Taking a month off from studio work was not easy to do, but it was essential. Not only did I clean up and organize my surrounds, but I unclogged the brain drain and allowed the mind to clear, cool and recover from years of pushing through my deadlines. Don’t get me wrong, I love my work and I thrive under pressure, but this break was long overdue. I needed to pull back and dip my toes into the refueling pool before diving into the deep intensity of projects anew.

First I cleaned up my house: did some home improvement and redecorated cozy corners.

Cozy Corner Chez Hunt-Kramerville

I also took time to just be mom—helping the kids with end-of-school-year tasks such as Connor’s participation in a talent show and assisting Kyra with her musical ambitions including a recital and subsequent enrollment at a conservatory’s “Preparatory School of Music”.

The kids keep me busy!

But after all that…Hummingbird-Shapeshifter is my comeback image.

It is one of my most colorful pieces I’ve done in years. Its hues mimic the purity of a refreshed mind. The face resembles my friend and piano instructor—a beautiful person who has reintroduced music into my life in a way that is impacting my artwork. This painting took me a while, at least by my standards.

Painting-in-Progress

But I didn’t keep track of time. The only thing that mattered was the desire to express myself through art.

Painting the details

The core of my creativity is humming once again. Simply put, that core is a big ol’ inner orb of luminous desire that bursts with every paint stroke. I felt its fiery pulse pore onto paper–reawakening the dormant spirit with its warm rays as Hummingbird-Shapeshifter took shape. It feels good to be back in the studio, a place where my soul shines and art happens. Sometimes, a break is just thing we need to feed the muses.

Finished Hummingbird-Shapeshifter

Timmy approves of this blog post

Observing swans in Lake Wales, Florida 2007 (photo: Kort Kramer)

After the intensity that accompanied the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot work, my new project provides the perfect calm that I now need to refill my creative well. Birds have always been supporting and sometimes leading subjects in my work. Their connection with spirit, mythos and profound symbolism are the embodiment of the human psyche. They’re natural messengers of the soul and translate nicely into museful renderings. Here are a few of my sketches and works-in-progress (as well as a few paintings from the upcoming Ghosts & Spirits deck). The ideas and images are inspired by my friend and fellow author Lesley Morrison, whose new book The Healing Wisdom of Birds is a beautiful tribute to these divine creatures. I’m honored to be working with such a passionate, knowledgeable bird enthusiast who is helping me to expand as an artist by seeing these avian wonders in new, amazing ways.

sketching swans

Swan-Shapeshifter: Graphite on Arches cold press watercolor paper

From sketch to final drawing

Initial watercolor washes on Fabriano cold press watercolor paper

Work-in-Progress "Vulture-Shapeshifter"

Swan Maiden from the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot

Guardian Angel from the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot

Just a quick post to wish everyone a spooky holiday! Here’s some of the art I’ve been working on this year.

Kyra “TinkerBell” and Connor TKD warrior walking in the school costume parade

Be sure to visit the new Ghost & Spirits Tarot page!

~ Lisa

]]> http://lisahuntart.com/blog/2010/10/30/happy-all-hallows-evesamhain/feed/ 0 http://lisahuntart.com/blog/2010/09/08/battlefield-ghosts-documenting-the-painting-process-a-little-stop-motion-too/ http://lisahuntart.com/blog/2010/09/08/battlefield-ghosts-documenting-the-painting-process-a-little-stop-motion-too/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:22:49 +0000 lisahuntart http://lisahuntart.com/blog/?p=1777

Final watercolor painting

Many of you may not realize that I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Animation back when few schools offered it. I graduated at the top of my class, not because I had the greatest animations but because I integrated my watercolor paintings within a 3D environment. My work was different and bold and was demonstrative of a wee bit of creative rebellion. I did not follow any portfolio model, but rather I set out to create my own. The result was winning “Best Digital AND Print Awards” and subsequent work in production as a conceptual designer. Those years forced me to work fast and furious—I had to crank out 2 concepts a day and did it with great enthusiasm. I haven’t thought much about animation in the decade since, but then one day I had a hankering to play around with stop-motion.

