October 11, 2016 – A peek behind the curtain…

My body is working to rid itself of a virus. Instead of sleeping, my nights have been filled with coughing, making my brain not at its best in putting together words. But playing with images sounded restful – and do-able! – this morning. I’ve just finished a painting. It was a commission for someone I’d never met, working with images of his flowers growing on the east coast. Working with someone else’s photos is always a big challenge for me, to come up with something I relate to enough to paint. I thought I’d share in this painting-comes-to-be video some of the work I did in Photoshop, to come up with the composition to work from. The video does not include all the dead-ends I followed and abandoned – just the steps included in the final image. There were at least two versions that were deemed “not quite it.” And I’d almost given up on it at one point. I’m so very glad to be able to tell you the happy ending.

I did write the story of the painting yesterday, so I’m including it here. And I hope you enjoy the video.

With my love,

Cara

Flamenco – October 2016

The years that I’ve been showing this artwork have been sprinkled with moments of serendipity – moments when someone appears in my world and becomes part of it. This painting started with one of these moments. An email arrived in my inbox while we were on vacation in Tahoe in late July (2016) from someone named Charles, who lives with his wife Susan in Cambridge, MA. Their son and his family live a few minutes away from where I do. While they were out here for a visit, Charles saw my two paintings at the Marin County Fair. He took pictures of the art and of my name and then looked me up. The initial request was for information about paintings I’d already painted, which soon turned into a request to paint the hibiscus flowers that grow in their garden as a birthday gift for Susan.

These plants have been living – for 30 years (!) – in containers that are set into the spaces in the ground during the summer and brought inside for their cold, snowy winters. Sounds special enough to have their portraits painted! They wanted me to combine flowers from both varieties with plenty of leaves and some buds for interest. I gave him some pointers on how to take pictures to send me. As the photos came in via email I realized I was going to need to do some work collaging together something that would make a Life in Full Color painting.

I jumped in to Photoshop after the Sausalito Art Festival. The composition was a puzzle to sort out. I landed on the main flower right away. It was taken at that lovely three-quarter perspective. But the red flower was a challenge and piecing together the background took some doing. After two versions that weren’t quite there, I started to get worried that I was going to be able to pull this off. But the next day I was greeted by an email from Charles with more pictures – including of the troublesome red one – taken in full sun. The missing link had arrived! And I went back to work to create an image that – I was told – had “nailed it.” Whew!

Painting was uneventful (thankfully). Painting so many of these “fuzzy backgrounds” has paid off – they are becoming easier – and more fun to do. The leaves, as always, give me fits – so I get them done before the treat of painting the flower. I made a shift in the color of the flower, at their request – to match the actual flowers. In the full sun, digital cameras show things more yellow. I listen to Pandora a lot as I paint.

So many of the pieces on the “mood music” stations are pretty uninspiring, so when this lovely one, called “Tuesday’s Child” by a Canadian guitarist named Jesse Cook started playing, it caught my attention right away. I looked to see who the artist was and for the first time after just hearing something on Pandora I bought his album. It’s Nuevo Flamenco music – creative, emotive and I find myself bouncing in my seat as I listen to some of the songs. (if I painted standing, I’d be full-on dancing!). The music and these flying, swirling petals had me think of the dancers skirts and gave me an idea for its name: Flamenco.

Charles and I exchanged emails starting in July and this was our only mode of communication until the morning in October when he called to say they were on their way over. This was first time we’d heard each other’s voices. It was nice to share our home and the room that is my studio with them. Most importantly, I was happy and relieved they were pleased with the painting! We talked about the name and I played for them Jesse Cook’s vibrant, soulful music. They agreed the name fit. I’ve come to see painting a commission like this as a journey of faith – both for those who I paint for, and for me. We all take a risk – especially when we have never even spoken to each other before. It says a lot about us that there is a part of us that is willing to jump in with each other in this way. It brings a certain preciousness to our time together – when they came here to meet me, and the painting I did for them for the first time.

Thank you so much, Charles and Susan!