DPW Spotlight Interview: Michael Ryczek

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.

To enter to win Michael Ryczek's painting, "Red Rooibos and Tiger Lily #70," go to DailyPaintworks and click on the Spotlight Giveaway button in the top-left corner of the website.

From Michael Ryczek's DPW gallery page:

I'm a painter and graphic designer working out of Boston, MA. I graduated Montserrat College of Art in 2006 w/ a BFA in Illustration and Boston University in 2010 w/ a certification in Web Design.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

Well I wish I could tell that you that I've been holding a paintbrush ever since I was 2 years old, but I can't. While I remember drawing with pencil from a young age, my first introduction to painting was in high school art class. I started off mostly with watercolors (I'm pretty sure we didn't have oil paint at our disposal in high school) and remember having a ton of fun experimenting with different watercolor drip techniques. Toward the end I moved into acrylic, but didn't enjoy the flat appearance or the tackiness when it dried. I also felt like I had to race to get out my idea because of the quick dry time.

Red Rooibos and Tiger Lily #70

(click here to see original image)

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Right before I was to apply for art school, I came across the painters Greg and Tim Hildebrandt and their N.C. Wyeth-inspired illustrative oil paintings. They were brilliant at capturing reflected light and using limited palettes in their work and I think they were the first artists who really got me excited about being a painter.

My first experience with oils was during my freshman year at Montserrat College of Art in 2002, which I consider my first significant introduction to painting. We had to do a quick study of a still life in the classroom and I remember being fascinated by the depth of color and possibilities that this new medium offered me. The slow drying time allowed me to take the time to immerse myself in the painting process, and, unlike watercolors or acrylics, each mark was not final and could be altered at any time. I also always loved the way a turpentine wash looked on a canvas.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

After getting my BFA in Illustration from in 2006, I moved to Boston with a desire to start a career in Illustration. I was relatively aimless in my search for work and I just knew I wanted to do some kind of editorial work where I could employ my style at the time, which was a mix of realist oil painting and found material / pencil drawing collage.

I made a website, had postcards and business cards made up and the summer after graduation I spent my first month in Boston sending out tons of promotional material to every art publication I could find, to no avail. I could sense at that point that my interest in Illustration was waning and didn't want to have to bend my paintings to fit the theme of a magazine article.

Broadmoor Wetlands, Natick, MA
(click here to see original image)

During the next 2-3 years, my life-long problems with alcohol abuse pretty much forced me onto an indefinite hiatus from any art. I had struggled with alcohol throughout my high school and college years, but this period directly after was debilitating and put painting at the low end of my priorities. I was concentrating more on trying to hold a day job than make money selling art and at its worst, I ended up in the emergency room multiple times for panic attacks resulting from drinking.

Toward the end of that three year period, I decided I was going to go back to school for graphic and web design in an effort to find a career that involved creativity and an artistic eye, but was far enough away from painting that I didn't have to rely on my art to make a living. During the year and a half at B.U., I concentrated on design and painting remained in the background as something that I wanted to eventually get back to, after I pieced my life together.

I ended up meeting a wonderful girl there who I started dating as soon as we graduated. She strongly encouraged me to get back to my painting and played a pivotal role in me sobering up. I am someone who needs a lot of momentum and positive reinforcement to continue making art (as much as I would like to say I'm a self-starter) and I have to say she was a driving force in me starting this daily painting exercise and working on my conceptual paintings. When I look back, I can see that my addiction was directly related to my lack of painting and I can date back my first "new" still life to around when I stopped drinking.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I did most of my medium experimentation in college, but some of it carried over into the year after graduation. Throughout school, different classes require you do work in different mediums so I've pretty much tried most of them including: charcoal, oil, acrylic, watercolor, tar, wax encaustic, pen and ink, pastel, etc. Around senior year and the year after graduation, I got really into photo transfers using acrylic gloss medium but could never master it and was always unsure if I wanted to use photo transfer in my art anyway.

Oil was the one I always kept going back to and is the medium I consistently use today, with bits of pencil drawing here and there.

Izzy and Beams - No. 62
(click here to see original image)

The one downside of using oil is the incredible mess it makes, but it's something I've tried to adapt to as best I can. I've recently started using Liquin as a medium, as well as Alkyd paints to speed up the dry time a little (to like 2 days instead of a week for Titanium White, which is amazing). I'm not sure what other mediums I might explore in the future but I feel like I still have a ton of exploration to do with oils and the possibilities they offer.

