Of Carpenters

There's just something about working with wood, the process of turning a living tree into a useful or beautiful object using your hands and a few tools. There is a certain connection with nature in the process. The smell of the shaved and sanded wood, the smoothness of a finely sanded surface as you run your hand across it searching for areas of roughness to even out. The weight of the dense hardwood in your hands. Substantial, durable.


Working with wood is a mind-freeing activity. The kind of activity you can engage in as the hours slip by and day turns to night without your notice. Your attention is captured by the wood.


There is time to think when you work with wood. There is the buzz of a power tool, like white noise, blocking out the world. There is the repetitive stroking of a block plane or the gritty dragging of sandpaper, back and forth. There is the smell of newly planed wood shavings and of tung oil. There is the muffled softness of a workshop floor covered in discarded shavings.


Sometimes in our too-busy world we need to find an escape, a solitude, a meditation. For me it has been my art. The hours fly by. For others, carpentry is that vehicle they use to escape inside for a while, completely focused on the work at hand. What do you do to find that place of solitude and meditation in your life?

My walking stick. Shawn made this lovely stick with its serpentine, wood burned designs for me out of tiger maple. It is as smooth as glass and almost too beautiful to use, but since it is maple it wears well and is much more than a showpiece.

Walking stick detail. I still need to add a cord through the hole. A cord twisted around the wrist provides security against loosing it down a slope while hiking!

In Shawn and Earle's workshop a blizzard of shavings all but obscure a wooden ruler that belonged to my father. I love the mellow hues of the aged wood with its worn patches and faded markings.

Beautiful maple curls. Shawn took all three of these shots of shavings as part of his photography class last year.

A lovely, wooden rosette!

Joseph was a carpenter. Jesus, before he began his ministry, was a carpenter. A humble profession, yet valued and connected to the earth. I have been reading a fictional story about Joseph and Mary. I am gaining great insight into life during that time period. The story is touching and the characters come to life. I am about two-thirds of the way through the book and am eager to finish, even though I know the story already! If you are interested in such a story, a story of a carpenter and his young bride, take a peek at Two From Galilee. It makes good Advent reading.

Annunciation

She modestly draws back and responds, "ECCE ANCILLA DÑI." or "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord".

"Van Eyck is considered one of the greatest painters of any period. Advances in oil techniques helped him paint the physical world in minute detail and with a degree of realism never before possible. It was said he knew fabrics like a weaver, buildings like an architect, and plants like a botanist. Here it is hard to believe that the angel's gleaming brocade is yellow pigment, not true gold, "woven" with brushstrokes, not threads.


In this painting Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear the son of God. She modestly draws back and responds, "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord." Her words are printed upside down for the Lord above to see. The Holy Spirit descends to her on seven rays of light. This is the moment God's plan for salvation is set in motion. Through Christ's human incarnation the old era of the Law is transformed into a new era of Grace.


Almost every element in the painting contributes to this theme. The architecture moves from older, round Romanesque forms to pointed Gothic arches. In the floor tiles, scenes from the Old Testament prefigure New Testament events; David's slaying of Goliath, for example, fore tends Christ's triumph over the devil. The single top window, where Jehovah stands, contrasts the triple windows below, which suggest the Christian trinity. Even Mary's overlarge figure inside the chapel operates symbolically to underscore her identification with the Church. The lilies beside her refer to her purity."

-from The National Gallery of Art



Van Eyck is one of my favorite painters, not only for his command of the paint and his magnificent attention to detail, but also for his imagery and symbolism. To view one of his paintings is to peel an onion, to contemplate each layer respectively. The more you learn about the symbolic nature of the objects and the setting the artist chose, the more beauty is revealed. My favorite painting by Van Eyck is The Arnolfini Wedding, which is exhibited at the National Gallery of London.



He, and his contemporary Northern European artists, are credited with introducing and perfecting painting with oils at a time when the Italian Renaissance artists were dedicated to fresco techniques. It is amazing the difference between the art of northern and southern Europe during this time. the contributions by both are amazing, yet so different in character.



Back to the Annunciation, if you wish to delve more deeply into the symbolism Van Eyck incorporated into this painting, may I suggest this site: Annunciation at Wikipedia



There are so many beautiful pieces of religious themed art from the past and present, but at Christmas time, or more properly Advent, with its focus on Mary and Joseph and their struggles as the awaited birth approaches, this particular painting touches me. The holiness and quietude of the scene enables me to reflect on the approaching miracle. The miracle of that one, world-changing birth in Bethlehem.

Nature's Simple Beauty

I love rocks. Especially beach rocks, rounded by the ebb and flow of the sea. Polished, smooth. I collect rocks. I paint pictures of rocks. I have decorative rocks in my garden. I have a bag full of rocks we collected several years ago on a beach in Cape Breton, Canada, a most magical place.

The beach in Cape Breton. It just cries out to rock hounds doesn't it?

So, this bag of rocks finally became a part of my world. They are no longer relegated to the shelf in the basement.

I sorted out several sizes and then gave them a light coat of clear nail polish. Now they look like they do when you are at the beach and the rocks are damp and their colors are heightened.

Then, I took a tray, and a bag of preserved moss, and some pine needles collected from the neighbor's trees across the street, and three candles I bought on clearance at the craft store, and I arranged them into a miniature wonderland.

The candle light makes the rocks sing.
Oh, that I was small enough to walk around this little rock garden and leap from stone to stone.

Nature's simple beauty

So quick and so easy. Bring some nature inside this holiday season. It will bring joy to your heart and peace to your soul.

