musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
6.9.14 ~ free painting!
 |
| april storm moving in over the sandias, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air) ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
Happy to mail this little plein air painting off to one Jean Zaun who WON it — got it for FREE — simply by reading my last Studio Notes newsletter, responding to my wee little contest, and having her name drawn out of a hat.
What’s that you say? You received my Studio Notes newsletter but saw nothing about a contest? Well you didn’t read it carefully, my friend. Out of some 192 people who supposedly read the newsletter, a mere 6 people — SIX! —entered the contest. THANK YOU Todd Conklin, Trish Nadler, Leonore McDonald, Tina Welter, Pete Silldorff and Jean Zaun for paying extra-not-so-secret-careful attention! Your names will be entered in the Studio Pith Helmet for the soon-to-be Justly Famous End of Year Grand Prix Studio Pith Helmet Painting Raffle (amazing art prize yet to be determined)].
Missed your chance? Fear Not! Simply checkout my next Studio Notes newsletter for another wee little contest.
Not currently subscribed? You can sign-up for my Studio Notes newsletter by visiting any page of my website at www.taosdawn.com, entering your name in the subscribe to dawn chandler’s studio notes newsletter field and hitting “subscribe”.
And maybe next time I’ll be mailing off a sweet little painting to you! 🙂
6.2.14 ~ and the air smelled like rain
 |
| and the air smelled like rain ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel ~ 12″ x 24″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
A couple of weeks ago I’d ordered six 48″ x 60″ panels — HUGE canvases! — for some new mixed-media paintings I’m planning. They’d be shipped via special carrier, and would take a while. As I looked in my studio I realized that, except for a few tiny plein air sketches I’d done earlier in the spring, I have no recent traditional landscape paintings. NONE. All my landscapes are from last year or earlier. Yikes! how did that happen? [Easy: I’ve been busy with other—”non-traditional”— projects in my studio, soon to be shared here.] But seeing as my landscapes are my “bread-&-butter” the delay in large-canvas-delivery was providing a perfect opening in my calendar to get busy again building up my portfolio of landscapes.
I don’t know if it’s the feng shui and easy flow of working in my new studio…. Or if it’s having spent those few weeks earlier focusing on plein air painting and sharpening of my eye…. or if it’s the result of limiting my paint palette then to just four essential colors and forcing myself to hone my color-mixing skills… Likely it’s all of these. But the result these couple of weeks is that I’ve cranked out a solid painting nearly every day, my brushes and me singing with satisfaction.
Here’s one of them — a story of rebirth.
I abandoned this painting last year before completion, nearly throwing it away. It just wasn’t working. Not sure why. Lacked contrast? Lacked a story, maybe?
But I saved it, and last week found it again, tucked into a stack of panels hidden under a table in my studio.
“Hmmm…..I think I can do something with this….”
I searched through countless digital files for the original reference photo….Not there.; couldn’t find it. No idea what photo I’d used.
So… “Screw it: I”ll wing it.”
And……
some…….
how…….
it……
came……..
TO….
GETHER!
Voila!
Oops. But no title.
Ugh.
My title imagination just felt spent.
So…. I turned to my FaceBook friends to see what titles they might suggest and……WOW! What a cool response of poetic, imaginative, numerous, soulful, lovely suggestions!
Prairie School
Summer Serenity
Afternoon Thunderclouds
Big Sky, Big Dreams
Home
Afternoon Storm
Mesa Remembrances
Awake
Mountains to Plains
Just a Little Past Nowehere, Left of Far Out
Colfax Comancheria
And My Breath Grew Wider
Horizon
Vernon David’s
Praying for Rain
Wide Open Spaces
Clouds Blessning Mesas
Altostratus
Through the Deafening Calm Comes Serenity
Noon Showers on the Horizon
Afternoon Showers
Cool Breeze Coming
And the Air Smelled like Rain
Breathe
Untitled #127
Heaven on Earth
Awe #%?! We’re Gonn Get Wet
Just
Twilight Enchantment
Gathering
Dragon Cloud
Prairie Afternoon
Smells Like Rain
100 Shades of Promise
Done
Arriving Home Again
TOUGH TOUGH CHOICE!!
In the end though I’ve decided on “And the Air Smelled like Rain” — a little bit of poetry articulated by Rebecca Holcomb, but certainly touched on by others.
Still, these other titles are too splendid to let let go, so I’m just going to have to get busy and paint some paintings to match these titles.
For the record: This painting is based on that area of New Mexico that runs between Cimarron and Raton; as one friend put it, the “Colfax Comancheria”.
Below, a brushwork detail:
5.01.14 ~ spring! captured in 30 minutes or less
 |
| coming into leaf ~ ashbaugh park, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
Despite a hard frost last night and the night before, spring has arrived in New Mexico. I know for sure, because I’ve borne witnessing to its gradual unfurling, as evidenced by these plein air paintings I’ve been doing in and around Santa Fe and Albuquerque for the past few weeks.
This little series has come about because of an ache — an ache to get outside, get my paint brush wet, play with color and hone up my rendering skills. Since settling into my new studio, the majority of my work in there has been the “busy work” of art-making: gluing stuff (mounting works on paper to panels; and building collage foundational layers for new works); painting the edges of panels; screwing in hardware and wire; photographing, inventorying, varnishing, etc. Important work, that surely needs to be done, but not all that “creative.” Not really painting.
