Sherry Meidell's Blog, page 12

An Honorable Mention

Sweet Puppy Dreams by Sherry Meidell

Sweet Puppy Dreams has received Honorable Mention at the Davis County Exhibit. You can take a look at the original at the County offices in Farmington with a lot of other fine art.

An armful of Hawaiian Temple Prints

I’ve also got an armful of “Hale La’a” House of Light prints ready for the BYU Hawaii Bookstore. So if you’re over on the North Shore of Oahu, you can check those out.

Today I Am Grateful For…

Meeting the Piano Teacher

i am grateful for grandaughters sitting by my side

Sunshine on the house across the street.

Warm oatmeal with blue berries

The opportunities to love others

The board of the watercolor society who are helping carry the weight

Nice watercolor brushes

The smell of oil paints and non stinky turpentine.

The chance to teach my watercolor class

The piano teachers off spring

#watercolor #gratitude #children’s book Illustration #kidlit

A Bit of Art and a Bit of Chocolate

I’ll be spending a bit of time with other artists this weekend. It’s fun to share your art with others. It’s fun to visit with those that come to see the art and chat about process and see their reaction to what you’re creating.

Giving All You Have

Red Poppies 9” x !2” watercoloron watercolor paper

What happens when you put your full effort into something? When you put your full effort into a painting.? When you give all you can even when you think it won’t be enough?

A little over four years ago, my husband was in the hospital. We were lucky he beat the odds and lived but he did lose his leg. Our young Granddaughter filled our hearts with love and brightened our day with the following card:

Dear Grandpa,

I hope that you will get better. And here is some money to help pay for the “prostetic” leg. I know it’s not much but it’s all I had. I love you and Grandma.

Love Lucy

“I know it’s not much” Many times we think that what we have to give and to share is not much but we should go ahead and share, put our heart into the project and give all that we have. Our efforts might share the beauty and joy we see with those around us.

Networking

Working together

The artist has a tendancy to want to stay isolated in their studio and work on their paintings or illustrations. You can’t get the work done unless you are in your studio working but there is a great deal you can learn from being around other artists. It doesn’t matter at what stage you are at in your art career. You can learn and be inspired from those around you. Not only do you want to learn from other artists but it is very satisfying to see someone else find great joy from looking at your artwork or purchasing a piece to hang were they can see it every day.

I have met some of my good creative friends from getting out of my studio. Even when you are quietly sitting, listening and just happen to take notes and sketch in your sketchbook. Even then you can meet someone. I met Carol Williams that way. She saw that I was sketching and she got caught up in the sketches and started talking to me. We worked on a picture book together and worked on other ideas. We sat at book signings together and presented at conferences together. But more than that, we became friends. The same thing happened with a group of young illustrators who attended a presentation I gave at a children’s book conference. They became colleagues and then friends.

So if you would like to meet some other watercolor artists and form some nice friendships with those that paint with watercolor, you might want to join a local watercolor group. Somebody caught me in a weak moment and I will be the president of the Utah Watercolor Society this year. It’s a great way to be inspired and make some lasting friendships. If your in Utah come join us.

Carol Williams Blog: Throwing Up Words

Manelle Oliphant’s website

Shawna Tenney

Jennifer Eichelburger

Utah Watercolor Society

The Importance of the Sketchbook

The Thinking Tool

Where do you practice, put your thoughts down on paper or paint your painting before you paint? Your sketchbook. So ideas pop into your head and if you don’t get them down on paper, they disappear. The sketchbook is a place to capture them. They are stored in a place where you can go back and get ideas to use on any number of projects. I love to add words to my drawings. They can help spur my memories. They can also spur your imagination. They can be a jumping off place for paintings, illustrations and stories.

The sketchbook is also a great place to practice seeing with your eyes and toning your muscle memory. It’s amazing how your eyes and your arm can connect to make beautiful creations. The continued use of hand and eye can improve your drawings and observations. Spending sometime every day observing things around you and sketching them on paper blesses your art. How do you practice your painting in a sketchbook when you are using a pencil or a pen and the white paper? Thumbnails capture ideas for the composition and sketches help you to see the values you want to put into your painting and the placement of those values. All the work you do before your painting, adds to the freshness and freedom of your painting when paint actually hits the watercolor paper.

