Still in Art School

If you make art, and you want to do it really well, you're a student. You're always and forever a student, even when you're the instructor sometimes, even when you're getting into galleries and making sales and impressing your family and friends. This is because the moment you decide you know enough, is the moment you stop making really good art.

Red Coffeepot, 9 x 12" oil on canvas board, study from class. $60.

So here's me, being a student. This still life experiment is from my class with Derek Davis last week, where I'm continuing to learn about color and about how to loosen up my work and let go of some of my tendency to nitpick and to make edges too well defined. Is it a masterpiece? Nope. But it's a fun study that makes me happy and will probably end up brightening someone's kitchen. 

And I learn from each of these. For this one, I learned a little more about how much I could get away with blurring the edges, and how much form I could create with a big, shabby brush. 

Done! Now I can make that BLT.

In It Together, 10 x 10" oil on canvas, $275

Apparently, as a still life painter, I'm nocturnal: this was finished around 2:45 this morning.

It has about a dozen titles. I'm only telling you one of them because I want to see what people come up with on their own for what it could mean and what might be happening in the little narrative, here. Everyone's answer will be right; that's what I love about these little paintings.

Here's where I have to credit my inspiration: this painting would never have happened if I weren't friends with Jennifer Lowery. <3

This does get my "living less safely" classification, mainly because it's never "safe" to make art. But I was also challenging myself. Those background greens and violets? All looked like mud on my palette. And I think painting deep red objects is about the trickiest thing there is. It's even harder than getting landscape-greens to work, and that's saying something. I knew that, and chose to paint tomatoes anyway.

So I'm happy. And drinking a lot of coffee.

A Forbidden Romance!

Don't Tell Your Family, Darling. 5 x 7" oil on canvas board, $50.

I had so much fun with Snobs that I decided to do a little more with my bunch of models. I thought about what would happen if one of the Snobs fell for the Lemon. Whoops!

This little piece will be available for $50 at Maple Grove Arts Center, at the opening of the Art & Food Show on the evening of 7/13. I'll be there, making a little painting or two on site, just for fun, so come out, see the art, and watch the demo.

Insomnia

And My Shadow, 6 x 12" oil on canvas.

I'm not sure if I was painting because I couldn't sleep, or if I couldn't sleep because I was painting, but whichever -- this was the result. I am less-than-energetic today as a consequence, but happy I started when I did, since the cute little flower was on its way out by morning.

Update: Sold.

Bright Brush 2.0

Bright Brush study. Oil on canvas board, 6 x 4", $49.

I like the somewhat rough, atmospheric look of this one. I did it while taking little breaks from a much larger landscape commission I'm finishing this week.

Bright Brush with Twine

Bright Brush with Twine, charcoal and pastel on newsprint, about 14 x 10"

This is the result of my promise to my students that, while we would of necessity be doing still life setups for drawing class, this would not mean "wine bottles and fruit."

What to Draw? Whaddaya Got?

Birds on a Wire, 5.5 x 8" pen and watercolor at Jim Sannerud Woodturning

Students frequently ask me what they should draw. It's tempting to say, "Well, whatever!" -- because really, pretty much anything can make a good art subject.

If you're practicing drawing, look around your house, your yard, your garage or potting shed. You don't need "pretty" things. A still life does not have to be wine bottles and (*yawn*) fruit. It can be your pegboard in the shed with the red-handled saw hanging there, or the multicolored pliers and screwdrivers. It can be your old work boots on the floor in the sun.

... but the flowers in your garden will work, too. Hollyhocks at Lauri Flaquer's house, from 7/12

Once you start to look for things to draw -- and stop limiting yourself to things that "look like art" -- you'll start seeing everything around you as if for the first time. It's okay if your drawings aren't perfect; the fun in recording them is the point.

