Two Down and Twenty-eight to Go!

"After the Dance"
Original charcoal and chalk drawing
approximately 17.5"x12"
unframed
©2013 Diana Moses Botkin

NOW SOLD

This is the one I wanted to post yesterday since it fit a New Year's party theme.

We've had some sunshine today so I was able to take a photo of the drawing.

I think it would make a fun painting. What do you think?

My Challenge of 30 Pieces in 30 Days

Yesterday I shared here at this blog that I'm challenging myself this month to do thirty new pieces. I also have other commitments and projects so we will see what happens.

I am going to do my best to make it all happen, though, even if I don't get time to do much else.

Here is one of the thirty.

This is actually not the first one for my challenge, but the piece I was working on for the first one today needs to be photographed. It's too big for the scanner, which I realized only after finishing it late this afternoon, when there was not enough natural light to get a decent shot. Bother.

It's actually a more fitting image for the day after New Year's but it will have to wait for some sunshine. Maybe tomorrow.

So, I started the next one, small enough to put on the scanner for an image to share here.

This young woman doesn't work out at the gym to stay in shape. She didn't get this buff at a desk job, however. Besides her employment doing physical labor every day, she skins animals and makes leather garments as a hobby. She's very industrious and creative, and such an interesting model.

(above) "Hard Worker" Original pastel 6.5"x7.5", unframed
©2013 Diana Moses Botkin

A New Year and New Challenges

Here it is a new year! The last twelve months have zipped by for me... for you too?

As 2012 drew to an end I finalized a commission and began forming some new ideas for work I want to do.

That's always the challenge before me... to create something beautiful or thought-provoking. Something fresh. New. Really, just how do I make a good painting... or a painting good? I want it to be more than just good enough.

These sketches are a hint of what has been jiggeting about in my brain. I'll show you some more later. (Please contact me if you would like to purchase any.)

Now it is January first. What does that mean? The first day of the year brings promises of things to come in my minds' eye. Does it for you? Some people feel like we get a fresh start with a new year, and I think there is something to that.

Although I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, I do have some new goals I'm challenging myself with this year. Or maybe, like so many New Year's resolutions, they are merely old goals with a fresh face.

Whatever they are, the first one I'm tackling starts tomorrow: 30 pieces in 30 days.  I've picked faces and figures for my month's theme to keep my interest and energy strong.

Can I do it? Will I get the other paintings done I want to do? Will I get any sleep? Will the family have any meals or clean laundry? We shall see!

It shouldn't be too hard, right? Many of you who are artists know that it is hard, sometimes really hard.

Just before Christmas I received a book in the mail that I'd been looking forward to seeing in print.

The book is Artists Speak, published by The Philadelphia/Tri-State Artists Equity Association. It is about "the revelations of contemporary artists, their lives, dreams, problems, joys and craft".

I was asked months ago to write the introduction to the chapter Balancing Art, Work, and Family. I considered it a privilege to share my thoughts regarding those specific challenges!

I am so impressed with the lovely work in the chapter by the men and women who are making art while working jobs and taking care of families!

Indeed the whole book is filled with outstanding and thought-provoking images and words regarding the challenges of being an artist. You can order the book at the Artists Equity page and see it for yourself.

So, what are your challenges? And do you have some new ones you've picked for the upcoming weeks and months?

Good Gifts

"Dancing in the Spotlight"
Oil 12"x24"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

My painting at left pretty much illustrates my current mood.

I received news on Christmas eve that I've been selected to receive Oil Painters of America's Shirl Smithson Scholarship to attend an art workshop. This was truly a delightful surprise and a wonderful Christmas gift!

I'm excited and thankful. I'll keep you posted on my workshop plans, as I've mailed my deposit to enroll but haven't yet heard back whether I'm in. I'm hoping this particular workshop has not filled up already!

Thank you to all who visit this blog, comment on my paintings and drawings, and encourage me in my struggles to create something beautiful, day after day. It is good to share my art with you here online and get your feedback. And I love visiting your blog pages to see what latest inspiring work you've done!

