STUDIO VLOG n.26: DOES YOUR ART REWARD LOOKING?

hey guys welcome back to bits of an artist's life guys i can't tell you how much i look forward to bringing you into the studio with me each week i'm so glad that you guys have been enjoying the videos today's painting is going to take quite the transformation i mean maybe the biggest transformation of all the ones that i've shown you so far and i'm excited for you guys to follow along i wanted to share a concept with you that i've been thinking about as i've been making these paintings especially this series that i've decided to name under the table i mean that may be kind of obvious why i named that but in all paintings there is something under the table usually a cat but one of them you know we have a crocodile under the table who showed up and i think one of the paintings there's actually not anything in the final painting there's not anything under the table but at some point in the transition of that painting there was something under the table so i'm just going to stick with that title of under the table all these paintings are also going to be up on my website soon i am doing a massive overhaul right now on my website that i'm working on that i cannot wait to bring to you guys i'll be announcing it over on instagram so make sure if you are not subscribed over in my or what is it called no a follower over on instagram make sure to go check that out it's sandygrady1 when i launch my new website i'll have this whole series up on that platform so what i wanted to talk to you about was something that has been feeding my what would i call it basically kind of guiding my approach the way that i'm painting in this new way in this new series i heard another artist talk about it a while back and i don't know that i'm saying it exactly like she did i may have reworded it like i usually do with things kind of change the wording but the concept is still there the concept is this to reward looking when i heard that or whatever it was that was similar to that it just fired me up and she talked about some artists that did it and showed some examples and i cannot remember who those are at this point but it doesn't really matter it made me think of other artists that i know that do that that the more you look if you will take the time to just actually like really look and move around that painting you will see things you did not see before you'll keep seeing new things i thought i love that i am not at that place with my paintings but i am working towards that the way i feel like i'm expressing it is in kind of the kooky fun whimsical way where i in i am yes doing still lives but i'm having fun inserting not only marks fun marks and colors some just unexpected things and that's really been fun for me to think about that like oh yes i'm doing a still life but i could stick a really weird fun face in that painting yeah i don't know just just playing with that so for the viewers then that take time to look and look and not just do a quick glance over they're gonna find some little chuckle they're going to find some comedy and some whimsicalness and just some fun in that painting so i've been having fun with that just thinking about that and saying to myself is there anything in here that feels kind of hidden and like a little reward for those that stay and look so those are things that aren't like the obvious you know the big impacting pow kind of things there's little subtle things okay here we are i literally have no idea where to start i don't really like anything that's going on i do like the bananas but i think everything else that i've placed on top of that first layer is gonna have to go i mean i just and i don't even know where to start so i'm going to start messing things up doesn't matter what i do because i can't mess it up any more than this i'm trying this thing you probably can't see i've got the table marked out it's going to be probably a white table that's what i usually do for some reason or white and then i'm trying this thing with the window behind i don't yeah i want a calf yeah hot mess city this is what it looks like this is what it looks like so [Music] the end so easy now i didn't only have one brush it takes a little longer for clean up when i have more than one brush but that's it on to the next thing okay guys here is where i am at the moment uh i decided to take out most everything as you can see and then i made it into three windows instead of one i think i kind of like that composition a little better put a chair in i mean we all know that something has to be done with that cat i'm sure we all know that don't we and i don't know if you notice this but i feel like i need like a pointer because i've got you guys set up on the tripod so you don't move while i'm talking because i talk with my hands i'm going to use this as my pointer this tree was outside and then i but it didn't look good it kind of had a tangent like it was sitting on that so then i brought it in and made it a christmas tree now the likelihood of that staying is slim to none but for now it's there i really keep trying to save these cats i don't know why they're not even that good and what happens with sometimes is if you keep trying to save something like sometimes you just have to get rid of what you love and i'm not even that in love with that but i am working around that but that did help me decide to do this so we'll say oh and i added some toast i've got to do more layers of that but the toast is really cute he's cracking me up and i left little parts of the floor you know the rug there and there i had more with oh and this i probably shouldn't have got rid of so much but but did i mention that i'm tired so tired today it must be allergies because i'm just like it has been a busy week really busy and maybe that's what i'm tired but when i'm tired i have a hard time painting so i think i'm gonna clean up what time is it two o'clock i think i'm gonna clean up i need to go drink some more coffee i think that's what i'm gonna do clean up do my sketch whatever i said next i hope i'm not like overwhelmed by this painting tomorrow when i come in here but that toast is speaking to me i've never put toast in my paintings before i mean one of the things that i'm loving kind of putting in there that i mean i don't know that this is like a reward for people looking but you know the little plugs that i'm putting in there and this painting you're gonna see what i do with these cats that ended up first being like in a landscape background but then i bring it to the foreground and i tuck them away and just a fun little progression not my progression what am i trying to say in a fun little way good morning guys it is first thing monday morning so i've got this painting up that i've been showing you i feel like i haven't picked the camera as much as probably what i should have should be doing for you guys but i came in this morning it's feeling very daunting like what is next i'm definitely