Uniquely KJ

Inspiration: Butterfly Exibit

My Niece and I had gone to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens last week on a flower reference photo mission and just to hang. We saw the sign for a butterfly exhibit, and made plans for an early Birthday present.

So Friday, we started our trip, with Mel armed in her new favorite a butterfly t-shirt. I didn’t know there was more than one entrance to the Botanical Gardens and of course I go in the one I always use. Wrong one. We parked at the restaurant and followed the signs. After over a 1/2 mile we realized the mistake – because the sign just simply had an arrow pointing up the hill. Who knew the gardens were so freakin large? lol In all my years of bringing daycare on field trips there I had never been to that side of the gardens.

We jump back in the van and drive the way over, get our tickets, and start to go in. We didn’t have to wait because alot of people hadn’t shown up and were told we could go right in. Yeah!

Upon first impression, I wasn’t impressed. But then I remembered the sign our front that said butterflies are more active on sunny days. Low and behold it’s overcast!! Luckily the clouds parted and the sun started to shine in.

The Blue Morpho Butterflies loved Mel, and it kinda freaked her out a bit. They would get in her hair and crawl on her shoulder and she would shrink up and cling to me. She loves butterflies but I think getting to see them up close and personal like that was a little on the weird side for her. Combine that with a steady flow of people, and she was behaving like a cat on a hot tin roof. She swears she had a blast though.

I of course, was in hog heaven but dealing with a huge case of camera envy. Some of the cameras I saw had to be worth more than I make in a year. I used my Nikon Coolpix point and shoot like i had good sense, and still came away with some great shots. Sadly though, I came away with 25 good shots out of 80+. But non the less – they inspire me, even the not so great ones. The little buggers don’t stay still mind you.

They handed out little booklets with some pictures and names, but I didn’t see half of those in the exhibit. It was towards the end anyway it closes on the 4th, and they only live as butterflies for 2-3 days. Alot of the butterflies we did see we not in the booklets so go figure. Overall it was a wonderfully awesome time, I wish I could have stayed longer. Next time I will take the whole day off instead of a couple hours, and bring an extra memory card for the camera.

Now why all the interest in butterflies all of a sudden? Team EBSQ-Etsy theme this month is butterflies, so I wanted to really get inspired. Butterflies are so beautiful they deserve to be done right. It was definitely worth the $16 bux.

FOTM: Daffodil Progress: III Mission Complete

I got her finished, with a couple days to spare. I took the new easle out on the patio and painted outside since I can’t open my studio window. It was a nice change of pace!!

Here are the finished photos:

daff_side_ebsq

daff_ebsq

Now I titled it Despondent, which means to feel sadness. I just kept looking at this flower thinking, it’s bathed in darkness and shadows, but the highlights were hopeful. So I wrote up the statement with the notion of doom and gloom and yet a feeling of almost empowerment. Almost like a person bursting forth from the darkness of depression to see the first glimmers of light and finally know they actually have self worth.

“One sees their own flaws with glaring certainty, without taking a step back to see their own beauty. It’s buried, hidden from view, under years of negativity – waiting for the day the truth is realized and it blooms. One only has to look, but that’s the hardest part.”

This painting will be listed on Etsy this coming week so keep an eye out. It is also entered in the FOTM Daffodil EBSQ art show. Don’t forget to throw me a bone and vote after the 1st and before the midnight on the 8th me thinks. Even if you don’t vote for me go vote!!!

My next project is to do some butterflies for Team EBSQ-Etsy, and work on TAG. Speaking of TAG (Tracey Allen Greene) I have posted crappy cellphone shots of that painting on facebook. I’ve not made any progress since my last posting on facebook about her. It was for the EBSQ portrait swap LAST YEAR, and I’m about 6 months behind (Kris == Bad).

FOTM: Daffodil Progress II

I had hoped to be done today or at least down to finishing touches, but alas it was not to be. I have, however made some dramatic progress. I went back and started making it look more “arty” in it’s color transitions, and laid in the remaining colors.

