For a long time I did not think I had an art practice. I was also resistant to the idea of creating a practice. I had to learn HOW to create an art practice on my own.

I wasted a lot of time being resistant.

So let’s talk about what an art practice is.

It is the process and practice of making a finished piece of art, from start to finish. The process and practice vary for every artist and each person has a different method. What follows is mine. This starts at the initial learning of materials, progresses to inspiration and gathering of information, the shifts into planning and more creating, and finally the creation of a finished piece.

One of my undergraduate professors felt that you needed to create swatch cards of every color of paint, as well as the colors they could possibly mix with every other color you owned. The cards also needed to be noted with the colors used. While I find this an occasionally useful exercise, I also find it incredibly tedious. Also, at the time expensive. He wanted all of our expensive designer gouache colors swatched out on 140lb watercolor paper! I have since done this exercise with my watercolors but on the finest cheapest 3×5 index cards.

I prefer to swatch like this:

or like this:

It’s not every color I own, but it is every color in my pochade box and mini palettes!

The gathering information and inspiration phase for me includes bike rides, hikes, and en plein air painting and drawing. During these times outside I gather sketches and also photographs. 

When I return to the studio I start the process of further exploring the scene. I simplify some areas, add details in others. I make tone and value studies and play with color. Some of this is done with markers or pencils or even more watercolors. I really like to use layers of ink, specifically my own homemade walnut ink. I add in layers of watercolor or inktense pencil to create interesting images.

The final step for me is to create a print. I haven’t yet made a print of these scene. BUT some notes:

the trees are too central in all these B+W sketches. I think I want them moved to the right more so that the tangle of vines is prominent. Also I want the big rock visible.

The texture of the vines is more fine in person but that doesn’t read well in these images. Sandpaper might give me a good tangle look.

The areas of light and dark are good. When the trees are shifted to the right more, the tangle of vines will be hazy but have darkness behind. The trees on the left are darker.

The whole scene feels more wild than it is. This is a well cared for park, but this section is not so well cared for. The city just removed a bunch of old buildings and I’m interested in what they do with the camp area, it would be nice if the park were expanded*.

I’m going to keep going with the exploration of this area, and I’m interested in the changes as they occur.

*It looks like they are moving the Pioneer Village to the spot. I’m not sure what that means for the area, but I expect it will mean more tourist traffic. I image the abutting neighbors are not excited though I suspect that they are happy that it’s a little safer than the dilapidated buildings that were there.

I set out to reinvigorate my art process and the habit of regularly, nearly daily, drawing and making art outside. I have been successful. I’m not going out every day but nearly every day of the week where it is not raining, and mostly, not on weekends. In typical Massachusetts weather patterns weekends have been pretty gray and rainy for me.

Anyway, I leave for work about an hour early and head to the beach. I’m there with such regularity I’m calling it an unofficial Artist-in-Residency. I’m specifically visiting Dead Horse Beach which is one of the beaches at Salem Willows. It’s a beach that is well used over the summer particularly because it is in a cover that is sheltered and doesn’t seem to get any rip tides. It’s rocky and not popular with tourists. Anyway, I love it. I’ve been visiting this beach every summer for 25 years.

The view toward the river and ocean from the beach isn’t all that scenic but when you turn back toward the land, the rocks and trees are pretty cool. That’s what I’ve been focused on.

This process is collecting inspiration and information for future pieces. I’m making art and soaking in the feeling of the place, and being totally immersed in the moment.

Is en plein art (Art Outside) a form of mediation? I think so.

I also take a lot of photos. Every spot I visit I take a bunch of pictures. I observe and photograph.

After this initial phase I start the next phase- sketches and drawings from the sketches and photographs. (More on that in another post)

These initial images have a spontaneity that I really enjoy. There is something immediate and alive about them.  Anyway, enjoy these images.

For the most part, I attempted to make my art outside kits from things I already had on hand. With one exception, I bought an Art Tool Kit Demi Palette. Empty of course. But I added a selection of  pans to accompany it.

When it arrived I realized it is a mini version of a business card holder. If you are of an age to have been around business people in the 90s and early 2000s, you know the kind of card case I mean. Thin aluminum that held a stack of 12 or so cards secure. I read a review where a woman confidently ranted that the ATK palettes were the same as thrifted cigarette cases*. I can confidently refute this.

Anyway, you can get a card case on amazon still for not too much money. Or even AliExpress for less if you want to wait.

You’ll have to add some peel and stick magnetic sheet to the inside to get it to work as a palette. And you’ll have to buy some pans. Plus cover the lid with some white paint or plastic. BUT it’s doable. The DIY approach has an issue- the lid does NOT have edges, so paint has a tendency to flow off of it. There are solutions- a bead of hot glue around the edges. Heck if you don’t want to get sheets of magnetic stuff, you can hot glue the pans down.

Of you can go ahead and order a knock off of the current ATK and TN version of this palette. You can also get them in stainless steel.