So….I found my remedy for that ache by getting outside, and trying to capture with paint and brush what I find out there…in 30 minutes or less.
 |
| blustery april afternoon ~ ashbaugh park, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| april storm moving in over the sandias, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| courtyard blossoms, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| april morning along the santa fe river path ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| late afternoon april trees, ashbaugh park, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| april morning above the arroyo, frenchy’s park, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| april morning in the backyard ~ albuquerque ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| rooftops & foothills ~ albuquerque ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| albuquerque april ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| morning on the edge of the sandias albuquerque ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
 |
| the last tree to bloom ~ ashbaugh park, santa fe ~ by dawn chandler ~ oil on panel (en plein air ~ 5″ x 7″ ~ copyright dawn chandler 2014 |
04.28.14 ~ the devil’s in the details…of a day’s unfolding
 |
| The sunrise frosted boardwalk the crosses the north end of the pond at Playa. Our film-maker resided in the cabin in the upper right corner. |
 |
| The Playa lodge. |
A friend commented recently that my posts about my experience at Playa have been “tantalizingly short on details.” Here then are a few details of how my days there unfolded.
I was there for 5 weeks, with 7 other residents: 3 writers, 2 sculptors, and 1 filmmaker, from places as diverse as NYC, The Netherlands and Port Townsend. We were each provided a private cabin, as well as a studio/workspace. My cabin had a small living room, a kitchen, full bath, a loft bedroom and an attached studio with high ceilings, big walls, and large windows looking out for miles to Summer Lake and the distant high desert mountains beyond. We each cooked our own meals, except for twice per week when dinner was provided in the Lodge—a beautiful soaring communal
 |
| Thanksgiving at Playa was a blessing indeed. |
 |
| The Summer Lake Hot Springs |
space with a huge stone fireplace, an enticing library, dining area, large kitchen, yoga studio, theater room, and offices. [Playa was an inn before becoming a creative residency program]. Here we gathered for relaxation and conversation by the fire, or otherwise take a break from our work. If not in the Lodge or our studios, we might find each other at random times of day out on the paths rambling across the countryside.
Awake each day by 5am, I’d fix tea and spend the next hour writing letters or in my journal, or else reading. [5 weeks = 5 books]. Eventually I’d wrap myself in a blanket by a large east-facing window and meditate by the light of the breaking day.
Then a walk: camera in hand, heart soaring, eyes dazzled by the staggering beauty of the Oregon Outback (see my slideshow here.)
Return, radiant, to my studio.
 |
| My studio work table. I faced it east so that I could watch the changes and colors in the clouds and pond and lake. |
Paint.
Lunch.
Nap.
Paint.
Supper.
Paint.
Sleep.
Each day dotted with breaks here and there for coffee or conversation in the Lodge.
Once per week or so, a group of us would make an excursion to explore the surrounding area: groceries in Bend or Lakeview, a soak in the Summer Lake Hot Springs, a tap of cold brew and plate of tatter tots at The Pioneer Saloon in Paisley. Mostly though we kept close to Playa, hesitant to squander the gift of this magical place, a place made sacred by the friendships fostered and creative dreams nurtured in the midst of extraordinary natural beauty.
Five months later and still I’m inspired by my time there.
 |
| Looking back across the pond to the lodge. |
4.22.14 ~ i’ve got rhythm!
The funny thing is I’ve been a more or less full-time professional artist for years, yet it’s only now that I really feel like I’ve found a steady rhythm with my work.
What do I mean by rhythm? I mean a consistent groove. Flow. Long periods of flowing energy and focus. Deep intention manifested in a regular daily practice.
There’s three factors coming into play in my newly found creative rhythm.
1) The brilliant book Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind, edited by Jocelyn K. Glei. It’s a tiny book packed with big ideas. “Prepare for a highly concentrated does of insights
 |
| Josephine Baker doing the Charleston, c. 1926. |
that will prove both enlightening and uncomfortable,” opens the forward by Scott Belsky, author of Making Ideas Happen. The book is filled with insight in how to accomplish your important creative work. As Belsky points out, “Through our constant connectivity to each other, we have become increasingly reactive to what comes to us rather than being proactive about what matters most to us. Being informed and connected becomes a disadvantage when the deluge supplants your space to think and act.” Indeed. This is what was happening to me.
—Great Work Before Everything Else
Do your most meaningful creative work at the beginning of your day, and leave “reactive work” — like responding to email or other messages — for later.
—Jump-start your creativity
Establish “associative triggers” — such as listening to the same music or arranging your desk in a certain way — that tell your mind it’s time to get down to work.
—Feel the Frequency
Commit to working on your project at consistent intervals— ideally every day—to build creative muscle and momentum over time.
—Pulse And Pause
Move rhythmically between spending and renewing your energy by working in ninety-minute bursts and then taking a break.
—Get Lonely
Make a point of spending some time alone each day. It’s a way to observe unproductive habits and thought processes, and to calm your mind.
—Don’t Wait For Moods
Show up, whether you feel inspired or not.
Buy the book and read it now.
2) Lessons learned during my experience at Playa — the residency program in eastern Oregon I attended for five weeks last November. I went there soon after reading Manage Your Day-to-Day and decided to put into action all that I read in that book. That meant unplugging and using creative triggers; having hard edges to my day; creating a routine that includes renewal; knowing my complex goals, and more.
 |
| My studio in Diablo cabin, at Playa Creative Residency in Oregon. |
And so.
My focus begins the night before at bedtime, when I unplug my modem — a tiny but mighty symbolic gesture to my brain and spirit that says “when you wake in the morning,
 |
| Early morning in my new studio. |
you will be focused on Art.”
To sleep, ideally, between 9:00 – 10:00.
Awake at 4:45. Fresh pot of tea. In the studio by 5:15.
Work solid for an hour or two.
Break for fitness with The Pup.
Back in the studio for the rest of the morning.
Midday or so, SIESTA: Break for a few hours for errands and computer work and engaging with the world and….a nap.
Back in the studio later in the day, and sometimes — if I’m lucky — in the evening, too.
It works.
I work.
Very well.