not in any area of it in a good spot so i can kind of feel right but what i've got to like get over because if i stay like that i will not work on it what i need to press into is okay nothing is like precious so i can just play so that's what i'm trying to work up this morning i put a new layer here i'll just show you i came in and realized this the white table had gotten real like murky white so i thought let me just put down a really bright color i made the table a little bigger i really liked the rug and the composition of that so i was trying to save it at this point in a painting i cannot be trying to save stuff i mean you just i just can't no no no no cannot be precious about anything so i just put a really bright background that will help when i'm laying white on top that will see through and i needed a clean slate sometimes i feel like i have to be like really worked up to can i grab my tea while we're chatting hold on that's better drooling what was i saying oh yeah sometimes i feel like i have to be like worked up to get into a painting like that i don't know why that is sometimes i just stay in the rhythm and the flow and then other times it feels big like i have to really be inspired but a lot of times you just have to get to it and start painting okay i just went on a rabbit trail now i can't remember what i was going to say sorry about that guys i just think you know things like you see a plug which is just a normal object of a house but they're really for me fun to paint and it kind of makes you go that may be the cutest little plug i've ever seen i don't know those actually now that i think about it nobody else is probably gonna be very excited or feel like that's a treasure for looking the plugs but it is for me when i see them they make me smile but in this painting i definitely know the things that are the reward for looking the little weird head that's looking over the the table and there's a painting i'm working on right now where there's a funny little lady in a very very small background painting there's one where i've hidden the snowman in the painting and it went from being on a coffee cup to i can't remember where he ended up in the final i think maybe in a painting on the wall yes i just wanted to share that concept with you guys i want you to know that that's something i'm thinking about to also know that other painters in the past have thought about that and worked towards that and so sometimes you just need to linger a little longer i think instagram some of our other things have made us just such a quick quick quick kind of culture where we just we don't have time to really take time to look i mean that's one of the things i love about going on walks and just the act of observation we just don't do that much in this culture and there's something very rewarding whether it's in nature or just normal day objects that when we actually take time to let our eyes adjust and really take in the subject that we're looking at whether it's a painting or nature that there's reward in that and i just love that i love it i love it in nature i love it in ordinary objects and the way the light may be hitting them and i am loving doing that or trying to do that in my own paintings was that like a really long discourse on something that should have been really short i don't know but there it is and i hope you guys have fun yeah i hope it will inform your day you know to really take time to to look and to enjoy the process of looking and observing and enjoying the little treasures that you find along the way when taking them to do that hey guys i have you sitting on top of the painting that i'm about to obliterate no i've not been drinking i just can't say that word very well obliterate yeah i just gotta go i'm going to lose all of it i don't really i think what i'm gonna do i've learned that i don't like if i just cover almost everything with like a solid color so i think what i'm going to do is use composition of another painting that's worked well i'm going to just do some drawing on top and if i cannot feel so overwhelmed by all the stuff going on then i'll just start like carving away and painting i think there's a lot going on i think the things that i'm gonna maybe try to save which probably in the end will totally go there's something about this stuff right here i like i really like this plate and the toast i've never painted toast before the book's not bad this isn't bad i mean even that cup is fine pretty much i'm probably still going to do a still life and so it's going to be like a table i even like the christmas tree and the plug i'm always looking i don't know what it what is i feel like i've lost my mind with like these plugs but anyways i still really like this area this is probably going to have to go i'm probably going to lose this i ain't glad i'm documenting it because then i'm kind of saving it but yeah maybe i should take a picture of this so i can kind of be inspired later but i'm just finding myself not working on it because i'm so uninspired by it you know sometimes you just keep chunking away at it and other times it's like okay this has got to go i really don't like this phase have you noticed there's a theme with these kind of paintings i get in this murky land mode where it's like i can't resolve it and i have always just kept pressing through it and i've been pretty much happy maybe i need to keep doing that i'm gonna keep doing it i just got an idea i think i may have just got an idea okay i'm gonna go play i'll set the camera up okay i think i'm gonna use some of my neo color wax pastels or maybe these are oral pastels i can't remember they're water soluble whatever they are yeah wax pastels to just do some drawing on here and get some kind just think through things and i do like that because then those marks are left i'm just randomly like picking the color something that feels like it's speaking to me so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning guys it is the next day i started to pick up the camera at the end of the day yesterday but i was getting squeezed on time and it was like really dark in here it's dark in here even darker now because it's like raining outside but i needed to pick up the camera this morning to tell you i am thrilled that i like braved it and took on the painting in its stage of like what do i do because okay it's back there i'm going to show it to you now listen i totally get that it's still in hot mess mode but it's in exciting hot mess mode that's a whole different mode like i've moved past it was like okay i broke things up you know it's like i just did what i felt like i needed to do and i'm really happy i'm like happier like there's some more happiness coming there's more like i think i can navigate the waters and i'm thankful that i just remembered that like i've dealt with this every single time with these paintings i've gotten in this place of like i just need to abandon ship and it's like no let's stay on the ship okay