Another New Year

As 2021 drew to a close, we all drew a collective sigh of relief. There’s something about a new year beginning that inspires us to make changes and look forward, forgetting the vagaries of the past. The last two years will be difficult to forget- and we really shouldn’t – I mean there are lessons to be learned. But I’m determined not to go there, here.

One of my desires for the new year is be more mindful of this website. Looking through, I realize that I haven’t added any of my work from 2021 to the Gallery! I see that I started several blog posts… but never got to the point of actually publishing… sheesh. So here I go… again… hehe… (The 2021 Gallery Page is now done!)

So- last summer I became interested in trying out colored pencils, so for my birthday I bought myself a set of Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils after endless hours researching on You Tube. I’ve had fun using them, but not done many works at this point. (They are in the 2021 Gallery page.)

This month I was watching a video by Johannes Vloothius and although it was a watercolor demo, he also used Pan Pastels to enhance some trees. Intrigued, I did some further research and decided that this is indeed a medium that I needed to try. So I used a Christmas gift certificate to Jerry’s Artarama and bought a set. Pan Pastels are pigments that are pulverized to the point of being literally dustless- which is a downside to regular pastels in my opinion. In order to get free shipping, I needed to order some more stuff, and something else Jo (as he likes to be called) mentioned was an electric eraser. I know where you’re going, but hear me out, and then see what I did the first time I used it. It was a great sale price, and I guess one thing you can say about it that is a precision eraser (once you get control of it!). I also bought extra refills, which were also on sale. So here is my first Pan Pastel painting:

Check out the white caps… created with my new electric eraser! I could not have done that with any other kind of eraser. I could have added those whites with say, colored pencil or a white charcoal pencil, but in seconds I had the effect I wanted with very little effort. I also decided that I wanted a boat in there- bzzt, bzzt- white sails. Again, I could have added white over the blue sky, which you can do with Pan Pastels (or acrylics or oils, but not watercolors) but with my watercolor roots I am more comfortable using the white of the paper. And did I mention that you can use colored pencils to create more detail? The trees, rocks, and seaweed on the beach are all enhanced with colored pencil. Sprayed with a fixative, I could probably use ink, but my fixative hasn’t arrived yet so I haven’t tried it. This may or may not be finished…I’m still contemplating it…

My next attempt resulted in a pretty washed out looking landscape. You can mix Pan Pastels, but I couldn’t seem to get as much contrast as I needed, so I bought another set with different colors, which just arrived. I seldom post paintings in progress, but I think it will be interesting to see where this will end up. (Hopefully not in the trash!)

And while I was waiting for the new set, I started a watercolor of owls, shown here unfinished. (The day after I did this I got sick and haven’t gotten back to it yet.)

And since it’s January 30th, it doesn’t look like anything will be completed this month! Tomorrow is another day…

The Journey Begins

Well, really, the journey began many years ago. If you asked me as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say “artist”. But, when we grow older, we become more practical, as in, what do you want to be that will earn a living? Now, some 40ish years later, I guess I’ve grown up! Finally, finally, finally I have taken the step towards my life-long dream of learning to paint in watercolor! I took my first class about 2 years ago, and still have lots to learn, but I’m enjoying the journey immensely. Many thanks to my dear husband Bob for his encouragement and support!

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.
– Tony Robbins

“Winter Woods”

This is the first of 2 paintings that I did of “Winter Woods”. The other was on silk, which was an interesting change from watercolor paper. It came out well, and I may try painting on silk again someday… That one has been sold, and I seem to have misplaced the memory card from my camera, so until I find it, I have no photo.

Framed “Winter Woods”

Meteorological Spring

I heard on the news last night that today is the first day of meteorological spring. I looked it up because I was pretty sure that Spring started on the equinox, usually around the 20th or 21st. I was right, but that is the astronomical start of spring, which this year happens to be on the 20th at 11:33 am. Meteorological seasons are used by meteorologists and climatologists to designate the 4 seasons. Who knew? I’d never heard of it before!