The sketch above came from thinking about who would take care of Santa’s reindeer and working at BYU Hawaii with students from Mongolia. So The Reindeer Keeper” was born. The spark and working on that spark started in my sketch book. Get in the sketchbook habit.
l

“The Reindeer Keeper” 12” x 16” on metal. Limited edition.

The Reindeer Keeper is one of the paintings and prints that will be for sale and for viewing in person at The Gallery in the Garden at Becky Hartvigsen’s beautiful backyard garden. Come join me and other artist August 27th and 28th if your in the Davis County Area.

Capturing Sunflowers

Sunflower Array

There is so much beauty in this world. I love painting people, landscapes and flowers. So I paint whatever grabs my eye. I love painting flowers because they have beautiful abstract shapes. There is a real freedom in painting flowers. You can splash paint around and have great fun with water and paint and still capture the flower.

So my granddaughters participated in a entrepreneur outside market and the booth across from them were selling gorgeous sunflowers. I bought some to paint and they have been fun. I’m going to participate in Becky Hartvigsen’s. Backyard Art Sale, Gallery in the Garden the end of August. So it will be fun to have some of these paintings ready to hang. I’m framing them with a wax finish and no glass. It leaves a beautiful finish. There is a nice mood to this painting. Create some beauty in the world today.

The Eyes Have It

Baby Bear had heard that her piano teacher had nestlings.

What drives an artist to create? What causes them to want to draw or paint so much that they think they should pick up a pencil and try to capture the impossible. Sometimes those goals drive us to spend hours practicing the piano. Other times it prompts us to get out of the isolation of the studio and take a workshop where you have to paint with other people watching your progress. What will they think of your efforts? All those eyes looking at your painting.

There is alway uncertainty looming there. In the book “Art and Fear” Bayless and Orland say,

“Naive passion which promotes work done in ignorance of obstacles, becomes – with courage – informed passion, which promotes work done in full acceptance of these obstacles. Foremost among those obstacles is uncertainty.”

So even though we are uncertain about the outcome, we dive in anyway. We take courage and see where the creativity takes us. The uncertainty of my art has taken me on some grand adventures.

Rip it Up and Throw it Out?

Metal and Petals 8 1/2” x 7 1/2” watercolor on watercolor paper

We’ve all arrived there. You look at the progress on your drawing or painting and you see no way to salvage it. You see no way but to throw it out and start over again. The above painting arrived at that point. I saw no other way. Chuck it in the garbage and throw it away.

‘But there is an advantage to going ahead and finishing the painting. You take a look at what you have and decide. What do I need to add to this painting to get it to work? Do I need to add some rich darks? Do I need to paint over the unfinished parts of the painting to cover up the white of the paper so I can more fully see the values? Do I need to refine some of the shapes? Maybe lift off in places?

There is an advantage to just finishing the painting. There are things to be learned by the completion of your project. Sometimes the refining process at the end of the painting takes some time and patience. That may be what you need to learn.

And so I finished the painting. There is a very nice mood to this painting. Something I would have missed if I had thrown it out. It captured the age of the old rusted metal wheelbarrow. And once again the words I tell my students and workshop attendees came ringing back into my ears, “Why don’t you just finish the painting. Just get it done and then hide it in a drawer for a week and take a second look at it “

WARNING: Some paintings might have to be hid in a drawer for longer than a week. But it will be finished. I’m glad I didn’t throw this one out.

Demo for watercolor class.

Is There Only One Way to Tell The Story?I’ve always loved...

Is There Only One Way to Tell The Story?

I’ve always loved telling stories. Whether it is with a nice watercolor painting or as I create characters for children’s books, it’s the telling of the story with art that I love. I’ve bounced back and forth between the two. The children’s book illustrations have detail. The watercolor paintings can be big enough to allow freedom of brushstrokes. It’s a good combination.

The one has influenced the other. When I’ve been working on a picture book, things seem to come into my life that have an influence on the book. The elements and principals of art can improve both children’s book illustration and watercolor paintings. Things learned in a watercolor workshop end up influencing my illustrations. Imagination is used for both. It’s very satisfying to start with a picture you see in your head and watch it appear on your sketch book and become refined with watercolor.

Detail from illustration of Baby Bear