Celebrating Passion for Art - Whitney Peckman

Working Hard In the Studio

dThought it was time to unveil the yearly hysteria in the studio as I get ready for the 2012 Celebration of Fine Art opening in Scottsdale, AZ Jan 14 - time to confess to how messy it is to be an artist (at least that's my excuse!).  And just one more thing - if you enjoy this blog I would so appreciate it if you would forward it to your friends - word of mouth is the best for artists!

3 waiting for varnish

    

Beginning a sculpture

Early stages of standing Salmon Poppies

Primula in process

Waiting to Become

In an English Garden

A big project is finished and ready to deliver this week.  It is a companion piece to a peony and butterfly piece I did a number of years ago.  They are both 44" tall and In an English Garden will be a gorgeous mate.  The first piece is all rose reds and pinks with butterflies zipping through them in shades of yellows, blues, lilacs and whites, and perched on shades of green leaves and sunlit blooms.  This new piece is a rambling garden of a variety of blue and purple iris, peach and cream lilies, deep green hosta with delicate white blooms, some roses peeking out.  Dragonflies are here and there and a few other surprises as well.

I was asked to do this with the utmost trust that I would do something "just right", and I hope these lovely clients will be as pleased as I am.  That is always the thing, with commission work.  Will the expectations be fulfilled?  Will the artist understand the request?  Will the client be so nervous that the artist feels constrained and indecisive about the end design?  It really all is a delicate balance between them, and often hinges on how much each knows of the other.  The artist, being the artist after all, will have a strong vision of the work colored by her style.  If the client isn't very familiar with that style, or if the artist isn't solid in a particular style, the visions can be drastically different - sometimes not even in the same park.  The client may have a strong vision too - perhaps something he seen in a photograph or a place visited, a memory.  But if the client isn't able to tell the artist some particulars about that vision - something beyond a color palette or medium for example - then there's a good chance that a problem may arise.

How do we avoid such a mishap?  Artists need to be certain that the client understands her style and has seen several examples, preferably in the flesh as well as in the portfolio.  And I believe the artist should ask many questions - questions dealing with the more subtle aspects of the request - questions like, what is the angle from which you will view my work?  What other things are in the peripheral view?  What other artwork is near?  What is the overall "feel" you are wanting to create for that space?  Conversation that is more ephemeral perhaps, but the answers may get to a deeper place from which the client may clarify his expectations.  If we take a little extra time to distinguish these things, I think commission work can be exciting and very satisfying for both the artist and the client.

Then, every once in while, some wonderful people will say to you, "Do what you think is best - we love your work!"

Detail

In an English Garden

another view

another view

another view

and another

I can't decide which I like best!

Website Update

Finally updated my website www.whitneypeckman.com, so hope you'll take a peek - time to build inventory after our great winter - so thanks everyone for your continued support of my work.

Succulents & Sunflower

Saying goodbye to an art work that I worked hard on and which rose to the top of my expectations of the piece, is a wonderful feeling.  It's really a successful communication - a conversation between the artist and the viewer (and in this case, the buyer) in the form of the art - and that process is a sort of art in and of itself, if that makes sense.  It all feels like a completed full circle when the art finds its "person".  And so, here are three views of Succulents & Sunflower which met, and went home with, its person today.

And tomorrow I'll say hello to the beginnings of a new piece - Poppies in the Grass.....

From Start to Finish

Several weeks ago I posted an "in progress" group of pictures on my FB page.  I did finish the piece and here is the chronicle of the project - from start to finish.  It's a long process, doing a sculpted gourd using the natural direction of what nature gives me.  There isn't much sense in making drawings on paper because your plans will invariably go awry and your paper drawings will have been wasted.  I believe one has to "see" what the gourd wants to be, then help it become.

This tall snake gourd bent fairly gracefully in one direction,with a nice gentle swelling at the bottom.  The iris hiding there needed to be set free to blow in the garden breezes, leaves wanted to arch and droop as landing places for dragonflies and butterflies.  

After drawing the images onto the gourd and burning the line work in, the engineering begins - after all, when you cut a leaf or bloom from the center of the gourd, what will hold the remaining top to the bottom?  Leaves and stems must be rebuilt behind the flower which wants to lean outward.  After soaking the "free" parts of the design (blooms and leaves), the gourd walls are soaked in warm water and gradually bent, holding their positions with strings tied to weights or to the table, till the piece is completely dry.  If the parts are very narrow or the stem is all that holds the large bloom, support must be built onto the backside of the gourd wall.  But, careful, don't build so much support in that you can't reach the inside of the design where a butterfly might be resting.  The contraption in the pictures holds the gourd for me in any one of many positions.  I used to have to do the holding in my lap - very precarious!  All of the cut edges and the sculpture material added to make the design more 3-dimensional must be sanded, hence the mask.  The sander is loud - headphones help.  Sander makes talc-fine dust - so I hold the vacuum in my left hand while sanding with my right.  It's definitely a balancing act!

The painting is done in stages - basic colors applied in the beginning so that I don't mistake positive image for negative space.  Lots of layers of transparent acrylics build the nuanced color in each leaf and bloom.  Often something may start out life as magenta and end up as yellow!

