Sara Mathewson » Painting

I’m Back!

Sara — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:12:43 +0000

Well, I am finally back. After a summer spent in our motor home in MN and visiting with our kids, we are now back in Arivaca, AZ which is where we feel at home. I didn’t get much done painting wise while on the road. Most of the time I was too sick. I am feeling much better now and have gotten my “studio” set up in the dining room of the little house we are renting. I have started painting the sunflower painting on the full sheet of watercolor paper. I will have to have Chris take a pic of it and post it here in the next day or so. It is a work in progress, but I do like how it is coming along. It feels so good to be able to set my stuff up and keep it out so that when I feel good I can sit down and just paint. It was difficult in the RV because of the small space and the fact that every time I wanted to paint I had to take everything out and set it up and then when I was tired I had to put it all away for another time. It took so much energy just in doing that, that I really didn’t have much energy to do the actual painting. It was frustrating and I’m so very glad to be back “home”.

It looks like I may have an actual job coming up as well. There is a nature school being started for Developmentaly Disabled adults and I may be teaching a watercolor class a couple of days a week there. Chris will be working there as well. I have never taught a class before. I actually had my very first teaching experience when I was in MN . I taught the campground host how to do some washes for backgrounds. I also taught her how to use salt with the watercolors. I only worked with her two times, but she was very happy with the lessons. So, I will be working on lessons starting from the beginning with the colorwheel etc. Should be interesting. I just hope I have the energy to do this and to also continue with my painting. I haven’t brought out the pastels yet, but they will be coming out soon I’m sure. It is good to be back and I hope to be posting a few times a week.

Sunflower on Canvas

Sara — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:42:09 +0000

I have had this 12″x12″ watercolor canvas sitting around and I thought I would do a tulip painting on it, but when I was looking through my flower photos I came across some sunflowers and one just about jumped out at me. The photo is one I took when we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens. We didn’t actually go in as the cost was too much so I took some pics of the flowers that surrounded the area and this sunflower was one of them.

This past fall some friends of ours in Arivaca got married and they had sunflowers in their garden as the back drop. I decided I would do a painting for them for their wedding present. So, I asked Jenni (the bride) to take some pics of the sunflowers that she liked and she gave me some and I have been looking at them for months and in the end used one of my own. It is the kind of sunflower that is their favorite though, so I think this will be great. All I need to do is spray some fixative on it and it will be finished. I do that outside because of the fumes and let me tell you today it is so windy that it wouldn’t be a good idea to try. I will do it in the morning. It tends to be calmer in the morning and the wind picks up as the day goes on. It is so dry here that there is a ton of dust in the air. It is one of those days that if you were a cowboy you would be wearing that bandana up over your face.

Back to the painting. I had a lot of fun with this. Canvas is so different from paper for the watercolors. It takes some getting used to. I painted the center of the sunflower with really thick paint. that isn’t a typical watercolor technique, but it was fun and I think it works for this painting. The petals have many, many glazes on them. The nice thing about this watercolor canvas is that if something isn’t working, you can wipe it off and start over. On the other hand, it is difficult to apply a glaze over existing paint. It really takes some practice and you have to have a very light touch. In the end, I think it worked. I was a little worried when I was in the middle of it, but today it all fell into place and turned out just how i wanted it too. Don’t you just love it when that happens? So, here is the painting, “Sunflowers on Canvas”

I have to say that it looks way better in person. I’m not happy with this photo at all. Chris really tried to get it to look like it is supposed to, but it didn’t work. So, the center is not as crazy looking in real life. The blue background is a little bit darker, and the petals well, they just look better, fresher. so, use your imagination with this one!

