The Ventura County chapter of the California Art Club hosted their monthly paint-out at El Matador State Beach this morning. I know… its LA County, but whateveh! I think I was the first one there at 9am, but soon there were about 15 of along the beach and up and down the cliff-side. When I arrived at the beach, there was already one occupant… a yoga instructor shooting a series of videos doing her poses. She continued as I set up. Once we both got into our own rhythms, we were able to focus on our own tasks, but it was nice to have someone on the beach with me.
After the painting was finished, I hauled my gear back up the cliffside and had lunch with several other artists. As a special bonus, Sharon Kaiser was available to critique people’s paintings during the lunch hour. It is always good to get feedback from other esteemed artists. Thanks all for a great morning. I needed that. Below are a couple more views…
I have been painting again. This weekend I was with a fantastic colorist and impressionistic painter David Gallup. It was a wonderful time of conversation, philosophy and most of all COLOR. It was a real eye opener for me about using paint that I have never had on my palate. He is really one of the modern masters of color. More on that to come…
Below is a small closeup that shows the interesting color that can happen with wet sand. The first image is the closeup of a plein air study that I did using close to actual color of wet sand. (full original) Below that, is a close-up of a second painting, using all of the same colors, but separated out. With a few steps back, the colors blend, but the overall “color” is mixed and becomes the same as the original study. Dave tells me “Why paint gray wet sand color when you can have FUN painting sand with color?” {Things that make you say “hmmmm”…. }
I left knowing that I had taken a first big step into an unknown journey up the mountain. We have to take bold steps and make intentional brush strokes with color… with confidence… with intention, but none of it can happen without first taking a step. I am reminded of an old Goethe quote that I have used before on my BLOG about starting a thing and moving forward… He says “What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Paint your future with boldness. Make the first steps and start the journey.
I will work out the painting for a few weeks (or longer) and will eventually post the final painting, but know this… some new things are on the horizon. I have started to climb the mountain.
Here is a collection of some more photos of the beautiful California that I live in. It is truly a wonderful part of the world to live in. Most people only get to visit.
One of my favorite things is to watch emerging “Aha!” moments. Whether it is a moment in myself or in another fellow human, being around when the “Aha!” hits is wonderful. It’s like turning a dark corner on a rainy country road, to suddenly see a bright green field lit by the low-lying sun. It takes me by surprise. Sometimes it takes going down a road less traveled. Perhaps it’s wandering around in a new city, or an unfamiliar part of your own hometown. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “…not all those who wander are lost…” and I would add; it is in my wandering that I sometimes find the most wonder.
Bringing it all home My middle daughter Hannah is a senior at Royal High School in Simi Valley. In a recent English assignment, she was asked to write a personal statement. In it, she talks about a week-long summer retreat that she went on to serve families affected by disabilities. The camper she was assigned to was a young boy with Down’s syndrome. She writes, “As the families began to arrive, I stood with my camera ready to capture the first glimpse of Brycen… I picked it up held it to my right eye, my pointer finger on the button, and I stood there in amazement with a new perspective.” She concludes with, “I hope that with my photography I can touch the lives of people who are uneducated on social matters around the world. If I can capture just one moment-in-time that others would not have seen, but that could change their outlook on life, it will be the accomplishment of a lifetime. I want my art to change lives as it has changed mine.” When I read that, it was my own “Aha!” moment – a moment that made me understand that both her upbringing and her education gave her the gift to want to make a difference – through art. Where am I going with this? OK, it’s actually all about the kids. Our schools are full of students with “the-sky’s-the-limit” potential. They are like the sculptures called “The Captives.” These unfinished works of Michelangelo are caught at a point where they are emerging from the stone that they have been encased in from the beginning of time. The sculptor saw in them something that no other did… he slowly revealed the figures, but stopped short of completing the task. Arms and legs emerge from rough marble. They are struggling to free themselves. Like Hannah’s photos, they are a snapshot frozen in time. We can see the potential of the now, and the yet-to-come. Michelangelo saw in them this potential. Each student in our schools is filled with this same potential that must be nurtured, lest they be left behind like Michelangelo’s unfinished works. Sadly, the photography program at Hannah’s school has been canceled this year due to budget cuts. We must continue to support the arts in our schools and help these emerging artists and musicians to be complete in their education. One of the things I am most proud of is ACCV’s sponsorship of the educational music programs in the Conejo Valley. We are working hard to continue funding for this program and to develop more. Please support the Arts Council of the Conejo Valley. We continue being the “Voice of the Arts”, so our emerging leaders – our poets, prophets, painters and performers – have their own “Aha!” moments. With our support, they are the change our community and our world needs.
