The Odd “Brush”: More Painting

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

After last week’s posts, y’all know I spent a good deal of time during my recent winter beach break to play with paints and more. I’ve already shown my favorite results… so I suppose it’s time to share a lesser effort. I  ended up with a piece that doesn’t wow me, but I’m gonna g’head and cling to that fine, fine cliché: it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey. 

Don’t worry — this is a short trip.

BADGE WORK UPDATE: DRAWING & PAINTING

A task for this badge requires scouts to paint with something other than brushes — sponges, fingers, string, toothbrushes — any way other than a brush to get color on the canvas. 

I used native grasses growing by the beach as the inspiration.

The inspiration...

I used an AquaStic to create a simple sand-colored wash on a sheet of canvas using a fine sponge. Before it had time to dry, I started applying color from an ink pad using (what else?) seashells. The ridged edges provided a natural fan pattern  that I would never have been able to create freehand. I used three different-sized shells to create some depth and just began applying color.

Seashells as paintbrushes...

First rounds of ink bled on the damp canvas

The water-based ink just bled right away which felt a little disappointing — until I kind of liked it. As the hours passed, and the canvas continued to dry from its original wash, I added more layers, each of which bled a little less and began to create some depth.

The next day, with a dry canvas, I turned to a gold ink pad to add a final layer that pops just a bit.

Sea Grass

Again, not my favorite project for the week. But without having been prompted to use something out of the ordinary to apply pigment, I don’t think it’d have even occurred to me to use a seashell. Outside the paint-box thinking: there’s the value in this task. 

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A Little Perspective: More Drawing & Painting

Posted on January 26, 2012 by

Picking up on the last post, today I’m sharing some more painting from last week’s break in Surfside Beach, TX. While those “shell studies” were pretty small in scale, I was itching to try a bigger canvas.

BADGE WORK UPDATE: VISUAL ARTS, DRAWING & PAINTING

Both of these badges require scouts to experiment with perspective. You know–two parallel lines that appear to come together as they move away from you. Think railroad tracks. Think highway. Those lines don’t really meet, of course, they just appear to meet off in the horizon.

Here’s a picture I snapped of our teeny beach house, called Oasis:

The "Oasis" -- home away from home at Surfside Beach, TX

Teeny it was. Perfectly sized for a woman who hits 5′ 2″ on a good day. I could reach everything, easily. But when Charles arrived, gentle giant that he is, the house was suddenly oddly proportioned. So low were the beams overhead that Charles hung hats and scarves from the ceiling fan’s blades to remind him to walk around the darned thing. The reminder did not always work.

But I still loved the little Oasis. And snapping that picture, I thought it’d make a lovely subject for a study in perspective.

I started with a quick drawing done in AquaStic. AquaStics feel/look like crayons, but once you’ve put ‘em on paper you can brush them with water and blend your colors. Anyway, here’s the first sketch:

Feels/looks like crayon, but brush on some water and AquaStic can really pop.

All well and good, but it sure didn’t feel like I’d captured the essence of the Oasis. So I pulled out a sheet of tar paper, the medium of choice from my local guru, teacher, and fave artist Terrell Powell. Adapting a technique I learned at his proverbial knee in those fabulously fun Art Night classes, I “sketched” out the house using a serrated knife:

Tar paper makes a great canvas.

Next, I just painted quickly, using the knife lines as my guide:

Putting color on tar paper with some speed...

Paint applied, but we've lost some of those original knife lines...


Note that many of those knife lines have been diminished or have even disappeared. I could’ve left it at that, but those black lines make the colors pop and give dimension to the work, so I pulled the knife back and and re-carved them into the tar paper.

Carving fresh lines onto the paint makes the color pop against the black.

If I gave a rat’s ass about perfection, this final picture would horrify me. Luckily, I’ve paid plenty of therapists good money over the years to knock the Curse of Perfection out of me (mostly). Now, I can delight in this little study in perspective, even as that mild giddiness whispers the words “paint more” in my ear.


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Drawing & Painting: Nature as Inspiration

Posted on January 24, 2012 by

Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico, Surfside Beach, TX

There’s a really good reason artists regularly turn to nature for inspiration: it’s the Original Canvas, the one-stop-shop for every conceivable colors and shape. But well beyond what the eyes can behold, every sense is touched by a good day in nature. We hear the mosquito by our ear, the dry leaves underfoot, the bird in the tree. We smell salt from the sea or freshly cut hay. We taste the blackberries on the side of the road. We feel the sand between our toes, the sun on our skin. A lifetime spent rendering nature could not possibly be wasted.

And yet, few have ever described me as a nature girl/earth mother type. As a kid, I could relate to whichever Gabor sister it was who starred on Green Acres. I’ll take Manhattan, please, with that penthouse overlooking a park, thank you very much. My family had a cabin in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland for a few years when I was a kid of scouting age, and I hated every second we spent there. Everything about nature creeped me out.

So it’s a pleasant surprise to discover I’ve taken a shine to nature as I’ve aged. I’m good with that.

Seashell lamps? Not for me. Seriously.

