Fishing Boats

I used a long horizontal format for this painting because I wanted to keep the focus on the boats. The original photo (by Margaret Wiles--and used with permission- THANK YOU MARGARET!!), was a 4" x 3" proportion. I cropped the top and the water in front and tried to give a different viewpoint. Perhaps one we would see if we were sitting on a boat in this harbor.

Fishing Boats

10" x 20"

Elizabeth

Elizabeth posed for my weekly portrait group and we had her do a slightly different type of pose than we normally might since she was only going to pose for one two hour session. (She'll return in June but doing a different pose). We have encouraged her to dress like Sargent's Lady Agnew but time will tell if that happens. I know we'll have a ton of people at the group if she does.

This is a challenging pose for the model and for the artist because the angles of her head is very tilted. It's important to draw the placement lines in right away in order to keep the face symmetrical. Still, it's not easy to KEEP it symmetrical, as I found out when I attempted this piece. As for the model, she had a difficult job. Her hand fell asleep and if she moved even slightly the lighting changed, poor thing.

I was happy with the final result, which shows a slightly sleepy yet beautiful young woman, but it was one of the more difficult alla prima pieces I have ever painted.

Elizabeth

11x 14

Not your average cat

My daughter, who is 15 years old, is an artist too. Unlike me, she uses programs like Illustrator and Photoshop to create her masterpieces and is happy to follow her own individual artistic path. That's the way it should be. The child began drawing at age three and she has become really adept at caricaturing animals and she excels at creating fantastic mythical creations that don't really exist.

About a year ago she asked me when I was going to paint a picture of her cat. What she meant was: when was I going to turn her cat into a huge 24" x 18" wall painting, as I had done with the other two cats who live with us. I kept putting her off because her cat is not the most attractive animal in the world. I know it is to HER, but to me, it is a bit strange and I didn't really want to paint her. You see, Mooki is missing an eye. The poor cat had an ignominious beginning, as her mother abandoned her in our garage and she crawled up under our lawn tractor. For days we heard crying that would stop as soon as we opened the garage door and begin again when we closed it. We trapped the kitten with a bowl of milk and placed her in a dog cage until I was able to tame her by feeding her cat food on a fork. Eventually she was eating from my hand and not threatening to claw me.

My daughter grew very attached to this small gray cat and although it has never been particularly cuddly, it does enjoy human companionship and listens better than the other cats. When she was nine months old, Mooki's eye began swelling and the vet told us it was glaucoma. We had a few choices: we could put her down, we could pay a few thousand dollars and see if the eye could be saved or we could have it removed for $400. We had the eye removed and the cat has been fine ever since. Surprisingly enough, I've had a few people tell me they wouldn't have done it. "It's just a cat. You can always get another one," they say. How cold and heartless, and I would bet these are the same people who do not spay and neuter their animals, which is why we end up with homeless kittens living under our mower deck int he first place.

I am wondering a bit from my story. I promised Katie that I would do my large version of her one-eyed cat if she would create one of her caricatures featuring all six of our animals. Well, she fulfilled her part of the bargain and her creation was wonderful. I printed it and have it hanging in my living room. She captured the personality of each animal so well! I was amazed.

My turn! I finished her supersized cat over the weekend and I did struggle with how to present the one-eyed cat and make her beautiful. Ultimately, it was just a matter of being true to Mooki and emphasizing what is wonderful about her.

Digital Art

Mooki 18" x 24"

A Cat with Cattitude

Beach Boys and Girls

Nothing says summer to me more than children playing on the beach. There is something so engaging about the way they mold and scoop and form the grains of sand. These two paintings were commissioned by the father of the children and presented to their mother as a surprise! Dad directed me to some Facebook photos and I created the small impressionistic pieces, keeping in mind they would hang together.

6" x 6" oil on Gessoboard ™

Making a painting out of your (future) dinner

I needed another try at avocados. They have become my favorite fruit (or are they considered a vegetable?) since I started the whole healthy foods thing in January. So here they are, presented with the fresh garlic and a lime, ready to be turned into my now favorite snack: guacamole! Sorry chocolate... I had to kick you out and I don't really miss you. Much.

Tex-Mex

8" x 10"

SOLD

Cleaned Up and Previewed in a Frame

Today I spent an hour or so cleaning up the painting of the wine and vegetables. Sometimes things are not apparent until you view them on a screen or from further away. I have renamed the painting Don Bosco with Vegetables because the focal point is really the wine bottle and the glass. The vegetables  are incidental. I darkened the bottle, made the highlight a bit brighter, ran some cooler color over the background to push it even further into the background. Then I corrected a few shapes that were off: the roma tomato on the left, and then the pepper shapes needed more definition. Finally I tried a frame out in Photoshop and it looks good.

I have painted this kind of thing a lot but it never gets old because you can always arrange the players into new positions. The vegetables will always vary, the size will change, the light will be different. Painting still life FROM LIFE- and I need to emphasize, is endlessly fascinating. It would bore me to tears if I had to take a picture of the set up and paint from that reference. I would literally feel blinded. Still life painting for me is all about the reflections and the relationships of the shapes. If I need to move an object or tweak a color to make it more interesting I do it. I'm afraid that if I had a photograph in front of me and I was trying to replicate it, I woudl be just another human copy machine. Remember, painting (to me), is all about what the artist brings to the equation. Why do we value a painting more than a photograph (unless the photograph was taken by Ansel Adams?) I believe it's because the painting is a series of "marks" that are very real and personal and hand-made, for lack of a better word.

