February Photos at Barnes and Noble

For the month of February I have the privilege of displaying some photos in the cafe at Barnes and Noble.

Since gardening is on my mind this month these are the photos I chose.

After Christmas all the color seems to fade away. Everything is a shade of brown and black with lots of white. I love the vibrant green of these leaves and the negative spaces they create within the photo.

I love this photo for the texture and the color. Yellow is one of my favorite colors. It makes me happy. I  like the spiny texture of the curly leaves above the blossom in contrast with the soft petals of the flower. 

Watching the sungold cheery tomatoes ripening is musical. It's the visual accompaniment to the ping of a xylophone. 

So delicate, so beautiful. 

I adore squash blossoms. They are like nature's fireworks, pointing for the sky as they grow and then exploding in gorgeous, deep yellow color. The different textures from beginning to end are amazing.

Mmmmmmm.

I love the way the light hits the hairs around the edges of these Holland White cucumber leaves and highlights the veins in the middle. During the summer months I walk out every morning to check on the progress of my garden and scout for any problems with pests, etc. Checking on the cucumbers is always the most exciting because they seem to grow so fast and change so much from day to day and sometimes from morning to night. 

Tomatoes are the fruit that I look forward to growing the most every year. They are so delicious fresh and we also go through jars and jars and jars every winter. There are so many blossoms on the tomato plants all season long that it is a little overwhelming to photograph sometimes - trying to find a new way to capture them is a challenge. From a short distance they all look the same, but each plant has slightly different blossoms. I liked this shot because of the echo of activity and extra colors just behind the subject. 

Something about looking at a newly sprouted seed makes me say, "ahhhhhhh". I can only imagine that as the sensation after being dry and curled up in a dormant state for so many months to finally emerge green, plump and searching for sunlight and nutrients. This is also a stage when is fun to check on the status of the plants. At this point they not only change from morning to night, but also from hour to hour.

My pear tree. Last summer was an exciting year for me and my Everbearing Collette pear tree. It was the first year since planting that it produced a significant amount of fruit. It was beautiful from first blossom to harvest. 

Unframed 8 x 10 prints can be purchased for $18 and the framed prints hanging in the cafe can be purchased for $30. Contact me at kimmelion@yahoo.com 

Sending warm, spring and summer like thoughts out into the cybersphere on this subzero February day! 

Another Hike and Another Display at Barnes and Noble

I recently learned that a park very close to my house has an actual hiking trail. I had always thought it contained a few roads up to some secluded shelters for picnics and of course the main playground and pool, but no real trails. I was wrong. Since I haven't been too enthusiastic about running in the snow and freezing temps, I decided to give up the running shoes and throw on a pair of boots, get out and go for a brisk walk and check out this trail. I hiked around a bit in the timber before I found the main trail, and truthfully getting off the main path is often more fun. I took my camera to get in some practice shots while I was walking. 

I think taking photos in the winter is a special kind of challenge. 

Everything looks a little desolate and it seems like there are only a few varieties of brown and white to really look at. Finding a beautiful shot is more work than it is in the summer when I can go into my garden and with every quarter turn of the camera I find some new incredible blossom, leaf or color to photograph. Winter photography also seems to require kneeling or lying down in the cold snow. The biggest lesson I learned today is that I need to buy a pair of snow pants. Layering isn't cutting it. 

The second lesson I learned today was about camera angle. . . or that I need to get a better handle on my camera's light metering system. Either way, I produced very different photos by simply shifting the angle of my camera. The berries against the snow look dark, shadowy and uninspiring. But . . .

when I get lower and shift the lens up so that the background is no longer snow, but the abundance of brown brush and twigs, the berries virtually glow. The color is gorgeous. 

It seems like many of the berries have vanished from the bushes, but I managed to find the few that are left. 

The shriveled look of the remaining berries adds a little extra edge to the numbing cold.

I love looking into the trees that have fallen. This one looks like a mouth waiting to consume an unsuspecting forest animal. 

