How It Started, How it's Going

 

A few years ago I started making line drawings of the sprouted seeds I photographed. I wasn't sure that I was trying to produce finished work. It was something that I could do while my kids were playing and it felt like it was helping me see better. 

I drew beans too but I was most often drawn to images of corn.

I worked on these drawings for a couple of months. The first drawings felt busy so I worked to distill the images to more and more simplified forms. I would often cross section my sketch book page into four equal parts and work with one image of a sprouted seed at a time. I started out by drawing almost every line or change in the surface that I saw and from there I drew progressively simpler images until all the spaces were full and I felt like only the most important lines were used to communicate the image. It was a really fun exercise. I even bought a stack of frames for my favorite drawings. 

Then one day . . . 

                            I set my sketchbook on the shelf under my work bench.

                                                                                                                    And it sat there for 5 years.

                                                                                                                            

I don't know why.

Recently, I dug into the now piled high shelves in my studio in a fit of pandemic cleaning and pulled out the sketchbook and rediscovered loads of these line drawings. I was so happy it almost felt like a reunion. I stopped what I was doing and spent a lot of time looking them over again. I even cut the sheets up and put some of them in the frames I purchased.

Shortly after that day I was on a long drive, taking in the countryside, and thinking about my work. In the tranquil space of my car the images in the line drawings united with the landscape. I started to see the lines in the corn drawings in the same way that I was seeing the rows in the fields. 

I decided to experiment with adding color. 

I loved these colored images, but wavered on whether these vibrant colored pencil drawings were a finished product or another step forward. I decided that it was time to use some of the barn wood that I had been sitting on for a few years. I hadn't been able to use it yet because I had been waiting for the right idea to come. 

Three Cornscapes

Oil Pastel on Barn Wood

Three separate panels 9 x 12 x 7/8" 

March 2021

Sprouting Green Bean 2

Sprouting Green Bean 2

Oil on Canvas

40 H x 16 W x 1 1/2" D

$1,500

This is a conventional Blue Lake variety green bean.

Detail

Studio Night

I enjoyed a wonderful spring night in my home studio. This is an early sketch of a new painting. It is a detail of sprouting Black Aztec corn. The windows were wide open while I worked and every breeze carried the heavenly scent of lilac. 

Sprouting Green Bean 1

Sprouting Green Bean 1

Oil paint on barn wood

11 3/16 x 27 15/16 x 1 1/16"

 I finished this painting in September 2017. It is a closely cropped view of a sprouting green bean. The bean I sprouted was a Blue Lake variety of green beans. It's my favorite variety and its the seed packet that is most likely to be open on my gardening shelf when I'm looking for something to sprout. The flesh of the bean is actually much, much lighter, but the warm color of the barn wood was too beautiful to cover completely.  The way the seed coat of a green bean seed rips open when the bean is sprouting is a little more dramatic than seeds like corn, pumpkin or even lima beans. It usually rips from top to bottom, exposing much of the inner flesh while the root pushes through at the bottom.

Detail, Sprouting Green Bean 1

The wood came from my friend's acreage in Ohio. It's beautiful place and it was nice to think about her and her beautiful family every time I sat down to work on this painting. 

Detail, Sprouting Green Bean 1

Sprouting Black Aztec Corn

Years ago I was visiting an indoor winter farmer's market in the small gymnasium of a former old brick school building. One of the vendors was selling corn meal made from Black Aztec Corn and Bloody Butcher corn. He had a couple of the seeds that the corn meal was ground from and he let me have some when I told him about my series of sprouting seeds. I went home and wrapped a few of them in a wet paper towel to help them wake up. A few days later I took the first photographs that would influence two paintings.