I have seen a few artists who will slavishly copy a photograph of a piece of fruit and render a painting that is so photo-realistic it might actually BE the photograph. I am puzzled about why they do this. Is it a matter of challenging themselves to see if they actually can? Where is the drama? Where is the sheer fun factor of "interpreting" and bringing a little imagination into the piece?

I probably wouldn't have had to put so much time into reworking this piece if I hadn't been distracted by the show my husband was watching. I think it's a good lesson about what can happen if you let yourself settle for the mundane. Never be afraid to go back and try to improve a piece. You may surprise yourself. I have become a master re-worker, not because I have so many bad paintings, but because I am continually asking myself "what if?"

So this is the new and improved "Don Bosco with Vegetables"

You can see it in person from January 30-May 30, 2012 at SamB's Restaurant in Bowling Green, Ohio, along with nine more of my paintings. The Prizm Creative Community sponsors a spot show in this location and I currently have eight pieces there, which will be removed to make way for the new ones.

Continuing Along the Same Theme

This poor girl has been waiting for a nose job for almost a year. It was time to fix her. I started the piece at a class at the Scottsdale Artists School last year but we only had three hours to work on her and at 16" x 20" this is a life size painting. This girl has some head of hair!

The cold weather forces me to stay inside anyway so I don't mind trying to finish these pieces. I have a few other plein air pieces that I did in Arizona last year that are on the schedule to be "fixed or pitched". What should my new motto for this year be? Mediocre: another version of Yellow Ochre. You would have to be a painter to get that one, but I'll explain. Yellow ochre is a bland yellow that resembles baby poo. It's not pretty, Although it is useful. I just wanted a catchy slogan that rhymes. ;)

A few of the things I changed on Julie, using a bit of artistic license:

1.  Her gaze-- it was directed forward and for  my purposes I wanted her to appear to be looking at us (the people viewing the painting.) 
2. I added an earring. It was so tempting because that sliver of hair hanging down to her cheekbone deserved to have an echo. Red seemed to be the natural choice.
3. Her nose. I don't give everyone I paint a nose job but if it detracts from the woman's face and I don't have to have a likeness I just go for it. She still has a strong face but I have made some alterations for the sake of art.
4. I changed her expression from boredom to almost a kind of wariness. Whatever... she is done and I can move on to the next "Rework". It's really kind of fun because I get to play plastic surgeon without using the knife.

Julie 20" x 16" oil on linen

Some pears are better than others and then some foods are not good for you at all

We like the Anjou pears because they are versatile and ripen faster. I like to paint them because they are cute and compact. This 6" x 8" painting was done in an hour with a palette knife and the paint that was left on my palette after painting the one below it. So these two foods are kind of like "good" and "evil". Pears are healthy and green, hot dogs are red and artery clogging. Whatever... when you want to paint something food is always available and it comes in a multitude of colors, shapes and sizes. It is not about the subject to me; it is about the arrangement of shapes on the picture plane. Is it interesting or is it too static to be a good painting? I don't always know the answer until the painting is finished. And sometimes not even then...

I had a guy from the Russian Federation email me today asking why I didn't ship to their country. Basically he was saying that I should-- I lost a sale because I didn't. So I have amended my shipping exclusions at eBay Etsy and Bonanza. International sales are good and I needed to be reminded that we Americans are not the only consumers in the world. Two of my most recent sales were to Japanese collectors. It's a global economy!

What effect will the decline of the Euro have on American sales to foreign countries? I would think if the dollar is worth more our goods would become more expensive to people who use other currencies. THAT might not be a good thing.

ANJOU PEARS and ALL AMERICAN LUNCH

New Year's Resolutions....Less Travel, More Planning

My New Year's Resolution is to spend less time on the computer and more time working on improving my painting. Expect to see a few larger and more challenging pieces on the blog this year as I change my focus from 'learning' mode to 'creative' mode. I still plan to teach a few workshops but not as many as last year. I am cutting down the travel time as well. I love to travel but it requires energy and planning. I'm going to expend that energy making better paintings.

Last year I painted 160 pieces-- yes I actually counted them, thanks to the wonderful Windows 7 viewing sorter that allows you to sort by day. I cataloged them and recorded sales etc for tax purposes. I am so organized this year. (That was last year's resolution and it has worked a bit-- at least to the point where I now know what I have and where it is hanging.) I sold just over 30% of these pieces. Many of them were small paintings - under 9" x12" and quite a few were plein air pieces. Print sales were up this year and as usual the sports prints sell the best.

I will continue to work on my organization skills so that I am not just distracted into painting a few pretty things just because I can and because I know people will buy them. I am striving to become more intentional this year. I was pleased to find out last week that I have been selected to have a joint show at the Parkwood Gallery in Toledo in August. This is exciting for me and a wonderful opportunity to have people beyond the internet see my paintings.

My first painting of the year was inspired by my cold fingers. I can't wait for Spring when I can get back outside and paint. I had a picture of a planter I took last year and I decided it was time to paint some flowers. I love painting flowers and I haven't done many lately so it was time. My new challenge for myself  was to paint larger so this painting is 16" x 20" and it really is a colorful show-stopper. I have to admit it would not have the impact it has at this size if it were 8" x 10".

"Spring Blooms" $600 oil on canvas, unframed