Thursday, April 19, 2018

Studio Campagna Oil Paintings - Toy Series...

I was 'toying' with the idea of painting a few still life with children's toys. This isn't a new concept, but one I've been wanting to do for awhile. The first below was done in 2016, and inspired me to do more.

I'm not going to rush through them, as I want to select items that appeal to me for the project. I would like them to hold a story that makes them more special somehow.

This is the first I'd like to share with you. The back story on this one isn't anything profound, but my love of painting hydrangeas and peonies just called out 'paint me.' The little toy clown is very old and beginning to show signs of wear and tear. I picked him up at a discount store years ago. It reminded me of my grandmother's porcelain dolls. He's only about 6 inches tall, and use to sit near my dressing mirror just for fun.

With very strong warm color, I was surprised by the result. It also seems to have a bit of a Victorian feel so I did some scratching on the panel to give it an aged look.

Toy Clown with Hydrangeas and Peonies
Framed - 8 x 8 inch canvas panel
© 2016
Price $ ebay auction + Shipping

I did't have any other toys laying around, so I had to recruit some new and gently used items for the next paintings. Now to find the other components for cohesive compositions. 

FYI: BTW - I'll be donating 35% of the proceeds from the series to a local charity - 
Foster Champs of Maple Valley, WA.

Saturday, April 07, 2018

One Artist's "Creative Habit" Seminar Experience

There are so many good blog authors writing about technique, composition, color, and subject matter that I often wonder what I might add to the mix. In this post, and a few future posts, I will be sharing an experience that turned out to be quite enriching to my personal growth.

I recently attended an eight week seminar to engage with the book The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. For those who do not know, Twyla Tharp is a successful choreographer.

Her book is dense with information and ideas; it also includes exercises after each chapter, and I'd like to share a few of the aha moments I experienced as a result of these exercises. The seminar included 6 attendees and one participating leader. Most of us are visual artists, but we also had a dancer, and an art instructor for young children. This mix added even more to this seminar - I'll share a few of the best moments in future posts.

One of the exercises (after Chapter 3) is to write a Creative Biography. This has a list of questions that I am actually still working through to completion. However, the early questions went like this:

1. What is the first creative moment you remember?
2. Was anyone there to witness or appreciate it?

I instantly remembered sitting at the kitchen table when I was about 5 years old doing a finger painting. It was a vivid memory with my parents busy with other things and I just loved the sensation of smooshing the paint with my hands all around the paper. No one actually made a big deal out of and and I don't recall that it was saved and mounted on the refrigerator like many of you might  remember doing as a kid to display some important creation. Nevertheless, it stuck with me all these years.

I decided to do another one shortly after the session without any idea what it might look like. I just let stream of consciousness take over. I squeezed and spread some color onto the paper, and scraped with my fingernail to make the drawing. It is not a very sophisticated image, but it connected me to the same feeling of pleasure I remembered all those many, many years ago.

Revisiting the Past in the Present
R. Campagna
© 2018

The image I finger painted as a six year old was of my family, but this one is just me, flowers, the sun, and a goose! I looked up the symbolism of a goose since I had no conscious insights about this choice of imagery, but after reading the symbolism associated with the goose, it totally fits my personal tendencies, and I bet I can tell you a story or two around it!! 😊

In my next post I'll share a moment of revelation from another past experience that caused a life long challenge.

I would encourage anyone interested in self discovery regarding your creative inclinations to do the exercises in Twyla Tharp's book. It was/is inspiring!! 😍
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