Long overdue update

It's been an awfully long time since I last did this. So what have I been up to?
Well, let me think...

Back in May, I took a recently finished oil painting to a local gallery to see if I could get a print made from it for a friend. All my equipment was playing up after an upgrade of my system so I couldn't do it. I was delighted when the gallery owner said how much he liked the painting and could he hang it in the gallery and make prints to sell. My answer was, of course yes, yes and YES! He also asked to see my other work and so I took everything I had ever done over to him on a memory stick. He liked loads of my older pieces and will be creating prints from them to sell in the gallery. That original painting I took to him sold just yesterday and the lady that bought it wants to commission me to paint two more scenes for her.

 

I also started work on a series of pastel sunsets for a solo exhibition next year but dammit they just keep selling before I get a chance to build a body of work.

I have had a few portrait commissions on the go too, so work is pretty busy for me lately which is super. Christmas is fast approaching so I suspect there will be more to come especially as I am offering 20% off my pastel portraits until the end of November.
www.portraitsetc.co.uk

In other news I got married on 31st July to the wonderful Mark Davidson who makes everything in life shiny and bright for me. We had a lovely quiet ceremony tailored just for us and it was a perfect day in all respects.

 

 

So far it's been a busy year. I have also been working to get a book of my Girl in the Red Dress artwork published by trying to gain some funding via Kickstarter. The idea for this came about after I produced a series of paintings which formed part of a healing journey for me after a traumatic life event that I am unfortunately unable to share the details of. The paintings were simplistic but each one bore a deeper meaning within it's symbolism. I decided to put my own word of wisdom to accompany each image as inspiration for surpassing life's challenges. My hope was to self-publish the book to offer support to others who may be struggling at various times on their own journeys.

 

Unfortunately there are now only 10 days left of my campaign and it looks as though I may not make my target of the production costs. If you feel that this is a worthy endeavour please consider supporting me by pledging through the Kickstarter site. No funds will be taken from you or received by me unless the goal is reached so help me by sharing the project with others and spreading the word. There are lots of nice incentives for pledging in the form of Red Dress greetings cards, prints, original artwork and the book itself of course, all have a value of more than the pledge amount and could be delivered in time for Christmas if the project goes ahead.

 

Maybe, with your help and a little miracle, this last 10 days could be the making of it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alandajcalmus/the-girl-in-the-red-dress-book-of-inspiration

 

 

 

Lots of exciting projects to keep me going art wise and I'm enjoying it immensely. I am starting to feel as if my dear psychic lady may have been right when she told me to persevere with my artwork as I would make it big over the next few years after struggling to get noticed for so long. Thank you Lilla Bek, for giving me the incentive to keep at it, I am just starting to see results.



I will try to do a better job of keeping up with this blog from now on but for now I must get back to the easel. These masterpieces won't paint themselves you know? ;)

Thoughts from a Bridge

I am currently in the process of self publishing a 'Little Red Book of Inspiration' based around the personal journey I was on when I produced my series of Red Dress pastel paintings in 2011.

Whilst editing my writing today, I came across some pieces of poetry that I wrote a good few years ago now. As not many people have ever read these I thought I would add them to my blog. Make of them what you will. They don't necessarily mean to me what they would appear on the surface. This is the first one.

Thoughts from a Bridge

© Alanda Calmus 2008

I still remember that sweet night when I walked upon the air,
With Super Novas in my eyes and the Cosmos through my hair.
Solar flares, like burning ribbons of gold flowed from my hands,
And broken dreams, like Autumn leaves, lay trampled all around.

The blame for this, I cannot tell, when life goes so astray,
A tapestry of dark and light, always just about to fray!
Disillusioned and bewildered, nowhere to look, but down,
Wandering with wits so sharp, all alone, never touching the ground.

A web of silver beneath my feet, a memory of life, a whisper away,
Images left behind, dissolve and fade to grey.
Cruel the sound, heard from above, stark reality screams through.
It touches the soul with piercing shard, so clear and pure and true.

