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art, artists, Blogging, creativity, inspiration, painting, personal, travel, Visual Arts, watercolor
Family and friends have been asking me to show them some of the watercolors I’ve been working on, so I posted a few on Facebook the other day.
I thought when I first started that my painting would be “just for me” and not shared with the world at large. But it’s hard to keep things you love, that bring so much joy, to ourselves, it seems. And I’m curious to know what others think.
I’m averaging one watercolor a week, and so far, all have been deemed “wall-worthy,” unlike the pastel paintings I worked on last year. My walls are filling up fast. A year from now, will there be any wall space left to fill?
I’m reminded of an immensely talented but public-shy artist friend. She’s been painting for 13 years, but rarely shows her work and does not display for sale. “What do you do with all your paintings?” I asked her one day after class, which she attends for the camaraderie, since she needs no instruction at this point. “Your house must be full!”
“Oh, yes,” was her nonplussed reply. “My house, and my garage, and a storage shed to boot. I trade them in and out of the house to mix things up a bit and give each a chance to shine.”
What a shame, I think. So much talent and beauty hidden from public view. Then I wonder what I’ll do when my own walls are full. How soon will I need a storage shed?
What a think to worry about! Especially when I’m having so much fun, and when there’s still so much I want to paint. I have at least a dozen paintings in my head that I want to get on paper. And there’s more inspiration every time I go to my Pinterest boards and view all the amazing artwork I’ve collected there.
Which brings me back to this blog. Perhaps I will start sharing some of my work here, despite what I wrote in a previous blog post about my painting being “just for me.” I’ll start by sharing my first three watercolors, which already have a place of prominence on a bathroom wall. They were inspired by photographs taken when we were sailing on La Gitana. I’m planning a whole series of tropical paintings–seascapes, boatscapes, landscapes, all from our travels.
Lately though I’ve become sidetracked from the sea to try my hand at some more impressionistic or symbolic paintings, as well as some florals and still lifes. I’m still experimenting with style, you see. While I admire realistic, representational painting, and I think it’s so important to be able to do this kind of painting well, I find myself drawn to a looser, more imaginative style that captures the essence of things with all its attending emotions and conotations. Like the paintings from artists I’ve featured on this blog.
Of course, representational painting in the hands of talented and inspired artists can do the same thing. But I’m not there yet. And these first three paintings I’m posting aren’t there yet either. But they capture enough that I’m pleased with. Enough to inspire me to keep practicing, keep painting.
They don’t capture that “something more” I’ve been writing about in one of my last posts on art, the form and the formless. But each hint at it. Something in the shimmer of the sea with the rocks half-hidden beneath. In that white-sand serenity of a turquoise sea. Something deep and dark in the dream-like beauty of those mountains rising out of the mist during our first tropical landfall in the Marquesas islands after thirty days at sea.
They hint at, but do not quite capture what I was after. Yet viewing them with the mind’s eye I can still go there and feel it. And that to me is what art is all about.
Snorkeling in the Bay Islands, Honduras. Watercolor by Deborah J. Brasket, 2016
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Anchored in the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia. Watercolor by Deborah J. Brasket, 2016
Landfall at Nuka Hiva, the Marquesas Islands. Watercolor by Deborah J. Brasket, 2016
Deborah J. Brasket 
Deborah, I love seeing your paintings! I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw this post, because just a few weeks ago I enrolled in my first watercolor class ever, and my first art class in well over 40 years. I became convinced by the end of grade school I had no talent of this sort whatsoever, so I avoided what I would have enjoyed doing. Anyway, these first classes have been wonderful – I love brushing, or dropping, the watercolors on thick creamy paper and seeing what they do. I like that we don’t have as much control as we might with other paints, pencils, etc. I am trying to revel in the sensuous aspects of the color and the feeling and the form and not worry what the picture looks like…..Anyway, if you keep posting your pictures I’d be quite interested, especially as I see my efforts at the moment a journey of healing and a reclamation of an artistic inclination I abandoned long ago.
What a happy coincidense, Valorie. We are surely sisters in spirit, we seem to like so many of the same things. I love what you say about reveling in the sensuous aspects of the color and forms. I hope you will share some of what you are working on too someday. I am so glad you are reclaiming your artistic inclination.
Your paintings have a wonderful sense of expanse into being in our natural world Deborah. I am not surprise by this after years of following your blog but it made me smile when I saw them and say to myself – there she is! Your love of your subject and the process is most evident!