The knock offs have some issues. The magnetic sheet inside is weak. The pans slide around in mine a lot. I solved this by adding in a magnetic sheet from a reminder magnet that my health insurance sent me. But I also have some sheet magnets that worked pretty well at adding some oomph to the ability of the magnets to hold things in place.

My favorite travel palette of all time is this one, minus the crappy little trays they include for paint. I use my own pans hot glued in place. I spray painted the inside of the lid white for a deep mixing well. It’s awesome. The downside is that it’s plastic. The ATK eliminates almost all plastic in their design. I like this a lot. All plastic eventually breaks down, and I like the ATK pans much more than I expected, especially the medium square size. The narrower size is a bit too skinny for me to get my brush into easily and not slop it everywhere. BUT that square size is about perfect.

Another good point of the ATK and it’s clones is that it is modular. The little pans are inexpensive and can be easily swapped out. Traditional pans are easily swapped out. Remember hot glue can be removed with a flood of isopropyl alcohol. (I think even vodka works.) The slim package and modular pans really are selling points.

*There are vintage cigarette holders that are very similar to the ATK palette in size, but they are much thicker and a bit longer. You can of course make a palette out of one but you can also go to the dollar store and get a makeup palette and wash out the makeup and use that. Or just, you know, use a mint tin.

When I started to create the frictionless en plein air grab and go kits the big goal was to lighten my EDC load. My back pack was over filled and HEAVY. I went through my backpack and removed unused items. I had 2 EDC sets of silverware, which, realistically I could leave at work. But I carry them anyway. I now only carry one. I now only carry one charger and cable for my tablet and laptop. I never need them at the same time. I digress.

I put the en plein air kit into my back pack and put my small sketchbook in with it. Then added the Neocolor 1 and 2 pouch.

Then I loaded up a tote with a few other things.

Y’all, this is my set up when I got to the beach.

That tote has my bigger sketchbook, water soluble graphite crayons, the inktense kit, water, a journal, and a water cup. The black thing in the middle of the picture is a stool and then my now lighter backpack.

So the goal of lightening my backpack has happened BUT I am now carrying a tote of additional supplies. LOL

Despite this I have now gone out twice this week to sketch at various parks I visited a lot last year. I have also decided to start to take more pictures both with my cell phone and my toy cameras. Things I might want to paint and draw in the winter. I ran out of options this past winter and it hit me hard that I wasn’t drawing or painting.

I’ve made a few youtube videos of the process. It’s a learning process to record with new equipment. The first one I did used a hat POV and that won’t happen again. I used a chest mount for the most recent video. It’s much better.

Over the years I’ve mentored quite a few art therapists and teaching artists. One piece of advice I give all of them, but also struggle to follow myself, is to maintain an art practice. Life gets busy, work gets busy and teaching artists and art therapists stop making their own art. We all know that we love making art and that making art is actually GOOD FOR US, but yet, we let our own need to make art slide.

It’s a recipe for disaster.

It’s a recipe for burnout.

But what does “art practice” mean?

An art practice is a creative journey of being creative and making art. The journey from idea to finished piece is how I usually understand it. The journey is never a single straight line. It meanders as we discover new materials and take in new sights. Many of the young people I work with (and for a long time I thought this way) think that it’s just about a finished art piece. The phrase art practice encompasses everything the artist (or art dabbler, art journaler, I’m using artist in the royal way of meaning anyone who makes art) does on their journey of creation. From going on photo walks, en pein air studies, going to the museum, to prepping and priming canvases and finally selecting materials.

It’s all part of the practice. Practice is a process.

I’ve realized that as I’ve moved through a fallow period that I was still feeding the creative side of myself with instructional videos, reading about creativity, and working on stuff at ye old day jobbie job.

​Currently my practice is: photo or en plein air, sketches and sketches, then print or watercolor or pastel painting. What is yours?

I’ve been having a tough time getting inspired again. Loads of stuff online has been inspirational but not a lot in my own life. It’s cold and wet here lately and when we do have a warm days it’s raining. A few days ago it was predicted to be sunny but chilly. A group of my coworkers and I decided to go for a walk with some toy cameras.

I utilized the Kodak Charmera and the G6 Thumb Camera. Silly little cameras that people assume aren’t really cameras. They take, like most toy cameras, spectacularly bad images when compared to my cell phone or most modern cameras. But they do offer a few things- fun, fit into a pocket, and they really teach you how to frame up an image and hold still.

My coworkers used some instant thermal print cameras.

We had a blast.

It’s something I realize I need to do more regularly. Get a nice cup of coffee, grab a toy camera, go for a walk and snap some pics.

The images remind me of early 2000s cell phone cameras and iPod touch cameras. They do an ok  job at capturing light and shadow, though with super bright light highs are blown out and shadows have no details. All of that is okay for me.

For reference photos I don’t want all the details. I want to be reminded of the vibe, the colors, the light, and the shape of the place.

Some sketches and their photos:

This past fall and winter were rough for a variety of reasons- cancer scares in my family, my own knee issues, actual cancer in my family, perimenopausal nonsense and then we had loads of snowfall and a bitter cold winter. The result- really really not wanting to go outside and sketch. My en plein air habit really does drive a lot of my finished work. Those on site images allow me to think about art in a different way.