Looking up, I will not fall! Grief and ecstasy entwined,
Warm the heart with chestnut hue of silken locks enshrined.
All this played out under leaden sky. Feel my heart so full of pain.
Hold me tightly through this storm and lead me through the rain.

Let the water wash away the thoughts of yester-year,
An empty vessel left behind to fill anew, my Dear.
But let it not fill to the brim and stop… bring the next and let it flow,
A constant balance to be tipped and forever bowed.

For if there be nought left here to learn and stagnancy prevail,
I, for one, could not endure the woe that would entail.
No more the interest in the light, I’d hide away mine eyes,
And let the blanket fold across to drown my weary sighs.

Springing into action

It's around this time of year that a lot of people's thoughts turn to Spring cleaning. This is not usually the case for me. However this year it feels particularly poignant to have a big clear out and make time to fix those little niggly things that have needed doing for so long especially before my attention turns to my next, potentially quite long, art project.

The last few years for me have seen massive change, upheaval, uncertainty and tragedy. More latterly I have seen personal growth, healing, stability, trust and love. Now is the time to build upon that foundation something enduring, strengthened with a true sense of purpose and a clear direction. I feel more motivated than ever to create something that will truly define me and my journey through this life.

I have never been a particularly tidy person, nor very well organised in general. I have been a terrible one for hoarding things, always finding it hard to let go. I hate waste and don't see it as such a bad thing to want to be able to repair, re-use or recycle things. In this day and age I feel it is even more important to adopt this attitude which seems to have been quite lost in the age of consumerism. My problem lies in never actually getting round to the 3 Rs and instead collecting all my unusable stuff and cramming it into cupboards or, worse still, my work room which should be my sacred space. I wish to rectify this as I can no longer live under the pressure of all my clutter and no longer want to.

It has taken me time to adjust to this decision, so far only working in baby steps but at least I have been moving forwards however slowly. I feel that I am better able now and more willing to take bigger steps towards decluttering and what better time to initiate a full soul cleansing clear out than as we approach Spring. This is my favourite time of year, full of budding potential, bringing new growth and fresh ideas.
So without further ado, I'm off to clear out my darkest spaces, cast off the shackles of the past and let in the light so I may be transformed. I will leave you with this, a little something that came to me today as I was walking my tiny dog round the lake near my house.

Like the Earth, I am growing.
Like the Air, I am blowing.
Like the Fire, I am glowing.
Like the Water, I am flowing.
Like the Spirit, I am knowing.

And just for fun I'd like to add: Like the Peacock, I am crowing! ;-)

Following the Peacock

My project for the coming year is to create my own Tarot deck based around The Girl in the Red Dress. This will be a personal journey for me and will also be a lengthy one as there are a total of 78 cards in a full Tarot deck. I have wanted to do something like this for a long time but have never found the right theme for me until now. For some time I have been seeing peacocks everywhere to the point of seeing them in one form or another at least once every day. Recently I found this particular Tarot card depicting Juno and her peacock and believe it to be a clear go ahead for my project. I mean, she is wearing a red dress after all and her place in this deck is that of the High Priestess which has always been my favourite card as a Tarot reader. 

It is my intention to create this deck intuitively rather than rely on all of the traditional symbolism, although that's not to say that some natural associations won't be present. What will be, will be, as they say and I will be documenting my progress in my blog so feel free to share. I welcome constructive input so let's make this journey together and see where it take us.

As for the original Red Dress pieces, I have decided to use them to illustrate a Little Red Dress Book of Inspiration based around the journey I was on when I created them. I will draw on my experiences of what got me through a very dark time in my life and what ultimately led to huge personal growth. I hope that whatever else comes out of the healing already received through the process of painting the series, it will also have an equally positive effect on others. That is my in tention, so mote it be <|;-)

A Potted History

It's been quite some time since I last wrote in this blog so I thought it was about time I rectified that with an update. A lot has happened over the last 6 months and yet nothing substantially entertaining enough to fill a blog entry on it's own so here is an abridged version of all major events before I continue with more creative topics.

