A View of Halema`uma`u Ash Plume

Here is the newest work in progress, another inspired by a trip to Hawaii last fall. This vent emitting gases and ash formed about a year ago in the crater of Kilauea at Volcanoes National Park. I am told that it used to be that when visiting the park you could walk in the crater up to the edge of the volcano. The fact that this fumarole - which is a fancy name for ash plume - has formed is a sign of activity, so you can see why excursions across the crater are no longer allowed. When the plume is mostly white there isn't much ash present, just gases. The ash would make the plume more dingy and brown.

After visiting the crater we went to explore the lava tube. Inside the lava tube - not the tourist one with lights and signs that remind you to watch your step, but the other one - the one with a gate and a sign that said something like "You are free to enter at your own peril". In this lava tube I learned the importance of a good flashlight with fresh batteries.

This painting is fairly small and I'm curious to see if in the final work the scale of the actual eruption will come across.

Inspiration or Interpretation: Why I Doodle All the Day

If there’s an open space within a letter I fill it in. I underline words, then underline again, and then make a squiggle. A radiating pattern emerges with undulating lines and then forms emerge, doorways and paths, clouds and trees appear. In a lecture or classroom, or while on the phone, if I find myself with paper and pencil or pen I start to doodle. Actually paper and pen aren’t even needed. A foggy window, a sandy beach, a pile of twigs on the ground - all are fair game. It’s automatic and that makes sense, for doodling is often thought of as a type of automatism.

Doodling is a bridge to the subconscious, laid out through symbols and patterns, or even through the quality or emphasis of the line. There is a relationship between doodling and dreaming. Both use images as a language to send messages from the subconscious to the conscious mind. The ability to listen to and understand these messages can be very helpful. Some say that like handwriting, doodles can be used for interpretation. Or, as in this process, that doodles can help resolve a problem.

A study by psychologist Jackie Andrade has found that doodling can help a person to concentrate and that it may help with memory. Time explains her findings and the mechanics of how doodling helps people pay attention in situations where they might otherwise tune out.

Automatic drawings, as well as several other techniques used by the Surrealists, were employed as a way to either inspire their work or as the making of a finished piece. The unconscious as a source of inspiration is a key element in the Surrealistic movement. These techniques continue to be explored by artists today. Aaron Landman has recently posted about his doodling exercises and their effectiveness in quieting the critical mind. Dora Ficher, writes about how doodling helps keep her focused.

I use doodles to find a feeling tone for the work I want to do. They’ll tell me if it’s going to be calm or turbulent and if needed, what direction I might look to in the landscape for reference.

A Little Studio Support

Last week just as I took one of many breaks from painting during the day I noticed a twinge in my shoulder. Later on it developed into a bigger pain, making it difficult to move my arm. The crazy thing was that it wasn’t my right shoulder. I’m right handed so you’d figure that if something were going to ache it would be the arm I was working with.

When this happened three days in a row I had to figure out what was causing it. As it turns out, because I sometimes work from a reference – a drawing, a small watercolor, or a small oil study that I hold in my left hand while I paint with my right, I was holding on so tightly that I was tensing up my shoulder. I remained completely oblivious to this as I worked resulting in tight, cramped, sore muscles in my left shoulder and arm.

I actually have a nifty device that I can employ to prevent this from happening. It’s a little “shelf” that can be clamped on to the easel, or even to the painting itself, that will hold a small drawing or a painting. The shelf is adjustable so that it can be attached to either side. This device actually has a name - it's called a Testrite Picture Holder. For some reason I had taken it off the easel. So I went and found it and reattached it to hold my reference drawing and I haven’t had a sore shoulder since.

Pictures of this helpful accessory in action are below:



In this photo I've removed the drawing so you can see the actual device:



Since buying this one I've noticed that there are other similar clips for holding reference material that are about half the price.

Before and After

I've been reworking the look of my blog along with the functionality by changing the fonts, the background color and sidebar elements, and adding pictures.

Below is a "before" screenshot:

As you can see, I've lightened the background color. It is now a very pale gray. I didn't want to go all the way to white. I have the idea that my artwork looks better against a gray background and I personally find a white page hard on my eyes, but that's just me. The darker gray matches my website, so I'll have to change that on my website as well. I've been meaning to make changes on my website anyway. While I'm at it I'll also have to change the font there. Come to think of it I'll also have to change my business cards. My website and business cards both have Times New Roman and the blog is Georgia, so I might want to rethink that. In general I prefer a font with serifs. I know that many people consider a sans serif font more legible on computer screens, but I haven't found that to be true. My experience has been that the serif font, along with a not too white page is easier on the eyes and easier to read.

