Spring Show at AABC

Here's me with my paintings at AABC. My friend Marcia Furman won a prize for one of her photos. Yay Marcia!

Esther - Part II

I finished Esther today. I've documented the first part of the process in an earlier post if you're interested in the nuts and bolts. Here is the second half.

I started with a rough sketch on canvas:

Then did a very fast, loose painting with the intention of just getting color all over the canvas. At this point, it looks nothing like Esther. Not sure why I didn't get a shot of the whole thing.

Next, I spent ALOT of time on the face. I wanted to get it right first, because if you can get the face right, the rest of the stuff is pretty much a breeze. Here's a closeup of the face at this stage.

Next I reworked every bit of the canvas with a palette knife. I really glopped on paint here. I tried to bring out more depth and warmth to her face. Although I captured her pretty well, she looked pasty and cool.

A face closeup:

The table looked odd to me, so I added some color to it, and touched up a few final things. Like, the lemon now looks more like a lemon, and her arms look a little more natural. This is the finished canvas!

Here is a closeup of the finished hat.

And her face! Esther, you are a beautiful little girl!

Esther: Part 1

I snapped this photo of my friend Rachel's daughter Esther when they were visiting this summer, and I'm getting ready make an oil painting of it. To me this image is irresistable - the hat, her sly look, the bright colors - I have to paint it. So I've never done this before, but I'm taking photos of each step of the process and I'm going to post them here.

1) The original

2) Cropped to fit a long narrow canvas, which seemed to suit this compostion

3) Black and white

4) In photoshop, removing some of the unnecessary elements, the cross, the cup, the table in the background

5) Changed to outlines in photoshop so I can print what I'm going to sketch. This makes it so much easier!

6) Added my grid

7) My actual rough sketch on the canvas. It's pretty light.

8) In photoshop, I removed the stripes from the shirt, changed it to green, and manipulated the background color. I also adjusted the shadows and highlights. All this could be done when I'm in the painting process, looking at the orginal, but I prefer to get it right in photoshop, print it out, then just paint what I see.

Next step - PAINT! Stay tuned for more.

Dogs Playing Poker

I think I finished a painting! This one has been in the works for maybe over half a year...It was my first commissioned painting, so I had nothing to do with the subject matter. I will say that it's harder to paint that way, because you don't share the passion for the subject in the same way that your client does. However, it was still fun and challenging to paint all these different animals. By the way, this is not a copy of one of the C.M. Coolidge paintings. I only borrowed the concept - and one of the dogs. All the dogs are my originals except for the little English bulldog which I adapted from his painting, "A Friend in Need".

Laundry Room Door

A while ago my mom and I painted a peacock on the glass panels of an old door that we installed going from our dining room to a powder room. Jason and I remodeled our kitchen this year, and we had a door just like it going into the laundry room, which is always a mess. Since our kitchen now looks nice, I got tired of looking at the laundry room through it and painted the door. Then I scraped half of it off with a razor blade and painted it again. I think I like it now? Not sure yet. The peacock was so much easier because I ripped the design off of a tshirt. I made this one up myself, wanting to keep the same style but a different picture. So here it is...for now.

Uncle Ralph and Boots

I just finished this portrait of my wonderful Uncle Ralph when he was young, sitting with his dog Boots. Uncle Ralph passed away this year, and I'm giving this painting to his widow, my beloved Aunt Rita.

Oil on Canvas
16x20

Fishing

Here's the last painting I completed for my class, which is over now. I'm going to have a gallery show at the BC3 campus in two years, which seems like a lot of time, but I need to complete about 20 paintings between now and then, which means I have to really push to get about 1 painting done per month. It takes me about 9-12 hours to do one painting, and I don't get much time to work, so it will be tough. But it's good to have a goal to work towards, otherwise I probably wouldn't do anything at all...

Fishing

36x24

Oil

Two Poppies

Here's the third painting I've completed for my painting class. It's the first time I've painted with a knife. It was kind of fun, but difficult. I guess it takes a lot of practice to get good at.

Oranges and Elsie

Here's the second painting I've completed in my painting class at BC3. This is taken from the a photo I took when Elsie was 1 or 2. It was probably the only time she ever sat still. That red and pink outfit wasn't working for my color scheme, so I got rid of it. But it's okay to do that when you have an artistic license. I really do have one. My teacher gave them out to all of the students. :)

"Oranges and Elsie"

Oil on canvas

30" x 40"

97

This is a song snippet that was inspired by my friend Alyssa's painting,

which was inspired by:

Psalm 97:1-6,9

The Lord is king!
Let the earth rejoice!
Let the farthest coastlands be glad.
Dark clouds surround him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire spreads ahead of him
and burns up all his foes.
His lightning flashes out across the world.
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
every nation sees his glory.
For you, O Lord, are supreme over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.

We're Going to Make a Mess

One day I got out some watercolors and thought that Elsie and Heidi and I could have some fun painting. I started mindlessly painting some flowers on a piece of paper. Heidi had a lot of fun painting her page black, but Elsie quickly descended into a helpless mass of whiny frustration because she couldn't make flowers like what I was painting.

I tried to explain to her in as many ways as I could think of, that we were just having fun and it didn't matter if her picture looked like mine. She didn't get it and was completely freaking out. It was freaking me out too. Why is my four year old becoming such a perfectionist? Any time she cuts something out and strays off the line, or makes a coloring mark where she doesn't want it, she completely looses it. What to do? I love art and don't want her getting discouraged all the time.

My mom was an art therapist so I called for her advice. She told me that in some of the workshops she's taught, the first task she gives her (adult) class is to "Make an Ugly Picture". It frees them up from thinking they have to produce something marvelous and gets them to just have fun. That sounded like a pretty good idea.

So one day not long ago, we made some homemade finger paints. I put out a big board for the girls to paint on in the middle of the kitchen. As I was explaining to them what we were going to do, I started to say "..and we're going to make a pretty picture" Oops! I stopped myself and said, "I mean, we're going to make a mess!"

Well, let me tell you, I have never seen Elsie have so much fun with artwork. Both of the girls were squealing with joy, squishing the colors around on the board. Not a whine of frustration did I hear! Now, the finger paint did end up in hair, on pajamas, on the cabinets, but it was worth it. I realized that at these kid's ages, making a mess is the best thing to make.

2009

Mother Daughter Acrylic...Nearly Done

She got a little more robust...maybe too robust. I didn't mean for her to be pregnant. But I kind of like it. What do you think?

Mother Daughter Acrylic

This looks more like the one I dreamed. I have to look at it for a few days before I know if it's finished.

Painted Purse

Um, I painted a purse.

Heartflowers

Tree Swing 2

Here is the after and before of this painting. It was fun painting the dots. I think I like the style overall, but it made the sky a little too crazy. Next time I do this I will try to make the dots smaller and much subtler.

Signac Painting

I think I might go back over "tree swing" in little dots, in the same style as this painting by Signac. It's one of my favorite paintings. I think that this endeavor will probably take forever but I love the style.

Tree Swing

I'm not sure if this is done yet.

Bathroom Door

We turned some unused space in our house into a bathroom. Then we needed a door. There was this old glass panel door out in the garage that fit perfectly, but then there was the problem of being able to see through it... so my mom and I painted this peacock on it.