I became an Aunty on The Man's side to wee Isabella and I'm really stoked about that. She's a proper cutie and remarkably seems to like me more than any other babies have before so I'm chuffed to bits.

Poor old Charlie Cat had to be put to sleep at age 19 which in fairness is not a bad innings for a cat. We miss him lots though. Soon after, Bandit Tat arrived, or as I like to call him, Evil One! Sheer devilment in a pin stripe suit. He keeps me thoroughly entertained and exasperated in equal measures with his antics and has already destroyed several household items including my unfortunate Ipad. Poor Dastan, far from getting the play mate he always wanted, has ended up with a playground bully stealing his lunch and kicking sand in his face. They do still have a soft spot for each other when it comes to nap time though.

After I had fully recovered from my bike accident, me and The Man went out for a hair raising trip up and over the Applecross road. Talk about baptism by fire! Having previously come off on a corner because of a rough patch of road/pot hole, the Man took me on the narrowest, most cambered, twistiest, turniest, steepest, gravelliest road I've ever been on... in the rain!!!! Not so much a case of getting back on the horse, as getting the horse to drag you by the ankles over some broken glass into a war zone, no exaggeration! (Well maybe just a teeny bit of an exaggeration) I was a quivering wreck by the end of it. Since then we've been out a couple more times but after coming up behind a fatal bike accident on the last trip out I've decided to hang up my helmet and, as the Man is such a super supportive sweetheart, he will too so that I don't have to fret any more.

I got divorced and I got engaged, not necessarily in that order. I started yoga again and I joined an art group so at least twice a week now I see and converse with actual human beings and they don't seem to mind.

I single handedly destroyed our kitchen and built a new one, then with a little professional assistance and some help from the ever capable Man, fitted the new one and finished the job.

I did some painting, including a commission of two dogs painted in oil which did not pass without incident but I will post a separate work-in-progress blog about that later.

I organised a 90th Birthday party for my Gran and baked a cake for her and I organised myself enough to put my Red Dress prints up for sale before Christmas.

So that's the last six months in a nutshell, more or less. Now I still have my taxes to do, boo hiss, but other than that I feel I am in a position to start being creative again. I will be starting new work to put towards an exhibition in 2014 and I have plans to get out there a bit more and stop procrastinating. I shall endeavour to keep more up to date with this blog and hopefully entertain you once again. I'm thinking next topic, 10 ways to skin a cat!

The Wavering Artist

Ok, so I had a bit of a panic attack last night about all the financial energy I've been pouring into the Boat Festival craft fair I'm attending with my artwork at the end of June. Having spent the day painting a waterscape (not finished yet) and the evening mounting and cellophaning Red Dress prints and printing more cards I had an overwhelming fear that I would go to the event with all my stuff which includes Red Dress work, landscapes, wildlife and my portfolio of commissioned portraits and would end up taking it all home again after 2 days, being severely out of pocket. What would I then do with all the stuff that would further clutter up my already fit to burst work room?

 

 

 

It seems that every time I get a new idea for a direction in which to go with my artwork, I run with it only to fall flat on my face. I realised though that I don't persevere, I take one knock then think what I'm doing isn't good enough and try something else. I never give one thing a chance long enough or have the confidence to approach shops/galleries with what I've produced after I've seen myself fail in one area. I always feel as if I haven't quite yet found my thing or my niche and keep waiting for an epiphany. My energy is scattered in so many different fields. To look at the different types of work that I produce, you would think that every one of them is done by a different artist, they are so diverse.

 

So where did I go wrong?

 

 

 

I first started painting as a business 9 years ago. I started with portraits as I my son was about a year old and my Mother-in-Law gave me a set of pastels saying that with all this free time on my hands I could use a hobby!! Free time? With a baby? Well, anyway, I did my first portrait in pastel of my son and I liked it, so did my family and friends so I decided to do more. Not long after I was getting paid for them and eventually created a website, a business name, began advertising and so forth. My portraits have always been well received and I'm comfortable with them after many years of practice. They are comforting for me, people bring me photos, tell me what they want, I paint it, they're happy, I get paid, I'm happy but the work is sporadic and I needed to supplement it if I was to try and make a living.

