I have returned.

And I built my own art table in the mean time.

 

I have put more attention on my facebook art page and updating my website than this blog lately.  Other life changes have also kept me busy.  But I am still painting and up to other projects, including this one.

 

I will be moving to Boston in the near future, so when thinking about this and not knowing what size studio space I will have, I wanted to have an art table that is space efficient.  Since I am never drawing and painting at the same time, a fold away table makes perfect sense.  However, I couldn't find just the kind of table I wanted.  The best thing I could find were drafting tables, but they still take up quite a bit of space because of their footing.  I designed this table to mount to a wall so that it doesn't need a wide base.  The legs fold away and the table comes down to just 4.75" off the wall.  The table is recycled from an old cherry dining room table.  After much designing, gluing, sawing, drilling, measuring, sanding, sanding, sanding, and a protective clear polyurethane (followed by more sanding), here is the result.  I wanted the wood to have a raw, natural quality to relate to the raw materials that all art begins with.  As I sit down to use this table I will be reminded of the beauty of beginnings.



 

Spring Soiree next week!

The first painting below is the 8 x 10 painting I am donating for the upcoming Soiree/Art Action I recenlty wrote about.  I put it next to the painting of the girl in the swing I did a year or so ago to compare.  The girl in pink is swinging freely while the girl in blue, even though she does have an element of playfulness, has a lot of downward weight.  The background colors not only compliment each child's clothing, but the mood each portrays.

I am also excited about dancing at the Soiree!

Overcast

Overcast days are the best for photographing work, especially when you don't have any special lighting equipment.  This foggy morning was absolutely perfect.  Unfortunately, I'll have to hope for another day like this when the princess painting is fully complete.  I still have some more detail work to do on the dolls.  And while I was at it, I took a few more pictures of the painting of Andrea.  There is a detail shot below.  You have to click on it to tell, but the thickest paint in the painting is on her earring.  A detail I'm obviously very happy with to make you look.   

Excited about my calendar this spring:

_

April 14th three of my worlds collide:  The Mainline (where I work at the salon), art, and swing dancing!  I am volunteering to swing dance at the Mainline Art Center's "Spring Soiree" as well as donating a piece of artwork for auctioning.  A fantastic opportunity for networking that I couldn't pass up.
The event:
http://www.mainlineart.org/event_detail.php?id=110

May 24-27th the Portrait Society of America is having their National Portrait Conference.  Each year that they have a conference it is held at a different city.  Where is it this year you may ask?  Philadelphia!  I signed up to volunteer for half of the event and so I get into the other half of the event for free.  I will get to do what I have never done before: mingle with a room (better yet, a conference!) full portrait artists!  I fully anticpate forcing my friendship on many people and soaking up as much information as possible from the classes.
The event:
http://www.portraitsociety.org/conference#!__conference

Progress: Sleeping Beauty

Made lots of progress last week.  Still working on the underpainting of the dolls.  Almost ready for color for them. Painting 6 miniature portraits at odd angles is more challenging than the girl. (click to enlarge)

Sleeping Beauty

I started this painting last week.  This is the nearly complete underpainting.  (Then I will start adding color.) I need to buy a smaller brush in order to move on.   I plan on keeping a lot of the raw look of the background in tact.  Click to see larger.

Progress: Andrea, Twins, Nelle

Andrea and Twins each have only a few hours of work left on them.  Andrea has maybe 3 hours, Twins have maybe 1.  Of course, this often turns into 6 hours and 4 hours because I'll find a few more things to do or I will get caught up in making a very small detail perfect.

Click to see images larger.

I began a new painting of Nelle last night. I worked about 3 hours last night and 2 hours this morning before taking this picture.  For those new to my blog and painting process, it will be in color. 
The background will have a texture of a curtain I hung behind her. I'm unashamedly referencing one of my favorite art movmenets with this move. (See last image below.)

Mary Magdaline

Frederick Sandys (Preraphaelite artist)

This painting is part of the Delaware Art Museum collection.

Speaking of DE Art Museum, they do have a great collection. 

Check it out!