i'm also sitting here looking at this can i just tell you i don't know why i started this there's probably mold in here like i'll bring my tea in here in the winter so you usually drink tea a lot during the day okay i don't know what smell that was weird it's my tea bags and they're just collecting in here i think i'm gonna take these to the kitchen now and then i'm gonna tackle this painting i have some editing to do today for the video that's coming out tomorrow which will be friday and working on my thumbnail and all that so it just feels like an exciting day yeah so i'm looking forward to it i just want to jump on here say i'm really happy with things let me show you what things are looking like at this point i think it's going to be funny that if y'all look at this and you're like oh you're feeling better about that i am you probably cannot necessarily tell this but i extended the table up maybe a little further than what i want in the end yeah because it's kind of yeah i just made that mark you know to kind of tell myself hey we could go up this high and then i think i'm gonna save this or i'm gonna try to either i made a circle around it for like a design on a platter but now i'm thinking i'm gonna make make it into like a book cover and write something on there like the cat's adventure or something like that i started to leave the kitty's head on here and put it like on a mug because it was kind of neat and i just decided to squish that out but i love how now it looks like the cat's you know going under the table to visit this guy this guy is still in the works but i am really liking his face i think his face is turning out pretty cute very workable i'm pretty happy about that and then do you notice that i saved this which was on the table but now it kind of looks like it's on the floor it's feeling doable so i'm gonna do that today i'm listening to authentic obsessions podcast and um [Music] like a person when i was looking at this background it felt like i saw a face in it and so i thought i'd make it a cat but then that looked a little weird so now that this does not look weird but i just you know i wanted to take advantage of that something that was speaking to me and i do want some walkiness and some weirdness and continuing on that theme of rewarding looking i do want that to happen in these paintings [Music] is [Music] one of my great mentors so much because [Music] so i didn't have the camera i thought i had the camera on but i didn't but i was talking about across the i was trying to tell you guys when i'm standing across the room i feel like i saw like little arms like kitty arms coming down and then it also kind of looked like hair so i thought well i'm going to accentuate that and see if i can create like a fun little critter that's like kind of behind but kind of in front so we'll see it will probably all get gone but we'll play around with it here's my mess my water is looking quite pretty it's very purpley i never use purple but i've been using purple but i don't know if i like it it'll probably end up going but right now i am enjoying the water okay guys i thought i'd give you a different camera angle since i'm usually just like calling it and showing you guys it's almost three o'clock i'm gonna call it for the day for a couple reasons i think i just need to call it uh my body is feeling it from the week of doing a lot of painting and the sun is coming out it was raining this morning so i think i'm going to clean up the mess and see if granny wants to go take a walk with me and get cooper we're doing some training with cooper so i think we're going to do that but i am super super super happy with the how the painting's coming about just fun little quirky things i don't know i'm just i'm at that place where it feels really fun and i've done this enough now to know that tomorrow when i come in i'm not going to feel it's precious because i've gotten in the groove of losing things and bringing things back in so there's definitely things that i'm not loving at the moment but i'll resolve them i've done it before i can do it again like i really wanted this to be a book but i just don't think it's happening i don't think my little cats are gonna be saved i don't know i'm not gonna worry about it right now i'm gonna clean up and go outside but i wanted to give you an update and let you see it before i cleaned up see you tomorrow well guys i forgot to pick up the camera while i was finishing things here is the finished piece i am so happy with it and i feel like it's quite a bit different than other paintings so i'm happy with that all right let me show you around so we got two cats in there i love this guy i think he's so cute i saved the christmas tree hello how fun was that to paint and my plug a little star even little things like this like i had tape um on the side this was a pink ground that i painted with my gesso when i took the tape off that was there and i'm like yes that has a little interest so i just saved it this is basically our house back here and the pond okay there's that cute little guy i think he turned out cute i even put like little nails on him and then i saved the cats and it says cat's cereal i love it and then johnny saying yum i should have made finn say yum because he's the bigger eater this was better composition yeah i just was really i'm happy with it and this was the first one that i did a really bright table the others have been white and i think that i like it i really like this plate i like these things here i love these bananas the salt and pepper shakers those also are in a lot of these paintings i thought these turned out really good the hedge or like little flower clipper things do you see a little bit of the let's see what was this originally was it a book i can't remember what that green thing was originally but i saved a little peep of it okay the toast stayed yay for the toast i love these apples this cup i really loved i'm i was going to work on this more but i liked its transparency this little jar of cherries i love and then i made some of them kind of spill out and do you see how parts of the original table that came all the way down i saved within the leg of the table and then let's take a close-up of this guy he turned out cute i love painting their nails i mean it's just so stinking fun okay even this guy he's got little kitty nails so cute so cute so there it is guys i'm super happy let me know what you think if you're as happy about it as i am i would love to hear what things you you do love about this painting i hope you enjoyed another little bit of an artist's life i hope you'll come back next week i post new videos each friday all right guys well that's it for this week bye guys i'll see you back here next week

Channel: Sandi Hester

Views: 5,773

Rating: 4.9572191 out of 5

Keywords: studio vlog, art vlog, #artvlog, #studiovlog, #art, art

Id: kGPBmaxPcPY

Length: 26min 23sec (1583 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2021