Making History: Leaving Marks

"Angel 8"  by Jim Carpenter, 6.5" x 4.5"

The Process Of Aging: Leaving Marks

This painting which I am titling "Angel 8" for the time being, is small. That is, it is small by comparison to what it was a few hours ago.

You may have noticed I've skipped from Day 16 of Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Painting Challenge to Day 21. That's how long it took for this painting to arrive. The original start had  been around for several years, painted blue and 11" x 22." I scrubbed it back and cut it in half weeks ago. In the last five days I must have painted it and then taken the painting back down to the raw paper at least 4 times. This is how my paintings get that aged look that I like so much. Each time I remove paint some elements are left behind - the scratches, the lines, the most stubborn layers of paint embed a history into the paper. 

I don't set out to do this - that is, I don't say, "Ok, I'll paint this and then destroy it 5 times and then finish it." Each pass I am hoping will release the painting. But sometimes that's what it takes.  That and an "ah ha" moment. 

Ah Ha: History Repeats Itself

For me this time the "ah ha" moment came when I realized that maybe the part of the painting I was really focused on was the essence of the painting and that the rest of the painting, though nice, was a distraction. Did I learn nothing from my own blog post on Day 15? All it took was finding mat corners to frame the area and I could see that I needed (once again) to crop the painting and that (once again) the image was exactly 6.5" x 4.5." What's that all about?  

I still like what is left behind of the 11" square. I may be able to use what's left for the next few paintings in the challenge. But what I'm learning from this process - two paintings in a row now - is that when the painting isn't working as a whole and I really like two different sections of the painting that maybe I have more than one painting going on in one space. It is a matter of composition. Sometimes I may be playing with composition and wanting to split the viewer's focus, but it didn't feel right today, and I sensed a need to zero the focus in on one grouping.  

Finding The Painting: The Challenge Day 16

"Angel 7" by Jim Carpenter, 6.5" x 4.5," Acrylic on Paper

Re-Turning To What I Never Left, Right?

It has been one week since I submitted anything for Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Challenge.  I did spend time in the studio painting, but I seemed to be getting nowhere fast. I am not really a "daily painter" - although I hope to paint every day, my process is one that does not generally lead to a completed painting in one day. My process is also full of surprises for me, but that is to be expected when one approaches things from the perspective of "not knowing," which is how I approach my paintings.  

I did not see "Angel 7" until 7 p.m. tonight although it was actually right in front of my face and at the end of my brush for the last 48 hours. I had been working on the same 9" square sheet of paper for a week - painting and lifting and painting and lifting, and obliterating. A couple of days ago this sheet of paper was a proper painting  and then I decided it was really just dreadful and so I rubbed it out and started again. 

I delineated the figure in "Angel 7" two or three days ago and was quite happy with it but because it was settled in the left side of the 9" square I spent much of my time trying to make the other half of the painting work. I saw the figure on the left side of the paper as a secondary figure. I really don't know why I thought that way about it, but my hunch is that it was because it was on the left side of the paper and there was nothing on the right to balance it. The composition demanded something on the right and as I worked on bringing out a vague figure on the right side of the paper I also worked on solidifying the figure on the left, never actually thinking it was more than a secondary point of focus. 

Step Away From The Painting and Carry the Moon

I was determined to post a painting tonight so when it was time for me to leave my studio to go to the Wellness Center to teach my qigong class, I promised myself that when I got back I would get back to painting right away.  "Carrying The Moon" is the qigong pattern we did tonight. I never underestimate the cleansing power of my qigong practice and the clarity of mind it produces. I think it no coincidence that the moment I got home after class and went to the painting I saw that the painting wasn't working; I saw that I had a figure on the left and a big vague empty space on the right.  I said "It's not a painting yet." And then it hit me, "But if I crop this, maybe I'll have a painting." I took some mat corners and cropped it to exactly the same size as the paintings in the angel series, 4.5" x 6.5." How weird is that?  

