Day 37, 100 Happy Days: Dreaming Up New Classes and Other Studio Stuff

This is what we'll paint in the first oil Painting Soiree!

It was another great studio day, and today I got to paint with a good friend. Also, two people I didn't know - other artists - stopped by my studio and we had a nice discussion about art.

And someone else stopped by asking for a private lesson on the nuts and bolts of painting - she wants to know how she can assure that she is selling a quality painting to her customers - quality materials. This may just lead to another class. How exciting!

Today I tried my hand at a Robert Henri painting: The West Coast of Ireland. I saw it in a book recently and fell in love with it. The way the hills blend into the sky just makes me crazy. I had a good time experimenting with different brushstrokes to try to see how he captured that beautiful stormy sky.

And after today's adventure in painting, I've decided that I CAN do a Painting Soiree in oils after all! I've been thinking I couldn't do it without painting like Bob Ross, but I found a way. It just takes the right painting. I'm imagining that a lot of my current students who are curious about oils will sign up to check it out. How exciting to be able to introduce people to beauty and wonder that is oil painting!

Day 37 Bonuses: 
The weather (high of 58 degrees!), the incredible sunset (and that I live in a place where I can experience both those things), help from friends in the form of a much needed dry erase board, and an unexpected dinner and visit with a friend. 

Sunset from my studio window. I LOVE that if you look closely you can see one of my sunrise paintings reflected in the glass. (Right above the Grease Monkey sign.)

Day 21, 100 Happy Days: Blank Canvas

Before

A blank canvas is a wonderful (and potentially terrifying) thing. It represents pure potential. It's fresh and new, and has it's whole future ahead. It's all possibility.

When one is having a creative block, a blank canvas can be quite intimidating.

Luckily, I am anything but blocked right now. I couldn't wait to tear the wrapping off of this canvas today. And even though I was excited to start painting, it made me happy to just look at that beautiful blank canvas on my easel for a few minutes before diving in with the oils.

After (in progress)

This is what's happening to that canvas that I opened up this afternoon; I started a painting of this morning's sunrise. This is just the first layer, so it's very much a work in progress. But I'm pleased so far!

Day 15, 100 Happy Days: Painting!

Current works in progress.

I spent six glorious hours in my studio tonight. Six hours in my studio is not that much when I'm teaching, but to have six hours to myself is very unusual. And wonderful!

Sure there were approximately ten thousand other things that I needed to do, but I also needed to paint. Even though my business is painting, painting my own work (as opposed to painting for classes) still gets pushed to the back burner sometimes. I spend a lot of time putting out fires, trying to get the word out about my classes, or crunching numbers, and painting for myself can seem like a novelty in the face of all that. Paying bills becomes priority, and painting a distant memory.

But I forget that painting is necessary for my peace of mind. It is necessary for my happiness, for my self preservation, for balance in my life, and it's necessary for me to paint in order to be whole.

Tonight was bliss. I have several pieces that I'm working on (you really have to when you paint in oils), and I worked on a few of them. Right now I'm a bit obsessed with the night and the early morning skies.  I'm enjoying having many paintings in progress with the same theme; it allows me to explore different approaches to similar images.

I listen to a lot of music while painting. My favorite cd's of the evening were Joshua Bell's Red Violin Concerto, and Dexter Gordon's Our Man in Paris and One Flight Up. Sometimes it's good to paint to music without lyrics.

Here is Dexter Gordon's Tanya. Brilliance.

Day 11, 100 Happy Days: The Theory of Everything

I saw a really great movie tonight: The Theory of Everything.

I'm not going to write a review - nobody needs to read that. But I will say that this movie made my happy list today. And today, I do have a list. Some days it's a struggle to find one thing to make me happy, and others it's just one happy thing after the other. I've learned to savor those days.

Many things made me happy today, starting from the moment I got out of bed. But the movie is what rounded out the day, and it's what's sticking with me. It was inspiring, and beautiful, and thought provoking.

Also, I've been painting stars lately, so it seemed right in line with what I'm doing, somehow.

"However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope.” -Stephen Hawking

Here is my latest little painting, still in progress. I started it today, and I won't be able to work on it for a few days - I need to wait for the oil paint to dry before going in for the final touches.

4"x12" Oil on Canvas ©Tabetha Hastings

Happiness Project Day 98: Artistic Breakthrough

Okay, artistic breakthrough may be pushing it slightly... it smacks of a broad-reaching breakthrough. This was more like a breakthrough that I made on this particular painting.

This painting, "I Stand Alone" (the latest working title), is one I started a few years ago. Once or twice a year I pull it out and look at it, and sometimes work on it. It hasn't quite known what it wants to be, and consequently has gone through several stages over the years. There are many layers of paint on this one. And I keep thinking that it is just about finished but... the painting has a mind of it's own. (And even as I look at it now I see something I want to work on.)

Anyway, the breakthrough came when I added another little hill to the middle ground on each side of the painting. Actually I more discovered it than created it. It was kind of a happy accident. Artistic accidents are pretty much par for the course, and I consider them a part of the creative process. The key is to recognize and work with them, which involves letting go of control of what you wanted it to look like. Just like life, right? Things may not turn out the way you envisioned, but they work out. And sometimes much better than what you pictured.

In the case of my painting, I think the extra hill adds depth and interest to those sections, and the overall composition. I was quite happy to discover that hill!

And here is what I was listening to...

Happines Project Day 95: Abundance of Oil Paint

Over the years I have collected a LOT of oil paint. Not necessarily on purpose... sometimes I wouldn't realize what colors I had and ended up buying duplicates. And sometimes people give me paint - they decide that they don't want to paint with oils, or that they don't want to bring their oils with them when they move out of state. And then there was the time that my mom bought a whole box of them at an estate sale.

Wherever they come from, I accept the gift of paint graciously.

Unfortunately paint does not last forever, and I find myself in a situation where I need to start using what I've got fast, or I'll have to throw it away. And it really does hurt my soul to throw away paint.

So really I have no choice but to paint with wild abandon. Okay... that's pushing it a bit. I didn't exactly paint with wild abandon today, but I did play around on nonsense projects without fear of wasting paint. I have been really reserved with my oils paint over the years - that stuff is expensive! It felt good to just gob some paint out of the tube, and experiment with it.

I felt abundant in the oil paint department today, and that is good reason to be happy!

Where does the city meet Mother Nature? In art, of course!

"Chicago" Tabetha Landt Hastings 30"x40"

Sometimes I feel torn between my love for cities, and my love nature. Between the grandeur of tall buildings mixed with the urban vibe, and the serene beauty of the forest. My art tends to be either/or... I've got my nature paintings (which mainly tend to be trees) and my city buildings.

Well, a few days ago I decided to let those worlds collide. Partially because I got a new canvas in a size that I've never painted on before. It's long and narrow (I'm guessing it must be 48"x12"), and I'm finding that changing up the canvas size can really shake you out of a routine.

"Forest for the Trees" Tabetha Landt Hastings

My new painting is still in it's first stages, and therefore a bit camera shy. It's been trying to decide whether it was the city taking over nature, or nature reclaiming her ground. The struggle is in me of course, because I want them to coexist.

As luck would have it, I came across an artist today who combines city and nature so beautifully, that I just had to share. Also, I'm wild about her technique - she doesn't use paintbrushes, but instead she squeezes the paint out of bottles, and tips the canvas to get the paint where she wants it. Her name is Amy Shackleton, and you can check out her work here.

Below is a time lapse video of Amy in action. It's pretty amazing to watch! I finally noticed that there were words on the screen in my third time watching it!

Microcosm

Oil on Canvas 10x10 $275

Fine art print available HERE