Recently, my artist pals and I (4 Artist Friends) did a live painting event at a local pizza restaurant called The Franklin Street Pizza Factory. I can’t believe it, but it’s actually been about a month ago. How does time go so fast? Anyway, I wanted to share some of the fun we had.
First off, I’ll say I’m not really comfortable painting in front of people. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before when my friends came over to my house to get together, eat, talk shop and paint my garden together. (see that post here) But this was a special event, it was my friend Sandy Dodd’s art exhibition at FSPF (Franklin St. Pizza Factory). She had asked us to go, and we all wanted to support her. All but one was able to go. We missed Lori. Hopefully she can join us next time.
If you’ve never been to a live painting event and wonder what they’re all about, well you weren’t alone. I really wasn’t entirely sure either. I was a little nervous about painting in front of people and as it turns out, I had nothing to be nervous about. It was like being around a bunch of friends.
There were some other artist friends painting there too we all knew from just being in the art circuit in Evansville. Vincent Boren, Daniel Fitzgerald and Glenn Ray (see above). These are the same guys I see all the time at the art festivals, especially Funk in the City. A good bunch of people who are easy with a laugh. Glenn is my favorite, as he’s a fellow gardener so we talk flowers more than art together. In fact, I went to Glenn’s house earlier this summer and toured his gardens and art studio. I’ll post about it later.
Sandy Dodd, who was the star of this show, had a spot right up front next to the band, Cinco De Blues. Her husband, Allan, plays guitar in the band. They were really good and it turned out to be a hot, but fun night. Sandy had a couple of paintings going I think but then she focused on painting the band as you can see from the photo. This photo was taken just before I left, so I’m sure she’s worked on it more since then.
Sandy lives an exciting life. She and her husband spend part of the year in Guatemala. She paints a lot of landscapes while there and the people that live there. Her paintings are colorful and expressive. They usually travel down there from Indiana in a boat! She even paints on her boat. Now if that’s not exciting, I don’t know what is.
They are currently building a house down there but with Covid, they’ve had to put off this year’s trip at least for now. They’re off in Wyoming camping right now. See, I told you she lives and exciting life. We’ve been keeping up with each other on Messenger (Facebook). She’s already painted several paintings of the scenery of the parks there.
Sandy’s website where you can see her paintings and buy prints is at https://sandydodd.smugmug.com/
Vicki Wilson knew exactly what she was going to paint. She started right in and would you believe she was just about finished with her painting when we left?! I learned a lesson from her. Have a plan. Vicki has just started up a learn to paint subscription based online lesson course. Her website is www.vickiwilsonart.com.
Vicki paints a lot of the time with a palette knife. That’s not easy to do, I’ve tried it. Her paintings are what she calls Farmhouse Rustic and she does them very well. She’s the first of all four of us to branch out and do live painting online on Facebook. She’s quite good at it and teaches many free classes along with her paid course. Check her out on Facebook to paint along with her.
Well that just leaves me. I’d like to be able to say I painted with abandon! That I threw my fears of painting in public aside during this live painting event but that would be a lie. Instead, I hem hawed around wasting time trying to figure out what to do. True to form, I made the mistake of having no plan. Story of my life. Wing it. Fly by the seat of my pants. Yep, that’s me.
The first thing I did was set up my gear, which I didn’t even pack up until about an hour before I had to leave. (will I ever learn?) Of course that wasn’t enough time to gather it all, pack it up, drag it upstairs and out to my van. I have time blindness. I’m unable to accurately predict how long things actually take. What I think will only take 10 minutes takes much longer. I underestimate my time well… all of the time. It’s horrible actually. I consider it a character flaw. It leads to anxiety and being rushed not to mention fights with husband and snide remarks from others. I hate it, yet I find myself unable to change it.
Finally, the actual live painting
Anyway, enough about time. So I wasted time setting up my gear. I laid out all of my paints and set up my canvas after trying several set ups for it. I had brought my easel, but had forgotten to bring an important piece for it that held the canvas (jeesh.). Luckily, Vicki had brought me one. So I’m standing there staring at a canvas. I had decided to put down orange as a background. I think I put down 3 coats of that orange just procrastinating!
Well, finally I did pick out some more colors and started to lay down blues, purples and turquoise. I figured maybe an abstract would be good to do. I listened to the music and just let my brush dance over the canvas feeling the waves of sound in my head and letting them come out with my hand.
I stared at my painting. It wasn’t finished, but I knew I already wasn’t liking it. It seemed like Vicki and Sandy had no problem creating beautiful paintings while I just tried to concentrate on mine and hope no one noticed what I was doing. Of course, this was all in my head. My friends were encouraging and not one person stood up and pointed and said that’s horrible, you call yourself an artist?! Yeah. My mind goes there.
It really was a fun time with the live music and delicious pizza. I’m not sure if I’d do it again, maybe. Next time though, if there is a next time, I’ll have a half finished painting ready to go and just paint on it. My creative mind failed me and hid from everyone that evening. Oh well, lesson learned.
A few hours went by. The small crowd started thinning out. It was going to storm later and you could see the clouds banking up. I looked at the weather app on my phone and it was ugly. Lots of heavy rain and strong wind was coming our way so Vicki and I started to pack it up. It just started to rain as I was dragging all my stuff back into the house. Perfect timing… imagine that. hah.
⬅︎ Feeling Numb and Unable to Create / Investigating Stone Mansion ➡
Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page under the additional links menu. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery and telling mystical stories.
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You stepped out of your comfort zone and succeeded. I’d love to see if you do anything more with that painting. And I hope for a ‘P.S.’ too this story; meaning another event painting in public, to see how things change if you go with a plan. I imagine the painting won’t be as flowing and soft and free, since you don’t seem able to work with the boundaries of a plan. There’s probably an artistic reason for that!
Hah ha you made me laugh Lisa because you’ve nailed it. I’ve never been able to work within boundaries, at least for long. I’ve had many jobs in my lifetime and I think it relates to that reason. I’ve been fired from my share, too. One boss told me he thought I needed more structure, hahah. So if I can blame it due to my artistic ways, I guess I’ll take it as opposed to just being a flake.
To address your P.S. I do think there will be another public painting event. In fact, it’s in the works although a bit different. My 4 Friends & Artists group plan to paint in public like at parks and such. That counts, right? And I do think I’ll return to that painting as well, of course I’ll share it here.
Thank you for your encouragement, you’re always a voice of reason it seems… so calm sounding and encouraging to me and others (as I read comments you leave for others on your blog). I truly appreciate you.