In terms of genres, I worked on mostly conceptual work in school, creating strange fractured looking environments with usually human figures with their faces altered in some way. I continue to work on my conceptual work alongside my daily paintings, and although the subject matter is clearly different, I usually have bits of realism in both and go about all of my paintings with a minimalistic approach.

Many of your paintings capture what would be a still, pensive moment, if the viewer were in that environment. What are your thoughts on the kind of experience you're trying to create for your audience?

I think that when I first started my painting a day blog, my pieces were still carrying over a very geometric and flat quality from my older painting that I really hated, because it wasn't creating any kind of experience for me.

The top of a table on which the object was placed was perfectly ruled out and the paint was taped off to create a clean line. I kept doing this because it felt safe and I love harsh lines and strong contrast, but I was going about it in a way that in the end looked flat to me. The stillness that you mention was brought to an extreme where it just felt lifeless and everything was so careful and measured out that painting started to feel like work.

As I've continued along, I've tried to preserve the quietude that I originally loved in paintings, but began using erratic brushstrokes and started throwing paint around a little more to try to add an ethereal quality to everything and give the viewer the essence of the subject, pared down to its simplest form, instead of replicating every single detail.

Delftware Creamer and Sugar - No. 59
(click here to see original image)

Lately, I have tried experimenting with blurring brushstrokes to create a sense of movement in the piece, even if the subject matter is still. I find that in forcing myself to loosen up every time I have an instinct to start obsessing over some small area, the more the painting actually becomes an entity in and of itself that I can enter into a dialogue with, each stroke determining what I do next.

Two years ago, getting some green from a leaf into the white of a flower might have been a mistake, and now it is what makes the painting worth painting to me. I also make a conscious effort to leave areas of the neutral ground underneath the painting showing through and to not cover every square inch of the panel with paint. To me, beside the fact that I just like how it looks, this reminds the viewer that they're looking at an illusion which, if I can make the realism in the painting convincing enough, creates a strange limbo state between reality and fantasy.

I have always been astonished at paint itself; at how globs of pigment can be transformed into a beautiful reflection or extension of reality, and in a way leaving unfinished areas of the painting is a testament to that.  

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I am a horrible procrastinator and I have to be vigilant about getting myself working. A few days ago, I decided to move all of my painting supplies down to our basement in an effort to flee the blistering heat we've been experiencing, but when it's not summer I have a small office where I have my easel right next to the newer of my two computers which I use for graphic design projects and everyday things. So when I'm in need of inspiration, I can very easily lapse into looking up other artists online that might inspire me on said computer and, in the process, get distracted from the task at hand.

Pink Roses - No. 48
(click here to see original image)

The surest way I have found to get work done is to get up as early as possible, get dressed in the paint splattered clothes that I paint in (so I don't feel comfortable lounging around and risking getting oil paint on the couch) and bypassing the computer. The basement is so far proving to be a much better place for solitude and a distraction-free environment than my office/studio, so I'm thinking of just staying there until I'm freezing.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I try to carry a camera around with me as much as possible (or borrow my girlfriend's iPhone) and really just try to capture scenes on the spot that catch my eye due to the color, lighting, etc.

Occasionally I will have an idea of what I am looking for and will seek a specific image out, but most of the time it's random inspiration that I think would make for an interesting painting. Many pieces I've done have come from impromptu iPhone snapshots of things on tables at restaurants, usually getting me strange looks from the waiter/waitress.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Seeing as how I tend to stick to oil and pencil as my mediums, my subject matter, technique and composition are the three main things I try to play with. I am always trying to think of new unconventional subjects for still lifes and draw a ton of inspiration from another daily painter, Duane Keiser, who in my opinion is a master at taking the mundane and overlooked and making it beautiful.

I also try never to stick too rigidly to any of my own or anyone else's rules about how to paint something, as there really aren't any (although many a teacher has tried to fool naive, young art students into thinking that their personal preference is a universal truth). Continuing to humble myself and realize how much I have to learn by looking at other artists is also a great way to stay hungry for the next better piece.

Broadmoor Hill, Natick, MA
(click here to see original image)

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

Although it may sound cliche, the biggest lesson I'm learning right now is how important stopping and appreciating the world around me is. Art is currently serving me as a way to freeze beautiful, yet seemingly trivial moments in time that might ordinarily be forgotten soon after experiencing them, and sitting with them long enough to appreciate all the things I might not have seen in a fleeting glance.

What makes you happiest about your art?