These are not well planned—as a matter of fact, they’re not planned at all. The stop-motion antics just kind of evolved in a stream of consciousness, somewhat like the painting. It has been a matter of playing around with a kneaded eraser and a skull in between paint strokes. I never want my stop-motion play to interfere with the intensity of the painting process. But at the same time, they serve to help balance my fever-pitch (and potentially emotionally draining) applications—giving me pause, a breath and a little comic relief to lean on. This was especially helpful while painting Battlefield Ghosts, given the dark nature of the subject matter. I hope you enjoy watching the video as much as I did creating it. My mother is very happy to see me animating again having sent the following note: “Saw your clip on facebook. What a painting–I got a big charge out of your animation. Great Lisi, are you rediscovering those talents? I hope so. You were good, remember?”

Thanks, Mom.
And a big thank you to my talented husband Kort, who came up with the idea of time-lapse photography and the final video animation.

And for those of you who haven’t seen this, U.S. Games Systems Inc. who is supporting the Ghost & Spirits Tarot deck’s publication, just posted a lovely (sneaky) word association/interview. I had no idea that Kort was answering questions about me behind my back. haha! But his answers are fascinating because they allow me to see my own artistic process through objective eyes (I’ve also learned a thing or two about the dynamics of our relationship). And yes, that is the latest photo of me on my new wheels–trying to do my part by driving less and biking more. My friend/fellow author Celeste Heldstab suggested I name my bike “Gaea”.  I kind of like that.

Lisa on her new TREK

Here’s the link to the U.S. Games’  interview:

The Fool’s Blog “Lisa Hunt Off the Canvas”

Thank you for your continued support, friends!

~Lisa

While working on this, I wrote down all kinds of words (as you can see on the paper hand rest in the video) that flooded my mind. Here is a list of the unedited stream of consciousness I jotted down between pencil strokes. These are unedited and reflect what I was feeling at the moment and not how I necessarily feel all of the time.

To be courageous in art, one should not censor the psyche

Don’t be afraid to expose the unseen

Art is part logic, part insanity

Some art requires courage to execute

Art reveals pain

Art speaks without verbalizing

Art is the unadorned soul

Art is menacing

Art reveals that which is not obvious

Art exposes the ineffable

It’s courageous to draw that which you fear

Art can be ugly

Art is 2% creativity, 98% intuitive impulse

Courage + Art= Penetrating

***
Thank you for watching.
~Lisa

Final drawing of the spirit Kuei

In a recent Facebook post of my pencil rendition of Shellycoat, several FB friends suggested I do a time lapse of the art progress; a sort of artist-at-work video. Having been a former art teacher who had engaged in demos routinely, I like the idea of sharing my process in this suggested format. I will definitely be looking into it. I’ll see if I can employ the talents of my husband as head camera man while I paint. haha. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, I did manage to document my painting of the spirit Kuei via multiple scan passes between paint washes. It wasn’t easy as I’m the type of painter who has a hard time stopping midstream once I get going. But somehow, I managed to pace myself in a manner that allowed me to let the image dry between scans.

You can see that I always start with a solid drawing of the figure before letting it morph through the painting process. Having worked with watercolor for 25 years, I paint fairly quickly now, but I never shy away from experimenting and/or taking risks. It’s all part of the fun and it’s what hopefully helps to keep my work fresh.

I slowly build up the detail

The closer I am to finishing, the less water I use

Now to finish up the textures with a dry brush

And here’s the finished piece:

~ Lisa

Kyra playing the piano.

When is the last time you heard a song that transported you back to a book you were reading, or a romance you were experiencing or a painting that you were working on? For me, music awakens the senses in ways that deliver immediate imagery.  I have always drawn and painted to music. I can almost document my art and projects using my CDs as reference points. For example, I remember painting early college works to the music of the Moody Blues– brush strokes flowing with Justin Hayward’s smooth vocals. I can remember sketching dancing goddesses to Celtic music in between the pop sounds of Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan etc.. And like many artists who love sci-fi and fantasy, I had my “Holst: The Planets” period… and who didn’t gorge on Enya for a while?

Asparas & Gandharvas

Music has accompanied me through many projects along the way. Every time I hear Debussy I think back on the glorious time I had painting my Celestial Goddesses book—the music from the man who was tied to 19th century impressionism coincided nicely with the flowing images that comprised that particular body of work.  Mozart’s Concertos accompanied me through a challenging Master of Arts program—yes, I did listen to Chopin, Ravel and Mozart during grad studies and The Animals Divine Tarot. I give those great composers credit for making my brain work overtime! I don’t know if Mozart makes a person smarter, but it certainly made me more efficient.

