Blog

I’ve seen several posts lately about how artists can improve their ability to see and paint more accurate values. That is important stuff, folks. I can go through a stack of my old plein airs  and check the “blah” box for those that just didn’t get the value right; therefore the color was not right, the composition failed, and the panel goes into the cover-with-gesso pile.  

I’ve also been one to struggle with poor vision since 4th grade when I had to get glasses to see the blackboard.  Glasses and contacts have saved the vision (well, as well as can be done), but it wasn’t until recently I realized my bad vision could give me a quick way to check those values.  I currently wear contact lenses, mono-vision. That means my right eye is corrected for up close details and my left eye for distance. 

Instead of squinting, as we are often told to do to see value and not get distracted by too many details and color, I just close my distance-vision eye and look at the somewhat blurry view that allows me to quickly see overall value patterns.  Then as I paint, I periodically close my near-vision eye to check the overall value patterns of my now blurry-looking painting to see if they match the reality. 

I say this is my way of turning a handicap--Who doesn’t want great vision?--into a benefit.   

Happy painting, fellow vision-impaired artists!

Oh, the whirlwind  of change! After four years of living in China, my husband and I are back on the sweet earth of the Carolinas. I’m loving the sights, sounds, textures all around me and sometimes feel I can’t keep my pencil, paints, or pastels moving enough to capture on substrate what my senses are taking in.

  Artistically, I’ve moved into another season of life.  I sometimes reflect on my younger years of taking little kids to parks, gardens, or waterfalls, and packing my art tools hoping for that illusive 30 minutes to sketch or paint. Then came teaching, and cheering on the sports teams as my little kids moved into big kid activities to stretch their minds and muscles. My sketch  pad was still packed in my purse, and basketball or soccer players became unsuspecting models for whatever I could quickly capture.  Art opportunity came and went as fast as the football soared through the air.  

Then I thought my Art Life had arrived! My husband actually built me a studio to take all of the sketch tools, oil paints, pastels, panels, canvas, art books, and students out of our living and dining rooms into a real art space, and I settled into the bliss of thinking, doing, teaching art. 

But, we moved. To China.  Where packing “stuff” had to be kept at a minimum. Where taking “stuff” was prohibited.  My studio dwindled to a little closet of a room and supplies had to be slowly restocked from thin sources.  But I kept painting and teaching and thrived and grew. 

And now that we’re back, I feel like the proverbial  kid in the candy store,  only the candy is all of my old art books and tools and space.  And the Carolina sights sounds and textures revive me again! 

Another great change has come, too. I’ve just opened an on-line store to expand my opportunities to show and share my art with interested clients. You can still find and purchase original fine art from my www.marthafaires.com web site, but  now you can also purchase my fine art gifts or decor at PIGMENTARY.  Follow the link on my art web site or go straight to http://www.zazzle.com/pigmentary.