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.  

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?  

Underpinning: What Lies Beneath

"Underpinnings II" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic Mixed Media on Crescent Board, 18" x 20"

"The undermind is what we're looking for when meditating, that part of our self which is beyond the intellectual, emotional, and physical." - Tom Hodgkinson

Support: The Creative Spirit

"Underpinnings II" takes me to a place I've wanted to go to for a number of years - the abstract landscape. Again this is a painting that I had worked on and shelved over a year ago. I forgot I even had it in my files. But I pulled it out today, not knowing where I would take it, or rather where it would take me. But painting it today was that kind of connected experience that we aim for when engaged in any process. It felt good to paint it today. From that perspective alone, I achieved - at least for today - my objective of enjoying the experience of painting. If you are an artist you know exactly what I mean. The paint goes down in a way that just feels good, every stroke feels good. 

Finding the quote from Hodgkinson's book was a serendipitous gift. I titled the painting before I found the sentence referring to "undermind" a word I had never seen before. Nevertheless, the word "undermind" supports the theme of the painting, and of my work in general. I practice Chi Kung, an ancient Chinese art form of standing meditation, and I believe that practice frees the creative spirit, strengthens one's courage, and clears the mind so that the imagination - and the creative spirit - can take over.

I struggle to explain my paintings - where they come from, what they might mean, how they affect me, how they came into being. I write about them and talk about them, always with the note that what they are, and how they are, is always little bit mysterious to me. I believe that they may come from accessing "that part of our self which is behind the intellectual, emotional, physical."

"Underpinnings II" may represent that ancient abstract ancestral landscape that we tap into when we create.   

I remain grateful for the 30 Day Challenge, which has prompted me to get in the studio, take risks, and enjoy the creative process of both painting and writing.

The Ramble: The Challenge To Be Free

The Ramble by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 10.25" x 8.25" 

"The pedestrian is the highest and most mighty of beings...he is happy in the company of his own mind, he wanders detached, wise and merry, godlike."- Tom Hodgkinson

Enjoying The Journey

It is day 5 of Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Challenge. I am one day behind. My focus, however is on enjoying the experience of painting. So, so what if I'm one day behind? 

Here's what happened today. I had a painting that I was developing yesterday for completion today. And I finished it at about 2 p.m. Great! I'd be early with my post today. But there was a problem: I really didn't like the painting very much. Although I think the painting might have found an approving audience, to me it was stiff and empty. I'd have nothing to write about it come blogging time. So, I decided to turn to my old standby of alcohol (the rubbing kind) and paper towels, and I began to scrub it out. Talk about a feeling of being free! I was throwing the painting under the table and starting over. Almost. 

Erasing it was a risk, but it was a risk worth taking. I discovered that I really do love the feel of erasing what isn't working and watching a surface full of possibilities emerge. This painting looks nothing like the other. It's half the size and has 3 times the number of figures in it.  But this is the painting that was on he paper before I knew it; it was the painting that I needed to uncover.

The experience of painting this was easily identified as terrifically satisfying. Although I was not certain of what the painting actually meant, everything I was feeling was telling me that the painting was worth painting because I had really enjoyed it. The meaning would come later. 

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

Out Of Commission: Fantasy

“Fantasy” by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 15" x 11"

Fantasy: It's All In Your Imagination

Prelude: "Fantasy" is here by matter of force. Internal force. The voice that comes from    within and says, "Just do what you do! And enjoy it. Forget about matching the sofa, forget about the commission, just paint."  "Fantasy" is all about listening to and honoring your own creative spirit. 

Which Comes First: Horse or Cart?

I generally don't do commission work, but a number of years ago I was asked to consider painting a floral using certain colors that would match a beautiful newly-decorated room in a client's home. I went out and bought a boatload of fresh flowers that I thought would match the colors of the sofa, brought them into my studio and set the stage for making a painting that would make the client happy. Did it work? 

No. It did not work. All the while I was painting that little critic was sitting on my shoulder grumbling away. Apparently neither the client nor the artist was going to be pleased with this painting. 

In retrospect, it's clear to me that I was doing battle with myself, still unsure of my own authority and my own voice. I can see now that I had set up a situation that stymied what I was striving for – authenticity in my own self-expression. 

I am pretty much a "cart follows the horse" kind of artist. I don't know what I am going to paint until I paint it. 