I have extremely high standards for myself, so I'm rarely pleased with my work, but during the rare moments that I actually see on the panel what I saw in my head, I feel a certain completeness and pride in doing that original idea justice. To know I've pushed through my own self doubt and saw a painting through to its end is the happiest moment for me.

Thanks, Michael!

© 2012 Jennifer Newcomb Marine

DPW Spotlight Interview: Mariko Irie

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. 

To enter to win Mariko Irie's painting, Sunny Sunset Cliff, go to DailyPaintworks.com and click on the Spotlight Giveaway button in the top-left corner of the website.

From Mariko Irie's DPW gallery page:

Mariko Irie, a lifelong painter, was born and raised in Tokyo and currently resides in Santa Rosa, California. She has been in numerous solo and group shows and her work is collected privately and publicly throughout the U.S., Japan, England, Germany and Canada, including the Miasa Governor in Japan. She has been exhibiting in galleries for the past 22 years.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

My mother watched me enjoying painting when I was in preschool and took me to a painting class when I was an elementary school. Up through high school, my media was oil pastel, which is very common for children - so was crayon, but I didn’t like it. I won prizes for my paintings.

When I was a high school, I got an oil paint set. I used to go out and paint by the river. I loved painting and drawing all the time, but I was not thinking I'd ever be a painter or an artist. One of the reasons why: my art teacher in high school was great - but the substitute who had just graduated from an art university came to teach us. She believed that only abstract painting was Art. She criticized my paintings so badly, I quit painting in class.

Sunny Sunset Cliff
(click here to see original image)

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Then I was became fascinated by the idea of becoming a designer. So I went to art school to prepare for the entrance examination for Art University and studied drawing and composition. I passed the examination for Musashino Art University in Japan and my major was Interior Design.

After graduating, I became an interior designer. The economy was a bubble at the time, so I was making great money. But after ten years, I felt something lacking in my life; there was a hole in my body. I quit my job and married, but that was not answer either.

It took me long time to figure it out. After I settled in Mendocino, I started painting again. Right before I turned forty years old, I asked myself: If I knew that I would die tomorrow, what would I want to do? 

The answer was painting.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

Galleries started to show my work in 1989 and since then, I have never stopped painting. I have two sons; the younger son was two years old in 1989, when I moved out from my ex-husband’s. First, I was taking classes at the college and the classrooms were my studios. When my sons started to go to school, our living room was my studio.

What is the next?
(click here to see original image)

Five years later, we moved into a bigger house and I got my own studio space. I worked on my art when they were at school and until they got driver licenses, I was their driver. I was happy to do so, because I wanted to enjoy them. It was precious time in my life and I knew it wouldn’t last forever. Now they have both graduated from universities and have their own lives.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

In 1989, I took a printmaking class at the College of the Redwoods. I did etching, monotype and serigraph. During my first exhibition at the college, my etchings sold. So I took them to show at a gallery and they started to sell them. I felt so lucky.

In the late 70’s in Tokyo, I saw “American Super Realism” paintings. It was sensational. I was fascinated by these paintings. They were such a simple concept; the painters were painting exactly what they were seeing and they were somehow even more realistic than photography.

Sunset Time
(click here to see original image)

Then I took painting class with Bill Martin. He was a master Surrealism painter and an instructor of painting at the College of the Redwoods. I wanted to learn Super Realism technique from him. He passed away in 2009, but his family continues his website: http://www.billmartingallery.com/

At one point, I became allergic to oil paintings and all solvents, so I switched to watercolor. I've painted watercolor for over twenty years now. It’s an incredible media. If we try to control it, we end up losing control. But if we let watercolor paint itself, it creates a fascinating painting.

Three years ago, I moved to San Diego. The climate there is much dryer than Mendocino. My watercolor technique wouldn’t work well, because it would dry too fast. I joined the plein air groups and took water-mixable oils. I learned from other artists how to paint fast. It was a big challenge for me, but it was great, even with the struggling.

I’m having fun with water-mixable oils now.

Many of your paintings are set outside - at the beach, during sunrise or sunset. There's such a lovely quality of light in your art, as if we're actually seeing real sunlight. What can you tell us about you make your work look so true to life?

Thank you for saying that, it's a big compliment. Sunset, sunrise. The beautiful moment is so short. I can’t paint fast enough at the location itself - especially an 11” x 30” watercolor painting, which takes about a week to finish.

