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:

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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!

Progress: Andrea

I still have a lot of hair to paint in around her neck. I haven't focused much on painting the shirt yet; it won't be as intensely white, I will be calming it down and bringing detail to it with glazes. Also, other various details yet to add.

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While I work my favorite words that are in my mind about paint application are: opacity, trasnsulcency, and thinness, thickness. It is important to me that paintings feel like paintings. Applying all the paint equally will make for a less dymanic and interesting painting. These things you can't truely view or fully appreciate by a photographic reproduction. But I hope you enjoy viewing the work here anyway, even if it's not it's full glory (or even complete!). (This is the nature of the blog!)

Works in Progress Update

Hello!

I've been immersed in painting and forgot to pay attention to the hours going into these.

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Twin nieces portrait:

It's pretty far along but it's got a lot more to go. I'm purposefully not letting you see it straight on till its complete, so you can't critique as easily a work that's incomplete! No complaints, you're lucky this is even public yet!

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Friend Portrait:

Still not quite ready for color. But will be soon.

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I will be starting two more portfolio portraits within a month or so. One of another friend, and one of a little 3 year old girl.

Thanks for visiting!

Works in Progress Update

Hello!

I've been immersed in painting and forgot to pay attention to the hours going into these.

_

Twin nieces portrait:

It's pretty far along but it's got a lot more to go. I'm purposefully not letting you see it straight on till its complete, so you can't critique as easily a work that's incomplete! No complaints, you're lucky this is even public yet!

_

Friend Portrait:

Still not quite ready for color. But will be soon.

_

I will be starting two more portfolio portraits within a month or so. One of another friend, and one of a little 3 year old girl.

Thanks for visiting!

Works in Progress Update

Hello!

I've been immersed in painting and forgot to pay attention to the hours going into these.

_

Twin nieces portrait:

It's pretty far along but it's got a lot more to go. I'm purposefully not letting you see it straight on till its complete, so you can't critique as easily a work that's incomplete! No complaints, you're lucky this is even public yet!

_

Friend Portrait:

Still not quite ready for color. But will be soon.

_

I will be starting two more portfolio portraits within a month or so. One of another friend, and one of a little 3 year old girl.

Thanks for visiting!

Twins portrait: Day 3

This is about 5 or 6 more hours of work since my last post. The tube of paint is Old Holland (my favorite brand, though I can't afford many of their colors, some are up to $70 for that size tube!). Cremnitz white is the color, an affordable color but one I need to not be sloppy about since it is a lead paint. There are many other kinds of whites out there, but none as lovely as cremitz white for my style of painting.

Lots of Activity!

Things I am up to in my studio right now:

Coloring Book:

I have begun another history coloring book for Bright Ideas Press. This is for Mystery of History III, and so far is my favorite coloring book to create yet! This book covers the Renaissance! Yes! There is a huge amount of art and imagery to pull from.

Family Portrait:

This commission is a gift from my friend to her future mother in law. It's from an old photograph of them about 20 years ago. I am really thankful there are a lot of things that are nice about this picture to make it work for painting! Good lighting, sweet expressions, and I really love the two visible hands. I'm getting close to completion! Just one or two afternoons left for work on it!


Twins Portrait:

For my sister's 30th birthday I am painting a portrait of her twins! Painting baby fat is so much fun!!! She already had her birthday and she knows this is coming, so I may post progress occasionally on here. This is just the starting outline I did today, about 3 hours of work:

"Portfolio Piece":

I am working on some ideas about how I want to include more negative space in my portraits, along with some other thoughts floating around in my head about what I want my portraits to look and feel like. I am going to start working on some more pieces of my own (this includes the twins portrait) starting this month. My friend is also going to pose for me next week, giving me the opportunity to start to put a few basic ideas to canvas. My goal is to work towards having portraits that are much more unique to my individual artistry. I would like to have a more consistant progressive body of work. I'm not expecting this portrait coming to be incredible, but an exciting a stepping stone in the right direction! Look forward to my work to come!

I Need Some Negative Space!

I've been thinking today about how my life needs more "negative space".

In art, negative space is the quiet area of a piece of work. It is the shadow space, the blank paper, or the area that has little or no detail. Negative space creates a place for the eye to rest. It enhances the experience and/or subject of the work.

If you go to one of my first posts, "Meet My Sketchbook", you will see how instead of crowding my pages with creative explosions, I like to leave much of the paper empty. This choice in my drawing first began accidentally. I once drew a tiny picture of three musicians on larger paper. The plan was to crop it down after I drew it. But once the drawing was complete, I realized that the space around them was perfect! It was like the musicians needed that space in order to fill it with their music! If I didn't leave the musicians "breathing room", it wouldn't have the same feeling, it would simply be a small representation of musicians.

For the "starving artist" what often occurs is that it requires work-work-work, create-create-create in order to pull it together to survive and be able to be an artist at all. The pages of my life have no quiet spaces. Besides painting and drawing, I work as a salon receptionist. I also pick up other random jobs to meet needs such as socks or immediate necessary car repairs. Why is it that I have trouble focusing on my art? Where did my energy for creating go? It's because there are no negative spaces in my life. The sketchbook pages of my life are crowded, busy, and messy. There is no room for the music. When I sit to work, I feel the pressures of time and other commitments that I need to meet. I need the negative space to give me a place to rest and pull together my experiences, who I am, and what I may have to offer others through my work. Then when I do have my tools in hand and meet my medium, I can focus on what is before me and freely commit myself to it.

Several years ago my friend bought the drawing I described, I will try to see if I have an image of it somewhere to share. Somewhat related is this little poem I wrote for my friend before passing the work onto him, entitled As the Flute:

Created to be empty
But not to be bereft
Created to be filled
With our maker's breath

Could your life need more negative space, too?

Papers everywhere!

Nicole must be doing illustrations for Bright Ideas Press again!

I'm Back!

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I promise I haven't been lazy since my last post! I had a large undertaking of a painting that was a suprize gift. (the painting is 30 x 40") This took up all my art time for a few months, so I had no other work to report back on this blog! Now that the suprize is over, here is the painting! It was part of a proposal gift. Instead of painting the actual couple in a proposal scene that hadn't happened for them, I decided to have a couple that looked similar to the original couple. This way the painting would be more about the relationship and experience than the physical representation of the couple. I chose the environment as a sort of indoor picnic (minus the food), to keep the lighting and space intimate. Also, instead making this an on one knee sort of scene, which would have communicated "Marry me!!" I chose to make this less about performance and more about relationship. While this is a moment of importance, her hand is in two of his, but the words you may imagine are deeper and more complex than "marry me". Their expressions say something more like, "I want to be with you now and always."
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Congratualtions Jen and Zev. :-)

Inspiration For Today:

Ingres! LOVE his pencil portraits.

Complete!

A little bit of the background is still wet, this is as much as I could reduce the glare from the wet areas of paint. Once it dries and I spray it with a protective finish it won't have that problem. Also, in these photographs the background is a hair darker than the original. The last update was more accurate in that aspect.

Almost there..

Just a few little things left to finish up on this! (mostly refining the rope)

Sunny Fall Day!

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I cleaned my studio Tuesday which made a perfect day today for painting in the studio!! I paint closer to the back corner to keep direct sunbeams off my painting, but have a perfect view of my clean space and the yellow leaves and sunbeams! The other chair and easel I sat in is out of view of this picture.

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Below are a few views from out of my window this fall. Can you believe I live in a city and have such a green backdrop?! (Even if it is mostly weeds!) I am so lucky!
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