Waste Not Want Not - by North Carolina Painter Sue Scoggins

This is random and nothing like I usually do.  But, I was totally "over" painting seriously for the day.

There is this "thing" that really bugs me...that's called waste. Instead of buying new, I usually try to recycle or get more than one use out of things.  So when I really botch up a painting, while my first inclination is to throw it away, sometimes I just stick it in a closet somewhere and forget about it. This old canvas had an unusual amount of thick dried up paint on it.  I at least had to give it try....see if something could come out of it.

So I thought...let's turn negative into positive.  I took a mixture of prussian blue/dab of red/and whatever other dark I could find and sketched, in very thin paint, a line of birdies sitting on wires. .. let the shapes of color of the old painting create the shapes of the birds. Thus the odd shapes of those  little creatures.  The randoms colors in the birdies are all the colors underneath.  Such diversity, ha.

Then, I began to negative paint a neutral color around, filling in the background.  The bottom of the painting was already dark..so I just put in a few strokes to indicate buildings.

There ya have it.  Urban birdies.  (Still might head for the trash bin.)  But...it was a fun experiment.

OUT OF THE WOODS - Italian Lanscape by Sue Scoggins, North Carolina Painter

Most all of my paintings have a story behind them.  While working in Italy last summer, I took an afternoon to hike from Palazetto to the San Galgano Abby. The beginning of the hike was across this beautiful field of gold and yellow tall grass that had a narrow path going across it.  The path led into the woods that was tucked in the valleys of the Tuscan hills. The woods were pretty thick with an occasional plowed field appearing from time to time.  With my backpack filled with water, a light jacket, a sketchbook and charcoal pencil, I was ready to take in the delights of nature and a bit of adventure.  Oh yes and my cell phone that didn't work in such an isolated area.

After about an hour hike, I saw the Abby on the hill and wound my way around to it.  This Abby was a special place where the legend of the sword and the stone took hold.  Fascinating history.  After  a quick lunch and relaxing little sketch of the Abby, I packed up to head home.

Circling around the Abby, I found my path to return.  One little problem...I walked completely passed my little fork in the path.  Kept looking straight ahead and into the woods. The deeper I got into the woods, the more "forks" there were and soon I began to think, "Hmm. I haven't seen this place before."  Figured I'd find my evident long road through the woods that I had come in  on.  After about 45 minutes, I realized I was getting no where.  Kept going back and taking new paths.  After about 2 hours, my "non-panic" mode took over in my mind.  I realized I was completely lost.  I sat and thought through my survival strategy.  Figured as long as I had that plan in place I wouldn't panic.  So, I evaluated, my supplies.  One backpack to use as a pillow, two bottles of water to use sparingly, a  charcoal pencil to fight off the wolves that I had been warned about.  My jacket as my blankey......and headlines, "Stupido American Tourist Devoured by Tuscan Black Wolves."

Needless to say, my panic did NOT set in and I didn't not get eaten by wolves.  I kept a level head (which is very rare) and hiked back to the beginning of my return and found the right path. Trust me, an hour later, when I saw this clearing, "Out of the Woods" was born.  Whew!

Inks and Buttery Oils - by North Carolina Painter, Sue Scoggins

The creativity thing is such a mind game.  There are days when there is not a single spark of creative thought going on in my head.  Busy-ness, chit chat, and the like can fill the hours. I get energy from being around people.  But I get creative thought when alone.  Then the urge to paint comes!  It's like the brushes are screaming for me to pick them up and a vibrant color is begging to be spread on a canvas.

This painting began weeks ago with the spreading of transparent acrylic ink on white canvas.  Process magenta ink was carefully poured and spread with a palate knife.  The color is so intense yet so transparent that the white canvas shows through.  Oh such a gorgeous color!  Most all of my paintings begin this way.  The same was done with other colors some of them overlapping the other.  That was all that was done.  Here were basically three swathes of color across the canvas and I had no idea what to do with it.  So the canvas sat in a corner for weeks.

My studio is off of my living, so everyday whether painting or not, I walk by.  Unfinished paintings lean on the walls, some begging, some dormant, some wanting to be finished.  Yes...paintings are alive. (I promise, I'm not too crazy...really.)  But this one in particular had been begging for attention.
The other night, while sitting on my sofa, with this canvas silently calling me, I saw a color.  It screamed out at me.  So, I went in and put some indian yellow, pthalo blue, and white on my palet.  Mixed a chartreuse green and just started dancing it across the dark. I loved that green on that dark blue.  Thus the dance began.

Road to New Bern, revisited - by North Carolina Painter, Sue Scoggins

There's another show coming up.  This will be the third this year.  I feel like a machine. In order not to get burned out, it takes new venues, new subjects, and new techniques to get me all lit up again.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is find new subjects or a new story to paint.  It seems I've been painting wildflowers since the day I was born.  There will be plenty of them at the October show at the Little Art Gallery in Raleigh, October 10th.  It is so much fun, slinging the paint on in the beginning, Jackson Pollock style, then carving out those little peeps of blooms that are hiding in the middle of all the chaos.   But it's time for something new lest those wildflowers start to wilt.

