The Ruby Walker Art Update: July 2023 [Archive Release]

Note: This is an archive release from July 2023; see my July 2024 notes at the end of this post. Please enjoy!

The Art Update: July 2023

Learning to paint greenery and finding the right workflow for my commissions!

Hello friends!  So much has happened in the last month (basically two months now, oops) – including a lot of new paintings and some really positive changes in my life! 
I’ve collected all of the news right here. And at the end, a selection of my current obsessions in art, music, poetry, and prose.  I invite you to sit down with a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy this letter at your leisure. It’s summer after all. 

Green paintings!

I said in my last newsletter that I hoped to make some green paintings this month, and I totally did! I’m proud of myself for following through – and I’d definitely love to continue making sunny green paintings this summer; they just make me happy to look at. 

Through The Leaves (Middle Raccoon River), 2023.
Ruby Walker. Oil on canvas. 5″ x 5″.

The first one is scene from the nature preserve surrounding Middle Raccoon River – I went on a hike there in early June and loved it. I think the painting turned out really cute. It’s only 5 x 5 inches, so I tried my best to keep it simple and focus on the light. I’m going to make more of these little ones and sell them for $60. I’ve heard it’s good business to have originals available at different price points. I feel good about the result of my first landscape, but certain points during the process really frustrated me. I was PMSing, it was my first time working on such a tiny canvas, and I also filmed a process video which made me pretty self-conscious.

Cottonwood Trees (Out My Studio Window), 2023
Ruby Walker. Oil on canvas.

My next green painting was really, really fun to do! I just looked out my studio window and painted what I saw. I felt like I was really playing with the colors on my palette and enjoying the moment without getting fussy about the results. This one is 11 x 14 inches, which also gave me more room to play and use bigger brushes.  I’m thinking about giving it one more pass, but I might just varnish it and leave it like this. This is the kind of painting I would want to put up in my own bedroom. I’ll sell it for $170 if there’s interest, but I’d also be happy to keep it. It feels fresh and peaceful. 

ADHD and my problem with overly ambitious self-scheduling

Getting ADHD treatment again has been really helpful when it comes to my work, but it hasn’t made me into the absolutely perfect productivity machine I’d hoped to become. Darn! I was so excited when I started taking meds again and my symptoms improved, I made a really ambitious schedule for the month. But then it all crashed and burned because I did not factor in any time for breaks, mistakes, or bad weather. I do this thing where if I can keep a schedule really strictly, I feel great about myself and keep going. But once I mess it up once, I feel like I’ve failed and the guilty procrastination begins. Tasks pile up, and the bigger the pile, the more I want to cry instead of starting anything.  So my new goal for the rest of the summer is to have fun and try to get excited about my work. I do want to spend more time making art, but I think shame is a really bad tool for getting there. Generally getting into the studio as much as I can is good, but trying to keep a really strict schedule sets me up for disappointment. I’m a fast painter anyway; I don’t need quotas to get things done.

Finished Commissions Violeta Garza, 2023.
Ruby Walker. Oil on Canvas.

This is a portrait of Violeta Garza as a child in the back of her mom’s truck. I’m really happy with the way I abstracted the city lights in the background. I’m also happy with the face, which I had to repaint twice – but well worth it. Smiles can be tough to get right.

Valentina, 2023.
Ruby Walker. Oil on canvas.

This is a portrait of Valentina, my good friend Brough’s girlfriend. He commissioned it for their anniversary. I’m really happy with the pink roses – her favorite flower. That part of the painting came very easily. 

Quitting Instagram

Trying to keep up with the Instagram grind was causing me a lot of unnecessary stress, so I quit. That’s the short version. But of course, I had to get 40 tabs deep into a research hole to figure out why being a tryhard on social media was so addictive, yet so draining.  You can read Why I Quit Using Instagram as an Artist on my website if you want the whole spiel.

New Journal Cover 🙂 The Moon (And Falling Stars), 2023.
Ruby Walker. Acrylic on found journal cover, 5 x 7 in.

I’ve been painting my journal covers for a few years now. I’m really happy with how this one turned out! It’s really whimsical and magical and it makes me happy to write, even when I’m stressed and not having fun otherwise. The front cover is inspired by the Moon tarot card, but the back I just freestyled. I painted the spine red, then metallic gold, in a dollar-store-craft-paint imitation of traditional gilding techniques.

(Bad photos of) more paintings!Rear Window, 2023.
Ruby Walker. Oil on canvas. 11 x 14 in.
SOLD

This is house – I think it’s used for an office – near my studio. I like the way the light on the back side is always on, it looks really interesting at dusk. Both of the photos in this section were taken in the worst light on my phone – I didn’t get a chance to take high quality photos yet and I wanted to share these. I may add more to this one at some point, but it was fun to paint.

Mortensen Road in the Rain, 2023.
Ruby Walker. Oil on canvas. 5 x 5 in.

This is another little 5×5-inch canvas that I painted after the first green one. It’s a scene from my bike ride home on a rainy day. I love this one and I think it looks way better in person.

Lastly, some art that inspires me: Creation Before The Myth, 2022.
Ida Floreak.

No words. I just love this painting.  You can check out the artist here.

Morning Walk, 1888.
John Singer Sargent. Tale of the Fern Flower, c. 1910.
Antonio Piotrowski.

Again, as always, admiring Sargent’s portraits. I noticed that Piotrowski’s had that same warm light outlining the shape of the subject’s jaw. 

Flowers to my Father (series), 2022.
Tagreed Darghouth (Lebanese, b. 1979). Acrylic on Canvas.

I really love the looseness of this one, the way it shows the physicality of the paint. I’m trying to get better at leaving visible brush strokes alone and not fussing too much.

Ophelia
Annie Ovenden (b. 1945)Portal, 2021.
Angela Lane.Museo di Casa Martelli, 2013.
Jane Irish.Sunblind, 2022.
Sean Lewis.

Thinking about light, as always. I’ve been really interested in artworks that have this kind of fantastical, transcendental, sparkling light.

That’s all for now, folks! I was really hoping to get some better photos of some of my finished paintings or to finish more commissions this month, but I didn’t quite get there. But that just means a chunkier email next month!  (Hopefully next month I’ll get the email done before the next month starts, oops… These things always take way longer than I think they will.)  If you got this far, thanks for reading. It means a lot to me.

Sincerely, Ruby Walker

Ruby Walker

Note from July 2024 (AKA the future or, by the time you read this, the past): My first year in an MFA program was intense, and I therefore neglected to update this website. I was busy making tons of new art, new friends, and learning so much. It got rough at a few points, but I didn’t fail any classes and I didn’t get fired, so I am adding it to the books as a “win.” Within the next few days, I will be publishing something on the topic of the last year, so keep an eye out for that if you are interested in what I’ve been up to. I will also finally be publishing my next Art Update, adding all my new work to this website, and possibly more! Lots to say, lots to catch up on!

Back on topic: this “Art Update” post was originally released as a newsletter in August 2023, summarizing the events of July. My goal this year is to keep up the newsletter throughout the semester, though perhaps pared down in length in order to make monthly updates more manageable.

I have been keeping track of new signups to the mailing list, although I haven’t published any newsletters in the last year. If you’d like to receive these new-batch updates as soon as I make them, feel free to sign up. I only feel it’s necessary to send a letter when I have something salient to say, so you’ll get emails at most once a month (and, as we’ve seen, sometimes once a year!) Therefore, I would like to posit that my newsletter is, in fact, the opposite of spam.

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Published on July 26, 2024 14:23
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