Category Archives: Creative Process
Start/Finish of “Stalemate,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 38″ x 58″
Start
Finished and signed, lower right
Comments are welcome!
Q: What’s on the easel today?
Work in progress
A: This is the first day – with only one layer of soft pastel in most places – of a 38″ x 58″ pastel painting. It’s based on a photo I composed at the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz, Bolivia. This is the fourth work in my “Bolivianos” series.
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Q: Do you lose yourself in your work?
Barbara at work
A: Of course! When I am having a productive day in the studio, I am completely present and focused, fully immersed in solving technical problems and trying to improve the painting on my easel. I barely notice the time and have to remind myself to take a break or stop for lunch. Nothing else exists except the painting and my relationship with it. The rest of life completely falls away from my consciousness.
I believe most artists regularly experience this feeling of ‘flow.’ It is a state of being that is inherent and necessary to creative work of all kinds.
Comments are welcome!
Q: On an average day in the studio, how much of your time is spent in the physical act of making art?
Working
A: My typical studio day is from 10:00 to 5:00. When I arrive, I often read for half an hour. Reading helps me relax and focus and get into the mindset I need to do my work. While I read, I look at the painting on my easel, assess it’s current state, and decide where to begin working.
Then I work until lunch time, generally around 1:00. After lunch I work for another five hours or so, taking a break whenever I want.
This has been more or less my schedule for five days a week for years. At an earlier point as I was developing my craft, I would work 9- or 10-hour days and six days a week.
My creative process is relatively slow. In a typical year I create five new pastel paintings. This year I am right on schedule. I have completed four and am working on a fifth.
Comments are welcome!
Start/finish of “The Orator,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 38″ x 58″
Start
Finish
Comments are welcome!
Q: What’s on the easel today?
Work in progress
“The Orator,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 38” x 58”
A: Having finally finished “The Orator” (bottom), I continue working on a small pastel painting that does not have a title yet (top). The latter is the third piece in my “Bolivianos” series.
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 270
Barbara’s studio
* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
As Charlie Parker quipped, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” And it won’t register in your bearing: this is the earned credit for trying to walk the daily tightrope and tell your story when you get to the other side.
Joel Dinerstein in The Origins of Cool in Postwar America
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Q: When you are in your studio working on a pastel painting and pause to consider what you have done, do you ask yourself, “Is it good?”
“The Champ,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 26″ x 20″ image, 35″ x 28 1/2″ framed
A: Certainly, I do. In addition, I ask myself some other important questions:
Is it the best I can do?
Is it exciting?
Is it surprising?
Is it idiosyncratic and unique to me?
Is there anything I can do to improve it?
Does it meet (or hopefully exceed) the exacting technical and formal standards I have set for my work?
Will I be proud to finally see my signature on it?
Comments are welcome!
Q: Is your work fast or is it slow?
Barbara’s studio
A: I work extremely slowly. I’m a full-time artist and I spend three or four months on each pastel painting, sometimes longer if it’s an especially difficult piece.
I generally have two pastel paintings in progress and switch off when one is causing problems. The paintings tend to interact and influence each other. Having two in progress helps me resolve difficult areas quicker, plus when one is finished, I still have something to work on. So there’s rarely any dead time in my studio.
Comments are welcome!
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