Mushroom Drawings

Mushroom Study #2, pencils and pastel on paper, 7 x 5", by Tracie Thompson

Mushroom Study #1, pencils on paper, 7 x 5", by Tracie Thompson

These are the perks of all the rain we've had in the Twin Cities lately -- all kinds of fascinating little mushrooms springing up. The sketches were done over this weekend, in carbon pencil, pastel pencil, and (for the second one) soft pastel.

Green Pear (Friend of Tomato)

Green Pear, 5 x 5" oil on canvas, by Tracie Thompson. $40

I'll offer this little one with its Happy Tomato buddy for $75 for the set, plus shipping if applicable. Will ship anywhere, in a few days when the paint is dry enough!

I'll have this available tomorrow at La Patisserie. I'll be painting on site there starting at 10 a.m.; lunch -- with the brand new salad bar in addition to soup, sandwiches and the selection of amazing pastries -- starts at 11.

Tomato Season!

Happy Tomato, 5 x 5" oil on canvas by Tracie Thompson. $40

One of a series of Snack Food paintings for La Patisserie, at 1570 Randolph Ave. in St. Paul (corner of Snelling and Randolph). Happy Tomato has a companion piece: Green Pear. Set of both, $75.

I'll be painting on site there Tuesday, 5/10, starting at 10 a.m.; the lunch event with the brand new salad bar starts at 11. Come on out, watch some little paintings get made, and get the best pastries the Twin Cities have to offer.

Anita Sue Kolman Gallery has my art for the holidays!

Several pieces of my original art, starting at just $35, are now available at Anita Sue Kolman Gallery in the Northrup King Building. Come out Saturday 12/4, 12/11 and 12/18 from noon to 4.  I'll be there from 1:00 to 2:00; hope to see you!

Pear Squares #1 and #2, 6 x 6" oil on panel, $50 each. Below, Pleasant Company, one of two Happy Pomegranate paintings, 9 x 12" oil on panel.

The Last Chance Bouquet, or How to Get Free Flowers

Last Chance Bouquet, by Tracie Thompson. 12 x 12" oil on panel.

These came from the intersection of Highway 52 and Plato, in St. Paul. There was a convenient empty parking lot right across the way from where the wild sunflowers, little white asters, and tiny purple thistle-like blooms were waving in the wind.

If you can find the few moments and the place to pull off the road, this is one of those unexpected happy-making things life has to offer. The flowers feel like taffeta, smell a little like honey, light and sweet. The ordinary jar you put them in becomes charming in an instant. And it feels fun and subversive, gathering flowers while other people zip by in their cars.  Be safe, of course, in traffic, but if you get the chance -- why not?

Narcissus #2

More brown paper drawings

Canter, top, and Narcissus Bulbs, both mixed media on Ingres paper. These were demonstrations in my drawing classes. Horse is about 9" x 12" and bulbs approx. 9" x 13".

Seed Series 5 and 6

Untitled (Seed Series #5) and Milkweed (Seed Series #6), 8" x 6". Both mixed media on Rives BFK Tan paper.

$45 each.

~*~

Small Pear #1

First of a series of four. 6" x 6" oil on panel.

More Fruitiness!

Pleasant Company (Happy Pomegranates #2), oil on panel, 9" x 12"

Finished early this afternoon.

Fresh produce

Above, Happy Pomegranates, oil on panel, 9" x 12".

Below, Pear Friends, oil on panel, 18" x 18", by commission.

Artichoke: The Sequel!

This thing is really maddening to draw, which is probably why I keep doing it. I enjoy the challenge of getting the big shape and all those little shapes to work together the way they should.

Same size and media as yesterday's Artichoke. Same artichoke, too. No, I haven't cooked it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Today's drawing: artichoke

I did this while tending the Robbin Gallery this afternoon.

The artichoke is one I bought last night, specifically for art purposes, and now that I have it I realize I have no idea how to cook the thing. Never done it before.

Anyone got any relatively-easy suggestions for what to do with this thing?