Trust Your Creative Process

It may seem like an immediate no brainer to some of my artist buddies. Are you all saying, "Well, big DUH, Jim!" I don't blame you. I'm saying it too. Why I didn't see it sooner I don't know.  I was holding out for something bigger? Yes, like twice as big, actually - 9" instead of 4.5!  "Just crop it, Jim!" 

If this teaches me anything it teaches me that my creative process is always working, even when I think it is not. Painting paintings that I decide are all wrong, spending hours trying to make one part of the painting work when the actual painting is already there just waiting for me to notice it - that's all part of my creative process.  And to me, the most intriguing aspect of this is that this painting is exactly what I set out to do on day one of this challenge - a series of "angel" paintings - 4.5" x 6.5" - and here I "thought" that I had given up on that idea.  Ha!  

Sometimes I think my creative spirit has a mind of its own.  

The Risk Of Dinner Theatre: Challenge Day 9

"Dinner Theatre" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 11' x 30" 

$650

My Challenge: Dare I Follow This Image?

I paint along side hundreds of artists from all over the world partaking in Day 9 of Leslie Saeta's 30 day painting and blogging challenge. That there are so many artists participating lends the challenge a certain camaraderie (not unlike what we experience in the collaborative art of theatre) as well as adding a certain amount of pressure (if you allow it), because so many artists are posting their paintings every day. Gotta keep up! 

I welcome the pressure to produce. It creates an interesting tension between my desire "to be idle," to paint for the joy of it, and the desire to please that turns painting into work.  So today when I decided to pick up this odd-sized start with a lot of bright paint on it, I immediately thought "what the heck am I going to do with this!" 

So often my first thought was to wipe out the color and to look for a scene. But before I got to obliterating the start, I took time to see the half circle in the middle of the page - and looking inside it I began to see a scene unfolding, not just in the center but on either side. 

The Start for Dinner Theatre

Theatre is a great metaphor for life and I immediately recognized the setting for the characters in this painting as a theatrical one.  The title became apparent to me early in the process when I was looking for an explanation for the character just left of center that is drawing attention from the two central figures. I immediately thought, "this is dinner theater!" And thus, early on I had my title.  

 I did not let the title or reason stand in the way. I was going to risk having some fun.  I immediately allowed for other characters to appear on the right and left, leading to the possibility of multiple plays taking place at the same time - or perhaps 3 different views of drama/life being played out simultaneously.  

I could have wiped the entire painting out at any time - there was some neat stuff under that paint - I did rub out on section on the left to reveal the mystery melodrama taking place on the left side of the paper!  But I decided not to second guess myself.  I decided to enjoy the return to the theatre. The truth is I've been looking for some of the more playful paintings to re-appear.  And now one has! 

In case you are wondering about me and dinner theatre... stay tuned. 

Once Upon A Time: The Perfect Start

 "Places" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 13.5" x 11" 

Once Upon A Time, Long Long Ago...

Five years ago I painted a start that I thought was the cat's meow! I loved it. But I didn't know what to do with it, and I was afraid I'd ruin it if I pushed ahead with it. So I put it in a folder and put it aside.  I would pull it out over the years hoping that I would see it and know where to go next with it. But that never happened. And when I looked at it today I had pretty much lost that loving feeling - that is, I still liked it but I thought it wasn't all that precious and it was time that I tried to do something with it or let it go. So, for Day 8 of the 30 Day Challenge I decided to finally do something with this 'ancient' start. 

Originally I wanted it to be a non-objective abstract, and that was one of the main reasons why it remained in the folder.  I know now how "non-objective" turns out for me - inevitably, save for a few rare occasions, an image begins to emerge and I'm off to carving out figures.  Why didn't I do that 5 years ago?  

Places: Story Time

I titled the painting "Places" because I get the sense that the figures are each from different stories - living in different environments - each with a tale to tell - but they are all in the same framework.  The title also alludes to theatre, an apt metaphor for story telling: when the stage manager gives the cue "Places!" the actors move to their "place" on stage to begin or to continue telling their story.  

