Why make art?

May 14, 2025May 14, 2025 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cook#art, #dailyart, #facebook, #whataboutart, #whatdoyoulove, #whypaint, art, i love art, photography, Twitter, where do you paint, why do you paintLeave a comment

When asked: “Why do you make art” what do you say? I think all artists wrestle with the why of it? I, myself know I have to do it to be happy. Working on a painting or a pen and ink drawing in my studio makes me happy.

The making of art is a tradition that has spanned the entirety of human history. I’m always interested to know what is art’s purpose, if it has one! When asked, what do artist’s say about their compulsion to create? Camille Henrot said: “I don’t think art has any inherent duty; its not “good” for anything innately.” What best describes an artist? Is too much expected of art? She went on to say: “Art is good for representing and defending a space for complexity, nuance and exception. I love this explanation.

Rose B Simpson stated: ” So much art caters to the intellect, tickles the wit and hold the key to an inside joke.” The cost of art is know what you paid to go to art school, and what you owe. What we need to remember is that art ventures in the magical, driven by a deep desire to know something beside disconnection as to become fluent in the poetry of the supernatural. Art is about findg our way home to our humanity. As we take many wrong turns each one is a teacher.

What I often wonder, is the question of why people question why we have to make art. Why is art a part of our soul? Why do we wake up thinking about what we can create next? Is it because we are creative souls, or are we artists just a little crazy! I don’t have an answer to this yet.

I know I love to paint and draw. I love the companionship of artistic people. I painted this years ago, and it sold right away. It is 2′ x 4′ and happily installed in a happy client’s home. Think about why you enjoy art, be it contemporary or old world, flowers or landscape or a million other venues. I hope you are enjoying it in your life!

Berryessa Gap Vineyards

April 9, 2025 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cook#BerryessaGap, #PleinAir, #Winters, art, Art Fair, Art Stroll, artist, Berryessa Gap, creative energy, facebook, photography, Twitter, vineyards, WintersLeave a comment

Today I finished this 40 inch by 30 inch painting from a photo of the Berryessa Gap Vineyards. There is a wine stroll coming up in Winters on May 3rd and I was asked to have a booth. I will participating in the Plein Air get-together from May 1st to May 3rd. The third day I will be painting from my booth, probably from a photo I will have taken earlier.

When I was working on this, as it came to being close to being finished I felt it lacked the spark it needed. I decided to look online for ideas and was sadly disappointed. I could find no painting that really sang out to me. There were several YouTubes, but none of the finished work was inspiring. With that I realized that anyone can post a YouTube and it does not have to be that good to retain a pertinent number of followers.

Are there that many people that need help like that? I did not gain anything new from the ones I quickly viewed. Maybe I need to be more “gutsy” and do my own videos. I have looked online for recipes for several years and am amazed the long detailed “how to’s” that accompany most of the recipes. I skip to the recipe, read the ingredients and from that determine if it is worth cooking.

The problem with most videos, YouTubes and demos is that each shows one style or technique and in most cases it is no where near what you want to accomplish. It was pretty disappointing. I find the same with so many of the art how-to art books. I think why would you buy a book if you don’t like the art of the artist.

I’ve written a book on hand drafting that is still used in many schools throughout the world. Maybe it is time to do the same with an art book!

Journal of the Flowers in My Yard

April 6, 2025 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cook#coloredpencils, #drawingflowers, #flowers, #garden journal, art, artist, colored pencils, creative energy, facebook, garden jounal, journal, photography, recording what is in your garden, TwitterLeave a comment

Our yard is full of wonderful flowers that bound into bloom every Spring and continue through the summer. My husband loves to work in the yard (if it’s not too hot), but never remembers the names of the flowers. When we are discussing an area in the yard he calls it by “the pink flowers”, or the “red flowers” and etc. I thought it might be fun to put together a journal of the flowers that grow in our yard.

What I am discovering is that it will take more time than I thought it might. I started to do the journal in watercolor, but quickly learned that my paper was not nearly thick enough for that. So I got out a pencil set that I purchased several years ago for a portraiture class. I took it to my sketching group and quickly discovered I needed to sharpen all the pencils and did not have a sharpener with me.

As you can see, sharpening all of these took a bit of time! So far I only have completed two drawings. The drawings are small in nature, but considering how many different flowers we have in our garden, it might take a bit.

