Q & A About my Artistic Development

Recently I was invited by the company Patience Brewster to participate in their Artist Q&A Spotlight. Patience makes fine ornaments and home decor. Their website has a Q&A section about Patience and I thought it was a good idea to share about my artistic development as well. It's a good thing to periodically reflect on where you have been and where you're going! After the #30in30 I thought I'd spend some time getting my online presence in order. Here is a Q & A about my artistic development. When artists have these on their sites, I know I always enjoy reading them, so I thought I'd add one to mine. Enjoy! -kmw

1. As a child, do you recall a significant moment when you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist? 

Here I am!
Painting ghosts on the windows for Halloween
Maybe I was 2 and a half :) 

This question is interesting to me because, while I was always interested in art it wasn't a major part of my life until late in high school and college. Art as a discipline wasn't really in Catholic school. Sr Pauline did have us making posters for Catholic Schools week, but I know that didn't inspire me to want to be an artist.

We do have this one great photo of me painting ghosts on our living room windows with my aunt. I was maybe two or three and the smile on my face speaks to the fun I was having.

The first lightning bolt art-related moment came when I was in 9th grade, and was a newly-elected officer of the Humanities Club in school. As an officer I could attend the Renoir exhibit at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (somewhere I don't think I had ever been before this field trip.) The MFA was packed with people looking at these fine Impressionist paintings, and I was in awe. Something changed for me after that exhibit. I became a private scholar of art history.

Eventually I ended up getting a degree in Fine Arts with a Painting concentration from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. It was a winding road that took me through a halted history degree at another college, but eventually I found my path. 

The polaroid is authentic! Painting en plein air in Gloucester, MA
and there I am -- Happy to graduate from MassArt!  

2. As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your work? 

My work is about comfort. It's also about my perspective. While recently working on a daily painting challenge to make 30 paintings for each day of September 2015, I solidified that focus of my work. Over the course of 30 days I could paint anything I wanted, and I learned my subjects make me happy and content -- even when they are difficult to make into good paintings. 

DAY'S END
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6:

What's important to me is that the paintings have an important "light story" to them. If someone sees my painting, they should be able to tell what time of day the painting was meant to capture. This doesn't mean that it's always sunny with hard shadows. Sometimes the light story is that there was no light. What matters is that it's all through my filter and that it's conveyed to the viewer. 

DUSK
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"

3. What memorable responses have you had to your work?

When I paint, it's a way for me to connect with my talents and sort of meditate or pray. In the Artist's Way, Julia Cameron talks about the Creator (whoever that may be for each of us) giving us these talents. It's our responsibility to pay homage to the creator by using them. 

A page from my Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art scrapbook
On the left is my work on the gallery wall with the red dot on the label just
below the painting.  A print out of the painting is on the right.
My old old old digital camera took these and they are terribly pixelated.  

In Brittany, France, where I spent an AMAZING summer painting in 2000, I recall one day specifically when I was painting on location. It was a lovely little composition of a stone wall, some day lilies, and a gate. The stones and flowers were giving me such problems! After much struggle, I remember putting down my brush for a moment and deliberately thinking I wasn't going to think any more. Instead I would just do. The piece seemed to flow out of me. It was like a meditation. Yes, I loved the painting that was created then. And the local bakery bought it for their collection. That was certainly a memorable response to my work! 

4. What is your dream project?

When I finished art school, I was 30 and vividly remember wanting to travel and teach, much like the professors did for the summer in Brittany. While I would still like to do that, I think it will be a little later in my life, since I have young children and we're settling into our lovely community in Massachusetts where we moved a year and a half ago. My days now are spent painting and designing, some nights are spent teaching, and our family and friends take up much of the balance of time. 

Something fun and exciting is percolating inside me right now, though. Having just finished the intense painting regimen I was on for September, I can now develop a series of works inspired by our new home in the woods. It'll be nice, too, to focus on some other art skills I have and not be narrowed to fine art alone. 

Does that answer the dream project question? Not quite. We live a creative life in my family. I would love to be able to share that aesthetic with others on a grander scale. How? I'm figuring that out. 

5. What artists, of any medium, do you admire? (Famous or not!)

Apples in the Sun
by Duane Keiser

Julianna's Easel
by Duane Keiser

Two contemporary artists pop to mind for this question. Both were early to the Daily Painting routine. Duane Keiser and Julian Merrow-Smith. Both are realists but both take that realism to a painterly-style that I adore. Both also have a consistent voice. I follow both on Facebook and read their blogs, etc. Each time I see their works I get inspired! 

Demonstrations from Julian Merrow-Smith's workshops
What beautiful, lively paintings!! 

Some day I will jump in with both feet and either take Julian's Provence workshops or bring my own class to his French rental property for a workshop of my own!