Timeout for Art – Reflections from a Bamboo Cabaña

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Who created this artifact? Man? Woman? Several People? What purpose did it serve? How many generations lived and died before this artifact was discovered?  Did they have complex language skills?  Who found the artifact, or was it looted from a grave or washed downriver? Who steered it into the museum’s collection so that I could one day admire and study it?    (Watercolor Study — Artifact from Museo Bahia de Caraquez/Ecuador)

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others…for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received and am still receiving.”
― Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies

This quote from Einstein’s Living Philosophies prompted me to pause and consider my life, the lives of my friends and loved ones and the casual strangers we meet each day.     I pondered every man-made article  ‘built upon the labors of people both living and dead’  in the room around me.  I wondered about the nameless people that affected my particular point in life at this very moment.  Who whacked the bamboo that now serves as the walls of this cabanya?  Was the hard work of construction mixed with sweat and shared laughter as the workers saw the vision take form?

Working hard or hardly working?!

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Timeout for Art – Art Makes Us See

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Petite Morning Glory w/watercolor in background…

“Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.”
– Paul Klee

This vine grows wild in the nearby landscape and has exploded into bloom from the recent rains. I often arrange the cobalt-blue flowers in nosegays, which perch on shelves or near the kitchen sink and give me little smiles throughout the day.  Planning to add the petite blue morning glory’s likeness to the butterfly study, I admired the sinuous lines and decided that it deserved its own study!

Watercolor

There are times, when my eye-hand-brain connection is so in sync, that using a pencil before painting would seem redundant. There are other times when that faint map of pencil simplifies the process and strengthens the end result.  After studying the lines of the trailing  vine, I began to paint without the aid of a pencil.

Watercolor – Blue Morning Glory

Timeout for Art: Scientific Accuracy

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art by Lisa Brunetti, nature studies, painting butterflies in watercolor, Painting Flowers in Watercolor, the great nature project, Timeout for Art, watercolor, Working from Life

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

‘We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.’- Maya Angelou

The watercolor (above) patiently waited for three weeks while I waded through dengue-clouded sleep and dog-paddled back to the land of the living. Like trying to remember a dream, I now recall details of the illness that return in little snippets, “Oh, the exceptional pull of gravity on my hands and arms felt as if heavy chains kept them cemented to the mattress.”  I remember seeing my puffy face in the mirror and wondering, “Who are you?”  After the fever left, I walked with a touch of vertigo and often listed to the left like an injured fish swimming in circles.  I walked little, as my blood pressure fell if I stood too long, so returning to the bed with easy sleep was a gift.

The butterflies and flowers from a year ago

At times I forced myself to sit up, take my temperature, pulse, drink more liquids, and then I collapsed back into the world of dreams. Oh, the places I went in that dream-packed sleep, and though my dreams I could fly! I could roam the world and other worlds and spend time with a new cast of people! On awakening, the vivid recall kept me entertained, and I rolled back after a brief commercial break and returned a the marathon of dreams.

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man. ~Chuang Tzu

Two days ago I peered at the watercolor in limbo and pondered the wildflowers in bloom outside. They were at their peak a month ago, and they were now going to seed and would soon be gone for another year. I could rely on reference photos, but there’s nothing (for me) better than working from life. I retrieved some flowers, revived the dried watercolor palette and began painting.

Timeout for Art: Be Yourself!

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“The Magic Portal” – Watercolor – Lisa Brunetti

The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.
~E. E. Cummings

Watch the frog come to life!  These photos show how a subject can seize control and affect the mood.

Timeout for Art: Reminders

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“Keep a bad drawing until by study you have found out why it is bad.”  (Robert Henri)

A watercolor instructor (Tony couch) once stated, “You should frame your worst mistakes and put them where you see them often.  They will remind you to NEVER  do that again.”

This week I’ve resorted to using a flimsy paper that was the best I could find almost a month ago in a basic art supply store almost two hours away.  Fair for pencil, it does not serve well as watercolor paper.   People have often stated that I’m a bit too hard headed at times, and after drawing the PEEPERS  in pencil, I wanted to take it a step more with color.  I KNEW that the paper was going to be difficult to use, but…..

Timeout for Art: Power

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“Let whoever may have attained to so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great treasure.”  (Michelangelo)

When I block out all distractions and stay focused on my subject, drawing is like breathing – or like taking a refreshing nap!  After half an hour of drawing, I often trade my pencil for a paintbrush.  I quickly wean into a never-never land, and time seems suspended until something pulls me back into the present.  At times I am painting, and at times I am drawing with my paintbrush.

Precolombian Mola Series (Watercolor)

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This new painting style startles me at times!  Inspired by the Mola textiles of Panama’s Kuna Indians, it was also influenced by my love of pre-Columbian artifacts.  This series continues to evolve, and the subject matter sometimes takes control and dictates the painting’s direction.

Traditional “Antigua” Design with Butterfly – Watercolor – 11″ x 15″

“Museum Guardians” (Jama Coaque/Ecuador) Watercolor 11″ x16″

(The series also inspired the “I CAN DO THIS” painting workshops.)

This PDF summary provides a retrospective summary of the first 14 paintings of series.

‘I CAN DO THIS!” Painting Workshops

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This gallery contains 28 photos.

So many times people have watched me work or have looked at a painting and said wistfully, “I wish I …

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