Anyway, whether it’s today or in 3 weeks, I am happy to welcome Spring! It may feel like winter yet, but the sun is stronger, and I’ve lived long enough to have noticed that it’s the sun which starts the growth of plant life, regardless of the burden of snow. I’m trying to be patient…

“Spring on the Marsh”
June 2021

“Spring on the Marsh” sold at the Gallery last Sunday. It’s always bittersweet- I loved this when it hung in my living room for awhile. Now someone else will love it. Over the last month I dug through my basket of unfinished, unloved paintings. Sometimes they can be resurrected, so I decided to touch up some of them with Pan Pastels. No loss if it doesn’t work, right? So I had this watercolor owl (can’t find a “before” picture) that just didn’t seem right. With the Pan Pastels I was able to soften the background just a little, and there he was! Before it was all a tangle of leaves and branches, which worked in the photo reference, but not in a painting.

“Hidden Owl”
February 2022

Likewise, with “Gulls, Wells, ME”, I was able to soften the clouds and reinvent the water with the Pan Pastels, giving it a whole new atmosphere.

“Gulls, Wells, ME”
February 2022

So with Spring comes Easter…and tomorrow is the first day of Lent, the 40 days before Easter. I never grew up in a tradition of observing Lent or “giving up” something for Lent. So I saw something this morning about a 40 Day Social Media Fast for Lent. It struck a chord with me, so I immediately decided to do it. The only Social Media I have is FB (unless you count a neighborhood group known as “Next Door”) and so I will post this to FB, but I won’t see any responses on FB. You can, however, connect with me here through Comments, send a message through Contact, or by signing up for email notifications. Hope to hear from you soon!

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Not to Facebook…

This is the last blog post that will be sent to Facebook. There are many reasons that I am disengaging from Facebook. I watched “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix, at the urging of several of my daughters, and that solidified it for me. I highly recommend watching, just for an insider view of social media in general. I have for quite a long time now, felt uneasy about social media (Facebook was the only one for me) and the internet in general. I mean seriously, you have a verbal conversation with someone and minutes later there’s an ad popping up about what you spoke to someone about. That’s a little creepy.

Mostly, it’s a time-sucker. And I’m getting sucked into rabbit-trails that really go nowhere. I see and hear things that disturb me, and it dominates my thinking and disrupts my sleep. I check my notifications first thing in the morning, and too often find myself blearily scrolling through my newsfeed just before bed. Which means I’m exposing myself to blue light, and activating my mind with ideas when I should be winding down. And in between, after checking a notification, I’m off to the rabbit hole again, and another half-hour or more is gone, wasted.

There are things I like and value about Facebook. (Focusing on this because I don’t use anything else.). I will miss seeing what my family and friends are up to. I have seen posts with valuable and interesting information in them, which are, of course, geared to my particular interests. I’ve found some good buys on Marketplace, and I’ve sold a few things there as well. Neighborhood/community groups are often helpful, like when I found the lost dog on our road.

But…there’s also a dark side. I’ve noticed that people will say things online, in writing, that they wouldn’t say to someone’s face. (I would hope!). Years ago in the early days, one of our daughters had a fight in a chat room with her best friend. They both said things they never would have face to face. It was certainly a foreshadowing of things to come. Recently, I’m embarrassed to say, I got scammed through a FB ad. I googled, checked it out and it looked legit. Looking back, I realized that I was in a FB fog, not thinking clearly after having spent who knows how much time scrolling…

So it has to happen, this breaking up with FB, this disengaging and untangling myself from the mental grip of this unknown AI entity. I expect that I will become more intentional in my life, as I will seek out information on a need to know basis. I’ll have a clearer head, be able to focus on what’s important, and I’ll have more time, that most precious of commodities that we all feel is flying uncontrollably by us, forever lost. Ever watch a movie and feel like “Well, I won’t get that hour and a half back.” because it was a total waste of time. I have no idea how much time I have spent, and wasted. I do know that I lack energy, and motivation, and inspiration. I sit down to do a painting, and…nothing. Information overload has crowded out the creative and left no room for original thought, for meandering through my mind. I’m interested in and want to learn about so many things, but I want to choose. I try to think about how things were in the days before the internet, the “information superhighway”. Do you remember the ads with the genderless child in a white robe telling us that it was coming? Did we ever expect that it would be the Autobahn on steroids, and that it would so totally change our way of life? Don’t get me wrong- I love technology. I just don’t want it to control me.

So I’d like it if you would sign up to be on my email list, and I can send you a friendly email about what’s happening in my art life. I promise there won’t be many…I’m going to try for once a week? You can choose to read my blog or ignore it much more easily when it’s an email! But I hope it will be a means of communication, of connection, between you and me. Smile.

