Bill, an oil portrait

oil, 12x9 inches magnify As promised, here's the second portrait from the live model, drawn more carefully than the previous. Bill is a friend's brother who although he'd never modeled before, did a fine job. The hat was a lot of fun, and I especially liked the shadow it cast on his forehead and hair. I'm back from Colorado and excited to tell you about the Kim English workshop. I've got to organize my photos first. Meanwhile, Art In The Park is this Saturday the 11th in Newport Beach. If you're in So Cal, come on out and say hi!

Figure Study

oil 12x9 inches not for sale With this study from my Tuesday night class, I concentrated on natural skin tones. I used the Zorn palette with two reds: cad red light in the lights and cad red medium in the shadows. This helped me mix the temperatures I wanted. I'm really happy with this study in that I was able to get a reasonable likeness and also an emotional quality. FYI, she is blonde and wearing a large black scarf. I was so far away from the model, I couldn't see much detail in her facial features. I was forced to simplify. A good thing.

Head Study

oil 12x9 inches Rough head study from my figure painting class with Joseph Todorovitch. I enjoyed the pose with her closed eyes and full mouth.

Alex

oil 12x9 inches On Thursday I joined a figure painting group at "Perma-Dirty" art space in the Claremont Packing House. I really enjoyed painting Alex because of his fair complexion and especially his eyes. I used the Zorn palette: Twhite, yellow ochre, Gamblin's chromatic black, and this time cad red light instead of my usual cad red medium. The red light helped me get more warmth into the skintones in the light, but it seemed too warm to make the darks for skintones in shadow. Maybe next time I'll use both reds. Coming up on Tuesday evening I'll start figure painting classes again with Joseph Todorovitch. I'm beyond excited!

Mass Contemplation

oil 10x8 inches Click to Purchase We visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on the day "the rock" opened for viewing. Titled "Levitated Mass", the sculpture was many decades in the making. Interesting. Kinda creepy to walk under it. There were lots of figures to choose from for my painting. These two showed the puzzlement that I think many of us were experiencing.

Gracie

oil 8x8 inches not for sale On a recent beach day the sun tried to burn through the clouds, but it remained pretty cold and overcast all day. My photo reference for this would have been better with a clear division of light and shadow, but I couldn't resist my little granddaughter's pose and her polka-dot suit. I used what I had and painted the existing conditions.

Bell Ringers

oil 10x8 inches click here to bid The only time these old bells ring is on Saint Joseph's Day. These gentlemen waited for a long time for their cue. Painting that wall proved challenging. Part brick and part plaster everywhere, I indicated the basic pattern of shapes and kept edges soft so the men and cords remain the focal point.

Little Ballerina

oil 8x6 inches not for sale This is our little granddaughter, Emily. I thought this pose was so precious; that moment when she's feeling a bit tentative and at the same time focused on her teacher. Getting a likeness when the face is only one square inch of canvas is darn hard. I needed a one-haired brush. It turned out pretty close. Sorry my posts have been sparse lately. I'm feeling fine, but busy with other things. Tomorrow we celebrate our son and daughter-in-law having earned their college degrees. We're so proud of them! Then next week our Idaho son and family come for a good long visit. I'll paint and post when I can.

Winter Glow

oil 8x6 inches not for sale My son lives in Idaho. In the winter they sit out on the back porch around this old washtub and "chill." I liked the glow on his hand and face. Because of the glowing windows I wanted to title it "Home Fires." You know, "Keep the home fires burning." Then I thought it sounded too much like a house on fire. Maybe I'm over-thinking this? :-) That stick might be a bit too short for most of us, but he's a welder, so the heat is no big deal. They're coming for a visit in a few weeks and I can't wait! Tonight I'm getting ready for the Chino Arts Festival tomorrow. Hope to see some of you locals there. By the way, sorry about the lack of spacing in my posts. Blogger made some changes and I don't know yet why this is happening.

Christina

oil 12x9 inches

Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to paint from a live model. The set up had it all: great color combinations, and a quietly confident young lady with high cheekbones and a beautifully long neck. I used the Zorn palette which I absolutely love for figure painting. The room we were in lacked good lighting. At home later I made some adjustments, mostly warming up shadows. There's SO much to learn about painting people! The more I learn, the more I find out there's more to learn. It's all good.

