Healing Trauma

"Trauma is usually about a victim trying to make amends for the perpetrator. The most important thing is forgiveness of yourself for having been as vulnerable, as scared, as angry, as frozen as you were. And forgive yourself for all the ways you have tried to survive ...  so just take care of that. Take care of yourself. Learn to forgive yourself for all the things you have done in order to survive. That's  a big job."

-"Cracked Up: The Darrell Hammond Story" movie

#trauma #healing #therapy #selfcare #selfworth

Building An Oil Painting

"Service Club Park"

Venice, Florida

9"x12" oil on archival canvas panel

painted by Cindy Mott McGarry

"Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known."

- Oscar Wilde

First, let me say that I hope each and every person who reads this blog knows that I wish you and your families the best of health and wellness throughout this COVID-19 pandemic. This is such a sad, frightening and trying time for our country and our world. Art making can be very healing and create a sense of calm. It can relieve stress and aid in grounding/centering us so we can move forward with more clear, creative thinking and new problem solving skills. Many blessings to you all.

"How do you build an oil painting?" This is a question every artist must ask every time they paint because each painting is unique with unique challenges and problems to solve. "Where do I begin?"

Taking the time to produce a well thought out design as the first step will save so much time and frustration later. Even a small black, white and gray value design will give you a good reference/reminder of what you saw initially that inspired you. Some artists do this in a notebook using graphite pencils, some create their design in an earthy thin oil color such as burnt sienna right on the canvas and some artists paint large blocks of darker cooler colors as their underpainting. 

When I painted this high key painting of a beach pathway in the above painting, "Service Club Park," I wanted to express the intensity of the sun on the sand and grasses. I also wanted to use different types of colors using darker or lighter values - darker values in the foreground and gradually lightening the values as I painted the middle and distant areas. My design and underpainting were very simplified. The shapes started out deeper and darker in order to build up layers with medium to light values of color on top to really give the painting great texture and allow layered colors play off of one another.

My design and underpainting for "Service Club Park"

My easel setup and first steps of building "Service Club Park"

After this initial design I put in thick strokes of medium and light colors on top. The final steps of laying on thick reds, oranges and yellows is my favorite part of painting! This is how I built this painting. My palette was titanium white, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, manganese, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

I hope this was an enjoyable and helpful post for you.

Please like and comment or ask questions below.

Have fun painting!

Cindy

Cindy Mott McGarry

Artist and Blogger

My Website

Follow me on Instagram @cindymottmcgarry  😀

#artlearning #BoldBrush #artlessons #oilpainting #impressionism #maritimeart #beachart #beach #sand #floridabeaches #landscapes #seascapes #enpleinair #ArtfinitySRQ #Richesonpaints #EasyL  #artsupplies #lightchaserspleinair #florida #floridabeaches #artistandblogger #bloggerforart

Plein Air Intensity

"Manasota Beach Seagrape Trees"

12"x16" oil on canvas board

by Cindy Mott McGarry

"Trees are like poems that the earth writes upon the sky."

-Khalil Gibran

My love of trees began at a very young age, let's say four or five years of age. Each tree so unique and longing to grow and reach up to the sky. It is quite enjoyable to get creative and paint them using different colors to express textures and curves.

Seagrape trees here in Florida are some of the most visually absorbing trees I have encountered. Their trunks twist and squiggle drawing lines upon their backdrop. The textures are lumpy, rough and condensed which gives the viewer a sense of a very substantial and strong foundation. The leaves are thick, smooth and have beautifully rounded heart-like shapes with red veins running through them ... displaying a map of their life-blood.

As I searched for inspiration one morning at Manasota Beach in Venice, Florida, the trees in the painting above, "Manasota Beach Seagrape Trees," were being flooded with sunlight. The trunks were being bathed so intensely and the shadows were very dark and long. The grasses behind them were also lit and blowing with the wind. The leaves had an orange glow on them in certain spots. I worked with a limited palette and repeated colors throughout the painting.

A 12"x16" canvas is a large size for a plein air painting, so I needed to return to the site a second time and then finished it in my studio. The true intensity of light and abundance of color could not have been seen in a photograph. Only the plein air experience can reveal the many, many dimensions of nature.

Enjoy painting!

All the very best,

Cindy

www.facebook.com/cindymcgarryart

Instagram: @cindymottmcgarry

Energy Flow

"Flow" 

by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

"Energy flows where intention goes."

- Rhonda Byrne

Getting into a state of deep relaxation with heightened creativity and imagination is definitely a challenge. It is such a wonderful place to visit, and can be a highly productive and happy place. Many day-to-day necessary activities and distractions can keep us from reaching this state. Creative people have talked about how they lose track of time when they are producing their craft - hours that pass can seem like only minutes! 

The book, "Flow," by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, explains how to get into the flow state. It can be hard to do, but the reward is a happiness which is difficult to match. Experiencing flow can give us a wonderful sense of accomplishment and a way of tapping into our true deeper selves. Getting into our own personal and unique flow can be exhilarating and the desire to return to this happy state of mind can become a powerful motivating force.

