In Progress, a Painting with a Message

Here is a painting with a message but I'm not entirely sure what that message is. I found an old black and white newspaper picture of these diners. I was intrigued by it so I saved it. That was ten years ago and I recently came across a scan of it on my computer.

When I have to make up color I think it is simpler to stick with a limited palette so I used black, cadmium red light, white, yellow ocher and cadmium lemon to create this painting. No blue at all because I wanted it to be a very warm -yet not fuzzy- piece.

I changed the faces on the people. I changed a few of the positions. I added the waitress. I added some birds and I might still add some MORE things. It feels very much like a work in progress. I think I'll know when it is finished. But maybe I won't. It's been a fun project because I don't usually paint this large. Soon the basement studio will be complete and I will have places to store all this artwork until it sells. I am hopeful.

The Human Condition

Oil on linen

24"x36"

Wicker Porch Furniture-- Evelyn's Porch

This is perhaps my favorite painting from the paintout last weekend. It rained on and off all day Saturday so I sat on a porch near the park and painted an interior. I discovered that wicker furniture is not the easiest thing in the world to paint but I had lots of time.

SOLD

Evelyn's Porch

11" x 14"

What to do when you are bored

I was stuck in a hotel room a few weeks ago and I don't really watch TV so I decided to paint a self portrait. It was pretty dark in the room but vanity lights over a mirror create surprisingly good light to work by. The problem was with the light behind me. It was difficult to see the colors I mixed so I stuck with a very limited palette to avoid making any garish colors.

The next morning when I took it outside to take a picture it was a lot better than I thought it would be. Maybe I should paint in the dark more often.

The Back Up Painting

Do you have a painting that you keep in the studio to work on whenever you have a few moments? I usually do. I know that I need a minimum of one hour to paint a small 6" x 6" panel and I don't always have an hour to spare. Usually I find myself with 20-30 minutes of time before I have to go to work or an exercise class or the store... whatever. Once in awhile I am just not tired enough to go to bed but I don't want to start something "new" late at night. When I have short blocks of time like this I turn to my 'back up painting'. This is usually an experimental piece that needs to be worked on in layers or a piece that has been sitting around for a long time and needs more 'interest'.

The past few weeks this piece has been Hannah, a 9" x 12" portrait piece that I initially started to explore the Anders Zorn palette. Zorn was a 19th century Swedish painter who became famous for his ability to create stunning alla prima portraits. It's said that he used a very limited palette of White, Yellow Ocher, Cadmium Red and Ivory Black. I've looked at a number of his portraits and I definitely see hues of green that would be impossible without a blue but I wanted to give it a try anyway.

Here is a painting of Grover Cleveland by Zorn and you can see he was a master of brushwork and gesture. Cleveland was a huge buy but Zorn somehow managed to position him in a manner that minimizes that fact.


Here is Hannah in the early stage of the painting when I used just the Zorn palette to bring her to life. I liked the warmth and natural color harmony of the piece but the photograph showed a green scarf and it was impossible to achieve that brighter hue of green without adding blue.

 Below is a picture of the painting after I glazed some green (mixed with ultramarine blue and yellow ocher) over the scarf. I also mixed some alizarin crimson with blue to change the color of the coat. So while I think Zorn's palette is wonderful for flesh tones I miss the additional colors needed to paint fabric and if I were painting something outside I would REALLY miss by blue.

Limited Palette

The last time I posted pear paintings on the blog I had a couple emails from people asking me about my palette and what colors I use. It's hard to say after the fact because I don't have more than 5-6 favorites and I am constantly adding different ones to make mixes more interesting. But there are certain colors that are just "standard" for me. I mean I can always depend on them and they are always in my paint box even if I don't use them.

Those colors are cad yellow light, cadmium scarlet or cadmium red light, yellow ocher, ultramarine blue and alizarin permanent or rose madder. (Notice there is only one earth color on that list and I don't really need it because I could mix it- it;s more of a convenience color.) Many times I will substitute a different color for one of these just to experiment because after all an artist can never have too much paint or experiment with color too much. That's what makes it more interesting for me and keeps me engaged.

Green pears are easier to paint than the brown ones (Bosc) that I love to snack on. I'm not sure why this is so, but it's true. Every pear is individual as well: the one on the left seemed a bit more green and the one on the right had a bit of red in it. Closely observing the differences and playing with those characteristics is what really makes the painting beautiful. I allowed myself an hour to do this piece this morning. The background is a piece of fabric I picked up at a sale somewhere. I love the earthy tones and abstract shapes in it. In this instance I immediately saw the shapes echoed the pear stems so I played that up a bit.

I've included a picture of my limited palette, which included mars black, yellow ocher, cadmium orange, cadmium yellow lemon, raw sienna, cadmium scarlet and viridian. As you can see it's possible to get a full range of color from just a few paints, and the color harmony is definitely nicer looking.

Purely Pears on Valentine's Day

I think pears are one of the more appealing fruits to use in a still life composition. I enjoy painting them because they are shapely and very individual. Each pear, like a snowflake, is quite different from another. These are Bosc pears, my favorites to eat, because of their crisp, firm texture. They're also one of my favorite varieties to paint because they seem to have a personality. I like to paint them in groups so I can pose them. In honor of Valentine's Day I used a red backdrop!

I'm always trying something different with these little compositions because you never know when you'll stumble upon a nice color combination. So I used a limited palette on this painting and experimented with eliminating blue from my palette.Instead, I substituted ultramarine violet and the result was a nice warm painting with natural color harmony. One pear stands alone in the light, so I call it "The Sentinel".

THE SENTINEL 

10" X 8" oil on panel

Just for Fun

William Merritt Chase was an American painter who lived and worked a hundred years ago. This painting is based on a composition of his but I have totally changed the girl's features and made her 5-6 years younger. I experimented with a limited palette consisting of titanium white, terra rosa, cadmium yellow medium, alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue. It is amazing the number of colors you can mix from just a few primaries and white.

Color Theory Workshop

This is my demo painting for a class on Color Theory that I taught this past weekend. The dolphin was carved by my husband and the knife and glasses are supposed to make it look like the carver will return at any moment. This is called a "still-life portrait", as it suggest s the presence of a person without showing the person. It was painted using a very limited palette of cadmium yellow, cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and titanium white. The goal was to have the students mix their own colors instead of reaching for that tube of synthetic bright green... or whatever. Everyone finished their painting and was quite happy with it.