It occurred to me only as I was preparing to write the blog post that this painting might be the cover of a great storybook - full of tales that resonate through the ages. If I decide to pursue that notion I will let you know. Maybe tomorrow!  

Here is the start I painted 5 years ago.  

The Tricky Path To The Sages

"Sages" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 9" x 9" 

$150

Challenge Day 6: Trust In "Not Knowing"

It seems a bit ironic to title a painting "Sages" and then to blog about "not knowing." But, that is how I operate when I start a painting. I do "not know" what I will find at the end of the painting journey. And even when I start out with the idea that I'm going to paint a certain something, I often end up with something altogether different. Today I had planned - I should say "hoped" - to paint something joyful and full of color - and I ended up with a monochromatic image of two mysterious figures with a spiral behind them. I didn't know that was what I really wanted to say until I started to see it - then I knew what the painting was about. I use "not knowing" to get to "knowing." 

Here are the images of my "Start" and my "All The World's A Stage" mid process painting.

Even as I tried to accept it as "finished" I knew the painting with the 3 figures wasn't right. I felt the pull to obliterate it and find the real painting as well as the pull in the opposite direction - to resist the risk of obliteration and to preserve what was there. Ever been caught in that tension? 

I felt I had to go for something more authentic. I sprayed a paper towel with rubbing alcohol and scrubbed. 

The search for wisdom is a constant. Perhaps the figures I identify as "Sages" are a metaphor - a  representation of an old notion knocking around in my head that there are "keepers of the knowledge" - that there are "those who know" - and the path to them is tricky, risky, and full of false starts.

The Message: Just Do It

"Angel 7" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 22" x 11" 

Challenge Day 4: Get A Move On

Taking on Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Challenge once again moves me to finish up some of my "starts" and I imagine the figure in this painting is relieved to finally be released from "painting limbo" where everything is either "just almost" or "not nearly" or simply "I'll get to you later so just chill." 

This is what I started with today.

 The painting was in this stage for many months. I think that the previous 30 day challenge and the card painting binge were all necessary steps in the creative process that led to my willingness to "just do it."  Here is a photo of what I thought might be the finished painting. 

I stopped long enough to consider it "done" but soon I felt that all of the business in the robe and the background was detracting from what I really wanted to emphasize, the iconic nature of the figure, its antiquity, its ethereal and in some way "sacred" nature. 

I had to risk covering up that which I thought was pretty - and I was not sure whether I was doing "the right thing" - whatever that is. Who gets to decide what's right in this case? I had the feeling that in this instance "less is more." It was only after I finished that I saw what it was that I had been after all along. Once I removed the trappings I recognized the figure which is present in many of my paintings.  

Be Fearless: Wear The Halo Proudly

"Angel 6" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 6.5" x 4.5" 

Day 2: Accept the Corona 

I'm not talking about the beer here, I'm talking about the halo. If I'm going to express myself, be idle, enjoy, and search for meaning then several of my figures will undoubtedly have to support a halo. 

The word "halo" traces back to the Greek, 'halos' meaning "the disc of the sun or moon' later to suggest the "light around the head of a holy person or diety."  Painting angels at Christmas time gives me a good reason to have at the haloes. It's all part of my plan to be idle, that is to enjoy painting, and to give myself over to these figures that I find so mysterious, and so wonderful. 

For those who are disturbed by halos one could argue that the two figures in this painting are ordinary men, looking at the sun- or the moon - the disc (halos) just happens to be surrounding their heads. Why not? After all the original Latin and Greek roots "angelus" and "angelos" meant "messenger, envoy, one who announces." 

I wonder what their message is. I think they see something wonderful ahead.  