I Just Love Texture

Sara — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:16:12 +0000

The other day I started on a new piece. I was looking through some papers I have thinking that I may do a collage. I found a piece of white paper that has a fan like design. I don’t remember the names of these art papers, but this one is fan like and sort of feathery. Lots of holes etc. So, I glued it onto a piece of 300# Arches CP watercolor paper. I then thought I would paint some more tulips. I looked at it some more and decided lilies would be a better flower to paint. Plus, it has been a while since I have painted lilies and I really love to paint them. Especially the Stargazer lilies or varieties like that. So, I took out some photos I had taken years ago of some lilies that I had purchased and drew on the paper in pencil. This paper is very delicate, so I had to be careful when erasing lines to not rip it. I wanted to see how this paper would look with a watercolor. And I thought it would be fun to begin with the background. Well… it was interesting. I’m pretty sure there is no sizing in this paper, so the color spreads quickly. It was near impossible to control which made it kind of fun. I was able to just abandon all thought of control and go for a much looser, abstract of lilies. When I had finished the background and painted the lilies I realized that it wasn’t really working as a watercolor so I decided to get out the acrylics and have a go at it. I had so much fun painting it really thick. I painted the white right out of the tube, mixing on the paper with the pinks. Lots of fun. I re-did the background too after painting the flowers. Still the same colors,(I mixed a rosey gray), and made it very thin so there is still some of the papers texture showing through. The end result is a painting with lots and lots of texture. It is more impressionistic than anything else. This was the first time that I have painted flowers with acrylics and I gotta say I loved it! I’m thinking I may want to try oils at some point too. What I loved about the acrylics was how quickly they dried. Remember I live in Southern New Mexico and it is very dry here). I could see where the fast drying could be a curse though. I did use some extender in parts of it and some water as well. Generally I had enough time to work with it, and it was such a fun and interesting learning experience as to how the paint works and the different brushstrokes to use for the various effects. Overall it was a wonderful, textural experience.

That darn Perspective, and other Art related Stuff

Sara — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:49:12 +0000

Last week was mostly a wash as far as my getting anything finished in the studio. I did finally finish a watercolor yesterday, but can’t post the pic yet as it is a present for my daughter and she reads this blog:)

I’ve been reading a lot about perspective lately on other peoples blogs and wasn’t sure if I was quite “getting” what they were saying. With my florals, perspective is totally different than with my landscapes. I get it now. I was doing a small (5×7) pastel landscape to work out the details like values and composition. Well, of course perspective plays into this. I did a preliminary sketch and seemed to have it right. But, when I then went to sketch it on the pastelbord(I never trace my drawings, maybe I should start doing this), I thought I had it right. Well, I guess I knew it was different than my sketch in my sketchbook, but I didn’t realize how this would affect the whole painting. This painting involves concrete stairs and an iron bridge. Not easy for me. I’m not a mathematician, and so I usually guesstimate on the perspective and let me tell you, this is not such a good thing when you are dealing with stairs and bridges. I really hate to have to measure things out and get it wrong even when doing so, thus the whole guessing thing. I drew the main parts of the painting on this pastelbord and didn’t notice at this time how wrong it looked. I had to mostly have it finished before I saw that it was all wrong. Funny how that is. I am glad I did it on a small piece of pastelbord. I ended up having to wash out the whole thing. I had already washed out several parts of this painting and had to re do them. Well, now the board is sitting with an abstract under-painting, as the whole thing didn’t quite wash off. I may tackle this project again, but for now it is shelved. I think at this point it is too frustrating for me and too complicated for me to do it justice. Maybe I am wimping out. But, after working on this small painting for several days, I am already tired of it and think that I may not even do it in the future. I did learn quite a few things though, so all is not wasted. Still, it is frustrating to not have anything to show for all of my efforts. I do know that this is all part of the process, part of the journey. After all, i wouldn’t really be stretching and growing as an artist without failures along the way. I am really quite proud of myself for taking up pastel in the first place. I could have stayed with just watercolors and limited myself to just florals. But, even though this was my comfort zone, I felt the need to expand my horizons and try new things. I’m sure loving these pastels.

What new things have you tried lately?

