Friday, March 27, 2009

Getting ready for art show


My Art League will have its spring show
in a few weeks and so here are some of
the pieces I will show. I am waiting til
the last minute to varnish them! And
to take them to the framer who has already
ordered what I want.

Portrait progress -

This is a continuation of the first stage of
applying thin layers and working out
colors. The background in a portrait is
very important in terms of setting off
the tones of the subject. I have put on
a thin wash of lavendars going from blue-
lavendar to a pinker lavendar. I want the
colors of the background, as well as the tones
of it to set her beautiful self just right!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Portrait with initial paint layer


I almost always underpaint any painting
I am doing. It gives a good middle tone or
value to the work and makes it easier to
determine the darks and lights. I couldn't
resist trying out the turquoise that I will
use for her shirt...but the next go will be
the under-layers of skin tones. So everything
you see here is preliminary to the final paint
layers.
This portrait is 18" x 24" on linen canvas.

Friday, March 20, 2009

My sister's beautiful handmade jewelry

My sister designed and created this beautiful
pendant. I think the name of the stone is
(believe it or not) 'Prudent Man'. I think her
design motif is absolutely perfect for the
amazing leaf-like markings in the stone, yes?
Check out more of her work on her Etsy site.
Go to the right column on this blog and it is
the second link (Sandra's Creations).
As you see, I am not the only artist in this
family...and there are more of us as well.
But those stories will have to wait for another
day.
OK, so this isn't the Prudent Man stone my
sister tells me. It is called Pilbara Jasper!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

How my portraits develop


The first drawing is my preliminary one
where I work out the proportions and
composition. It is on newsprint. Then
in the second drawing, you see what I
have transferred to canvas from the
paper drawing. I don't add in any tone
or value on the canvas as that will happen
with paint. I also don't worry about too
much precision for the features at this
early stage. That will come once I am
painting. Stay tuned! I'm excited about
this!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Looking up has benefits

I am always on the lookout for things of visual interest.
That is my strong suit as the saying goes.
This was a rooftop in a wonderfully maintained historic
town near me. It is SO much more interesting than
the asbestos roofing and aluminum siding of my
neighborhood. Ah progress. Such as it is.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

My local art group

Twenty-six years ago I founded this group, The Art
League of Germantown (www.alog.org).
I am thrilled that it has continued to thrive. We now
have 79 members and as you see from the photo here,
we have great attendance at our meetings. This
beautiful room is the art gallery at the
BlackRock Center for the Arts
At this recent meeting we had what we call
"Show and Tell". We do it regularly and it is a
wonderful way to keep each other up to date on
what we are doing. It provides us with a sort of
accountability and motivation to continue to
produce new work. It is always a great pleasure
to see the new pieces members are working on.
This group remains a very large part of my life. I
started it because I was new in the community all those
years ago and wanted to have other artists in the area
to share with. I also had the intention to help artists as
I care so deeply about us all and I want us to do well
and stick to our dreams.
Please look at the website for our group which is the
first one in this post. Then you can visit the site of
our wonderful art center that opened here 6 years
ago. Our group and the center are partners in many
wonderful and productive ways. How great is that!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Visual poetry of my cat

She's 'one with the blanket' I'd say! I have
had this photo on my screen saver for a while
and finally decided I had to paint the painting!
What wonderful curving lines, and what a pleasure
it was to draw this! This is my photo of my
cat, snoozing on the back of the sofa while
I relaxed watching a little TV!