Raw Studio Photo

Unfortunately during that process I dropped a brush and will have to repaint the lower section of the opening of the daffodil. (that’s why it’s painted black below.) But I think that will work in my favor as I will bow it out a ‘lil bit to match the top. I noticed one thing that I need to correct, especially on the lower left petal is the color transitions are all even spaced. They should be closer together in some areas to denote the curve of the petal. I’m not sure how I neglected this, might just be I’m out of practice.

Raw Studio Photo

The closest petal in the middle on the left and the petal right above it are still in process. Other than that I’m pretty happy with it.

I’m hoping to get some time to paint this weekend depending on how I feel to paint. I’ve been going through some medical issues I’m not quite ready to talk about. I only mention it because it might effect my current upswing on painting – and that would suck.

FOTM: Daffodil Progress

I’m working on an EBSQ FOTM (Flower of the Month) entry for March. It is another 24×18x3/4 wrapped canvas in acrylic greyscale. This style of artwork I do is done without greyscale filters, or posterizing filters, just my eye. I get more questions about that than anything.

Phase I: paint the canvas black.

Phase II: paint on using the darkest shade of grey (custom mixed not tubed color) the entire daffodil. This is not gridded out per my usual M.O. – I’m working a little looser than normal. I am working from a photo by fellow artist Robin Cruz.

raw studio shot

Robin's Original Photo

Phase III & IV: I start going through with lighter shades of grey bringing up the highlights. I’m currently three shades in as you can see below.

raw studio shot

I hope to have this completed by the 22nd at the latest. I have about three more greys then white highlights. After that I will go through and check the color transitions to be sure it is smooth and not “boxy” or “jagged” like pieces of paper cut out and glued down.

It feels good to be painting again.

Watered Down…

I had a dream, it was a painterly dream. Full of strokes and freedom to paint outside the lines. I awoke with a vision in my head of a wild country rose painted slightly differently than my usual style. This inspired me. I don’t know where it came from……..but the inspiration lingered.

I honestly have not been truly INSPIRED in two years. My mojo left me. Painting had become a chore, and difficult. I was on the cusp of my recognition for all my years and hard work. Solid following. But I just couldn’t do it anymore. The thought of painting made me shake to the point of not being able to do lines for my graphic style work, and physically ill.

So I abandoned the one thing- that had brought me solace for many years – the one thing that had made such sense – that glimmer of hope. Gone – POOF!

Though I moved, I still kept a studio, never going inside it. I would look at it from the doorway, peer in and say “Hello” once in a while.

Over these two years I’ve dabbled, but have only finished two pieces during that time that I can even remember. And even those are not truly memorable pieces. I could feel the desire returning over the past few months. Like the clouds had parted and sunlight peered down on this rose……..

So I decided to go for it. What do I have to loose? I had already lost practically everything as far as my art career went. So I devised an experiment. The rules for the experiment were simple. I could only use one brush (1″ flat), I was not allowed to have defined lines, and I was not to worry about color coverage.

These three “rules” are very ANTI-Kris. My work relies on extreme detail, solid color blocking, and defined areas. So this was going to be a challenge.

I started off with an 18×24x3/4 canvas and painted it solid black. I then went through and did some roughing in with a very dark charcoal.

Raw studio shot of phase 1

I then proceeded to scrub in more lighter greys, wich is a technique I have never used. I felt natural, but dirty at the same time like I was cheating.

Raw studio show of phase 2

Raw studio shot of phase 3

From here I got semi excited, busy, and forgot to take many in between shots. The painting was starting to come into focus at this point. It wasn’t really anywhere near my dream, but it was progress non-the-less since I actually picked up a brush.

Raw studio photo of Phase 7

At this point I knew it would never be what I envisioned, but it’s not a universe away either. I hung this painting upside down in my bedroom so I could look at it as I fell asleep. Then I hung it sideways so I could examine it more. I came to the conclusion the main petal was way to “heart” shaped and the bottom petal’s color shift was way to extreme. I also noted that I needed to round out the bottom of the rose for the composition.

Final (Raw shot)

She’s not perfect. But she’s done. After a long discussion with a fellow artist Robin Cruz. We both came to conclusion that she’s pretty, and unique, but it’s not me. And I don’t want to be a watered down version of myself, and produce watered down versions of my art. This painting though pretty, is like looking through a vaseline lens at my own work. It’s not crisp, or clean – not FOCUSED. Much like myself of late. I’m not sure what I expected as this was not the intent (to create crisp and clean) but I think it lit the fire again.