Also, I’m not sure I find anything more relaxing than sitting on a local beach or in a park, sketchbook in hand, making art.

Anytime I need to reinvigorate a habit, I look to make it as low friction as possible.

I’m starting with a modular system that will fit into my Po Campo Vernon trunk bag on my bike* with plenty of extra room. It can also be pared down and be put into my EDC backpack with ease and less space and weight than my current EDC art tool kit.

The needs:

Core Kit:

• Watercolors
• Pencil
• Pen (uniball 207 in bold or medium)
• White Marker (cheap white paint marker)
• Eraser (Sakura Sumo)
• Water cup, way to refill water brushes
• Brushes (Fuumuui travel set or water brushes)
• clips
• Board- Gurney Easel, Clip Board etc…

Add Ons in Small Pouches

• Water soluble crayons
• Chalk pastels
• Inktense
• Colored Pencils
• ArtGraf or similar
• Ink Brushes
• Paint Markers
• ETC…

The idea behind this is to grab a core kit and a sketchbook then add on a pouch with additional materials I might want that day. The goal is to keep this smaller and lighter on a regular day. I can fit a great deal into the Vernon Bag, but I also want to be able to carry my water bottle in it and an extra sketchbook or panels. Maybe even my small pochade box.

So far I have 3 core kits- a Lihit Lab ActAct slim, an Art Tool Kit Pocket, and a small Pochade box. They all have roughly the list of supplies, but in different configurations and sizes. The ActAct has a small watercolor set with a modified version of process colors. The Art Tool Kit (ATK) has a small but expanded set of colors based off the process color idea. The pochade box has a 9 color set that holds a larger amount of paint. Each has a different array of brushes and ways of holding water. Again all based off the size of the kit.

The idea is a core watercolor set up and that the various pouches add on mixed media capability to my day. I also hope to lighten my load on a  day to day basis. I know if I’m going to drive into work and stop on my way to draw and paint I can leave some of the mixed media materials in the car. If I’m on the eBike I can carry more than what I would carry on my regular bike.

For pouches I have a variety of things from Muji and no name clear vinyl pouches. What goes into what pouch is determined by size and cleanliness of the material.

*Now that my knee is mostly better I’m looking forward to logging a lot of miles on my bike this summer, both my eBike AND my regular bike. I’m planning to commute as soon as it’s warm enough via the eBike and regularly ride my regular bike when I can.

I’ve done a lot of collage over the years. I’ve made a lot of prints over the years. I’ve never done any chine collé. It seems weird. So I set out to make some of my own paper with coffee filters, because why not. I used Dewent Inktense Watercolors and stuck to sunrise and sunset colors.

I went in to work a little early to gift myself some BIG press time. I set out to chine collé.

So first I inked up my tetrapak and I think I might try to make a video on how to do it. But the camera that I’m currently shooting  with is white and that just seems like a mistake.

Anyway. I inked up my plates and then set about to print.

When printing with intaglio style your paper has to be damp. I’m using Legion Stonehenge paper. It’s 100% cotton and 140lb. If I didn’t get it damp it would buckle and look pretty terrible.

Anyway, I use a spray bottle and spray BOTH sides of the paper with plain clean water until water runs off the paper and depending on time frame, place it into plastic or towels. If in towels the towels must also be dampened. If in plastic, I can use less water. I then let the paper sit for 15 minutes or so, this lets the water soften the paper well.

To set up the chine collé I layout where I want the print to be on plastic and then place the collage piece over it, color or image side down. I sprinkle methylcellulose (basically wallpaper paste) in a thin even layer over the collage piece. The collage piece can be dampened if needed. The printing paper is placed over the whole thing and then it is run through the press.

The results are magic.

I particularly like the play of the perfect round of the collaged piece with the broken up edges of the print. I really like both of these pieces.

And to think these little pieces were simple coffee filters.

It also makes me think about using used coffee filters. What would the tan of a used filter look like with the black of a print over it? Mhhmmm I bet it would look great.

Anyway here’s a video of the printing process.

I wrote here awhile ago about how I wanted to get back into written journaling and that I was feeling a bit of artistic inertia in my personal art making.

So I took my own advice and I slung some paint around. But I also watched some videos about creativity and finally wrote in my journal.

Considering my previous gap was 15 days, having only 4 days since I last journaled is a win.

After that I felt a lot better. A little weight off my shoulders.

(I also did 3 loads of laundry and did a little tidy of my art desk.)

After tidying my art desk I got out my Inktense watercolor set and some coffee filters.

I layered some sunrise colors over the coffee filters and plan on using them as chine collé with a few of my recent plates that I’ve made. I’ve done quite well with my plate making goal- I’m about 15/30. I printed a bunch of them including this cute little skull:

More on the printed plates later, the fun paint slinging resulted in these:

It’ll be interesting to see these paired with some prints. I think the warm and cool sunrise colors are going to be great with some of the images I’ve got going.