Not so long after the ferocious looking trunk I walked paste this "flower".

I found a nice area of brush with some great curls and shapes just after I decided that I could not tolerate the cold anymore. It would have been great to spend more time playing around with all the brittle tendrils. Next time.

And now on to a warmer state of mind. 

It is February, I have received nearly all of the seed catalogues that I am going to get, garden dreaming is in full swing and soon seed starting will be too. 

I had another opportunity to hang art in the Barnes and Noble cafe in Cedar Rapids for the month of February. I went for it and hung ten photos taken in my garden last summer. 

Looking at them all together made me feel warmer. I like winter, but it feels good to know that spring and summer are not far away. 

If you can, go in and check them out. If not, all of the photos are included in 2013 posts on this blog. Framed and unframed prints are for sale. Unframed prints are $18 and framed prints are $30. 

Practice, practice, practice. Draw, draw, draw.

I was cleaning my studio out last week; picking up all the clutter that accumulated below the radar, going through drawers I hadn't opened in a few months, maybe a few years and reaching deep into the dark recesses to get rid of all the . . . stuff. I really let things get out of control and found that I was having a hard time clearing my head and getting down to work when I had the time to go in my studio.

When I was digging through one of the drawers I found an unsigned mid-semester critique from one of my former undergraduate art professors. I just can't remember which one. In my time there I had two different professors for drawing classes. The letter was . . . fun to read? It was like being patted on the back and punched in the stomach at the same time. So I guess as a critique it was good - a nice mix of positive comments and constructive criticism. It was sort of amazing that xy years later some of the comments still ring true. The instructor had me pretty figured out and was right for the most part.

In the final few sentences they instructed me to "practice, practice, practice, draw, draw, draw". Those six words cemented themselves in my head for the next few days. I haven't really been practicing enough. I've been putting more pressure on myself to produce polished, completed pieces, rather than focusing on improving my skills. One of my New Years resolutions was to draw, paint or photograph every day this year. Even if it is only for 15 minutes. This letter added some extra motivation to stick with my resolution.

Three days later I was out for lunch with my mother and youngest daughter in Marion, IA. After lunch my mom took my daughter for the afternoon so I could work a little and take care of some errands. The restaurant she picked for lunch was just a few doors down from one of my favorite galleries - http://campbellsteele.com - so naturally I stopped in to feed my soul a bit, since my tummy was already full. I had a nice conversation with Priscilla Steele for a few minutes and she casually mentioned a life drawing class she had later that evening. I learned that she hosted a life drawing class for interested members of the public on Tuesday evenings and Sundays. For a small fee I could go and draw from life for a few hours. My mind immediately went back to the critique I had read a few short days ago. It almost seemed like this encounter was serendipitous.

I went to the class on Sunday and I drew for three, blissful, uninterrupted hours. The first drawing I did was actually a little stressful. I haven't drawn from life in over xy years. I got all the proportions wrong, I had to do a lot of erasing and re-drawing and I had no time to focus on the hands or face. By the end of the session however, I hit my stride. 

I gave myself permission at the beginning of the class to use the whole three hours as a warm up. I did not expect to leave with anything spectacular. I didn't of course, but in the end I felt better about a few of my drawings than I expected to. 

I left feeling completely relaxed, happy and whole again. When I got home I worked in my own studio for a little longer playing around with shadows and lines and my head was swirling with ideas for future pieces combining models with my seed drawings to emphasize the themes of fertility and nutrition. The whole experience was thoroughly invigorating. I am looking forward to next week!

Hiking at Uncle Bob's

My husband's Uncle Bob lives in a gorgeous log home on several hundred acres along a river not far from us. The only thing on the property is his home, the rest is mostly timber, two ponds and a little bit of prairie. Eric goes deer hunting on the property once a year and sometimes helps his brother cut wood there. There are a few logging trails cut through the timber that have made a perfect trail for hiking. We've started taking the kids out there to hike and play in the snow. I love, love, love walking around the property. It is peaceful, unspoiled and so beautiful. 