 

The Angel Sang: "Keep it Real"

"Angel 1" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 6.5" x 4.5"

The Nature of Challenge Day One: One Begets Another

Usually I do one painting for my Christmas cards, photograph it, take it to the printer and have copies made, and then fix them to card stock and off they go. This year (who knows what possessed me) I decided to paint individual cards. I had been through a great 30 day Challenge with Leslie Saeta in September and maybe that fed the notion that I could paint 84 paintings for cards this year. My rationale went something like this:

1) It will take the pressure off of having to come up with ONE perfect painting in a few days

2) It will save me $80 in printing costs

3) I will get to paint a lot 

4) After they are mailed all of the paintings will be gone

5) Some people will think I am crazy and that is good for my image

It was all good. But nothing is perfect, and by Dec. 22 I was in a crunch.  

The Problem With The Process: The Product

I was very focused in the painting. It never quite resembled a production line but I had a number of themes going. 1) Red and Green Joy - 2) Snowflakes - and 3) Angels.  My main theme for all of them was Joy - but at some point I knocked out 5 angels - the first of the 5 is shown here. The painting was fun. Laying all the paintings out and counting them was fun. Trying different things in each painting was fun. I was being idle in the most enjoyable way. And when the painting was done and there was nothing left to do but actually attach the painting to the card stock and put it in an envelope I turned into a disinterested loafer. 

Once again I am reminded that it is the creative process that draws me to painting. It is the opportunity to use paint for self expression that drives the art making - not the final product.  

I was up until about 3 a.m. on Dec. 23 putting the cards into the envelopes. And at that time I hatched a plan for 2015 - paint the cards all year long - don't wait until December to start. Have the envelopes addressed by August, and maybe in 2015 there will be time to put up a tree.  

 2015 Challenge: Paint Your Heart Out

So probably you are wondering what any of this has to do with the current 30 day challenge I am taking on. Well, first of all, I'm pretty busy this month and I know there will be days when I cannot paint. I was going to paint today but needed some way of easing into it - like figuring out how I was going to connect the 30 days to my practice.  

As usual, I have a number of unfinished paintings waiting to be "done" - and hopefully the challenge of painting everyday will lead to working on finishing some of the more demanding pieces I have in progress. On the other hand, I want to celebrate, to practice some joyfulness, to experiment with some abstracts, experiment with some pigments - and would like the 30 days to be the jumping off place for a year of painting whatever my heart desires - or thinks it desires. 

I decided to post the angel for day one because I just came off a challenge of my own making - 84 paintings. It's sort of cheating by not doing a painting today - I'm borrowing from last week. But reviewing my card paintings today served as an inspiration for the January challenge -  I know I can do a 4.5" x 6.5" painting a day.  Here is a small sample created on PicMonkey (cropped images) of some of the paintings I did in December.

In this 30 day challenge I will continue my series of 4.5" x 6.5" paintings, and more. My focus will be on keeping it real - painting from the heart - being fearless in my quest for meaning and self-expression. 

The Idle Challenge: Discovery, Rediscovery, and Recovery

"Real dreams are about seeing what others miss. If you have your head in the clouds, you can see the world more clearly." - Tom Hodgkinson, How to Be Idle

Reflections On The 30 Day Ramble 

What a month of painting and reading and writing and daydreaming this has been. Thanks to Leslie Saeta and her 30 Day Challenge over 1000 artists participated in a challenge to paint and write and post for 30 days. The collage image above was created on PicMonkey and was much easier than I ever expected.  The paintings are on my website now and I would be delighted if you were to take a swing by there to look at the gallery, and just click on an image to see the full painting.  

The 30 day challenge was very much a 30 day ramble, a reflective walk through the landscape of my own creative process. 

Discovery

A good reflective ramble will open one's eyes, and I discovered a number of things this time around. First of all my trusted guidebook, "How to Be Idle" was a great eye-opener. I actually didn't know what a ramble was until I read this book. And I never really thought about how weavers were in charge of their own day until manufacturers came along and became their bosses. I have a couple of people to thank for this - my friend, artist Aryana B. Landir introduced me to creativity coach Mark McGuinness who recommended I read Tom Hodgkinson's "How to Be Idle." I loved finding a quote from the book to accompany each painting and to inspire the spin of my reflection on the painting experience. Blogging, like painting, is an opportunity to reflect.

