Summer Vibes Finale | 2024
The air is beginning to be crisp in the mornings, the light is shining through the windows at a different angle, and the trees are just starting to turn. All of this signals that the start of fall is right around the corner, which means that my second annual Summer Vibes Project is coming to an end. The goal that I outlined in my first June blog post to start my project, was
to focus on completing a lot of paintings, but I’m not interested in putting very much pressure on myself.
Reflecting now, I think that I was already feeling a little overwhelmed and a bit tired before I even got into my project. I was already worried about feeling pressured to paint what I thought would be “enough” for a project to be worth it. Of course, this is silly, because it’s my project and I can make it whatever I want it to be.
I started out the summer feeling good. I created two mini-series focused on just two different reference photos and it was fun to play with interpreting one photograph in various ways. Then I hit a wall at the end of July. I was painting and drawing a bit, but summer camp threw me for a loop this year, with a less experienced staff and more challenging kid issues. I found that by the time camp was over and I was ready to go on vacation, I really just wanted to sleep more than anything. I did not give myself a creative break between the end of my Immersion course and the start of my chaotic summer work season and I think I needed one.
I feel conflicted though. How do you strike the right balance between wanting to push yourself and stay consistent, while also giving yourself space to rest, recharge, and dream up possibilities? I do not have an answer. I just know that this summer felt like a lot.
Despite feeling less accomplished than last year, I still completed twelve watercolor paintings, all of which I really do enjoy. I did a little bit more experimenting with colors, techniques, and mark making. I also continued to work in my sketchbooks between paintings. My watercolor sketchbook has been a bit of a disaster, which you can learn more about in my post Abandoned Sketchbook Pages, but I have really enjoyed my drawing sketchbook. I’ve been rediscovering how much I like to draw. I’m not sure how my drawing practice is influencing my watercolor paintings, but I’m enjoying watching my sketchbook fill up. You can see my recent sketches in this blog post.
Here is a review of the last paintings of my Summer Vibes Project.
Moss Campion
3 x 4.5 inches
One thing I love about being in the alpine in the summer are all of the flowers. In a location that is so unforgiving, there are still so many flowers that are able to survive. I took this photograph of moss campion while up on Mount Blue Sky in Colorado. What I loved about the original photograph was how the purples, pinks, and greens popped against the gray rocks. I thought I was at the end of this painting, but I kept staring at it and staring at it, and it just seemed off. I decided to leave the painting for the evening and come back with a fresh set of eyes. I concluded that the painting felt a little flat, like all of the flowers were blending together. So I decided to go back over the painting with a tiny brush to add a darker layer around the flowers and to the grasses. It probably took over an hour to add that layer, but I think it made a big difference.
Denali’s Banff
3 x 4.5 inches
As much as I love taking my own photographs while on travels, I love seeing other people’s pictures. Usually it just gives me more places to add to my bucket list. Banff is one such place that has been on my list for a long time and my friend Denali recently visited during one of her summer trips. She took a lot of pictures, but this one was my favorite, so much so that I created two sketchbook versions, one in pen, in addition to this painting. My favorite aspects of this painting are the rocks in the foreground and the mountains in the background.
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Hiking to Jasper Lake
3.5 in x 4 inches
This may be my favorite painting from the whole summer. I took this photo before the sun had cleared the mountains on a recent hike to Jasper Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I love the way that trails look when they cut through meadows. For the painting, I wanted to try and complete the painting as if it was a night scene, where the meadow is still slightly illuminated, but the colors are on the darker side. To add contrast I ended up using some of my white paint to help make the wildflowers pop against the darkness of the grasses and the trees. It’s how I imagine the moon might illuminate them.
Mini Watercolor Sunset
3 x 4 inches
I decided to end my project by tackling one of the simplest reference photos in my summer stack. I only spent fifteen to twenty minutes on this painting. I even used a hairdryer to speed up the drying between the layers. I wanted to try to capture the scene in as few layers as possible and ended up needing only five. It was nice to just paint something quick and simple and I love how the cliffs on the right side of the painting seem to glow in the fading light.
Concluding Thoughts
I’m glad I tried this project for a second year in a row. It helped to eliminate some of the blank page anxiety that I can have when I am tired. It was nice to have a folder of reference photos to pull from to help me get started. It was also fun to paint a lot of smaller paintings; I really like the format of a mini. This summer felt harder than last summer though. I was more tired, I felt like I had more non-painting art-tasks on my plate after completing my Immersion course and I clearly didn’t give myself enough opportunities to rest considering how tired I was by the time camp was over and it was time to go on vacation. But I am happy with my twelve paintings and I am looking forward to sending one of them along to a newsletter subscriber as a thank you.
So what is next? I’m deep into planning my fall season. Going on vacation and taking a dedicated break from both my computer and from painting has left me bursting with creative ideas. The challenge is figuring out the best place to start and what is the most productive use of my time in the last few months of the year.
Did you miss the other posts about my Summer Vibes projects? Check them out: