Making a Difference With Fresh Eyes

"Basking in Sunlight"

Original watercolour by Jean Haines

 

I always , without fail, look at all my recently finished paintings with fresh eyes every morning. The day after I have created a finished piece I can often see where a slight improvement, or not, can be made. Fresh eyes are the best for making important decisions.

Sometimes I feel a painting is definitely completed. At others I feel something is wrong, missing or needing correcting. As with the above painting.

I loved my painting "Basking in Sunlight" so much and had left it on my easel to enjoy for a while. But every time I looked at it something bothered me. My cat seemed to be floating. It needed anchoring in the composition. And so I added darker tones to create the shadow effect as the fur was nearer to the resting space the cat is laying on. To me this made the painting look far more atrractive and the story is now more complete. My cat isn't floating. It is lying on something! This is where I will put my brushes down. Any more addition of colour or detail and the spontaneity and freshness could be lost

 

 "Basking in Sunlight" before the shadow was added. 

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Artists Tips

1) Always look at your finished work the next day with fresh eyes. 

2) Don't race to make changes or additions. 

3) Take your time to consider all your options  on how to improve your work without ruining it

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Basking In Sunlight : Cat in Watercolour 2016

"Basking In Sunlight"

Cat in Watercolour

So you reach that moment when you know a painting is finished and you just can't put your brushes down. We all recognise it. You have a painting in front of you and the last few brushstrokes have brought it to life. You are thrilled. You actually like your own work and want that happy feeling to go on and on and on.

But this is where we often ruin a painting.

Stop long before you think a painting is finished is the best advise I can offer many artists on my workshops and I have to heed it myself at times. Especially on this piece. I am painting my own cat Buster. Actually Buster was a very pretty cat and we couldn't decide what name to give him when he first entered our lives. At first he was just " Kitten". And then I would pick him up and say " Okay Buster, you will have a name that suits your beauty one day".  Well unfortunately I got so used to calling him " Buster" that the rest of the family called him that from then on and the silly name stuck. Poor Buster. He should have been called something far more regal. And far more worthy a name for  such a handsome fellow.

Well here he is, basking in the sun not risking closing his eyes in case a mouse or bird is daft enough to walk right in front of his nose as at this moment he isn't moving far too quickly to reach it if they are luckily too far away. He is in pure "laze" mode.

Now to move on to the next painting and I may take a break from cats for a while.

Or not!

I do believe when your heart is screaming at you to paint a subject you should until that song has past. I feel I have created beautiful "meow-sic" this week but what is next I wonder!

 

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Artists Tips

1) Stop long before you think your painting is finished.

2) Don't add a " last brushstroke" that could over work or kill the spontaneity in your result.

3) Paint what you want to when you want to.

4) Love the subject you are working on and feel a connection with it.

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There! Cat in Watercolour 2016

 Cat in Watercolour

There has been something stirring in my soul for some time now. I have had a feeling that has been unable to contain. I knew I was crossing bridges with my own personal art journey but couldn't and still can't put my finger on what really is happening. All I do know is that ever since I wrote my latest book " Paint Yourself Calm" I haven't felt the same as an artist.

I am calmer when I work. My washes are more exciting. I cannot wait to paint each day and each simple exercise from " Paint Yourself Calm" reconfirms what I know about pigment and how it interacts on paper. I think I needed to slow down. I needed to go back to basics and remember the simplicity of clean fresh pigment hitting water and all the magic that it can produce when left to play at random.

I am so grateful for writing that book. It has changed my art completely.

Like every artist who wishes to grow I want more from my own work. But in all honesty with teaching workshops in UK and abroad , plus exhibitions and writing I haven't had very much time just for me. Time to quietly paint and think about what I want to achieve. I spend so much time helping other artists that I have fallen to the bottom of the list in my attention giving. These last few months especially have seen me encouraging others on their art journeys to take time out and think about what they want to achieve. I needed to take my own advise.

I know I can paint but I also know I can be far better. 

This week I have been playing with small studies and experiments on painting cats. But in my head I saw something beautiful that just had to be tried on paper. A level of art that I knew I could reach but wasn't quite getting. In skill.  This afternoon I achieved the cat painting that was in my mind.  I am over the moon. The elusive result that I so wanted to achieve. I managed to achieve it.

I have always believed in allowing pigment to talk when working with it. I let colour tell me what it wants to do. And I love capturing light in watercolour.  Today I combined my washes with my subject and really allowed them to interact. I am really happy with this result. It is how I have wanted to paint for a very long time. I am finally nearer to my goal of where I want to be as an artist. The change is exciting and frightening because I am now setting myself new goals.And I believe we all should. Otherwise we accept what we know and never change.

Below is a close up of the cats head. 

I have deliberately used watermarks to create the face section.

Close up of the cats face in watercolour. The "once in a lifetime" perfect watermark exactly where it needed to be to create the ruff of fur around the cats neck.

I actually became very excited as soon as I started painting this cat. I played with colour in my warm up washes. As described in "Paint Yourself Calm". I liked what I saw had developed, so painted a cat wash immediately while the working colours were still fresh in my mind.

The first exciting wash is below.

 

First wash for my exciting pigment interaction cat.

I feel this is me, painting at my best, And I want to paint even more glowing paintings like this that are full of light and life.

Oh how I wish I had 48 hour days and so much more energy to paint right through them without taking a break.

This is exciting.

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Note

I recently fell in love with hummingbirds and for no reason started painting them non stop. I received several emails telling me that this was an exciting symbol of great change in my life. And friends have noticed my art is changing. I think the hummingbirds maybe were an omen. They feel " lucky".

We will see!

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