Here are several views of the finished piece.  I miss gardening, but I love making one that lasts forever!  I'll be bringing this one to the Celebration of Fine Art, Scottsdale, opening Jan. 15.  Hope you'll get to see it!

Updated websites

Must be fall...I updated my websites - this one and www.whitneypeckman-painter.com - and posted a picture album on my FB page - http://bit.ly/cFOj7r.  So, aren't I just feeling very proud of myself!  It's a brief moment in time to feel organized.  By this afternoon, I will be behind again.

My big news, in case you haven't heard me say so somewhere else, is that Syed and I are going to be grandparents in April!  My son and his lady are expecting, and we are ridiculously happy!  So, no question about whether or not we'll be headed to the San Juans next summer (notice the good timing?  Baby B-P will be 3 months old and surely sleeping through the night).

I am sorry to lose my great "guest blogger" -  she did such a great job, but back to school and life as a normal American kid...no more roti jala, nasi goreng, kari ayam, teh o'...just burgers now.  We had a wonderful time with her (our 13 year old granddaughter).  She was an extraordinary traveler, ate everything with enthusiasm, helped in the kitchen, carried her own gear, tolerated being stared at, and noticed her surroundings.  Hope she'll go with us again!

I have six 12" x 12" canvases with paint almost dry waiting for the next phase - it's a series on autumn for the Alexandria show in two weeks.  Back to work!

An Afterthought on Teaching

Though I am in Malaysia having a great trip, my mind was wandering to the classes I taught in WA. It was an interesting experience because I have never offered a class that was project driven, and this was, after all, a gourd festival. So, some students were a bit taken aback when I began by saying there would be no patterns, no handouts, and no tracing. (I had put sticky glue on their chairs- they could not flee.)

 No.  We would begin by working on paper, not gourds, and we would begin by sponging colors in random strokes, working quickly, and not trying to make a picture.  No pictures please.  Don't make pictures.  No, no pictures.  Just grab the paint and put it down, no rights, no wrongs, no fixes, no erasures, just spontaneous movement of the hand and arm.  Time's up.  Now on to finding the "seed"....and before they knew it, the 4 hours were over and there was no finished gourd in sight.  But almost 100% of the students over 4 days of teaching said they had been excited, inspired by the process, and learned how to see in a new way.  That's enough for me.  They opened themselves and let something new in.  Their surprise inspired me.  It was a great team project even if it didn't involve a finished gourd anything.

Follow my Blog

I just added this gadget to the right so you can follow my Blog.  I'd love to have you comment on these thoughts and ramblings, and to know I am reaching you out there in the ethers!  Thanks!

When we're home at EastSquare Artworks

Wonder what an old bakery-factory-turned-studio/gallery/home looks like?  Well, here's a portion, complete with original tile floors (though we did paint them grey - the red was just too distracting) and large butter colored wall tiles, steel posts and beams, industrial sprinker system and aesthetically questionable heating system.  But a little sheet rock separating the garage on one side and the handicapped ramp on the other, plus masonry nails for the tile wall, makes a fine gallery space.  Where I am standing with the camera in hand is a temporary wall which divides the gallery space from Syed's glass studio, a shipping area, and
a perpetually messy storage area.                            

The space has held great events since we've been here - a blues and jazz concert, PechaKucha Nights, political meetings, gallery openings, art classes, and a temporary roller rink and bike trail for the granddaughters.  Versatility!  

If you are coming through NC we hope you'll stop by and ring the bell.  If we aren't on the road doing a show, we'd love to open the door for you.

I've added some paintings to www.whitneypeckman-painter.com - let me know what you think.

Helping a great kid...and other stuff

Does anyone out there know of a math tutor/mentor in the Poughkeepsie, NY area who would be willing to help a kid in need, and for next to no money???  This isn't about art, or shows, or my travels, or thoughts.  This is about a bright kid who is about to start a new school but who may have to stay back a year because of very poor math skills.  There is no extra money in the family, so I'm looking for someone who just want to help out.  Any ideas?

On another note, keeping up with all this IT stuff is taxing my brain.  I don't have the "blending" quite right yet...how they all connect w/o spending my life at it....really, I need to paint.

And speaking of painting, I'm part of a show Aug-Oct of artists who work in more than one medium.  I am showing tapestries (seems like ancient history now!), gourds, and paintings.  This is the tapestry photo I sent for publicity purposes - and it's odd how appealing it was to me, after years of not weaving...mmmmm, I can feel the threads in my fingers now and all those gorgeous colors blending into a painting..........

"The Garden House"

Handwoven tapestry.  Silk, wool, rayon, cotton.  1998

Travels home

4/08/10

Ending a show…

Ten weeks, plus four or five days on either end for setting up and tearing down. That would be 78+/- work days in a row – ok, ok, once in while there’s a morning off to do laundry, go to the grocery store, maybe get a haircut. So, when we are finished, what do we do?

Spend some time with the grandkids at the beach watching the seals give birth, take a ride up to watch the paragliders jumping off the cliffs at Torrey Pines, and wander around some cool neighborhoods finding poetic jewels in the midst of a teeming city…..