Rediscovery

It may be hard to imagine losing sight of the joy of painting, and before the challenge I was burying the joy under a whole lot of unnecessary stress. It was time for me to step back and rediscover the joy of painting for the sake of painting. What other reason could I possibly have to paint but that I enjoy it? Why not paint figures? Why not paint flowers or landscapes? Why not take a crack at non-objective abstracts? Why not collage? Why paper? Why not Yupo and Crescent Board? How about mixed media?  

Recovery? I Don't Think So.

I have enjoyed this challenge because I allowed myself not to be covered - buried - under the stress of doing. I don't want to be re-covered in the kind of stress I felt before I started the challenge - I want to continue to be the loafer, the daydreamer, the rambler, who paints because it's fun. I've uncovered the joy. No need to "re-cover!"  

Thanks for following along. I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me.  I'll continue blogging along - not every day - but I plan on writing once a week.  

Would You Accept Flowers From A Loafer?

"Floral III" by Jim Carpenter, Watercolor on Yupo, 26" x 20"

"Talking, sharing ideas and stories with friends old and new, this is the lifeblood of the loafer." 

- Tom Hodgkinson

Day 30 Challenge:  Blogging & Painting & Loafing

For the last four days I have been trying to get this blog post posted, but every day I ran out of time, for all of the talking, story telling, and story listening. On Friday my Irish cousin and his wife arrived on our doorstep on the last leg of a two month road trip covering 8,000 miles. Do you think we had a lot of story telling to do?  The talking stopped only long enough for us to catch our breath between phrases. After they left we went to the movies, then watched a great film at home. On Sunday we went to see a brilliant production of  "The Cripple of Inishmaan" staged by the theatre department at The University Of Florida.  Yesterday, I was writing my blog post when I received an email from my colleague at the co-op saying "I'm stuck in traffic but on my way" and then I looked at the time and realized I had just 2 minutes left before I was to meet her at the parking lot where she was to pick me up for the drive out to the gallery for the meeting. If you have ever been in a co-op and it is anything like mine you know there was a lot of talking going on. In other words, if what Hodgkinson says has any truth to it, these last few days I have been in loafer's paradise!

What a month this has been!

On Being Idle: Star Gazing, Daydreaming, Painting

"Memory" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 17 1/4" x 20"

"Gazing at the stars opens our minds to another reality. a mysterious eternal world, beyond material struggle." - Tom Hodgkinson

Day 25 - The Crowd Appears

It is day 25 of the 30 Day Challenge, and I'm a couple of paintings behind, but my boss is ok with it. I took two days to finish "Memory" to my liking. So many decisions go into making a painting, and when there is a deadline of sorts, decisions that I normally might put off to "never" get made within 25 hours. I took a box cutter to the painting early in the morning and cut off about 180 square inches. And later in the day I eliminated a couple of figures and also set about delineating the space the figures inhabit - this vague mysterious environment hinting of doorways, arches, light, passages.

Hodgkinson has a chapter in How to Be Idle titled Midnight: The Moon and The Stars, in which he writes about the importance of star gazing in the life of the idler, of how contemplating the stars "reconnects us with the childlike sense of wonder at the mysteries of the universe."  In a similar way, painting can reconnect the artist with the childlike sense of wonder one has about the mysteries of the universe. Perhaps it can also awaken or reconnect that same sense of wonder in the viewer.  I suspect that those who create works of art in any medium - music, dance, theatre, visual art, literature - have a generous sense of wonder driving them to explore and create.  What do you think?  

Late Day 22: An Idle Excuse, Day 23

Floral II by Jim Carpenter, Watercolor on Yupo, 26" x 20"

"And there are new enemies of leisure today." - Tom Hodgkinson

Revision Mania: What Happens When Leisure Is Under Attack!