Urban Sketching

September 17, 2024 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cookartist, at the beach, creative energy, creative sketching, gouache, Mexico sketching, pen & ink, Twitter, urban sketching, watercolor, what to sketch, what to use for urban sketching, where to sketchLeave a comment

Urban sketching means so many different things to different people. I love to sketch when I travel or when I waiting for something, and when I was working on my Ph.D I would sketch whatever was on the table. I thought no one was watching, but I found out later that was not quite correct. My classmates were always curious as to what caught my eye.

Sitting on the beach in Cabo San Lucas I used pen and ink and gouache to have fun painting the locals.

On this one in Puerto Vallarta I used watercolor and gouache and pen to capture the surf. I find it very relaxing.

The men at the Taco Stand was fun to sketch using pen & ink, and watercolor. You can tell I often use a small 6″ architects ruler to get straight lines.

On a cruise we took this last year, while the boat was at sea, I would often just find a spot and sketch people or furniture.

There are so many things to choose from and so many different art supplies you can choose from. When doing quick sketches I tend to stick to just pen & ink, so I don’t have to carry around a lot of “stuff”.

If I have an afternoon free, then I carry more equipment and spend more time on the drawing/sketch. This was done sitting in the shade by the swimming pool, having a Margarita using pen & ink and gouache. I like gouache as it gives you more depth than water color, and you can paint over mistakes. I find it fun to mix with watercolor for a softened effect.

I don’t take my sketches serious, but I do try to get the drawing right, or enough off that it is just fun.

This is the fountain overlooking the water at Lindo Mar in Puerto Vallarta.

i’ve sold a few sketches, but mostly give them away after I photograph them, so do not have a book of sketches per se.

Life Drawing

August 31, 2022 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cookart, artist, charcoal, creative energy, Diana McLaughlin, facebook, life drawing, photography, poses, taking classes, TwitterLeave a comment

I took a life drawing class in Sacramento last weekend, and enjoyed the experience. I had not worked in charcoal in several years. It took a while to get back into it. There were two very experienced models. We started out with five minute poses, which we erased, then went on to twenty minute poses. These are all twenty minute poses.

Redoing a Painting

June 30, 2022 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cookart, artist, creative energy, Diana Bennett, facebook, Fishing boat, just goes to show sometimes you fail, Newport, Oregon, photography, Success or failure, Sunset in the west, this one should sink, too much color is not always good, trying something new, Twitter, WashingtonLeave a comment

When we were staying in Newport and having dinner, this fishing boat passed by the window. I liked the composition, but not the colors. I thought about it for a while and decided I would try to add a sunset behind the bridge. I painted this about a year ago, and still thought it looked a little dull.

This is the original attempt and it seems lack-lustre.

So I gave it a little more life today, and now I think it is dancing almost too much and I really am not wild about the colors. The fishing boat is too centered in the painting and I think it is “dump worthy”. this just goes to show that you are not always successful with your painting. But if you do not try new things, then you do not grow. As I look at the composition, it is not my best.

What shall I paint tomorrow?

Aging in a Young World

August 30, 2016August 30, 2016 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cookaging, aging in a young world, art, artist, commentary, creative energy, Diana Kingsly, facebook, gray hair, growing older, philosophy, senior discounts, senior stories, steel, Twitter, white hairLeave a comment

Today I was reading about a young couple that had lost two babies before finally being blessed with two beautiful boys. They write a blog about the experience at age 26 that tells of their trials and now how it is to raise their two young sons. I think it is fabulous that they now have a family they can enjoy and was totally intrigued that they could support their family in a very nice manner by writing a blog.

It started me thinking. By the age of (in my case – 67) 65, if you have had an interesting life at all, you have had lots of ups and downs, happinesses and sadness, challenges with defeats and hopefully more challenges with successes. There is a growing population of maturing adults as medicine improves and we get to enjoy aging in a much healthier manner.

Why not write a blog about aging in our society? There are so many stories out there that are captivating about interesting successes of the maturing adult. Many entrepreneurial magazines tell of the successful careers of self-starters that did not begin at a young age. There are so many benefits of being a little older, I thought maybe it might be a fascinating venue to explore.

I will call it “STEEL” as so many of us mature folks have a little steel in our hair coloring, steel in our backbone and a few have a little steel in one or more of our limbs. Steel will talk about daily adventures, senior discounts, commentary of being older in a young world, fun ideas for retiring, life stories we have lived through and hopefully make a difference to those of us that are “seniors” or will be soon.