Anybody know where this is?......                                                                            

Then our little interlude is over and we are wending our way back to NC, and with all due respect to those living in the west of NM or the panhandle of Texas, it is less than a visually stimulating ride. The miles of flat bone colored grass with only very occasionally something remarkably beautiful (like the wind turbines stretching across the prairie spied along I-40 in the panhandle), or joyfully unexpected (the old car sculpture farther east on the same road) which, apologetically, I did not get to photograph…Syed says “next time” as I’m hollering, “STOP”.

I know that there is poetry in this bareness, but it’s a poetry I haven’t learned to appreciate except in a very ….OH STOP! This truck is carrying an ENTIRE load of BEES! Where are you going and why? The grasses are sage green, pavement various shades of dust, palest of blue skies punctuated by telephone pole sticks. Cadmium yellow road signs keep me awake. Black dots of Angus and a fence line wandering away into the far distance. No NPR. But a thrash of black birds executes a rush of sharp angles in front of us, and gone.

12 Step program for artists!!!

You simply gotta read this - http://bit.ly/brvveW  TOOOOOO good!

Windows of Opportunity

Last 7 days of the Celebration of Fine Art 2010 here in Scottsdale!  Beautiful weather and still more beautiful artwork!

This year has been remarkable and we've had great sales, so some things that you may have looked at are gone, BUT we have some great work we'd love you to see - Syed has almost sold out of his little single window pieces, but has about 6 left.

I have 2 Japanese boxes left, and one large Japanese piece in soft, matte colors.  We'd love to see you so come in and say hello.

The Seven Poppies Question

This piece has been in the entry area of the Celebration of Fine Art for a week or so.  It's an interesting exercise to put a work out of your daily vision for a while and then come back to it.  I have always loved this piece.  It is so close to a perfect interpretation of what was in my head!  To see it afresh amazed me, and with humility, I say that it is still among the best three pieces I have ever done.

That raises the question of value.  Sure, it has a price tag on it.  But it is a piece that may well remain in my personal collection.  I don't believe in keeping much of my own work.  I think it can be too self-congratulatory and often acts like a kind of glue, sticking you to an idea, an image, an interpretation, when what I want to do is to keep experimenting, move onward, test new ground, push the limits of this humble material, and, of course, the boundaries of my imagination.

So.  Keep it?  Sell it?

New Collection of Japanese Inspired Work

Just finished a large work inspired by Japanese Ukiyoe woodblock prints.  Subtle and sophisticated colors in rich earth tones accented by spots of deep corals.  Forgot my camera at the show yesterday, but I'll get a pic posted tomorrow.  It looks fabulous beside another piece which sits in an old glass and wood display case which has the feel of country Japanese architecture.

FRUSTRATIONS!!

There are just some times when the best laid plans of mice, men and artists go astray!  What you see here is Syed taking my Foredom apart for (hopefully) repairs.  That would be because I nearly drilled a hole in my stomach when the grinder got caught in my tee shirt, instantly wrapped it until the torque stopped the motor just a fraction of a hair's width away from my abdomen.  Good that it stopped.  Bad that it broke the shaft.  I was reduced to finishing the "grinding" of ragged edges with a knife - very slow.

I was working on this Iris piece and ran into a little dilemma trying to clean the inside of the neck.  It's a very strong gourd but the slits are not wide enough to get any kind of tool through to shave the plant material away.  So, I cut an entire section away, giving me better access.  With a bit of luck I will be able to fit it back together so you can't see the joins.

I'm thinking of looking for a job designing puzzles.  Maybe gourd puzzles.  I wonder if there's a market...

Back to work...time is flying and my fall show schedule starts next weekend.  Isn't that what Labor Day is about....working???

Working on Japanese inspired box designs.

Currently, in an effort to respond to the cautious marketplace, I am working on box designs.  This means a couple of things to an artist.  First, it means that we are developing a price range that is accessible for a wide range of incomes.  Secondly, and of great opportunity for the artist, it means we can work out ideas for new work, or in my case, for elements of larger work in a vein not previously investigated.  I like these very graphic types of designs.  They work well in color and black and white.  They lend themselves to intricate ways of filling space and to creating complexities in negative and positive space.  Watch and see what happens and these little works grow up.

Celebration of Fine Art

Beautiful opening day on Friday!  What's better than art and 70 degrees?  The show is spectacular!  We have some very talented new people and many of the veterans of the show have spent the year getting special pieces ready for this special event.  The Celebration is a very out-of-the-box artshow.  We artists appreciate the support we get for expermenting in new techniques and materials, concepts and ideas that stretch us and ultimately make for more dynamic work. 

Keep an eye on this blog as I post pics from the show, or, just come on in and see the work in person.

Celebration of Fine Art 2009

The tents are up and we're ready to start setting up on Monday - the drive from NC this year was a bit easier since we are pulling a smaller trailer....and because we kept our vow to skip the junk and fast food.  Had a small delay in Dallas with a bad wheel bearing, but found a great garage to do the repairs and we were on our way again.  Come and see us at the Celebration of Fine Art, opening Friday, Jan. 16...lots of new work.