Saturday, February 23, 2013

My 3 all time favorite paintings




The little girl on the beach was done in oils.  The painting was about 24" by 36".  The sky took me all of fifteen minutes to paint.  The little girl took me three weeks.  I had to wait for layers of paint to dry.  Yellow seems to take forever.  (And I had to be careful not to mix the flesh with the cloth of the bathing suit.)  The ball took THREE days to paint.  Had to wait for colors to dry so they wouldn't bleed into one another, and it took me awhile to realize that a round object owns an oval shadow.  Makes no sense but it's true.

The oil painting of the  English Bulldog was my former dog "Cody".  I labored over this one.  I wanted to make it like you could pet him, and well I was more than please with the job I did on him, I feel like I can hear him panting!  

The lady on the bottom is a class demo in pastels.  From start to finish it took all of two hours.  The students picked out the photo I was to do, they wanted to see me struggle with doing teeth, and all the plays of light on the model's neck.  (It was from a photo of a cover girl ad.)  I truly had fun doing this portrait with about a dozen hopeful artists watching me, I know I truly helped them learn how to start, continue and finish a pastel portrait.  

I have other favorites, like the one I did of Whoopie Goldberg, the one I did of my Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier, and the one I did for the cover of the book I co-authored, but these three mean a lot to me.  

But I'm not done yet, I have a lot of artwork to do.  

I go back in the studio to work on Tuesday and Wednesday as my classes I take are then.  I take classes to keep up on things and to stay motivated because if I don't take class, laundry calls me, housework calls me, I get interrupted with phone calls, etc.  So, instead, I carve out three hours at the local Visual Art Center and take classes and that is MY time, for ME!!!  

And now you know...haha!  

More work to come.  Actually it's not work at all, it's what I live to do!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Portrait of young girl


Today in Diane Mannion's class, we did portraits.  Of course I was late.  I'm always late...but I made it to class.  Goal number one achieved!  

When I entered the class, the teacher was giving a portrait demo of a student who decided to pose.  I've done these kind of demos before so I didn't really miss anything.  What I like about Diane is she is so sharing of her knowledge.  I was taught a few different ways to approach a portrait in oils, but one thing I like about Diane is her choice of colors.  She simplifies things.  She was generous enough to give us different palette choices.  And I was looking for something new...NEW....and she came through for me.  

Class is from 9 am to noon.  I got there at 9:30, and she was giving the demo to about 10 am.  Then she brought out some sample faces from magazines.  A few struck my eye so I picked them up.  The one above being one of them.  What struck me was the lack of color, (but yet, still a hint of color), and her expression.  I liked her innocence.  

I mostly used ivory black and titanium white, but the eyes looked flat and lifeless, so I added in some ultramarine blue, and something told me I needed some more color...so I added some burnt sienna in the hair and in the sweater's turtleneck.  But it still looked dull, so I combined the burnt sienna and the ultramarine blue (which when combined can appear to be as dark as black, a beautiful black I may add.)  

I like the result.  It's not done by any margin, but for about two hours work, I'm pleased with the result.  

I may do her again, but larger and with more color, or perhaps add a ribbon in her braided hair...or show the braid more...perhaps add some blush, like an old time photo that has been tinted.  Don't know, but I do want to paint her again.  If I change it up enough, I can enter her in a show, but for right now, nope, I can't, it's too much like another artist's work, but if I change it up so it's very different from the original, fine...

Like it?  I do, that's all that matters...and I'm painting...I'm producing, and I will continue.  


Saturday, February 2, 2013

One month to go...

My Dad, whom I adore, is visiting for the rest of this month of February 2013.  I am enjoying his visit!  When he leaves to go back up north where he lives, I plan on going full force with getting into my art.  I think when I read that Diane Mannion can disregard studio clutter, it hit home.  There's always an excuse, if it's not laundry, it's the phone ringing or housework, or I really need to do this or do that.  You know what?  I NEED TO DO MY ART.  I need to create.   I'm 56 years old.  When am I going to start doing what I want to do?  Housework is going to take a back seat as well as a few other things.  I NEED to follow my heart.  Too many YEARS have gone by without producing what I'm able to do. No more.  I'm so in tuned to feeling this, I already am going to art class twice a week even while my Dad is visiting.  Wish I lived closer to the art center, but I don't.  I also realized today at the mall when I was getting my hair done, that I need to walk the mall, there's plenty of benches to rest on if needed.  I need to do this for me.  Feels good...feels real good.  I'm starting to feel alive again.  This is me...no makeup.  My eyes look tired because I don't have good sleeping habits.  I haven't felt like my own person for a long, long time, far too long.  But I'm back...look out art world.  Look out.  I'm getting organized to put into shows, produce and SELL!