Artwork in its new home

January 12, 2016January 12, 2016 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cookart, artist, artists, commentary, creative energy, Diana kingsley, facebook, oil paint, Pacific North West, painter, philosophy, photography, Twitter, WashingtonLeave a comment

For the last about 15 years I have been enjoying the creative pastime of painting and drawing. Over the years I have sold many pieces and with the exception of a doctor’s office, where I helped install the work I seldom get to see it in it’s new environment.

The second photo is of a piece I sold at Interiors of Edmonds and the new owner was kind enough to share a photo of it hanging in her lovely home. All artists should be so lucky to see where their work finds a home.

Thank you for sharing.

http://www.dianakingsley.net

Ya ma da poonoo = It’s bad for business

January 12, 2016 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | Cookcommentary, creative energy, culture, Diana kingsley, facebook, Jabba the Hutt, miasmic mass, philosophy, Star Wars philosophy, Twitter, vile gangster, WashingtonLeave a comment

Jabba the Hutt had a lot to say in Star Wars and beyond. The name is often used as a satirical literary device and a political caricature to underscore negative qualities. Jabba is depicted as a large, slug-like alien, that is a cross between a toad and the Cheshire Cat exemplifying lust, greed and gluttony. Known throughout the Star Wars universe as the “vile gangster”, amusing himself by torturing and humiliating his subjects and enemies.

The physical appearance of Jabba reinforces the personality of a criminal deviant winning the award for “The Most Disgusting Alien”. The body is a Miasmic mass with the lardaceous body periodically releasing a greasy discharge, sending fresh waves of rotten stench into the air. Jabba’s appetitive is insatiable and often authors portray him/her treating to eat subordinates.

Jabba the Hutt is an icon in American popular culture becoming synonymous in American Mass Media with repulsive obesity. The name is utilized as a literary device – either as a simile or metaphor – to illustrate character flaws.

In other words, Jabba the Hutt has come to represent greed and anarchy, especially in the business world. Jabba ranked #4 on the Forbes Fictional 15 list of the wealthiest fictional characters in 2008. Not sure where it is ranked now? Probably grew in wealth as growing in girth.

Let’s see if by some his/her ( gender is never implicated ) quotes if you can figure it out what Jabba represents in current culture?

“You weak minded fool.”

“He is my kind of scum, fearless and inventive.”

“They will suffer for this outrage.”

“Have you now, ha ha.”

“Your mind powers will NOT work on me.”

“Let them marvel at our splendor.”

“There will be no bargain, I will enjoy watching you….(die or whatever bad)”

And my favorite:

“You will soon learn to appreciate me. ”

Jabba went on to point out: “Here, like everywhere else, laughing and singing, dancing and dreaming are not exactly the whole of reality; and for one ray of sun, shining on the hut, the rest of the village remains in the dark.”

Why write about Jabba the Hutt?

How many of you have dealt with someone with even one of these qualities in business? When reading about Jabba, is there a character that comes to mind in your life? Someone that befriends you, only to use you to their advantage and if you do not do exactly as they want you to do it, even if they are wrong or slightly corrupt, you are chastised and attempted to be made to feel like the low life they actually are.

As I grow older in our culture, it has become highly apparent to me, that people will lie under oath, tell you what they think you want to hear and basically do anything to get ahead and win whatever is important to them. You are of use, but not of importance to people like this.

In my way of thinking that is not a good way to go through life. If you see that happening in your life, get out of the way and let Jabba roll right on by you.

Designing a Postcard Ad for RE

January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 Diana Bennett | Artist | Interior Designer | CookAirstream, airstreams, art, artist, bainbridge island, commentary, creative energy, Diana kingsley, facebook, kingston, Moving your home, poulsbo, Twitter, WashingtonLeave a comment

Today while listening to classes on real estate I decided it was a good time to sketch while listening. Multi-tasking and now I need to add color and come up with a By Line. Anyone have any ideas? Here are some I was thinking about:

Thinking about making a move?

Ready for a change of scenery?

Where do you want to be at this point in your life?

Don’t think I need to to exert this much energy to move? What is your idea?

Think of me when you think of Real Estate. Join me on one of my Facebook pages:

https://www.facebook.com/dianakingsley1

https://www.facebook.com/D-zine

https://www.facebook.com/kingstoncovestudio