I have to admit that Rock & Roll, the Blues, Soul, and Folk  were always interspersed between my rendezvous with classical. I love a good guitar lick as much as the next gal and I even had a soundtrack phase while working in production. But lately I’m back to standard classical. For me, working on ghosts has coincided with my deep reverence for music that has stood the test of time and carried me through different chapters of my life. Right now, my Pandora.com (online music) selections include Scriabin, Faure, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and more. The romantic period (1825-1900) is particularly emotional and moody with elements of the supernatural revealing itself between measures. This period is packed with magical renderings of art and music alike. And such a raw exposition of the human condition is sure to inspire intrepid artists like myself. I can feel the ghosts and spirits transferring themselves from music to paintbrush.

Many of the paintings I’ve worked on for Ghosts & Spirits include themes that are tied to music in one form or another including the ballet “Giselle”, Undine, woodland spirits, the Undead, journeys to the underworld and what about Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman? It wasn’t hard to come up with ideas for this project–the spirits have been with me all along through their participation in music!

The Undine

Giselle

Rübezahl

And the more I listen to the great composers the more I think about art. To me, art and music are close cousins. This has certainly been reinforced to me through my friendship with my daughter’s music teacher, Sivabruntha (she plays a mean rendition of La Danse Macabre!). Over the last year, we’ve talked about our respective art forms, and have both discovered that the two disciplines are more aligned than one might initially think. Art and Music both entail practice, discipline, and soulful expression. It’s not enough just to be a good technician, one must invest soul in the delivery in order to make it come alive in a unique way. So much about music has been inspired by literature and art and so much of literature and art has been inspired by music.

Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead

One feeds the other.. Just think of Böcklin’s painting Isle of the Dead, which subsequently inspired Rachmaninov’s masterpiece circa 1908 of the same title. Not only do the music lessons nurture my daughter (who takes back to back violin/piano), they have awakened my own passion for studying and playing music again.

And though I regret tossing sonatinas aside in a fit of adolescent rock & roll rebellion–  I never forgot about them, nor did I ever really stop playing or learning. So as I move towards the final creative stages of Ghosts & Spirits Tarot, I’m beginning my piano journey anew, almost 30 years later! It is now my goal to try and practice an hour or two a day (usually at night after all else is done–it’s my dessert hour!). How am I benefiting from this addition to an already hectic schedule? I’m feeling more connected with my internal visual insights–it’s like setting the stage for the next day’s creative outpouring and it’s certainly calming and satisfying to the soul. It is also opening the channels for further ghost and spirits exploration. When I’m playing music, I can feel these ethereal beings dancing through my mind!

Chopin is watching!

First pieces on the learning block: Chopin Nocturne op 9 no 2 (okay, I’ve been playing this one on and off for years, but it’s time to polish it to perfection), and Massenet’s Meditation from Thais for solo piano (thank you for suggesting this one, Sivabruntha!), one of my favorites. I hope to finish up Ghosts & Spirits and master those piano pieces by the end of summer–one discipline feeding another, right? And in the process, I’m forging wonderful musical memories from a particularly enlightening period of my life.
Do you think I can do it? Stay tuned.

To see a short video on Facebook of Kyra playing at her recital, CLICK HERE.

~Lisa

YES!
During a recent trip to an historical little bed & breakfast near Savannah, the “most haunted city in America”, my husband and I saw a ghost. And it wasn’t during a ghost tour or walk through a haunted cemetery or during a seance. The encounter happened while unassumingly relaxing out on the inn’s back porch. If we would have thought we might see a ghost, we would have had our cameras on standby. If we thought we would see a ghost, we wouldn’t have been chatting away. But this ghost sighting came out of nowhere and surprised us with its uncanny, inexplicable appearance.