 

 

 

So, about 5 years ago, I booked myself some exhibition space and started working towards what I thought people would like to buy. I'd already ventured into wildlife painting in pastel after attending a 3 day course with Vic Bearcroft so I ran with that. I also hedged my bets with some local landscapes painted in acrylic so the exhibition was literally half and half, wildlife down one side and landscapes down the other. I called it Bright Eyes and Blue Skies. After 3 weeks I'd sold only a few pieces making enough to cover my expenses but not much more. I took it all home again. Over the next few years most of the landscapes sold by me putting a couple into group exhibitions here or there, a couple at a time. I'm still left with 8 pieces on my walls at home from 2007. They are always admired but still they sit. Having said that I have sold many prints of the work so I musn't discount that.

 

 

 

Then in a fit of madness I decided to try Pin-Up art. I loved the Burlesque style and the Pin-Ups of the 40s and 50s and thought I would have a go at some of my own. I naively entered 3 into a local group exhibition that is a tad conservative and all 3 were turned down. Mortified, I did the walk of shame to collect them and never went back. I even set up a website for this genre under the pseudonym Venus de Mons. I sold 2 of them framed at their original price and the rest went recently on Ebay for £10 each.

 

 

 

After this failure, I decided to go back to what I was best at and invested in attending the Discover Dogs Show 2009 in London. As you can imagine the cost of the stand, travel, and preparation for this was hefty but I was convinced that if anything was going to bring me in work it was targetted promotion and where better to do it than a place teeming with dog lovers? My dog portraits are still my best seller. I even printed up money off vouchers for the first 100 portraits expecting to be inundated with work shortly afterwards. Everyone who visited my stand enthused over my portraits but not a single job came from it. Not a single one!

 

 

 

This was a real kick in the teeth and I was about ready to give up and then life took over for a while. Over the next 2 years I was very well occupied trying to get my life straight, I took some heavy fire and had to battle my way through it. None of which I'm prepared to go into on here. Suffice to say, hell and back would not be much of an exaggeration. In desperation to find some direction and answers I visited a psychic who told me to continue pursuing my art career, that it would be a good way to heal and would prove fruitful in time but that I needed to work more creatively. This was the inspiration for The Red Dress art. She just appeared on my blank piece of paper one night when I had no idea what I was going to paint. I found that the ideas flowed naturally and easily for her journey as it was also mine and people liked her simplicity. She has helped me heal and I am glad she came. Last October I held and exhibition with only Red Dress paintings and it went well. I thought that maybe this was my path but it seems that now my life is much happier and more secure my work with her has ground to a halt and I have lost confidence in her.

 

 

 

When I applied for a stand at the Portsoy Annual Boat Festival it was with the intention of displaying only Red Dress work but now as I near the event I have panicked and started painting boat/sea related scenes (well, it is a boat festival)! I have found myself enjoying painting them but yet again they are speculative and as I pour energy into a different area yet again, my message becomes more scattered. What am I showing to people? Versatility? I'd like to think so but, more likely, incoherence!

 

 

 

So what next for me? I really don't know but if this doesn't work out I'll just have to pick myself up and grow some balls so that I can go and tout my wares in the most likely places they will sell. i.e. gift shops and galleries. So what if I'm not confident, I can fake it with the best of them! I'm not giving up just yet :-)

 

I'd value you're comments on this or any insights you may have in this field.

Landscape in Pastel Step-by-Step

Today I thought it was about time I shared something arty with you so here is my step-by-step guide to creating this land/waterscape of the Spey River in pastel on Clairefontaine Pastelmat.

Having never painted a landscape in pastel before I decided to see if I could complete this one within 2 hours. It is the subject of an art demo I'm teaching today which will last 3 hours so allowing time for explanations it should be achievable for my students. Fingers crossed :-S

My apologies for the quality of the photos which were taken on my phone. Some are clearer than others so I hope you get the gist.