This was painted on Day 22 - but there was no time to photograph it and post it. So here it is, sans much writing and posted on Day 23. Maybe I'll add to the post at a later date!

Briefly, this painting is the second in a series of florals I'm painting on Yupo. I will surely write more about them as I present them, but the story behind this one is that I did not start it as part of the challenge, but rather ended up totally revising a painting I painted back in March. If, back in March,  I had painted the floral on traditional watercolor paper I'd not have been able to "revise" it in the same way. Actually, I pretty much obliterated the original bouquet, and save for the vase, this is a totally different painting from what it was. That's the magic of Yupo.

Since it is a wholly new painting, I decided to put it in for Day 22, but then "Leisure" was under attack and so, now it is being posted for day 23 of the Challenge. What can I say other than, I am enjoying the challenge and painting on Yupo is a total blast!

At Sea: At Ease

"At Sea" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 18" x 20"

"My own theory is that the world is divided into two types: the idle and the anti-idle."

 -Tom Hodgkinson

Day 21 - The Challenge To Be Idle

To be "at sea" literally means to be "on the sea" or on a sea voyage. But, oddly, when it is used figuratively it refers to be being "lost" at sea and is used to suggest that someone is "confused or at a loss." I suppose this painting could be viewed as a metaphor for being at a loss or it could be taken literally, to be on a sea voyage.  

For some, a cruise is a bore unless it is filled with activities to keep them going every minute of the day and night, eating, dancing, gambling, drinking, singing, shopping, playing games, watching stage shows, working out in the gym, taking tours. For idlers the best cruise days are days at sea, where there is nothing to do except eat, sleep, read, lounge around the pool, or lounge around the deck, or lounge around the lounge, and read or write or paint or snooze or daydream.  Guess which category I fall into. 

I am totally at ease at literally being at sea where I always choose to be idle. This month, for Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Painting/Blogging Challenge,  I'm hoping to find the same ease at being idle on land in my studio!  So far, I'm on idle!  

Being Idle in Paradise

"Landscape" by Jim Carpenter, Mixed Acrylic Media on Crescent Board, 6 " x 11" 

"I count it as a certainly that in paradise, everyone naps." - Tom Hodgkinson

Day 20: Day 19 Cut Out

Ok, so today is day 20 of the 30 day challenge and day 19 came and went without my posting a panting or a bit of prose.  I didn't paint yesterday. But I did get into the studio. And I made this painting by cutting away about 200 sq inches.  

They say "Sleep on it" when you need to get some distance on a decision, and I slept on this for about 2 years. Even Hodgkinson would agree that is a pretty long nap. But yesterday, I knew I had one painting with a lot of excess baggage attached to it, and so I took mat corners and looked for the best crop. Today I took the painting to the framer.  

Speaking of napping, I decided at about 7 pm, after teaching my Friday night Chi Kung class, that I was going to be idle for the rest of the evening and head to the snoozer early. It meant that I would not blog and I would not paint. I think that to do so, last night, would have felt like work and that would really defeat the purpose and intent of my 30 straight days of painting and blogging.  I am doing this to reclaim the joy of painting and writing - and as I wrote earlier - I'm the boss of my idleness. I make up my own rules. And yes, I am having a good time at this.  

I think this little landscape is very much a cousin of my usual process of "finding the painting" - in this instance instead of rubbing out another painting I cropped this one out of a larger one.  Cutting out the excess to find the painting inside.  So I'm including it in the challenge. After all, it really didn't exist until yesterday when I cut away the excess.  

But Wait! Two Days In One!

Have you seen those commercials for back scratchers? Just as you think they are over they shout "But Wait" and announce that if you buy one for $19.95 they will send you a second back scratcher for free.  Well, here's my "But Wait!"  The excess of the painting is Landscape Part II. This one I did have to tweak with some painting. I'm not complaining because I loved doing it.  So, here is the painting for Day 20.  

Landscape II by Jim Carpenter, Mixed Media on Crescent Board, 12 3/4" x 13 1/4"

The Questions Of An Idle Mind: Ah Mystery!