I do, however, still twitch violently when I see the great outdoors trudged indoors for what I believe are hideous purposes. I will never be the girl who thinks a mantle is the appropriate parking spot for the head of a 12-point buck. I will never believe that snakes make good pets. And I will never, ever make a lamp out of seashells.

At least, I think I won’t.

BADGE WORK UPDATE: OUTDOOR CREATIVITY, DRAWING & PAINTING, VISUAL ARTS

I vacationed last week in Surfside Beach, TX which sits along a stretch of coastline that’s just crazy with seashells. It’s insane how many lovely shells wash up on the shoreline with every high tide. I brought a hundred shells home with me the first time I visited in 2010, and I easily tripled that this year. Here’s the haul from last week’s beach combing:

The week's haul -- gorgeous variety!

Just look at that color! Look at that variety! Click on that picture to see it fill your screen, and then imagine the creative possibilities! 

Yes, clearly I’m a complete sucker for a pretty shell, especially one I’ve found myself. But my love affair with crustaceans and their homes makes it easy for me to tackle several badge tasks that involve drawing and painting–tasks that call for scouts to explore different ways to draw and paint. Here are the results.

First, I pulled out a few brand new charcoal pencils. I loved to draw in charcoal as a teen, but I haven’t touched it for about 35 years. It was so calming, I’m kicking myself for ever having put it down. Observe three shells:

Effort #1. The shell's coloring and striations made it fairly straightforward.

Effort #2. Didn't quite get the curve of the shell right...

Effort #3. Definitely the toughest shell of all!

That third one, the oyster shell, was particularly tricky, so I stuck with it as my model for two other experiments. I went for a pastel version, and let me go on the record: this is a really hard medium to work in! I must’ve smudged out four earlier versions before ending up with this one:

This took some time before I felt satisfied with the direction. Wish I'd worked more on the light at the top of the shell...

For the final effort, I started with a trace of the shell. It’s not that I actually wanted to trace the shell, it’s that a badge task actually required it. So here’s the traced shell, on a canvas that’s gotten a simple wash using an Aqua Stic:

Had to start this one with a trace of the shell. Couldn't wait to paint over it.

Once the wash was dry, I started to paint:

Here's the final version, in acrylic.

Look you guys, I’ve never been the visual artist in the family, but I have to tell you that this was an incredibly peaceful, satisfying way to spend several hours. I was really surprised at the pleasure it brought me, and a little weirded out by it, too. After all, I’m not the girl who brings the great outdoors indoors, right?

Next post: more painting from Surfside Beach, TX!


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Back to the Scene of the Crime: Part 3

Posted on January 19, 2012 by

Hour 1: Actively contemplating everything I want to "do" before I leave here on Friday.

I’ve decided that the secret to a chill life is a good, hot fire.

Today was beautiful. I painted and wrote and did an experiment comparing the properties of salt and fresh water (details forthcoming), but, dear reader, the finest hours were spent alone on the beach with a simple fire, a requirement of my week here, a necessary homage.

Tend a fire with care and responsibility through its life–and death–and your mind, your breath, your heart rate will slow down. Tend those logs and the voices in your head will start to fade. Tend those embers, and you’ll slip into patience, in spite of yourself.

Hour 3: As chill and still as that fire is hot.

An empty beach sure makes it extra special, but I do believe the results are just as possible in the mountains, and even in a backyard fire pit.

So: unless you’re living in an area with a burn ban in place, consider spending 3-4 hours every once in a while tending to a fire, by yourself. Let it do all the work, so you can be still for a while. Thus endeth the lesson for today…

… But here’s a photo from this morning’s walk, with caption…

"Honey, I'm just gonna step out to get the mail..."

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Back to the Scene of the Crime: Part 2

Posted on January 17, 2012 by

The sea was angry that day, my friends….

Actually, we’re at the Gulf of Mexico, which Charles calls “a big mud puddle.” That’s nuts, of course. He says it’s just an overgrown salt lake on a lot of oil, but I say it’s nothing to be trifled with. Here’s a shot of this morning’s surf:

The day's waves attracted several dozen surfers over the course of 12 hours.

What you can’t see from this iPhone pic is that there are about a dozen intrepid surfers out there doing a pretty great job of riding these waves, which are breaking about a quarter of a mile off shore by my estimation.

We were supposed to get thunderstorms last night, but there’s just the appearance of bad weather. I’m again on the deck, and it’s about 70 degrees this morning. There’s a pretty serious salt mist so I’ve actually got my laptop enshrouded in t-shirts to keep it free of sea spray; I’ve never seen this mentioned in the Mac documentation, but I’m pretty sure it’s a good idea.

A few pix from the last couple of days…

This part of the coast is famous for a few things: sea foul, migratory birds, and seashells. Here’s a snapshot of the shells collected within a 300 yard range in either direction from this house:

These shells were gathered right in front of the house. Amazing variety.

I know I’ve completed the collecting hobbies badge, but I can’t help taking these home with me and adding to the shells I gathered two years ago along this beach. Normally, you can see a line of them, dropped where high tide last appeared. But today, there’s no sign of shells, a consequence of the churning waters which are usually pretty still in my experience. And that probably explains why my shelling expedition early this morning was a bust. A local had pointed me to a beach north of here where she swore I’d find incredible shells — if I got there before anyone else.

