Donna Zagotta's blog is about her watermedia paintings, the artistic journey, art resources, art history, book and exhibition reviews, insights, ideas, information, inspiration, tips for making better paintings and being a better artist . . . and a whole lot of other good stuff.

Blog I am excited to announce that my DVD, The You Factor: Powerful, Personal Design in Opaque Watercolor, filmed for Creative Catalyst Productions, is currently available! To see a sneak preview and a 4-part interview I did with CCP, click HERE

Fallbrook

By Donna on June 18, 2010

Donna and Brigitte Schlemmer

     Donna and Brigitte Schlemmer, Executive Director of the Fallbrook School of the Arts 

I’ve just returned from teaching a workshop for the Fallbrook School of the Arts. The town of Fallbrook is about an hour outside of San Diego, CA and prides itself on being the avocado capital of the world. It is also quite a lively arts community that was once the home of Frank Capra, who directed It’s a Wonderful Life, one of the most inspirational movies of all time. 

I had a fun and exciting week at Fallbrook. It started with a painting demo on Sunday, followed  by a wonderful dinner at the home of sculptor Dr. Jim Helms and his wife Victoria. Also at the dinner was San Diego artist, teacher, (and surfer!) Ken Goldman, and Brigitte Schlemmer. Dr. Helms is a talented sculptor and his beautiful works of art grace the lovely backyard and gardens of their lovely hillside home. Here are some of his amazing metal sculptures………

  Dr. Jim Helms, Metal Sculpture         DSC_0038          DSC_0011   IMG_0230

 

My friend and fellow artist and teacher, Judy Morris, was also in San Diego that week teaching a workshop for the San Diego Watercolor Society. Judy and popular San Diego artist and teacher Ken Goldman drove down to Fallbrook one evening and we enjoyed a delicious dinner accompanied by wine and some fabulous art talk.  

                  Judy Morris, Ken Goldman, Donna

                                                    Judy Morris, Ken Goldman, Donna

         
The workshop, Adding the You Factor to Paintings ran from Monday through Friday. We explored design ideas for personalizing paintings and I debuted a new segment dealing with choosing color schemes for paintings. I was so pleased that everyone embraced the workshop projects enthusiastically and I was truly amazed at the effort these hard working artists put into their work. Here are some of the terrific paintings that came out of the workshop……………
  
                                          898  Pat
 

                   Anna Anna

                                      905  Jean

                                   906   Jan

                                    908a    Sue

                                     911   Kandy

  930    Mary

                              917    Susanna

                                      934    Debbie

                                                  894     Robin

                                                  926    Carol

MaryAnne    MaryAnne

909 Kandy and Carol looking at critique paintings in the overhead mirror. Hope you enjoyed the show – we sure did! 

 

                936

Thank You Brigitte!

 Happy Painting!

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Memorial Day

By Donna on May 31, 2010

Ruth Armitage, Gathering

Ruth Armitage, Gathering

 

I hope that you all had a fabulous holiday weekend. Summer is finally here! 

Ruth Armitage, a friend and wonderful artist, is celebrating the second year anniversary of her blog. In celebration of her “Blog-O-versary”, she did an interview with me that is featured in her post today. I was honored to be a part of her celebration and I thought you might enjoy the interview. You can see it here . While you’re there, check out Ruth’s website and her blog. Ruth is a dynamite lady, and so is her art!

Happy Painting! 

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Turning Points

By Donna on May 18, 2010

Donna Zagotta, This Way

Donna Zagotta, This Way

 

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”   Anais Nin

Turning Point: Important moment of change; a time or incident that marks the beginning of a completely new, and usually better, stage in somebody’s life or in the development of something.

A few weeks ago I gave a slide talk at the Stretching Boundaries for Creative People seminar on the autobiographical content of my figure paintings. It was a great opportunity to put together a retrospective of my body of work from the last 10 or so years and reflect on struggles resolved, successes won, questions answered, goals achieved, paths explored, and roads not taken. With the passage of time I was able to see the choices and decisions that I made that led to certain turning points in my my art journey. An early turning point occurred when I made the decision to leave behind everything I was told by my early art instructors about what art is and what it could be to find my own answers. A second turning point came about when I resolved to find that thing that is my own. 

