I've just finished my first newsletter - The Bi-Monthly Museletter - which will be sent out on the 14th of this month. I'm very excited about it as I've been working hard to make sure it not only looks attractive but offers something valuable to my subscribers. Every two months I will be offering a small painting at a specially reduced price only to my subscribers. The painting will not be auctioned, but will be available on a first come, first served basis. It will only be available for one week after which, if it does not sell, it will be placed on my website with my usual pricing. You will be able to purchase through my website by following a special link in the Newsletter and entering a code to enter the page for viewing or purchasing.
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"Poor Man's Silver" Oil on Oil Primed Linen, Mounted on Board
This one seemed to sit on my easel forever. In my determination to rise to a challenge, I placed the bowl in the rear against the back wall of my set up. But the problem arose when I had to move the set up in order to prepare the studio for teaching. Normally everything is taped down, but this bowl just didn't want to stay put and kept rolling around and shifting it's angle. I finally gave up trying to get it over time and just repainted it in one long sitting. Phew. Done. I was happy with the background on this one as I experimented more with broken color placing warm against cool to create the atmosphere I was after. I entered it in this year's OPA National Competition along with "Tea for One". Oh well. What's $45.00? You gotta keep trying, right?
Well, this was fun. This started out to be a small exercise in value and temperature - my favorite subject for exploration, and ended up taking more than a few hours to get right. Still, it was a lot of fun and the results were worth it. What's really surprising to a lot of my students, though, is that it took me as long as it did. They've seen me whip out larger pieces in half the time. But these days I'm taking a bit more time with my work in tweaking things. I think the lesson here is that we are our own worst or hardest critic. I'd like to think that I'm learning to be a hard critic of my own work. Sure I can find a lot wrong with my work, but more importantly, I'm better able to answer the question; "did I achieved what I was after?" Starting a painting without a concept in mind is a lot like taking a road trip without a map. Sure, you may get to a lot of interesting places, but you won't necessarily get anywhere you started out wanting to go. So these days, before sitting down to paint even a small thing like this little ditty, I try to have a clear goal in mind. That way, I can answer the question, "was the trip worth the goal?" If I've actually learned what I was after to find out, then even if the painting is a dud, I've been a success.
Not having a clue what I wanted to paint the other day, but knowing I needed to paint, I grabbed these items off the shelf and plopped them down on my still life shadow box. Sometimes when I'm in that place between inspiration and the need to just push some paint around, I'll try to make the most of my time by giving myself just an exercise to do. Something with a goal in mind that will focus my attention and give me a lesson at the same time. I knew I wanted to do something that wasn't high contrast but that was in cool light and would challenge me with subtle temperature shifts. The background of my wood shadow box is painted a kind of Naples Yellow Light and generally I drape fabric or colored paper over it. But this time I decided to try something with just the creamy yellow background. Yellow can be a challenge when it becomes shadow because it can go in a couple of different directions - from orangy to brown and often green. Finding the right relationships can be a challenge so I was pleased when this worked out. Pulling the yellow into the pewter and tin pieces brought the painting together. This is easy when there are reflective objects present as they'll do this anyway. I liked the negative space formed by the balanced tin cup and the lost edges too. How do you like the brushed surface of the pitcher?
I recently assisted a student in setting up a still life for a graphite drawing she will be working on. I liked the set up and decided it would be a good exercise for me to work on. I've just finished a five month project for a client and was eager to get back into painting smaller projects of my choice. This was a good one to get started on. It's monochromatic appearance and subtle half tones appealed to me. I'm still playing with how to crop it.
I had a bunch of computer/technical stuff to catch up on today so, sigh, no studio for me. So, just for entertainment, here's a piece I did some time back as a demonstration at the Millard Sheets Gallery in Pomona, CA. They ended up purchasing one of my pieces for their permanent collection - but not this one. It was, however, sold so it's not available. I thought it would be fun to show this piece as it is a pastel. It's a lot different than my work as of late. My specialty for a long time was transparencies and reflections. I'm currently working on a "how to" book for pastel artists on this type of rendering. Enjoy.
Just had time for this piece today. I was in the mood for Peonies and thought combining them with the silver vase would be interesting. I used to paint a lot of highly reflective objects and transaparent glass in pastels. I was using a very realistic technique. But over the past year or so, my technique - especially in oils, has changed. I rather like the way this came out but think I've a ways to go yet before I obtain the look I am striving for. What do you think?