“Pumpkins” September 2020

SOLD!

“Sunflowers”
April 2020

Selling artwork is always a bittersweet experience. An artist puts the time, heart and soul into a piece of artwork, and then we must entrust it to someone else. Sometimes I find art at yard sales or thrift shops and know what went into the making of it- and wonder if some of mine will someday end up in the “unwanted” stuff someone is getting rid of. I found this one a few years ago at a yard sale, kind of falling apart, a dead spider between the painting and the glass. It cleaned up nicely and has a space on my living room wall. I think the artist is Connie Sanford, but the first name is a little hard to read.

Nevertheless, I know that someone, somewhere is enjoying my artwork at this time, and I have photos and the memories of how it felt to create it. It’s a pretty amazing feeling to see that if you manipulate the pigments and the tools in a certain way, the result is an image that evokes an emotional response

Some of my artwork may be seen at the Lakes Region Art Association Gallery, which is located in the Tanger Outlet Mall in Tilton, NH. Also check out my Gallery on this site. Most pieces are available as prints, framed or unframed, and as cards. Email or PM for details!

Painting Time

This quarantine has afforded me something I have often longed for…long, unlimited time to paint. I now know that that is just a pipe dream… In spite of the long days at home, I found that there were many other things that took up those long days. However, I did watch a number of tutorials and inspirational videos, and had some spurts of creativity. I started with a chipmunk…

…and then decided to paint these chicks for the window of the Gallery for Easter, which of course we weren’t able to change-

Painting fuzzy, furry, and feathery little creatures was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I watched a few tutorials and really had fun with them. I now have a spring collection of sun catchers!

Here are a few from last fall:

These will be available at the Lakes Region Art Association Gallery when we re-open, or you can contact me directly through this website or FaceBook.

Many Thoughts #2

When I brought in my entries for the LRAA Annual Show, I was happy to see my friend Sharon Nahill bringing in hers. She’s had a lot of family/health issues lately going on lately, so her husband told her one day recently to just go out on the lake and relax for a bit. She’d heard through the Loon Society that 2 new chicks had hatched the day before, so she was eager to go out. Sure enough, the loons found her. She related how she has spent enough time on the lake over the years that the loons know her and trust her, so they came very close to her kayak with their new babies. Suddenly there was a shadow that descended so quickly that she barely had time to look up, and a bald eagle swooped in and snatched one of the chicks right off its mother’s tail. Are you right now feeling the anguish, the tears, the empathy for the loss? Sharon said that those loon parents began to wail, calling out their sorrow. She could only sit there in the boat, quietly waiting. The mother loon began to try to cover the remaining chick with her wings, but its little head kept popping up, unaware of the danger.

Sharon wasn’t able to capture the eagle, her camera out of focus, but she was able to photograph the little family afterwards. Her husband encouraged her to get that photograph to the show, so after visiting with her mom in the hospital in Boston, she got it in- and I’m happy to say she won First Place in Photography!

“Loon Morning”
Sharon Nahill

My photo is not great- with reflections etc.- so please go experience it for yourself!

LRAA Art Gallery- Tanger Outlet, Tilton… Tuesday- Sunday, 10-6. Those are special hours through Labor Day because of the Annual Show. Regular hours are Thursday – Sunday, 10-6.

Sharon’s photograph has captured the vitality of the newborn chick, and the protectiveness of its mother. And knowing the backstory, we are so aware of its vulnerability, and the sorrow in the mother’s eye that goes beyond instinctive protectiveness.

So many thoughts… how often do we reflect on the nature of wildlife, of what goes on in the minds of creatures that have no words? Dog and cat owners will testify to the bonds that they have with their furry friends. Routinely we separate pups and kittens from their mothers, with seemingly no separation issues. Perhaps over time this has been bred out of them. And we know that in the wild the young of all species are vulnerable prey, and loss is inevitable. Parents are instinctively protective, but how do they perceive loss? We do know that some species- elephants come to mind- exhibit sorrow when one of their family group dies, young or old.