But by far, I think that my most important turning point came about when I made the commitment to myself about 6 years ago to please only myself with my paintings, and to never again paint a painting that I didn’t love. In figuring out what it was going to take to put together a painting that I truly loved, I had to take a risk and put it all on the line. What if I did a painting that I loved and then I discovered that the rest of the world thought it was crap? Or, what if I put everything I had into a painting, but I still didn’t love it? But I held my breath, jumped in, and took the risk anyway. And it was in taking that risk that I finally started to find that thing that is my own.

In his book Turning Points, Stories of People Who Made a Difference, Max L. Christensen defines a turning point as:

       -  a time when commitments are made

       - a time when new attitudes are formed

       - a time when new directions are chosen

       - a time when distant visions are transformed into reality

A turning point often occurs at a time of major crisis. It is a decisive moment where a significant change or decision is about to be made. While it can be difficult and scary, and something that requires a gigantic leap of  faith, a turning point can be a fabulous vehicle for positive change and growth. 

Here is some great advice by Katherine Mansfield: Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth. 

Do you have some observations on turning points that you’d like to add to this? I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Painting!

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Posted in Art Talk, Art and Fear, Breakthroughs, Finding You | 5 Responses

Observations on the 2010 American Watercolor Society Exhibition

By Donna on May 11, 2010

John Salminen, Morning Fog

John Salminen, Morning Fog - 2010 AWS Gold Medal of Honor

I’ve just returned from New York where I had the pleasure of attending the 2010 American Watercolor Society awards ceremony and dinner. This year’s exhibition, as always, is a beautiful display of some of today’s best watermedia paintings from around the world. Having seen the catalog of the 28 award winning paintings chosen from the 101 exhibited paintings before I arrived at the Salmagundi Club to view the show itself stirred my curiosity because so many of the paintings in the catalog seemed to have been painted with quiet and neutralized colors.  But my initial impression was quickly erased when I saw the show itself and the many colorful works on display – another reminder that you can’t really get a true flavor of an exhibition by looking at a few reproductions in a catalog. In last year’s show, I noticed an increase in small paintings. This year saw the return of the large painting. Gold Medal of Honor winner John Salminen’s painting, Morning Fog was 32×36 inches, Dean Mitchell’s painting, Sunshine in New Orleans, which won the Silver Medal of Honor, was 30×40 inches, and Carla O’ Connor’s award winning Of Kimonos and Kabuki was 26×40 inches - all larger than full sheet size. 

This year’s show seemed heavy on figure paintings, so out of pure curiosity I did a breakdown of subject matter. Of the 101 paintings in the show, 34 were figures, 26 were landscapes (many of which also contained figures), 17 were city scenes and exteriors, 11 were abstracts, 6 were animals, 4 were still lifes, 2 contained whimsical or folk art subjects, and there was 1 floral.   

The American Watercolor Society exhibition offers an amazing opportunity to see a collection of some of today’s most remarkable watermedia paintings. If you get the opportunity to see the traveling exhibition, check it out!

Donna's 2010 American Watercolor Society Painting, That Way
Donna’s 2010 AWS Painting, That Way

 

Here are some photos from the dinner………………

 
Left to Right: Donna, Linda Baker, Mary Ann Beckwith
Left to Right: Donna, Linda Baker, Mary Ann Beckwith
 Award winner Preecha Oromprabtuk  Award winner and new signature member Preecha Promprabtuk
 
               Donna and John Salminen 
                                            Donna and John Salminen
  
Linda Baker receiving her award from Jim McFarlane
Linda Baker received the Alan R. Chiara Memorial Award from Jim McFarlane
 
Happy Painting!
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Daniel Greene and Me

By Donna on May 3, 2010

Daniel Greene, Hit the Red

Daniel Greene, Hit the Red

“If you’re going to create something, the first step isn’t to start creating something, it’s to create the process.” Chris Wink
 
There is an interesting story in the March 2009 issue of American Art Collector magazine that describes how artist Daniel Greene develops ideas for his large, complex masterpieces. His recent paintings are based on his childhood memories of carnivals. What intrigued me was how he went about gathering the reference material for his carnival paintings. For the 80 x 80 inch painting, Hit the Red, he found a carnival set that he wanted to paint, and then hired a carpenter to replicate the exact setup in his studio.
  