Diversions

Never mind that you we should be shopping. Yes, I know, less than a month of shopping days left. Then there's wrapping and decorating and baking. All this is, of course, in addition to the usual ponderous slew of daily necessities. Never mind all that. We need fun, diversion; we need brain food.


If your brain needs feeding go here:

Free Rice

You can feed your brain and feed others at the same time.

Or, if your creativity needs nourishing go here:

Snow Days

If you click on Find-a-Flake and type percytruffle into the box you will find the flakes I made last year. Let me know if you make any and what your username is so I can ooh and ahh over your flakes!

And, if your soul needs satiating go here:

Advent Calendar

Enjoy your holiday season. Go forth and bake, decorate, and shop. Just don't forget to refresh!

Thanksgiving blessings to everyone!

Preparations

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a day to spend with loved ones thankful of all our blessings, and of course thankful for the food. My sister, Kathy is hostess this year. She is a wonderful cook. I learned practically everything I know about cooking from either her or our mom. The usual holiday feast will be waiting for us tomorrow as we venture over the river and through...oops, I mean over the highway and through the towns. As my contribution to the feast I have been asked to bring pies. Guess what I've been up to this morning?

A messy cook is a happy cook I've always said. Are you neat or messy in the kitchen? Do you clean and wash dishes as you go or do they pile up until the end? I'm somewhere in between but closer to the latter.

Blueberry pie, with a kitty-shaped steam hole of course, and a well sugared crust.

Oh look, there's two pumpkin pies as well! It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them.

No sense in wasting the extra pie dough. Mom always made tarts with the extra dough. They were the best part because they were so small and precious and because we could eat them right away! These tarts are filled with cherry berry conserve and quince jelly.

What are you having for dessert this Thanksgiving? Are pies on your menu? What kinds? Yum, yum. Be sure to save room for dessert.

Art Lesson: Drawing with Pastels

Today I have a little drawing lesson for you. Something to feed your creative side over Thanksgiving break.

Working with pastels is like making a pie crust: don't handle the thing too much! If you overwork your drawing it will become muddy and lose all the nice little marks you've made. Nature isn't perfect and neither should your drawing be perfect. There is no "erasing" with pastels, but that is part of the fun. So, loosen up and don't judge your drawing until it is complete and you step away from it and say, ahhhh.

Before we begin, let's talk value. Value is how light or dark something is. For this drawing I am going to let the value of the paper play a part. I am fond of drawing with pastels on a colored background, this time I chose black. Areas in my still life that are in shadow will remain the black of the paper. Let your paper work for you.

Gather a group of objects to draw. Odd numbers of things make your eyes happy. Place them on a simple background that will not be a distraction. This is going to be a simple drawing. When you have a handle on the technique feel free to include whatever background you like. Arrange the objects so that they are pleasing to you. You will find that good composition rarely places the largest, most prominent object in the center of the page (unless it is the only object as in this piece). When you have an arrangement you like, find a light you can direct at one side of the still life. This will help define the highlights and shadows for you, making it easier to see where to place them.

Now we are ready to draw. Go grab your pastels. They needn't be expensive ones. Any student grade set will do to start with. If you like the medium you can always upgrade later. There are some wonderful pastels on the market that produce bold, rich color. Chalk pastels are our medium of choice for this lesson. You don't want oil pastels for this. You'll also need a piece of black drawing paper. Construction paper is sufficient for a beginner. The rough texture of the paper holds the chalk well. You can experiment later with different smoothnesses of paper and how that affects the drawing. While you're grabbing your pastels, get yourself a pencil too. But, no eraser. Put that back.

My still life of three objects, lit from the left

Step 1. Sketch your still life lightly with pencil. I used white colored pencil so you could see it better, but you will be able to see your ordinary #2 pencil just fine. No details, just a basic outline of the shape of the objects.

Step 2. Using your pastels on their sides (yes, it is ok to break them into smaller pieces) add the appropriate colors to your objects. Press harder to lay down more chalk on the light side of the objects and press lighter on the dark side to let the black paper show through. Shading isn't so hard when you let the paper do some of the work.

Step 3. Use white to add highlight areas to your objects. Squint at your still life. Where is the light the brightest? Put the highlight there. See, there is a reason artists make funny faces as they work. I squint a lot, but it has nothing to do with needing glasses. When you blurr the details it is easier to see the values.

Laying in the blue hue for the ball and adding the highlight

Step 4. Now you can add some detail. Don't get carried away if this is your first try or if you want your drawing to retain a "fresh", "sketchy" look. Pastels can be blended and can be quite detailed, but for this exercise we are going for quick and fun. Remember the pie crust analogy.

I didn't choose to meticulously draw in each twig of the dried Baby's Breath, but rather I chose to represent the twigginess with a few stray marks.

Each dried flower is represented by an irregular spin of the pastel point. Random and natural. Note: this is what happens when you draw with one hand and hold the camera with the other. Next time maybe I'll remember to use the tripod.

Working on the third object. Same steps as before. Lay in the basic colors, add highlights, add details. 1,2,3, simple as pie.

Notice the absence of color on the dark side of the objects. That paper is doing its job for us.

Step 5. Now you can go back in and add additional shading with a black pastel. I usually reserve this for the cast shadows. The objects themselves are fine as is, but adding extra dark to the shadows the objects cast onto the table gives the objects weight. They are no longer floating above the table, but are visualy anchored to it. I also added the final detail to the ball and some extra shadow inside the vase of flowers. How did I know where to add these? Squinting.

Our finished sketch. Step back away from your work when you are done. View it from a distance and you will be amazed at how different it looks than when you are up close working on it.

Enjoy. Happy sketching.