I'm using Pastelmat in the colour Maize which is a light creamy yellow.

First I roughly sketch out the main areas that I'll be working on. I have divided the paper into 4 to help with the proportions and positioning. I'm using an HB pencil lightly to as not to score the surface of the paper. There is no point in putting any detail in the sketch as it will be obliterated shortly by the pastel.

I am using a limited pallet of 12 soft pastels. Light/Mid Blue, Dark Blue, Dark Green, Mid Green, Light Green, Black, Dark Brown, Terracotta Red, Warm yellow, Lemon Yellow, Cold Grey, and White

I am working with different ranges including Derwent, Daler-Rowney, Inscribe and probably some others varying in degrees of softness but they are all jumbled in together these days so I just go by feel of what I want.

Next I block in the sky with a mid to light blue and rub this in with my finger.

Then I block in the background with my light and mid greens.

Using the black I block in the dark areas of the background and foreground. After each blocking in I rub in with my finger to create a smooth surface.

Then I add some dark green to the foreground.

Followed by some light green to the trees in the background and the tops of the gorse in the foreground.

Next, using my dark blue, I shade the top of the sky and the darker areas of the water.

Then with my warm yellow I add in the gorse in the background along both tree lines and in the tops of the foreground.

The next step is to warm things up a bit with my terracotta red which I add sparingly to the tree line on the left, the trees on the far right and through the yellow of the gorse in the foreground. All the while I'm smudging these layers in lightly with my finger.

Using my white next I add in some fluffy clouds to the sky and highlights on the water and lighten up the lower part of the sky along the trees. I have used grey to create shading on the underside of the clouds. I have also added it to the light grassy areas on the left and where the rocks are on the right.

Adding a bit more substance now with dark brown in the shadow areas of the trees, using the broken pastel on it's side to create the form of the trees on the right and the gorse.

Starting to put more details into the trees in the background using short dotting strokes with my light green and some mid blue.

Ah, this is a better picture, you can see what I'm doing!

With black I have lightly contsructed a tree and added shading to the right and with the warm yellow I have added more detail and highlights to the trees. I have also used more blue in the grass area, along with the red, yellow and white. Can you tell what it is yet?

I use the same process on with the trees on the right, this time using the dark green for the tips of the trees, creating form with the dark brown, adding in light green for the highlights and using the edge of my grey to indicate the trunks of the tress.

I have added a touch of yellow to the trees and the gorse.

This is how the background looks now in comparison to the foreground.

Here I have grazed some dark blue and grey over the water and some black at the edges where the trees are creating shadow reflections and softened this in with my finger horizontally.

Adding a bit more white over the surface of the water.

Starting to dab some dark green through the gorse in the foreground.

Then warming it up again with dabs of terracotta, brown and some black. I'm using the pastels on their sides and working in the direction of the plant growth to create the shape of the bushes.

Now I start to go to town with my warm yellow building up all the beautiful gorse flowers. I just love their coconut smell :-) I have also added a bit more definition to the gorse in the background.

I have warmed up the gorse flowers with a touch of terracotta and added a little grey and white to the foreground where the stems and grasses are drier.

Using my light lemon yellow I tip the tops of the gorse to create the highlights. I have also defined the trees on the far right with some terracotta and light green and I've worked on the water a bit more.

I do tend to dot about to other areas when I see something I've missed, a bit more form here or shadow there, etc, so this is a rough guide. The trick is to step back and squint at your picture each time you change colour and see where else needs a dab.

The finished article!

I hope that this has been interesting/useful. Thanks for looking and please feel free to comment.

P.S. Here's the one I completed during my art demo this afternoon. Slightly different to the previous one so I must have picked up different colours in some cases and it's very difficult working at an angle so that everyone can see. It will need a bit more work to bring it up to the same level as the other one and make it a finished piece.

Everyone enjoyed the demo and it was very interesting to see all the different interpretations and the variations in colours which affected the mood of the picture. All in all a good day enjoyed by all :-)