“Oh, The Heck With It!”

“Fantasy” is what I painted once I knocked the gremlin off my shoulder, let go of the restrictions of the commission, and just decided to paint, to make it up as I went along, to enjoy the paint, the process, and to explore. This painting was completed in 2009-2010. Though I have wanted to exhibit it, I have not really made a concerted effort to show it until today. I'm putting the horse before the cart. Here's the painting. I hope you like it. 

The Creative Spirit Has A Mind Of Its Own: The Emissary

"Carolyn & Bill" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper

Painting #19 Day #21 - 30 in 30 Challenge

I know that this seems like quite a departure from the rest of my paintings in the challenge -- letters, numbers, words you can read, and the couple in a kiss.  But, there are some things it has in common with the others. The figures are abstract.  The palette is identical to all the others.  There is written text on the wall that looks like it has been carved into over the years by the two lovers. And the entire painting has a feeling of having been around for a while. 

I actually love this little painting...  And it appeared as if by magic.  I was unable to attend the 50th Golden Anniversary celebration of my dear friends Carolyn and Bill because their party was 900 miles away and taking place on the same weekend that I was to receive my Signature membership in the Florida Watercolor Society.  When I say that this painting appeared as if by magic, I mean exactly that. This painting was something else entirely before it became what it is.  The painting that was twice as long - and was about "journey."  In fact, I had actually written a blog post to go with it (written while I was trapped in a garage for 5 hours while my car was being serviced!) But, as usual, as I was finishing up the "journey" late at night I made an adjustment to the central figure, and then everything started to shift, and in short time I understood where the painting wanted to go and what it wanted to become. 

I am beginning to believe that if we can relax and let the creative energy flow, that our intentions will come to fruition.  In this instance, the Creative Spirit just swooped in and created something that I could send as an emissary for this special weekend for two very special friends.  

Honor the Creative Spirit

 "Honor" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 9 1/2" x 6 1/2"

Painting #4 in my day 7 of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge.

When I looked at the finish my first thought was "this is about honor." So I titled it "Honor" and see it as a logical sequence in a line of titles: Seek, Pause, Endure, and now Honor.  I always make an effort not to box a painting in with a title because I want the viewers to be free to create their own story from what they see.  In that sense visual art is collaborative.

As I look at the painting now I see that I pulled the composition out of my theatre bag.  I really didn't think about it at all when I was in the midst of the creative process.  But, I spent decades directing plays and exploring story-telling by moving people from one place to another in a big empty space, and so I shouldn't be surprised to see that experience informing me now.  They say, "Paint what you know" and I say, "If you paint intuitively, you have no choice but to paint what you know.  You cannot do otherwise.  In fact, you may discover what you know by simply painting from the heart."

I've said previously that I believe in "not knowing" and perhaps that is why I view my paintings as vehicles for informing me about the stories that really matter to me and would remain untold were I not to paint.

I sometimes will look at a painting long after I'm done and I say, "Oh, so that's what matters to me!"

Do you find yourself creating meaning when you look at the figures in this painting?  What is going on in the scene?  I'd love to hear your stories.

Endurance: It Is About Time

"Endurance" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 7 1/2" x 9 1/2"

Time past and time future


What might have been and what has been


Point to one end, which is always present. - TS Elliot, Burnt Norton

"Endurance" is my painting #3 in Leslie Saeta's 30-30 Challenge.  Once again the painting and the title seem to be related in someway to the experience of the challenge itself.  I didn't plan it this way, but as I wrote earlier, planning the outcome of putting paint on paper is not a big part of my process.  I titled the painting "Endurance" because the figures appear hardened, literally stone-like, and in the case of the figure on the right, encased or embedded in stone like a fossil.  One of the roots of the word comes from Old French word endurer which means "to continue in existence"  and from the Latin durare which means "to harden."

My first thoughts as I looked at the finished painting were that it is about time and the ways in which we travel through it, leaving remnants of ourselves behind and thereby always being present.  We pause. We observe.  We endure.

The 30 day challenge is already teaching me lessons.  My usual format is a full sheet - 22" x 30" - of water color paper.   I was not expecting that creating small works could nearly as satisfying as it is right now.  The creative spirit continues to teach no matter what the size of the canvas.