Just barely beginning to sprout

The Black Aztec Corn that I brought home likely originated from a similar variety of corn that was grown 2000 years ago by the Aztec civilization. This corn is a hybrid of the ancient Aztec corn. It began showing up in seed inventories in the late 1800's. This variety of corn can be eaten like sweet corn when it reaches it's milk stage and the kernels are still light in color. As it matures the corn begins to turn shades of deep blue, purple and black. Growers say that when it is harvested in its maturity is makes a nice corn meal and indeed it did.

The first painting I created from this sprouted seed, Black Aztec Corn 1, I wrote about here: https://plantingseedscultivatingart.blogspot.com/2014/09/blue-corn.html
It was included in the group show "Midwest Summer: Light and Warmth" at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in the summer of 2015.

Black Aztec Corn 1

Oil pastel and gesso on steel siding

16 3/8" x 18 3/8" x 2 1/4"

Image size 9 5/8' x 7 3/4'

**SOLD**

The second painting took an interesting turn. This painting is oil on canvas and the different substrate and larger size had a different effect on my painting. I decided to focus on the main activity within the center of the seed. In real life the subject was not as colorful, but the act of new growth is so full of energy and light. It became more important to be truthful about the energy in the expanding seed than the physical appearance.

Sprouting Black Aztec Corn

Oil on Canvas

24 H x 48 W x 1 1/2" D

I finished this painting in November, 2017.

Painting Classes

In September I moved into my new studio space on the 3rd floor of the Cherry Building in the NewBo District of Cedar Rapids. Moving into that space has afforded me the opportunity to lead several two hour painting sessions for up to 5 young painters. It has been so much fun! I love, love, LOVE being able to teach your blossoming artists how to paint.

Each of the sessions follow a general pattern. After everyone gets settled into their spot, they start by sketching out their ideas on a piece of paper. It's just a quick 15 minute or less sketch to work out shapes and sizes or get some tips on how to draw a figure or animal before they put it down on the canvas. Each painter gets to work on their own idea. The small class size allows enough time to guide each painter through the challenges they might face in making what they see in their imaginations come to life on the canvas. There is a lot of time to answer individual questions and do demos with each painter if they want the personalized help. 

When their ideas are finalized we talk about color schemes for the entire painting. Once the background color or style is chosen I encourage them to cover the entire canvas with paint before they begin painting the subject.

While the background paint dries we have a little snack, usually popcorn, look out the windows and chit chat. It seems like there is always something good to look at during class. Sometimes it's a stunning sunset, sometimes its an entire parade!

Next we begin painting the subject. I have a variety of brush sizes for the children to use to be able execute their ideas to the best of their ability. I usually try to keep them aware of how much time is left so that they can be sure to get all of their composition onto the canvas before they leave. It's great when the kids can get up and look at each other's work and offer suggestions. While they are working on their composition we talk about how to make the colors more vibrant by building up layers of paint. I also share tips on how to correct mistakes or how to work with them by turning them into something new. Sometimes the mistake is actually an exciting opportunity.

Finally, you return to pick up your child and their new work of art.
The mess? You get to leave that here!

To find out about the upcoming dates for classes e-mail me at kimmelion@yahoo.com or look for the Planting Seeds, Cultivating Art page on Facebook @plantingseedscultivatingart.

New Studio, New Classes

I am renting a new studio space in the Cherry Building in the New Bohemia District in Cedar Rapids, IA. I haven't even been in it for a month and already I notice a huge difference in the flow of my work time. It's not huge, but it's more space than I had at home.

With this new space comes an opportunity for a new venture. I now have the space to offer some kids art classes and maybe even some for adults. 

My goal for the classes is to give children a chance to explore painting for a couple of hours and leave the mess behind. It won't be a step by step class, but rather a chance for them to put their ideas on canvas while getting some help with the details. I'll help them plan out their composition, talk about filling the canvas, do some demos when necessary, and encourage them to turn mistakes into opportunities. Art is one place, outside of athletics, where persistence can yield rewards. It can teach you to push through frustrating moments, challenge you to think outside of the box and ultimately create something to be proud of. 

Flier with dates coming soon.