So I take photos. I spend time staring at the scene, trying to absorb the light, shadow and colors. Then I paint at my studio. When I start to paint, I don’t think of any one thing, I'm just in my painting world - and then - the painting is finished. From my experience, when paintings are done this way, they make the best ones.

Shoes
(click here to see original image)

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

Procrastination: I can’t do it! It’s my nature. If I know that something should be done, I have to do it right away. Otherwise, it just sticks in my mind and I can’t do anything else. But sometimes, there are too many things to be done, so I just make a schedule and a check list.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

Having a solo show at a gallery. That makes a good excuse for focusing on painting.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

A lot of times, I work from photos. When I’m staring at an image, I start to remember that moment. During other kinds of my paintings, for example, “Opening of Happiness,” I just think, “What is happiness?” and the image comes from that. Sometimes a gallery will have a group show with a theme. For instance, the last theme show I did was “Love Note” and I painted “Encounter” and “Art Lovers” for that.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

When I’m exhausted, whatever I see looks horrible, so I take a nap. That helps a lot. Or I might change the subject for my paintings or play on the surface of painting to create a new technique. It’s a part of learning the media all the time, a process that always stimulates me. Taking trips helps me a lot too. It takes my mind out from studio, then I come back renewed, with a vision.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I’m so lucky to be an artist, because I'll be learning forever. It refreshes my life all the time and now we have all this information through the internet. Art is forever and alive.

Daffodils Glow
(click here to see original image)

What makes you happiest about your art?

When my paintings come out better than I imagined. When people smile in front of my paintings, I’m very happy; it's like my paintings have brought joy to this world. When somebody falls in love with my painting and brings it into their home, that makes me so happy. I feel that I connected with them through my painting.

Thanks, Mariko!

© Jennifer Newcomb Marine

DPW Spotlight Interview: Nancy Parsons

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.

To enter to win Nancy Parson's painting, River Walk - San Antonio, go to DailyPaintworks.com and click on the Spotlight Giveaway button in the top-left corner of the website.

From Nancy Parson's DPW gallery page:

I began a blog in the summer of 2010, as my husband Dave and I embarked on a 4,000 mile, six-week, artist sabbatical in our little pop-up camper. I began painting and posting each day on my blog at www.headondownthehighway.blogspot.com. Since returning, I have continued to paint and post as a daily painter of what I have coined Not-So-Still Lives. 

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I began painting in kindergarten. As one of nine children, my art was the only way I could get noticed. Luckily my parents affirmed me with art lessons or there's no telling what I'd have done with my life.

I remember consciously deciding to be an artist at age six. By the time I graduated from high school, the thought of being a female painter in 1966 sounded way too scary. Out of fear of dying on the sidewalk from starvation, I studied commercial art in college.

Although I have always painted to some degree, taken scattered painting classes, and even won an award here and there; I really didn't start painting on a regular basis until a little over two years ago when my husband and I took off for 6-weeks in our pop-up camper. I began painting everyday and blogging. When we returned home, I was invited to do a one-woman show at a local gallery and sold enough work to pay for our entire trip. I was hooked and immediately signed up for a couple of workshops with two of my favorite artists (Carol Marine and Rene Wiley), joined several art organizations, bought and devoured every used art book I could get my hands on, and really began studying art.

River Walk - San Antonio

(click here to see original image)

Enter to win by clicking the "Artist Spotlight and Giveaway" button!

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

Lots of them. When my kids were little I was painting in watercolors and participating in local art shows, painting wall murals, and doing commissions for neighbors. Life was going good, or so I thought, until my first husband suddenly walked out the door and my world and fine art dreams collapsed.

Out of desperation, I took a full time job in international banking, but after 5 years was bored out of my mind. I eventually went back to art school and graduated from the Art Institute of Houston in Advertising Design, and then started my own graphic design business in 1984. I was still painting here and there and taking a few workshops, but dying with desire to paint full time.

So, after another 26 years of raising a family and running my design business, I realized that time was ticking away and if I didn't figure out a way to make this happen, I would never get to be a painter. I made a commitment then and there to start painting nights and weekends. I made that decision over two years ago and can honestly say I am happier and more excited than I've ever been in my life!

Z-Zinnia Tops
(click here to see original image)

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

In the past, I have worked in many different genres and mediums including: watercolor, prisma color, scratchboard, gouache, airbrush, acrylics, pen and ink, charcoal, clay and silkscreen. For some reason, those mediums were not loud enough or loose enough to satisfy me. I longed for my work to be bolder and scream with intense color.