Here’s a sketch of what we saw–the experience left an indelible impression in my brain and I just had to get it down on paper!

sketch of the eyewitness account of what we saw

And here is my husband’s account of what happened:
“It looked like smoke or mist. It appeared to come from a window at the opposite end of the porch. It exited the window area and swirled around in a a very cohesive manner, much like the vortex of a flushing toilet, and then dissipated in the space of a second or two. We thought it might be someone smoking in that room, but when we checked the window, we found it closed and there was no obvious source of its origination.”~Kort

It was like nothing I’ve seen before and it was every bit captivating! No, there was no fog in the air, or smoke, or exhaust or any other potential explanation for the ecto mist’s appearance. It was a rather clear late Tuesday afternoon, with activity at the inn being nearly non-existent that time of day. Well, except for the ghosts.  My husband asked a paranormal investigator-friend about the incident and he congratulated us for having witnessed “quantum fog”. I’m not sure if it was a “quantum fog” or an ectoplasmic mist or another anomaly with a scientific term attached to it. It almost seemed like the mist was trying to communicate or manifest into something, but then quickly disappeared leaving no trace of its visitation.

The inn used to be a hospital day-room for Fort Screven on Tybee Island, GA. People with battle wounds were brought in by a train that ran behind the structure. Those that died were transferred to the basement, serving as a temporary morgue. The inn had an odd vibe–hard to describe. It wasn’t a scary or uncomfortable place, but it did feel endowed with an inexplicable energy. There were other strange happenings like our porch door blowing open when there wasn’t any wind, or our phone having receiving strange garbled, cryptic messages on it (we hardly ever get cell phone messages because we only use it for emergency purposes and never give out our number), or things that went thump on the roof.

Another ghost sighting happened at The Pirates’ House in Savannah. The Pirates’ House is an 18th century seafarer’s inn, where pirates and sailors gathered, drank and exchanged tales of the high seas. Captain Flint of Treasure Island fame is said to have died in one of the rooms with Billy Bones by his side. The inn was converted to a restaurant, but much of the basic structure remains intact.

Why did we choose to dine there? We’re not sure. We saw it and felt compelled to go inside. Out of all the restaurants that populate the great historic city, here we decided to patron a wooden structure that stood in a rather unglamorous section of town. As soon as we walked in, we could feel a pervading heaviness. Pockets of decay assaulted our olfactory lobes as we weaved our way around the restaurant. The strange smell/air was especially concentrated near thresholds to other levels. Kort took some pictures and we left feeling sated and relieved to be back outside in the fresh, rain soaked air.
It wasn’t until Kort uploaded photos to Facebook that another ghost enthusiast (thank you, Nefer!) spotted the face in the window. Take a look for yourself. This is the actual photo–no touching up or special effects (we couldn’t make it look that real if we tried). We ourselves didn’t even realize this ghost was looking right at us when the photo was taken. To me, while we were there, the glass appeared completely transparent and void of any ecto fog. There was also a face in the seat in front of us, but it might have just been part of the wood grain. What do you think?

This trip is not my first ghost encounter but it certainly reinforces what I believe about multiple dimensions and that fine veil between what we perceive as “real” and what is real. If you’re a paranormal investigator, I would appreciate any help/assistance regarding these events.

Much of what I do as an artist is to try and make sense of the world. The images come from dreams, they encompass feelings, and derive from the unconscious–perhaps a place that is receiving messages from “the other side”. Much of my fascination and compulsion to depict and explore “fantasy” is not to provide myself with escapism but to help find my way through a tangle of persistent mystery. This painting depicts creatures I have been seeing in my dreams all of my life. I can’t figure them out, but they do fit a profile found in spirit lore. The only difference is that the ones I see in my dreams always emit a reverberating hum, like they’re alerting me to something profoundly important. Maybe someday I will be able to decode their message, but for now, I will have to be satisfied with exploring them further through paint and brush.

~Lisa

Where I grew up (1971)

Lions, tigers and bears oh my! The mysterious forest is full of unknowns and teeming with mysterious life.  As a symbol of the unconscious, it is a place inhabited by wild things, often obscured by the shadows of tree branches and layered with the remnants of seasons gone by. When we walk into a forest, we step into a world full of adventure and trepidation. We leave the comfort of paths familiar and cross the threshold into a realm  full of challenges and unpredictability. Who knows what monsters lie in wait and who knows where the wayward path will lead. Myths and fairy tales often use the woods as a stage for the evolving protagonist. The character leaves the safety of home and wanders into the realm of the psyche, where growth is inevitable.

