“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
My interest in sketching trees was ‘twigged’ when I recently unearthed an old oil painting of a tree from a storage closet in my studio, and went on a tree drawing spree. This is Spotty Tree, drawn January 31, 2023.
This is the vintage painting that spurred this theme. Painted in 1972. Artwork Copyright Patricia White 2023.
This is a simple line drawing to document a beautiful antique silver spoon my mom used as a sugar spoon at special family gatherings. Its intricate raised design features grape vines and curvilinear elements that, even tho it has value as a family memento, makes this a very special piece that stands on its own.
I hope to render the spoon in various media as I go forward. Likely using watercolour (with or without ink outlines) and/or graphite and coloured pencil. This is part of an ongoing personal project to document some of our family collectables.
Artwork copyright Patricia White 2023.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
~ Marcel Proust, French Novelist
DAILY PAINTING is an effort to keep my art-making skills active, develop new techniques and generally just keep discovering new ways to document the world I see and imagine. This quick sketch drawn with coloured pencils and white charcoal, is an imagined vista. I scored the paper with a small ball-headed stylus before putting pencil to paper so those areas would remain white when the pencil was drawn across the indentations. Think I’ll use a larger stylus the next time to make those lines more prominent.
Artwork Copyright Patricia White 2023.
Drew this Scribble Character Sketch in the Apple Notes app on my iPad Pro and enhanced the drawing in Procreate.
I have chronic arthritic pain in my hands and right should so find it helpful to use my Apple Pencil to navigate around on my tablet. Sometimes I forget and tap the screen to wake the tablet and it immediately opens a Notes document with the drawing tools panel open. I could change this in settings but think this is a good way to remind myself to do a little random doodle or concept on the fly.
this guy, I dubbed Mal Evalent, took shape by building on a pencil sketch frame, adding ink scribbles to form the structure and features. Finally finishing with a transparent marker layer of subtle colour.
Artwork Copyright Patricia White 2023.
“Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.” ~ Victor Hugo
Accidentally tapped my sleeping iPad and the Apple Notes app opened with the set of drawing tools active, so I took it as a sign to stop what I was doing (coding I think) and play for a bit. Doodled for a while till a recognizable form poked its nose out of the chaos of pencil strokes. I dubbed her ‘Melancholy Girl’ as she gazes pensively from behind a flowing mane of hair.
Artwork Copyright Patricia White 2023.
I never really got a solid start at Daily Painting a couple years back, but am giving it another try. I am slowly coming out of a creative slump and believe this practice will aid in my progress. Feel free to follow along, make your own daily art, write, sculpt, do woodwork, photography, create a recipe, make fibre art, sew—whatever floats your boat.
In her book DAILY PAINTING: Paint Small and Often to Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist, author Carol Marine noted that: “While the idea of painting every day may sound overwhelming, let me assure you, there are no specific rules or requirements. Really when I say you should paint “daily,” I mean you should paint “often”-but “Artists Who Paint Often” wasn’t catchy enough to jump-start a whole movement! Sure, the ideal might be that you paint every day, but not many of us can commit that much time to art, so we must settle for as often as we can. The daily-painting movement encompasses artists who paint daily, weekly, monthly, or intermittently. What ties these artists together, and qualifies them as “daily painters”? The simple fact that they strive to paint frequently, without getting bogged down by perfectionism, procrastination, or any of the myriad things that keep us out of the studio.‘
So. That is what I’ll endeavour to do—make art as often as possible on days where other daily concerns don’t get in the way. Will work mostly with analogue art materials (watercolour, gouache, acrylic, or oil paint, ink, pencil (graphite and/or coloured pencils), pastel (hard and/or soft), mixed media including collagé, et al, on canvas or paper). However, on days when time or arthritic pain is an issue, I will likely create digitally using my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil with apps like Procreate, Adobe, Affinity Photo for iPad and Mac and a some older apps such as Art Set, which I like for its realistic tools and for getting down concepts quickly.
Note: All original works posted in this blog are copyright Patricia White Creative.
A modern, inspirational guide to the to the art of the miniature by Karen Libecap
I’ve been reading a TON of art books these past months. This week it is THE BIG BOOK OF TINY ART by Karen Libecap.
CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS:
My 1st attempt at drawing MINIATURE ART.
Of course, it’s an APPLE, my subject of choice for the past few weeks, but this one is only 1” wide.
I generally work large so this was a unique challenge that forced me to pay attention to the smallest detail.
MATERIALS: Strathmore Mixed Media 300 Series sketchbook (https://is.gd/pJoFtf) using Derwent Coloursoft Pencils (https://is.gd/BKHilv).
Artwork Copyright Patricia White, 2022.
“Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations.”
– Paul Cezanne
Over the past months I have been reacquainting myself with many of the master artists of the past. Most of them came from traditional roots and many were ridiculed when they broke with tradition to explore other ways of looking at and depicting a subject. They are also the artists we revere the most all these generations later.
This is my quick study, working title ‘Paint Like Cézanne’
All artwork and creative writing is Copyright ©️ of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.
All artwork and creative writing is Copyright ©️ of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” ~Pablo Picasso
AUTUMN’S COMING WIP
I’ve been in file-backup-hell all week. Changing web providers and spent hours this week cleaning up a slew of email accounts. Wreaking havoc with my hand and arm pain so scribbled on my iPad today.
Not wild about it as a whole but there are parts that I had fun exploring. was trying for a bright coloured autumn’ish’ landscape with a large bank of clouds dominating the piece.
It feels unfinished but the DAILY DRAWING mantra is to just get something down on paper or tablet :
”DO NOT OBSESS”.
Artwork Copyright Patricia White 2021.
Trisha’s Daily Painting 