"Between Worlds" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 20" x 28" 

Dreamers "are told to start living in 'the real world.' We might ask, though: what is this 'real world,' exactly?" - Tom Hodgkinson   

Entertaining Questions

It is the dreamer who both entertains questions and is entertained by them. What does it mean to "live in the real world"? What is the real world? What is the dream world? What does it mean to be "between worlds"?

I begin with this series of questions only because I don't really want to write too specifically about the painting. I can't. It asks questions of me and suggests paths of thought for me – it prompts thinking about many things: perhaps long-held beliefs, or various states of mind, or personal history, or ancestry. Where it came from remains a mystery to me, but I sense that it is the stuff of dreams I have not yet unravelled. 

I love a mystery. It is mystery after all that keeps one locked into the quest. And as long as there is a quest there will be questions to entertain.

"Between Worlds" is painting #18 in the 30 Day Challenge. All of these paintings are on my website, Jim Carpenter Fine Art, in one gallery, "On Being Idle."  I hope you will stop by and look at the Idle paintings as well as my other works.  

The Trailer: Painting Opens Tomorrow!

"The Trailer" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 20" x 11"

"Take the weavers. Before the invention in 1764 of the spinning jenny... weavers were generally self-employed and worked as and when they chose." Tom Hodgkinson

Remember Who Is In Charge! 

Since I have committed to the 30 Day Challenge I do find myself wanting to produce a painting a day. My process really isn't one that produces a painting a day - and everything I've produced in the Challenge, save the Alaska painting, has begun with a start - and in some instances, a "start" that is pretty far along.  I usually can manage to pull it out, but today I got busy on a "start" and it turned into something that I am quite intrigued with and I've decided not to try to finish it today. 

I want to wait until tomorrow when the conditions are better. It's dark out now and I want to finish this in the daylight.  So I am revolting against my boss, Jim Carpenter (aka Me,) who is saying that I really should finish it tonight otherwise I'm failing at my job. "Job!" Ha! This is not a job, Carp! This is my idle pleasure time.  

As a compromise I am submitting 1/3 of the painting. Wild, huh.  Well, you know, I am in charge. Like the weavers of yesteryear, I get to choose.  So I am revealing - as a "trailer" - one part of the painting - the far right side. My hunch is that I won't be touching this portion of the painting tomorrow. But you never know.  

I suppose I could make this a triptych. Then I'd be good till Friday!  

Happy Rambling, folks!  

Imagination At Work Is Imagination At Play

"Rambling After Underpinnings" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 20" x 28" 

"For the creative spirit, the act of walking harmonizes work and play." - Tom Hodgkinson

Harmonizing Work & Play: Day 16 Meditation

A friend commented about the irony of all of the activity I am engaging in for the 30 Day Challenge while claiming that I am being idle. I have to admit it does seem pretty contradictory. The truth is that I am enjoying every aspect of the challenge. Today's painting may be one that reflects that irony and the efforts one makes to harmonize work and play. 

The painting is banded above and below by a strip of calm space, a place where the eye, as well as the heart and spirit, can rest. It is the in-between that holds all of the activity and the bits of symbols and text and marks and remnants of history. 

What lies beneath the landscape?  

Being Idle: Gathering Thoughts, Dreams, and Images

"Prairie II" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic On Crescent Board, 20" x 28" 

The nature poets Wordsworth and Coleridge were great walkers. They ambled all over the coast of North Devon and Somerset in the years immediately following the French Revolution, and later wandered in the Lake District. Walking for them was a crucial part of the creative act; it was when they thought, dreamed and also gathered images. - Tom Hodgkinson

A Creativity Ramble: Gathering 

Here in Gainesville, FL we have a favorite nature spot, Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. It is the place to go to see gators and wild horses and birds and wild flowers and butterflies. I like to go to look out at the vast landscape of grasses and sky. Others go there to see the wildlife - it is where we take visitors to see the gators.  It is a great source of inspiration for local artists.  

