Busy But No Real Results… yet:-)
Posted by: ninacolors on: November 10, 2009
I’ve been painting up a storm, but not enough yet to see a pattern. Since I quit painting 20 yrs ago, and am just now starting again and trying different mediums, these are all “experiments”. I hope they’re part of a path to my “own sytle” but I won’t know that until I have a coherent body of work.
To see what I’ve been up to, just click on any of the pictures at the right which will take you to my flickr where you can browse or not, as you choose.
Painting again!
Posted by: ninacolors on: October 23, 2009
So glad to report that my mojo is working again:-) I don’t know how long it will stay, but I’m dee-lighted. Trying lots of different things ……. playing and sketching. So, most of it’s not proficient, but at least it’s happening!!
You’ll have to click on the “Yoga” pic to see that I’m working on fingers (and toes!). The “Crazy Fried Eggs” is acrylic paint (which is really plastic) poured onto glass, then cured for 24 hrs, and lifted up and pasted down on the painting. See, it isn’t just Jackson Pollack:-) (whom I do not like).
The Best Summer of My Life
Posted by: ninacolors on: September 29, 2009
Hitting the wall
Posted by: ninacolors on: September 15, 2009
a plateau is a bummer…. for an artist, anyway.
I can’t explain a plateau (this is the first time it’s happened), but it seems to be a kind of loss of balance in the overall progress of learning. Learning seems to work like this; there is usually a kind of breakthrough painting that seems to pull techniques together in a new way, as a harmonious combination of skills. It’s great when it happens, and I’ll do a few in that style — but then what?
The next step has to be either to add another skill to the mix, or change how the skills are applied, or apply the skills to a new subject or motif. all these things usually disrupt the balance between the skills and the painting, which makes the painting process either very exciting or less satisfactory.
Until I find an effective balance, I’m back at the beginning, and can’t change the balance without feeling like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.
Of course i could keep doing the same painting in the same way, over and over (as many professional artists do for a living), but I’d be bored out of my gourd.
So I try something new, and that disrupts the harmony, and my flow goes downhill.
Now comes the gotcha part: I can’t just go back to painting exactly the way I did before, so I’m back to trial and error, trying to gain a new balance, trying to find a new relationship.
It seems like the plateau is actually a searching time. I am trying to do things I can’t yet do, trying different combinations of effects, media, colors, visual codes or brush styles, the way chess players work out new combinations … trial and error, many variations, patient analysis of why it doesn’t work. But not so much analysis that I can’t get out of my head.
This too shall pass 
Watch this space!
Nina’s AWOL, but check this out!
Posted by: ninacolors on: August 17, 2009
I’m not unpacked, my studio isn’t set up properly, and learning all the new ropes is taking a LOT more energy than I realized it would.
Until I get back to painting, check out this artist on “Ukraine’s Got Talent”. I think she’s quite something. She’s depicting Germany’s invasion of the Ukraine in WW II, which is why people are crying (I think).
Leaving friends, finding friends
Posted by: ninacolors on: June 14, 2009
My neighbors invited me over for brunch, and it’s my third “good-bye” party — interesting for someone who’s been mostly home bound:-) I wanted to give them something of myself, but much of my “tools” are packed up. So, I did a small collage and mounted it on black foam core board. I hope they like it.
COLLAGE DE LE MER ET LA CIEL
At the same time, I’ve made a new online friend who is quite an amazing person, and I’ve hooked up with an artist in Chicago who is going to “show me the ropes”.
Sad and glad. Keeping my eyes facing forward as I have 2 weeks to finish up in this house which is no longer mine!
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Just a word about collage. Many people do collages using pictures from magazines and collected bits of stuff. I have tried that several times, and just can’t do it for the life of me! But this kind of work with translucent color and some pattern is fun for me. I paint tissue paper with diluted acrylics because store-bought colored tissue is unstable and the color fades too easily. Then I overprint some of it with stamps, brayers and other tools. The process of tearing up bits of paper and deciding where to put them is very spontaneous. Altho I can rest at any time (which is great), decisions happen in the moment – there can be no plan ahead of time. I’ve been making much larger collages, but decided to try this smaller size (about 6″ x 10″) and find that it’s easier to manage. I think it might sell better, also……..if I ever get around to that:-)
Color!
Posted by: ninacolors on: June 8, 2009
Earliest human paintings in the caves at Lasceaux, France.
“The use of expressive color is felt to be one of the basic elements of the modern mentality; a necessity, beyond choice.” — Henri Matisse
watercolor by Nina
Obama visits, Wiesel speaks, Nina cries
Posted by: ninacolors on: June 6, 2009
I was not happy with Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo yesterday to the world’s muslims. While I agree with him on the outreach, his strict demand that Israel stop settlements without a corresponding strict demand on Hamas and the Palestinians, disappointed me.
Martin Niemoller – a human being
Posted by: ninacolors on: May 27, 2009
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for the Incurably sick,
I did not speak out;
I was not Incurably sick.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
Martin Niemoller,
German Protestant Pastor,
1892-1984
We come, and we go. We make mistakes and try to rectify them. Sometimes we pay for our mistakes. Pastor Niemoller initially supported the Nazis as they rose up against the Weimar Republic in Germany, and even seemed to have anti-semitic views. When he was liberated after 13 yrs in Dachau and another camp (for activities “against the state”), he was a changed man, and penned the above piece.
We can only do the best we can do. Understanding this makes it mighty hard to criticize others. We come and we go.
Where’s Nina???
Posted by: ninacolors on: May 18, 2009
Nina is packing!! House is sold and now the messy work begins:-) Obviously, I can only do so much at a time and then I have to rest (Serious Rest). So, it’s slow, but it’s happening. In 5 weeks, I’ll be in Chicago!!
What a long trek. This has taken 3 years – oh my. A good 3 years of paring down and paring down some more. And then paring down. Leaving behind a husband, a home, and a town that is too hot in climate and too crazily self-involved in politics!
I’m proud of myself at what I’ve accomplished!! There have only been isolated moments in my life when I’ve been able to say that.
Hang in with me folks and painting will return:-) Promise!
My 10-minute life on flickr
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