All my chicks were gathered under my wings for Christmas: a sweet gift and better than any wrapped present. It was fun, though, making or finding some special things for each other and opening the gifts to see the surprises we had prepared for each other.

I hope your Christmas was filled with rich moments, good remembrances of family and friends, and the One whose birth we celebrate as the Greatest Gift of all.

Wishing you each blessings in this coming New Year!

Our December Painting Challenge: Old Age

"Contrasts of Life"
Original framed oil 8"x10"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

Our Challenge this month is the conclusion of the last few which progressed, starting with Childhood in September. Time marches on, like the progression in our Challenges.

I wanted to show contrasts in this painting and as I was working on this piece with the baby and the great-grandma's hands I thought of the childlike quality of old age, too.

I also thought what a nice job it is to hold and rock a baby at any age. The great-grandchild is one of the best rewards of life for this woman, a great-grandma who is a widow, in her 90s, nearly blind, and confined to a wheelchair.

I really like the other paintings for our Challenge this month. I hope you'll visit Mark and Vicki's blogs to read their take on this month's subject.

(left above) "Self portrait with Sammy" Oil on panel, 6"x8" ©2012 Mark Adams
(right above) "Mary and Delys in Salzberg" Pastel, 20"x16" ©2012 Vicki Ross

Creating Suitable Art for Special Conditions

(left) "Back Lights"  24"x30"
Original charcoal and pastel drawing
on special board with waterproof coating
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

Special conditions of temperatures or humidity call for unique solutions for the art environment, unless the art itself is not created to be permanent.

For instance, one of my sculptor friends, Lee Harris, who, along with making art with lasting materials, creates snow sculptures that can be enjoyed for only a short time. She and her team compete in winter events and work in the freezing cold to create amazing pieces that will last only as long as cold, dry winter conditions cooperate. Lee and I worked on a joint sculpture of a mama and baby bear a few years ago with more lasting materials.

How long should art last? It depends on the medium and the artist's intention, I think.

The recent large drawing commission I did for a collector's bathroom originally had me flummoxed. I wanted it to last longer than a few months, especially since the client did too. A drawing on paper simply wouldn't fare well in a humid bath environment. Eventually, a drawing on paper would buckle, mold would grow inside the glass on the matting and paper, and condensation would obscure the picture itself. What to do?

(photo, above) Applying the humidity resistant coating after the drawing is completed. The art doesn't need to be framed or put under glass.

In October I posted about my new process so I could create the work for a bathroom.

(photo, left) "Back Lights" is wrapped, boxed once, cushioned well, and then boxed again for added protection. That's the large sturdy package waiting by the door to go to the shipper.

Here is a photo of the finished piece hanging above my client's very large tub. She noted, "In the picture, she looks a little small in the space, but in person, she is a great size." How nice to know my reclining lady is enjoyed there in that lovely room!

(final photo) 
"Back Lights" made it safely to the collector, was unpacked successfully, and then carefully hung in the spacious bathroom above the very large bath tub.

Light and Color in the North Country

(left) "Afternoon Outlook" Oil
5"x7" Original plein air painting 
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

SOLD

Up here at the edge of the earth, days are short this time of year, and many of them are grey and dark. When the sun shines it is a welcome tonic for body and soul. Color! I'm so thankful for it, and eyes to see it. These are blessings I try not to take for granted by thanking the Creator for such miracles of life

(left)
"Sky and Water Colors" 4"x4"
Original miniature oil painting
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

SOLD

Scotchman Peaks Paint Out

(left) "Blues and Greens"
Original oil
7"x14"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

SOLD

These were painted en plein air last month near Hope, Idaho, for the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness Paint Out.

I've participated in this event for several years and always enjoy the camaraderie of painting with other artists, even if the weather is a bit cold for me.

If you'd like to see these paintings in person, you can enjoy them at OutSkirts Gallery in Hope. It's a lovely drive around the lake from Sandpoint.