Below is the "After" Screenshot. Obviously you can see the changes because you are here reading the blog, but I want it pictured as a way of tracking the changes I've been making.

I also changed the Title bar, including the tag line, and I added some thumbnails of my artwork.

I removed the "Links" section from the sidebar because it is, for the most part, duplicated in the blogroll.

Feel free to give me your thoughts. Have I improved the look? Gone backwards? Spinning my wheeels?

ArtSlant May 2009 Juried 2 Showcase

Yesterday I was notified by the ArtSlant Curatorial Team that my work has been selected as a winner in the May 2009 Juried 2 Showcase.

This means that I now have a lovely award ribbon placed above the winning painting on my ArtSlant profile page and I appear on a premium placement page - that is unless they have to bump me to make room for another winner. (wait, what?)

This competition has several levels: later on a panel of gallerists will choose 6 juried winners from the pool of showcase winners. Then these new winners will be eligible to participate again for three places in the Golden Frame Awards.

The showcase artists are from all over the globe. Even so, I noticed a few familiar faces in the showcase section. Good luck to everybody!

Do Artists Need Solitude to Work?

Path Katherine Kean
watercolor on paper

I happen to think so, although it may depend on the artist and what type of work they do.

Time alone in the studio (except for the dog, of course) is an opportunity to relax into a flow of consciousness. To let words and linear thoughts drift away. This state feels freer – nobody is watching – nobody is judging – it’s an anything might happen place to be.

Solitude helps me to get into the creative flow. Like falling asleep – they say that falling asleep takes about 7 minutes - I find it takes a certain period of time without interruption. An interruption means the whole process must start over again. For me settling down to work is preceded by a period of puttering around. I used to view this time as procrastinating, but I’ve learned that it is an essential part of getting to work. I flit about the house fiddling with this and that, putting things away, but gradually thinking less and less about what I’m doing while my mind is pulled toward what I’m going to work on. I end up finally in front of the easel, setting up the palette, mixing a color, these are the final acts of tinkering – I’m already almost oblivious to the world around me and on the way to becoming fully absorbed in interaction with paint and the surface.

Oddly I often find it helpful to have the TV on, tuned to something I don’t feel compelled to pay attention to – usually a talk show. This seems to serve to keep the literal part of my brain occupied; it’s like sending a talkative child off to play, leaving me free to work. .

And getting that time to work, undistracted and focused, requires saying no. Saying no to distractions, interruptions, and disturbances. Email must be ignored, the phone left unanswered – just for the time being.

“The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone." James Baldwin

Robert Genn has a whole page of quotes about solitude and art.

“Trace in the sky the painter’s brush, the winds around you soon will rush." *

Trace in the Sky  © 2010 Katherine Kean
oil on linen  30 x 40"

This is my latest work in progress. I saw these storm clouds roiling in the sky above the local foothills. This painting is part of a new body of work dealing with natural atmospheric phenomenon, elements such as wind, rain, clouds, vapor, ash and so on. I’m especially interested in those elements in transition or having an effect on one another, such as volcanic steam coming up against a building rainstorm.

I feel like this particular interest began on a trip to Hawaii last fall. I was staying on the rainy side of the Big Island – that’s the opposite side as the tourist side - and I got to witness these daily weather developments and sudden changes. It was quite a contrast to the parched drought conditions of Southern California that summer. Tinder dry is how the media likes to describe it and indeed I did return home to wildfires. It was all pretty exciting.

This is a larger size canvas for me, it’s 30 x 40” – not huge but it does take a little longer than others and a certain kind of energy. This feels like it is finally getting close to completion – another couple of days should do it. I want to add a lot more emphasis to the lighter cloud areas with highlights that will emphasize the motion of the cloud formations. I find that kind of addition to detail is fun work once I get into the rhythm of it. The rest will get some glazing to saturate and deepen some of the darker areas that might benefit from a heavier feeling.

*I found a webpage with a whole collection of weather sayings along with explanations and the title of this post comes from one of them.