I now work exclusively in oils and love the flexibility and rich creamy texture of the medium. I currently work with pretty thin paint, but hope to learn to use thicker applications as I grow in my art. I usually only work with primary colors, plus white and umber, but lately have begun to explore other palettes and colors. This has made me feel like a kid in a candy store!

There's a wonderful relaxed, peaceful quality to many of your paintings. What can you tell us about how your compositions reflect your personal approach to life?

I think my compositions and subjects are intimate, honest and—hopefully—full of life and joy. I have a very active imagination; painting gives my inner child permission to come out and play. I like to paint in total quiet, so I can listen and hear. Painting is a meditation for me into the silence… like a prayer.

Shady Characters
(click here to see original image)

Once a painting feels complete, I become aware of something more wanting to be revealed. That's when I love to blog and share what my paintings have to say. I've never considered myself a writer, however I now feel my writing has as much to say at times as my paintings do. This has been an enormous step out of my fear and self-imposed limitations.

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

Procrastination—if it comes looking for me—looks like fatigue or exhaustion. I know I push myself pretty hard and only get about 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I am a big believer in balance of body, mind and spirit. This is the secret I've learned which makes everything else I do work. Priorities come first.

I'm up early most mornings and in the pool by 5:00, followed by daily Mass, and then coffee with friends. By 9:00 a.m. or so, I'm ready to begin a full day of graphic design, followed by dinner with my husband and then—my playtime—painting and blogging.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I carry my camera or phone everywhere I go and am always on the lookout for color, light, reflections and shadows to jump out at me. Road trips are a gold mine and I drive my husband crazy with my incessant screams to "Stop the car... let me out!" I find paintings everywhere, even out walking my dog.

If I ever run out of ideas, I take a trip to the produce and flower aisles in the supermarket. You wouldn't believe how many colorful characters jump up and down, begging to get into my cart.

How do you keep art "fresh"? What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Bold strokes of clean color are the bomb!!!!  I try with all my might to put a stroke of paint down once and then leave it alone. Mud is the enemy to be feared and avoided at all cost.

Bend
(click here to see original image)

The key to avoiding burnout for me is always looking for something fresh and alive that excites and challenges me to paint, before I show up at the easel. I try to work loose and let parts of my tinted red canvases peek through here and there. I think these are major keys to help keep my paintings alive. If I start to get tight and fussy, I'll wipe the whole painting off and start over. There really are no mistakes in painting, just discoveries. Walking away from a painting—even before I think it’s finished—is my goal.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I am learning how to see, hear and feel on a deeper level... letting go and giving myself over in trust. I believe artists are all little brushes in the hand of the master Creator himself. He uses us as His instruments to express and share His love in the world. It's not always easy being a brush… but what the heck… someone has to do it. :-)

Rainy-Day Sunshine
(click here to see original image)

What makes you happiest about your art?

I am happiest with my art when I am feeling the most vulnerable—and yet to my utter surprise—finding that vulnerability somehow opens portals that communicate and resonate with others.

Anaïs Nin, a French-Cuban author once said, "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."  I believe painting demands tremendous courage just to show up, but rewards courage with tremendous joy, satisfaction, and an intense appreciation and humble gratitude for the precious gift we call life.

Thanks, Nancy!

© Jennifer Newcomb Marine

DPW Spotlight Interview: June Rollins

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. 

To enter to win June Rollin's painting, Dreamscape No. 153, go to DailyPaintworks.com and click on the Spotlight Giveaway button in the top-left corner of the website.

From June Rollin's DPW gallery:

June Rollins is a signature member of the Southern Watercolor Society and Watercolor Society of North Carolina. Her artwork has received national recognition and numerous awards. She teaches Dreamscaping with June Rollins workshops in watercolor and alcohol inks. 

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting. Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career? 

My biggest “stop” happened before I ever really started. In 1972, I told my high school guidance counselor I knew I wanted to be an artist. She enrolled me in 9th grade Art. The first day, I was so intimidated by what the teacher said would be required of us, I ran to the guidance counselor’s office immediately after the class and told her I had been wrong, “Art's not for me, I think it's boring.” The truth was, I was afraid I would lose my B+ GPA and stopped before I started. That decision began my 17 year detour away from my heart’s desire.

Dreamscape No. 153

(click here to see original image)

Enter to win by clicking the "Artist Spotlight and Giveaway" button!

In college, I poured over the course handbook and wanted so badly to major in art, but didn’t think I had what it took. Again, fear won.