Drawing from the 80's

When I was in high school, I often sketched the forest using the wells of my imagination as reference. These forests were alive with spirits and elusive beings, there to provide me with messages. They dwelled  in a place that offered  temporary refuge from the province of a chaotic reality . I loved exploring the twisting tree limbs and fortifying roots that helped me to feel grounded in a world of teenage confusion.  I was wandering into the path of the unknown and these fantasy tree drawings helped me to manifest the deep-seated worries I was experiencing as I approached adulthood.

Pencil drawing done in my teenage years

My Mom as the Hermit (Fantastical Creatures Tarot)

Lisa as a teenager

Lisa in the snowy woods of northern New England, 1990s

Fairy tales often employ these settings as metaphors of the shadow. They are the wild, untamed symbols of our own inner landscapes, where creative thinking and intrinsic energies reside and beg to be released. It is here where we meet frog princes, wise old men, a golden goose, a ravenous wolf, imposing giants, spirit messengers and all manner of creatures that help us shed the constraints of a rational mind. It is here where we let go and become more self-aware. It is under the dappling light that we recognize our full potentials and find our way through the tangle of brush.  Through the darkness of paths unknown, we have the possibility of seeing the light.

Forest images from The Fairy Tale Tarot

Here is a neat “forest” video from friend and fellow artist Carisa Swenson:

The Forest

~ Lisa

Final painting: The Nightingale as 6 of Cups

I’ve been using the same basic illustrative methodology since my late teens. That is not to say that I haven’t deviated from my technical repertoire, but the basic formula  from initial sketch to finished painting has pretty much remained the same.

First comes the sketch. As you can see from the photo in part 1, I’ve filled many sketchbooks while brainstorming Fairy Tale. The purpose of these drawings-in-the-raw is to help me connect conscious deliberation with automatic delivery.

The sketches represent unfiltered, intuitive thought processes. Oftentimes, the initial sketch (design-wise) looks very much like the finished product. For me, over-contemplation of a drawing dooms it to failure. If it doesn’t flow, I leave it, only to return when inspiration strikes. Some ideas can be fleshed out with immediacy while others need time to ripen before the creative juices are ready to flow. While teaching, I used to tell my students to doodle a series of thumbnails and follow the designs that felt *right*. If it’s not working, take a break or turn to another task in the interim. It’s amazing how effective this was.

Then comes the refined sketch. At this juncture, I would research and acquire reference material such as pics of period costume, accouterments and photos as needed. Here you can see my husband assuming a pose as the spirit.

FINAL DRAWING & TRANSFER

Final Drawing

I then draw on tracing paper, rub the back with a 6B (softness of lead) pencil and transfer it using a 4H (hardness of lead) pencil to final watercolor paper. I use 140lb hot press Waterford paper that I’ve soaked in a bathtub for 15 minutes before stapling it onto watercolor board. As it dries, it tightens up like a drum, thus preventing the paper from wrinkling while painting. The paper I use is rather pricey, so once a transfer is made there is little room for mistakes. If one is made, I integrate the “mistake” into the piece sometimes with a surprisingly positive effect. The drawing is refined using a mechanical pencil before initial watercolor paint is applied.

FIRST WASHES

my wonderful, magical palette

The initial paint application is done in broad water-saturated washes using a 1/2 inch paintbrush (I’ve been using the same large paintbrush for 25 years–talk about quality materials!). Effects like the ones seen around the figures can be achieved by sprinkling salt directly on the washes (a technique I learned from the legendary illustrator/educator Lauren Mills back in the 80s). I love to see what happens as the salt separates the paint from paper, leaving a lovely texture filled with figments of my imagination ready to be born. This is when I paint additional images spontaneously—as I see them appearing out of the paint (some may see this as a sign of madness, I see it as being pellucid-haha). The figures are painted with deliberate technical facility (as I’m a stickler for anatomical accuracy) while the peripheral material is improvised.

The painting in progress.

As I begin to refine the painting, I will slowly limit the water and create details using a dry brush technique (very little water). Upon completion, I’ll put the painting away for a few hours and come back to it for a final review before taking it off the watercolor board. If my rhythm is good, I can usually finish a painting within a week or less, depending on the complexity of the image. How do I know a painting is finished? I listen to that inner voice that tells me “ahhh, it’s done”.

~ Lisa

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