Artist on Wire

I watched Man on Wire yesterday as I was painting. Before putting it on I thought, "How could a movie about someone walking a wire between the Twin Towers be enough of a plot for 1 and 1/2hrs?" But I was curious and I was multitasking anyway so I put it on. It was a great film. Besides enjoying the story and the filmography, a couple things had an impact on me. One, the score is classical music. It's gorgeous. I forgot how fantastic it is to paint to classical music. When I paint to it I feel like my art is an extension of the music. Suddenly music isn't just keeping me alert and entertained, its giving me focus and purpose. The other thing that had an impact on me was this eloquent quote from the "skywalker", "If I die, what a beautiful death. To die in the exercise of passion.” Being an artist involes risks. Granted, unlike skywalking if I paint a stroke in the wrong direction or don't sell a painting I won't plummet to my death. I can catch a bit of artist vertigo every now and again if I look down, but that can't prevent me from making every effort. The fantastic thing is that when you succeed, as it was for the skywalker and everyone who witnessed his feat on the towers, the results can be breathtaking.

More Monkey Business

I had a smaller square board that I wanted to paint something on it to go with the others. But I couldn't figure out what to do. I went back through my photographs and forgot that i had a picture of this stuffed monkey that the youngest put on the swing. He is happy to be part of the fun, too!

Swing Study no2

I had so much fun with the last one that I couldn't wait to do this one. I decided to skip going out anywhere last night and painted this instead. Don't be fooled by the amount of time it takes me to do this oil in comparrison to my portraits. An average portrait I work on over a period of 4-6 months depending on complexity.

So here it is! The sister (one of them) of the other swing picture. My favorite thing about these are that both girls are using the swings unconventionally. I love kids. Don't they make you want to be one again, too?

Swing Study

Today I was so excited about painting, I worked on a portrait commission all morning and straight through lunch! Not on purpose; once in a while when I'm having fun and making progress I don't get as hungry. The commission needed the rest of the night off, so I spontaneously decided to do a painting that I have been wanting to paint from the image of the girl on the swing. I ended up doing the underpainting too large on the board for the effect I was going for, so instead I did an energetic and quick color study with thick paint. Armed with new brushes, this was a fun process! Here is right after I decided to do more of a study. I started to paint the swings first.



And the complete study:

Business Cards!

I got my business cards today! My little manakin wanted to model them for me. His life has been pretty well pointless till now. (For some reason every artist has to have a manakin, but I find it completely useless- and I even do figurative work!) Anyway, back to the point- I have business cards! The back is a watermark of the front with all the information on it. Annabelle is the fantastic model that you see on my card. Her beautiful face has definately got to help get business! Hehe, thanks Mel and Annie! Also, I want to thank Brendan for my fantastic website! Links to my website and photography are to the left of this page.

Pastel Portrait Suprize!

Starring my nephew, Hayden!

I have been working on these pastels for my mom and my sister's birthdays. You are aware of the first pastel, which I showed you the work in progress. Here it is complete:



My sister's pastel started as only a black and white charcoal. When I was near finished, it exploded itself into a pastel project. Because of this it became another belated gift (by 8 days), but I think maybe this made the suprize even more effective! In order to finish these projects in my goal time I worked late last night. I was so involved in the process that I also recieved my own suprize when I was getting ready for bed and saw myself in the mirror:



I don't know if you can tell to what extent, but the brown pastel is all over my face! This morning I worked on the pastels from 8-10:00am and then I drove to Dover to suprize my mom and sister with my presence and pastels!

Here is my sister's gift. It is from a photograph I took about a year and a half ago. The original photo was out of focus and Hayden had a pacifier covering a lot of his face. I had wanted to make it into a drawing since I photographed it. My sister had never even seen the original photo.



The visit made for a lovely Saint Patricks Day today! Hayden (now two) recognized himself and his mom in both images. He's my most honest critic!

Happy Belated Birthday, Mom!

It's not quite finished, but I'll probably have it ready by Saturday.

Before this, the last time I did a color pastel had to be 2002. And I actually never tried pastel for portraiture. Now I see why its such a great meduim for creating skin and clothing textures. But I do get annoyed with the mess and the large width of the pastel.

When it's complete I'll take a better quality photo for the blog!

Primarily Updated

She walks
collecting the light
and the colors
that will prepare her palette
and illuminate her canvas.

Check out the link to my photographs on the left to see some of my photography. I put some brand new portrait ones up today!

Snow Day!

Really, a snow day is just another work day for the artist. But the snow brings a beautiful view for working and excellent lighting for painting! Sunny days are very difficult, everything gets glary and I have to keep shifting the angle of the canvas as the sun changes. Here's a bit of what my work space looks like today! Time to stop typing and embrace this perfect day for working on a commission. I hope you're having a wonderful snow day (or sunshine day to my non east coast friends)!