The Elusive Poppy

Sara — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:40:02 +0000

Sunday morning found Chris and I in the car heading south to El Paso. Our destination; the Franklin Mountains. We had been told that there was usually a great display of poppies there in the Spring. We missed the little festival that they had the weekend before celebrating the Spring poppies. So we figured there must be some if they had a festival. El Paso is about 45 minutes south of Las Cruces. We had packed the car with my new French easel, a bag full of different media including a box of pastels and my new “artcomber” chair/cart that held the easel. Well we got to the mountain and after turning around because we had missed the exit to the State Park there, we found it and proceeded in. So far we hadn’t seen a single poppy which had me wondering if they were there at all. We pulled up to the pay booth and asked the “Ranger” if there were many wildflowers out yet and he told us a few verbena and some others, but not many. We asked about the poppies and he said that they were on the other side of the mountain. ugh. I forgot to mention that it was a very windy day which would have made painting outside unpleasant at best. The wind would have been directly on us on the other side of the mountain. We decided to turn around and maybe come back on a nice day. So we headed down from the mountain and stopped for lunch at a DQ that was right near the highway. Ah, Easter dinner at DQ, not exactly following tradition but I guess in the scheme of things it was ok. I got to have my lemon-lime mister misty freeze although they did neglect to put extra ice cream on top as I had requested. sigh. So few DQ’s know how to make them right. We then got back on the highway heading north and when we got home we were so tired that we both ended up taking a nap. It was a gray, chilly, windy day and our arthritis and other ailments were making themselves known. So, it ended up being a good day for rest. I have photo’s of poppies, some that I have taken. I want more close-ups though. sigh. If we were still in Arivaca we would be seeing them. Oh well, maybe next year.

The Chiricahua Mountains

Sara — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:18:38 +0000

Back in January of 2003, Chris and I took a our first trip to Arizona together. We drove my Expedition(I no longer own it), and we camped in it. First we visited my brother and sister in law in Colorado and then we went down through New Mexico and over to AZ. We stopped in the town of Portal, AZ. It is a beautiful little town and I sat at a picnic table next to the local general store and drew. There is a wonderful stone house there and I took millions of pics of it and drew part of it. I will probably use those pics for a painting of some sort in the future. Anyway, we then went to a campground in the Chiricahua’s. It was a more primitive campground at the time. There were no electric hook-ups etc. The only facilities were some pit toilets that are all metal and I will tell you they get mighty cold in the middle of the night in the beginning of January! Wow! It was a beautiful place with a fairly dense forest. I remember having to wear warm hats to bed as well as socks etc. We had sleeping bags, but no heater for sleeping. It got pretty darn cold too! But, I’m sure we were better off in the Expedition than we would have been in a tent. Chris and I have had many adventures traveling across this Country since then. Lots of good times and memories. But, we will have many more in the very near future. We are going to buy a used RV and plan to live in it full time traveling around this Country and Mexico and even Canada. Of course we won’t be going everywhere at once or even in one year. We will go somewhere and stay there for awhile and then move on. New Mexico will still be our home base. This is very exciting and should be happening by next Sept.

Here are some pics from our first trip to the Chiricahua’s and then a pastel of the Chiricahua Mountains. I just finished it yesterday and am quite pleased with it.

Wow was my hair short!

Here is the newest pastel:

A little of this, a little of that…

Sara — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:51:47 +0000

Well, it has been so long since I posted a painting that I’ve done, today I have three!

Now, they aren’t brilliant masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination. No, one is downright ugly and one is so-so, and one is ok. hehehe

Here is the ugly one:

What in the world was I thinking with that background? I wasn’t that is the problem. A lesson was learned, never finish a painting when under the influence. So, today I did another one to rectify the situation. These are both about 4″x6″ cards. They are done on 140# watercolor paper.

Ahh, that is better…

The last one is the pastel I have been working on all week. It is done on Wallis sanded paper with a yellow ochre under painting. The size is 9×12″ I did it from a demonstration in the book “Pastel Step by Step By Marla Baggetta. I didn’t follow the directions as closely as I should have. But, here it is:

Still having trouble with cloudy skies. I have to say, it wasn’t explained very well either. I see lots of practice on clouds in the near future! Oh and that spruce blue behind the barn is actually the distant tree line, not the Sea as Chris thought. That would be interesting, “The Barn by the Sea” hehehe. But I can see why he got that impression:) I am so glad this one is done. I can move on. I have gotten tired of having it on my easel day after day. Some days I would just look at it and just couldn’t bring myself to work on it. Other days I would just put a few strokes here and there. This could easily be done in one day. But, because I wasn’t enjoying the process I made it drag on for days. I really don’t enjoy copying from the books. I know I need to learn these things, but I want to do my own paintings. So, we shall see where this all leads. Could be interesting.