“I had him build the set and then found the models who seemed to be appropriate types and then set it up simply for my own edification. As a large painting it involved countless hours of painting, so I wanted to make sure that I had all the ingredients there in front of me.” 
 
“I can’t work from photographs at all,” says Greene. “Working from life is an entirely different procedure. You have everything right in front of you and there is a great deal of selection and arranging needed to figure out a way to do it from life. I  want to have that certain feeling of frozen time in the painting. I’m treating the painting like a reporter and am basically saying that this was a scene that moved me, and I want to express the emotion I felt and use it as a vehicle for artistic embellishment.” You can see more of Daniel Greene’s work at  www.danielgreeneartist.com
 
A number of artists begin their paintings as Daniel Greene does, by recreating a scene in their studio. Many others develop their paintings from drawings and sketches, and numerous artists work from photos they’ve taken. Lots of artists avoid using reference material altogether, preferring to work purely from their memories or their imagination.  
 
It’s fascinating to think about the role reference materials play in igniting an artist’s creative process. While I have set up still lifes and interiors, I have never built an entire set or hired a model to pose for me. And while I have done on-location sketches and drawings, I have never done paintings from them. I work exclusively from photos I’ve taken, adding my imagination to the mix during the painting process. 
  
Donna Capturing Painting Ideas on Catalina Island

Donna Capturing Painting Ideas on Catalina Island

When I looked a little deeper into why I prefer my method over any other, it made perfect sense to me. My paintings usually begin as a response to something; I see it, I feel or think something about it, and if the subject and my feelings and thoughts captivate me enough, I will likely be stoked to put them into a painting. For me, it all begins with an internal response to something external. I don’t conjure up a memory or an idea to paint and then go about finding it or reproducing it in my studio like Daniel Greene, I see it and capture it with my camera in much the same way that another artist might see it and capture it with their sketchbook. I take most of my photos on trips. I definitely see and respond more when I’m out and about, especially when I’m somewhere new. As a matter of fact, the title of my current series is Out and About.
 
Katharine Cartwright, Universal Law of Gravity

Katharine Cartwright, Universal Law of Gravity

My friend and fellow artist, Katharine Cartwright is working on a new series that relies solely on her imagination. The series is titled The Laws of Nature. The paintings all begin with Kathy pondering a physical law of the universe, which becomes her “subject.” Working strictly from her imagination in an improvisational approach, she draws a form on her watercolor paper that becomes the focal point and expands outward, relating each shape to the others while looking for variety and directionality. With her drawing in place, she selects a palette of 5 colors and works for color dominance and uses color to lead the eye through the painting. Kathy is a trained scientist and this series and her new creative process suits her to a tee. You can see more of Kathy’s work at her fabulous blog: http://k-cartwright.blogspot.com/

“Years and years ago, I read a great interview with Jam and Lewis, the R&B producers, in which they described what it was like to be members of Prince’s band. They’d sit down, and Prince would tell them what he wanted them to play, and they’d explain that they couldn’t – they weren’t quick enough, or good enough. And Prince would push them and push them until they mastered it, and then just when they were feeling pleased with themselves for accomplishing something they didn’t know they had the capacity for, he’d tell them the dance steps he needed to accompany the music. This story has stuck with me, I think, because it seems like an encapsulation of the very best and the most exciting kind of creative process.” Nick Hornby

In his book Creating, Robert Fritz offers some enlightenment on that mysterious thing called the creative process. He says that in the creative process the driving force is the desire for a specific result. Once you know where you want to go, you have a better chance to design an effective process, since the result answers the question What do you want to create? and the process answers the question How do you create it? 

Your thoughts?

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Posted in Art Talk, The creative process | Tagged | 2 Responses

I am excited to announce that my DVD, The You Factor: Powerful, Personal Design in Opaque Watercolor, filmed for Creative Catalyst Productions, will be out very soon! To see a sneak preview, click HERE
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