my old neglected works back onto the easel.

This one's a bit different from my usual subject. I had a few beautiful maple leaves that I brought in for my Grandma to see in the autumn, when she was no longer able to get outside. They dried and curled, their color faded but remained. I loved to see how they caught the light on their fine points and contours, and the shadows they cast.

Maple Leaves, 12x16" oil on linen

This one is closely based on the summer kitchen here on the farm. A beautiful dilapidated old building from the late 1800s. There's a hole in the roof and the floor is incredibly warped, but I love it. It was a fun place to poke around as kids, climbing carefully around the old cream separator, finding old stamps and interesting glass jars and bottles. Behind the door were stored all our shovels, rakes, and hoes, and in the bucket just inside the door was kept the small digging tools my grandpa made and painted in his signature blaze orange. On the east side grow those old fashioned, scraggly but jubilant flowers known only as "showers of gold".

Summer Kitchen, 24x18" oil on linen - work in progress

This one may be one of the longest abandoned. I think I've had this for a couple of years at least- one of those paintings started enthusiastically, which was then muddied and it's original plan forgotten. On a walk this spring, watching a somewhat stormy sky in the distance and trying to sketch in dull graphite the vibrant and changing clouds, I thought of it again and decided to drag it out and paint it over.

12 x 16" work in progress

There are a lot more in line to be worked on, but it feels great to move a few over to the completed category, and I hope to get the time to get a lot more done.

Just now I'm gearing up for this year's Plein Air Festival. Looking forward to getting out and painting like mad in and around Red Wing, Minnesota!

:)

Little bits of news

I'm tickled pink to find out that a copy of Binksie and Bep is on an actual shelf, in an actual library, complete with a little "local author" sticker!

 The girls on whom the book is based are half-convinced they're famous. Especially since, in the past month, they've each been recognized by people they hadn't before met, who had read the book.

 Rumor has it that three of my paintings got to be part of the Robbin Gallery's annual Extremely Minnesota exhibit! I haven't seen the show yet (and sadly, had to miss the opening last night! :-( ) but hope to soon.

I've been trying to finish up all my oil painting in preparation for cold winter weather. Ventilation gets more difficult in the winter, and besides, these November days of moody skies and bare trees really make me want to spread out my watercolors and get to work! But I keep starting more oils, while waiting for the ones I'm working on to dry. :-P

 Some paintings drying.

 Here's one I've just finished:

 "Dusk" 

12"x16" oil on linen

Hannah C. Heyer

Self-delusions and Painting Progress

I got a big fat box of new stretched canvases yesterday! I love getting new supplies in the mail. It's like it's my birthday and I'm getting a lovely gift-- that I had to pay for, but still!
Then I check my bank account balance and say to myself, "Oh Hannah! You shouldn't have! You REALLY shouldn't have!"
Having a lot of blank canvases, or paper, and fat tubes of paint lets me trick myself into thinking I have an endless supply. I can be less stingy with my usage, and don't worry so much about making every canvas or sheet of paper turn into something great.
Otherwise I can save and save, waiting to use my limited materials on only the grandest ideas, which never actually works in improving the quality of my work and only makes it more disappointing when something doesn't turn out and I've used up precious supplies. And I've missed trying a lot of ideas that might have been grand after all.

These new canvases, while still relatively small, are larger than what I've been painting most of the year. I'm really enjoying the challenge of working a little larger again, and hope to use more of my smaller canvases in some plein air painting this autumn.
But we've been stuck under cloudy, rain-spitting skies for the past several days, and I've been working indoors. Here's an update on the painting I began on the 21st:
The top of the large tree has become much more defined, the foreground has been filled in and given some grassy, weedy detail, and the sky is smoother and a bit lighter.
I can't wait to get my brushes messy again! :)

Blustery Beginnings

A day as gloomy, blustery, and beautiful as today was going to influence anything I painted. I began a new 16 x 12" oil painting this afternoon. I worked on the sky, and had just started to block in the tree and landscape when it got too dark. Blurry pic, but here's what it looks like so far:

Also, I was very happy to be featured today on the Artisan-Denizen blog! It was fun and challenging responding to the interview questions; it can be hard to express myself through words (thanks for including pictures, Wendy!)

A quick overview of August

Didn't do as much painting in August as I hoped to do, but much of it was a feast for the eyes, which I hope to interpret in paint later on.
Here's a brief look at last months work:

Showers of Gold, plein air done on August 11th. 6x8" oil on linen. See previous entry. :)


Green Corn Moon, 8x10" oil on linen. The moon on August 14 rose in a blue-gray dusky sky, where clouds that covered it blended into the clear sky above. Did a sketch late that night while the memory was fresh in my mind, and painted the following day.


August 22, 2011, 5x7" oil on linen
A little 5x7" plein air painting of our rusty Quonset shed in the evening light. It was a hard day, and it was great to stop and appreciate the beauty light gives to the most mundane objects.


