Regina Calton Burchett – Drawings & Pastels

I worked a bit more on my first little landscape, and think I like it better.  After watching just part of the DVD on composition, I should have known better than to put a row of clouds all the way across the painting, even though that was how they occurred in the sky, as it stops the viewer’s eye from traveling through the painting. Hmmm.

Now I may wait for more inspiration on the trees

I woke up at 5am, dreaming about pastels. I hadn’t been able to paint in so long (with the exception of my paintout with Jo almost two weeks ago), so went out to my studio a little before 6am and cleaned some, watched a DVD on composition for a while, went through a bunch of my sky photos to decide which one I wanted to paint. This was a fairly quick one I started – not sure if I am done yet. 5×7, pastel on sanded Art Spectrum paper

Little Landscape, 5x7, pastel

My friend Jo Castillo and I were finally able to go paint together and were blessed with a beautiful day! The temperature was perfect and the sun made some great reflections at McKinney Falls. We had painted there a year or so back, when it was too hot to even sit in the shade, so this was a much more pleasant experience. I got a start on two pieces, but they are far from finished, so will post those at some future date. Glad you’re back home, Jo!

The last couple of months have been spent enjoying the time I could spare creating art while wondering, yet again, why we do art – especially during slow economic times when not many people seem to be interested in buying what we spend so much time planning, drawing, painting, judging..

And the very complex, intricate, convoluted answer I came up with – because it’s fun. It’s fun to create, it’s fun to use your imagination, it’s fun to play with color and application, it’s fun to see a piece evolve minute by minute, day by day. But we all need input from others and a dry spell in sales can give cause for a lot of self-examination. And too much focus on oneself.

Over the years, we’ve all known people who brought to mind the phrase “enough about me, what do you think about me?” So to guard against too much “me”, it’s necessary at times to get away from your own little self and see what is going on in the world – or at least in your part of it.

Yesterday, I was able to attend several art events exhibiting work by artist friends. One was the Real Gallery, part of the East Austin Studio Tour, which has an impressive number of artists and locations, and a wonderful variety of work. Another event was at a friend’s house, where we enjoyed inspiring music and a beautiful display of her art and technique. And lastly, a visit to another house where the art was created from wood – lovely work and design.

So it was nice, for a change, to not feel the pressure to sell my work – that’s why God made the space between walls and sofas – and to spend time enjoying and appreciating the fruits of other’s creativity.

Austin Bats Sailing from Congress Avenue Bridge

Again, I’m having a very difficult time getting a correct color photo of this blue / mauve / grey painting.  This is a little blurry, but I actually think my cell phone took a more accurate picture than our more expensive camera. This was painted from a photo I took while in a boat in Town Lake, head covered, mouth closed.

The new Pearathon website is now open!

For all drawings and paintings of pears

and all artist authors of such.

Send a link to www.pearathon.com of your pear art so we can created the largest (and yes, possibly the only) website devoted to art of pears!

You are welcome to submit up to three links to images of pears you have drawn or painted, for inclusion on the Pearathon website.  Please see the submissions page for guidelines.

Stargazer Lilies in Vase - pencil sketch - negative drawing

Drawing from life and enjoying the fragrance of these wonderful flowers, I started out just sketching this as a regular pencil drawing, then decided I liked the background to define the flowers more than shading and shadows on the flowers themselves. Then I came back in with a kneaded eraser to subdue and further define the edges of the dark area and to make the light areas more crisp.

Since it would be good to make back some of my cost for art supplies, and for those who like my art, I’d definitely like to make it affordable….  I decided last Thursday to add my work to Etsy, a website for handmade items (including prints of artwork) and vintage things.  My new shop is

www.artistcards.etsy.com

There are only 9 items in my “shop” so far, but I hope to eventually make a card of each of my paintings. I have also listed two of my paintings on there for sale. It’s fun, if you haven’t tried it, and there are a lot of very unique and interesting items on Etsy.

When I finish a painting that has been a challenge for me (whether it turned out well or not), I like to draw or paint something I’m more comfortable with. Also, there are days when nothing goes right, like today. I tried to start another painting, but it felt forced…  I even had problems framing a painting.   So I put the more difficult objectives aside, and sat down to draw a couple of pretty apples my husband gave me.

Drawing of apples 10-13-09