Lisa DeLong TEDxBYU

I wasn't able to be here for this but happily they filmed it. It's a great talk, a great introduction to Sacred Geometry!

Drawing

I am a 2D artist, for me that means painting and drawing. I primarily work in watercolor and with that you want draw as little as possible because watercolor is transparent and your lines will probably be seen. I haven't been drawing as much. I have to work harder at my drawing and so I get lazy and stop.
I worry about my skills diminishing and so as I was reviewing some goals, etc. I decided that I better get drawing. I did some random drawing one day and came upon an expirament to start drawing again. The plan was to simply set a timer and draw for 5 minutes. After a few days I decided to up the time to 7 minutes. It may seem like hardly any time and it is, but it's working for me. I can set the timer and focus in on drawing and I can even do it while waiting for paintings to dry. It's not too big of a commitment and I can work my way up if I want.

Anyway, here's what I drew this week.

Saving the world

There's a qote I love from Dostoyevsky: "Beauty will save the world." I believe that's true. I believe that things of beauty make us better, whether in art, music, nature, family or relations or elsewhere. There may be those who find beauty in an equation or reaction but the world must be saved by beauty, true beauty. Ugliness makes things worse, ugly words, ugly actions, ugly thoughts and intents. We crave beauty but we often settle for ugliness, or atleast I do. We can all do more to bring beauty into the world, to preserve its beauty or to make it a more beautiful place. Don't get caught up in the everyday ugliness, seek out beauty!

Something new?

It's the first official day of winter break, I'm free from my day job and excited for the time to focus on my art! I'm also excited by a new dream or goal I've just dared to have. It's too early to share just yet but I hope to share bits and pieces of it along the way and if/when this happens, believe me, I'll be sharing it. Here's to tantalizing new possibilities!

color theory

So it's a little hard to see but I wanted to share. I was working on a painting and noticed color theory in action. The same color will look different depending on its surrounding colors.

The green (though it looks more grey in the picture) triangles are completely the same but they looked different in the orange ring verses the blue. Color theory is cool.

The Process

I've been working on a new painting, I haven't actually started painting it yet but a lot of work has gone into it already.

It starts off in the sketch book, I try different things to see what might work and what doesn't. The next phase is to make a study, I haven't always done this but I'm trying to get better at it rather than winging it as much. Anyway in the study I draw out what I think the painting will or should look like and use colored pencil to give and idea of the colors I want and what they might look like. Things might change from the study to the painting. Drawing out the painting is the final step before painting.

More Museums

I was able to visit two of my local museums a few days ago and it was great. The Springville Museum had a variety of exhibits but the one I was most intrigued by was Fahimeh Amiri's miniatures, she learned the tradition and technique when she was a child, they are fascinating.

I also returned home to my alma mater and visited the MOA. They have a stunning exhibit, Treasures of British Art 1400-2000. I was thrilled to see paintings dating from the renaissance and of such famous subjects as the Tudors. I highly recommend checking it out!