What happens to us is often out of our control. If we patiently look inward and learn to reach the flow state and control the thoughts in our consciousness, then full involvement in the present moment is possible. We can experience a new level of enjoyment by using our acquired skills and imagination. Production of more unique creative works becomes very possible.

"After each episode of flow a person becomes more of a unique individual, less predictable, possessed of rarer skills." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I highly recommend this book.

Enjoy your flow!

https://www.instagram.com/cindymottmcgarry

A Simple Still Life

"Apple with Leaves"

8x10" oil on canvas board

painted by Cindy Mott McGarry

"Art is a harmony parallel with nature."

- Paul Cezanne

A recent class with Jenny Berry at Arts Alliance of Lemon Bay in Englewood, Florida, on the art of painting a still life was truly fascinating. A great teacher really enjoys teaching, listening, answering questions and sharing ideas about art and painting. Going over painting basics can always improve the simplicity of your unique process. These are a few reminders and important tips to remember while making a painting.

Go for a strong, bold design! Painting large shapes is difficult because we tend to become mesmerized by details. Only looking for large shapes and the overall value of each shape really helps with the beginning design. It also can help keep you true to and not stray from the original inspiring image. Choosing a basic composition from the very start is very important to the success of the whole work of art. If you stick with a basic design the imaginative, loose work added during the later stages can help bring the work together.

A big key to generating an attractive painting is making objects look round. Painting dark, medium and light values of color give any object weight and depth. This produces dimension which is very appealing to the viewer.

Keeping your paint thick and creamy helps create an engaging work. It builds alluring textures and allows for an easier painterly edge-blending experience. It's much more fun to work with loose, thick paint. 

Shadows and the angle of light are necessary to ground objects. They also help with rounding each significant shape in the piece. If this is not accomplished, then objects can look like they are floating in mid air.

Pressure put on the brush is of the utmost importance. When paint is thick and wet there are so many different techniques you can use to create many different effects. Pressure can make all the difference in what you are trying to create as an end result. It also helps keep the colors clean.

Paint away ....

Thank you for reading my blog!
Love to paint and share!

#art #oilpainting #brushwork #colormixing #design #composition #loosebrushwork

www.cindymottmcgarry.com

@cindymottmcgarry

www.facebook.com/cindymcgarryart

Freestyle Alcohol Inking

"Ocean Sunset"

Alcohol ink painted on a 10" dinner plate

- by Cindy Mott McGarry

Alcohol ink painted on a 4"x4" tile/coaster

-by Cindy Mott McGarry

"You can't depend on your eyes

when your imagination is out of focus."

- Mark Twain

Attending an alcohol ink class a week ago was a wonderful experience in free flowing thinking and  painting. It was a blast! The demonstration given by the teacher was so quick and easy to understand. This was the opposite experience I had imagined having because I thought it would be much more involved and complicated.

All you really need is a small cup holding isopropyl alcohol, a small paint brush, some alcohol inks in basic colors, paper towels, a small tile for a palette and a finished tile or canvas as a painting surface. A few drops of ink go a long way. Dipping the brush into the isopropyl alcohol and just dabbing a few drops onto a small painted shape of ink color thins and expands in ways all its own. As if you are partnering with another artist. 😃😃

It didn't take long at all to get comfortable with putting down basic shapes of color and allowing the mediums to create their own free flowing, unique little world of expansion and connection. I think of this style as being very similar to pointillism - only much more loose with a variety of shapes. The teacher kept the student pieces and put a resin on them that needed to cure for a week.

It was a mind stretching class that was a totally new experience in how to use my imagination. Truly loved it! A big take away was understanding that learning any new medium transfers to your other mediums. Now when I paint in oils again I will have this alcohol ink technique I created in the back of my mind and will want to use it with oil paint and big brushes!

More about this type of painting to come. Enjoy painting! Thank you for reading my blog.

All the best until next time,

Cindy

https://www.instagram.com/cindymottmcgarry/?hl=en

  

My Setup for Plein Air Painting

Top photo: My setup for plein air painting

My photo

Middle photo: My EasyL tripod and easel box ready to travel

Wet canvas/panel sizes 8x10, 9x12, 11x14, 12x16 slide into pochade box 

My photo

Bottom photo: EasyL Plein Air Easel and Tripod Setup

EasyL photo

"Creativity takes courage."

-Henri Matisse

My EasyL Versa Plein Air Easel and tripod have made painting on location so much easier! It feels like an outdoor studio once you are all setup. The pochade box holds a variety of sizes of canvases or panels that are transported by sliding them into the back of the box - 8x10, 9x12, 11x14, 12x16. If you wish to transport smaller or larger sizes in another wet panel or canvas carrier then many more sizes can be secured onto this easel with certain necessary adapters (i.e. bungee cords, etc.). 

One other important item I was counseled to always bring is a thick piece of light colored fabric to lay down on the ground. This helps keep ants and other crawly creatures from crawling on your shoes and up your legs. YIKES!!! The light color allows you to see any moving creatures better. I use a reversible outdoor picnic blanket with an adjustable strap that is machine washable - Picnic Time Vista Outdoor Picnic Blanket! Living in Florida makes this an absolute necessity!

More about plein air supplies to come!

Enjoy painting! ... Peace

https://www.instagram.com/cindymottmcgarry