Ok, at least I have been doing something in the studio. I really want to try to post something every day. Small paintings and sketches are about all I can do in one day. So, we shall see. Thankfully I am feeling better–yay! And it is warm and sunny here in Las Cruces. Windy too, but you can’t have everything!

post from 3/13/08 Steph’s B-Day:)

Sara — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:20:42 +0000

I didn’t get much done again today. I did make a couple of charts of colors from 2 sets of watercolors I have. I hadn’t used either of them in a long time, and wanted to see what the colors were like. the first set I did was my Yarka pan set. I love the colors in this and they are very nice to work with. just a little water and they get nice and “juicy” hehehe. I think this is partly due to the fact that they are made with honey and also they are poured into the pans, so they stay semi-moist. The colors are nice and rich as well. I will definitely use these in the future. the downside is that these sets are large. they have 24 full pans of watercolor, so it is kind of heavy and too big to fit in your pocket. The other set I used was a Van Gogh set I got on a trip to Portland OR. It is compact with 15 half pans. They are hard though and not as easy to get nice and moist for large washes. They are good for sketches though. These are student quality paints as well. I wouldn’t want to use them for anything other than quick sketches. But the colors are really quite good and a good range as well. This set comes with a small synthetic travel brush too. All you need is some paper and a little water and you are good to go.

I plan to be out in nature more this year doing some sketching as well as some full size paintings. Most likely the full size paintings will be in pastel. I did get my French easel and my “artcomber cart” The cart has a bag attached to the back that fits a French easel, and when it is set up it has a decent chair. The wheels are large, so should be able to handle just about any terrain. The one thing that is kind of a bummer is that my pastel box is too big and heavy to lay out on the easel drawer. It weighs as much as the easel just about! So, I will either need to lay the box out on the ground or get something to lay it on. The other alternative is to find something smaller that would work with fewer pastels when painting “en plein air”. In the meantime, I may try to line the easel drawer with foam and place the pastels in there with more foam on top so they don’t roll around. I should have enough foam from the boxes that the pastels came in for this to work. And it will solve the problem for now. The downside of this is that every time I want to go out to paint, I will have to put enough pastels in the drawer to do a full landscape. I guess maybe I would just end up leaving them there, instead of going back and forth from the big box to the drawer. Too much wasted time!

I’m still not feeling the best, but today was definitely better than yesterday. I just have to remember to be kind to myself.

Pain, Fatigue, and Art

Sara — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:55:47 +0000

I have been so busy reading everyone else’s blog, that I forgot all about mine:)

I made a decision a few days ago to make sure I spend time drawing everyday. I don’t do enough of it and I really think that my art will be better if I work at the drawing part.

I also have been working on a pastel. It is from a demonstration in a pastel book. So, not an original. I get frustrated when I’m working on a demo., the instructions are not all that clear, or some things seem to be left out. Maybe these are things that I’m supposed to be figuring out, and I do, but after some frustration with it. I have been working on this landscape for a few days. It won’t be a masterpiece, but it counts as more practice. I know there are many things I need to learn, but I’m anxious to get working on my own stuff.

I have been feeling sort of down art wise, in a slump. I have ideas swirling around in my head, but I have to say that my energy just isn’t what it has been. I’ve been feeling”off” for about a week now. It kind of makes me mad. I mean I was doing so good there for awhile and I got a “taste” of what life can be like and now I’m completely wiped out again. I really don’t want to be all whiney here. But, it is part of who I am and it is getting in the way right now so I need to kind of unload. I have some major health issues, FMS/CFIDS/CMP, a seizure disorder, arthritis, restless legs, migraines, hearing loss and tinnitus… the list goes on. Anyway, I live with a good deal of pain everyday. Lately it seems to get unbearable at times. Tonight is one of those times. My hands hurt so bad from the FMS and arthritis. I can barely type. I’m having trouble painting because of this as well. I really hate it when my illnesses get in the way of my art. The fatigue has gotten worse again as well. I guess I’m flaring and I just don’t have time for this! I don’t want to be in bed. I’m tired of being in bed. It has only been about 2 months that I have been up and painting again. After more than 6 months of being basically bedridden and 12 months of not painting. sigh…