I certainly know first hand about the space challenge and paintings. Even though I sell half of my work each year, there is still the other half which of course keeps getting larger at between 10 and 20 oil paintings a year and another 20-30 acrylic painting sketches if I am traveling. And I have no dedicated storage space or spare bedroom. Someone was at our home studio yesterday and after looking around for a while, he commented “You basically live inside a art gallery!” We laughed and agreed but it is really a working studio with painting covering the little wall space we have and then carefully leaning everywhere, sometimes three deep. Oh, they come and go to shows and galleries and some never come back of course. But there are still way more paintings than can be properly shown or stored in our home.
So a couple of years ago I started a offer for hosting paintings in your private home. This offer at first only went out to existing collectors but has expanded to some people with empty walls who have young families and won’t be in a position to buy original work for a few years yet. The hosts become ambassadors for my work and share it with their friends and family. They often get to hang big pieces as these are the ones that take longer to sell and are the hardest for me to keep in the studio. I give each host a gallery listing in my inventory system so I can properly keep track of where the paintings are at. It is a system that seems to work fairly well and I feel is much better than having the work tucked away in storage space. Just an idea Deborah for when you feel like there are so many paintings you are being pushed around the room 😉
I am so glad you responded, Terrill! I was hoping you would. I so enjoy your paintings. I’m a bit in awe. So your encouragement means a lot to me.
I love what you are doing with your paintings too, loaning them out to people with empty walls who might not be able to afford original work on a large scale. What a generous and creative thing to do! It will be a long time before I have to worry about that, but it the time ever does and my work becomes good enough to show, I will definitely think about doing that.
In the meantime, I’m just hoping me kids might like to take a few off my hands when my walls become too full.
Yes the kids, grand kids, siblings, parents and so on Deborah all get a chance at some point to choose one of my paintings for a special birthday. I usually a couple of people each year but I am starting to run out of family 😉 Now I trying to figure out how to set things up so when I am not around any more that the paintings that are left don’t become a burden for my children. I never even considered such a situation would come up when I started painting.
I like the brown banyon tree in your cover display. Shadows are often not very detailed. You seem to have captured that tree shadow well from what I could tell.
Thank you about the banyon tree and shadows. I didn’t get the shadows on the sand quite right though. My instructor thought they were little soft things growing in the grass rather than shadows on the sand. But either way, it works with the painting, so I didn’t try to change it.
Whoa, thank you for conquering that fear – most (he)artists understand it, but too often succumb to it…
I’d like to add to the above comments this tidbit: don’t forget to let your loved ones roam about and choose those they’d love to have in their own homes either now or later as an inheritance…
Thank you, Laura. You are right, I will be letting my loved ones take paintings home, and I’m planning a few special ones to paint just for them someday.
Your paintings are BEAUTIFUL!! my great grandmother always did watercolor paintings and I actually have some of her work. Great things to cherish since she’s been gone a while. Thanks for sharing your work with the world!
Thank you, Caitlin! I hope I will have a few to pass down to my grandchildren someday.
Hi Deborah – first off, many thanks for visiting and commenting on my site, much appreciated. Great too to see your paintings. Seeing these three together I’m struck by how well established your style/approach seems to be. I really hope that the positive comments that you’ve already received have more than vindicated your decision to share your paintings and that you’ll do much more of it in the future!
Thank you, John. That means a lot to me. I’m still experimenting with style though, and even subject matter. I’ll be sharing some of this soon. When painting has become such a big part of my life, it will be hard not to blog about it, and since this first sharing has gone well, I might as well continue.
Haha – I know the feeling about still experimenting with style and subject matter – but I think that’s all fine. It’s a very evolutionary process to which there are few shortcuts and nothing more important than time spent doing (and thinking) about painting. I think it’s great that you’ve had such a positive response – and I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
Wow – Multi-talented!
Thanks, Jeff!
Deborah…I am so happy to have you come by my blog and comment and now I am following you. I think that your blog is very reflective of who you are as a person. I have looked at a few posts and they are very thoughtful and intuitive, if that is the word. I encourage you in watercolor because I sense a deep feeling for the medium. You convey a lot of feeling in these three paintings. Not often do you see that in someone that is a “beginner” I hate that term by the way. This is going to be fun. I will be taking the time to go over your posts and study them. I agree with you about your artist friend. What a shame to be so shy. I am and I am also not worried about selling or showing at this point because art for me is an exploration of creative me, the inner self and that is mainly my focus. So nice to have run into you here on WordPress!
Margaret, your encouragement means so much to me! I loved your blog and artwork. I will be exploring more of yours as well. And I appreciate what you say about my blog being a reflection of who I am as a person. That’s what I’m striving toward. To share my passions and interests and insights with others. I can’t imagine a better medium in which to do that other than blogging. I feel I was born in the right century.
So glad to hear. I love to interact and share, so I think that we’ll be looking forward to a good blog relationship. 😉
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