Last time I said I had two topics playing in my head to write about. I wrote about the one last time. About doing that “hard thing” and I said that this time I would write on the other topic. The other topic is about connecting. I know it might sound a bit ‘cheesy’ but hear me out. And then I’ll fill you in on some of my art adventures from the last couple of weeks.
I saw something recently that was attributed to Carlos Santana, he supposedly said something about ‘music should touch the heart of move the feet’. I’ve also seen a video of Dave Stewart from Eurythmics talking about his purpose in life is to connect with people and he does that through music. He said, roughly, that ‘a hit record just means you connected with that many people’. Absolutely. Music and Art both are about connecting.
I could go on for a very long time about music and its ability to connect people and I probably have in another post at some point, if not, it’s probably a good thing because that is a soap box I have to be dragged off of. So, let’s look at Art. Oh and before I get too far, I will argue that writing of all forms is the same, it’s about connecting through story.
We create art of whatever form to connect with others. We express our feelings, our emotions, our vision, our inner story through art. I’ve seen memes saying music is the language of the soul. It expresses feelings that we can’t put into words. Art, the visual arts, help us visually express those emotions, the sense of wonder or beauty. It lets us share the beauty we see in our mind’s eye or feel with our heart with others. And its purpose is connecting. We don’t connect with everyone. That’s not realistic. But we do strive to connect whether we recognize that or not.
Interestingly, when we choose to create a piece of art, be it from our minds eye or from a reference, it is because we connected with the image. The image we are striving to share, to produce, to bring to life, connected with us. It spoke to us, it said it needed to be shared with others and we responded to that and agreed to find a way to share it. So, we create it and hope that we were able to share what spoke to us in a way that it speaks to others. But we have no control over how others see it.
I may want to create a piece of art from an ocean scene because the colors of the water sing to me, but someone else may see the shape of the waves, or the shoreline, or the clouds in the sky and something about that may be what speaks to them. Just as in a conversation, you may say one thing and the person listening may hear the words and take a different meaning from them. When we create art or music or a piece of literature, we create it out of a need to share that story, that piece of music, that piece of art. And we hope that it will connect with others. Because as humans we need that connection. We are not isolated islands in a great ocean. Part of being human is that need for connection. Some need more connections than others. But I’ve found that even those who “don’t like people” still have and need some connections to other people. So, yeah, art, music, writing, all of it, it’s about connecting.
Another time we’ll talk about how some pieces just have to be created.
For now, on to the art adventures. And I’ll try to be succinct. And hope it makes sense.
You might remember my wanting to paint water scenes, particularly ocean scenes and finding it a little bit of a challenge in watercolors and thinking that pastels might work better. I was working on the detail bits of my latest painting, the Daylily, using colored pencil and I got to thinking about how that might work for the wave soup that I was having particular trouble with. So, I pulled out my experimental piece and gave it a go. It is a solution. But as I was working it over, I was thinking that there had to be a better way. Since, I had thought about the pastels previously I decided to try them. Sure enough, they not only will cover the color beneath, but I can also get the effect I want so it’s a win.
It gets better though. So, I ordered more paints, in liquid form instead of solid form thinking I was going to need or want to mix a greater quantity of a color for working in a larger format and it would be easier to do with tubes than with the pans (the solid form of watercolors). And then I remembered something I watched a few years ago.
When I was first looking to get more pastels I did a little research on a couple of the different brands, and in doing that I learned that some of the pastels, particularly the soft pastels can be used with water. Sort of like watercolor pencils. No, I’m not joking. But I had to try it. I was and am ecstatic to find it works. It works really well. It’s like the pastel is solid pigment just waiting to have water added to it. This explains why the colors seem to melt a bit when I spray my pastel paintings with fixative at the end. I wasn’t even paying attention. Wow.
Anyway, as a result of this revelation about the pastels I ordered more so I would have the water and terrain colors I need to try to render one of the ocean scenes I took a picture of while I was in Australia. I have a few and I just love the color of the water. And right now, I have a bigger piece of paper taped to a board sitting on my easel. I’ve started the piece, using pastels on watercolor paper so that I can apply the water to the pastel without the paper totally buckling and becoming unworkable.
I have already learned something about the paper I’m using. Which leads to a slightly different conversation about paper in general. I had found some paper that I really like working on but at first, I only found this small-ish sketchbook. The paper is about 8 inches by 8 inches. I’ve since been able to acquire some of the same paper in a larger size. It’s great for watercolor. I love it for watercolor. It’s not what I’m using for the pastel. I’m getting to that.
Because the paper I love for the watercolor is the size it is and I wanted a larger size for some stuff, I found something sort of the next size up and the same weight or thickness. And it’s been working well. But since I’m ready to work just a little larger I decided to purchase a different brand of watercolor paper. I’ve never bothered with it, to my knowledge, I think because I might have thought it was either too expensive and high a quality and I really didn’t need anything that great, or I thought it wasn’t really that great. I think it was the first to be honest. And that gets to a whole different discussion that if I haven’t written about it, I probably will.
Anyway, the new paper. I’m using it for the newest watercolor painting I’m doing as well as the stippling. Oh. I should explain that. They paper comes in both a cold press surface and a hot press surface. The hot press surface is very smooth, and the cold press has more tooth to it. The large paper for my experimental ocean scene is standard watercolor paper with the standard texture. It’s absorbent, sort of and has a texture but not a lot of tooth, so it doesn’t grip a lot of pastel.
I really like the new cold press paper and will likely switch to it and order or go purchase more. I have only done the sketch for the piece that is using the hot press paper, I haven’t started with the ink, so I don’t have an opinion on that yet, though it’s promising.
And for those who care or want to know. The paper I really love for watercolor is Shinzen, I think it’s from India and it is recycled cotton. The paper I have been using is the Fabriano 1264. The pastels and watercolors are from Sennelier though I also have Rembrandt pastels that I may supplement with if I don’t have the color I need in the Sennelier. I also have some Derwent pastel pencils that I will likely use because they also take water. And the new paper is Arches. I think that’s the fun details.
And now that I’ve got you all updated, I’m going to get back to painting. Oh. And working on learning songs for my sister’s holiday playlist. Cheers!