Craig Detwiler is film maker, professor, writer and promoter of the arts in the Church. In this video (re-posted from his website) he passionately offers a call to ALL artists in the Church to create and inspire the world by harnessing beauty and creating great art for the Kingdom. Let me know what you think in the comments section below, and… let’s do something about it. I am thinking of an “Arts Collaborative” or arts center in Ventura County (and beyond…) where we can create Kingdom art… music, sculpture, graphics, film, music, photos, paintings – all of it. There are SO many churches around with no creative teams or dreams. So many creatives that sit and watch each week, not being available for kingdom advancement. What if we all got together and made something new… collected a bunch of people together and made a difference in our community, our world. I know that *I* want to do this a lot more. I think that there is an avenue for it, one that will support an arts center… but there needs to be some organization in this dream.
I am still dreaming and scheming of a way to get Blue Sky Arts Center, and all that it can be, off the ground… perhaps it can me many things. A training ground, a catalyst, an arts incubator. What do you think? Wanna be part of it?
Everywhere I look, I can see beauty. Even in the most mundane places, if I gaze long enough, I can find the Beautiful peaking around the corner. Then there are other times that is hits you so hard, that it is undeniable. Below are a few photos I have taken on my wanderings. If you click them they are big enough to use as a nice background on your desk top. Enjoy.
I have spent some time teaching small children. It seems to me that the younger someone may be, the more likely one is to raise their hand to the question, “Who in this room is an artist?” As a child, there is little to loose in being creative. As we socialize, we find that we are urged to conform to “standards” and begin to loose our individual viewpoint. We are processed and homogenized into thinking similarly. I think that in chasing after the “American Dream” we have collectively lost sight of creativity, and passion to create, which was placed within us by the Creator.
As a creator myself, an artist, I value the wonders of God’s creation. When I slow down, I notice that there are many things that are often overlooked. There are many things that seem insignificant. Some think it odd that I find such joy in simple ordinary things. Such as the way the crows journey each dawn to their day, across the hills and beyond… I have stood on opposite hills from their flight, watching them gather from all points of the compass, to line up in their sky-path returning at dusk to roost in hidden trees in the hills for the night. I have a dream to document their journey in film one day. They are a peculiar bird that I find fascinating.
I have sometimes challenged others to pause for a short moment in their daily grind, and take notice of something that they do not normally see. Perhaps to look at a small “flower” that is among the weeds… Maybe a lone leaf that falls from a winter Aspen tree, maybe the way a mother lovingly holds the hand of her 2 year-old at the mall. Creativity is to discover what you would not otherwise see.
I remember something that happened to me at the mall a long time ago. It was a day that I received a gift from somewhere beyond me. The gift was a heightened sense of awareness. I was eager to experience it before it faded away- — Like an enhanced sense of touch; it seemed to bring everything closer. I sat on a bench and watched a mother walking by holding an infant and could feel the thick love that the child had for her mother. I walked into a kid’s toy store (Imaginarium) and went through the too-small-for-grown-ups door like I was Alice chasing the rabbit into Wonderland. The simplest of toys brought such amusement to me, it was like being 8 years old again. In this short wrinkle of time, the folds of the universe had come closer for me to observe. I departed the toy store and continued my journey of sights and sound that rippled with life unaware.
I approached the escalator near the exit and I saw that a crowd was beginning to gather. At the bottom of the stairs, a woman in her 70s or beyond laid on her back. She had collapsed and fell down the last few stairs. Her shin was bloody from the fall. I had taken CPR as a lifeguard a few summers before, so I came closer. I was held back from a rent-a-cop who told us that the paramedics were on their way. Astonished that they were going to do nothing for her, I backed away and began to pray. I prayed that her life would be extended. I prayed that the help she needed would arrive soon. I prayed for her soul. Then she opened her eyes. She did not look around, she turned her head and looked right at me. She spoke in words that were for no one but me alone; “I will be fine”, as if to say, “thanks for your prayers, but none are needed now”. She died that day. I lived that day as I watched her leave for the invisible Imaginarium beyond.
Some may think that the thought of being creative is something that you either are… or aren’t. You’ve “got it” or you don’t! I am not really sure when in my life that I began to believe that I “got it,” but both my parents and my grandmother, from an early age, encouraged creativity. I think that we are all created to be creative. The first gift we receive from the Creator is life itself. In the first moments outside of out mother’s womb, we began the wonderful and sometimes terrifying journey of discovery. I think that the power of creativity is in continuing that journey to discover how far the rabbit hole is.
He came to me in silence – The Unknown One
Not in a rush of wind that blew me over with experience
But in a gentle breeze that softly spoke to me through the trees
The View Through — 8″x10″ Oil on Birch Board
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