Humans have creatively anthropomorphized the animal world in story and film. Rudyard Kipling in The Jungle Book gave animals not only voice but the very human capability of choosing to love or hate. Dogs exhibit loyalty, protectiveness, and often an uncanny ability to sense things that humans cannot; thus we have dogs that sense epileptic seizures, or diabetic comas in the offing, and who are well-trained enough to entrust with the well-being of someone who is blind. Some provide assistance with autistic children, tasked with ensuring their safety, and some provide a calming influence for any number of anxiety disorders. But is it love? Is that, perhaps, what separates man from beast? For can we really say that any creatures are hateful? They are defensive when threatened. When they kill, it is either out of fear or the need for food.

So what of my perception that the loons sorrowed over the loss of their chick? Perhaps the wailing was a warning to the other loons on the lake? I saw sorrow in her eye…but would I have seen that if I hadn’t heard the story? This is by no means a scientific treatise on the subject of emotions in animals, but just some pondering on my part. It makes me wonder, though, if perhaps there is some long-lost connection between man and the animal world. When God created the animals, and then Adam, and gave Adam the charge to rule over the animals, there was no death. All of them were vegetarians! There was no fear. Perhaps theirs was a communication surrounded by the love of God… and there exists today some inkling of that relationship and connection.

Many Thoughts #1

My mind is whirling with many thoughts this weekend. This is the beginning of the month long Lakes Region Art Association Annual Member’s Show. Last year I won first place in Watercolor with a painting that is fairly uncharacteristic for me- loosely painted.

I tried desperately to create a new painting for this show using the loose style but I just couldn’t get it. It’s kind of a finding my own style kind of thing, where I’m comparing what the popular contemporary style is to what I find myself doing with the techniques I’ve learned. Am I aiming to please myself or others? What does it mean to represent or recreate the beauty God has created? Browsing through the New England Watercolor Society website I see that the artists work runs from photo realism to loose…but never abstract. I think the best way to explain watercolor is to represent what you see with the feeling that it evokes.

For instance, I tried something like 7 or 8 times to paint a rainbow from a photo taken by my cousin, Donna Washburn:

Photo Credit: Donna Washburn

I tried every technique I could think of and still don’t have a suitable rainbow! Often the rest would be fine- good even, but the rainbow atmosphere was not there. I actually framed (and submitted it for the show) half of one of these attempts (with the rainbow portion cut off):

“Misty Morning”
2019

I’m sure I will attempt the rainbow again… sometime. Right now it is the ephemeral nature of the rainbow that seems to elude me, and that, I think is attainable in the looser painting technique that I find so hard to do!

I do encourage you to come out and see the show at the LRAA Art Gallery in the Tanger Outlet Mall in Tilton, NH. Hours are extended for the month of August: Tuesdays through Sundays, 10-6, plus Labor Day. (I’ll be there 10-2 on Labor Day!). I did receive a Third Place Ribbon for my entry in the Mixed Media category for “Ramona’s Garden”:

“Ramona’s Garden”
Acrylic on Batik, 2019

To Facebook or Not to Facebook? That is the question…

So, awhile ago I set up a Facebook page for Gail Brunt Fine Arts… and I have yet to make a post. I try- and I just struggle. I like Facebook because I can keep up with people that I don’t see often. Sometimes I find useful info. Or just get a good laugh. As with most everything, there is a dark side… Aside from the obvious people-behaving-badly because they have an agenda, there is the personal toll it takes on the individual. Who hasn’t gotten lost in scrolling and found that you’ve lost an hour that you’ll never get back looking at something you probably won’t remember for long? And then there are those emojis you click on to indicate your take on the post. Do we not love it when we get feedback? And comments? I heard recently that there is actually a surge of dopamine in the brain when we see those “likes”. And then we want more. And more. At times I’ve been disappointed to see that only a couple of people reacted to a post. Perhaps it was the victim of the infamous Facebook algorithms. Who knows? Who cares? I seldom post, sometimes I share. Once in awhile I comment. But I really gave up on that a long time ago, after being attacked a number of times by someone who didn’t agree with my position. Facebook fights are not pretty or fun.

So the good and the bad aspects of Facebook hang in the balance. Chances are, if you are reading this post you got to it through Facebook, and I finally made that post announcing the creation of this website. Some say that I should go on Instagram, but I just don’t get it. How on earth would I have time to do all the following and whatever it is that you do on Instagram? And Facebook. And Pinterest.

Compromise: Quick posts that lead you to here: Gail Brunt Fine Arts. You can leave a like if you want and I’ll try not to let it go to my head!