Tom Hodgkinson tells us that the ramble for Wordsworth and Coleridge was "a crucial part of the creative act." What strikes me most about this - in light of today's painting - is the notion of gathering images. I have been to the prairie many times and snapped many photos, but I seldom if ever look at them. They never measure up to what I saw; they never capture my impressions of the Prairie.  Upon reading this text by Hodgkinson I realize that I have indeed been "gathering images," but not on my camera or on my computer or in my photo box. I have been gathering them in my head.  

Is taking photograph after photograph a distraction from the daydream? Would it be more productive to be idle? What if one were to just look at the vista and soak up the imagery, store it in the mind's eye, and let it simmer in the imagination where it can be transformed by creative self-expression? 

I may leave my camera at home the next time I go to the Prairie. 

I prepped the piece of crescent board about a year ago with various acrylic gel mediums. Painting it today was so enjoyable, and so satisfying, I wonder why I waited so long to get to it.  Being idle is making me more productive!  Go figure!  

This is painting #15 in the 30 day challenge! 

The Challenge of The Dream

"If You Dream" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 20" x 28"

"Our dreams take us into other worlds, alternative realities that help us make sense of day-to-day life. Dreaming is a connection to our unconscious.`" - Tom Hodgkinson

When The Dream Presents Itself, Follow!

During this 30 Day Challenge it seems that the topic of dreams keeps coming up. That's mainly because I've been reading "How To Be Idle" by Tom Hodgkinson and using it as a way into my blog posts. His comments about dreaming and daydreaming are particularly interesting to me because they give me a way to look at my paintings. 

Could it be that my paintings are the manifestations of daydreams? These figures and the setting they are in are dreamlike, are pure imagination, are the stuff dreams are made of. And, if that is the case, then I am winning the challenge to be idle.  

Best part is - it was fun!  

Taking It Apart & Putting It Together

"Water Lily" by Jim Carpenter, Watermedia Collage, 9.5" x 9.5" 

"Skiving is a direct act of revolt against the arid philosophies of living that we're indoctrinated with at school and at work, the notion of suffering now, pleasure later. Well, that way of thinking is anathema to your idler. He can't wait until tomorrow." - Tom Hodgkinson

I Was Skiving Today!

Today was my day to sit the gallery, a "job" that I commit to in order to be a member of the gallery. However, I also have this 30 day challenge to deal with and I was trying to figure out how I could meet the challenge while sitting the gallery.  Painting would be out of the question. Too wet and messy. For the last few months I've been toying with doing some collage while at the gallery, but with limited success. So today, as I headed out to Melrose, I packed a carryall with tons of torn up watercolor papers and acrylic starts, and adhesive. 

I spent the good part of 3 hours of my 4 hour shift making 3 or 4 pieces.  For me, the worst part of collage is that there are a bazillion possibilities for combining papers, while the best part of collage is that I get to make something totally out of some of my favorite original pieces of paint on paper. And let's not forget to mention the fun part of tearing up paper!  Talk about revolt and rebellion!  I decided that I would just go for it and stick these pieces down when I liked what I saw. Otherwise, I'd be dillydallying. 

I'm showing 3 of the collages to you today - I think this will catch me up so that I now am up to date with the challenge and have one to spare. I can't help but think that in a way I am cheating. While the rest of my colleagues are painting away, I'm tearing up paper and gluing it down. And though it is not cheating for those who do collage all the time, for they are experts and collage is their art form, for me, a painter, it seems like... oh well, skiving is what Tom Hodgkinson calls it. In that sense, I guess one man's work can be another man's skiving! 

"Lily Pod" by Jim Carpenter, Watercolor Collage, 4.5" x 6.25"

"The Prairie" by Jim Carpenter, Watermedia Collage, 6.5" x 4.5"

You know, if it weren't for the challenge, I'd probably still be looking at these pieces of paper - all totally unglued. I'm increasingly grateful for the challenge! How about you?