Discussions with Mark Norseth

It’s been good to stretch myself out on this large  (unframed size 28 x 36″) Tidepool piece, the first of what may become a series. Painting the unpaintable is what it felt like,.

I relied only on a fairly rough oil sketch and some pencil ideas for the design, which is what most of the painting ended up being about.  From there it’s been a matter of  adjusting things until they looked close to the way I wanted.

I’ve often found it to be a remarkably thoughtful experience to just sit in a place such as this, there are plenty of opportunities to do so in Hawai’i, and take in the indescribable concentration of energy and life that is here.  The colors are wonderful; every sense, really, is able to partake of such an experience, the sound and smells also, even the moisture against one’s skin, and I suppose that it hints at bigger things, questions of creation and how small a thing each one of us, in a sense, is.  All of this beauty and mystery occurs independent of us, whether we notice or not…imagine how much does escape our notice.

So now to practical matters.  I have a couple days to finish work on the frame before it gets hung.  Gallery at Ward Centre, after Friday the 29th, it will be on display. Come see.

Along with everything else I’m working on, I’ve been on a watercolor jag for the last month.  It’s been great fun and hard work, and I’m planning on more.

Do these work for you?

So much of painting is just about purposefully being in the work-mindset.  Rather than waiting to be inspired,  often times I just have an idea about  design, or an effect of light, and begin with something in my sketchbook;  inspiration or enthusiasm arrives after I begin to work, not generally before.  I know it’s the same for writers and musicians…you begin by taking the first step of working.

Each of these paintings are quarter-sheet, which is watercolorist talk for 11 x 15″, and painted on Saunders #200.  Titles are coming.

This is a pastel demonstration piece I executed at Spalding House for my Painting the Model en Plein Aire class last week.

Our topic that day was “Selection and Emphasis”…the idea that one must select from what Nature presents according to your priorities, and then appropriately simplify. Every element must be considered and it’s value to your picture determined, much will  need to be eliminated, and what is left must be simplified and refined.

         Dulce in the Sun      Pastel on Canson       12 x 9″

Well, I’m taking advantage of every opportunity for creating new work in the New Year, and as our winter weather has improved from pretty messy to awesome, I took a break from the large oil I’ve started  (and which I haven’t discussed yet, it’s too iffy right now) and spent Friday morning at Kailua Beach with my partner-in-watercolor-crime Roger Whitlock to see what  trouble we might do with the raw material of sand, sun, and wind.

I managed a couple of little paintings out of that session (and another session yesterday evening)  but this is the only one worth having a look at.  I might be able tweak some of the others into Salvation, or just re-attack them on another nice evening.

Kailua Beach, Friday, 1/11 11 x15″ Watercolor

We joked around and had a darned good time while working. Roger has great prowess with “the dampened sheet”, and  I value our far-too-rare outings together.

As for me, the watercolor work under such circumstances seems akin to jumping around in a swimming pool, especially working in-the-moment and with the drying times of the washes being so absolutely critical. It’s somewhat like a controlled disaster, I really don’t know how anything good can come of it, but sometimes it does, and it’s nice.

I thought I’d start the New Year with something from the end of the old.   This is the last piece I did as a pastel demonstration in the Drawing and Painting the Portrait class I teach, and it’s been nestled in the flat files for a couple weeks for safekeeping until I get a frame made for it.

The model, Sarah, is an artist herself, and the granddaughter of the distinguished teacher and painter Snowden Hodges.  We did this over about 4 sessions, if I recall, which was just about right.

S.H. in Profile, pastel on Canson paper, 16 x 20″

Sarah has agreed to be my subject for a drawing demonstration I’m doing at Art After Dark on the 25th of January at the Honolulu Museum of Art.

It will be a very active affair overall, I’m told that 1000 + visitors can easily pass through the doors of the Museum that night, but  Sarah and I are  promised safe haven in the very lovely Mediterranean Courtyard, and it will be  a  pleasure to spend the 3 hours drawing Sarah and providing some insight into the process for interested guests.