I guess I had to deconstruct why I paint the way I do, in order to fall in love with it again.

The rug….

It’s amazing to me how one can work/strive make progress only for the rug to get pulled out from under you every time.

I’m making good progress – then whoooop! I’m back at freaking square one. I still have so much going for me but it doesn’t help when I can’t move forward.

I’m stuck.

I need a change or I can’t evolve – what the change is I’m not sure yet but this is getting ridiculous……..I don’t see the point of hitting my head against the wall anymore.

35 well shit………

Today is my birthday – and I turn 35.

When did this happen? Am I supposed to be an adult? Age is a number right……I don’t feel old. It litterally seems like yesterday I was in High School – or just starting to paint……where did the time go?

Enough about that – don’t want to bring myself down. Just gonna eat my cake and ice cream with a smile on my face. Secretly knowing I’m just a kid in an adults body. I will fool them all………

Must-Have Monday & Art Stuffs

As Mod of Team EBSQ-Etsy one of my jobs is to promote the team via the EBSQart.com blog. I take this very seriously and try to pick a nice array of items and artists.

Today was Must-Have Monday for the team. Please be sure to check it out and comment/click/and hell even buy!

I’m sitting here with a watercolor postcard working on the FOTM “weeds” trying to come up with a stellar idea and I think it just hit me like a ton of bricks – but sadly I forgot to not paint the white area <insert rolling eyes smiley here> so I’m going to try to go for some white acrylic washes and see if I can still work this out with out killin the post card.

I turned in my 60 days notice here and not too soon it seems as the kids next door are on my LAST NERVE…..*sigh I feel like the old man at the end of the Scooby-Doo cartoons rattling off about those pesky kids. It’s after 10 give them some benydril

Dog Days of Summer

So this month’s Team EBSQ-Etsy’s theme is Dog Days of Summer. I sat and thought long and hard of what i wanted to put out there for this as I wanted to so something original for this instead of something already in stock print wise.

I decided instead of going with a “standard dog” I wanted to do something with more of a “Kris Twist” so that said I decided on going with Dog Days as meaning hot – so girls in bikinis came to mind. To keep with the dog part I put little Scotty dogs on the bikinis. I did three ACEO/Art Trading Cards but in my mind only one really rocks.

Rough Cellphone Shot

I used my new Prismacolor water color pencils I bought for my birthday (Aug 5th for those of sending presents you better get on it lol) I had alot of fun shading skin in this new medium. I generally use watercolors for flora only but I think this was a fun project and might do more. Can I promise that no, because my attention span is short and I jump artistically often. (Speaking of that – it brings alot of fans – but it’s hard to satisfy them all I find. lol)

I will see about getting these scanned and loaded on Etsy this week, though they are not due till the 26th I think it was a huge accomplishment to get them done so quickly.

While on vacation I really got to reconnect with my art friends Robin C. McGee and Donna Gill-Colestock and it was great. Being a self-professed loner it was weird having people around 24/7 but now that I’m back I’m finding myself lonely LOL and for me to say that is huge. I enjoy the silence.

While away I tried to reconnect with my inner artist who over the past year or so has been on hiatus. It was hurtful not be creative over that time. I had spells but nothing really came of it honestly. My art is how I deal with my inner demons, and issues – not having that made it THAT much harder.

So now I’m back and I seriously going to get my ass in gear. I have alot of things going for me at this point – so I should be positive but I often have trouble with that (hard to believe I know) So as to not disappoint I’m not going to set goals – just ………. do.

I feel accomplished today – a good place to start a new beginning.

(also this blog entry gets forwarded to Facebook so if you are seeing this there you can see the original here: http://kjwebdesign.com/krisjean/blog )

New Blog…

Ok here is the deal………

1. I’m moving my blog here to be hosted by Moi’

2. My website will be moving to this domain as well – but it will still be krisjean.com (just redirected seamlessly of course)

3. I’m trying to reconnect to my art, as I have lost my mojo this past year.

Deal or No Deal that’s up to you.

I’m still working out the kinks. So be patient. Basically you have no choice, but I’m worth it you will see.