On another note, it is my youngest daughters birthday tomorrow. 17 years ago tomorrow at 3:38 in the afternoon, at Fairview Riverside hospital in Mpls, Stephanie Anne Sawyer was born. I think I’m a bit sad because I can’t be there to celebrate with her. Steph lives with her dad in Rochester, Mn. My two other kids, Jessi and Dom both live in that area as well. I miss my kids and Chris’ kids too. I haven’t been well enough to visit them for awhile. The last time was last June when Dom graduated from High School. Since then I have been in bed mostly up until about 2 months ago. I’m having my own little pity party here. I promise I won’t do this often! I’m missing out on big occasions in my kids lives. I know that I made the decision to move down to the SW, and it was a very difficult decision to make. I did it for my health. Believe it or not, I’m in more pain in MN than down here. But, still, it was and remains a difficult decision. I also thought that I would be able to visit them at least a couple of times a year, and it hasn’t been possible. I don’t travel well. We used to have a van that we could put a bed in the back for me, but it died, so we only have a small Honda now and it is very uncomfortable for me to travel any distance in it. I did travel in it last year to MN and it was really hard on me and I ended up very ill by the time we got back home. Oh well, such is life. And really, my troubles are small compared to some. I really have much to be thankful for! Steph says that she will come and visit this summer which will be great! Jessi is going to visit at some point too. I’m hoping that Dom will be able to visit at some point as well. We had Chris’ daughter Kasie here for about a month over xmas and it was wonderful. We miss having her around. Such great energy!

This flare will pass and I will be able to spend more time painting again. In the meantime, I will be working on my drawing. I have a feeling Callie(my little dog) will be my subject for a lot of my drawing. She is by my side most of the day. Right now she is snoozing right here on the bed. I love that dogs love so unconditionally. She has been particularly affectionate today. She must sense my feelings of discontent. See, already I’m feeling better:)

Material Girl

Sara — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:53:17 +0000

I often tell myself and others that material things don’t matter to me. Well…I am lying when I say that. There are some things that I feel like I can’t live without and at the top of the list are art supplies! I am like a kid in a candy shop when looking at art supply catalogs or going to an online art supply store. Hours will go by as I browse through these virtual wonderlands. If I were to make my own version of heaven, it would be one big art supply store. It would have other things as well, but, mostly art supplies. Right now the main reason that I don’t want to die at any given time is the fact that I have no real assurance that I will be able to continue painting. Ok, I would really miss some people here on earth as well, especially my kids and Chris, but right after that is the fact that I may not be able to paint in heaven or where ever I am headed in the after life.

So, you can imagine how excited I was to have some deliveries yesterday and today of art supplies! I was so excited, I could feel my heart racing. I was giddy. When ever I get art supplies delivered to the house I am like this. It feels like my B-day and Xmas all rolled into one.

I bet you want to see what I got don’t ya?

These are the new Terry Ludwig pastels I got from Dakota Pastels. They are the “Maggie Price Basic Values Set”

Aren’t they just yummy? Below is a pic of the pastels I already had.

As you can see I’m running out of space in this drawer, and I decided I want to paint” en plein air” as often as possible, so I needed a box to hold most of my pastels. I found this “Degas Pastel box” at Jerry’s Artarama. It was a really good price too.

Pretty cool. Tomorrow will be spent sorting the pastels by color and value and putting them in this box. I’m so excited!

I have been working on a watercolor of tulips this week. I have to do the background and then will be done. It is a study of pink and yellow tulips. As soon as I finish it I will post it.

Also tomorrow I should be getting the rest of my art supplies–a French easel that was also on sale at Jerry’s plus a cart/chair combo to carry this stuff and also to be able to sit when painting out doors. I have never had a French easel before, so I am excited about all of this. I need to sit a lot when painting, because of my health issues. So, all in all I think I did pretty well with the art supplies I chose. I can’t wait to put them all to good use!

I hope all of you had a great day today and wish you all a happy, cheerful, sunny day tomorrow! I’m off to bed with my copy of “Painting with Pastels, Easy Techniques to Master the Medium” by Maggie Price.

P.S. Have I mentioned that I have been dreaming of pastels lately? Lots of colors and values etc. Not the paintings made from them, but the possibilities! I can’t wait t go to sleep;)