Saturday, February 20, 2016

Daily Painting posters available

Today I posted the last of the pastels of my #30in30 daily painting challenge for January. Doing a painting every day -- even if I don't do a 6x6" and post on my blog (I am always painting,drawing, and working) -- is such good creative exercise. I can feel myself getting more confident as I venture to new areas and expand my comfort zone.

I also went through the collection of pieces, blog posts, and Facebook entries and am humbled by the support I receive about my work. For those who comment and "like" and share their feelings about the paintings, I sincerely thank you.
January/February poster 11x17"
30in30 (c)2016 Kim Morin Weineck
available for $15 + shipping
email kimweineck@gmail.com
to purchase

The poster is one of the best things about the #30in30 challenge. Seeing the pieces all together like this is such a feeling of accomplishment. Winter is one of my most difficult seasons. For January and much of February I learned that the colors of winter are gorgeous. The light is different and the colors are beautiful!

What I think gets to me the most about wintertime is the light. Time management is tricky generally, but in winter, time management problems seem to double for me. Sun setting at 4pm means I am ready for bed by 8pm. Geez! I don't honestly go to bed at 8pm, but I am not the productive self that I can be other times of the year.

Here is the poster from my September #30in30, the first one that I did. Gosh, it was fun.

September poster 11x17"
30in30 (c)2015 Kim Morin Weineck
available for $15 + shipping
email kimweineck@gmail.com to purchase

If any artist out there is interested in taking on a Daily Painting challenge, please consider doing so. The benefits are many and your capacity to create is bigger and better than you may credit yourself for ;)

Thanks for reading! ~kmw

Day #30 :: SNOW MELT :: January Daily Painting Challenge (in February)

SNOW MELT
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"
$125 + $8 shipping

Interestingly enough, last week I went into the studio and four of these 6x6" pieces poured out of me onto their painting boards. It was intense and a perfect definition of "flow." When I came upstairs I showed Tim what I had done and he shot me a quizzical look. "In 40 minutes you did those?"

When people ask how long a painting takes, artists are frustrated by having to answer. So often, the paintings that take FOREVER are the ones that aren't as good. Not always, but often, this is the case. In my classes, I talk about saying the most you can with the least amount of strokes. Minimize your color palette. SIMPLIFY!

My classes also hear me tell this story --- which I LOVE so much. And if it's some made up literary legend, please don't tell me. I like to think that what I share here is truth.  ;)

Ernest Hemingway was talking with some of his writer contemporaries about story-writing. They challenged each other to write a compelling story with as little words as possible. Hemingway accepted and turned in this:

      For Sale:
      Baby Shoes
      Never Worn

Gets you right in the heart, doesn't it?

(And I just Googled it. Not sure if it's Hemingway, but I could be, so I'll hold on to my story line. Whew!)

And so with painting we want to say as much as we can with as few marks. We strive to make something difficult look as though it was done with ease. In Italian the word is "sprezzatura" and I first heard this in Professor David Nolta's Art History class at MassArt. Artists strive toward this "studied carelessness." It's a great contradiction: The art of making something difficult look like it was done with ease.

Winter seems to have broken, and I'm eager for this to be true. Only time will tell, but today's 50 degree walk in the muddy field with a smell of spring in the air was encouraging. This painting of greens touched with various light was a fun challenge to paint. I love the streak of sunlight: Warmth exemplified.

This painting wraps up the 30 in a row for 2016. I'm proud and excited about this body of work. Of course, I'm keeping painting. A new project has my interest and with teaching painting classes we shall see where my studio time brings me.

Be sure to stay tuned!
Thanks for reading ~kmw


Thursday, February 18, 2016

Day #29 :: SNOWY STREAM :: January Daily Painting challenge (in February)


SNOWY STREAM
by Kim Morin Weineck
original pastel, 6x6"
$125 + $8 shipping

After a short hiatus, here's another painting from the January daily painting challenge. I know it's February. We get done what we can. Winter packs a wallop, and with it come issues of cold and snow, power outages, commitments, and other motivational difficulties. Funny, too, because our surroundings are quite inspiring. Seems the problem lies in time management and, perhaps more appropriately, light management. When it's dark at 4:30pm, I swear I'm ready for bed at 8pm with the kiddos. 

This painting was a challenge from the start. It's on a bright red surface which I thought would be a good way to warm up a cool subject. While that was the case, after a while the surface wouldn't take any more pastel and so I had to be quite deliberate about my warm and cool color notes. 

Perhaps it's more abstract than my usual work. The color harmonies make me so very happy. 
Again, this is a subject in my neck of the woods. We're so happy to have landed where we did, two years ago from February 1st. 

Thanks for reading! ~kmw