This Sunday the weather warmed up a bit, so we loaded the kids up and took them to Uncle Bob's for another walk. It's a bit of a haul around the trail so we usually take a sled or two to pull the kids around on when they get tired. 

This time Eric did all of the heavy lifting and I got to walk around taking in the views and snapping pictures. I could have stayed out there all day. 

Wildlife is abundant on the property, but this time around we only saw the evidence and not the actual animals.

Even though the landscape is predominantly gray and brown there is still so much to look at. I love the texture of these plants. I wish I knew what their name was. 

I love this rusty orange color and the way the leaves curl up into little packages. 

I ran across these pretty purple viny bushes. I wanted to spend some more time trying to capture them in some sort of creative way to accentuate their color agains the landscape, but it was fairly difficult in the time I had since I knew my kids were still forging ahead of me. I do like this photograph though, because if nothing else it reminds me of one of my kids scribble drawings. 

I found a little more color in the evergreens.

And then there were these . . . plants. I wish I knew what they were. The yellow color was stunning to catch against the snow. 

I had fun finding shapes in the curls of the weeds. I love how the tops of the weeds all curled down and echoed each other making beautiful patterns. It would have been fun to see how many ways I could capture the shapes, playing with f-stops and such. It was a real challenge in the large clumps of weeds however, to capture their silhouettes without it ending up looking like indecipherable clumps of brown. Hopefully I can get outside with my camera sometime soon to try again. 

At the end of the trail I came across some milkweed. It is so lovely. On the overcast day, it was hard to get the subtle colors to come out very much. Such great texture though.

Day After the Storm

Several inches of snow fell on Cedar Rapids last night. I had been looking forward to this snow storm for several days now. It didn't disappoint, however most of the snow fell at night which is always a bit sad for me because I love to watch it fall. However, it is nice to wake up to a fresh layer of clean white snow. The kids were chomping at the bit to get outside and jump in it, so we suited up and headed out shortly after breakfast. I took my camera with me to take some pictures of the kids, but ended up spending quite a bit of time on dormant plants. Fall colors are my favorite, and while almost everything is coated in a layer of white, there are still some vibrant colors to be found.

Before the snow came we had an ice storm. Again, most of the precipitation fell at night and the next day we were left with frozen streets and sunshine. 

We didn't get enough snow to cover my over grown lemon balm.

Remnants of my marigold plant. I love the shiny ice coating.

The remnants of my sugar snap peas. 

And I managed to snap two pictures of two of my children . . . that were in focus. They never stop moving!

Still forging ahead on three different paintings, none of which are finished yet . . .

I Have Been Working

It's been months since I have been able to post a new painting, but I swear I have been working . . .

This summer was busy of course - entertaining and caring for the kids, working in my garden, preserving the harvest, carving out time for my husband. I did try to get in a little time for drawing though. I have started doing study drawings because I want to work a little larger and instead of diving right in to painting my subject right on the substrate that I usually spend a few hours preparing in itself, I wanted to do a drawing first to be sure I was happy with the composition in it's larger scale. The drawings are not complete, but I took them to a level where I felt I could make a decision as to whether I wanted to go forward with putting them on a larger substrate. So far I'm happy with the two sweet peas on the left, but not so much with the blue corn on the right.

I have also been working on two smaller oil pastels. One, on a small board, is almost complete. The other, a grain of bloody butcher corn on a slate roofing tile is close as well, but it is lacking that certain quality that makes it feel complete. It rests on my mantel where I can look at through out the day and ruminate. I love the way the kernel of corn looks on the slate, but the composition is just a little boring. It is meant to be portrait-like, but even so . . . it just isn't quite working for me. So I will continue to contemplate what can be done to make it more digestible for a while longer before posting. 

The third study drawing is now in the beginning of being transferred to a larger format. It took a while to plane all the wood and get it together, but I love it. I love working over the wood grain and seeing it peak through the pastels. I can't wait to see how it progresses.