So Freida and I went for it this morning. No shells to be found, we should’ve slept in, but Freida was drawn pretty quickly to this recently deceased gull:

This seagull, and kelp, were among the few things found on the sand this morning.

… and this pelican…

This carcass, a few days old, looks absolutely prehistoric.

Even in death they were beautiful. I sincerely mean that.

So I’ll try shell hunting again later in the week after this weather front has passed, but I did start to play around with sketching them yesterday. Here’s an example, with more to come in later posts:

A lone shell, and its charcoal facsimile.

Today’s weather clearly calls for indoor activities. Charles has come down with some recording equipment, and we’re going to flesh out some song ideas for the next CD.

Will post another update soon. Til then, Greetings from Surfside Beach, TX… Wish You Were Here.

Greetings from Surfside, TX. Wish you were here...

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Back to the Scene of the Crime: Part I

Posted on January 16, 2012 by

Greetings from Surfside Beach, TX, the birthplace of the BSP.

Two years ago, this week, I tried to light a simple bonfire on a cold, deserted winter beach. I had all the tools and none of the skill. What should have taken 2 minutes took 30, but it was a rollicking good time. I remember uttering the words, “I’m a shitty girl scout.” You can read the whole story here, but thus, an idea was born. I decided to become a better scout, so to speak, at the age of 50.

I’m back at the scene of the crime this week. Yes, the phrase “scene of the crime” isn’t all that accurate, but something like “scene of the conception” doesn’t really roll off the tongue, either.

But here I am in Surfside Beach, TX for a winter break to chill, think, and write. That’s exactly why I came here two years ago, but things feel a little different now. Two years ago, I was feeling pressed for time. Actually, I felt pressed for Time with a capital T. On the near side of fifty, I felt enormously dissatisfied with my creative output and no answer to the looming issue: What Will I Do With The Rest Of My Life?

Again with the caps, know what I mean?

As I write this, two years later, I’m sitting at a table on a simple wooden deck, the Gulf of Mexico in front of me, Grateful Dead coming from the speakers behind me, a cup of tea to my right, and dog Freida to my left, chasing a gull from the fence.

Pinch me, baby, for this is a fine, fine life.

So what’s the difference between then and now? Yes, I can now confidently light a fire with a bunch of dry tinder and a single match, but I’m thinking right now it’s not the doing so much as the knowing I can do… something.

I liken it a bit to Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. All the time she spent in Technicolor only taught her that everything she wanted and needed had always been at her disposal. Dorothy reminds me that I don’t need to bungee-jump off the side of a bridge to feel a sense of wonder, excitement, or accomplishment. I just need to learn some shit, a little at a time, with regularity, to see where I need to go… next.

And that’s why this project stays interesting. Pushed slightly beyond comfort in small increments, learning happens. All any of us may need, in fact, is a simple framework for regularly stretching just a bit beyond. I don’t need to like everything I learn, I just need to say open to the experience. Example: I didn’t like learning to fix the leaky toilet for the Ms. Fix It badge, but I liked learning that I could do it on my own. A big, small victory, imho.

That’s it for now — another update from the scene of the crime coming in a day or two, a bit about the projects I’m tackling this week…

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Don’t Be Scared — Be Prepared!

Posted on January 11, 2012 by
Duct Tape

Duct Tape: One of the All-Time Great Emergency Tools Ever.

You know what they say — it’s not a question of if an emergency will happen, but when. Just take a look back to 2011 and consider some of the natural disasters here in the continental U.S.:

  • An earthquake hits the east coast.
  • A hurricane spares the coast but causes devastating flash flooding in Vermont.
  • Record drought in Texas and parts of the southwest ignite wildfires everywhere.
  • Five tornadoes leveling communities in the midwest.
  • Two major river floods along the Mississippi.

Mother Nature appears to be Pissed. Off. At. Us. But there’s a lesson in here for all of us: prepare for emergencies and evacuations.

Emergency Bin

Our Emergency Bin, packed and ready to go.

There’s a task for the Safety First badge that asks girls to “show the way” and help others learn some safety rules like how to cross a street safely or get help in an emergency. Now that’s good information, and it’s age-appropriate for tweens, but for this task I felt the need to really step it up. So I’m sharing my tips for how to prepare a multi-use emergency bin for your home.

Do this for yourselves. Think of it as a different kind of insurance policy, a different kind of peace of mind. Whether a disaster forces you to stay in your home for days or demands immediate evacuation, you’ll be prepared!

BADGE WORK UPDATE: SAFETY FIRST and WEATHER WATCH

If you’d like to read more about the weather extremes we’ve experience, visit the NOAA site here. As for more on emergency preparedness, trust me when I tell you there are plenty of sites out there on the subject, and a lot of them will try to sell you a years’ worth of freeze-dried food, too. But I recommend these basics:

American Red Cross Emergency Preparedness

Ready.gov’s “Are You Ready?” Guide to Emergency Planning

Please let me know if you think something was missing from my own kit! That’s it, kiddos. Just remember: Don’t Be Scared — Be Prepared!

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