Today, I decided I would paint over an old painting. The intention was to have another "subject" at the show. So often those beginnings turn out to be the best paintings!  While  perusing through some old images, I remembered the painting "Road to New Bern".  Every time I would go to see my husband, who was ill at the time, in New Bern, I would pass this old barn.  I had the barn on my mind. With all the colors of the painting still in tact, I decided to put paint on very thick with a pallet knife but let the random colors of the old painting show through in little peeps.  I began with large swipes of white paint for the roof of the barn.

Basically, the rest of the painting was surrounding the white barn with color.  

Lots of crazy combinations of thalo blue, pthalo green, and indian yellow.  Juicy color.  Pretty fun.

RECAP and ONWARD - Back from Shangri-La

Shangri-La was a place is the fictional novel, Lost Horizon, written in 1933 by British author James Hilton.  It was a perfect place.  A dream.

sitting on a table in a vintage shop

Spending the summer in Italy was truly that.  A pipe dream that, never in my wildest dreams, would I have thought would occur.  The people I met and the art that I saw was almost more than I could take in.  I saw art everywhere.  In the architecture, in museums, in cafes, at street markets, sculptures on playgrounds, symphonies at sunrise. And it was old art...an authentic representation of life.....a wedding, the universal love between mother and child (I could write forever about that), history over the centuries.  Where would we be without art!  Even the shoemaker! It became ingrained in me.  To think that 10 years ago, I didn't know a thing about art.  I had only been to Europe on a few business trips but never to "live" and experience it. The art that I saw was more than I could have ever seen in any art history class.  To think, people live and breath it over there.  What a privilege.  Arranged by a friend, I was even able to see the Queen's art collection in Buckingham Palace before I came back home. I am humbled to have been able to go.  I mean, who gets to do these things?

on an
Arezzo street

a wedding documented on canvas in Anacapri

bye little Rose

It's September 1.
Time to get back to work. I said goodbye to my little Rosie, picked up Peacock Georgio's feather, gathered fourteen paintings, carefully rolled them up, and carried them under my arm across the Atlantic.  Neither heat, nor rails, nor airports could keep these paintings from coming to Raleigh. These 13 acres of Italian Borgo San Pietro gardens, captured on canvas, have travelled on trains to Naples, ferries to Capri, planes to London, the Gatwick Express, and finally on American Airlines back across the pond to Raleigh.

trains

ferries

See you soon, October 10, Little Art Gallery, Cameron Village, Raleigh, North Carolina.

After The Borgo - Goodbye by North Carolina Painter, Sue Scoggins

Blurred is sometimes better

It’s Friday.  Was it worth it?  An absolute, “YES!” 

Goodbye Borgo.

Goodbye gardens and gardeners.

Goodbye eggs florentine, waiters and drivers everywhere. 

Goodbye open windows, fire flies and horses grazing in the night.

Goodbye scorching days and dusty roads, icy rivers and muddy trails.

Goodbye cold showers, baby scorpions and lizards in my bed.

Goodbye Mr. Rooster and Georgio, the peacock.
Goodbye, huge black wolves of Tuscany.

And to the staff….

Goodbye florist Rosie from UK.

Goodbye concierge Anika from Finland.

Goodbye reception Lucrezia and Louisa.

You know who you are.

Goodbye to Caterine who smiles with each dish she washes.

The housekeepers…..and to the beautiful Stephanie who irons…. 

You are the gold nuggets of the Borgo. 

Goodbye artist residency Borgo Santo Pietro, Palazetto, Chiusdino, Italy, 2015

BIRTHDAYS!

It's my birthday today!  How lucky to spend a birthday here at the Borgo. (Actually, it's tomorrow but I didn't have the heart to tell my breakfast friends.)  How exciting to be sung to!  These breakfast buddies are so speeeeecial.  They make me smile every single day!

Could not stop laughing at Carlos singing the birthday song.

So fortunate!

It's been three weeks and the time is almost gone. To be honest, I’m a little “painted out”. But I’ve discovered the whole wax and wane thing must be true and I’m sure a new surge will come in a day or two. I guess this is what an addiction is like.  I want to quit but can’t!  Sort of like some people and chocolate cake….but mine is paint!   

……A DAY OR TWO LATER……

Walk to San Galgano

Winding down, means cleaning up the studio, throwing away near empty tubes of paint, “spent” canvases and old disposable pallets. Let’s smear this with a pallet knife. Can’t waste that paint on the pallet. NEVER WASTE PAINT!  Maybe a little dab here or a little dab there.  OH KNOW.  It’s happening.  Abstracts! The next one was painted over a dining scene I had painted of the Borgo.  I didn't like it.  SO........what a great place to put the leftover paint!

After the Borgo

Friday is my last day.