Esperanzas

There are a few versions of this underneath—esperanzas
are trumpet-shaped flowers and all my efforts to portray
them as they really look ended up feeling static. At some
point, it felt that this was really about complementary
colors—yellow and purple and about brush strokes. Mixing
greyed-down yellows and yellow-tinted purples seemed
like a fine-enough intention for this one painting.

Bringle Bottle (Blue)

Same bottle . . . When I paint a subject for the first time,
I find I could head off in multiple directions which, of
course, can't be done on the same canvas. Sometimes the
new iterations are better, sometimes just different.

Hadn't realized until after my last post that I'd been away
from my blog for two years! I did continue to paint, though.



 

Bringle Bottle (Gray)

This "model" is a porcelain bottle by Cynthia Bringle,
a wonderful Penland ceramist. I think I bought it
around 1980 from a Denver gallery. This painting
is in a small works holiday group show up now at
the Hunt Gallery in San Antonio.

Unsuspecting

I loved David Shevlino's workshop and everyone in it! David
is a very generous teacher and all-around nice guy and every
one in the group was so dedicated to improving their work.
My intention was to get looser and more interpretive but
learning to paint figures was a challenge in itself. So while my
looseness level hasn't progressed much, I learned a lot.

His workshop really bounced me out of an obsessive mindset—
I'd been feeling I didn't have a compelling subject and wasn't happy
with the way I "should" be handling paint. Trying to learn from an
artist I admire, all of those thoughts flew out the window and I just
concentrated on painting without judging. Maybe the looseness I
aspire to will just appear on its own?

Squint

Pansy in Simon Teabowl 2 and 1

Attempt 2 at trying to marry everything I think I've learned
lately. Attempt 1 is below. I tried a second take because I
thought I was still too cautious with the first one.

In the Window

I paint everyday but not posting it all. I've learned so much from 

observation, but find myself obstinately wanting to over-ride what 

I observe in order to be more creative. My head is filled with so many 

possibilities of what a painting can be it's hard to see what's best to do 

at any given moment. The great thing is that I've become observant of 

everything around me—even when I'm not painting—people, things, 

the way the light falls—it's mesmerizing. 

When I'm painting, I try to be faithful and get it all down and end up 

with "right" but dull so I've changed my routine. I now start a few 

small paintings and a few larger ones so I always have something in 

some state of becoming so I'm not compulsive or desperate to finish 

anything. I'm no longer faced with having "completed" something then 

faced with the blankness of starting something new. My studio is too 

small to keep a lot of set-ups so once I get the bones down, the set-up 

goes down (or it dies or rots). And then I feel free to rely on memory or 

imagination or whatever the surface asks to be. I have 4 or 5 surfaces 

in the wings, so if I reach an impasse on one or lose focus, I can switch, 

hopefully applying something I've learned to another. It's oblique, like 

coming to a solution sideways, and so non-direct, but it aligns with the 

way my brain works. I still have frustrating days but think: so what? 

I'd rather spend my day doing this than anything else.

Rambunctious

These were the most uncooperative models! I had started
this painting with another arrangement only to find they
had completely shifted overnight. I painted the rearrangement
on top of what was already there and focused on their unruly
personalities. It was an opportunity to practice leaving stuff out.
By the time I got to the flower on the right, it felt right to mix
the grays, then use a few bright strokes and decide it was enough.

Copying Kanevsky

Alex Kanevsky is one of my most favorite contemporary
artists and I've forced myself to not copy him for almost
2 years but finally succumbed. It was pure joy! When I'm
looking at something in real life, I have such a hard time not
translating it literally, a problem I've never had before a couple
of years ago. It's probably because I've been so focused on
learning to see things as they are (well, as much as possible)
and now that I want to see in a different way, it's so hard to
make the shift. I am making the shift with still-life, but with the
figure, I've been hopeless. I've tried heads from my own photos
and always revert to smoothing the paint, ie. copying the photo. I
figured I had to do something very different to shift my brain:
learn from Kanevsky. (I've tried one of my own since painting
this and am still hopeless! It will take time and practice.) His
painting (a nude) appears to have some transparent areas brushed
over thick paint which is what I planned to do as well but when this
image starting emerging, it seemed best to leave it.

The painting I copied from is no longer on Kanevsky's site:
http://www.somepaintings.net but it's still under Some Figure Paintings
on http://www.powersofobservation.com. Click on "Grid View with
Artist's Names" under the slide show.

Stocking Stuffers

I really enjoyed painting this . . . didn't worry much about
accuracy. Just decided to try to capture the spirit of these glowing
tangerines. The neighbor who owns this tree grew up in England
and told me he doesn't pick any until Christmas Eve following his
own traditions growing up. I hope you'll find your own stockings
filled with love. Happy Holidays!