August 25, 2011
Footbridge plein air, 10x8" oil on cotton
Last meeting of my little oil painting group that met bi-weekly this summer. You guys did great, and were so much fun. :) I hope you keep on painting!


8x6" oil on linen
August 28, 2011, plein air painting under a beautiful cloudy sky, with the sound of the wind blowing through the poplar leaves. Goldenrod and Queen Anne's Lace and thistles.


And a peak at the first step in my next project, studying the face and form. It will get better, and I'm so thankful for friends who will sit for 5 hours and not get mad when the artist inserts sarcastic lines into romantic movies meant to entertain the sitter. You're the best. :-D

Clouds and Showers

Showers of Gold, 6 x 8" oil on linen

I did this little plein air painting on the evening of August 11, 2011.
I love these flowers. They're a little past their peak now, but still so bright and unruly. I've been told my great-grandma grew these flowers, and have always heard them called "Showers-of-Gold". They grow tall and are prone to blowing over. I happen to know that they make a great hiding place if one wants to eat doughnuts undisturbed.

In other paint-news, I've been studying the clouds.

what's on my easel

What can I say. I love dandelions. :-) And skies.

I've been staying with my grandma recently, and have temporarily transformed "my" room into a studio of sorts.
The walls are a funny pastel green, and the light isn't always the best, but it's got two windows that let in a lot of air and there's room for me to spread out.
Several easels, a jolly scattering of paint tubes and canvases, and two small tables filled with potted herbs and houseplants make it feel pretty homey.

Recovery from surgery has been slow, but I am healing and it's good to be working again.

Painting time cut short...

The problem with great, dramatic, cloud-filled skies is that they're usually connected with severe weather.
This is where my painting was interrupted earlier:
Just as the sky was getting really exciting too!
But thunderstorms and tornado warnings are nothing to mess around with, so this will be a studio painting rather than truly plein air.
Here it is after a little more work. I'll let it dry and come back to it.
There were a lot of hay bales that were left out in the fields over winter, and I always love the curves and lines of the fields on a hillside.
But mostly, I wanted those clouds!

Book Progress

My eyes are red from staring at a computer screen for too long! :-P But I think, I hope, I'm nearing the end. I'm still working on the editing and formatting of my book, including the cover.
While it would have been nice to be done sooner, the longer I'm taking with this, the better it's getting. Little extras have been added, fonts tweaked, scans improved, and ideas developed. I've still got a mountain of work to do, but real progress has been made, and that feels so good.
This is what the title page looks like at the moment:

More Illustrating Progress

Bep's turn to get some color...
And some glasses too!


:-)

Let the Coloring Begin!

Yesterday I began the process of painting in the illustrations for my book. Trying to be organized, and avoid silly mistakes and inconsistencies, I spread all of the drawings out and picked one thing at a time to paint.Binksie gets to be painted first. This gives a pretty good idea of how it will look, though more color and detail will be added as the painting progresses.

Now if I can just stay in the lines...

...

Detail from a painting I've been working on today. I started it last Winter, using a sketch made last December as a reference, but it's been completely neglected since.
It has already been changed, smoothed out and touched up quite a bit from when this was taken earlier today. I actually kind of like it at this stage, and while I ultimately want it to look more finished and have more depth, I think I want it to retain a little bit of its roughness.
It's still got a long way to go before its completion. The reason only his head is shown is that he looked a little too much like Pop-eye in the arms. :-p I definitely want to work more on figures and improve in the areas of perspective and scale. I just need to convince more of my friends and loved ones that allowing me to paint them really IS a good idea!
I've been reading up on art history lately (i.e. skimming while flipping through and looking at all the pictures) and it's really inspired me to work harder at improving my painting. There is still so much beauty in this old world. I want the eyes to see it; I want the skill to share it.

Tuckered Out

This blog is, sadly, only slightly more neglected than my painting has been.

The days are getting so much shorter as we approach winter, and I miss the sunshine already. But it's beautiful too.

I was hoping to do some plein air painting today, but since I couldn't seem to get warm indoors, the prospect of spending a few hours outdoors sitting in the wind just wasn't quite appealing enough.
So instead of painting the great out of doors, I began a small portrait of two very tired people. It's wonderful how subjects hold still when they're asleep. ;-) It needs some work yet, but the sunshine is gone.

4"x4" oil on linen

Old Government House

A few days ago we went and saw the Old Government House in Brisbane. It was a cool place, had interesting historical displays, and I think there was a lot to see. Upstairs was the William Robinson Gallery, which was pretty interesting. My favorite pieces were those inspired by the rain forests.

Silly as it sounds, one of the places I liked best in the house was the cellar. To me it had such a nice, homey feel (and smell) to it, and I liked the lighting and the curve of the ceiling and the texture of the walls. Here, in its first layer, is my painting of it.