Every artist has a favorite model and Amber is without a doubt, mine. She has beautiful bone structure and at the same time a certain softness about her that makes her a pleasure to draw and paint. I did this portrait from a photo that was taken some time back when Amber was pregnant with her son Joshua. It was a rainy, cold day and Amber was standing at the window on a short break. It was the perfect shot so I asked her to hold still while I adjusted the camera. I took hundreds of photos that day but this one was the best. I prefer to work from life, but often my budget or time do not make that possible. Photos can sometimes lead to a stiff or an unnatural looking portrait. This is because when you work from life, the model moves. So the work tends to be a composite of many poses which come together to lend the portrait a certain sense of life. Photos, on the other hand, don't move and this can cause the eye to focus on each portion of the photo separately making for a hard lined and fragmented painting. I think, however, that I managed to retain Amber's special qualities as well as her quiet moment of hopefulness in this portrait.
I love that time of day when the light is low and shadows are long. The violets and reds in the landscape are especially prevalent and the shadows warm. This piece was done largely from imagination. It's really one of many places I have built in my head and where I go when I need a litle peace. Hope you like it.
Currently NFS because I need to build up some images for this year's studio tour in July. Giclee prints are available in sizes to order. Email me if you're interested.
I've been forced to take a five hour drive home from my Tuesday Atelier class in Seattle due to the temporary closing of the Hood Canal Bridge. This usually brings me to the Hamma Hamma River and the adjacent salt marshes about sunset (we have long days here in Washington now). I haven't had my camera with me but I've pulled off the road and tried to take some mental notes that I could translate into a small study. Here's my first one. The water looks a bit greener here than in the actual painting. I guess I need some work with photoshop.
Hooray! I'm finally working out some of the kinks in photographing my work with my digital camera. This never used to be an issue but lately it seems I've had a horrible time getting a good shot with it. So today I spent an hour or two figiting with the manual mode and the (OMG) user's guide. It's a good thing I have a Master's Degree. I needed it. Anyway, the research helped and I have a much better image to show for my time.
Most of you will recognize this Tea Pot as it's been the subject of many paintings. I first painted it in pastel about 10 years ago. I've shown that painting here before and you can see it below as a comparison. I've never been able to capture it quite a well as I did in that pastel, but I think I've come close here. I've been working on this piece as an entry for the Oil Painters of America Western Regional Juried Show. I've taken it as far as I think I can. Now I'll just hold my breath. It's my first attempt so I don't have high expectations, but I can dream can't I? Here's the old pastel. What do you think? Did I do a good job with the oil? The light is, of course, different. In the original pastel I used warmer artificial light and in the recent oil above, I used natural north light. Additionally, the cool green against the warm red cloth and background do make the pot appear a bit brighter and more colorful although I've done my best to play that down a bit. Groan...I'm perseverating.
By now you probably think I've lost my mind. This is a pastel done of the same figure I've been working with. I've changed the colors quite a bit here and played around in layering and glazing some pastels. I had some 2 ply cotton rag sitting around the studio and although it's not generally used for pastels, I realy like it because it allows me to layer lightly and glaze one color over the next. Look at the cloth and the bottom of the painting, for instance. See all those lovely colors playing off each other? You really can't get that with a lot of the newer pastel papers on the market. They're very good for handling a lot of the medium, but they don't allow you to put light layers on like this. I'm beginning to see the merit of working in a series because it actually has been giving me quite a few ideas for other works I'd like to try.
This is a favorite theme of mine by now. I've done it in a couple of sizes and have been searching out color schemes. I recently purchased about 20 frames in standard sizes and this one looks great in a plein air mahogany frame. As I have a large studio tour coming up in the summer and also hopes of gaining entry into the Belvue Arts Museum Fair or Belvue Arts Fair, I'm trying to build up inventory. This is for sale, but you'll need to e-mail me if you're seriously interested.
On another topic, I've discovered something that surprised me about myself. I started as a serious realist painter in pastel and gravitated to oils a couple of years ago as a primary medium. Even when I started this blog, I was heavily into sharp realism. I've noticed that when I look back over my work and how it has evolved over the past two years, I find that I have made a foray into the arena of impressionism or expressionism. I'm still heavily representational and still interested in realist work, but something has shifted. I'm presently attending atelier with Tenaya Sims, a remarkable realist painter who studied directly under Juliette Aristedes and also teaches at Gage in Seattle. I feel very honored and awed to be under his tutelage and have to smile at the new quandry I find myself in. Tenaya seems not to be bothered by any of this indecision or vascillation and reassures me that it's all the "same" in the bones. And this I agree with, but I'm still wondering what the next few years will bring in my development. Should be fun to find out. Stay tuned.
I started ploughing through my collection of photos today. I have hundreds of models I've worked with that never see the light of day. That's because they often don't catch the light or ambiance I'm after. As I take dozens of each pose just slightly different, that amounts to a lot of unused photos. I decided this pose of Julie would work pretty well. I wanted to try some ideas I had on color temperature. Overall, I like the way it came out. Some things I think warrant changing but I think that I may do a larger piece of this same pose. Any thoughts?
This smaller piece was done from the same reference material as a much larger version, but here I was playing with the temperature a bit and also changed some of the colors. Not sure I'll use linen again for small pieces. While I enjoy the texture of the canvas, it tends to soften the edges on small pieces too much for my liking. While I can work around this with thicker paint and sometimes do, I didn't want hard edges except in a few places where thick paint just got in the way of flow. Paint and learn.
Ho hum. Another Sunday afternoon. I'm going to be focused over the next few months in turning out some work for the summer festival season. If you see something without a price but have an extreme itch to own it, send me an email and I'll let you know if I can part with it. I try to make nearly everything available for sale but this sometimes works against me and I end up with nothing available and having to scramble to get work together. I intend to be unruffled and ready by the summer season. Yeah, right.
I actually painted two paintings today but decided to rework the other a bit in the morning. I was striving for just the right tone in the background here and more texture on the vase.
