The Story of The (almost) Lost Artist


Just recently I came to the realization that I had come very close to losing myself.  Let me explain. Way before I was a painter I was a storytelling photographer.  I took photographs, made them into  art and then sometimes wrote stories. Often they were true life stories like the one you see below from Somerset Life Magazine.  Other times they were  stories I wrote  for my blog readers when I was known as Robinbird or Bird Tweets. 

How is itI had almost forgotten this vital connection to myself as an artist?  It was an astonishing discovery. While cleaning the attic I came across this Somerset Life magazine and randomly flipping through found this heartfelt, true and important story about another artist who had nearly lost herself. 

My Lovely Duck has apparently been digging around in the attic looking for red threads to present to me as needed. This one is a most welcome and inspiring thread for me to pull on. My life as a photographer was just as thrilling and interesting as my life is as an artist. Up until now I had missed the crossover journey between the two creative lives. Reflecting upon the years past I am gaining a fresh respect for the passion and love I feel for art. Although I often doubt and question my skills I need to remember and draw upon my gift of inspired history . The story below is  for  all artists who  struggle to hold space space in their souls for personal expression. 

May I introduce to you Hillary, my Golden Phoenix. Read on.....

 




Life continues to present itself as a journey with many crossroads presenting themselves along the way. Choose wisely.

Love, Robin

robin laws blogger

The Latest News

I have a lot of news to share with you.  All good :)  First off I have been completely immersed and in the flow of my daily art practice.  As is always the case with me  it is an "experience" fraught with comedy and drama each and every day. From sun up to sun down I can be found surrounded by paints, brushes and art in the making at any one of the various portable studios I have set up all over the house.  My husband used the word "relentless" in regards to my practice as he was walking by one of the multitude of times he had witnessed me with my head bent down, oblivious to all else but the girl I was coaxing into life. I told him later that was a huge compliment. 


We celebrated my sweet Ivy's birthday by going out for sushi.  She made a wish before blowing out the candle that was nestled within her green tea sundae, 'aka' birthday cake but refused to reveal her wish to me so I have no news for you on that subject. We ended our perfect afternoon at Anthropologie  selecting new coffee cups and fragrant candles to use in our studios. 


The week prior was highlighted by a visit from our friend Janet Reid. We picked her up from the airport on a Wednesday and for the next three days proceeded to laugh, eat good food and learn to paint the tiny tea bag faces taught in Jeanne-Marie Webb's,  class Tiny Bags of Love. The class is divine and the gentle teachings of Jeanne -Marie helped me not only paint the adorable faces  of Astrid and Tilli that you see there on your left but also helped me grasp some larger concepts about painting loose and impressionistic faces of any size.

Working through the class during the visit with Janet added richness to both experiences. I am also lucky enough to be making the sojourn to Janet's home and studio in Southern California next month and I'm sure I will have lots to share with you afterward.

 


The last thing I have to share today is how I happy I am to be a returning teacher in the upcoming all new Let's Face It 2017  class hosted by the amazing Kara Bullock. You can find out more and read all about the new content and amazing teacher lineup by clicking any one of the links in this section of the post  or you can read about it here in the teaching section of my site.  And you will be happy to know that I will be doing a  GIVEAWAY of one free spot in this class on my blog in the coming weeks so be sure to subscribe below to my site in order to stay up to date with what is happening! 

Love, Robin

A Little Before and After Painting

More Oil  Pastels


Magazine pages are pretty amazing to work with. Not only because there are no rules and therefore fun to do but also because I learn so much about the art of drawing and painting each time I do one.  Below you see the before and the after of a recent makeover. I photocopied and enlarged the image 160% then used matte medium to glue her into my large sketchbook. She was already a B&W image from W Magazine Then I used clear gesso over the entire thing, adding black gesso  to all the intimidating white that remained.

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I had already made up my mind I wanted to add collage since all she was wearing was a suit coat that  did nothing for me in terms of imagining a clothing makeover using that. I didn't overthink it. I pulled out the first thing from a pile of collage material and ended up with an Italian math workbook. So she became a mathematician in my mind.  And Italian.  And cool. My color choices were based on the magazine image below done by my initial inspiration artist  Guim Tio'. This complimentary yellow purple isn't generally appealing to me but  I really liked his result so I quickly decided  to just go with it. So now I have violet hair and violet lips. Really? That meant I was willing to use yellow ochre for her skin. I was not too sure about this but I did it anyway. I am keeping the idea of experimentation in the forefront of my mind. I told myself it didn't matter 


So I used the matte medium to change her clothing and put a coat of clear gesso over that. I used acrylic paint for her hair because no way dod I have that color in the oil pastels. So once that commitment was made I moved on without stressing too much. Upon further reflection after the fact I think what I especially had liked about what he had done was the solid abstracted shape of her face and nose.  And i think I wasn't able to let myself go that far. Next time....



I took the opportunity to really focus on the lights and darks as shapes and added umber and dark blue to the areas I could map on her face. The is a fairly high contrast image since it was editorial  high fashion image not a makeup ad. I added all of the colors with a very light handed touch wanting to work in layers and build up a variation of tones. So all of her face is yellow ochre in the middle photo above, just applied in varying layers. I also chose to focus on her eyes since in my mind that was the focal point of the image. The intensity of her look. So her eyes are a combination of oil pastel and charcoal. I thinned the oils pastel and used a fine brush  more or less like traditional oil paint. The background is super thick with three shades of green applied in patches then smooshed around, (not too much) with my fingers. Most of the painting was done with straight pastel, no thinner and with my fingers as the blender. 

I think the red earrings and red marks  in her shirt are key elements to bringing some life and energy to the painting. Otherwise she seemed very subdued and even serious in spite of her having a green nose. Her name is Liliana.


And here she is in her final complimentary color glory! Another lesson learned is that it's just not my palette.

Love, Robin

**If you are interested in learning more about using oil pastels and magazine pages go to my class page and read more

I Am Open I Am Learning

What am I learning from my daily practice of drawing? Remember I committed myself to doing more drawing and painting and less activity on social media after my return from Ghost Ranch. I am happy to report I'm sticking with it and drawing, sketching or painting for long periods every day.  All of it is practice for the sake of practice not for a product or finished piece. One of the commitments I made was to be more open to my inner world of thoughts and feelings as I work and I gently calm and comfort my thoughts when I begin to say things in my head that are not helpful.

Most every practice piece is going through various levels of destruction and reconstruction as I work with my self limiting thoughts. I keep moving, dragging things out of the trash and wiping out layers of pastel or layers of charcoal to look again and see a missing puzzle piece that I need to add or take away. The most important part is that I am doing it. Whether I am working or reworking doesn't matter. Stepping forward into the discomfort rather than backing away with resignation it the nugget of gold. It's not that complicated really :)

Love, Robin

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