Watercolor Demo

watercolor 11x15

This week has been a busy one with not much personal time for painting. Today I gave a private watercolor class for a student struggling with a painting she was doing on her own. She planned to start over, so I did a complete demo from her photo as she took notes. I tried to show her how to paint simply, capturing the essence of the scene without copying the photo.

Breakfast At Flo's

oil on canvas panel 9x12 inches click for purchase information Flo's is an icon in Chino. Local dairymen, pilots, vets and regular folks know it's the place to go for biscuits and gravy. It's located just down the road at Chino Airport. There between cow pastures you can visit the Planes Of Fame Air Museum and see little private planes coming and going. Lately we're going every Sunday after church. It's busy, but worth the wait. As for the painting, I really did leave out a few things though you might not think so. Kept her face really simple so your eye goes right to that cook trying to keep up with the orders.

Short Leash

oil on canvas panel 10x8 inches
click here to bid

I've been waiting to paint this scene for a long time because frankly, the figures scared me. Now less scared, it was time. We went to Los Angeles for the Amgen Tour of California time trials a couple of years ago where this attendee caught everyone's attention. Like Carol Carmichael said recently, if there was a leg challenge, I could enter this. They really were that long. Things are incongruous here. I looked that word up in my synonym/antonym book. :-) Guess who's walking the dog? Also incongruous.

Check'n The Map

oil on gallery wrap canvas 8x8x1 1/4 inch
ready to hang
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While in San Diego we did a walking tour of Balboa Park. My husband sat down to see where we were going next. The tiles at his feet were also between him and the water, and painted as a solid color field it was reading as a vertical plane instead of horizontal. I had to add some indication of tile pattern receding in space which seemed to help. I've submitted this to Dana Cooper's DPW Challenge; the seated figure. To see the other entries click here.

The Scotsman -sold

oil on linen panel 12x9 inches
private collection Rancho Cucamonga, CA

On Thursday I had the opportunity to paint from the live model with a group at the Chaffey Community Art Association gallery. Our model had never posed before, and he did a fabulous job. He looked so authentic! I'm sure it was his Scottish lineage. Usually I paint only the head, but I couldn't resist the beautiful shirt with its leather laces. Now the scary part was to get the face readable on a small scale. Oh no...here I go again! (The little girl's face in previous painting!) As it turns out, I'm happy with the painting but truthfully, the best part was painting with friends.

Waiting

oil on canvas panel 12x9 inches
click here to bid

A cold morning at Fisherman's Wharf. Waiting is hard for little ones. This mother had such as sense of peace, you'd never know she had a preschooler running all over. Her little toddler had the most forlorn expression on her face. (HARD to capture in paint!) I love how she's all snuggled in. This painting took a while. I enjoyed the slightly larger canvas, the cool tones and clear division of light and shadow. I painted the little girl's face several times, then decided I'd done the best I could, time to move on.

Modern Thought-sold

oil on canvas panel 8x8 inches
click here to bid

Another from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, this guy's orange sweatshirt tied in nicely. Again, the blah colored floor and reflected color proved challenging, but I'm happy with how it ended up.

Viva Los Colores-sold

oil on canvas panel 8x6 inches
click here to bid

At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art I observed this contemplative couple and their attire in stark contrast to Frida Kahlo's colorful painting. What would Frida say? Maybe "Viva los colores!"
This may be my last post for 2011, as I'm running Camp Gramma this weekend. Happy New Year, everyone!

Warhol Watches-sold

oil on canvas panel 8x6 inches
click here to bid

I hadn't painted in over a week when I took this on. Museum goers are a popular subject with us daily painters, and so I thought I'd have a go at it. I wiped the floor :-) three times. Finally decided enough is enough, and on to the next painting. There are aspects of this that I'm happy with, so it was spared from the wipe-out. This is a busy time of year with family and good times, but not much time for painting. Hope to get some time later next week.

Martha

While in Sedona, my fellow artist and good friend, Martha Cowan and I took turns painting each other. Back in our hotel room after dinner, we adjusted some lamps and one of us reclined on the bed watching TV while the other painted. I was very happy to have gotten a fairly good likeness. Joseph Todorovitch taught us the order of learning how to paint portraits: first strive to make it look human, then make it look female, then like the person. When I first started drawing the figure again (after 30 year break) all my heads looked ape-like! Martha and I had some hearty laughs about me trying to not make her look like a monkey! If you see a hint of tears in her eyes, it's because she was watching something sad on TV! To see her portrait of me, click on her name link above.