I took up photography as a hobby in the early1990’s and soon a desire to paint from my photographs emerged. A friend introduced me to watercolor by letting me use some of her paper and paints. I bought a Grumbacher student kit, checked out library books and videos and dabbled off and on for about a year. Soon, other life choices and responsibilities took precedence and time for art was squeezed out.

My breakthrough came in October of 1999 with the Y2K scare. I woke up one morning and thought, if the world is going to end, I would at least like to take a beginner watercolor class. I enrolled in a 10-week course at a nearby community college. Thankfully, I had an encouraging teacher and have not stopped painting since.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away? Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I began in watercolor because it happened to be what I was introduced to first. I doubt I would have chosen it had I known it is considered by many to be the most difficult medium. I didn’t know any better and fell in love with it.

Fresh-Picked Daffodils
(click here to see original image)

I’ve mostly worked from my photographs and very early on was drawn to painting houses. I began getting requests for commissioned house portraits and used an opaque projector to save sketching time and for perspective.

My use of the opaque projector is falling away. Now, I’m wanting to sketch loosely from life or paint intuitively with no sketch.

In 2009, I had a strong desire to try other mediums via one-day introductory workshops. One of the mediums I tried, I had never heard of, alcohol inks. During that workshop it was like my inner child artist had finally been let out to play. All around me other artists were manipulating the inks with brushes, making impressive representational works, but I had a strong resistance to even picking up a brush! All I wanted to do was drop ink on the paper and observe what happened. Afterwards, through a spirit of experimentation and play the Dreamscaping theme emerged.

I began getting requests to teach and the instructor from that one day workshop gave me her blessing, saying I had developed my own style. Plans for my first instructional DVD, Level 1 Alcohol Ink Dreamscaping With June Rollins™ are now being made.

More important than choice of medium for me is the dreamscaping spirit I want to nourish and incorporate into all my art making. I now have a desire to dreamscape in watercolor, watercolor inks, oils and pastels.

Flower Power No. 6
(click here to see original image)

You're an accomplished watercolorist and you've also created bold, beautiful work using alcohol inks. What can you tell us about the differences in setting up compositions for each medium? What pulls you to either one? 

Many of my watercolors have been representational and were created from my photographs. Working in this manner requires more planning and preliminary set-up. It’s like putting together a difficult puzzle. It’s great when it all comes together and you feel a high degree of accomplishment.

You can work intentionally with alcohol inks too, but the Dreamscaping process I’ve developed is intuitive, using no brushes or pre-planned sketches. One of my students described it best, when she said, “When I pick up the ink bottle and begin dreamscaping, any tension I was feeling, begins draining away.”

How I’m using alcohol inks is influencing how I watercolor. My style is becoming looser. I’m having more fun, without trying so hard as I have in the past.

What does procrastination look like for you? What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art? 

In the past, procrastination looked like a bag of Oreo cookies I had to open and eat or a load of laundry I had to start before I could begin to paint. Procrastination was my old friend, fear. We’ve just gotten used to each other. She doesn’t hold me back like she used to :-)

Dreamscape No. 143
(click here to see original image)

Competition deadlines have helped me. Not getting that art degree when I was younger made me want validation by attaining signature membership in art societies. Something I’m still aspiring to, but it’s not the be all, end all it once was. Getting so many rejections along the way has make me more resilient.

Since last November when I joined DPW, I’ve been inspired by other artists’ work and have benefitted from adopting the daily painting practice of working small. I’m an early riser and love starting the day Dreamscaping. Do I paint everyday? Well, maybe not on paper, but in my heart and mind I do.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

Just about everything I see, I’m interpreting into a painting. I’ll never be able to paint all that I want to paint which is one of the reasons my love for photography continues.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging? 

In 2009, I was experiencing a growing dissatisfaction with my art which is why I was prompted to try other mediums. Experimentation and play came to my rescue. Specifically, experimenting with alcohol inks revitalized my art making. It is such a fluid, forgiving medium.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist? 

I’m learning the less I try to control or force a preconceived outcome, the more soul-deep satisfying the creative process. I believe I’m learning joy. I’m noticing this joy I experience when creating, sometimes transfers to the viewer which seems to complete the circle.

Dreamscape No. 69
(click here to see original image)

What makes you happiest about your art? 

That I’m doing it. That fear didn’t win. I love experiencing the creative process and inspiring others to get in touch with their own creativity; either with how my art makes them feel or offering art instruction.

Thanks, June!

© Jennifer Newcomb Marine