(left) "Companions" Original oil, 10"x8"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

(below left) "Limelight" Original oil, 5"x5"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

"Adulthood", our November Painting Challenge

"New Family"
Original oil on hardboard, 6"x8"
in handsome custom frame
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

I named our focus to paint this time, following the lead of our last two month's subjects. You'd think I would have more of a plan about what to paint when I chose the idea, but I did not.

I simply thought it would be an interesting challenge to continue the progression from childhood to adolescence on to adulthood.

What does it mean to be an adult? Is it being of legal age to buy alcohol or tobacco? Is it that one is old enough to vote, or enlist in the military, or get married? Does it mean getting a job, or buying a house? I thought about all these, and more, as I was considering what to paint for this month's Challenge.

I don't think I actually felt like an adult until I became a parent, even though I'd been on my own, working, and married, for a number of years before I had children. It was only when I had my own babies that I truly felt like an adult.

And you know, some people never grow up. Adulthood signifies responsibility, and there are those who have lived many decades who have not yet grasped that concept.

On the flip side there are young persons who've had to take on responsibilities beyond their years and have had to grow up with hardly a glance at childhood. I suppose I could paint for a year and not exhaust all the possibilities for ideas about our subject this month.

Fellow Challenge participant, Mark Adams waxed eloquent about our subject at his blog post today. Here is his lovely painting.

(left) 
"Father Frederick Hanna"
Oil on Canvas
24" x 36"
©2012 Mark Adams
  


Challenge group member, Suzanne Berry painted a lusciously rendered small oil for this month's puzzler. It speaks volumes, don't you think?

(left)
"Adulthood"
Oil on linen 
6"x6"
©2012 Suzanne Berry

Those Summer Painting Days

This miniature at left was painted on the first day of the Columbia Gorge paint out and served as a warm-up for me.

Plein air season for me is when the weather is warm enough to be outdoors most of the day. In the Pacific or Inland Northwest, that's pretty much summer, at least for me.

Mornings and evenings can be quite cool even in the summer. They are my favorite time to capture the colors and mood of a scene, however, whether in a little oil sketch like this one, or something a little larger.

(upper left)"View of Adams"  Oil, 3"x4" ©2012 Diana Moses Botkin 

Sunny Day at the Columbia Gorge

(first painting) "Waterfront"
Oil on deep canvas, 6"x6"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin
 

(second painting) "At the River"
Oil on deep canvas, 6"x6"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD


These pieces were painted during the plein air event at Hood River at the end of summer. I wanted to do some touching up on a couple of them, so I didn't show them here when I posted the others in September.

Today I'm enjoying the memory of that hot, sunny day, painting on location. It's cold and snowy here in Idaho right now, so it's especially nice looking at the warm colors in these little jewels.

Sandpoint Solo Show Starts Sunday

(left)
"Pensive"
Original oil, 10"x8"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

This Sunday from 11 to 1, I'll be on hand at Monarch Mountain Coffee Company in Sandpoint, Idaho for a reception to open "Figurative Statements", an exhibit of my paintings and drawings.

(second painting at left)
"Reflective"
Original oil, 10"x8" 
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

SOLD

In the show are images fitting the theme, derived from realistic human figures or abstract form.

A Sunday opening is a first in my experience, but the coffee company owner suggested the time frame for a relaxed gathering. She had told me she wanted more paintings after my ArtWalk show of portraits and still life paintings. She suggested "something more edgy, like nudes".

 In addition to the bath drawings, I'll be showing other nudes including large framed studies on paper and small original oil paintings, like these two at left.

(third painting at left)
"Fiery Flight" 
Original oil, 18"x24"
©2010 Diana Moses Botkin

Along with the figurative pieces, I'm exhibiting some abstract work, which makes an interesting contrast to the familiar forms of the figure paintings and drawings.

Although I paint a variety of subjects, I regularly return to the figure. It's a lot like comfort food to me on a cold rainy day. The figure itself can be simple or complex, depending on the pose and lighting.

And abstract work can be similar, although for me it is more about experimentation and exploration than comforting familiarity with beautiful form.

What's your take on nudes and abstracts?